Chapter 222
Chapter 222
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 222
>Chapter Title: The 31st Horse Overturns the Game Board
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
**Chapter 222**
*Thwuuump-!*
“Puuuuh-!”
Pupu went flying after taking a hit from Vitoria.
This king squid had done an admirable job buying time against Vitoria, but it looked like it wouldn’t be able to join the fight again for a while.
Even so, it had definitely saved Santos.
Santos shouted as he stared at Bitan, now transformed into a sword.
“Why’d you come, Bitan! Now no one will remember us.”
【No need to remember! We’re gonna make it back alive!】
“You… Huh? Wait, you were a sword?”
【Yeah! I was a sword!】
“Hahaha! Perfect timing. Things are like this, but I was just needing a blade.”
Bitan spoke to Santos.
【Shove me into that bastard. I’ll rip it to shreds.】
The skeleton hesitated for a moment but had no choice except to nod.
*Nod…*
*Kiiiiii…*
Vitoria stuck out its tongue, apparently displeased at Santos gripping Bitan and glaring at it.
“Here I go!”
【Go!】
*Whoosh-!*
Santos somehow felt his body lighten.
He chalked it up to his state of mind.
He figured the mere comfort of knowing Bitan was by his side, that he wasn’t alone, had freed him from his fear and made his movements smoother.
He was only half right.
It was true his stifled movements had gained confidence, but Bitan’s inherent power was what made Santos as swift as the wind.
*Kiiiiii-!*
[Alluring Vitoria uses Glacier Scattershot.]
[Fires a large number of projectiles forward.]
[If hit by a projectile, you suffer the status ailment: Slow.]
*Thududududuk-!*
Icicle-like glacier projectiles surged toward Santos.
‘Can’t dodge them all.’
Exhausted as he was, his body surely wouldn’t keep up.
‘First, deflect as many as I can and avoid the vitals…’
*Whoooosh…*
The icicles were already almost upon him.
Santos swung Bitan.
*Swish…*
It felt like slicing soft bread with a razor-sharp knife. Even the wielder got chills from the edge’s keenness.
That was Bitan.
And moreover.
*Shrieeek-!*
*Shrieeeeeek!*
‘My movements got faster?’
No, it wasn’t him getting faster. It was Bitan.
*Swish-*
*Swhoosh-*
Santos stepped forward as naturally as slicing through the air.
*Whoooosh…*
One trailing icicle had slipped into his blind spot, coming at an utterly unexpected angle. Too late to react.
‘Twist the waist first…’
But then.
*Whipcrack-!*
Bitan’s blade flexed like a whip and smacked away the incoming icicle.
At blinding speed, no less.
*Kiii…*
The tide of battle had shifted dramatically from before. Vitoria seemed quite flustered seeing Santos unscathed.
‘Maybe I can do this…’
With Bitan, with this sword, maybe he could survive.
A fragile spark of belief kindled in Santos’s chest. Precarious, ready to shatter at any moment.
*Kiiiiiiii…*
[Alluring Vitoria uses Voluntary Aid.]
[Some living beings in the area who hear Vitoria’s voice assist in her battle.]
[Vitoria’s voice grows stronger over time.]
An eerie wail like tinnitus.
*Slooooowly…*
Shadows of fish loomed beneath the drift ice.
*Splash-!*
Fish leaped from the water.
Armor-like plates covered their snouts—if even grazed, bones would shatter.
Santos drew in a breath of wind and thrust Bitan forward. If anyone asked why, it was because Bitan had willed it so.
In that instant.
Bitan’s blade gleamed and danced wildly.
*Shababababam-!*
Santos saw it clearly.
Feral fish parting left and right around him like the Red Sea splitting.
Red lines blooming across them in the process.
*Plop plop plop…*
The fish fell neatly bisected onto the drift ice, cut straight as a ruler.
【Tastes great!】
Bitan crunched on fish flesh with a mouth that had formed on its blade.
This pitch-black sword proved it.
Its worth, and its intent to protect Santos.
*Kiii…*
*Whoooooooosh-!*
Vitoria’s tail swept horizontally, sweeping away the drift ice.
Santos had been batted away by that tail countless times already.
Just watching its grotesque writhing made him shrink back in overwhelming dread.
*Whooooosh…*
It was coming.
Dodge.
He hadn’t last time, but if he tried again…
Then, Bitan’s will reached him.
