What Do You Mean, "Small"?

Damn it all.

"What exactly do you mean, small?"

The God of Water asked with a hint of nervousness creeping into his voice, probing for intent.

Fortunately, she hadn't meant anything untoward by it.

"Your vessel. Yours and his. It's laughably small."

Seyul had been talking about their mentality, not their bodies.

The viewers let out a collective sigh of relief that it hadn't been anything weird.

The God of Water and Crasher felt exactly the same way, each secretly letting out the breath they'd been holding before snapping back reflexively.

"MY vessel is small?"

"Well, is it big?"

Seyul's voice cut through the air, cold and flat.

She was still bobbing helplessly in the water, and yet her bearing somehow looked down on them from above.

"A god, and this pathetic? This is how you get your revenge?"

"You committed blasphemy against the divine first!"

The God of Water lashed out, but Seyul only tilted her head.

"What blasphemy, exactly? Sure, I talked to you gods rudely, but I don't recall committing any actual blasphemy. And I told you to get lost for good reason. I told you all, clearly: I'll handle my own affairs, so stop meddling and disappear. Then you just kept showing up. What exactly did you expect me to say — honey and roses?"

Seyul genuinely had no memory of committing blasphemy.

She'd only gotten fed up and cursed at them because they kept butting in no matter how ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠many times she told them to leave.

If they had simply minded their own business, none of it would ever have happened.

Since Seyul's explanation sounded perfectly reasonable, the viewers found themselves nodding along without meaning to.

"And another thing — what did you all tell me? That you can't interfere in the human world directly, so you'd be lending me your power instead. And now look at this. You're throwing a tantrum and lending your power to my enemy?"

It was a petty, shameless act that flew directly in the face of the very rules the gods themselves had proclaimed.

"A-as long as I don't step in personally, it doesn't count!"

Caught red-handed, the God of Water scrambled for the excuse that channeling power through a third party technically wasn't against the rules.

"Shouldn't you be less full of yourself, considering the position you're in?"

Seyul dismissed the God of Water as not even worth her attention, and turned her barbed tongue on Crasher instead.

"You and him — aren't monsters and gods enemies? A god who shelters the humans fighting your kind. I doubt the two of you are on friendly terms."

Receiving power from an enemy and being happy about it — was the man sane or not?

She laid out his situation with surgical precision, but Crasher didn't so much as waver.

"It doesn't matter."

"So what if he's my enemy? He gave me this magnificent power!"

"...Even if the price of that power is slaughtering your own kind — the monsters?"

"So what? The ones who sneered at me as a low-tier monster, a fish out of water, a good-for-nothing who can't do anything on land — I couldn't care less about them. We monsters are ruled by the law of strength! I'd rather turn on my 'kin' and carve them apart than keep getting trampled in the name of some worthless solidarity!"

Crasher bared his rage and hatred in the form of a towering giant.

Crasher — and the merman race as a whole — held a lowly standing among monsters.

Low-tier creatures living in the ambiguous middle ground of the water; the other monsters looked down on them for it.

Crasher was no exception, and that resentment had left him parched for power.

Just as when he'd learned Drain, he had no intention of giving up this rare chance to seize strength.

"O God. If I strike him down, that will suffice?"

Crasher stared hard at the God of Water floating beside him.

"And if I do — will you make me stronger still?"

"That depends on your results."

"Understood."

And so a quiet assassination contract was concluded.

The moment the brief exchange ended, Crasher raised his hand.

The target of that enormous hand went without saying: Seyul.

The massive webbed palm came crashing down on the river's surface where she floated.

He struck the water with terrifying force, and the river erupted into chaos. Water geysered into the sky, surged outward, and wave after wave of spray rolled across the surface.

A moment later —

There was nothing left where she had been.

The viewers were thrown into confusion by Seyul's disappearance — but her opponents were not.

"Where did she go!"

"This rat of a—!"

Crasher had taken a beating from Seyul directly, firsthand.

The God of Water, however, had watched her skill with a god's discerning eye — and that made all the difference.

He realized instantly that she hadn't been crushed; she'd gone into hiding. And he began to search.

"GRAAAGH!"

Before long, a searing pain shot through Crasher's leg.

Seyul had surfaced from below and speared him through the thigh.

At some point she had slipped underwater, and now she was weaving through the depths, stabbing at his lower body again and again.

"You monstrous freak!"

