[Vortex].
It was a skill I had obtained during my second level-up on Chron Island.
It was a purple-grade card, and when it first appeared, I felt an absurd rush of dopamine so intense it sent a shiver through my mind.
But when I went out to the shore alone at dawn and tested it, my anticipation turned to disappointment in an instant.
The skill’s effect was simple, as always.
[Creates a massive whirlpool in the target body of water.]
In other words, it was an area-of-effect field skill.
When I first saw it, I’d been excited, thinking, “Finally, an AOE field skill!” But once I actually used it, its drawbacks hit me painfully hard.
First, its casting range was short.
When I fought on the island, I stood atop the watchtower and poured firepower from a distance like a turret, but this skill only activated within twenty meters.
Second, I couldn’t move while casting it.
It was the same restriction as [Water Prison], but this one wasn’t a direct control skill.
Stopping to cast in a close-quarters situation where enemies were rushing in was practically the same as suicide.
Add the first drawback on top of that, and the difficulty of using it was close to atrocious.
Third, its power increased in a curve.
It wasn’t an explosive type that went off immediately; it grew stronger the longer it was maintained.
It was far too sluggish a technique to use in an urgent situation.
There was also the drawback that it could only be used where there was water.
But that was a problem that always followed me around, so there was no point dwelling on it.
In any case, it was a skill that was hard to put to proper use under normal circumstances.
But now was different.
We were on a ship, so there was no need to move, and there was enough distance.
And water? The sea surrounded us on every side. Could there be any better condition than this?
As a result.
Kwaaaaaaaaaak!
A gigantic whirlpool burst forth, swallowing the monster as if dragging it down like water flushing through a toilet.
A fair amount of time had already passed since activation, so its power and range had grown to an absurd degree.
“The ship’s being sucked in!”
“Turn her! Move, now!”
Orders mixed with screams poured out.
The hull vibrated as even our ship began to get caught in the pull of the massive vortex.
‘As expected… the range restriction is still a problem.’
Kwaaaaaaaaaak—!
The enormous vortex continued to spin.
The monster’s tentacles, exposed above the surface, thrashed wildly, but even that mass, caught in the current, was being shaved away toward the center.
Kagagak! Kagak!
Fragments were scraped away.
The tightly fused coral and shells shattered, exposing flesh, and even that was ground apart and scattered by the whirlpool.
The monster’s roar tore at my ears, and dark-red blood poured down like rain amid the spray.
“It’s getting caught! It’s being dragged in!”
“Keep it up, please…!”
I could hear the soldiers shouting, but my mind was focused elsewhere.
Mana was pouring out of me.
‘Kugh…’
The world before my eyes swayed into the distance.
I could vividly feel the strength inside my body flowing out through my fingertips.
The hand gripping my staff trembled, and my teeth chattered together.
The monster’s flesh continued to peel away.
I could clearly see that, compared to its size, the wounds were becoming deep.
But at the same time, my heartbeat was growing more and more irregular.
‘At this rate…’
My vision shook, and the soldiers on the deck looked distorted.
I faintly heard someone calling my name and running toward me, but I knew all too well that the moment I let go of my mana, the whirlpool would disappear too.
Right now, all I could do was endure.
‘No… more…’
My fingertips went numb with a tingling sensation, and the flow of mana rising from my heart suddenly snapped.
My heart sank once with a heavy thud, and I felt like an empty shell with nothing left inside.
Kurururururu…
The vortex weakened rapidly.
The monster, which had been screaming as it was dragged in until now, raised its head above the sea, revealing its horribly torn body.
Its skin was shredded to pieces, and dark-red viscera spilled onto the surface.
Even so, the light in its eyes had not gone out. If anything, an even deeper hatred lingered there.
Guuuuuuuuung──!!!
A tremendous roar.
The seawater trembled as one and crashed over the ship like a wave.
I barely managed to hold myself up by gripping the railing, but there was no strength in my legs.
The monster’s wounds slowly began to close.
The torn muscles clung back together, and over its split shell, new flesh grotesquely sprouted.
Groans broke out among the soldiers.
“It’s… it’s regenerating…”
“It can survive even with wounds like that?”
Their voices were filled with spreading despair.
But I narrowed my eyes for a moment.
Its recovery was by no means complete.
The deeply cut wounds failed to seal smoothly, healing hideously as torn flesh tangled together.
The monster’s movements had also slowed, and its massive body merely shook as if convulsing in pain.
“If it’s that bad… we can escape—”
At that moment.
Puhwak! Puhwak! Puhwak!
Huge bubbles burst up one after another from beneath the sea.
Between the bubbles, slick black shapes poked their heads out.
Small deep-sea anglers. They were noticeably smaller than the ones we had faced on the island.
‘Are they its offspring?’
The thing hadn’t been alone to begin with.
Thinking about it, it was only natural.
This was the very place identified as the spawning ground.
The fact that there was one meant there were already dozens, perhaps hundreds.
