Hero
"A tidal wave! A tidal wave is coming!"
The first to spot it was a soldier standing guard atop the spire in the Emerald Count Territory.
It hadn't been long since the Sea God retreated, and the soldier's morale had hit rock bottom. Still, no matter how drained his spirit was, it didn't erase the training he'd received. The soldier rang the warning bell exactly as drilled, and at the sound of the bell, the territory's troops evacuated the residents without hesitation or question.
The residents had grumbled at first, but when they caught sight of the massive tidal wave bearing down on them, every last one of them bolted without needing to be told twice.
After getting the civilians to safety, the soldiers trying to flee the territory instead found themselves face-to-face with two lunatics sprinting straight toward the sea.
"I'm telling you─you need to run away right now!"
"You go first?"
"I can't! If I abandon two nobles and either of you gets hurt...!"
"We won't get hurt."
The soldier let out a deep internal sigh as he looked at Kyle and Yuri, who refused to listen. The guy was probably putting on some ridiculous show of bravado because he had a woman beside him. Typical dick-swinging idiots... Of course, even the soldier had to admit the woman next to him was stunning enough to make a man's eyes roll back in his head. But was she beautiful enough to make him risk his life charging into a tidal wave? Absolutely not.
Risking your life only made sense when you judged the odds worth it. Fighting an armed thug with your own blade, maybe. Sticking your neck under a guillotine and holding out, sure. But running straight at a tidal wave to look cool in front of a woman? That wasn't bravery. That was suicide.
"This is really not okay...! If you two won't leave, we can't run either!"
"I said don't worry, didn't I? Why's a grown man such a scared little shit?"
Kyle dug at his ear with a finger, letting the soldier's words go in one ear and out the other. Then he turned his gaze toward the tidal wave approaching in the distance.
A tidal wave didn't just appear out of nowhere without warning. There should have been several smaller swells first, building up to the big one. But this wave had materialized with zero precursors. It was utterly artificial. Whether it was the Sea God or something else, someone had clearly manufactured this tidal wave.
'This is insane. How many meters high is that thing?'
Kyle groaned at the sight of a wave dozens of meters tall and hundreds of meters wide. Could he really stop something like that? And if he did, how? Would slicing water with a sword actually change anything? For a brief moment, pessimistic thoughts—that maybe he should just run while he still could—crept into his mind.
Kyle blinked once, and every last distracting thought vanished.
"─Hup!"
He drew his sword and took a deep breath. A razor-sharp Aura Blade erupted from the edge. The aura that had merely sheathed the blade swelled dramatically. One meter. Three meters. Five meters. When it finally broke past ten meters, Kyle felt his heart hammering wildly as he strode forward.
One step. He poured in every ounce of his strength.
Two steps. He detonated his latent power.
Three steps. He unleashed mind, energy, and body all at once.
A flawless technique drawn from perfect condition. The ten-meter Aura Blade screamed along its path.
The flying blade split the wave cleanly in two. The bisected tidal wave lost the force holding it together and was swallowed by the next surge. But the severed water quickly reformed—which wasn't surprising, considering how much seawater was still flooding the area.
"...Fuck."
The problem was that launching a ten-meter Aura Blade took serious effort, and he couldn't repeat the feat endlessly. An Aura Master existed to grip his sword and fight up close, not to snipe blades from a distance like some kind of machine gun. The exhaustion creeping in made that reality sting even more.
Just as he felt the faint drain and reached for his sword again, Kyle froze at the touch of a hand on his wrist.
"See? You can't do it, can you?"
"...I can do it."
"Stop bluffing, Kyle. Do you think only your life is on the line?"
Yuri, the one who had stopped him, spoke calmly before stepping forward herself. Gazing at the oncoming tidal waves, she completed the incantation she'd prepared while Kyle swung his sword.
"Frozen World"
"Expanding Wave"
⟨ Double Casting ⟩
Two fourth-star spells from a 4-star mage. The dual casting spread out simultaneously, freezing the sea Kyle had cut through solid in an instant. From the tidal wave's perspective, it was as if an ice barrier exactly as tall as itself had suddenly materialized right in front of it. The ice wall served as a perfect breakwater, stopping the tidal wave cold.
"Haa... haa... haaa..."
