Life for a Life
“Urgh……!! To think the archipelago pirates would end up like this!!”
“I've never seen anything like that before. We knew there were traps, but we couldn't have anticipated it.”
“Let me go!”
Jeongk roughly shook off the hand that had pulled him onto the deck.
“Brother opened the sea path for us……!! And we end up like this. Isn't this your territorial waters?! How the hell did you even scout it!!”
“……”
The man massaging his stinging hand was none other than Bucket Serpent.
“As I said just moments ago, we didn't know either. Whale Rock Cave was never meant to be a shipping lane in the first place.”
“Shut up!! You worthless landlubbers should've at least done that much if you're gonna play at piracy! Brother saved your sorry asses when you were drowning……!”
Bucket looked at Jeongk.
“I think we've repaid the favor the Archipelago King showed us plenty. We repaired not just the Ghoul Ship but your vessels too. And……”
Jeongk flinched. The moment he met those eyes, his shoulders trembled involuntarily.
“I gave my own son as the price for entering the archipelago. What more do you want?”
What the hell is that look……
A noble like Jeongk had barely any connection to Bucket, who hardly stirred from Kron Island. Naturally, they were scarcely acquainted.
I thought he was just some shut-in engineer……
Looking down at him anew, Jeongk realized Bucket's frame was even larger than his own.
“W-what?! What're you gonna do, staring like that!”
“I regret this turn of events. If we'd finished development or even had the prototype ready…… things might've gone differently.”
“……Development?”
“Mobile ship cannons. Unlike standard ones, they can swivel to aim. Much longer range too. Though explaining it to you would be pointless—you wouldn't appreciate the value.”
“Hmph, what's the use talking about something that doesn't even exist?”
“Fair enough.”
Bucket replied indifferently to Jeongk's words, implying their conversation held no worth.
But something else gnawed at him more.
Coincidence? Or part of the plan?
Bucket Serpent felt uneasy that, out of the four ships scattered by the flames on the sea path, two belonged to him.
……Whatever the case, I need to keep watch.
He fixed his gaze on Adel's ship.
His eyes locked on one figure standing on the deck.
It wasn't Adel.
“Just as she said, you've really come.”
It was a hunter wielding a massive greatbow.
“Haron.”
The abandoned son was now aiming his bow at him.
* * *
“Yes!! The pirate ships are done for!! Kahahaha!! Jeongk, you prick, always so annoying—serves you right!!”
Rito Yepel cheered as he watched the pirate vessels shatter from the simultaneous explosions of the Sea Demon Stones.
“Don't slack on the sails. Unless you want us to end up the same.”
“But sir, we've used up all the Sea Demon Stones.”
“Something worse than those is chasing us. You'll die a messier death than from cannon fire, mark my words.”
“……R-right away, sir!”
At Adel's words, Rito paled at the sight of the madly pursuing Kraken and grabbed the sail ropes as if his life depended on it.
“Adel, it's closing the distance.”
Kasla asked him in a worried tone.
“I told you. In this fight, running away is winning.”
“I've got one more thing prepared.”
“Time.”
Kalderet gazed at him with eyes full of expectation.
“It's improvisation, sure. Ideally, we'd have settled it with the Sea Demon Stones. The Ghoul Ship could've been totally wrecked like this.”
Adel said, arms crossed.
“It's two against one now. So we wait for reinforcements. Until the two battlefields merge into one.”
“Yeah. We run until then. What we need now isn't a harpoon to choke the Kraken with. She has that.”
Shwaaaaaah——!!!!
Shwaa——!!!!
At that moment, a ship sliced fiercely through the waves ahead of them.
“A bit longer.”
As the Kraken closed in right behind their ship, extending its legs, Adel watched the forward ship fire its cannons in unison—boom!boom!boom!!BOOM!!!!
“Rito. Furl the sails. We become the bait.”
“Huh? But cannonballs are incoming. We'll get caught in the blasts!”
“Don't worry. Those aren't cannonballs. No explosions.”
“Then……?”
Krraaaash……!
In that instant, the Archipelago King's Kraken seized Adel's ship.
Creaaak……!
The groan of bending timber echoed.
Crack! Kraaack……!!
As the Kraken's tentacles clenched with immense force, the hull screamed and splintered in places.
The Archipelago King bellowed from atop the Kraken's head.
“Hmm.”
Looking up at him from the crumbling deck below, Adel—unlike the others—stood with arms crossed, utterly relaxed.
Thwack——!!
A massive harpoon plunged from the sky into the Kraken's leg.
Thud-thud……! Thunk!! Thud-thud-thud……!!
Leading the barrage, dozens of harpoons rained down like a storm.
Each one dwarfed a man's height—like iron pillars plummeting from above.
The Archipelago King, feeling the full shock of harpoons piercing the Kraken's body, screamed as if choking on the onslaught.
“You dared…… treat the great white shark as a mere decoy?”
Rania swept her extended hand horizontally once more.
Clank—!!
Balistae on the deck reloaded with harpoons.
Boom……! Rattle……!!
Thick ropes trailed the harpoons. As they embedded in the Kraken, she dashed along the line.
“Hyaahhhh——!!!!”
