Crunch!

Sharp nails pierced deeply into the hull of the boat. With the bulky muscles the creature had on its thin mismatched arms, it pulled itself up. Soon, its head shot up above the water surface. It was a strange-looking creature. Its whole body was covered with blue scales, and it had an eye too big for its flat and wide face.

Kiiih!

Its shrieks sounded like mocking laughter, and one could see a red waggling tongue between its rows of sharp teeth. To get on top of the boat, it tried to pierce its other hand into the hull, but Windur moved faster than it did and split the creature’s head.

Kuh!

Without being able to finish a proper scream, it died. Its arm holding onto the hull lost its strength and sank back into the ocean. However, that wasn’t the only monster that appeared.

Crack! Crunch!

Monsters of all kinds of breeds began to crawl onto the boat from everywhere.

“Shake them off!” As soon as Zich shouted his command, everyone moved to the edge of the boat. Hans swung Estellade and Snoc flung out clumps of mithril. Lyla swept away large-scale monsters with incantations, and Elena also calmly aimed fireballs at the monsters one by one.

“Raise the sails to their maximum!” The boat’s captain gave his command, and the few crew members on the boat began to move in a frenzy. The captain continued, “Paddle as fast as you can. Passengers, please, if you can, get rid of the monsters near the oars first!”

“Han, Snoc! You heard him! Take a side and protect the oars!” Zich yelled.

Hans and Snoc quickly moved to a place closest to the oars.

“Lyla! Wind magic! Blow wind at the sails!”

“I’m on it!” Lyla incanted a spell. The mana that passed her hand seeped into the surrounding air.

Whoosh! A strong wind began to push the sails. As the boat’s speed increased, the boat made bigger waves on the waters, but the monsters continued to get onto the boat.

Thud!

Zich stomped his feet. His body shot upwards and landed on top of the sails. He looked in front of the bow and saw the deep blue waters. Even with his extraordinary eyes, he couldn’t see into the end of the ocean. However, he was able to see past several depths and checked that many monsters were gathering below the boat.

Wiing!

Soaked in mana, Windur rang. A giant stream of mana formed along the edges of its blades.

‘I can’t just make one big blow.’

If he shot out mana attacks rashly, the water in front of him would burst sideways. Even if his attacks swept away the monsters within his reach, the aftershocks of the attack could come back to the boat and overwhelm it. Even if it didn’t sink the boat, it could bother its course.

‘I have to sweep away the monsters while facing the least amount of resistance from the ocean as possible.’ Zich raised Windur high and swung it. ‘I will slice the ocean as thinly as possible.”

Swish!

He swung Windur so fast that there wasn’t even an afterimage. It almost appeared as if his sword and arm had teleported. Zich swung a couple of times like that; thin and sharp sword slices fell into the waters.

Pwish!

Water splashed, but considering the level of strength that had been instilled into the sword slices, the waves were extremely small. He sliced through the water’s surface thinly and sword slices continued to penetrate the ocean. In the meantime, it sliced everything caught up in it.

Slice! Slice! Slice! Slice!

Monster bodies broke apart like rotten fruit, and the monsters ceased climbing up the boat simultaneously. They were disassembled all over the place and their body parts floated on top of the water surface. Some of them were even swept away by the currents and disappeared. The sliced ocean waters came together again, reconnecting the slight gaps, and from the aftershock, white foams filled the ocean’s surface.

“…What in the world?” The captain’s mouth hung open; his hands were wet from sweat since he had tightly gripped onto the boat’s wheels during this crisis. Between the white foams that suddenly appeared before him, he saw colors of red from the blood and monster corpses. His eyes shot towards Zich who was on top of the sail.

The captain had been shocked when Zich made his first jump since his physical abilities didn’t belong to a normal human. Yet, when Zich landed on top of the sail, he cursed inside his mind. He was furious that Zich took a safe place while monsters were crawling all over the boat. However, when he saw what Zich did next, he immediately took back all his thoughts.

Zich swung his sword a couple more times. Every time he did this, white foam formed in the surrounding ocean, and monster corpses floated up. The number of monsters trying to climb onto the boat significantly decreased. However, Zich stayed full alert. In case anyone relaxed after seeing the monsters disappear, he shouted, “Don’t put your guard down!”

Zich’s eyes pointed towards the bottom of the ocean. “An even bigger one is coming!”

Splash!

A great water spray exploded a short distance away from the boat. A gigantic figure burst through the spray of water and shot up to the sky.

“…Kraken,” Lyla murmured.

A gigantic leg with numerous suckers popped out from underneath the waters like a snake.

Whoosh! The leg moved like a whip and came down on the boat. However, its power was much greater than a simple whip; if one of its legs had struck the small boat that Zich and his companions were riding on dead center, it would have split their vessel into two and made it a common decoration that adorned the ocean bed.

“Don’t stop at all costs!” Zich yelled at the captain and jumped towards the monster’s leg. Windur was already pouring out rough cries with mana. Windur and Kraken’s legs collided.

Crash!

