The Black Necromancer

Boom!

Leon's body soared through the air as he was blasted away by a pressurized water cannon by the tentacled monster that he had found out to be named Hydrax. The monster took on the modified name of an entire race of underwater sea creatures in order to have a dignified title.

"Leon!" A powerful mental wave rushed and attacked Hydrax's mind, causing the tentacled being to freeze up for a moment. Nedra appeared behind him in a flash and swung her Kamas, but a tentacle made of water suddenly appeared and swatted her to the side from behind.

"Damn octopus!" Leon growled angrily as he stabilized himself in the air. He could no longer land on the water, as Hydrax was manipulating it, and any contact with the water could prove deadly if they got captured.

He raised his arms and beams of black fire seared forward, aimed at Hydrax. The water below the beams of fire was evaporated in moments, turning into a dark fog that had a debilitative effect.

"Hup!" Hydrax's tentacles waved around and several walls of ice rose between himself and Leon. He then followed up with a hail of ice spikes, however, Leon did not waver under the incredible hail of ice. The ice crashed onto his armor like drops of rain, unable to shake him. The kinetic force of the ice was negated by the gravity field that Leon had set up around himself.

Boom!

A gigantic form rose out of the sea, covered in water tentacles that tried but failed to hold it down. Nedra's dark eyes looked murderous, and her antennae that were tipped with purple glowed with power. Gradually, a purple barrier of energy covered her body, preventing the water tentacles from being able to latch onto her.

When her body was completely wrapped in the purple barrier, she activated a skill that she could only use in her true form - Berserk Charge!

Boom!

The purple energy around her flared and turned to a shade mixed with red that blazed behind her. In the next moment, it was as if she had teleported right in front of Hydrax. The tentacled monster's eyes opened wide in shock. He had known that Nedra was preparing something, but he had not expected that such a large form could move so quickly!

Bang!

Nedra crashed into the wall of ice that Hydrax had conjured in a hurry, but easily broke through it and carried on to slam into the octopus monster's body as if it was nothing.

"Gah!" Hydrax's eyes nearly popped out of his head as a solid barrier was erected behind him by Leon, allowing all the force of Nedra's charge to land right on him.

Whoosh!

Leon appeared above him with his sword blazing with black fire. Without wasting a moment, he swung it down on the neck of Hydrax, easily and effortlessly chopping off the monster's head. Dark magic invaded Hydrax's body that was still struggling without its head, quickly sapping out all the vitality. After half a minute, the struggling ended, and the kill notification finally appeared.

[Level 99 Black Water Cephalopod, Hydrax, killed. You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

...

Leon's body landed on the hard earth with a thud as Hydrax's Domain vanished into thin air. Nedra also reduced from her full size into a much smaller one and fell onto Leon's head with a tired sigh.

"That was exciting..." She said dryly. Her legs tiredly splayed across Leon's helmet and she did not intend to move.

"You can say that again." Leon concurred and looked around. They had appeared back in the cave that they had been in before being swept into Hydrax's Domain. The decapitated body of the tentacled monster lay some distance away, with a network of black veins forming underneath his skin.

Leon reached out his hand and a dark wisp flew into his body. 'Hydrax was pretty strong. I should try and see if I can convert him.' He thought to himself. Right now, he could not raise any of the dead monsters into his summons, but that did not stop him from storing their souls. There were already a lot of A rank monster souls sitting in his Domain. He did not absorb all of them to strengthen his own body, but kept a few remarkable souls that had shown unique skills and potential to see if he could raise them as his summons later on.

One other reason why Leon did not bother too much about keeping more A rank souls was because of the mana expenditure of raising them. Each time any of his high rank summons were destroyed, it took a large amount of mana to raise them once again.

Ever since Leon had grown greatly in Divinity's Bout, there had been only a handful of times where he had run out of mana. Even the times when his mana had run dangerously low were incredibly few. If he were to start raising A rank summons wantonly, then he would not have enough mana left to fight his own battles!

"I'll have to get to the Peak of A rank and see what lies ahead before I can think of even building an army of A rank summons." Leon hummed as he imagined all his enemies, like the Empire of Light, trembling before his unbeatable army of A rank summons. A wide, ominous grin spread over his face and a dark light flashed through his eyes momentarily before he regained his composure.

He pulled out a vial of shimmering yellow liquid from his spatial ring and poured it over himself and Nedra. The yellow liquid ran down for a moment before turning into colorless vapor that rose into the air.

Immediately, a rush of energy flowed into the two of them. Leon brought out two more potions, one red and the other a swirl of multiple colors. Both of them were high level healing and mana recovery potions.

"Let's get back in shape and continue, shall we?" He asked his dearest Spirit Companion.