Santos.
Swing me.
Don’t dodge.
Santos abandoned his evasive stance and charged headlong.
His vision filled with Vitoria’s hue. As the tail shattered drift ice and finally reached him, Santos roared.
“Uwaaaaaaaa!”
*Whoooooooosh-!*
A perfect semicircle cleaved the front in two, like something from a master painting. The world dyed in Vitoria’s color flashed another hue.
Red.
Red blood rained down like a storm.
Only afterward did he register the wet rending sound.
*Spluuuurt-!*
“I… I cut it…”
Hot blood painted the skeleton red.
Vitoria was a creature of ice, yet its blood burned hot. That was why it could be felled. An opponent that could be defeated.
*Kiaaaaaaaa-!*
*Boom-!*
As Vitoria shrieked and thrashed, Santos suddenly burst into laughter.
“Puhuhu… Puhahahahaha!”
The fire in his eyes blazed brighter.
“This… this is you.”
Bitan replied.
【Yeah, this is me, Bitan.】
*Kiiiiiii-*
Vitoria wailed once more, louder.
This time, sirens crawled up onto the drift ice. There were a lot of them at a glance.
Realizing their alluring song wouldn’t work, they charged with elongated claws bared.
*Eeeee-!*
They closed in, emitting bizarre shrieks.
Santos thrust Bitan straight forward.
*Stab…*
*Riiip…*
*Spluuuurt-!*
Bitan was different from other swords.
It reaped lives more precisely, more perfectly than any other.
Only possible because Bitan had accumulated countless deaths. It predicted their moves and led the sword strikes.
*Spluuuurt-!*
*Splurt-!*
Blood fountains erupted with every swing of Bitan.
They resembled humans, but that didn’t stir guilt or make it deny past lives.
As always.
The sirens’ numbers dwindled to a certain point.
One among them tried to turn the tide.
*Stuuuump-!*
A siren took a stab to the gut head-on, blood spilling from her mouth as she clamped both hands around Bitan.
*Clang-!*
*Scraaaape-!*
*Eeeeee!*
More sirens swarmed her, trying to buy time.
Others crept up behind Santos.
With the sword caught, he’d have to abandon it or fight barehanded, they thought.
Everyone thought so.
But.
Santos didn’t release the hilt. Instead, Bitan moved.
*Whipcrack-!*
The hilt stayed put while the blade turned to chain, forming another edge on the opposite side.
Santos thrust it backward without looking.
*Crunch-!*
Bitan crushed a heart solidly, then whipped back to shred more sirens.
Blood-soaked Bitan laughed.
【Hahahahaha!】
“Haa… haa…”
Santos felt his stamina hitting limits in this unprecedented battle. The silver lining: Bitan led every moment, so he just had to swing.
*Splurt-!*
*Spluuuurt-!*
Finally, siren corpses piled up on the drift ice. None lived.
Yet he couldn’t say the situation had improved.
Something bizarre was happening to Vitoria.
*Kiaaaaaaaa-!*
Bluish lights—like the sirens’ souls—were sucked into Vitoria.
[Alluring Vitoria uses Soul Harvest.]
[Souls grant strange vitality.]
*Crrraaaack…*
Vitoria’s severed tail regrew.
Santos’s vision spun.
Yes, the monster they fought was Vitoria.
A beast that devoured countless sailors’ souls.
Vitoria was no ordinary monster.
Lucky they were a soul-less skeleton and spirit; anyone else would’ve long lost life and soul.
It felt utterly impossible to finish her off.
“Huff… huff…”
Then, Bitan spoke.
【Captain.】
“Huff… Bi… huff… Bitan…”
Bitan judged the situation coolly and advised to save Santos.
【Stab the heart. When a living thing’s beating stops, it’s as good as dead.】
A truth he’d realized over long years, like a faith.
“Huff… huff…”
【You can do it, right?】
“Dun… dunno.”
【…You can.】
“…Yeah.”
【Say you can, Captain!】
As Bitan bellowed, Santos ground his teeth.
*Grind…*
“I… I can do it. Man of the sea Santos… can save his crew!”
【Good! You save the crew, and I’ll save you.】
“Yeah!”
【Let’s go!】
“Uwaaaaa, here I go! Men of the sea charge!”
*Thudududuk-!*
Incoming glacier shards.
