Dark Rock (1)
Dark Rock (1)
It was colossal.
Everyone who saw that leg—rising from the sea to blot out the sky—thought the same thing.
Suckers lined the limb in rows. Inside half of them, murky violet eyes rolled and swiveled, glistening wetly.
"Ah."
No one needed to ask who. Every pair of open eyes met that gaze, and the extremities of every limb went numb.
Then the leg—long and thick enough to coil casually around an icebreaker—came crashing down.
"Ghah—!"
Baek A-rin cried out in alarm and raised her staff. Panic aside, her preparations had long since been complete. Magic manifested.
The enormous mass of water energy along the trajectory seized the leg, then split into hundreds of strands that wrapped around it tight.
Kwaaang! The leg that had been crushing the air itself as it fell was caught fast in midair.
"Grrrrgh...!"
Keee-gee-geek! The spell formula wound around the leg shuddered pathetically.
Baek A-rin clenched her teeth.
'You're way too big...!'
She had faced large-type monsters plenty of times before. Marine monsters, in particular, tended to be large types.
But this thing was absurdly big. Its physical ability matched its size, and the spell formula was snapping one strand at a time.
'No, its Rank is simply too high...!'
What Rank? There was no point wondering. Even an Alpha at 4th Rank couldn't project this kind of pressure.
At minimum, 3rd Rank. Possibly even an Alpha among them.
— Kwaaaaang!
The cold energy driven into the leg detonated in an explosion.
They were members of the Changhae Family.
Even before orders went out, they moved with practiced speed, following large-type subjugation protocols.
The moment the leg wavered, external mana reinforced the binding spell formula and layered new magic on top.
— Fwhooooosh!
On top of that, the wind energy permeating the surroundings coiled around the leg in additional layers.
Baek A-rin's expression eased for a heartbeat as she layered a new spell formula—then her face curdled again.
Three more identical legs rose from the sea.
"Oh, come on, what's this shit again?!"
A furious Daera thrust her prosthetic arm high. Krrrrrumble! The lightning energy poured into the prosthetic and amplified.
'Expansion Ability: Chukroe.'
Daera's expansion ability accumulated lightning energy within her body. Plus the lightning energy she'd banked in the prosthetic arm during their rest.
There was no need to hoard mana.
The problem was control.
Of all places, this environment was saturated with water energy, which meant Heavenly Thunder—already an absolute nightmare to control—would rage even harder.
'This is not the time to worry about that, for fuck's sake.'
Daera gritted her teeth and clenched her fist.
— Senior!
Just before she could shoot Heavenly Thunder into the sky, a voice reached her mind.
More precisely, the Mindscape. A single word—Senior—conveyed the intent without any possibility of misunderstanding.
Got it. Daera swallowed her answer and lowered her hand.
— Kwarrrrung!
Heavenly Thunder discharged from the prosthetic arm. Strand after strand of lightning seeped out, reacted to the area's water energy, and swelled madly.
But only for an instant. The Heavenly Thunder that had been thrashing wildly in every direction was drawn toward a single point.
Lee Ha-yul raised the Purifying Moon high. The Heavenly Thunder drawn from both inside and outside the crystal orb compressed into a spear blade and a crescent edge.
He reversed his grip on the Purifying Moon and twisted his body.
In that instant, hundreds of violet eyes all swiveled to focus on Lee Ha-yul at once.
Kung! A formless pressure slammed down on his entire body.
His muscles seized and his bones shuddered. His breath caught as if his internal organs were being squeezed. Lee Ha-yul gripped the spear shaft hard enough to crush it.
His mana bristled like a hedgehog's quills and shredded the pressure apart. Lee Ha-yul leaped lightly into the sky. The spear tip aimed straight at the churning sea.
'One shot first.'
The moment those repellent eyes bulged wide, Heavenly Thunder left his hand, arrowed through the air, and punched straight into the sea.
— ...Krrrrrrrrumble!
The sea flashed. A blue glow erupted from within the black seawater.
— Kuoooooooooh...!
The already rough surface heaved violently.
"...Dear god."
The man gripping the railing stared down at the sea, his eyes flying wide.
Within the flashing sea, something shadowed revealed itself. Eight branching legs and a massive central body...
He could not guess how deep it lurked, but its size was beyond easy imagination.
[Put some distance!]
Lee Ha-yul opened the Confession Necklace and shouted.
Even with everyone's eardrums numbed by the heavy resonance, that voice pierced directly into their heads with slicing clarity.
Baek A-rin snorted through her stinging eardrums and raised her voice.
"Young master! If we put distance on it, won't we just get pounded one-sidedly?!"
[I have a method, so it's fine!]
In truth, she had already been rapidly widening the gap at Lee Ha-yul's instruction even before asking.
All the magic concentrated on this icebreaker was managed and additionally branded by Baek A-rin.
In other words, the ship was analogous to Baek A-rin's Mage's Workshop, and in an emergency she could manipulate it according to her will.
"Hhhheck..."
After putting considerable distance between them, Baek A-rin's mouth fell open. In her pupils was reflected the surging rise of the sea.
Eight long, thick legs that seemed to prop up the sky. Eyes clustered thickly along those legs.
And on the central body, five or six pairs of distinctly larger eyes bulged wide.
