Chapter 77
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Subduing the Kraken
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-Kieeeaaak!!!!
A horrific scream echoed as the Kraken thrashed madly across the ground, lashing out in all directions.
"Damn thing's putting up one hell of a fight."
Leon, who had instantly put distance between himself and the Kraken before landing, wiped the corner of his mouth.
"Expert level's a bit short..."
He grimaced, as if nursing internal injuries, but there was no trace of surprise or fear on his face.
The Kraken subjugation had only just begun.
Not only the main strike team witnessed Leon's brutal, transformed movements.
"Block them! Don't let a single one through!!"
Monsters under mental control were often far more dangerous than usual.
Beasts that normally lacked any coordination suddenly attacked in perfect unison, as if they'd rehearsed it.
But this was land, after all.
And their opponents were no pushovers—they were seasoned experts.
Fish-like monsters like the mermen were hardly enough to overwhelm them.
That said, there were just so many, and to buy the main strike team some breathing room as Leon had requested, they drew the Kraken's attention in every way they could.
In truth, using magic to keep them in check would have been more effective, but Leon had strictly forbidden any magic use.
In other words, this subjugation excluded all magic except for the devices he'd prepared.
It was a foolish decision. What could a young boy possibly know?
The knights who had thought that way were left speechless by the sight of Leon slicing through the Kraken with effortless precision.
Even seasoned experts rarely grasped the Kraken's movements so perfectly.
Yet Leon dodged attacks and targeted weak points with the natural ease of someone who'd fought it countless times before.
"Whoa, that's..."
"Insane, how the hell...?"
"Unbelievable."
The diversion team's knights and soldiers let out exclamations, forgetting all decorum.
Leon's movements were flawless, like a scripted duel with no wasted motion.
And then.
"Honestly, it's a good thing the Kraken's the enemy. Facing off against Young Master Leon would be terrifying."
It was the highest praise from the knights.
"Milady, what in the world is that young master's deal?"
"Beats me~?"
Isna, grinning as she grabbed the head of a limp merman by its slick hair, flung the corpse aside.
She looked like a delicate girl at first glance, but she was direct lineage from the Mielephon family.
The Sword Saint's beloved daughter, no less.
In short, no fool underestimated her.
She thrust her sword into the merman without hesitation, piercing its body clean through, then flashed a beaming smile.
"Milady, your fiancé Young Master Leon's skills are beyond expectations."
"Fiancé, huh..."
"Does that... not sit well with you?"
She dodged the question with an innocently bright smile.
"He's an interesting guy, that's for sure..."
"Interesting?"
"Don't you think?"
"Pardon? What do you mean...?"
"He fights like he's hunted the Kraken dozens, hundreds of times. Total pro."
The knights fell silent at her enigmatic laugh, turning to watch Leon.
Indeed...
"Which makes him even more of a mystery."
Splash!
With that, she cleaved the merman's torso in two.
Her vibrant red twin tails bounced with energy—if they weren't that color, they'd be soaked in monster blood without showing it.
A quirky young lady with obvious eccentric tendencies, and Leon Cascadia, whose actions were just as bizarre. To the knights, they seemed like a perfect match.
They had no intention of trying to decipher what their lady meant.
While the strike and diversion teams swept the battlefield, the support team—mostly mages—enjoyed a surprisingly calm atmosphere.
The surging mana around them was anything but.
"Fascinating. I can't for the life of me figure out how this thing works."
"I heard it was from a necromancer, but its structure isn't like black magic either."
Mages were mad for new knowledge, eyes glazing over at the slightest novelty.
At first, they grumbled about just pumping mana in and doing nothing else.
But once they saw Leon's five devices activate, all complaints vanished.
"My god. This is a mana wavelength completely unlike any recorded magic. On its own, it wouldn't have much effect on the Kraken. So how does it block its mental attacks and halt wound regeneration?"
"Can we take it when we're done, senior? I wanna study it so bad!"
"You think? Idiot. Lick it while you can, so you can chew it over later."
The mages were practically drooling over the devices, pouring all their focus into them.
