Shining Gold (15)
Serpina had a few kinds of magic she particularly hated. Think of it like colors. Colors themselves carry no real meaning, yet some people have favorites while others despise certain shades. Magic worked the same way. One person might love a hue simply because it matched their birthstone. Another might loathe it for reminding them of the villain from a childhood cartoon. The reasons were equally valid.
Serpina hated summoning magic.
Infinite Mana pulled spells at random, but the ones that took physical form and charged straight at her were always summoned beasts.
Mana surged inside Serpina’s body. It carried the weight of her emotions, making the flow rougher and more violent than usual.
“Get lost.”
Serpina spread her palm and thrust it forward. Mana condensed into spellwork, and meteors began raining from the sky. The magic created enormous boulders high in the atmosphere and sent them hurtling down. They weren’t true meteors, but what else could you call burning rocks falling from the heavens?
Flame-wrapped boulders poured toward the kraken. Any fish caught in their path vanished without a trace.
Each falling boulder sent the sea churning like it had lost its mind.
“Kyaa!”
“Grab anything!”
The impacts hit twice as hard as the torpedoes the pirates had fired, slamming the ocean again and again. The ship pitched violently as if caught in a typhoon. Ayoung and Taein could barely keep their feet.
Even the toothy fish that had been attacking blindly were tossed in every direction, smashing into one another. It was pure catastrophe.
The kraken shrieked in pain. It was suffering unlike anything it had experienced before or after becoming a magic beast.
“…Tch.”
Yet Serpina’s expression stayed tight. The kraken remained largely intact despite the meteor barrage.
To be exact, it wasn’t completely unharmed. Every boulder left deep craters in its flesh, and the tentacles it raised in defense were shredded and scattered across the waves. But the mana pouring from the crystal it had swallowed healed every wound instantly. Its caved-in head swelled back into shape like a bitten apple reforming, and severed limbs sprouted anew.
The agony finally cleared the kraken’s mana-overloaded mind. It recognized Serpina as an enemy.
The kraken lifted its tentacles from the water. It swung them at the source of its pain. One limb, thick enough to match its colossal body, smashed into Serpina’s ice barrier.
The barrier shattered in a single strike. It drank in seawater and reformed almost immediately, but the sight still looked dangerously fragile. At least, that was how it appeared to everyone watching.
The kraken’s thick tentacles writhed and circled Serpina. To observers it looked like caution, but Serpina understood the truth.
The eyes. The look in those enormous pupils said everything.
Is this all you’ve got?
The octopus, already famous for its intelligence, had gained even sharper wits after becoming a magic beast. Yet high intelligence did not equal wisdom. A truth proven countless times across humanity’s long history was proven once more.
Because that taunt had been accepted.
“Hah.”
Serpina let out a hollow, disdainful laugh.
“After everything, even a piece of trash like this… Hey! Ayoung!”
“Y-yes?!”
Ayoung, still frantically dealing with the endless rain of fish, answered the sudden call.
“Get as far away as you can. Unless you want to be swept up in this.”
“Huh…?”
Busy with the fish, she replied blankly at first, not quite grasping the words. Then understanding hit and her face drained of color.
As far as Ayoung knew, Serpina had never once told people around her to back off. She had occasionally adjusted her power so others wouldn’t get hurt in a casual “might as well” sort of way, but she had never ordered them to clear out entirely. If Serpina was telling her to get far away right now, Ayoung couldn’t even imagine what was coming.
“Taein! I need your help!”
“Yes? Right!”
Ayoung sprinted for the wheelhouse. She poured all her strength into turning the bow toward the beach.
“Hold on tight!”
She drove the ship at full speed without glancing back. The violent maneuver nearly sent one of the magicians fighting on deck tumbling into the sea, but she had no attention to spare for careful steering. She raced across the water until she judged they were far enough away.
Even then, Ayoung didn’t slow down. Serpina always surpassed her expectations by a ridiculous margin. This time would be the same.
And it was.