‘So that monster was the mother.’
It was almost foolish that I had forgotten such a simple fact and treated it as a lone individual.
…No, I suppose I was just that exhausted.
The continuous fighting, the dwindling mana, and the despair that followed.
I panted for breath as I took in the scene unfolding before my eyes.
Chwaaaaaak!
The little things immediately cut through the sea and charged toward the ship.
Tentacles tore through the surface and wrapped around the railing with lightning speed.
One soldier screamed as he was dragged away and disappeared into the sea.
“Ah… fuck.”
I muttered inwardly.
The monster that had seemed hopeless from the first moment I saw it was now pouring out its own young and filling the battlefield again.
And I had no usable mana left.
“Rib!”
Baldik, who was cutting down tentacles beside me, shouted my name.
Since I didn’t even have the strength to answer, I merely nodded.
“There’s no other way, is there?”
“……”
“Damn it. So it really has to be that method.”
That method?
Had this man made some separate plan without me knowing?
Immediately, Baldik raised his voice loud enough to ring across the entire ship.
“Bring the ship alongside that monster!!”
“What?”
“He’s insane!”
The soldiers’ reactions were natural.
Telling them to bring the ship next to the monster sounded like nothing but telling them to commit suicide.
But Baldik did not back down.
He adjusted his grip on his blood-soaked sword and shouted through gritted teeth.
“We’re screwed if we try to run anyway! We have to stab it directly!”
“What kind of nonsense is—Aaaaagh!”
One soldier tried to protest, only to be wrapped up by the tentacle of a small deep-sea angler that shot out and dragged him away.
At that scream, the deck turned into pandemonium again.
This was no longer a situation we could endure.
If they had been the deep-sea anglers we usually faced, we might have barely managed to hold them back with patterns we had grown used to.
But if that massive thing joined in again—at that moment, everything would be over.
“…Bring the ship alongside it, please.”
I squeezed out every ounce of strength I had and barely managed to speak.
For an instant, silence fell over the deck.
The soldiers’ gazes turned to me all at once, and a brief hesitation passed through eyes sunken in despair.
Baldik bared his teeth and shouted.
“You heard him!? We have no choice now! We live by getting close!”
The hesitant soldiers’ gazes shifted back to Sergeant Jackson.
He closed his eyes briefly, exhaled a deep breath, and issued the order.
“…Bring us alongside it!”
The ship twisted and turned.
As the huge hull changed direction, the people clinging to the railings nearly toppled over one after another, screaming.
But then Baldik pointed ahead and roared.
“Look forward! Tentacle incoming!”
Bang!
A tentacle that shot up through the current slammed into the side of the ship.
The deck shook, and cracks spread through the wooden floor.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Block it!!”
Three soldiers pushed up with their shields pressed together, and with a horrible crunch, the shield line was cut apart and fell into the waves.
Thick black blood spread through the seawater.
But that was not the end.
More deep-sea anglers climbed up in groups.
Even with their small bodies, their deadly teeth and tentacles were still a threat.
“Fire!”
Whoosh, whoosh!
Arrows shot from the rear pierced the deep-sea angler’s eyes and tentacles.
Sileon kept drawing his bowstring, muttering with his face twisted.
“Please… let this be right!”
The pierced creature toppled over and was swept away by the waves.
But another soon stepped over it and crawled up.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Just as a soldier hanging from the railing was about to be dragged away, Baldik threw his spear.
The spear pierced the tentacle and lodged there, vibrating, and he gritted his teeth as he pulled.
The tentacle was severed, and the soldier barely fell back onto the deck.
The ship was still creaking as it turned.
The rowers’ arms had reddened as if they might burst, and shouts of “Push!” and “Row!” rained down around my ears.
Kiiik—kideudeudeuk—
With the wood screaming, the ship gradually advanced toward the monster’s black body.
The closer we got, the more its stench stabbed into my nose.
I gritted my teeth and raised my staff high.
[Water Bomb]
Being on the sea was helping my mana recover.
I poured all the mana I had scraped together into a direct hit on the tentacle of a deep-sea angler crawling over the railing.
Kwaang!
The monster screamed and plunged headfirst into the sea.
“Thank you.”
Ranson briefly caught his breath and thanked me.
“No.”
I shook my head and immediately turned my gaze to Hain standing beside him.
My eyes fell on the metal chain around his wrist.
“As expected, you plan to use that, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
So that was the method.
Use the relic to stop the monster for a moment, then strike it with a single blow.
It was simple, but it might also be the surest method.
The problem was, to bind a monster of that size, an equivalent price would follow.
“To stop a monster like that…”
Ranson’s voice trembled.
I did not bother to answer. Everyone already knew.
“We’re right in front of it! Get ready!”
When the monster noticed us approaching, it stopped recovering its torn body and glared at us, its tentacles swaying.
We hurriedly untied the bundle, took out the remaining magic tools, and equipped them.
