Dark Rock (2)
Dark Rock (2)
- Ba-dump!
His heart resonated. The overlapping cores quivered faintly, and the stored mana bled into his innate talent.
A white breath escaped him. Droplets that met the breath froze solid, pattering to the ground.
Cold energy and water energy.
Recognizing his submerged emotions, Lee Ha-yul evaded the leg reaching for him and settled onto a suitable one.
'Wait a moment.'
He tucked Jeonghwa into his subspace and stretched out a hand.
One of the three pairs of wings detached with a snap and wove itself into a long spear in his grip.
He poured mana into the spear.
A temporary manifestation of the unique weapon he had once gifted to Baek A-rin, the spear had gorged itself on cold energy and water energy. Lee Ha-yul thrust it in.
- Thud!
Just like before.
He gouged with the spear blade, forcing water energy and cold energy deep inside. As a bonus, he discharged Azure Sea power into the creature's footing, leaving behind a brand.
The difference this time was that he did not detonate them immediately, but instead stacked them silently, stealthily.
Under normal circumstances, this would be impossible. No matter how large the target's build or how dull its senses, it would still notice foreign mana tunneling in.
But Lee Ha-yul could manage it.
Homogenization.
He wasn't truly altering its properties. Briefly fooling the dulled mana sense of such a clumsy monster was simple.
"That! Are you sure we don't need to provide backup?!"
"We're just a hindrance, so just cast more damned spells!"
On the deck, Baek Yu-rim shrieked back at her subordinate's question.
Lee Ha-yul was fighting while latched onto the Aupreut.
He flitted back and forth like lightning, intercepting every mana cannonade and attack aimed their way.
Therefore, their task was to flawlessly execute the support Lee Ha-yul had requested.
Dozens of spells streaked from Baek Yu-rim's staff as she swung it.
The magic, linked like a chain, briefly bound five of its legs.
She slammed the staff down. Her Azure Sea power, spread across the ocean, asserted dominion over the waters.
A thick surge of water wound tightly around the legs.
"Now!"
Boom! She slammed the staff down again. Nearby, members of the Ten-Thousand Mirrors Unit manifested the cold energy of the Azure Sea and channeled it to Baek Yu-rim.
- Crrrack!
The water jets froze solid, constricting the legs and applying pressure. Crunch! The penetrating ice snapped the legs.
Baek Yu-rim squeezed her eyes shut and raised her staff once more.
"Senior Daera!"
At the signal, Daera unleashed Heavenly Thunder. Tendrils of released Heavenly Thunder spread outward.
Body trembling from the onslaught, Baek Yu-rim nevertheless connected a waterway leading straight to the Aupreut.
Her teeth clenched, Daera crammed every last bolt of Heavenly Thunder into that waterway. Crackle-crack! Without an ounce of waste, the Heavenly Thunder followed the guide and embedded itself in the Aupreut like the teeth of a comb.
- Guoooooo!
Directly struck by the massive volley of Heavenly Thunder, the Aupreut twisted on its legs.
Even after reading the precursor signs, coiling its body with all available legs, and thickening its Amrak armor, the damage bled through.
"Hooo..."
Lee Ha-sol drew her bow.
The target filled her vision. The Aupreut was large, far too large. Even loosing arrows at random, most would probably land.
Naturally, that sort of attack held little meaning.
Gale certainly possessed incredible output.
But with her current level of skill, piercing that tough outer shell and flesh to inflict fatal damage was a tall order.
'In that case.'
Still, while Lee Ha-yul was fighting, the thought of sitting idle never crossed her mind.
Wooooong! A wind arrow swelled large, then compressed back into a sharply defined shaft.
- [Lee Ha-sol, Lee Ha-sol. A gift of an archery manual for you here.]
The archery book she'd received the other day.
She accepted it joyfully, and it turned out to be a masterpiece penned by a figure of unfathomable attainment.
'I can't even execute it properly yet...'
But adding Gale changed the equation.
Her eyes flashed, and Lee Ha-sol released the bowstring.
