At the beach of a lost relic, the new moon island – Copperfield Island, Bella and her team encountered their first demonic beast of the hunt. Their opponent was a Deep Sea Demonic Crab.
The Deep Sea Demonic Crab was a type of deep-sea demonic beast that was able to fight on the sand as well as in the ocean. The Explorers Union did not have much-authenticated information or illustrations of deep-sea demonic beasts. Their records only included those low-level beasts such as the Deep Sea Demonic Snake, and barely had any useful information on other beasts like the demonic crab, just like the one in front of them.
Bella estimated that the combat level of this Deep Sea Demonic Crab was certainly S-Grade or above. The fact that it dared to take on her team and was still standing confirmed her hypothesis.
The demonic crab was three meters in length. Each of its immense pincers was more than one meter long and could move extremely fast, and the frequency of its attacks was incredibly high as well. Bella and Lisha, who were both Knights, took up the defense at the fore with their shields to fend against the demonic crab’s attacks.
Kriss, the swordsman who was in charge of the close-range mobile combat and was waiting for the Deep Sea Demonic Crab to reveal its weakness. Ariel, Elaine, and Noreya had taken charge for the longer-range attacks. Noreya had temporarily assumed the role of an archer. As the demonic crab was a crustacean with a tough exoskeleton, she was not able to determine the exact location of its heart which meant that she could only act as an archer for the time being.
The Deep Sea Demonic Crab’s powers were far more ridiculous than the Rock Puppets that Bella had fought against. One blow from one of its large pincers on her shield had forced Bella to fall back a dozen meters. Besides, a dull ache began to throb in her shield arm.
Lisha was also in the same boat. As she was much more petite, she was pushed back even further than Bella was.
This crab was unbelievable! By the looks of it, it was just a normal crab and not a Crab King. If one were to appear, Bella and her team might have ended up being obliterated by it. If not for Kriss’ roving attacks, Bella and Lisha would have been defeated by the demonic crab.
As the avenging knights had been crushed by the crustacean, the entire exploration team was in the defensive mode, passively fending off the crab’s attacks. Ariel’s magical attacks were ineffective against it. Her thunder type attacks did not even make a scratch on the demonic crab and it was still as active as it was in the beginning.
“Bella, this thing seems unfazed by my thunder type magic. I think it might be resistant to magical attacks.”
“No way, N-not again.”
With a deafening crash, the Deep Sea Demonic Crab had smashed its enormous pincers and shattered Bella’s shield. In a fit of anger, Bella staggered and pressed on the joint between the attacking pincer and its body as hard as she could with her bare hands.
“You forced me into this, let’s see how good you are now! Kriss, stop pretending, move now!”
Bella did not care anymore and unleashed the power of the Demon King. Using that incredible strength, Bella pinned the Deep Sea Demonic Crab’s right pincer into the sand, preventing it from moving at all.
Seeing that Bella stopped hiding her true abilities. At her call, all the other members in the team dropped the pretense and unleashed their true combat abilities.
The beach, rather, the entire Copperfield Island was instantly covered by a surge of terrifying power. The once sunny skies were now gloomy and dark. This was the first time Bella would witness her dorm mates’ true powers and she was beginning to feel extremely excited.
First, the sun appeared to be swallowed by a mysterious force. This was different from the solar eclipses seen on Earth. During a regular solar eclipse, the sun would be gradually covered by a black shadow. However, it seemed more accurate to describe this eclipse as an occultation of the sun.
The sun in this Other World was not blinding to the naked eye. One of the reasons why the sky turned dark was because of the sun that had been obscured by a few dark shadows. These shadows seemed to be covering the sun directly, which meant that the sun was hidden almost instantaneously, rather than in a gradual manner.
When the sun temporarily disappeared, thick, rolling storm clouds from the vicinity began to congregate above the island. Once the skies were completely covered by the clouds, a flash of lightning appeared in the sky. The clouds crackled with electricity as a clap of thunder followed afterward.
This was not your usual lightning, it was red and then turned blue. Somehow, it seemed like it was made up of many different colors. This was not a natural flash of lightning. It was dark lightning from the depths of the abyss which was always followed by a silent clap of thunder.
The waters surrounding Copperfield Island had turned sinister black due to the intensity of the dark aura in the atmosphere. If there had been any aquatic life in the waters, they would have already been reduced to its bare bones and sank into the depths of the ocean.
Before, there was barely a breeze on the island. Now, gusts of eerie cold air began to swirl around the island. Its creepy chill caused the temperature of everything it touched to drop dramatically. As for the abandoned weapons on the sand, they had all been blown to pieces by the sharp gusts of wind. These master-level weapons were now completely useless. Even after thousands of years, those weapons were unable to escape their inevitable fate of being destroyed.
Within moments, black droplets of rain began to pour. The entire new moon island was enveloped in an inexplicable terrifying aura. The Deep Sea Demonic Crab that the team had been fighting earlier had long been petrified into a stone statue. Somehow, that prey was extremely toxic! Even though the deep sea demonic beasts did not know what a Demon King was, their innate survival instinct would have alerted the beasts of the dangerous aura.
Bella’s dorm mates did not go through any obvious changes in their appearance. They still looked like humans, just that their equipment was a little different now. Lisha was still in her knight’s armor, however, it had been turned into pure gold and was adorned with patterned dragons. On her back, was a pair of golden dragon wings, and her weapons were now a greatsword with demonic spells engraved on the hilt.
Kriss’ gear had turned into a set of stormy silver soft armor. She had a pair of swords in her hands, one black and one red. The hilt of the red sword was the bust of a demon and the former was a ferocious dragon. Looming swords that were barely discernible could be seen behind her as well.
This was the second time that Bella had seen Kriss turn dark. Compared to the last time where she had evolved into a demon king, her current change was much more subtle.
Ariel’s mage’s robes had transformed into a midnight blue and a magical door had appeared behind her. This time, it was the Doors of Hell. The doors were of the same shade of blue as Ariel’s robes. There were various engravings of skulls and bones on the door which looked almost as if real skulls had been engraved to it.
The hollow eye sockets of the skulls were burning with an eerie blue ghost fire and looked strangely terrifying. As for her weapons, Ariel’s staff was a White Bone Magic Staff with a bone-white skull placed right on top of it.
In comparison, Noreya experienced fewer changes. Her assassin’s outfit was already black, but somehow it still managed to turn an even deeper shade of black. As for her weapons, she had a dark red dagger instead.
However, many black ghostly figures were floating around her which looked similar to the western grim reapers as seen in the movies in her previous world where they were dressed in heavy cloaks and hoods. On top of it, they were floating around, carrying a sickle on their backs. With their hoods up, there was no way to tell if its head was skeletal as well.
Elaine was the one who went through the most drastic changes. She was still dressed as a puppet master, but this time, it had transformed into a symbolic gold color that represented the sacred. However, the things that appeared behind her had nothing to do with the sacred at all. These were human puppets with oddly distorted features.
These puppets looked like cursed dolls. Some of them were crawling on the ground while some of them hovered in the sky. Other than the puppet army, there were also various ghosts drifting behind her. If not for the standard puppet master equipment, such as puppet strings, in Elaine’s hands, Bella had almost believed that she was a necromancer instead.
These were all experts in being pretentious, but this time, Bella was not. She looked on as her dorm mates turned increasingly dark, one after the other. This made her so depressed that she almost threw up blood. After all this trouble, she did not experience any changes, even as a demon king. Like Lisha, they did not experience any physical changes, but their equipment was not the things that a normal human would be able to own, let alone wield.
