The Sea Witch Ursula (1)

In the deepest reaches of the sea, a procession of merfolk swam through the gloom, driving a cluster of bound humans before them. At the head of the column glided a single merfolk clad in elaborate armor — the Merfolk Chieftain himself.

"We're almost there."

The Chieftain swept his gaze across the surrounding waters, taking his bearings, then brought the procession to a halt. He ordered the others ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to hold position and swam alone toward the mouth of a cavern that seemed to drink in the light. His voice rolled out through the dark.

"Ursula! I've brought what you asked for."

A great stone sealed the cave. Whether anything waited beyond that wall of rock was anyone's guess — until the stone itself began to answer.

A deep, grinding rumble shuddered through the water. The colossal boulder blocking the entrance shifted, and a sickly glow seeped from the widening gap, staining the cavern's edges with a gradual, unclean light.

"Come inside."

The voice that drifted from the depths was gravel and rust — a rasp that might have belonged to a woman or to a powerfully built man, depending on how you heard it.

"The rest of you, wait here."

With that, the Chieftain swam in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠alone.

How deep the cavern ran was impossible to say. He pressed on for a long while before the passage finally opened onto the being that waited at its end — a creature with the head and torso of a woman and a writhing mass of octopus tentacles in place of legs. Ursula greeted the Merfolk Chieftain with unmistakable pleasure.

"You brought the goods, I trust?"

"Of course. Five this time. They're waiting outside."

"Good, good. Just five more after this and we'll be all set."

Ursula peered through a crystal ball at the merfolk and humans waiting beyond the cave, and her tentacles gave a slow, eager twitch.

The seabed outside heaved. A sudden tremor rolled through the ground, and the water beyond the cavern erupted into chaos. The merfolk barely flinched — they had clearly been through this before. The captured humans had not.

What the hell is about to happen?

Among those prisoners was Kim Ha-jin. To call him a captive was, strictly speaking, a stretch. Geum Bit-na-ra had sent him to investigate the disappearances, and though he could have slipped away at any number of points, he had allowed himself to be taken. His own abilities should have made escape trivial — or so he had judged. The water, as it turned out, imposed far more constraints than he had expected.

You've got to be kidding me. What is that?

So that was the source of the tremor. A giant octopus heaved itself up from beneath the seabed, and one by one its tentacles closed around the prisoners.

Kim Ha-jin had been ready to vanish the moment things turned ugly, but the situation did not yet feel dangerous enough to force his hand. He decided to watch a little longer.

The colossal octopus seized him last, its grip viselike, and then it was moving, carrying them off through the dark. After a short journey it shoved the humans into a hole in the rock. They slid in as if something below had taken hold and yanked, and the current dragged them all the way to the bottom.

Where is this now?

The space defied any sense of place. It was so black he could not see a hand in front of his face, and he hung there blinking at nothing — until light flared without warning, flooding the chamber.

Kim Ha-jin's eyes adjusted, and there they were: the Chieftain he had seen only minutes ago, and an octopus monster he had never laid eyes on in his life.

So that's the one behind all this?

Whatever had driven the merfolk to start kidnapping humans, he was certain it was this creature. He drifted toward the Chieftain and Ursula — and stopped. An invisible barrier checked him as cleanly as a wall of glass. The same partitions seemed to isolate him from the other prisoners, each of them sealed in a cell of his own. Through that transparent wall, the octopus monster was looking straight at them.

"Well, well. Look who it is. My little darlings are here."

Ursula gazed at the humans now settled in her aquarium, and her face lit with genuine delight — the same unguarded smile a child might wear after dropping a new fish into a tank.

"I'll be going, then. See that you keep your word."

"Of course I will. I always keep my promises. Bring me five more and I'll take care of everything, nice and clean."

"Understood."

The Chieftain turned and swam back toward the mouth of the cave.

So this is where they keep the people they take.

Kim Ha-jin swept the chamber in a rapid scan. Beyond the group that had arrived with him, others were already imprisoned here. Fifteen in all.

Time to get out.

He had extracted everything useful he was going to get. Escape came next. With his Invisibility, he could slip out of this place without that monster ever noticing he was gone.

That was when it hit him.

What?

The Merfolk's Blessing that had been sustaining him was gone. His throat locked. There was not a scrap of air anywhere he looked, and the result was as inevitable as drowning. He had not even been holding his breath. Water rushed into his mouth and his lungs seized.