Crasher ground his teeth.

Under normal circumstances, he would have dived down and fought back in kind.

But Seyul had already utterly dominated him beneath the surface just moments ago, and hesitation rooted him in place.

WHAM! BOOM!

Instead, he began thrashing at the surrounding river water with his hands, striking anything and everything.

He twisted his massive body as hard as he could, deliberately churning up violent currents.

It was like watching a whale go berserk.

With that bulk rampaging, it seemed nothing nearby could possibly survive — and Crasher knew it. That was precisely why he thrashed indiscriminately, hoping to keep Seyul from getting anywhere near him.

But a short while later —

"GYAAAH!"

All that effort came to nothing as Crasher screamed.

The pain had come, absurdly, from his back.

"Behind you!"

The God of Water hastily pointed.

Seyul had, at some point, climbed onto Crasher's back and driven her spear into it.

"Get OFF me!"

Crasher flailed in a panic, trying to shake her loose.

At first he tried to grab her off his back with his hands, but she slipped just out of reach of his arms.

So Crasher chose the other option — charging around as violently as the word implied!

He twisted his whole body and tore around the river at full sprint.

"How is it?"

The God of Water sidled up to Seyul as she clung to the spear planted in Crasher's back and endured the ride.

"Even for you, I'd say there's little you can do in a situation like this."

"..."

"Apologize now, swear yourself to our service, and we might let this slide."

The God of Water saw her crisis and moved to exploit it, dangling an offer of leniency.

"You're awfully relaxed, aren't you."

Seyul answered with pure scorn.

"Quit with the pathetic little tricks. It's making me nauseous."

"You insolent—!"

"Did you really think threatening me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would make me roll over? I'd rather die than do what you tell me — so kill me if you can!"

At her furious outburst, the God of Water fell silent at last.

Instead, he turned his attention elsewhere.

"Merman! Rather than careening around like this, slam your back against the surface of the water — that will dislodge her!"

He was simply offering Crasher a more efficient way to deal with Seyul.

When an enemy clings to your back, pinning them beneath you is the textbook counter. The terrain ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠here was river rather than solid ground, so the impact would be blunted — but not by enough to dismiss.

Crasher obeyed immediately, and just as predicted, a colossal wake erupted and turned the river into mayhem.

"She dodged it."

Had she taken that blow head-on, she might well have been obliterated on the spot.

Seyul had darted away to safety a split second before impact.

Amid the chaos, Crasher and the God of Water both glared down at her — the only one untouched, floating there without a scratch — with sour, resentful eyes.

"Why not give up and die already? With that mouse-tail excuse for power, resisting a body like this is hopeless. My victory is already assured!"

Crasher puffed himself up, looming over her.

That's what YOU think.

To Seyul, it was nothing short of a laughable display.

Does he think fighting giant opponents is new to me?

Compared to everything she had been through in the Other World, this was nothing.

That world had been full of enemies of colossal size. Other dragons, just like her — and she had emerged victorious against every one of them.

So this situation was no crisis at all.

And even if it had been, Seyul had already made up her mind.

She would walk her own path, and she would never bow to any threat — not now, not ever.

So the mountain of flesh before her was simply something to punch through.

"I'll tear you to pieces!"

Crasher's hand shot toward her again.

This time, Seyul didn't dodge.

The instant the giant palm closed in, she left the water's surface — and landed on top of it.

She had mounted the enormous hand flying straight at her in a single heartbeat, and the chat erupted in astonished cries at the display of sheer audacity.

Perched atop it, Seyul sprinted up its length and kept climbing, all the way past his arm.

Crasher gaped and swung his other hand to swat her off — but it was futile.

Seyul was always one move ahead of his massive, sluggish limbs.

By the time she finally made it up to his shoulder, the viewers were feeling awe and admiration in equal measure.

Now.

In a flash, Seyul reached his head and thrust her spear.

The spear inherited from Gerard boasted fearsome cutting power — and on top of that, she poured in her mana to the brim.

Unlike her old, chipped weapon, it punched through flesh and muscle as if they were paper.

"AAAAAAGH!!"

Crasher shrieked in agony.

Seyul's spear had driven through his skull and deep into his brain.

"To... to end like this...."

Leaving behind one last broken murmur, Crasher slowly began to sink.

Damn it all.

Watching the champion he had gone to the trouble of empowering get struck down, the God of Water muttered hollowly to himself.