But because of the number of magic tools, only five people could go in at once.
Three soldiers, Baldik, and.
“Tch.”
Even the mercenary who had made that cynical sound earlier joined them.
As befitted someone who had survived on this hellish island for so long, his gaze was, if anything, calm.
“Show me that method properly.”
He spoke in a cynical voice, glancing sideways at Baldik.
Baldik bared his teeth in a grin.
“Yeah. Let’s get ready.”
Hain silently reached his hand toward the approaching monster.
There was neither fear nor hesitation in his eyes.
The monster twisted its enormous body, trying to drive its tentacles down like lightning.
Chwararararararak—!
At that moment, purple chains flowing from the ship shot out.
With a metallic clatter, they spread over the sea, skimming past the monster’s tentacles and entangling themselves around it like mad.
Peong!
A tentacle bent in midair and struck the surface.
That single blow alone raised a small wave, and the ship lurched for an instant.
Kang!
Thick chains wrapped around the monster’s torso, fins, and nape.
And then.
Wuuuuuuuuung.
Purple patterns spread across the entire chain and began to pulse.
The moment the light sparked, the monster’s body stiffened unnaturally and froze in place.
Rough bubbles burst from the mouth of the immobilized deep-sea angler.
Bubbles mixed with blood surged up over the sea, and the soldiers’ breathing stopped at the sight.
“It stopped… It really stopped!”
Someone shouted, but at the same time, Hain’s face turned deathly pale.
The chain pattern wrapped around his wrist dug into his flesh, spreading like roots.
“Jump!!!”
At Baldik’s roar, the five of them kicked off the railing all at once and threw themselves into the sea.
Spray burst upward, and the cold seawater seeped into every part of their bodies.
Kurururuk!!
The swarms of small deep-sea anglers floating nearby charged at them.
A chilling froth spewed from between the teeth revealed as its black mouth split wide.
“Fire!!”
“Don’t let them get any closer!!”
Sergeant Jackson’s shout burst from above.
Crossbow bolts and arrows immediately poured down like rain.
Shweeeek! Shweeeeeek!
The arrows that flew in, cutting through the current, pierced the eyes and fins of the smaller anglerfish.
As the creatures thrashed, scattering blood, the soldiers’ cheers erupted.
“Now!”
The bound giant anglerfish’s body trembled in the sea like it was convulsing.
In that brief moment when the chains held it fast, there was only one chance.
Baldik was the first to hurl himself forward and cut off a tentacle.
Its shell was harder than steel, but seizing the moment when the relic’s binding had sapped its strength, one blade sank deep.
“Krgh!”
The two soldiers beside him drove their spears in together, thrusting as if to shove them into the creature’s body.
Blood and dark red mucus spread through the water.
“More! It’s still holding on!!”
The soldiers’ spears and swords dug in one after another, and Baldik cut off another tentacle.
In that opening, Sailun drew his bow with trembling hands and shot an arrow deep into the monster’s mouth.
The arrowhead buried itself in the slick mucous membrane, and a grotesque scream echoed through the sea.
But then—
The chains lurched, sending a vibration through them.
‘Already?’
When I turned my head, I saw Hain.
The color had already drained from the face of the man who had been maintaining the chains’ power.
His eyes wavered, and then he collapsed on the spot.
In that instant, the chains loosened as if coming undone.
“Run!!”
At my shout, the soldiers swinging their weapons on the monster’s back staggered in midair.
The balance they had been holding collapsed in an instant.
“Uh, uuh…!”
“Get down!! Now!!”
Guuuuuuuuung—!!
A roar burst from the monster’s body, shaking the sea.
Its tentacles lashed out in every direction, and one of the soldiers on its back was flung straight into the water.
“Damn it, is this the end…!”
Just as everyone was about to be swallowed by despair—
Kuk—!
The monster jerked, twisted its body, and then stopped moving entirely.
Its enormous body shuddered as if in convulsions, then went limp and began to sink into the sea.
“What the hell, all of a sudden…?”
“It stopped?”
The soldiers clinging to the railing widened their eyes and murmured among themselves.
Even Baldik was momentarily at a loss for words, glaring into the water.
And a moment later.
The blood-red surface rippled, and a man burst out.
“Hah, hah…”
It was the mercenary who had jumped in with us earlier.
Blood was streaming down from his hand.
And at his waist, perhaps from where he had driven it deep into the monster’s gills, half of a broken sword hilt remained.
“Damn it… I never want to go inside a breathing hole again.”
After climbing back onto the ship, he muttered between ragged breaths.
Soon after, the monster’s massive body slammed against the reef, making a grotesque sound amid the surging waves.
Everyone stared at the enormous corpse in silence, holding their breath, until at last they let out sighs of relief.
“Is it… over?”
Sailun murmured with a vacant expression.
Someone might call it anticlimactic.
But at least for us, it wasn’t.
This time, without a doubt.
And so, the battle came to an end.