"Even a dwarf couldn't craft something this intricate, right?"
"Possible in theory, but not in this timeframe."
"With magic?"
"No way to even peek inside."
"Oh... Ooh, it's moving! What an exotic mana wavelength! It's like a machine turned into a grand archmage."
These were the same mages who'd been griping about staying put moments ago.
Luna watched them, thinking what idiots they were.
The first device neutralized the Kraken's mental attacks. The second suppressed its regeneration.
-Luna, prepare the third one.
And the third.
Leon Cascadia harbored a deep grudge against the Kraken. He'd spared no measure in preparing for this hunt.
Frankly, the beast was so weakened it was almost pitiful.
The Kraken had sharp instincts. It prioritized the biggest threat in the subjugation force.
Sword Saint Osberg Mielephon? His blade was deadly, but not its main target.
Even after taking wounds from him, it focused elsewhere.
Anyone with eyes could see that target was Leon.
Raw power might fall short of Osberg's, but Leon's attack paths were fatally precise for the Kraken.
It knew better than to ignore the one pecking at its eyes over the one bludgeoning its body.
As its condition worsened, the Kraken unleashed a massive roar.
Whether from confidence it could still fight or sheer pride, it refused to flee.
Thrashing wildly to shake off everyone around it, the Kraken soon began gathering a cluster of light around its head.
Like a deep-sea fish bioluminescing from within.
"What the—?! Something's coming!!"
No one knew what it was, so they all backed away, bracing for impact.
-Luna, activate the third device.
Only Leon remained calm, issuing orders.
Luna signaled the mages.
"Activate the third device."
The mages, gulping nervously while eyeing the Kraken, sprang into action.
This device didn't spray anything.
It spun like a centrifuge, then fired a massive beam skyward before powering down.
"H-Hey! That didn't go wrong, did it...?"
"No. The effect triggered."
A bursting sound echoed from where the light beam had pierced the sky and vanished.
At the same moment.
The Kraken's immense power whipped up a colossal storm across the area.
Those seeing the Kraken summon a storm for the first time paled, realizing fleeing wouldn't cut it.
The Kraken's storms packed several times the punch of any natural gale.
A concentrated natural disaster was pure catastrophe.
"St-Storm!!"
"Damn it! Prepare defensive spells!!"
The mages scrambled to cast.
But Luna stopped them.
"No need."
"What do you—Huh?"
The storm, born from the Kraken wringing out every ounce of power, raged.
But the beam suddenly glowed, emitting bizarre waves—ultrasonic pulses.
-Kieeeek!!!!!
Even inaudible to human ears, the vibration hit like a shockwave.
"What...?"
"Just disrupted the Kraken's wavelength."
Luna explained flatly, already onto it.
"Controlled a Sea King disaster with one device?!"
"Kraken's not a perfect creature."
To summon storms without interference, it erected massive mental barriers—but right now, it had no spare power for that.
She answered coolly.
With its trump card nullified in an instant, the Kraken staggered back.
Already battered, losing its storm made death feel real.
From there, it was a one-sided beatdown.
Leon and Sword Saint Osberg relentlessly exploited weak points, carving deep gashes, while the strike team tore them open to drain its strength.
As collapse loomed, hope swelled: We can actually do this!
The Kraken's movements slowed visibly, wounds gushing blood nonstop.
-Good work, everyone. It was already injured, so things went smoother than expected. Just need to finish it off now.
Leon's calm transmission reached all. No more doubts about the "kid who knows nothing."
Only awe remained.
Leon had handled the core prep; the knights had just done standard large-monster subjugation work.
Drained of strength, the Kraken could barely stand, heaving ragged breaths, immobile.
The subjugation force gathered near the near-motionless beast.
"My god... We actually took down the Kraken."
"I couldn't believe it, and it went down this easily..."
They still struggled to accept it. They'd braced for massive losses, prepared for months.
The cultists had disrupted it, inflicting heavy surprise casualties, making success uncertain.
The Kraken: long-reigning terror of the seas, a Sea King with no successful subjugations in history.