Ronan trusted in his durability, and while he strongly believed that dying to a tsunami impact would give him some great resistances and possibly even a new skill, he had absolutely no desire to miss out on the opportunity to fight the colossal monster that was following in the wake of the destructive wall of water.

  With about ten seconds until impact Ronan started leaping into the sky. Every time he was about to fall he formed a new platform of mana underneath his feet and pushed upwards once again. It wasn’t quite flight, but it was the next best thing, a fantastic use of his new spell that he’d thought of while not actively engaged in battle with an abyssal monstrosity.

  Thanks to his inflated strength and agility he ascended about fifty or sixty metres per jump, but even then he almost didn’t clear the wave. His final leap just about carried him over the crest of the tsunami right before it flooded over the farmhouse and the barn, sweeping them away without any resistance. Ronan sighed at how easily Moira’s heritage had been destroyed, but there was nothing he could do for the buildings except claim revenge in their stead.

  Luckily for him he didn’t have to wait long before an opportunity to do so presented itself. Right as the wave passed him by something shot out of the water below him. He conjured a sword and parried the attack, only seeing that it was a flying fish after the fact. The fish splashed back down into the back of the rolling wave, but another breached the surface and shot towards him a second later. The battle had begun.

  Ronan quickly realised how difficult it was to keep himself walking in the air while also fighting off the mutated fish that flung themselves at him one after another. He also learned something far more terrifying—the wall of water was not just a tsunami, but the entire ocean simply swallowing the land. Even after the wave passed the sea level hadn’t dropped from the hundreds of metres it had risen to and there was no end in sight. Only the skyscraper-esque monster that was striding through the water in his direction.

  Ronan resolved to be more brutal with the fish. The next one that flung itself at him found a mana bolt tearing through its gills. Before it could even gurgle and flop back into the water Ronan sliced it in half and kicked the pieces away. He raised an eyebrow as a storm erupted in the water where the corpse fell. Clearly the fish weren’t that selective about their diet.

  You have killed [Mutated Flying Fish Lv.201]!

  +12 Bronze Credits

  +158 Copper Credits

  +3 [Mana IX] Mastery

  +1 [Stamina VIII] Mastery

  +2 [Spellcasting IV] Mastery

  +1 [Sword VII] Mastery

  +Mutated Fish Wings Lv.201 (Rare)

  He hadn’t leveled up, but then again he didn’t expect to. These fish were almost a hundred levels lower than the boss from stage 4, which meant the experience he gained for killing them would be barely more than a drop in the bucket. However, they were double the level that the fodder monsters in stage 4 had been, which didn’t bode well for what was to come. Or it did, depending on how one looked at the situation. Ronan had a sort of twin perspective going on, being both anxious and excited to take on the big fucker.

  Unfortunately it seemed to have no interest in him, but that was mostly due to the fact it had yet to notice him. Ronan contented himself with fighting the fish as more and more of them attacked. The more time passed the greater the concentration of the monsters grew. That was in no small part due to the endless corpses he was sending back into the sea, the scent of blood and the prospect of a meal drawing all of the mutated marine creatures towards him.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  At that point taking the fish out was more like a chore to keep himself busy than a challenge. While carving up a fish and testing how many pieces he could slice it into before the first one hit the water, Ronan heard a loud roar.

  His attention snapped to the monster, which was no longer just a big shadow but was instead a major threat that was staring directly at him. He grinned, then gulped as he took in his opponent’s physique.

  The monster resembled some kind of titanic dinosaur-slash-megalodon hybrid with more spikes and teeth than was reasonable to possess. It had two short arms, which were stubby in comparison to the rest of its body, but would still easily slap Ronan into paste. However, he doubted that was the monster’s main form of attack. The colossal jaws and long, winding tail covered in spikes were certainly its lethal weapons.

  Until that point it had been moving at what Roan considered a sedate pace, but it was hard to tell with a creature that big whether it was actually slow or simply appeared slow given its size. It still crossed about a hundred metres with every step. But the moment it finished roaring at him the monster dived forward, crashing into the water and sending up smaller waves that sprayed outwards. Ronan raised his arms to keep his face dry and climbed higher into the sky to avoid the splash. He noticed with a grimace that the monster had vanished into the depths. Not that well, given its size cast a large shadowy silhouette on the surface, but enough that Ronan wouldn’t be able to predict its next move.

  He didn’t rely on that. Instead he immediately started to run through the air. Staying still would be a death sentence. While he ran he started to channel a rainbow bomb as well as conjuring the biggest, sharpest javelin he could. His conjured weapons were a little tougher and the size limit had gone up thanks to his excessive use and practice, which meant he couldn’t quite form a full-sized spear, but a decent javelin was no longer a problem.

  The ocean exploded right beneath him. Before he even saw the monster emerge Ronan launched both the rainbow bomb and the javelin. Then he used Mark of the Eternal Seeker. The explosions sent out a cloud of colourful smoke while he used his mana platforms to launch himself to the side. The giant monster flew into the air with an open jaw that clamped shut around the space he had occupied seconds earlier.

  Ronan wasted no time in conjuring another javelin and getting to work on a second rainbow bomb, but the damage from his opening attacks didn’t seem to have bothered the monster. He used the moment while it fell back into the water to check the tag—tags, he immediately realised—above its head.

  [Spinodoxis - MINI BOSS][Mutated Kaiju Lv.350]

  Mini-boss? I have a bad feeling about this. Ronan had no time to dwell on his sinking stomach, because the mutated kaiju was already on the move mere moments after it fell back into the ocean. Ronan realised that the tsunami was probably going to wipe out the whole country based on how it was travelling, but there was no time to think about other people. The water trembled as he heard a groaning roar from beneath the waves. A hundred tiny whirlpools formed on its surface, gathering speed and then just a few seconds later blasting jets of pressurised saltwater at him.

  They followed him with uncanny precision, forcing Ronan to stay on the move, lest he be struck from the air. As had been the case in stage 4 the terrain favoured his foes, only this time he was better equipped to handle it. Even so, he couldn’t remain in the air if he was being barraged by water jets.

  As he moved he increased his altitude, knowing that the higher he was, the more time he would have to react before the water jets fired at him. The mini-boss was not content to swim around while its skill did the work. Mid-step Ronan was forced to throw himself to the side with a burst of mana to avoid being swallowed whole. This lizard really wants a snack, huh. Let me give you something real tasty, you big bastard. A devilish grin appeared on his face as he started forming a spell.