Kraken (1)
A pillar that seemed to pierce the heavens came crashing down toward Ortus. The sight was so utterly unreal that no one could react immediately.
Except for one person. Tiny.
"Damn it! Your Highness, a deal's a deal!"
His words to the king were shockingly irreverent, but no one paid it any mind. The king snapped out of his daze and hurriedly pulled something from his bosom, tossing it to Tiny.
"I leave it to you, Sir Tiny!"
Without time to reply, Tiny shattered the window and leaped outside.
And in that instant, calamity struck Ortus.
BOOOOM!
RUMBLE RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE.
The disaster split the great city of Ortus in two at a single blow. The city cracked apart from where the monster's leg fell, and the shockwave from the epicenter triggered an earthquake that shook the entire world.
"Kyaaack!"
"Uwaaaah!"
As the crowds near the palace collapsed in screams, a small figure astride a massive wolf burst from the ramparts into the air like a shooting star. In both hands, he gripped a long hammer dangling what looked like a giant octopus.
Thud.
"Let's go!"
"Grrrrowl."
Wolrang charged ahead, making its displeasure plain even as it obeyed. Tiny felt the same.
Sticky demonic energy writhed behind him, far worse than any ordinary demon worshipper.
'Even as a corpse, it feels nastier than that elf black mage.'
Unlike demon worshippers' corpses that rotted or crumbled to dust, this one had its demonic energy congealing stickily upon death, amplifying its presence. It even held its form inside the holy barrier. Tiny was tempted to dissect it out of curiosity about the legendary sea monster said to feed on other beasts... but.
'...Can't do that.'
He couldn't damage the corpse to prove his theory at first discovery. Later, it turned out Gail Anderson, the Tide Mage, had sacrificed his life to prepare it.
Messing it up would betray the dead man's will, and Tiny couldn't forgive himself for that.
Besides, there was no time for dissection now.
'Right now...'
He had to deliver this— the baby Kraken's corpse— to its mother.
Deliver Gail Anderson's message...!
"I used mana to engrave the images of those bastards onto the baby Kraken's body. From the moment I fell to their scheme and began sealing the hatchling, I imprinted the faces of the calamity's architects onto the beast."
Even assuming the real Kraken's intelligence was but a fraction of the legends, it would recognize the true culprits who killed its offspring...
'So...'
Whoosh whoosh whoosh.
'...faster!'
BAAANG!
At full throttle, the wind whipping past his ears exploded, making time seem to slow. The massive leg splitting Ortus in half slowly rose back into the sky.
Tiny sped past that horrifying limb and reached the docks in a flash.
Still with momentum from acceleration, he planned to use gravity to hurl the baby corpse toward the mother Kraken with maximum inertia.
'Damn! Too far!'
The distance was greater than expected. In that split second, urgency stretched time further, his mind blanking white.
Then.
'Just toward that leg...'
As he reluctantly considered Plan B.
Woof!
Wolrang sent a resolute will: Keep going!
'What? The sea's right ahead!'
An absurd notion, but Wolrang was dead serious.
Woof! Woof!
I can do it!
As it reaffirmed its iron will, Tiny recalled Wolrang's living feats: a house-sized wolf bounding through the air, sprinting across water like flat ground.
Besides Soul Sight, its other gift: Space Step.
'You think that'll just suddenly—'
Woof!
You're ready.
Wolrang charged the sea without slowing. At the leap into the ocean.
Feeling time crawl even slower, Tiny focused wholly on Wolrang.
And realized.
'Wolrang's right.'
Built on his growth as a Mana User and knight, his spirit arts were finally ready to advance.
'This is...'
Spirit User 3rd stage.
Power Link
Hummm.
A thrilling ecstasy surged from scalp to toes. The invisible bond with Wolrang thickened as their soul waves synchronized, elevating each soul's quality by a stage. Amid the bliss, massive mana flowed into Wolrang, forming transparent platforms beneath its paws.
Wolrang stepped on them, sprinting across the sea. The heightened speed was no illusion.
"Uwaaaah!"
Yelling something between a scream and a roar, Tiny instinctively gripped Stamp tighter. The mother Kraken loomed closer. The leg rising skyward poised to strike again; more tentacles writhed from the depths, eerie tips breaching the surface.
