60
Chapter 60
Magnus is heavy and large.
And according to the general rules of this World, if something is large and heavy, it is slow.
It is common sense that a Giant around 100 meters tall would take dozens of seconds just to take a single step.
Sadly, in this heartless ocean, such unspoken rules have long since become a cheap joke.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
The 100-meter-tall Statue charged toward Parang.
Even with Holes punched all over its body and its major Joints shattered, its speed was still incredibly fast.
The stride length of a 100-meter-tall humanoid is about 40 meters.
Taking four steps in less than three seconds meant it was moving at roughly 50 meters per second.
The strength of the Statues, with the exception of Titan, comes from their overwhelming physical power and reckless, violent movements.
When a 10-meter or 100-meter Boulder moves like a martial artist, every single motion carries terrifying destructive power.
With tens or hundreds of them swarming around, they can truly be called a disaster of the seabed.
On the other hand, it is ironic that Titan, which can produce the most massive physical force, barely moves and fights in a completely different way.
Because of this, there was once a hypothesis that Titan and the other Statues were entirely different species.
Though it was soon refuted by the one who proposed it, Bertea herself.
Swoosh!!
Parang swam with near-acrobatic grace, altering her path at a perfect right angle.
And then, whoosh!!!
Slam!!!!
Magnus clapped his hands together as if squashing a bug, completely crushing the space where Parang had just been.
"Russell!!!!"
She signaled to Russell, who had been hovering around Magnus's Head, waiting for an opportunity.
"Uwaaaaaah!!!"
A yellow light erupted from Russell's eyes as he let out a strange roar and charged toward the back of Magnus's neck.
Soon, his arm rippled and was wrapped in an aura the same color as the light from his eyes,
Sizzle-
and it condensed to form the shape of a Shark.
One, two, three, four.......
What was once a single Shark quickly became a shiver of Sharks.
Slam!!
As Russell drove his fist straight into the back of Magnus's neck, a deafening roar rang out, and a yellow Energy Wave erupted as the school of Sharks rushed in all at once, causing additional explosions.
......Thud!
Whack!
Right after the final Shark charged in and buried its jaws into the Statue to cause an explosion, a red Energy Wave burst forth, signaling that the core had been destroyed.
" "
Magnus's body stiffened completely, and then he collapsed.
Rumble-
Thump-!
As the massive body roughly 100 meters in size collapsed, the surrounding area rumbled fiercely as if an earthquake had struck.
The surroundings were already filled with shattered white fragments and fallen Statues.
The reason the fallen Statues didn't turn into light and disappear seemed to be because their torsos themselves were considered 'drop Items' by the system.
Sizzle-
Magnus, whom Parang and Russell had just taken down, also turned into white light and faded, leaving behind a Magic Stone, arms, legs, and parts of the face.
Parang didn't know why it worked this way either. Were they supposed to craft Armor out of this?
Well, whatever the origin was.
From a distance, it would undoubtedly look like a mountain of piled-up Corpses.
She couldn't deny that it was a truly grotesque sight.
Whether they were Boulders or something else entirely, the Statues still had Human forms.
However, Parang and Russell felt absolutely nothing when looking at the scene.
They had butchered over ten thousand Statues by now.
There was no reason to feel anything at such a sight, nor did they have the luxury to do so.
After all, the rest of their companions were still fighting Titan.
Rumble-
The deafening roar caused by Titan's heavy movements was still echoing in the distance.
1km.
It was not a size permitted for a living creature.
Watching a massive body of that size stomping around in the abyss was enough to make anyone's legs give out and leave them feeling helpless.
Let alone what it felt like to actually have to fight against such a massive thing.
Parang quietly stared at Titan.
It looked as though a mountain were moving.
Her companions were currently fighting against a moving mountain.
"......Let's go."
Parang shot forward like an arrow, charging straight toward Titan.
#
As soon as Parang arrived in front of Titan, it fell over in her direction with a tremendous roar.
It wasn't defeated. It had simply tripped and fallen.
However, the mere act of falling generated a natural disaster-level shockwave in the area, forcing Parang to reflexively cross her arms and protect her face.
If she had been just 100 meters further ahead, she would have been squashed flat like a dried Rat.
Far in the distance, about 1km away from Parang, Diego's hand—having used Gigantification to its maximum size—could be seen grasping Titan's ankle.
He had tripped it through hand-to-hand combat.
Diego's maximum height was 500 meters, so it was like fighting hand-to-hand with someone who was roughly 4 meters tall.
And doing so while their entire body was covered in a thick Diving Suit.
He truly was a Monster.
Crackle- Crunch-
From around the fallen Titan, Bone Pillars burning with a blue-green light instantly surged up and bound its arms and legs.
Looking like the ribcage of a quadruped, they pinned only its legs, arms, and fingers to the ground.
It was probably because Xiao couldn't find a bone large enough to wrap around its entire torso.
Even if such a bone did exist, that would be a separate problem in itself.
Parang looked at the bone Binding Titan's arm with a strange feeling.
