Ocean Master

Sebastian was depressed and filled with grievance after figuring out the rules of this round of the first test, and noticing how biased they were.

Like all the previous rounds that he already passed, he was given little time to think as the action already started, but perhaps because his brain was already acclimatizing to the pressure, he was able to think faster than normal.

The first thing that he thought of after seeing the emblems that were on the warships, was the unique system clue that he got.

According to his system, these 2 races together with Atlantis were the ones who allied and succeeded in bringing down the notorious Sea King.

With this, he easily connected the severely injured shadow to the Doppelganger and Invisibility Sea King who suffered under the combined might of these 3 variant human races.

Now, he had to face this terrifying force.

Sebastian didn't know if there was supposed to be another test for the defense round of the first test, but the arrogant grievant words that were said by the Sea King after he ignored it indicated that this test was a form of revenge.

This only made Sebastian more depressed. "I didn't mean it!"

Despite his whining, no one answered him which told him that this challenge was real. To safeguard his life, his mindset instantly became battle-ready.

[You have activated skill: Advanced Electroreceptors.]

By actively manipulating his electroreceptors, Sebastian was able to blast everywhere with his electromagnetic senses as he was able to look in all directions to observe all his enemies at the same time.

As he looked, he immediately noticed a difference in these warships compared to the ones that he was already exposed to.

One fact about these warships apart from their despairing number was the fact that every one of them looked more technologically advanced than all those that Sebastian had seen in the 2 Atlantian Division Fleets that he'd seen.

During his days in captivity in the Atlantian military base, during his escape, apart from gleaning details about the layout of the military base, he was also able to glean information that was originally hidden behind virtual locks.

One of this information was about Atlantian military units.

Seeing this extremely huge Atlantian fleet that completely dwarfed the combined force of the 2 Division Fleets that he already saw, a frightening conjecture could not help but emerge in his head.

"Is this an Atlantian Mega Fleet?!"

Almost immediately after he asked this, the allied fleet attacked.

[You have activated skill: Magic Shield.]

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As soon as the allied fleet attacked, Sebastian reacted instinctively as he erected a magic shield around himself to protect himself.

The magic shield only lasted for a second before it popped.

The power of the warships' bombardment was not weakened that much after breaching the magic shield, they continued unimpeded towards Sebastian's enormous body, he was too big a target to miss.

As soon as he felt the impact of being hit which was quickly followed by explosions, Sebastian felt his skin fall apart as blood spilled out of his body while his brain was bombarded by pain sensations.

It was at this moment that he knew how defensively vulnerable he was without his Water Transmutation unique skill. His magic shield was his only defense measure and was too inadequate for intense battles.

Of course, he had skin adaptations to increase his body defense, but the defensive potential of his body could only increase so much.

Adaptations like hard dense skin were to increase his skin's hardness and tightness which could prevent most minor injuries, but against deadly attacks like this, it was proving inadequate.

His mana conductor coating was unrelated to defense, his damage reflection skin coating which mostly relied heavily on luck was not a full-defensive measure, his camouflage organ was also unrelated.

Removing all these from the equation, Sebastian for the first time in his life in Oceania realized how defensively deficient he was.

Regretting now was impossible though, he had no choice but to keep on resisting which was exactly what he did.

A redemption point that he found and was relieved by was that the lethality of the warships' attack seemed to have been toned down a lot to his level, equaling the attack from orange tier predators.

This was the only reason why he had a chance to resist in the first place. At least, the Sea King hadn't descended into full depravity yet.

With this, though his injuries kept on piling on and his health points decreased steadily, he was able to stabilize himself and start drafting some plans.

Though he was not being timed like in the previous round, in a sense, he was still being timed since his health points kept decreasing. 

This increased the pressure that he felt to make something happen. 

The success in creating his first killer move under pressure already left him in a high. At this moment of truth, Sebastian decided to try again against all odds to see if he could create a defensive killer move.

He acted on the plan immediately.

[You have activated skill: Magic Shield.]

