Chapter 2765: Professional Pride (part 1)

Normal magic was useless against Spirit Spells so the Leviathan kept flying undisturbed, quickly reaching a vantage position from which he could study his mark from a safe distance.

He always kept himself a few hundred of meters away and upwind. This way, no mystical or physical sense would perceive him while Finjorn gauged his prey

nulli'These things cost a fortune but they are worth every single gold coin spent.' He wore the goggles that he had bought from Verendi.

Finjorn had to give the commission for two hits to the Forgemaster in order to afford the goggles, but they were worth the price. The artifact would boost Life Vision, expanding either the data it could collect or its area of effect.

The Leviathan always used the latter, collecting as much information as possible before risking to use life-sensing arrays and array-detecting spells that could be perceived by an Awakened or by a Warden on their guard. n)(0In

Little did he and the Frogemaster know that Lith had collected two pairs of goggles from the assassins from Verendi and was currently studying them with the Thievery.

Lith's plan was to see if he could use the enchantments to boost the tower's Eyes of Menadion and then sell the goggles, passing them as his own creation. But this is a story for another day.

All of Finjorn's confidence crumbled the moment he laid eyes on the small, insignificant human woman that Zinya Vastor was. According to Life Vision, she had a bright red mana core and a body weak even by human standards.

Her clothes bore excellent enchantments and were made of Adamant but they were nothing special to a Divine Beast. The Leviathan only needed a gentle tap of his fins to crush Zinya under his weight.

In theory.

Even from such a distance, the mere sight of Zinya filled Finjorn with dread. His body shivered so hard in fear that the few people who could see the bird perched on the high roof thought it was having a seizure.

As Zinya slowly walked along the streets, she received countless bows and gifts from the people of Verlan.She also came closer to the Leviathan who found himself covered in a cold sweat even though that form was supposed to not have the necessary glands for the job.

As she neared, Finjorn's survival instinct screamed at him to run away and never look back. With each step Zinya took, the Leviathan's sight darkened as the cold embrace of death numbed his body.

Such was the fear ravaging his mind that he lost control of the spells he had at the ready and the Spirit Arrays he had already activated faded into nothingness. It was then that the horror haunting him lessened enough for the Leviathan to Spirit Blink away.

He kept Blinking until horror faded into "just" terror and Finjorn regained enough presence of mind to cast a Warp Steps that consumed what mana he had left and brought him as far away as possible.

The Leviathan tried and failed to use Invigoration, his breath too quick and shallow to keep a steady rhythm. Mana abuse made his whole body ache and he felt so tired that if not for the fear that was burning through his veins his eyes would have started to droop.

Finjorn still didn't feel safe, like something was after him and there were only a few seconds left before it found him. He flew at breakneck speed after picking a random direction, hoping that if he didn't know where he was going, neither would his hidden enemy.

The Leviathan found a lake on his path and dived in without hesitation. He swam to the deepest corner of the lake and then he used his natural affinity toward water and earth to burrow deeper and deeper underground.

Finjorn would never know that his survival instinct had saved his life twice already.

He had just found the underground aquifer that connected the lake to the sea when a series of Chaos Gates connected Verlam to every one of the dimensional exits that the Leviathan had opened and then straight above the lake.