Subjugating the Abyssal Kraken (1)
The Abyssal Kraken.
A named monster that surfaced in the vast Lake of Knowledge enveloping the Isle of Knowledge, triggered only through specific events. The moment I saw that colossal body — or more precisely, that enormous blue appendage slathered thick with squid suckers — I knew exactly what had appeared.
What I hadn't managed to figure out, of course, was why this raid boss had chosen to pop up out of nowhere right now.
Why the hell is that thing out here?!'
In terms of the story, there were only two ways to ever face the Abyssal Kraken.
The first was to participate in the episode where Dell Rondo Prime, the grand headmaster of Luminor Academy, was ambushed by the Kraken at the lakeshore, and bring the beast down. The second was to visit the lake with a party character who met the 'certain conditions' before that event ever occurred, deliberately bait the thing out, and slay it all the same.
And as far as I knew, the only party characters at the Academy who satisfied those 'certain conditions' were Agnes and a bare handful of others. Which made sense — the minimum requirement for summoning the thing was entering the lake alongside a character with a max mana pool exceeding 2,000.
Agnes isn't here. Neither are Orion or Lara. So why did it suddenly—'
No matter how fast Ethan had grown, there was no way his max mana had broken 2,000. And no other boat seemed to be passing nearby. Aside from Ethan, the only person out here was…
…Oh.'
Only when that thought finally landed did I realize what mistake I had just committed — along with the true identity of that faint, crawling sense of dread that had been running down my spine from the instant our boat drifted onto the lake.
My max mana broke 2,000 already, you idiot.'
2,460, to be exact. Judged on raw mana capacity alone, I was practically Agnes's equal — nothing short of a walking mana tank. The sheer tardiness of my own realization made me want to seize my head and slam it against the deck.
Not that I had the luxury of spare hands for such things, when simply clinging to the gunwale of a boat pitching on the waves was all I could manage.
"Li–Lilith!"
"Stay calm, Ethan! Get your sword first!"
"R–right!"
Ethan's sword — such a fine piece that the Blackwood crest was engraved into its hilt — refused to leave its scabbard even amid all this chaos. Small mercies, at least: it meant neither of us would end up as fish food without managing to do a single thing.
The turmoil in my head from Ethan's confession — all of it — went perfectly still the instant a genuine, life-or-death crisis arrived. Answers to confessions could wait; right now, the only priority was dealing with the monster in front of us.
My heart said running was the best option, but there was no fleeing across open water while dodging that gigantic arm as it came crashing down. Even if it strained us, there seemed to be no avoiding a fight with the beast.
Not good….'
The protagonist-and-Agnes pairing was by far the ideal way to strike at this thing's weak points. Parrying the swarm of tentacles that came charging at the boat with the protagonist's swordsmanship, then having Agnes's fire magic hammer in the damage — that was the most textbook Kraken strategy I knew.
I had obviously never tried taking down the Kraken with an Ethan-and-Lilith combo. Not only did the summoning conditions not match, Ethan had never been a playable character to begin with. This was a monster that even the protagonist could barely block against at around second-year Academy level.
Ethan was strong enough now to rival the protagonist, sure — but whether he could actually deflect those massive tentacles? I couldn't be certain. What he had over the protagonist was slightly better mobility, and the added versatility of dual swords, letting him throw in a few unpredictable variables.
Add Lilith's support magic on top of that, and maybe — just maybe — we could scrape together something workable. After all, even that 'disgusting duo' had been genuinely good at coordination with Lilith, and the Ethan of today would likely have an even better synergy with her.
And fortunately, Lilith happened to have one skill perfectly suited for this aquatic battle.
「 Water Walking — For a set duration, the target character may walk upon the surface of water. 」
As the second stage of the auxiliary skill line, it cost 4 points despite being a basic-tier spell — but there was no reason to hesitate. Fighting from a cramped little rowboat like this was only feasible for the protagonist-and-Agnes pairing; Ethan and I had our own way of fighting, one built for us.
「 Remaining Skill Points: 9 → 5 」
I dumped the points I'd been hoarding into the spell without a second's pause and cast it over Ethan's body and my own. The moment I confirmed the thin film of mana settling over us like a curtain, I shouted to Ethan.
"Abandon the boat, Ethan!"
"What?! Don't tell me you want us to swim for it?!"
"That's not it! Just trust me and run across the water! Hurry!!"
Ethan clearly couldn't bring himself to believe me completely — his reaction carried a thread of suspicion, same as before. But he still threw himself out of the rowboat and onto the lake at my word.
—Splash!
"Wh–wha—?!"
"It's Water Walking! As long as my mana holds, it'll hold us up—"
—KRA-BOOOM!!
"AAAAAAAGH?!"
"LILITH!!"
