Kyle reached the northern coast and stopped for a moment.
'Whelp, guess a Level Two Transcending Beast has to do the trick,' he thought.
'The Level One Transcending Beasts are near the middle of the ocean, at a depth of about ten kilometers, since they can't fight any other Transcending Beasts.'
'The Level Three Transcending Beasts are near the coasts most of the time. They like having a bit of ground beneath them. Probably because the open ocean makes them a bit too nervous.'
'The Level Four and Five Transcending Beasts are near the bottom of the ocean.'
'As far as I know, Level Two Transcending Beasts are where Level One Transcending Beasts are but a bit lower.'
Kyle sighed.
'Finding one is going to suck so bad.'
Kyle continued towards the southeast.
After about a minute, he stopped at a random spot over the Grand Ocean.
'This seems like a good spot.'
Then, he descended.
He rapidly shot past several Ferocious Beasts and Monsters, which didn't dare to attack him.
Although even if they tried, they wouldn't be able to get him since he was already gone before they could react.
At this moment, Kyle was surrounded by a dark-red flame, illuminating the dark ocean around him.
After descending for a bit, Kyle's instincts warned him of danger, and he looked to the side.
He could feel a ton of Fire Ether coming from his left.
'Huh, it has a Fire Affinity,' he thought.
An instant later, a humongous angler fish with a burning lantern charged out of the dark ocean.
Its lantern started to turn into a second sun, and the ocean around it turned into steam, hiding it from view.
Kyle looked at it and activated his Momentum.
At that moment, the second sun turned colorless as all the water around them stopped moving.
It was almost like all the water had turned into ice without turning to ice.
The angler fish stopped advancing and just looked at Kyle, who just looked back.
This was a Level One Transcending Beast.
By now, Kyle had killed almost ten of those.
His Momentum had increased a bit as a result, but not much.
Although considering the power of Kyle's Momentum, a bit for him was a lot for everyone else.
The angler fish evaluated its opponent.
It had believed that it could just consume Kyle, but this enemy seemed to be quite powerful.
'Why am I even trying?' Kyle thought with a roll of his eyes.
A moment later, the angler fish continued charging, its lantern extending towards Kyle. The instincts of powerful beasts were stronger than the instincts of weaker beasts.
On Earth, this would mean that an animal would flee more often when confronted with a powerful enemy. After all, their instincts told them that the fight wouldn't be worth it.
However, that was not how it worked here.
Powerful beasts became powerful because they had gone through several True Battles.
They didn't have something like Momentum that benefited from such battles, but their way of fighting benefited a lot from the experience.
Additionally, just like humans, True Battles would help in comprehending Fragments, and while the Transcending Beasts didn't consciously know that this was the case, their instincts told them to seek out True Battles.
In a way, the more powerful a beast became, the more suicidal it got.
The red flames around Kyle became more intense.
The lantern moved to Kyle's location and expanded.
BANG!
An explosion turned the surrounding 500 meters of water into a storm of steam.
Yet, while that happened, a red streak descended further into the ocean at immense speeds before suddenly angling upwards again.
The angler fish noticed that its prey had survived and charged at Kyle with surprising speed.
'Fragment of Nerves, huh?' Kyle thought. 'Guy can react faster.'
Its lantern became hotter again as it moved towards Kyle.
The lantern reached Kyle and readied for another explosion.
BANG!
But then, Kyle sped up even more, surprising the angler fish.
Its lantern still needed some time to power up!
Kyle's hammer started to warp the surroundings as the heat around it intensified.
Then, it struck the lantern.
BOOOM!
The lantern exploded into a stream of Ether and blood.
The Fire Ether, which had been loaded into the lantern, rampaged through the surroundings.
However, since there was no more will on the Fire Ether, Kyle just opened his mouth and consumed the rampaging Fire Ether.
The angler fish reacted in an instant.
Its most powerful weapon had just been destroyed by its opponent, and it reacted in the most appropriate way.
It turned around and fucked off.
A True Battle was one thing, but this was just suicide!
Kyle didn't chase after the angler fish and just watched it leave.
'No point in killing it. Don't want to reduce the wildlife in the Grand Ocean needlessly. I mean, there are a lot of Transcending Beasts, but there are not thousands of them. As far as I know, their numbers are in the hundreds. '
After the angler fish left, Kyle looked downward again and continued.
He descended rapidly to a depth of about 40 kilometers before stopping.
'This should be an appropriate depth,' Kyle thought. 'Still outside the domain of the powerful Transcending Beasts but also quite far down.'
Kyle narrowed his eyes as he became serious.
'We're in dangerous territory now. Can't afford to become careless.'
Then, he searched for his next opponent.
He was searching for an easier True Battle.
A battle where his chances of victory were not 50% but more like 70% or 80%.
His Momentum was already powerful enough.
The only reason he was even searching for an easy True Battle was to speed up his comprehension.
The insights of one True Battle could save him years of comprehension by solving the most difficult problems in comprehension.
After a couple of minutes of carefully searching around, Kyle's instincts warned him of something quite dangerous.
The intensity was quite a bit stronger than when he had felt the angler fish.
However, the danger also felt beatable.
It wouldn't be easy, but it was definitely doable.
The enemy must have also felt Kyle already, but they didn't attack.
Most likely, Kyle didn't feel worth the effort to them.
'Well, here we go.'
Kyle didn't wait.
He immediately maximized the intensity of his Meteor Ether.
BANG!
And shot right at his opponent.
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