Drawing the massive greatsword from her back among her three blades, she sprang off the taut rope.
Whoosh——!!
Her body soared into the air.
Spinning a full circle, she raised the greatsword overhead, arcing it toward the Kraken.
Slash—!!
Shwaaack—!!
The greatsword grazed past the Archipelago King, slicing into the Kraken's flesh. Black ink-like blood poured out.
Bwooooo——!!!
The Kraken bellowed like a trumpet.
The parted sea paths twisted together, forming whirlpools.
“Monsters incoming!!”
The azure sea turned pitch black.
Innumerable sea beasts surged toward Adel and Rania's ships.
Shraaattle—!!!
The Kraken spread its legs and slammed the surface with all its might.
Water sprayed everywhere like an explosion.
“Vetter!!! Deploy the net swallow!!”
Rattle……!!
At her command, Vetter—vice captain of the Slaughter Squad—and his men swiftly attached something to the harpoon cannons.
Kyaaak—!!
Kyaaak—!!!
The swarming monsters leaped from the waves, targeting the ship.
“Net swallow!!! Fire!!!”
Boom! Boom—!!! Booom—!!!
Smoke billowed from the ship as the projectiles unfurled with a shraa……!!
The monsters lunged at the fleet, only to thrash amid the smoke.
Chains burst from the projectiles, binding the Archipelago King head to toe.
He strained to break free.
But even the Kraken's strength couldn't snap the chains; they only tightened, crushing him.
“It's a cast net made with sanal sand from the deep sea. Dry, it's light as ordinary sand—but the more water it absorbs, the heavier it gets.”
Rania sneered at him.
“Even a Kraken can't easily lift it when soaked.”
“I didn't head out to hunt without preparations.”
She raised her hand.
“Cannon fire!!!”
Boom-! Bang!! Kraaash—!!
The Slaughter Squad hunters unleashed a volley in perfect unison, moving as if born to the sea.
“The card I prepared for Kraken hunting isn't just weapons. It's people.”
In that moment, the Archipelago King's eyes darted backward.
There was Bucket Serpent's ship.
“B-brother……”
That was when Jeongk and the other rescued pirates—bound and sprawled on the deck—came into view.
“Repaired ships more than repay the favor you granted. If you insist on calling it betrayal……”
Bucket spoke calmly.
“Then it was a betrayal forced by circumstances.”
Grip.
Watching the scene, Haron unconsciously tightened his grip on his bowstring.
“Well played. I thought you were just a brute hunter, sis. But you're sharp at intel too.”
She planted eyes in the desert.
It was the mark of a true hunter.
She'd seemed to turn from her brothers toward the strait, yet hadn't abandoned the desert.
She didn't recruit Bucket from the start.
And Adel himself couldn't have swayed Bucket.
The key…… Haron. Sis knew his background too. She made the deal knowing he'd come with me.
“No wonder the pirate ships gathered at Kron Island but sat idle for a while…… You needed time to decide.”
The Archipelago King cried out in dismay.
Unable to move, he began sinking slowly under the ever-heavier net.
“This is my victory, Archipelago King.”
Rania smiled triumphantly, standing on her greatsword embedded in the Kraken as she drew her remaining two blades.
“Adel.”
She said with utter confidence.
“The archipelago is mine. Sorry, but I can't hand over the desert that easily either.”
Shing……!!
Her twin swords quivered lightly, as if proclaiming victory.
“Hyaap!!!”
Swish—!!
Her sword severed the Archipelago King's neck.
“……?!!!”
That was when it happened.
Incredibly, the severed head opened its eyes and sneered at Rania.
“……Alive even with its head cut off?”
“M-monster……”
“Impossible.”
The Slaughter Squad hunters gaped in horror.
“Kekeke…… You think Brother's made lord of the archipelago just like that?”
“Boss!! Wipe 'em out!!”
“Kill 'em all!!”
The bound pirates shouted toward the Archipelago King.
With the Archipelago King's laughter, dark red slime erupted from his decapitated torso atop the Kraken's head.
“Urk?!”
Where the slime touched, her armor melted amid black smoke.
Shraa……!!
Sharp tendrils shot from the severed head, seizing her sword.
“Kraaah!!!”
The severed head lunged at Rania.
Just before its teeth sank into her nape—clang!
That was when it happened.
“Even the great white shark hasn't hunted ancient beasts before, I suppose.”
A blade shot out, blocking the Archipelago King's maw.
Crack……!
Then it sliced from both corners of its mouth, cleaving the head in two.
“You can't just kill someone contracted to an ancient beast. You'd only get devoured in turn.”
Adel said to Rania as she retreated.
“Sis.”
His body didn't stop.
His sword halved the Archipelago King's bisected head once more.
“You owe me now.”
“……What?”
Her face hardened in that instant.
Slash—!!
Adel slashed the fragmented head again, revealing a small pearl-like core inside.
Crackle……!!
Adel crushed it.
Rumble……!!
But the Kraken collapsed lifeless onto the waves, rocking powerlessly.
Thud—
Standing atop the fallen Kraken's head, Adel extended a hand to the slumped Rania.
“A life for a life.”
It was the Ulan tribe's code.
“Don't forget.”