The instant I leapt from the boat a beat behind him, one of the tentacles came crashing down directly onto the vessel we had just vacated. If I'd stayed aboard a second longer, my body would be plastered somewhere on those suckers right now — the thought blanched my mind white for an instant.
Not a moment's slack allowed. This was, in the truest sense, a battlefield where our lives hung in the balance.
—Splash!
"H–haaah…."
Thankfully, Water Walking had been cast on me as well, so my balance-wrecked body didn't plunge beneath the lake. Pure, dumb luck. I can't swim — not even a little.
There was no way I could swim in my past life, and no way I could manage it now while lugging around these enormous breasts. Without Water Walking, I'd have sunk like a stone, guaranteed. With that cheery thought, I shook the water roughly out of my soaked clothes and rose to my feet.
Survival demanded one of two things: bring the beast down for certain, or at least deal it enough damage that it couldn't chase us.
"Lilith, you okay?!"
"…Forget it and focus on the fight, Ethan! Is now really the time to worry about me?!"
"R–right!"
At my words, Ethan hurriedly drew his paired blades from both hips. His eyes, fixed on the Abyssal Kraken, burned dark and deep.
—Fwiiiish!
"Here it comes, Lilith!"
"I see i— wh–what—?!"
A tentacle whipped down from the upper right in a diagonal slash, aimed straight at where Ethan and I stood. And Ethan — fearless, or simply reckless — planted himself before that colossal limb, dual swords raised to meet it head-on.
Panicked, I canceled my own Water Walking in a flash of instinct and dragged Ethan's body down into the lake.
—Fwooosh!
"Glrk—mph?!"
—FWIIIIISH!!
The instant Water Walking's effect evaporated, Ethan dropped straight into the water — and the tentacle skimmed past just above his head by the narrowest of margins. Had my judgment come even a moment later, he'd have been squashed flat as a fly under that hand.
Seriously, why does he have to scare me like that?
I recast Water Walking over Ethan's flailing, half-submerged body, and in the same breath he bobbed back up to the surface.
"Pwah— Li–Lilith?!"
"The Kraken's tentacles are rubbery and dense. With your swordsmanship as it is now, you won't be able to cut them off."
"B–but Father once cut through the ramparts of the Aurelian Wall with a sword…!"
"Your father is a monster beyond human sense — his level and yours are not the same thing! At the very least, learn to tell the difference between what you can and can't do!"
"O–okay…! I won't overreach!"
It wasn't that Ethan's swordsmanship was lacking, per se. It was just that his father was an absurd, impossible creature of a man. And even the current Gehmajoshigi-gwat — the Hero himself — couldn't have cleaved through those thick tentacles on raw strength alone; deflecting them was the limit for anyone.
The real problem was that fighting that way, our combo could never actually kill the Kraken. Unlike Agnes, who could stack damage with repeated low-tier spells, I had exactly one offensive spell that could meaningfully feed damage into a monster of that scale.
I have to buy time to cast Mana Blast somehow.'
Mana Blast's casting time was ten seconds.
And standing in front of something like the Abyssal Kraken while doing nothing for ten full seconds was no different from announcing, in a bright and cheerful voice, that you'd like to die quickly.
But Ethan's sword could only leave a scratch or two on the monster's main body — and worse, his reach was hopelessly short. He hadn't yet reached the rank of Sword Expert, which meant he couldn't even release blade energy carrying his full force.
Like it or not, everything rested on my Mana Blast. Until my spell was complete, holding the line was the role Ethan had to play in this situation.
Asking a man who was already struggling just to deflect the oncoming tentacles to defend for a full ten seconds was no small request — but for that, I had my own answer. I wrung my remaining skill points nearly dry and bought a second auxiliary spell.
「 Sharp Blade — Increases the power of attacks made with a bladed weapon. 」
「 Remaining Skill Points: 5 → 1 」
There were no points left to buy anything else now. If this didn't work, then — well, I'd just have to call it fate and accept the end.
With that thought, I layered the newly acquired support spell — Sharp Blade — over Ethan, and almost on cue, a tentacle came flying at us once more, a live-fire test of the buff's performance.
"Ethan! Buff's on! This time — cut it down with everything you've got!"
"HYAAAAAAAAGH!!!"
Crossing the twin blades in his hands, Ethan swung with everything he had at the incoming tentacle. His sword bit into the massive slab of flesh looming before him and drove deep —
— and the meter-and-a-bit of blade-length erupted into a single magnificent streak of blade energy that sheared clean through the Abyssal Kraken's tentacle.
—SCHLAAAK!
GWOOOOOOOARRR!!!'
The Kraken's enormous cry tore across the lake the moment one of its own limbs was severed.
It had worked. Definitely, unmistakably worked.