kscans

Chapter 38 - The Battle at Sea

The next morning, I woke to find Tina sleeping beside me, still in her armor.

I breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed we hadn't crossed that line. Just to be sure, I gave a quick sniff—none of the telltale scents. I got up and dressed. A short while later, Tina stirred and looked at me.

"Good morning. You're up early."

She greeted me, her face still a little drowsy.

I returned her greeting, and we decided to head to the dining hall together. When we arrived, there were no other customers; the staff was busy cleaning. Tina and I took a seat and waited for the others. Soon enough, everyone gathered, and we ordered breakfast at the same table. It was a simple meal: five loaves of bread and water. After we finished eating, we set out for the beach.

Our objective: subjugate the Kraken.

I changed into my swimsuit, strapped my tool pouch to my waist, put on my ring, and picked up my surfboard. Bardos, fully armed, boarded the boat. Just as we were about to depart, Tina spoke up.

"Please make a boat for us, too. I can't bear the thought of us just watching while you two do all the fighting."

Her face was set with determination.

The other members wore the same expression. I decided to build another boat. The reason was simple: a single vessel would just be an easy target for the Kraken. Once it was finished, we held a brief strategy meeting. With all preparations complete, we were ready.

I boarded Bardos's boat, and we set sail together.

After a while, we reached a stretch of sea where the port town was still visible. Suddenly, the water ahead of us swelled unnaturally. From it, the Kraken emerged. It was easily ten meters tall—no, probably even larger. It had ten legs, two of which were longer than the others and ended in flat tips. Its form was unmistakably that of a squid.

"A squid," I muttered. "Looks like it'd be delicious grilled."

A bit of drool escaped my lips. Bardos looked at me.

"Is your first thought really about eating it? I can't tell if you're that confident or just that gluttonous. But... fufufu... I guess getting fired up at the sight of a strong opponent makes me more like you than I thought."

With that, Bardos readied his weapon. Tina and the others brought their boat alongside ours.

"Let's confirm the plan," Tina said. "We'll attack its tentacles to weaken it as much as possible. Shinsuke, you'll act as a skirmisher on that board, attacking and finishing off the Kraken. Let's all fight without taking unnecessary risks."

It was a simple, efficient plan. I gave her a thumbs-up, grabbed my board, and dove into the sea. I paddled out, stood up, and blasted a gust of wind. I zipped across the water like a jet ski. Tina's group moved their boat away from Bardos's position. His boat remained stationary as he watched the Kraken, weapon at the ready.

The Kraken, meanwhile, was just observing the proceedings.

Normally, waiting for an enemy to prepare is a fool's errand, but the Kraken was overconfident. It saw only two small boats and a total of six crew members. They didn't look particularly strong, though its instincts warned that they held a hidden power. Still, it didn't attack. These people were likely the port's last hope. It glanced at the town, confirming that the humans were watching from the shore. It would let them see their final resistance crumble into nothing, their hope turning to despair. And so, it waited.

Then, one of them dove into the sea. At first, it thought he was fleeing, but then he got on a strange plank and began moving at an incredible speed.

...What is that thing? As it stared in shock, one boat moved cautiously into position while the human on the other boat took a combat stance. So, they were ready. No matter what strategy they employed, it would crush them.

The Kraken raised its tentacles and began its attack.

I, on the other hand, was maneuvering around the Kraken on my board. A tentacle lashed out at me. I instantly created a sword with fire magic.

"Flame Demon Sword!"

I extended the blade like a staff. The elongated sword sliced through the tentacle. I immediately moved away, recalling what Tina and the others had told me yesterday.

"The Kraken is a soft-bodied monster with low defense. Its weakness is fire magic. As long as we keep cutting off its tentacles, we should be able to defeat it. However, the fact that the navy and Rodel the Flash lost despite knowing this suggests it has regenerative abilities. We've seen that with the Orc King. We must attack without letting our guard down until the Kraken is dead."

Remembering her words, I glanced at the severed tentacle. It had already regenerated. Tina's prediction was spot on. With that in mind, I gathered fire magic in my fist and aimed for the Kraken's head.

"Fire Shot!!"

I unleashed a barrage of countless fireballs.

They struck the Kraken, but the damage was minimal, only causing it to stagger slightly. It turned to me and swung a tentacle, but a blade of wind sliced it from the side. From another direction, a wind disk, a fire tornado, and a spear of ice came flying.

Rewinding a bit, Bardos had been watching the Kraken's movements. With the sea as the battlefield, their opponent had an overwhelming advantage. A rash attack was pointless; his only choice was to wait for me to strike and then exploit the opening when the Kraken counterattacked. When my fire barrage hit, the Kraken looked in my direction and attacked with a single tentacle. Seeing his chance, Bardos channeled wind into his great axe.

"Wind Fang!!"

He swung the axe with all his might.