The wind that left the bow stretched slim and long. Split into hundreds of branches, it precisely tunneled into the gaps of the shattered outer shell.
Into the spots seared by Heavenly Thunder, into the places rent by a spear blade's sudden intrusion, Gale seeped in.
- Ku-gu-gung—!
The Amrak armor heaved from the internal detonation. The Aupreut's eyes flew wide.
Other body parts meant nothing. Even if damaged by Heavenly Thunder or Azure Sea, it could simply scrape them off and regenerate given time.
But its main body. The attacks boring deep into its core were impossible to ignore.
To protect its center, the Aupreut restored its Amrak.
'One more shot.'
That moment of restoration was a generous opening.
Lee Ha-yul, having evaded the whip-like, sinuous legs and risen into the sky, opened his subspace. Jeonghwa, loaded with a full reserve of Heavenly Thunder, sprang out as if it had been waiting.
Just like before.
He held it in a reverse grip and released Heavenly Thunder in a continuous stream. The Heavenly Thunder spear blade expanded, long and large.
'Spear as arrow.'
The two remaining pairs of wing-cloth shifted form. One became the bow body, the other the bowstring.
Jeonghwa caught on the string. Drawn to its absolute limit. Under that ferocious output, the hand gripping Jeonghwa went numb.
At that blatant display of aftershock, the Aupreut coiled its body even more tightly with its legs and layered on thicker mana and Amrak armor.
On top of that, it began sinking its body into the deep sea.
But it was too late.
'Pseudo Clear Lightning Flash.'
Heavenly Thunder is fast. Its speed is not merely difficult to track, but hard even to perceive.
The arrow now truly escaped everyone's perception.
Recognition lagged behind. Their retinas merely registered the aftermath: a blazing blue line piercing through the Aupreut's legs.
- ————!
A deeper resonance made the sea heave. It was less a weighty sound and more a fitting description of furious rampage.
Lee Ha-yul gave a small smile and raised his spear.
Not the Jeonghwa he had already thrown, but the spear woven from one pair of wings, now saturated with Azure Sea power.
'Pseudo Expansion Ability.'
Preparations were complete.
The immense water energy planted within the Aupreut. The cold energy that would trigger its detonation. He drew dominion over the water energy stacked by the others, and even the natural water energy of the environment.
'Ice Sea.'
An Expansion Ability of the Azure Sea. And on that framework, he added one more form.
'Pseudo Expansion Ability, Piercing Thorns.'
An Expansion Ability of the 10th Iteration. Though not True Blood, its operational method harmonized well with the Azure Sea.
He thrust the spear into empty air, and detonated the water energy and cold energy under his dominion.
- Ba-dump!
In that instant, his heart resounded powerfully.
The core positioned over his heart swelled. The cold energy and water energy, which had filled the core and circulated through his mana circuits, wavered.
- Ba-dump! Ba-dump! Ba-dump!
Within a momentary halt of perception, Lee Ha-yul felt a sensation as if he himself were freezing solid.
The Azure Sea manifested via Homogenization erupted. The imitated innate talent latched onto his soul, rooting deep and settling in place.
'Ah.'
The sea froze.
* * *
"C-cold...!"
Daera, who had been pouring out Heavenly Thunder, hugged her own body.
"Ugh, ah, g-gahhh..."
"C-col, ld...! Too much cold energy...!"
The others were no different. Even those who manifested the Azure Sea were trembling and shivering from the cold—and that spoke volumes.
Sniffling, Daera turned her head toward the spot where the colossal octopus had been.
"H-hiiek..."
Then her jaw dropped. She felt as if her tongue and uvula might freeze, but her mouth was too crammed with shock to close it.
Attribute abilities easily affect a wide range. As a wielder of Heavenly Thunder, Daera knew that fact perfectly well.
'But this is just... what the hell is this range...'
The sea had frozen.
Literally. Every inch of the horizon in sight had become ice.
In the aftermath of the ferocious battle, the sea that had been heaving as if to shatter was now completely, vividly still.
Even that powerful, enormous octopus was helplessly turned into an ice statue.
