The Western Kelp Forest was a labyrinth of swaying green shadows. Massive stalks of kelp, thick as tree trunks, rose hundreds of feet from the ocean floor, creating a dense, shifting canopy that blocked out the ambient light of the city. The water here was murky, filled with silt and the drifting spores of underwater plants.

It was the perfect hunting ground for an ambush predator.

Alvian, Valeria, and Seraphina hovered near the edge of the forest, observing the area where the most recent disappearance had occurred. A fishing boat drifted aimlessly, its nets torn, its crew gone. There was no blood. No signs of a struggle. Just an empty vessel rocking in the current.

"It's clean," Seraphina whispered, her mechanical eye whirring as she scanned the boat for mana signatures. "Too clean. No residual magic. No physical tracks. Whatever took them didn't fight. It snatched them."

Alvian floated closer to the boat. He touched the torn netting.

[System Analysis: Tear Pattern.]

[Damage Source: Serrated organic blade. Trace amounts of neurotoxin detected.]

"Poison," Alvian noted. "Fast-acting paralysis. They were incapacitated before they knew they were under attack."

"Who uses poison and stealth in this region?" Valeria asked, looking nervously at the swaying kelp.

"Sea Snakes," Alvian said. "Specifically, the Deep-Sea Viper variant. They are known for abduction tactics. But they usually operate alone. To take an entire crew… this is organized."

He looked at the dense forest. Searching for a stealthy enemy in their home terrain was inefficient. It would take days to comb the forest, and they would likely walk into a trap.

"We need to draw them out," Alvian decided.

"How?" Seraphina asked. "They clearly pick their targets carefully. They won't attack a heavily armed party like us."

Alvian looked at his own gear. The [Vestments of the Void Monarch] radiated a palpable aura of power. The [Lance of the Void Winter] in his inventory hummed with the energy of a slain dragon. To a predator, he looked like a apex threat.

"Then we stop looking like a threat," Alvian said. He opened his inventory. He unequipped the [Vestments]. He unequipped the [Thundergod Bracers] and the [Greaves of the Tide-Runner].

He stood there in the simple, grey under-tunic of a novice mage. His stats dropped significantly without the gear, but his base attributes were still monstrous. However, to an external mana scan, his energy signature plummeted.

"You're stripping?" Valeria's eyes widened, a flush rising to her cheeks despite the cold water. "Here? Now?"

"I'm becoming bait," Alvian stated, handing his gear to Valeria. "Put this in your inventory. You and Seraphina hide in the kelp. Mask your presence completely. I will take the boat."

"You're going to sit on that boat alone, looking like a helpless snack?" Seraphina raised an eyebrow. "That's… bold."

"It's efficient," Alvian countered. "Predators are opportunistic. They see weakness, they strike. I will give them weakness."

He swam to the drifting fishing boat. He climbed onto the deck, sitting cross-legged in the center. He actively suppressed his mana, pulling it deep into his core using the [Void Monarch] passive, hiding the immense ocean of power he possessed until he looked like nothing more than a Level 10 civilian.

"Get into position," Alvian commanded over the comms. "And wait for my signal. Do not engage until I have them."

Valeria hesitated, looking at him sitting alone on the dark deck. "If they swarm you… without your armor…"

"I have infinite mana," Alvian reminded her. "And I have you. Go."

Valeria nodded reluctantly and swam into the dense kelp, her golden aura dimming until she disappeared. Seraphina melted into the shadows of the boat's hull, invisible.

Alvian sat alone. The silence of the kelp forest pressed in on him. He closed his eyes, extending his [Tablet of the Earth Core] senses into the water. He didn't look with his eyes; he felt with the vibrations of the ocean.

Minutes ticked by. Then hours.

Just as the artificial cycle of the city's lights began to dim, simulating night, he felt it.

A disturbance in the water. Not a current. A slither.

Something was moving through the kelp. Fast. Fluid. And silent.

[Enemy Detected: ???]

[Number: 10+]

It wasn't one. It was a pack. They were circling the boat, testing the waters, tasting the scent of the lone, defenseless human on the deck.

Alvian didn't move. He kept his breathing shallow, mimicking fear. He let his hand rest near his hip, but he didn't reach for a weapon. He was the worm on the hook.

A soft splash broke the silence. A head broke the surface of the water near the stern. It was sleek, covered in green scales, with yellow, slit-pupiled eyes. It held a blowgun.

Alvian didn't react.

'Come closer,' he thought. 'Take the bite.'

Another splash. Two more heads. They were emboldened by his lack of reaction. They began to climb onto the boat, their movements silent as oil. They were humanoid snakes, Naga of the Viper clan, wielding jagged daggers dripping with the paralyzing toxin.