The massive blade of wind easily severed the tentacle. Meanwhile, aboard the Beautiful Sword's boat, Tina created a mass of water in the air, shaped it into a giant spear, and froze it solid. Rumily held her right palm up, forming a disk of wind, while Milfy aimed her left palm at the Kraken.

"Freeze Lance!"

"Wind Disk!"

"Fire Tornado!"

They shouted their techniques and launched their attacks.

The ice spear pierced the Kraken's forehead, the wind disk sliced its side, and the fire tornado struck its body head-on. When the assault ended, half of the Kraken's surface was charred. The damage was significant, but its tentacles regenerated. It pulled the spear from its head, the gash on its side sealed shut, and the burnt skin peeled away, revealing a glistening new layer beneath.

"You've got to be kidding me," I exclaimed. "It can even molt?!"

I never expected it to have such an ability.

As expected of a monster from another world. Squids on Earth might molt for all I know, but they definitely don't regenerate. In that case, I needed to finish it in one blow like the Orc King, but this thing was on a completely different scale. I would have to stop its movements while dealing massive damage.

That meant... I had no choice but to use that. I reached into my tool pouch and pulled out an iron ball the size of a pachinko ball.

"Everyone!!"

At my shout, they all looked my way.

I raised my left hand and pointed my index finger to the sky.

They all nodded in understanding. It was a pre-arranged signal we had discussed—the sign that I was using my trump card.

The Kraken, for its part, had shed its arrogance.

It now understood that the one on the board and the ones on the boats were all formidable opponents. The boat with the four humans was particularly strong. It had been a long time since it had needed to molt. The last bunch of fools had been defeated without any need for such measures. But these people were different.

With that thought, the Kraken decided to crush the strongest ones first. It raised two tentacles from the sea and brought them down with enough force to sink the boat.

The members of Beautiful Sword remained calm as they watched the tentacles descend. They had a shield they could trust. Leona stepped forward and focused her magic into the wind stone on the inside of her shield.

"Spin Guard!"

A spinning vortex of wind erupted from the shield, growing larger and larger. It swelled to twice the shield's size, more than enough to protect the boat. As the two tentacles neared the vortex, they were shredded like they'd been thrown into a blender. In the end, the severed tentacle tips sank on the far side of the boat.

Leona's shield was a new addition. This morning, after I finished building the boats, she had approached me.

"My magic isn't well-suited for fighting at sea. Do you have any ideas?"

So, I'd attached a wind magic stone to it. Wind power is unparalleled wherever there's air, and for now, there was no place humans went that didn't have air. Back to the present, Leona, now armed with the power of wind, had become an even more formidable defender. The Kraken grew increasingly wary of them, focusing its attention entirely on their boat.

At that moment, Bardos was ready. He was swinging his great axe in a horizontal circle above his head, gathering wind.

"Cyclone!!"

With a roar, he unleashed the attack. The tornado swelled and engulfed the Kraken. Inside the vortex, its body was continuously sliced apart. The wounds regenerated instantly, only for new ones to be inflicted elsewhere in an endless cycle. The Kraken was completely immobilized. When the tornado subsided, its body, though covered in slash marks, had already regenerated. But the attack had served its purpose: to hold it in place.

During that time, I had enlarged the iron ball to five times its original size and shaped it into a bullet.

I cloaked my body in lightning, concentrating it in my right hand. Taking a deep breath, I tossed the bullet into the air. I maneuvered my board into the perfect position and cocked back my right fist.

The moment the bullet was diagonally above me...

"Thunder Railgun!!!"

I roared, punching the back of the iron projectile with all my might.

It shot forward with the speed of a fired bullet. The impact blew a hole larger than the projectile itself straight through the Kraken's head. This technique was the railgun you often see in anime and games—a weapon that uses electromagnetic force to launch an iron slug.

The Kraken, struck by the attack, reeled back, stunned. It had never experienced having such a large hole blown through it. Regeneration would take too long. Deciding to flee, it began to move.

I shook my right hand. Punching solid iron had hurt. But I was certain I'd dealt massive damage. Just then, the Kraken's body began to sink. It was still conscious. It was trying to escape. I wasn't about to let that happen.

"You're not getting away!! Thunder Demon Agony Sea!!"

I yelled, unleashing a diffusion blast of lightning into the water around the Kraken. It stopped its dive and began thrashing violently. It seemed to be in immense pain.

Water conducts electricity well. That's common sense.

When I stopped the lightning, the Kraken was paralyzed, unable to move.

Seizing the opportunity, I launched myself high into the air from my board. I wasn't high enough, so I focused fire magic into my feet and shot up even higher, like a rocket. Reaching a position where I could look down on the Kraken, I formed my right hand into a blade and raised it above my head. The others were launching their own attacks.

"Wind Fang!"

"Freeze Spear!"

"Wind Disk!"

"Fire Tornado!"

"Wind Drill!"

Bardos's wind blade, Tina's ice spear, Rumily's wind disk, Milfy's fire tornado, and a spiral bullet of wind from Leona's shield—it was a true all-out assault. The attacks sliced, pierced, burned, and gouged the Kraken's tentacles. Believing the creature was busy regenerating all over its body, I created an incredibly long flame sword from my hand-blade. It was about ten meters long.