Having cast two fourth-star spells at once, Yuri's mana depletion was severe. She panted heavily, trying to steady her breathing. Kyle supported her and offered praise.
"Nice work."
"Huuuu... Didn't I tell you I can't do anything without my husband?"
Yuri let out a small laugh. She seemed so exhausted she'd even forgotten how to maintain her usual expressionless face. Kyle carefully laid her down so she could rest, then turned his attention back to the ice wall.
'The wave reattached the instant I cut it. If it had been launched from far away, that wouldn't have been possible...'
The Sea God was probably nearby. It had to be controlling the sea directly from close range. In that case, Yuri's ice barrier wouldn't hold for long. The Sea God would soon manipulate the ocean again and summon an even larger tidal wave.
"Yuri, rest here for a bit."
"...Kyle?"
"I'll finish this and be right back."
Ignoring Yuri's hand that tried to hold him back, asking where he was going, Kyle sprinted straight toward the ice wall. The soldiers watching him run across the sea let out disbelieving gasps. Kyle ignored every sound, reached the ice wall, and leaped cleanly over the ten-meter barrier in a single bound, landing on top.
Beyond the wall, he spotted the Sea God gathering waves in an attempt to overcome the barrier Yuri had created.
"Got you."
─Gurgle?
Kyle grinned at the Sea God. The creature seemed to recognize the familiar aura radiating from him and began to shudder with rage. This was the bastard who had gouged out its eye. The realization triggered pure fury.
─Kwooooooo—!
The Sea God opened its maw wide and unleashed the breath it had been using nonstop—the one capable of pulverizing anything. Using its Force ability to manipulate seawater at will, it fired a jet of water with enough pressure to slice through diamond straight at Kyle.
Kyle watched the incoming seawater and casually drew a circle with his Aura Blade.
Shaaaa—!
─Gurgle?
The instant the breath met the Aura Blade, the crushing force vanished completely, replaced by thick clouds of steam. The moment the Sea God lost sight of Kyle amid the vision-obscuring vapor, it felt a sharp sting on the top of its head.
─Screeeeech!
"Shut up. Shut the hell up."
Kyle had used the blind spot to leap onto the Sea God's head. His sword was buried deep in its crown, and he supported his entire body with that single blade. The Sea God thrashed wildly to shake him off, but Kyle's sword was lodged solidly in its skull. Unless it wanted to smash its own head to pieces, there was no way to dislodge him.
"Let's end this."
Having a sword buried in its skull meant Kyle could kill it whenever he wanted. He poured aura into the blade embedded in the Sea God's head. The Aura Blade that erupted from the tip began tearing through its brain. After all, no creature could move without a brain.
The Sea God sensed its impending death and went berserk, but it couldn't escape its fate. After hundreds—perhaps thousands—of years living as the guardian deity of the Emerald Count Territory, the Sea God died.
Kyle pulled out his sword and stood atop the floating corpse, wondering what to do with it.
* * *
"Thank you so much for saving our territory."
Not long after the ice wall melted, soldiers from the territory rowed out to Kyle. They collected the Sea God's corpse, then escorted him back to the lord's castle.
The lord of the Emerald Count Territory, Count Emerald, immediately offered his gratitude upon seeing Kyle and Yuri.
Kyle let out an impressed whistle, as if it were no big deal.
"Don't mention it."
"No, truly. Without the two of you, our territory would probably be..."
"Yeah, it might have been."
Throughout the conversation, Kyle never mentioned that he'd provoked the Sea God first. He simply remained the territory's hero. It was better for everyone that way.
The grateful lord then asked for their names.
"Kyle Meyer."
"Yuri Grace."
"The Empire's Sword and Shield...!"
Only then did the lord nod in understanding of their true power. He promptly invited them to a banquet.
"Please, you must attend."
"Sure, why not. We'll be there."
"You won't regret it. We've decided to serve the Sea God's meat at tonight's feast."
"...You actually eat that?"
"Is there any reason not to? When you kill something, you eat it."
Kyle let out a hollow laugh at the lord's words and recalled the massive fish he'd slain. He wondered if something that huge could possibly taste good...
A short while later, at the banquet hall, Kyle carefully took a bite of the steamed fish made from the Sea God's flesh and tilted his head in confusion.
"It's actually delicious...?"
Why did it taste so good?