"Wait, I've got some new ideas." In the water, Altaïr looked intently at Az. "Mr. Az, where can I find a Sharq? I'd like to test out a few theories."
Az immediately grinned, his eyes crinkling as he glanced at Ursula. "See? I told you we should just let them fight the Sharq directly."
Ursula opened her mouth, then ultimately sighed. "Fine. In half a lifetime, I've seen no shortage of freakishly talented oddballs. I shouldn't have been so considerate of you two.
"Az, take him over to the reef first. I'll stay here and keep an eye on Jara. If he wants to go later, I'll bring him over."
"Alrighty!" Az pushed off with his arms, tumbling from the sampan into the water. He cocked his head at Altaïr. "Follow me!"
With that, he twisted his body and shot through the sea at astonishing speed.
Altaïr hastily followed, but soon realized he couldn't keep up at all. In the blink of an eye, he was already trailing by over a hundred meters.
Fortunately, Az also knew not everyone could swim faster than fish the way he did. He would swim ahead for a stretch, stop and wait, and only continue once Altaïr had drawn closer.
Just like that, one in front and one behind, they swam a good two or three kilometers.
Altaïr was absolutely certain that if the past few days of special training had not produced such remarkable results, and if his swimming had not improved so drastically, he would have already sunk to the bottom by now.
"We're here. Gotta be careful now!"
Hearing the voice from up ahead, Altaïr lifted his head out of the water.
While swimming with his head down, he couldn't make out their direction. Now, looking around, he realized they had likely arrived at the edge of the Deserted Island.
But this wasn't the landing spot from before, where they had gone ashore to reinforce Isis and the others. It was another side of the island.
There was a bay here, filled with dense reefs, with multicolored coral spreading across the seabed.
The reefs and coral provided shelter for small Fish, making the local fish species unusually dense. The whole place teemed with life.
What a wonderful place.
Altaïr climbed onto a reef rock and adjusted his breathing. He wondered whether, if Isis and the others had brought the Princess here to play back then, all that trouble could have been avoided. Just as he was thinking this, he spotted a dark-gray triangular fin cutting through the waves, heading straight this way.
At that moment, Altaïr's first thought was that, judging by that sail-like fin, this fish had to be seven or eight meters long. What a massive fish.
And that gaping maw had to be over a meter wide. It could easily swallow a person whole in a single bite. No wonder people said aquatic Monsters were generally larger than their land counterparts. Its body length was already close to a Yian Kut-Ku's, and its weight might even exceed one... Hmm. Wait... hmm?! Cold sweat burst from Altaïr's forehead.
So this was the so-called Sharq?
He had thought it would be three or four meters long at most. How was it this big? Did this really not count as a Large Monster?!
Just as this thought crossed his mind, the rapidly approaching giant shark flicked its tail. Its massive body leaped out of the water, its blood-stained maw about to engulf Altaïr where he stood on the reef.
Altaïr ducked down just in time, dodging the incoming bloody jaws, then watched helplessly as the giant shark crashed back into the sea, sending up waves of spray that startled the nearby fish into scattering in all directions.
"What are you doing up on the reef? Weren't you the one who said you wanted to practice? Get in the water!" Az urged.
Watching the Sharq make a nimble turn and continue heading this way, Altaïr felt his scalp tingle.
It's just a big shark. Compared to the Large Monsters I've hunted before, it's nothing! Comforting himself with that thought, Altaïr put on his breathing mask and plunged into the sea with a dive.
Seeing the Sharq open its mouth wide, ready to swallow him whole, Altaïr quickly adjusted his posture. In the split second before the attack arrived, he thrust all four limbs hard, shooting five or six meters away and evading the Sharq's assault.
The Sharq's size was astonishing, but after all, it was not some highly intelligent Large Monster. It charged on for dozens of meters before realizing its attack had missed, then turned around and rushed straight at the Hunter again.
A charging bite was the Sharq's only method of attack.
Altaïr had it figured out now. It wasn't without reason that Az had chosen the Sharq as a practice target for underwater rookies.
Dealing with a Monster with such a simple attack pattern only required mastering underwater evasion maneuvers. Once you calmed down, even a rookie could handle it.
After the initial tension of his first real underwater fight had fully subsided, he drew the Khanga Rebellion from his back, preparing to try out certain underwater techniques.