"Flame Demon Severance!!"

I roared.

But in that instant, a mouth-like hole opened on the Kraken's body, aimed straight at me, and blasted a massive jet of water.

The Kraken was suffering from excruciating pain.

It had thought the four on the boat were the strongest, but it was wrong. The truly powerful one was the man moving freely on the board. As proof, it had taken two hits from that human that caused damage unlike anything it had ever felt before. The Kraken focused its consciousness, preparing to use its trump card on him.

It ignored the attacks from the other humans, not even bothering to regenerate, its eyes fixed solely on the man who had leaped into the air. Allow me to explain.

The Kraken can open a mouth-like orifice anywhere on its body. From there, it can instantly expel the seawater it has drawn in and stored, firing it like a water cannon. It was this trump card that had destroyed the navy's ships and sent them to the bottom of the sea.

(Sea Blaster!!)

The Kraken unleashed the attack, aiming for the flying human.

I was not surprised when I saw the massive stream of water shoot from the Kraken. I was perfectly calm.

I hadn't let my guard down for a second in this fight. Even though the Kraken resembled an Earth squid, I had assumed from the start that its anatomy and abilities were completely different.

I wouldn't relax until it was dead, and my caution proved correct. As the mouth-like hole opened and blasted water at me, I was already bringing down my flame sword. Water and fire collided. In terms of power, the water had the upper hand; I could feel myself being pushed back. I poured every last bit of my magic into the flames. The sword grew larger, and we reached a stalemate.

But that state of affairs didn't last long. The force of the seawater gradually weakened. I didn't know why, but the Kraken was starting to panic. It had exhausted its stored seawater. It was only natural, having expelled it all at once.

This trump card was originally a technique for finishing an opponent instantly. It wasn't suited for a prolonged struggle.

I knew nothing of its circumstances, but I sensed a chance for victory and swung the flame sword down with all my strength. The blade split the torrent of water, struck the Kraken's head, and sliced its body in two from top to bottom. The Kraken's body split to the left and right and collapsed.

I plunged into the sea. I managed to surface but had no energy left to swim. I clung to my nearby board.

Bardos's boat came over.

"Are you okay?! I'm pulling you up now!"

He hauled me onto the deck. Soon after, Tina and the others arrived. We all confirmed that everyone was safe and looked at the Kraken. Its bisected body was completely still.

Confirming it was dead, I said, "Kraken subjugation complete. Let's take this thing to the beach. It'll be a nuisance at the port, and we can eat it there."

Everyone agreed with the proposal.

Since defeating the Kraken wasn't part of an official request, there was no guarantee they would even process the carcass for us if we brought it to the port. With that in mind, we decided to transport it ourselves. I took two iron balls from my tool pouch and created two chains with grappling hooks. We attached them to the two halves of the Kraken's body and started rowing with all our might toward the beach. We couldn't recover all the severed tentacles, so we left them behind.

It had taken about ten minutes to get here from the beach. I figured the return trip, towing the Kraken's body, would take at least twice as long.

But there was no rush, so we moved slowly.

Meanwhile, at the port, the entire town was watching the battle.

At first, only a few people had been watching. It was just two small boats challenging the beast. Assuming they would lose, they had only been preparing a rescue party. But as the small group fought valiantly, some of the onlookers ran to gather everyone else.

By the time I blew a giant hole in the Kraken, nearly every person in town had gathered at the port to watch. Some were even using telescopes. When the flame sword split the Kraken in two, a massive cheer erupted.

However, the sound didn't reach our ears. The townspeople, expecting the heroes to return to the port, were preparing to welcome them. But for some reason, the two boats were towing the Kraken's carcass toward the beach. The people wondered why. The Guild Master who was there spoke up.

"Everyone, please stay here. We will head to the beach and investigate. I will return with a report, so please wait."

With that, the Guild Master and a few adventurers set off for the beach.

Meanwhile, on a cliff far from the port, three soldiers stood. Their job was to monitor the Kraken. They had watched the entire battle through a telescope. After it was over, the oldest soldier spoke.

"You two, head for the castle. Report that Beautiful Sword and two unknown individuals have succeeded in subjugating the Kraken. Tell them I am heading to meet them. And do not report that the man was fighting naked. They'll think it's a false report."

He gave his orders, and they set off. The two younger soldiers headed for the castle, while the older one made for the beach. He hadn't sent the younger ones because he worried they might act rudely toward the adventurers. As an older man, he knew the proper etiquette.

Still, he wondered who the two men fighting alongside Beautiful Sword were. Especially the naked man who moved freely across the sea on a plank. Why was he fighting in that state? How could he move so freely on the water?

He had so many questions. Who were they, and where did they come from? As a soldier of the kingdom, he had to find out. With these thoughts in mind, he headed for the beach.