There was a heavy thud. The Kraken’s legs, which were limp like mollusks, were extremely tough to slice. It was a different form of hardness, and its skin seemed like it had raised the squishiness of mollusk bodies to the maximum. The creature didn’t just block Zich’s sword—it even deflected it. The skin was harder to deal with compared to simple ones. Zich went back on top of the sail again. He didn’t have any injuries, but the Kraken also didn’t seem to have received much damage. Although its suckers were injured, considering the mass of the creature, it was probably not even a scratch on its gigantic body.

Buuuuuuu!

A strange sound came out of the waters. It sounded like it could belong to a dull horn or even the sound of wind escaping a narrow cave. It was the sound of the Kraken crying. The boat’s captain and the crew members stiffened. Their responses were natural as they were men of the ocean whose greatest fear was the Kraken. Yet, thankfully, they didn’t forget to do their jobs. The Kraken’s legs came out of the surface of the water again; there were three of these legs now. Two legs shot out from both sides of the boat while the third one squirmed out to block its course.

“Don’t change the trajectory!” Zich yelled to the captain.

“Do you need help?” Lyla called out.

“I’m fine right now. Just focus on putting air into the sails right now!”

“Got it!” Lyla continued to push the wind forward and with her other hand, she created lightning and scattered them into the ocean. Her attacks were very effective on the ocean, and as expected of her, Lyla controlled her magic attacks so that the lightning didn’t affect the boat.

Zich jumped off the top of the sails again. His goal was the leg coming his way. He concentrated mana into the ends of his sword and pierced the leg.

Rip!

Windur pierced its leg. However, it didn’t seem to have inflicted much damage. Instead, the small lips at the center of the suckers revealed their teeth to shred Zich apart. If he placed his feet in them by mistake, his whole ankle would be cut off. Zich avoided the suckers and stood on the Kraken’s leg. Then, through Windur, he forced mana into the Kraken’s insides. The Kraken’s legs shook violently. The part where Windur penetrated burst and a large hole ripped open.

Buuuoohaaaah!

The ocean waved as the Kraken shrieked. Zich kicked off from the leg that wiggled furiously from the pain and jumped to the boat again. He saw the two other legs that looked like they were trying to attack the boat. Zich swung Windur and flicked the legs away. Perhaps, it was the pain the monster felt, but the other two legs easily bounced off without much resistance. The boat narrowly passed by the Kraken’s leg and Zich came down from the sail. He saw the Kraken’s legs hurriedly retreat back to the ocean and felt its presence going farther away.

‘It ran away.’

They could catch their breaths now. With the skill he had right now, the Kraken was a very strong monster, even more so at its home base: the ocean. Yet, it was too early to let down their guard.

‘They are going crazy out there.’

Zich and his companions weren’t the only ones who were ambushed. The boats floating nearby had also been attacked by monsters. Fishing boats, merchant ships, and other boats without exception were attacked. They even saw monsters clinging to the cliffs and trying to crawl into Shootuol. The whole city was getting attacked.

Crack! Bam!

In the midst of this commotion, one boat rushed speedily towards the harbor. It seemed it had failed to slow down while returning.

“Passengers!” The captain called Zich, “We have to start slowing down and fold our sails back up.” It seemed like the captain had seen another boat crash into the harbor.

“Lyla!”

“Yes?”

Lyla cut off her mana and the rough winds disappeared immediately; with her now free hand, Lyla unleashed stronger magic attacks against the monsters. When Zich saw this, he whistled.

‘She really is like a monster too.’ Even if she had just used simple wind magic, she managed to maintain it for a considerable amount of time and used other types of magic to bring down monsters at the same time. Her abilities were progressing at a frightening speed. Zich’s conviction that Lyla’s power would become stronger and match the ones he had in his prime when he used to be called the Demon Lord of Strength.

The wharf was in a mess with ships and boats tangled here and there. With his considerable skills, the captain of the boat managed to maneuver the boat between obstacles and approach the harbor; yet, there was a limit to how skilled he was and in the end, the boat eventually collided with other boats and stopped.

‘This is probably enough.’ If they used the other boats that their boat got tangled up with as a bridge, they could easily get to the harbor.

“Hans! Snoc! Elena!” Zich called them.

“You guys take the boat’s captain and the crew members and go up to the harbor! Block the monsters trying to get into Shootuol!”

“What about you, sir!” Hans asked, and Zich looked at the ocean in response. Other boats were still getting ambushed by monsters in the water. He saw soldiers in the city, but they seemed to be occupied in barricading Shootuol from monsters trying to invade the city.

“I have to save those guys!”

“I understand, sir!” Hans gestured to Snoc and Elena. He guided the captain and crew members and jumped over the other boats to head to the harbor. Lyla flew by Zich’s side.

“Are you planning to do some kind acts?”

“Guess so.” Zich stared at the chaos happening over the ocean. “If I don’t, there was no reason for me to have killed Tim.”

“…That’s true.”

“I will do the job of detaching each of the monsters from the boats. You can focus your attacks below the ocean and minimize the number of monsters as much as possible.”

“Got it.”

Zich and Lyla moved simultaneously.