One eye was burst. Zzzzap! The Heavenly Thunder that had seeped in tore at the wound, spraying blood in a continuous stream.
— Guooooooooh...!
The water's surface shuddered under the weighty, crashing roar. Soon the body tilted, and within the cavernously immense maw, mana churned in a vortex.
"...3rd Rank...?"
Far away, Lee Ha-sol felt the wind she had ridden in on and turned deathly pale.
Lee Ha-sol had gone on expeditions through the Gray Zone for years, but she had never encountered a monster on the level of 3rd Rank.
On top of that, Aupreut was, without any correction needed, singly an Alpha even among 3rd Rank.
She had never experienced a display of presence on this level.
Lee Ha-sol's hand, gripping her bow, trembled faintly.
[It's all right.]
"Ah..."
Another hand layered gently over her trembling one.
[I will naturally win.]
[No matter what happens, you will absolutely be safe, so don't worry.]
From that hand—white and lovely like polished jade—a soft, gentle energy flowed in.
The trembling stopped.
Lee Ha-sol's eyes went round. When she turned her head, Lee Ha-yul, smiling softly, withdrew his hand.
Crossing space, the Purifying Moon returned to his grip, and Lee Ha-yul settled into a stance.
[Baek A-rin, maintain distance and guard the ship while providing support. Spread your water energy over the creature, and when I give the signal, hand over all dominion.]
"Yes, underst—"
Baek A-rin's obedient reply came to a halt.
She lowered her body and stared at Lee Ha-yul, who was beating three pairs of wings—a stance as if he were about to leap and take flight.
Baek A-rin was the Changpaju of the Changhae Family.
Even if that octopus was a monster likely to be a 3rd-Rank Alpha, and even if she was accepting help, her fundamental position was to protect Lee Ha-yul and their honored guest at all costs.
"You... you couldn't possibly be, right?"
At the hesitant question, Lee Ha-yul nodded. Zzzzaaaap! Heavenly Thunder coiled around his fully spread wings.
As if a photograph had been cut and pasted, a vivid blue line streaked out from the spot where Lee Ha-yul had been.
— Krrrrrumble!
The thunderclap reached their ears belatedly.
Baek A-rin whipped her head around. The blue line had cleaved through the discharged mana blast and was slamming into Aupreut's body.
— Young maaaaasteeeeer~!?
Sharp though her senses were, even Lee Ha-yul could not hear Baek A-rin's scream between the tempest, the thunder, and Aupreut's heavy roars.
But through Observation, he couldn't help but perceive that she had shrieked her throat raw.
Mouth pressed firmly shut, Lee Ha-yul directed Observation at Aupreut's body as it lurched sideways.
'Its unique ability is the same after all.'
He had accelerated with pseudo-Lightning Step Movement, split the mana blast with the Purifying Moon saturated in Heavenly Thunder, and rammed straight into its body.
He had split the blast headed for the ship, but hadn't managed to wound it.
— Guggeuk, ggueu-deuk...!
Black seawater coiled over its body. Mana and Innate Talent mixed into the seawater and hardened.
An octopus, donning armor and growing even larger. The original eight legs and eight more legs formed of amrak reared up in menace.
'Amrak.'
Aupreut's unique ability.
Ripping the air apart, sixteen legs came swinging.
With that size, even a solid hit would casually collapse an island.
Wings beat. His body, wreathed in Heavenly Thunder, accelerated.
No matter how fast, to catch Lee Ha-yul—to catch Heavenly Thunder—it was far too slow.
The blue line threaded between the trajectories and clung to a leg.
— Puk!
Lee Ha-yul landed on the leg and drove the Purifying Moon down. The spear blade formed of Heavenly Thunder bored into the amrak.
Zzza-zzza-zap! The Heavenly Thunder erupting from the spear tip blew the amrak apart in a flash.
'It's shallow.'
Lee Ha-yul sprang high. The leg he had been standing on slammed against the water's surface.
— Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
A horrific roar spread out. The pelting raindrops shattered to pieces.
'It's tough. Not easy to punch through.'
That was to be expected. The sheer mass of a 3rd-Rank Alpha combined with the caliber of its unique ability, and it was the kind that wrapped around like armor.
'And the environment is the sea.'
Conditions that overwhelmingly favored Aupreut.
'But I'm not exactly at a disadvantage either.'
Lee Ha-yul's lips quirked slightly upward.
— Zzzzzzaap!
Even submerged in seawater, the Heavenly Thunder did not dissipate. It stubbornly broke the amrak and burrowed into its body.
That was because Aupreut itself was so rich in water energy. Not that the creature could wring itself dry and spit the water energy out.
— Guuuuuuuung...!
An uncountable number of eyes—too many to bother tallying—glared at Lee Ha-yul.
If killing intent could take solid form, it was the kind of cloying, suffocating intent that would have rent him to shreds.
In truth, an intangible pressure bore down on his body. As before, he bristled his mana like spines to tear it apart, then raised the Purifying Moon.
'I could keep searing it with Heavenly Thunder like this, but...'
Heavenly Thunder would be conserved as a decisive blow to pry open a true opportunity.
He had another method just as effective as Heavenly Thunder.
'Homogenization.'
Azure Sea.