He was not the only one. Every prisoner in the chamber was dying the same way, seconds from the end — and then the water around them vanished in a roaring rush, draining away as if the sea itself had been yanked out through a hole. Air flooded in to take its place.

"Pwah!"

Kim Ha-jin dragged air into his chest in ragged, desperate pulls, flooding his lungs with oxygen.

"Don't even dream of escaping. Not if you want to live."

Ursula delivered the warning with a few satisfied nods at her newest acquisitions, then left them there.

So we're locked in. Completely.

The passage they had come through sat high overhead, and without the ability to swim, reaching it was impossible. Even if he somehow got there, what chance did he have of crossing the deep ocean without being able to breathe? He slammed a fist into the glass. The wall did not so much as shiver. Whatever it was made of, it was no ordinary material.

Hmph. I'll watch how this plays out for now.

Trapped as he was, Kim Ha-jin did not seem particularly tense. He settled in to wait and see which way the current ran.

"Okay. Looks like the merfolk and the Chieftain are heading back."

"What was that octopus monster just now?"

"No idea. But there's a good chance the people they took — and some of the merfolk — are inside that cave."

We had watched the whole exchange from behind a ridge of rock. Once the Chieftain and his people were gone, we turned our attention to the cavern where the prisoners had been taken and started weighing our options.

"That creature from earlier is Ursula's subordinate."

"For a subordinate, it looked way too strong..."

Min-cheol gave a small shiver at Perion's words, the oppressive weight of that giant octopus still sitting in his bones. It had been a colossal thing — so vast that the octopus that bald bastard had once transformed into would not have lasted a second against it. The pressure rolling off the creature had been enough to mark it as a boss monster in anyone's mind.

"If we deal with Ursula, I am certain our chieftain will return to his former self."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. He has not been the same since the day he first met her."

We were just beginning to shape a plan for taking Ursula down when a deep rumble rolled through the water. The stone that had opened the cavern was moving again, grinding back toward a seal.

One way or another, getting those people out meant going in there and putting Ursula down. That much was not in question.

The Alligator took shape in the water and moved with a sleekness it never had on land, hovering in place, waiting on my command.

"Let's have this guy take a look first."

At my order, the Alligator shot forward and slipped into the cavern before the stone could grind shut.

Through the link I watched the cavern unfold as the Alligator pushed deeper. After a stretch of dark tunnel, a shape resolved in the distance.

A Named Monster?

Ursula looked nothing like the ordinary creatures we had been fighting. What set a Named Monster apart, I could not yet say. Her level was a touch high, but I had gone toe-to-toe with the Grim Reaper. She did not strike me as something I could not handle.

"Hmm? And where did you come from?"

She had spotted the Alligator. Ursula drifted toward it, unhurried.

"You're a cute little thing."

I was not prepared to agree that the Alligator was cute, but her lack of hostility was an opening I had not expected. She showed the creature no aggression at all.

"Look over there. What do you think of the collection I've put together this time?"

I shifted the Alligator's gaze. Off to the side, the kidnapped humans hung in their cells.

Kim Ha-jin's in there too.

I had the location of the prisoners now. The question was how to get them out — and Ursula kept talking.

"Those ones will be sacrifices soon enough."

She said it lightly, dropping strange ingredients into a great cauldron and humming a tuneless little melody as she worked.

"She's going to kill them soon?"

Whatever plan we put together, we did not have much time to do it.

This is going to be a little more than I bargained for...

I had no real measure of how strong she was. Stronger than the Grim Reaper, almost certainly. But I was still under the Christmas Blessing, and I had a new suit of armor besides. I was not the same fighter I had been. She might be powerful, but I was confident I could at least hold my own.

I needed a read on her actual strength. I sent the Alligator in.

It lunged with a tearing roar, closing the distance in a heartbeat.

"Mmm. Someone's pulling your strings, aren't they?"

Ursula saw the charge for what it was. As the Alligator came on with its jaws wide, she flicked out a single tentacle and wound it around the creature's throat.

Bone crunched. The Alligator died with its neck snapped clean through. All that armored hide had meant nothing against the raw power in one of her arms. The Mental Synchronization cut out the instant it went still.

She's strong.

I had not expected the Alligator — hide like boiled leather — to die in a single hit. The confidence I had been wearing a moment ago was gone. Something colder crept up in its place.

We need a real plan for this...

This was not something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we could rush. A Named Monster really was a different breed.

"Let's fall back for a moment and work out a strategy."

We had only just started to withdraw when a chill brushed the back of my neck.