[You have activated skill: Water Cyclone.]

[You have activated skill: Sound Control.]

[You have created a sound construct: Sound Barrier.]

Sebastian activated these 3 skills, then he got stuck. He thought and thought, but he could not get another active defensive skill to use in this situation.

He felt like laughing bitterly, his defense flaws were too much and at this moment where they mattered most, the flaws were showing glaringly.

He had too few defensive skills.

To add to his pain, when he activated these 3 skills, only their base defensive prowess was shown. There was no qualitative change like he expected. Compared to the previous time when he combined skills, this was too boring.

And the effects showed immediately.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

His defenses were easily breached again, his health points started draining again as the pressure of death started acting against his mind again.

Sebastian thought and thought but could not arrive at any counterattack, he kept on activating defense skills but they kept on being easily breached, he was out of options as his mind started straying towards his unique skill again.

This was when Sebastian thought of the threat of the Sea King's will again.

Unwillingly, he could only give up on this course of action. Then, left with no choice, he decided to try a dangerous gamble.

"Would I really die here if the warships keep bombarding me? What if the point of this round was not to defend in the first place, but to do something else?"

As he thought of this, Sebastian suddenly decided on a crazy idea of letting his health points drop as low as possible and seeing the reaction.

He indeed acted on it, he left his defenses and directly suffered the attacks.

His health points drained like water, in just 4 seconds, his health crossed the extremely dangerous territory as his system issued a warning.

While Sebastian gritted his teeth, already convinced that his course of action was an extremely stupid one, a change was effected.

All the warships suddenly stopped, then a loud masculine voice was projected to him. "Surrender!"

"Carcarot Gorgoneon, you have no other options, it is best if you surrender".

"Wait, I can?" Sebastian was ecstatic as he felt happy, thinking that his gamble worked but his hopes were ruthlessly crushed the next moment.

"Hahahahahaha!"

"In your f*cking dreams!"

To Sebastian's astonishment, after the Sea King will's writing appeared again, the scene before him was fast-forwarded. In just an instant, the part where he had the choice of surrendering was skipped.

Sebastian was stunned for a moment, then he turned livid.

"That's cheating, bastard!"

It was at this moment that his wildest nature was really unleashed. Facing death, then finally using wits to get an escape path, then suffering from sabotage the next moment could induce anger in any man or beast.

Sebastian's fear of a second death increased his anger against this Sea King's will as he reflected it into his current enemies who were the warships.

"If you want me to die so much, I'll spite you and survive!"

It was at this moment that Sebastian understood something. He was not a defense-oriented predator from the onset, offense was his forte.

To be in his domain, he needed to attack.

With this, Sebastian remembered a saying- offense is the strongest defense.

Instantly after Sebastian arrived at this, he acted on it.

[You have activated skill: Magic Teeth!]

[You have activated skill: Sonic Drill!]

[You have activated skill: Rejuvenation!]

[You have activated skill: Water Cyclone!]

[You have activated skill: Spike Attack!]

[You have activated skill: Battering Ram!]

[You have activated skill…]

[You have activated skill…]

As the healing power of rejuvenation spread through Sebastian's body, his eyes gleamed sharply as he reverted back to the offense maniac that he was.

In his mind, skills kept getting activated as he rushed at the warships the next moment. Long-ranged skills, short-ranged, magic skills, body skills, he used them all, turning his deadly offense into his greatest defense.

The battle became a long and intense one.

For minutes, Sebastian was engaged in a tug of war with the warships, defending with his life on the line by attacking as fiercely as he could.

He sustained severe injuries, but he made sure to deal more damage to the warships as they kept falling like dead leaves in autumn.

This way, he continued till he was exhausted but he never stopped.

When he thought that it would never end, a change finally happened. Everything suddenly disappeared, all the warships evaporated away as the familiar bright light and the Sea King will's writing appeared again.

"Humph! You qualified, again!"

Sebastian grinned with his bloody mouth, he realized one of the battle styles that would probably remain with him in the future.

"Offense is my greatest defense!"