There was no doubt that the ice was breaking apart from within.
Because from within, visible even at this distance, small and large thorns were sprouting in dense clusters.
It looked worse than a cactus.
Patter-patter! The frozen water energy became hail and showered onto the deck.
"And Ha-yul...?"
Meanwhile, Lee Ha-sol, who had been equally frozen stiff at the sight of the icy sea, urgently turned her eyes elsewhere.
Already vulnerable to the cold, her body shook like an aspen leaf, but she still worried about Lee Ha-yul, who had frozen the sea.
- Flutter
Her worries soon subsided.
Among those still frozen stiff from shock, even outside the area of effect—wings fluttering, Lee Ha-yul alighted softly onto the deck.
"Ha-yul!"
Lee Ha-sol, puffing white breath, brightened in an instant.
It was because, contrary to her worries, she saw no visible injuries.
Of course, internal damage and the like would require a detailed scan later, but at least any conspicuous wounds...
"...Ha-yul?"
Lee Ha-sol went rigid. Daera, and those who had been about to gather around the spectacularly returned Lee Ha-yul, also stopped.
Lee Ha-yul turned his head.
An expressionless, rigidly frozen complexion. The white frost clinging to his cheeks fell away with a patter, then crept back in a repeating cycle.
- Hooo...
Even the floor beneath his feet was slowly freezing over. His exhaled breath was eerily white and chill.
A sense of crisis swept over them: that even the slightest contact with his breath would leave them frozen solid, never to stir again.
[......]
Even the necklace, which usually chattered away, was silent.
Having taken in the people frozen in their tracks as if paralyzed, Lee Ha-yul suddenly looked down and opened his eyes to examine his own hand.
A frost-rimed hand. Veins of solid ice entangled it. So saturated was it with cold energy that he found it hard to move his fingers.
[...Cold.]
The necklace, which had been silent, let out a short click.
"Ah..."
Lee Ha-sol let out a soft sigh.
Her body had briefly frozen from the threat that rang in her head.
But the moment she saw Lee Ha-yul, expressionless and looking down at his own hand while murmuring that he was cold, her legs moved on their own.
"Ha-yul."
Approaching cautiously, Lee Ha-sol gently embraced him.
"Ah! Wait a moment!"
Baek Yu-rim, who had been staring blankly at Lee Ha-yul, jolted in alarm and stretched out a hand.
That was undoubtedly a side effect of the Azure Sea. While he was leaking cold energy uncontrollably, getting close could cost someone their life.
- Crack!
Thus, she urgently extended her mana, but upon touching Lee Ha-yul's Azure Sea, her mana instantly froze and shattered.
'This crazy—!'
Stunned, Baek Yu-rim finally moved to throw herself forward...
"...Huh?"
She blinked.
Lee Ha-sol, who had wrapped Lee Ha-yul snugly in her arms, was completely unharmed, without a trace of frostbite.
[Fluffy?]
[Warmth.]
Lee Ha-yul reached out both arms to wrap around Lee Ha-sol's waist and buried his face in her warm chest.
The thought of summoning Calamity Flame to thaw himself was long since pushed aside.
[Nice.]
"?"
Lee Ha-sol, who had inwardly braced herself for her body to freeze, wore an equally dumbfounded expression. But for now, she stroked the head of Lee Ha-yul as he nuzzled against her.
It was cold, but not to a degree that would harm her body.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Pioneering Progress]
[Quest ｢Beast of the Black Sea｣ accomplished]
[Acquiring a large amount of points]
...
[Savior Correction System: Evil Annihilation Progress]
[The Savior subjugates a future Legion Commander of Bitter Cold!]
...
[Savior Correction System: Pioneering Progress]
[Link with Main Quest ｢Tower of Bitter Cold｣ confirmed]
[Linked with Quest ｢Army of Bitter Cold｣]
[Quest ｢Beast of the Black Sea｣ accomplishment confirmed]
[Acquiring an exceptionally large amount of points]
...
[Manifesting the Unique Ability ｢Azure Sea｣]
[The Unique Ability ｢Cheon?｣ is growing]