Hitman with a Badass System

After killing the Kraken, who was at the Half-Immortal stage, Michael received one million experience points. He still needed seven million experience points to reach level 5. Just the Kraken on the outskirts was at the Half Immortal stage. So Michael could imagine how strong the creatures and dangers inside the demon's grave were. They continued to head toward the demon's grave while hoping for another monster to jump out of the sea. Michael sensed several other Half-Immortal monsters, but they didn't attack him.

Michael couldn't recognize some of the monsters. For instance, he vaguely saw a creature that resembled a giant human eye. The monster blinked when Michael sensed it. He flew for two days without a battle. Some creatures were able to sense the overwhelming power radiating from Michael. They were intelligent enough not to attack him. On the third day, Michael was flying with Vedora expecting trouble. He couldn't tell if it was morning or evening. Everything looked the same in the ocean around the demon's grave. The area looked as gloomy and eerie as ever. After flying for a few hours, Michael noticed violent ripples in the sea. He slowed down as he sensed a Fusion Stage monster before him. Water splashed all over the place when it dashed out of the sea. This red monster had a large spherical body crowned with horns that floated slowly through the air. They had a single blue eye over a large mouth which was persistently twisted into a Cheshire cat-like grin, showing a series of nasty teeth and a brownish interior.

The monster immediately belched a ball of blue lightning while creating tiny monsters similar to it from the back. These tiny monstrosities flew toward Michael, making some kind of cackling noises. A lightning bolt shot out of Michael's fingertips at one of the tiny monsters. When the lightning bolt hit the tiny monster, it exploded with enough force to push Michael back several meters.

Vedora was almost thrown out of Michael's shoulder. Quickly, they crawled into Michael's armor. At that moment, the ball of lightning reached Michael. Before it could hit Michael, the responsive shield appeared around Michael, saving Michael from getting blasted off. The lightning ball exploded upon hitting the responsive shield. To Michael's surprise, he got no experience points for killing a tiny monster. He sensed several other monsters moving toward them due to their battle. Hence, Michael decided to end this battle sooner than later. He immediately cast the ring of fire to burn down all the tiny monsters at the same time.

The dark flames pulsated in rings around Michael. One by one, the creatures exploded. Unfortunately, the big monster was way out of the flame's reach. Hence, it escaped the dark flames. The sky was lit with bright flashes as the creatures exploded like bombs. The big monster created more of them as fast as Michael killed them. Since these tiny creatures gave him no experience points, Michael decided to kill the big one. In a blink of an eye, Michael evaded the lightning ball and dashed at the monster using a Lightning dash.

Michal enveloped himself with the dark flames on his way. When the creature opened its mouth to belch another lightning ball, Michael moved his body, facing the ocean, and shot through the creature's mouth like a bullet. The creature howled as one could see a hole on the other side of its mouth. The creature hovered aimlessly in the air, making groaning noises. Michael did not wait till the monster bled to death. On the contrary, he bombarded the monster with lightning bolts. He cast the ring of fire once again to burn the creature to a crisp. The monster couldn't stand a chance against two of Michael's spells at the same time. As the creature was burning, the air reeked with a strange putrid smell. Michael immediately unsheathed his swords, cutting a few chunks of flesh and scooping down its bluish blood as samples. With these samples, he might be able to figure out the origins of these monstrosities.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Fusion Stage level 4 monster. The reward is 500,000 Experience points and 10,000 Badass points]

Michael heard the system notification right before the creature fell into the ocean. Most of its body was charcoaled by the dark flames. The surface turned dark gray as the creature dissolved in the salt water.

"Is it over?" Sarba craned her head out of Michael's armor.

"We should have fought that ugly," Ayag put her head out again and snickered at Sarba. Although Vedora was at the Soul Refining stage and just a few months of cultivation away from hitting the Fusion stage, their physical body remained small. The system needed to be at level 9 to learn more about Vedora and the reason behind their small physical stature. For now, Michael had bigger things to worry about than Vedora's physical transformation. Nightmare went through his metamorphosis when he reached the Body Strengthening stage. Ever since then, he had been growing up to be a big dragon. However, Vedora remained almost the same as when they were hatched from the egg.

Due to their small physical body, fighting other monsters was tough even though they had the cultivation power to do so. Moreover, they didn't have powerful offensive abilities yet. Ayag could seldom create sonic waves, while Sarba had special senses. Other than that, they had nothing. On his way forward, Michael battled a few more monsters similar to the one he had fought earlier. He killed them all within a few moments. To him, they were just practice dummies. But the closer he moved to the demon's grave, the stronger the monsters became. Even the Fusion stage monsters had such ferocity and ruthlessness. If Michael had been at the Half Immortal stage, he would have been in trouble.

On the night of the third day, Michael thought about taking a bit of rest. Since they had no island or a play to land, he had to stay in the air and replenish his energy. By the time Michael stopped flying, Vedora had fallen asleep. Michael flew above the clouds to see the crimson-red sky above. He wondered what made the sky remain blood red around the demon's grave. For some strange reason, he had a feeling that a massive war had taken place here. The moon glowed in the distance but instead of sparkling blue light, it radiated blood red. Despite the monsters around him, Michael stopped flying to take a break. He took out a few snacks and refilled his belly. Then, he drank some potions to replenish his energy. He still didn't feel like absorbing the arch energy crystals in his system storage.

While he was gulping down potions, he saw a black line on the horizon. The line moved past the moon. A few seconds later, the black line grew bigger. He looked closer at the thing to see a giant bat flying toward him. It was just as dark as midnight. Except for its razor-sharp white fangs, everything else was black. Surprisingly, the bat was at the Fusion stage. The bat didn't back off even after sensing Michael's cultivation stage. This bat was either powerful enough to fight him or extremely stupid to pick a fight. The closer the bat got, the bigger it looked. It casts a giant shadow in the clouds. Without slowing down, the bat dashed at Michael with its claws open. To Michael's surprise, the bat cut him in the elbow before he could dash away. For a monster at the Fusion Stage, it was extremely agile and fast. He felt a sharp pain in his shoulder for a moment. Then, the APD injected a healing potion into his bloodstream as the wound closed up in a blink of an eye.

The bat viciously tried to cut open Michael with its razor-sharp claws. It didn't use any spells or energy attacks but just raw brute strength.  Michael swayed his body left and right, evading the claws. He flew around the bat, firing lightning bolts. But the bat barrel rolled and flew away, escaping each and every lightning bolt, which surprised Michael. His lightning bolts were faster than any snipers, yet the bat evaded it without breaking a sweat. The bat produced a strange clicking noise as it flew around Michael.

Michael immediately cast the ring of fire because it was an area-of-effect spell rather than a precision spell like Ignitia. A wave of dark flames shot out of Michael's body. The cold weather became hot as the temperature in the air rose up. The bat screamed but flew high and swung his body, comfortably evading the flame wave. It kept a safe distance from Michael instead of flying toward him, which showed Michael the bat's intelligence.

Michael continued to attack the bat while trying to figure out its weakness. Since it was as fast as him, there was no point or use in casting the meteor spell. The bat proved to be a challenge, even for an Immortal. This bat's intention didn't seem to kill him but to exhaust him and his energy. The bat studied Michael's strategy and spell. It was adjusting its battle tactics according to Michael's battle prowess.

As they continued their battle, more and more monsters moved toward them. Michael prepared himself for an all-out battle.

"I can hear some kind of weird noise from the bat," Sarba whispered to Michael. But Michael didn't hear a sound. Yet again, Sarba's senses were more powerful than Michael's.

"Echolocation," Michael mumbled.