NOVEL NEXT Chapter 83: It Was a Sea Monster
「What is… happening?」
The ship swayed greatly, causing the rest of the pirates to lose their balance and be thrown upward.
It was as if something struck the bottom of the ship.
I also lost my balance and rolled to the side of the deck.
A scream could be heard from the direction of the pirate ship.
When I looked at the pirate ship, I saw that the pirates who stayed in the pirate ship were running in a hurry toward this ship.
To be honest, I was annoyed by their screams.
Thus, I went to the tip of the swaying ship and saw a giant shadow coiling below the pirate ship.
「That's…」
The thing that coiled around the pirate ship was a long and slimy leg with suction pads. Amongst the monsters inhabiting the sea, it was known to belong to a monster that sank more ships than any other—the kraken.
Its appearance resembled that of a squid, but it was big enough to swallow the entire pirate ship.
Maybe the one who crashed into the passenger ship a while ago was this guy.
It seemed to be coiling itself around the pirate ship next.
「R-RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!」
The pirates on the pirate ship were trying to jump toward the passenger ship.
But then, the kraken's tentacles caught their legs as soon as they jumped off from the deck.
「~?!」
The unlucky pirates who got caught by the kraken's tentacles were desperately flailing their limbs, trying to escape from the grip.
But their resistance was futile. They were still dragged into the sea.
「N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
「I DON'T WANT TO DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!」
That was only the beginning as more and more pirates on the pirate ship got dragged into the sea by the kraken.
The pirates on the passenger ship's deck could only watch their comrades getting dragged into the sea by the kraken with dumbfounded looks on their faces.
With a loud snapping sound, the pirate ship finally snapped right in half and sunk into the sea.
Everything would be okay if the kraken was satisfied with pirates, but now it was coiling around the passenger ship.
Although the passenger ship was bigger and far more solid than the pirate ship, it still made creaking noises as the kraken coiled around it.
「F-Finished…」
「We're going to become kraken food…」
The pirates were sitting still with despaired looks on their faces.
The tied captain, who rolled on the deck, was shouting something.
「HEY, YOU F*CKING PIRATES! YOU GUYS ARE THE ONES WHO HIJACKED THIS SHIP! DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS SITUATION!」
「The hell are you talking about…?! Don't you see how easily that monster snapped our ship in half?! This is the first time I’ve seen a kraken of that size! ALL OF US ARE FINISHED!!」
The kraken's tentacles were squirming on the deck while they were bantering like that.
「EEK!」
「GO AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!」
BAM!
「「「…Eh?」」」
When I tried to punch one of its tentacles with all my might, that said tentacle exploded into pieces.
…It was more fragile than I thought.
Since it looked really elastic, I thought that brute force wouldn't work on it and planned to use fire magic on it, but it turned out I overestimated it.
That saved me from a lot of trouble since this ship might have caught on fire if I used a fireball to kill the kraken.
『~?!』
Maybe due to the shock when one of its tentacles exploded, the kraken retreated into the sea.
「It’s really quiet now…」
When I looked over the fence, the giant shadow below the ship had already vanished.
Did it escape to the bottom of the sea?
「Eh? The ship is… rotating?」
The giant passenger ship was starting to rotate slowly.
The speed of rotation was getting faster and faster to the point that the adventurers who fell asleep were rolling to the side of the deck.
They would die for sure if they somehow got thrown into the open sea in that kind of condition.
Thus, I ran around the deck, picking up the sleeping adventurers and throwing them indoors.
Meanwhile, the rotation of the ship got faster and faster.
「I-it's… a Kraken's whirlpool!」
「Did it try to pull this ship into the sea?!」
The pirates were starting to shout with ghastly looks on their faces.
It seemed this rotation happened because the kraken was stirring the sea.
It then slowly became a giant water vortex that could drag any ship into it.
The rotation made it difficult for me to stand on my feet. At this rate, it would only be a matter of time before this ship really got dragged into the sea.
Uh… I guess I had no choice.
It already wrecked the pirates' ship, and I hated to get wet.
I jumped from the deck into the sea.
I unintentionally took a deep breath before jumping down from the ship, but then, I remembered that undead had no need for air to survive.
The moment I plunged into the sea, I found out that the water current was truly horrifying.
If it were me when I was still alive, it would take no time for me to drown in this kind of current and become shark bait.
I swam against the current, getting closer and closer to the Kraken who created this water vortex.
The Kraken was right under the ship. It seemed it created this vortex by stretching its feelers and spinning them quickly.
「(HUH?!)」
When I tried to hit the closest feeler to me, I was repelled by its high rotation instead.
Moreover, my physical strength was weakened so much to the point that I couldn't even damage the Kraken.
Since we were inside the water, fire magic might be a bad choice…
In that case, I was left with the only other magic that I knew: wind magic.
「(Air!)」
It was the most basic of the basics, the lowest of the low kinds of wind magic, but if I loaded enough of my mana into it―
GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
It turned into a violent gale in the sea.
…And created new vortexes that neutralized the vortex created by the Kraken.
『?!』
Great, now it was time to stop the giant water vortex!
I kept unleashing the wind in the same direction.
In addition, I also adjusted the angle to get close to the Kraken.
Although the Kraken quickly used one of its feelers to coil around my body, it was far from enough to stop me.
And then, I unleashed a punch toward the Kraken.