Vitoria, still full of vigor, had made them much larger to prove it.
But the same trick wouldn’t work twice.
*Shwaaaaa-!*
Slash a massive shard,
*Shwaaaaa-!*
slash another, and a path opened.
A path to Vitoria.
*Kiiiiiii-!*
At last, he was almost upon Vitoria.
“Uwaaaaa!”
But right then, Bitan said.
【Captain! No tail in sight! Watch out!】
“What…”
Vitoria’s tail, always trailing out of the water, had vanished.
Santos soon learned why.
*Crunchcrack-!*
From below the surface, the tail shattered drift ice and appeared right in front of him.
“Urgh…”
Santos had been warned, so he twisted his waist. But he couldn’t fully avoid brushing the tail.
If batted away now, would there be another chance?
Could he even stand?
Santos’s mind raced.
A shout scattered his thoughts, pointing to one path.
【Throoooow meeee!】
Santos felt his nonexistent scalp prickle.
Like hearing a divine oracle, he hurled Bitan with all his might.
*Shrieeek-!*
*Thwump-!*
Luckily, Santos was sideswiped by the tail and tumbled aside. He’d barely dodged.
What of Bitan, thrown from his hand?
*Shrieeek…*
The black blade flew.
Aimed precisely at Vitoria’s torso mid-flight.
And finally.
Santos bellowed.
“Bitannnnn!”
【Ooooh! Right thereeee!】
*Spluuuurt-!*
With a sharp rend of flesh, Bitan pierced something.
Through Vitoria’s torso and out the other side, Bitan yelled.
【Not the heart! Popped something weird!】
*Hummmm…*
Soon, Vitoria’s body glowed an ecstatic blue.
*Spluuuurt-!*
Blue lights scattered everywhere.
Souls.
Bitan had pierced Vitoria’s soul pouch. Bursting it, the souls inside spilled out, fleeing in all directions from Vitoria.
Joy lit Santos’s face.
Thus, they had found freedom.
“I… saved them all…”
Then, desperate Vitoria swung its tail at Santos.
*Whoooosh…*
Bitan was flung away; killing the swordsman Santos would bring victory closer.
Santos was spent.
No more resistance; the strike would shatter him to pieces.
He let the fire fade from his eyes and closed them.
But contrary to his thoughts, the tail didn’t sweep him.
“Block iiiit!”
“It’s aiming for the captain!”
“Don’t let it touch Santos! Ship’ll be too cramped with another one!”
Blue souls clung to Vitoria’s body, pinning it in place.
Naturally, some were faces Santos knew.
“Santos! We’ve been waiting!”
“Why’d you make us wait so long!”
“Hahaha! Knew you’d come, you idiot!”
“Told ya! Said that idiot’d return? Hahahaha!”
The blue souls, crew of the Bravesea, jeered at Santos.
While other souls fled the pouch in that brief moment, they’d forsaken escape to aid him.
The idiots weren’t just Santos. Everyone aboard the Bravesea was an idiot.
A burly pirate soul gouging Vitoria’s eye said.
“Don’t move, you snake bitch!”
“Hahaha! Squirm all you want—your last breath’s coming!”
*Kiiiiii-!*
Souls brimming with inexplicable confidence. They restrained the writhing Vitoria, all gazing the same way.
Darkness without sunrise.
In the lightless sea, their ship, the Bravesea, appeared.
Bitan coiled around the prow.
Kang Seol lay prone on the drift ice atop the ship. Pupu had set him down first.
The reason for Pupu’s action soon revealed itself.
The black chain-sword Bitan wrapped on the prow shouted.
【Pupu!】
“Puuuuuuh!”
Pupu hurled the Bravesea at Vitoria with all its strength.
*Groooan…*
The legend of the Alfrina Strait.
Vitoria stole the crew’s souls, denying them eternal rest.
*Whoooooooosh…*
The pathetic captain, bereft of crew, met a pitch-black sea urchin one stormy day.
【Bitan is greaaaaat!】
And found salvation.
*Spluuuurt-!*
*Kiiii…*
The prow wrapped in Bitan pierced Vitoria’s torso clean through.
Blood-drenched Bitan at the prow munched on flesh chunks and said.
【This time, nailed it.】
*Shwaaaa…*
Vitoria’s body went limp.
She would never awaken again.
A few lines about Bitan were added to the Bravesea’s long-stalled legend.