Kraken Subjugation Battle (2)
The moment I spotted the blue arrow appearing alongside Do Sihee's voice, a torrent of thoughts flooded my mind in an instant. Could it be that I'd been so focused on the fight that I'd stared down the Kraken for over two hours, and in the meantime, Eunbyeol and Do Sihee had come back with backup? That flicker of hope crossed my mind, but sadly, with only the sound of a single helicopter, it was obviously too good to be true.
"Sungcheol!!"
...I'd clearly told them to run.
In this do-or-die moment, after they'd saved my life once already, should I thank Do Sihee and Eunbyeol? Or get mad that they'd turned my sacrifice into a waste? I wasn't sure. If I'd known it would end up like this anyway, maybe I should've just suggested we all fight together from the start.
"...Haa, seriously."
Either way, right now I had to set everything else aside and pour all my strength into dealing with the Kraken in front of me. I couldn't just give up in this hopeless, pitch-black situation. If I fell now, it wouldn't be a noble sacrifice to save someone else—it'd be a pointless death for all of us. Not exactly a satisfying end to my life.
"Get away from Sungcheol!"
The moment Do Sihee's voice rang out from above, a blue magic arrow slammed into the Kraken's leg. The tentacle that had been closing in to finish me off recoiled in surprise from her shot. It wasn't powerful enough to destroy the leg outright, but it had enough kick to startle it into backing off momentarily. Plenty of room to exploit there, in various ways.
The problem was my inner energy, scraped down to the dregs and completely spent.
I could feel it trickling back a little during this brief breather, but my gut told me it still wasn't enough for a proper technique.
Esila.
Esila here.
Anything in the point shop or whatever to restore my inner energy?
The Point Shop is currently offering a service to restore inner energy using all of Kim Sungcheol's remaining points, scaled to the amount spent.
How much would I get if I use up all my remaining awakening points right now?
Approximately 15% of Kim Sungcheol's current maximum inner energy.
...Fine, use them all to restore it.
It wasn't the explosive refill I'd hoped for, but what could I do? That was probably the limit of what 60 points could buy. I'd barely severed four legs by scraping together every last drop of inner energy, so honestly, it was still way short.
...That said, it was only short without Do Sihee.
"I told you to get away from Sungcheol!!"
If that blonde lady shooting magic arrows from the helicopter could take out even one or two of its legs, we'd have a shot.
Esila, how much inner energy do I have left now?
About 19%.
Tell me every time it drops. I need to keep track.
Understood.
First, I used the replenished inner energy for Emergency Recovery to heal the fatigue buildup in my bones and muscles through self-regeneration. No time to fix the scrapes and scratches, just enough to move freely.
Remaining inner energy: about 12%.
It cost a whopping 7% just for that, but it was necessary. With the remaining 12%, if I could sever two more legs including a tentacle, and Do Sihee took out at least one of the other four... we could finish it before the severed ones regenerated.
I quickly explained my improvised plan to Do Sihee hovering in the air, sharing tactics with the blonde archer.
"Sihee!"
"...Yes!!!"
"Keep drawing its attention! I'll cut off one more tentacle in the meantime!!"
"...Yesss!!!"
Seizing the opening as Do Sihee's magic arrows pulled the Kraken's focus, I regripped my greatsword and closed in on its main body. To neutralize its remaining tentacle, I needed to slice more than half in a single strike. So while she shot, I charged at full speed toward the opposite tentacle, greatsword raised.
Thud!
The moment I approached, its longest leg swung to crush me. It instinctively knew its lone tentacle was vulnerable if attacked, so the other legs joined to block me—but—
"Not happening!!"
A barrage of magic arrows from above struck multiple legs at once, forcing it to recoil. Spread out as they were, each shot lacked punch, but nothing beat a volley like that for grabbing aggro.
".........!!!"
No cry, but I heard the slippery, irritated friction of its tentacles twitching in annoyance.
In that gap Do Sihee bought, I reached the midpoint of its left tentacle and swung my mithril greatsword, wrapped in whatever energy—inner or otherwise—it could muster.
The unpleasant sensation of slicing through squishy flesh with a core flowed up my arms, but that finally dealt with its most annoying weapon.
".........!!!!"
"Gahhh!!"
"Sungcheol!"
Of course, it wouldn't just take a leg being severed lying down. I got smacked by its thrashing tentacles and went flying through the air again.
Luckily, I landed on the sandbar with fewer Kraael corpses this time, so it wasn't too bad.
...It still hurt like hell, obviously.
"Ugh, damn... "
I tried to force my aching body up fast, but the Kraken moved quicker. Survival first over inner energy, I poured power into a swing at the approaching leg—
"I said get away!!!"
More arrows flew in, making it flinch and recoil. Thanks to that, I preserved what little inner energy I had left.
Current remaining inner energy: 2%.
What?
The Kraken's tentacle has higher durability than its other legs, so severing it required significantly more inner energy.
...If Do Sihee hadn't drawn its aggro, I'd have been smashed flat. I'd already burned through every last awakening point, and now I had barely enough inner energy left for one or two spells. I had to leave the remaining legs to her.
".........!!!"
Meanwhile, the Kraken, fed up with the arrows harassing it over and over, shifted its aggro from me to the helicopter in the sky. Just like before, it fired an ink cannon straight at it.
The chopper lurched wildly from the sudden ink blast, and the shockwave tilted Do Sihee's body out the door.
"...Kyaaah!!"
"Milady!!"
She barely grabbed the landing skid with one arm before falling, hanging there successfully—but climbing back into the cabin from that position mid-air was no easy feat. And the Kraken was already prepping its next ink shot. Sensing the crisis, I yelled to her.
"Let go and drop, Sihee!"
The blonde heiress released without hesitation at my words, plummeting from 50 meters up. Right then, an ink cannon slammed into the underside of the fuselage she'd been bracing against.
I stowed my greatsword in my subspace pocket and sprinted full-tilt toward her falling form.
"Kyaaaaahhh!!!"
Even as she fell, Do Sihee clutched her bow tight and curled up. As she neared the ground, when she hit about 20 meters, I launched my body forward at a 45-degree angle.
Her soft body slipped neatly into my arms mid-air, and I landed on both feet on the sandbar, holding her.
"You okay?!"
"Y-yes... Sungcheol..."
Do Sihee nodded quietly, cheeks flushed in my arms. It was pretty cute, but obviously no time to savor romance.
"W-what do we do now, Sungcheol?"
"What else? Kill that half-dead Kraken and escape. No stronger monsters have shown up yet, so it's probably the boss of this monster wave."
Monster waves usually fizzled out once the boss was slain, so taking down the Kraken should wrap it up somehow.
"We already cut off two tentacles, so it's not impossible."
"B-but my arrows can't destroy an S-rank monster like the Kraken's legs. The best I can do is shock it into backing off briefly..."
"What about Eunbyeol? Same for her abilities?"
"Eunbyeol's awakening lets her manipulate blades with magnetism. But there's a weight limit on what she can control, so she can't land effective hits either."
"Neither one's ideal..."
On top of that, linking up with whoever was flying the helicopter would be tough—
"Milady! I'm coming down too!!"
Suddenly, the maid Eunbyeol's voice echoed from above, toward us. Looking up in confusion, I saw her parachuting down right over Do Sihee and me. The helicopter, which had been flying until moments ago, veered the opposite way and started plummeting.
BOOM!
Our aerial ride exploded spectacularly with a cheerful blast, taking one of the Kraken's legs with it. Fewer tentacles to deal with was a silver lining, but...
"...Joined up, Milady, Kim Sungcheol."
...Now who was gonna take us home?