A short distance away from the bone, Xiao had her arms outstretched, spewing blue-green flames from her entire body.
Beside her, Bertea and Elvira were fiercely charging toward Titan's bound arm.
Crackle- Crunch-!!!
Bertea reached out her hand and cast a Skill toward Titan's arm, which was precariously bound by a bone that looked ready to shatter at any moment, and soon Titan's surface began to glow red hot.
Moving at an explosive speed, Bertea applied heat to an increasingly wider surface area.
And then, thump!!
Amidst the heated surface, a pulsing section appeared with a dull thud,
Slam!! Bang!! Pow!!!
Elvira instantly poured her Skills into that spot and smashed the Core.
This was the method Oceanus favored when hunting Titan. It was fast, concise, and precise enough to deliver pinpoint strikes solely to the Core.
As soon as one Core was blown away, Titan broke free from its bone Binding and threw off Diego, who had been lying on top of it to buy time.
When Parang looked closely at Titan, a significant number of Cores had already been destroyed.
Its wrist, cheek, and jaw were cracked or fractured, and it seemed about three of its fingers had been forcefully torn off entirely.
It was hard to see from a distance, but there were likely countless similar marks on its torso and legs.
They were all traces of destroyed Cores.
Unlike other Statues, Titan possessed dozens of Cores.
Oceanus surmised that this was because an entity the size of Titan could not operate on a single Core- or so the reasoning went.
In reality, the more Cores that were destroyed, the slower Titan's movements became, and it would completely stop once the number of remaining Cores dropped below ten.
However, this was merely an educated guess; they didn't know if the assumption was actually true.
This was because they had never studied the substance known as a Core in the first place.
They didn't even know what it was made of, let alone how a Core operated.
Of course, it wasn't that there hadn't been attempts to study the Cores.
It was just that cleanly extracting only the Core from a wildly thrashing Statue to use for research was near impossible.
Extracting the Core in the first place was an incredibly difficult task.
Because of that, the extent of what they had figured out was simply that it was hot and red.
Questions like what principles kept it inside the Statue, or how it generated power, still remained a mystery.
Well, whatever the case.
The point was that Titan had a lot of Cores.
No matter what kind of fit they threw, a Statue would never stop moving until its Core was destroyed, which also meant that Parang and Oceanus had to work even harder.
Crackle!!
Before they knew it, Titan had broken free from its bone Binding, tossed Diego aside, and begun to resume its attack.
It was the perfect time for Parang to step in and help her companions.
However, she simply stood still, watching Titan as it rose to its feet.
Even now, facing that Statue brought back memories of that time.
What happened to Alice had come as a massive shock to everyone in Oceanus.
After all, the companion they had cherished more than anyone else had disappeared.
Just imagine if Bertea were to be kidnapped and dragged away by a Monster of the Deep Sea tomorrow.
It wouldn't be strange if the entirety of Oceanus, consumed by Madness, tried to hunt down and slaughter every single Monster Fish in the World's oceans.
But for Parang, the severity of that feeling was a bit more, no, much worse.
Because she was the only person who had witnessed Alice being dragged away with her own eyes.
Alice Melville had gone missing after getting tangled up with Titan while exploring the East Sea alone with Parang.
To Parang, it was the greatest trauma imaginable.
'Wow, crazy...... It's seriously huge. What is that?'
The memory of discovering Titan while exploring the East Sea alone with Alice was still vivid.
'Wh-what...... why is it......!!!'
The shock of discovering something the Kraken didn't work on for the first time was still vivid.
'Parang!! Parang!!!!!'
As was the sight of Alice being caught and dragged away by that bastard.
'Die!!! Die!! Please!!! Just die already!! Fuuuuuuuck!!!!'
As was the image of herself, wailing and pouring out attacks like a madwoman.
'Alice, Alice!! Please, no!! Fuck!! Come here!! I said come here!!! Aaaaaaaah!!!!'
As was the image of herself, wailing like a lunatic and pounding the Floor where it had dragged Alice and disappeared into the ground.
Everything was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday, no, just a moment ago.
She didn't want to admit it, but mixed in with the emotions Parang held toward Titan was undeniable fear.
Deep within her heart, she could still hear a ceaseless whisper.
'Run away. Hide. Run away. Hide.'
It was a fact that Parang was clearly aware of as well. She just didn't want to admit it.
That was why Parang was currently frozen. She hated herself so much for freezing up, and she hated herself so much for subconsciously trembling slightly.
Parang was frozen.
Russell quietly watched her before patting Parang's shoulder.
"Take a break if it's too hard. I can do it this time."
"......No. I still have to do it."
"You don't have to push yourself too hard. You froze up because you were thinking about that time again."
"I said I'm fine."
"......Alright."
Unable to find anything else to say, he charged toward Titan first.
Parang tried to follow right behind him, but her body wouldn't listen.
.............
Smack-!
Parang slapped her own cheek as hard as she could.
'Get a grip. Yoo Parang.'
The trembling in her legs stopped a bit.
She charged toward Titan.