Rock Island (3)
In response to that question, the other watchmen looked dumbfounded.
"What...? You mean, has the island always been there?"
It sounded like an absurd question, but it sent chills down their spines.
Something was wrong.
Yet they couldn't decide how to act.
An island moving? It sounded insane.
"No, what the hell is this...?"
The watchmen hesitated.
Meanwhile, on the beach, Owen and Arwen's argument raged on.
"Shouldn't you come running when I call you, Parte Leire?"
"You talk like I'm one of your underlings."
"Parte is a lower rank than me! Mind your place."
As the two were really getting heated, the watchmen could no longer hold back and shouted.
The massive rock island was truly gliding across the sea.
"The island's approaching!"
"Emergency! Emergency! The island's moving!"
Their screams from the mast top echoed vividly.
"What?"
Owen forgot the fight and turned his head.
He got the urgency, but the content was too ridiculous.
Arwen frowned as well.
"Has someone been hitting the daytime drinks?"
Just as she was about to berate the other officers nearby for such nonsense about a moving island, a massive wave surged.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the large ships anchored at the coast rocked like toys.
And there, far off, the island was indeed approaching the shore.
Cleaving through white foam.
"Huh?"
Even Arwen, who always prided herself on her noble composure, gaped in stunned silence.
Owen, seasoned through countless battles, was the same.
He blinked, wondering what was happening, then realized something.
"No way?"
But before Owen could explain, the dark mass of the approaching island reared up.
Whoosh!
A tremendous spray erupted.
Nearby small boats capsized effortlessly.
"Aaaah!"
Sailors' screams burst from all directions.
The larger ships didn't overturn but listed heavily, pushed by the waves.
They barely held thanks to their anchors, but precariously.
But the crisis was just beginning.
The true nature of the black rock island revealed itself.
"Gods...!"
Someone muttered in dazed despair.
The approaching rock island was no island—it was a colossal creature.
A turtle dragon.
The part they'd thought was an island was its enormous carapace.
Kuwoooo!
The beast—with a dragon's face and a turtle's body—roared.
Seawater cascaded like a waterfall from its rising form.
The dark elf sailors despaired at the sight.
"No! It's Kuaram Kam!"
"It's coming this way!"
Kuaram Kam was what dark elves called turtle dragons.
Meaning "King of the Great Ocean," it referred especially to ones as massive as this.
It was a title laced with reverence for transcendent beings.
Humans felt the same; tales said spotting a giant turtle dragon meant a typhoon was brewing.
This one exceeded 100 meters in length, its bloated head as big as a small ship.
Booom!
Then the turtle dragon swung its hard, massive head, smashing a nearby ship.
Crack! Boom!
The large vessel's keel snapped in one blow, splitting in half.
"Aaaagh!"
Amid the crew's wails, splintered wood flew everywhere.
Many sailors were flung into the air.
Rumble!
The low bellow of the turtle dragon rumbled on, unsatisfied, as it turned toward another ship.
Chaos reigned.
The peaceful beach had plunged into nightmare.
Whoosh!
Each movement of the turtle dragon sent waves surging, scattering cargo and debris from fallen ships.
Bodies and wreckage choked the sea.
"Why is Kuaram Kam...?"
Arwen stared in blank horror.
The King of the Great Ocean was like nature's pure wrath—irresistible to dark elves.
Sailors who believed in superstitions and legends revered turtle dragons as gods.
Arwen was no different.
"Has a dark elf god... sent this apostle to halt our expedition...?"
Even the sharp-minded heir of her clan saw the turtle dragon as fate itself.
Owen, however, couldn't accept it.
He'd been stunned briefly, but one thing was clear.
That godlike giant was just a dragon—a marine creature.
Slap!
Owen struck the dazed Arwen's cheek.
Her eyes refocused.
"Ah?"
She looked bewildered, not grasping she'd been slapped.
Owen yelled at her.
"Aren't you the dark elf commander? Snap out of it! We're all about to die here."
"That thing is..."
"Idiot! It's no divine apostle or symbol of fate. Just a sea dragon!"
"But!"
"Even if it is a god's messenger, who cares? Move! Unless you want to lose the whole fleet!"
The word "fleet" jolted Arwen awake.
The queen's precious warships.
She couldn't lose them so pointlessly.
She shook off the panic but bit her lip in grim despair.
"We can fight to the end. But there's no beating Kuaram Kam. Cannons just bounce off."
"I'll handle it somehow. Just buy me time."
"What?"
Arwen's long ears twitched in shock.
It was hard to believe.
"Can a human dragon knight... handle something like that?"
"Not taming it or anything. But I might get us out of this."
No certainty in his words, yet Arwen felt a strange spark of hope.
It was do or die anyway.
"You'd better keep your word. If you're the man the queen granted a title."
Arwen punched Owen's chest, glaring.
Owen nodded.
"Yeah."
For now, unlike their petty formal sniping, they felt like allies.
Arwen decided to trust him once.
Hated to admit it, but this young human had something special.