[Target Identified: Sea Snake Abductor]

[Level: 44]

They crept toward him. The lead Naga raised its dagger, aiming for Alvian's neck.

"Easy prey," the Naga hissed, its voice a wet rasp.

Alvian opened his eyes. They weren't fearful. They were glowing violet.

"Gotcha," Alvian whispered.

--

The moment the lead Sea Snake lunged, the trap snapped shut. But it wasn't a cage of steel; it was a cage of overwhelming pressure.

Alvian didn't dodge. He didn't block. He simply released the suppression on his mana.

"BOOM!"

An invisible shockwave of raw power exploded from his body. The sudden release of Level 52 mana, amplified by his [Void Monarch] class, hit the Naga like a physical hammer. The three abductors on the deck were blasted backward, crashing into the railing with bone-shattering force.

"AMBUSH!" the leader shrieked, scrambling to his feet. "KILL HIM!"

From the water around the boat, twenty more Sea Snakes erupted. They leaped onto the deck, a swarm of scales and poison. They were fast, agile, moving with a fluid grace that made them hard to track.

"Now!" Alvian shouted.

From the kelp forest, a golden comet smashed into the side of the boat. Valeria, fully armored again, vaulted onto the deck. She landed with a crash that shook the vessel, her [Titan's Bloodline] flaring.

"TITAN'S SWEEP!"

She swung her claymore in a massive horizontal arc. The golden energy extended from the blade, catching five Naga mid-air and slamming them into the mast.

From the shadows of the hull, Seraphina appeared. She moved like a phantom, her daggers flashing. She hamstrung two Naga before they even realized she was there.

"Shields up!" Valeria yelled, positioning herself between Alvian and the main group.

"No need," Alvian said. He stood calmly in the center of the chaos. He raised his hand. He hadn't re-equipped his armor yet. He didn't need it for this. He needed control.

"[Abyssal Bindings]."

Dark water swirled around his feet. Chains made of condensed, pressurized ocean water shot out from the deck. But these weren't just water chains. They were infused with the Void. They were black, hungry things that sought out mana signatures.

The chains lashed out, moving faster than the Naga could slither.

"SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!"

Ten Naga were snagged instantly. The chains wrapped around their waists, their arms, their tails. The moment the chains made contact, the Naga screamed.

"MY MANA! IT BURNS!"

[Effect Triggered: Void Drain.]

[Target Silenced.]

The chains sucked the mana straight out of their bodies, reinforcing the bindings. The more they struggled, the tighter the chains became.

But the leader wasn't caught. He was bigger than the others, his scales a dark emerald, wearing armor made of woven sea-glass.

[Boss Detected: General Slish (Venomblade)]

[Level: 47]

[Status: Elite Assassin]

General Slish moved with blinding speed. He dodged Valeria's swing, weaved through Seraphina's daggers, and lunged straight for Alvian. His twin daggers dripped with a purple neurotoxin that could stop a whale's heart in seconds.

"You think chains can hold water?" Slish hissed, his body turning into liquid form to bypass the bindings. "[Hydro-Form]!"

He dissolved into a stream of water, shooting toward Alvian to reform right in front of him for the kill stroke.

"Water cannot be bound," Alvian agreed, his eyes tracking the liquid movement perfectly. "But water can be displaced."

He activated [Void Step].

Alvian didn't teleport away. He teleported into the space Slish was reforming in.

"Displacement."

The sudden occupation of the same coordinates caused a violent spatial rejection. Slish was forced out of his liquid form, solidifying instantly with a gasp of shock, mere inches from Alvian's face.

Alvian grabbed Slish by the throat. His grip was iron.

"System. Equip [Voidpiercer]."

The mythical dagger materialized in his free hand. He didn't stab. He pressed the flat of the blade against Slish's neck.

"[Void Corruption]: localized."

The black blade hummed. The void energy seeped into Slish's skin, not cutting, but infecting. It disrupted his motor control. Slish went rigid, his eyes rolling back as his own nervous system turned against him.

"Drop your weapons," Alvian commanded, his voice amplified by the mana he was stealing from the General. "Or I turn your leader into a puddle of black sludge."

The remaining Naga, seeing their General held by the throat and their comrades bound by mana-draining chains, hesitated. They looked at the golden knight blocking their retreat, and the assassin shadow-stepping behind them.

"Drop them," Slish wheezed, paralyzed by the Void.

Clatter. Clatter.

Daggers and blowguns hit the deck.

Alvian tightened his grip on Slish's throat. "Now. You and I are going to have a chat about 'The Sleeper'."

The battle was over. Efficiency absolute.

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