With only one last Oxygen Mushroom left, Kent dared not stay any longer and decided to leave. He exited the forest and sped across the lake in the speedboat.
"Help!"
Suddenly, a cry for help reached his ears from a distance.
Kent turned to look and saw two humans swimming toward him, looking seriously injured. Behind them, a massive water monster was chasing them through the waves. The water was red with blood, and broken speedboats were floating among the wreckage, with human corpses drifting in the wake.
"Damn, what did they do to piss off something like that?" Kent thought, a pang of unease striking his heart. With his current skills, he couldn't save them, but as he watched the two mercenaries being swallowed by the water monster, he felt a little guilty.
"The monster seems to be injured and falling behind. If I go now, I wonder if I'll make it in time," Kent thought and weighed the risks before deciding to try and save them.
He quickly reached the two, pulled them aboard, and in three minutes, Kent managed to get them on the boat. The two young mercenaries, still shaken, muttered their thanks while glancing behind them. The enormous water monster was gaining speed, trailing a huge wave toward them.
Without a word, Kent floored the throttle, sending the speedboat speeding toward the clouds below.
However, the monstrous water creature's speed was increasing. It shot a giant water arrow at them. Kent swerved to dodge, and as he looked back, he saw the two young men, both in their twenties, fully equipped with incomplete C-level battle gear. The one with the high nose had a gash on his abdomen from a sharp weapon, while the short-haired one seemed to be in better condition.
"Can you drive this thing? It's easy," Kent called out to the short-haired youth.
"I can," the youth immediately replied, taking the helm.
Kent stepped back and pulled out a small rocket launcher from his space pouch. He had specifically gotten this from Zhao Mengxi; it was powerful enough to be useful in this situation.
At that moment, the monstrous water creature breached the surface. It was a massive, shark-like creature, even more grotesque than a regular shark, its body the size of a six-story building, a true giant.
Kent couldn't help but scan it. It was a 58-level Giant Tooth Blood Shark, evolved to the lower tier of the Heavenly Rank. This made Kent feel a deep sense of unease; this monster was not something he could easily deal with.
Not knowing how much damage the small missile would do to the creature, Kent had no other choice but to fire it. With a loud explosion, the missile hit its target, creating a massive vortex in the lake. The Giant Tooth Blood Shark was torn apart, its flesh and blood flying everywhere, and a huge hole blasted through its body.
This enraged the giant water monster, which completely emerged from the water like an island. Its enormous nostrils suddenly expelled a stream of black water, which shot toward them from thousands of meters away.
Kent's expression darkened. That black water was the creature's toxic fluid, its secret weapon. The toxicity was so powerful that even iron would corrode under its effects.
"Quick, escape! It's highly toxic!" Kent shouted as he summoned Garfield and used wind blades to intercept the black stream of water.
Together, they conjured over a hundred wind blades, finally dispersing the deadly water. The giant water monster, however, wasn't done. It let out a piercing roar, sending out an ultrasonic sound, not as an attack, but as a call to summon more of its kind.
The sound traveled underwater, and soon, the surface of the lake was churning, with waves rushing toward Kent and his companions.
Kent's expression grew grim, and he turned to the two mercenaries, "What should we do?"
The two mercenaries, their faces pale with fear, were at a loss.
"We can only go to the island," one of them said.
They had reached the northernmost island beneath the cloud formation. The firelight magic trees were on the third island, and if they didn't land soon, they would be surrounded by the sharks.
The three of them abandoned the boat and rushed toward the island's center. Fortunately, the island wasn't too small, and had an area of about ten miles, but Kent wasn't relaxed. With the size of the water monster, it could cover half the island.
As they neared the center, they ignored the monsters they encountered along the way. Thankfully, most of the creatures on the island had already been cleared, and the few left were no threat.
After traveling a thousand meters inland, dozens of Giant Tooth Blood Sharks appeared on the surface, their cold eyes fixed on the island. The massive water monster began ramming the island with brute force, trying to overturn it.
The whole island shook violently, as if an earthquake of magnitude six or seven had struck.
"This monster thinks it can use brute force to overturn the island, but it will never succeed," Kent sneered. A ship may be big, but it floats on the water. An island is anchored to the lake's bottom, and there's no way it can be flipped.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, the tremors stopped. The giant water monster seemed to have exhausted its strength and paused.
Kent let out a breath of relief, but he wasn't about to leave. From his information network on the cloud, he knew that the monsters hadn't given up.
"They're not leaving yet," Kent said to the two mercenaries. "I'm Kent. What about you?"
The short-haired youth looked dejected. "We're from the Ancient Moon Mercenary Group. We sent eleven members here this morning. We completed the mission, but when we were leaving, that monster suddenly appeared and sank our boat. The others are probably all gone. Thank you for saving us. I'm Li Motong, and this is Gao Xiaokuang."
Kent nodded, feeling a bit sorry for them.
"Have you treated your wounds?" He glanced at Gao Xiaokuang, whose abdomen had been slashed.
Gao Xiaokuang grunted in acknowledgment. "I can hold on, but our last Oxygen Mushroom is almost gone. Do you have any more?"
Kent's face darkened as he took out the last one he had been saving and handed it to them. "This is the last one. I was about to leave the secret realm when I ran into you. I couldn't just let you die..."
He didn't finish his sentence. There was nothing more to say. Now they were all trapped on this island. If they didn't find a way to leave, they'd either die from the Giant Tooth Blood Sharks or suffocate because of the lack of oxygen.
"We've gotten you into trouble. I'm sorry," Li Motong apologized.
Kent turned and gazed at the distant exit of the secret realm, deep in thought.
They didn't have much time. They had to find a way to leave, or they wouldn't survive the day.
After a few minutes, Kent's eyes lit up as he suddenly remembered a possible solution.