She knew the queen's interest wasn't for nothing.
"Everyone, engage!"
Arwen drew her sword, and her officers rushed to follow.
With command restored, the tide shifted.
Dark elves, who'd scattered like startled sheep, now faced the legendary beast.
Humans bustled under Betshel's orders, the hero of reversals.
"Stop it smashing the ships! Drive it off somehow!"
Arwen didn't think they could kill Kuaram Kam.
Best to protect the fleet and repel it.
Soon, ships in range turned cannons on the turtle dragon.
But it ignored them, shattering another vessel.
Owen watched, tilting his head.
Strange.
The turtle dragon was steadily wrecking ships.
But its movements felt off.
Not ramming with its hard head or biting with its massive jaws—instead, rubbing its face and body against the hulls.
That alone splintered dark elf galleons, but it was odd for a turtle dragon Owen knew.
Normally, it'd bite first.
Suspicious, but no time to ponder.
Dark elf cannons were firing now.
Boom! Boom!
Iron shot hurtled terrifyingly fast.
Enough to flinch just watching—but it glanced off the sloped carapace, skyward.
Barnacles on the turtle dragon's back shattered in a white spray amid the din.
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"...Damn."
With the situation dire, Owen grew anxious.
He focused, drawing on Tanares' power.
I can do what he could.
Recalling the past, Owen extended his hand. Tiny light shards danced at his fingertips.
Tanares' magic activating.
At least there's only one opponent.
Dominating a dolphin pod like Tanares? Impossible now.
But soon, succeeding, Owen paled.
"Urk..."
He staggered, nearly collapsing.
Dominating marine life started with linking minds.
Connecting to the turtle dragon with his new power, Owen was overwhelmed.
"This is its mind..."
Vastness— that was the word.
The turtle dragon's mind was simplistic yet oceanic in scale.
Owen even felt fear.
Like peering into an abyssal depth.
Then the abyss's master reacted, peering back into him.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Suddenly, drumbeats echoed.
Owen realized it was his own heart pounding.
Facing the colossal mind, terror rose to his throat.
Cold sweat poured; he wanted to flee.
Unbelievable. Even I can't...
Clear conclusion: Even as a past hero, his current power couldn't dominate this island-sized turtle dragon.
Maybe dark elves were right; Kuaram Kam might truly be a divine apostle.
What insane thing have I done...?
Regret flooded him.
Perhaps he'd provoked a god in dragon form.
Owen teetered on unconsciousness, mind linked.
Then, the opponent's emotions poured in like a waterfall.
Intense irritation, pain, discomfort.
Under attack by dark elves and humans—natural, but Owen soon realized otherwise.
The turtle dragon felt no threat from them.
What? It likes the cannon hits? What the hell?
Oddly, each impact clearly pleased it.
?
Owen couldn't comprehend.
What creature enjoys cannon fire?
Surveying the battlefield, insight struck.
The barnacles exploding from cannon hits on the carapace.
"Ah...!"
Forgotten knowledge resurfaced.
About sea turtles.
"Right!"
Sea turtles' worst foes were often barnacles on their backs, necks, faces.
Unable to reach them due to body structure, they grew like tumors, even burrowing into hard shells—pure agony.
This turtle dragon seemed no different.
Its back crawled with barnacles, large as meters-wide to human-head-sized.
Long tormenting it.
"Haha..."
Owen let out a hollow laugh.
Such a grand creature undone by mere barnacles...
Understanding dispelled the awe of divinity.
No king of oceans or god's apostle.
Just a pained beast—a dragon with a turtle shell.
"Now I get it."
Why it rubbed its face instead of biting ships.
Desperate to scrape off barnacles.
Ships nearby seemed perfect.
To them, a natural disaster, apocalyptic destruction.
Worthy of invoking gods.
Reality: A giant turtle squirming between noisy tiny creatures and their wooden hulks to dislodge parasites.
"Hahaha..."
Exhausted laughter escaped.
Dark elves showed legendary valor, firing cannons amid wreckage and corpses.
Owen thought this foolishness must stop.
He refocused, strengthening the link.
Good...
No overwhelming terror this time.
No divinity.
Mind immense, but far simpler than Grenville's—pure instinct.
But too vast. Domination impossible.
Owen pondered alternatives.
Experimenting with Tanares' power, he realized he could convey intent.
Ah, dominating marine life and communicating share the same principle.
Unlike clever Grenville, this one needed mental images.
He sent a vision: Himself removing barnacles from its shell.
Immediate response.
Krrrng?
The turtle dragon paused mid-smash of its eighth ship.
Its huge eye fixed on Owen.
Boom!
A shell hit its head dead-on, ignored as it moved.
"What the hell's happening?!"
Arwen, commanding the fight, gaped.
The rampaging Kuaram Kam, world-shaker, had calmed.
Like a tame beast, heading to Owen raising his hand on the beach.
"This can't be..."
Arwen couldn't believe it.
A legendary divine apostle and a human boy beckoning it.
Incomprehensible—like a myth made real.
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