A colossal surge of energy exploded behind them. Even Ayoung, whose mana-sensing was weak, felt it. She realized this was the power she had only ever heard about—Serpina’s true mana.
Then the storm hit.
“Kyaa!”
“Whoa!”
The tremendous wind hammered the ship’s stern. The vessel bucked so violently it seemed ready to capsize. Ayoung nearly slammed her head into the wall. Even this gust was weakened by the distance they had covered. If she had only half-heartedly retreated and eased off the throttle… the ship might have truly overturned.
“What in the world…”
Unable to resist her curiosity, Ayoung looked back.
And there it was.
A giant. Beautiful. Living creature soared through the sky. Even from this great distance its body looked enormous, its two wings spread with majestic pride. Silver scales caught the moonlight and glowed with a soft, ethereal light.
The silver hue reminded her of someone’s hair. Before she knew it, Ayoung whispered,
“Senior…?”
Serpina had returned to her dragon form. In the night sea where moonlight was the only illumination, the brilliant silver radiance dazzled every eye.
Ayoung, Taein, and even the magicians who had been suffering seasickness from the rough ride—all of them forgot the situation for a single moment and stared, entranced. Anyone would have.
Strength and beauty perfectly combined. The only one who could reject such a sight… was the enemy standing against it.
The kraken eyed the suddenly appearing unknown lifeform with caution but thought quickly. The enemy was in the sky. It could not fly. Therefore, it would drag the enemy down so it could not fly either.
The kraken thrust out its tentacles. Thicker and longer than before, they wrapped around the dragon’s torso. The mythical image of a kraken trying to ensnare a flying dragon drew involuntary gasps from the watching magicians. Some failed to notice the toothy fish that had crawled onto the deck and were chewing on their ankles.
One trying to pull down, the other trying to rise. In a contest of strength that felt almost too grand for the moment, the struggle ended quickly.
Every flap of the dragon’s wings lifted the kraken’s massive body out of the sea. The creature was dragged from the black water—tentacles, mouth, eyes, and head all at once. In the end it looked like the kraken was the one clinging to the dragon and flying through the sky. The way its huge eyes widened in shock was almost comical.
The panicked kraken tightened its grip, trying to crush Serpina to death, but it gained nothing. It could only be dragged along helplessly.
The dragon carrying its massive burden soared higher. It looked like an upside-down hot-air balloon.
Serpina spun once through the sky, then dove sharply downward… and slammed the kraken straight into the water’s surface.
“Whoa! Earth Throw!”
“……?”
One magician watching the spectacle shouted in excitement, but no one understood the reference. The man slumped in lonely silence.
The kraken’s enormous body smashed into the sea, sending a gigantic waterspout roaring upward. Ayoung saw it and instantly predicted what would come next. Her face went white.
“Grab something—anything! Hurry!”
The magicians had already been through hell. Though their eyes stayed glued to the dragon, they frantically seized whatever they could reach.
A wave the size of a house came crashing down.
The wave generated by the kraken’s colossal mass was every bit as enormous as that mass. The ship, which had barely been holding together, was hurled into the air.
“Uwaaaah!”
Seawater flooded the deck. Heads slammed into railings. Feet were trampled. Everyone fought desperately not to be thrown from the violently tossing ship.
Finally, with a heavy thud, the shaking stopped.
“Ugh… my head hurts…”
Ayoung groaned, clutching the spot where her head had struck the wall, then looked around in shock. The seawater had vanished. All she saw was white sand. After being pushed and pushed by the waves, they had somehow been carried all the way onto the beach.
“What the—? The ship flew onto land?”
The people already on the beach were equally startled. They had been fighting to stop the toothy fish that were suddenly dropping from the sky and trying to crawl ashore.
A few of them approached the ship now embedded in the sand.
“Hey! What happened out there? What was that huge thing?”
Amazingly, the battle between Serpina and the kraken had been visible even from this distant beach. They couldn’t make out exact details, but they could tell something was flying through the air while something else fought in the sea.
“Ah. The ones fighting over there are…”
Just as someone started to answer, light flared from the ocean, announcing the end of the battle.