'Now!'
He focused, multiplying his and Wolrang's weight eightfold while reducing the baby corpse to one-eighth via gravity. An exquisite dual gravity manipulation once impossible.
Harnessing the mass difference and recoil to the max, he swung his arm with everything.
"Uwaaaah!"
BAAANG!
The baby Kraken's corpse rocketed off the hammer with a sonic boom, plunging deep toward its mother.
The octopus-shaped body arced high, streaking like an arrow to splash right below the breached surface where the massive leg had emerged.
In that instant.
GRRROOOOAAAAARRR!
A roar threatening to burst eardrums erupted from the sea's heart, unleashing a killing intent like an explosion.
"Guh!"
Tiny, drenched closest, felt his heart nearly stop, screaming from the shock. Survival instinct surged his mana, forcibly restarting his frozen body before the legendary predator.
"Cough, cough."
Grrrrk.
Wolrang barely clawed back to the surface, nearly sinking.
"Hah, huff. Fuck!"
He'd almost died pointlessly. Glaring with fear-fueled rage at the killing intent's source, Tiny found only eerie calm in its wake, as if nothing happened.
"Wha...?"
Glancing aside, the leg about to fall on Ortus hung frozen midair. Other rising tentacles stilled submerged.
Grasping it instantly, Tiny whooped.
"Yes!!"
Gail Anderson's legacy worked. His fist clenched in triumph.
Woof!
Wolrang's cry interrupted— I'm dying here!
'Ugh.'
Only then did Tiny feel his body hollowed out. Constant mana drain from sea-sprinting. Post all-out throw, maintaining it mid-ocean grew grueling.
'Yeah, head back first.'
He eyed the halted Kraken leg, then turned. Racing to relay the good news to the stunned royal palace.
Thankfully, until he hit the docks, the Kraken stood motionless like a colossal sea statue.
"Haaah."
Relief escaped naturally. The frozen monstrous form still chilled, but viewing it as mourning its lost child made the behemoth seem pitiable.
Then.
GRRROOOOAAAAARRR!
A sudden roar from the depths, killing intent sweeping Ortus anew, shattered that sentiment.
"What the...!?"
Grind griiiind.
Lips bitten as the leg plummeted again, Tiny thought of Gail Anderson's desperate last words. Pity for the futile sacrifice outweighed fear.
But the looming shadow brooked no reverie.
"Damn it!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh.
Following Tiny's will, Wolrang dodged the descending leg's path toward the palace.
'Only the relic barrier left to trust.'
Not that it stopped even the baby corpse. Just.
"Kraken differs innately from other beasts or demons."
"The Mythic Era's pact..."
Clinging to the king's ancient myth, hoping the barrier's interior held. That slim hope granted a brief reprieve— the leg's arc spared the palace.
Not ignorable, though.
BOOOOM!
The leg's impact pulverized mansions in a straight line to dust.
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE.
The quake warped terrain, devastation spreading; screams rose everywhere.
"Uwaaak! Run!"
"...The price is paid. Ngh."
"Ugh, such rotten luck..."
Tiny grimaced, then noticed oddity.
'Most citizens should be near the palace...?'
Why so many screams? That thought hit as foul energy ensnared him mid-charge.
"Ugh!?"
BAAANG!
The demonic qi dispersed, but in the stutter, black-qi blades flew from all sides.
Voices rang.
"Die!"
"Target!"
"Mana's weak! He's exhausted!"
Fanning flames in Tiny's burning chest amid chaos.
"You fucking trash!!"
BOOOOM!
Exhausted or not, low-tier demon cavalry were no match. From Wolrang's back, his long Stamp crushed approaching riders and black mages in succession.
But.
GROOOOAAAAH.
Kraken's roar spread anew; dense killing intent blanketed overhead. Surroundings plunged to night.
Dread rising, he looked up: a massive sucker-covered tentacle.
Too late to dodge.
"Daaaamn iiiit!!"
Tiny screamed, cloaking in blue mana armor. Swinging his glowing warhammer to blunt the impact.
"Relax, Tiny."
A familiar gentle voice wrapped him in silver wind.
And.
BOOOOOOM!
Kraken's third shockwave hammered Ortus.