He deliberately did not activate Demon Mode.
In his earlier experiments, he had discovered that his heartbeat accelerated dramatically in Demon Mode, and his breathing grew rapid, greatly shortening the time he could stay underwater.
Unless absolutely necessary, activating Demon Mode underwater was not a smart move.
Holding the Long Sword diagonally with both hands, his gaze fixed on the rapidly closing Sharq, Altaïr put all four limbs to work when the Sharq was still four or five meters away.
While kicking his legs to swim aside, he gripped the hilt tightly and swung the blade upward.
This strike missed, but that didn't matter. It wasn't meant to be a real attack, but rather a windup to set up the follow-up.
In the instant the Sharq swept past before him, Altaïr fought against the inertia of the upward slash and violently swung the blade downward.
A flash of steel. The Khanga Rebellion, capable of slicing through Flying Wyvern scales, effortlessly cut through the shark's sandpaper-rough hide, leaving a massive, blood-gushing wound along the Sharq's flank.
Struck by a sudden heavy blow, the Sharq writhed and struggled, its spreading blood turning the surrounding seawater murky.
That's it!
With his confidence soaring, Altaïr performed a preparatory motion similar to the Inward Slash. Just as the movement was about to end, he swiftly reversed the blade's direction. Fade Slash! This stroke cleanly sliced off the Sharq's dorsal fin.
In just two strikes, Altaïr began to grasp the trick of swinging a blade underwater. It was simply a matter of predicting ahead of time, using a longer reverse windup to prepare, then striking at the critical moment.
Once he mastered that technique, even if those complex sword techniques were still beyond him, at least he wouldn't be limited to Thrusts for the entire fight.
But the "new ideas" he truly wanted to test went far beyond that.
After the final blow stabbed through the Sharq's upper jaw, pierced its brain, and ended its life, Altaïr pulled out his blade and felt the Spirit Gauge coalesce.
From the very beginning, Ursula had said that thrusting attacks were the most suitable offensive method for underwater combat, and she had been absolutely correct.
Aside from the most basic Thrust attack, did the Long Sword have any other thrusting sword techniques?
It did, though that particular move was rarely treated as an independent technique.
The Sharq's corpse slowly sank to the seabed, and the scent of blood diffusing through the seawater drew another Sharq that had been patrolling nearby.
Compared to the last one, this Sharq was much larger. By rough estimate, it could even reach nine meters in length.
Driven into a frenzy by the smell of blood, the Sharq lashed its massive tail and accelerated, charging directly toward this spot.
Altaïr flipped his grip with both hands and readied his Long Sword, blade facing upward, the tip pointing straight ahead.
The Spirit Gauge accumulated during the previous battle condensed at the sword tip into a frost-white gleam.
Spirit Blade Thrust. No one ever expected much from this move's power; at best, it was treated merely as a setup for the Spirit Helm Breaker.
Wrap the Spirit Gauge around the blade, launch a thrusting attack, and upon hitting the target, hold the condensed Spirit Gauge without releasing it. Use the force of the thrust to leap upward, then unleash the Spirit Gauge all at once in the following leaping slash.
No matter which Long Sword user was learning the Spirit Helm Breaker, their teachers and seniors would always teach it this way.
It was like pole vaulting. The real exertion always came at the moment of the jump, not when you jabbed the pole into the ground.
But what if, when executing the Spirit Blade Thrust, he didn't consider the follow-up Spirit Helm Breaker and instead released the Spirit Gauge in one explosive burst?
Would the effect be any good? On land, the answer was a definite no. The power of the Spirit Blade Thrust could never compare to the mighty cleaving strike of the Spirit Helm Breaker.
But in the sea, underwater, where large-motion sword techniques were difficult to execute, the answer to that question became unknown.
He intended to test it himself.
Thirty meters, twenty meters, ten meters... the target drew closer and closer.
Now!
Spirit and strength erupted together. His arms, which had been pulled back tightly, shot forward in a fierce thrust. In that instant, he felt as if his body was being dragged forward in a charge by the Long Sword itself.
The blade met the Sharq's snout.
The slender blade of the Khanga Rebellion, over one hundred fifty centimeters long, sank straight in as if meeting no resistance at all, burying itself all the way to the hilt.
(Translated by yourtl.app)