Chapter 48
Chapter 48. Hive (4)
‘【Mantra of Armament】 Activated!’
The handle of the Krellsite spear was made from a material that conducted magic well. Yul brought the spear to his back and gripped it tightly using the power of the mantra.
He activated the Horn of the Sea King on his forehead and created an overwhelming flow of currents.
A raging vortex of currents formed straight ahead. Yul forced his body into it.
He accelerated. Faster, before the enemy could even perceive him.
The Hive noticed Yul’s sudden acceleration earlier than expected.
As if it had learned Yul’s magic, the Hive recognized him in an instant and immediately fired its tentacles like projectiles.
However, that movement was momentarily blocked by the massive anchor ropes spread out ahead.
They struck the chains, their trajectories shifting. Yul slipped through the gap.
However, more tentacles-so many they could truly be described as countless-were fired through the water like bullets.
‘Focus. Control the flow of the currents in the short bursts.’
Yul’s Horn of the Sea King continued to glow as he manipulated the currents. Because of that, Yul was able to perform vertical acrobatic maneuvers, turning at sharp right angles.
Breaking through the opening in an instant, Yul plunged inward.
A warning he had heard earlier from Gehenna came to mind.
‘If you get pierced by a tentacle even once, you’re finished too. No matter how strong or tough you are, sooner or later you’ll be devoured by the Hive.’
He wasn’t worried. His body, reinforced by Madness, was tougher than expected.
‘And I don’t need to worry about my lifespan either.’
Thanks to all the magic stones he had consumed so far, he could keep Madness active all day if needed.
How many right-angle turns had he made? At last, the living outer shell came into view-a section with hundreds of giant lobsters clinging to it.
-Uoooooo!
Yul’s Krellsite spear pierced the armor. Purple blood burst forth as the living shell split apart. No—it was being pulverized.
The Krellsite spear, refined by Ian, had already been rotating from the moment it came into Yul’s hands.
At a terrifying speed, it drilled through the outer shell and bored inward.
‘I once bit off one of the Hive’s tentacles before.’
And at that time, Yul had seen the status window appear.
[Consuming Hive biological tissue]
[Experience +100]
[5,500/2,400]
There were no strange signs of his stomach writhing or an alien bursting out.
Even the Hive’s biological tissue, said to contaminate its victims, was nothing more than a bundle of experience points to Yul.
Continuing to drive the Krellsite spear deeper inside, Yul opened his mouth.
‘I’ll chew up every last bit of you!’
For Nugh's sake, all of it!
Watching Yul’s charge from afar were Tuania, Gehenna, and the orca herd.
-He’s begun. Tuania, command the other orcas.
-Understood. Gehenna, then what about you?
-That kid is fighting heroically on his own. I can’t just sit back and watch with nothing more than a hole in my side.
Saying that, Gehenna headed forward. Tuania realized that all of the Hive’s attention was focused on Yul.
‘Amazing.’
Moving at an impossible speed and using powers derived from an unknown source—Yul was incredible.
But she couldn’t just stand there in awe.
‘I can’t lose either.’
-Take the woven ropes and move them to the opposite side!
They planned to hook all the ropes fastened on one side to other reefs on the opposite side, tightening the blockade even further.
Anything, to help Yul even a little.
At that moment—
Yul felt his penetration power dropping at a certain point. Even as he forced his way in with brute strength that ignored defense, compared to the Hive’s overall size, Yul was no more than a toothpick.
Yet the fact that this toothpick was being fired toward its core without breaking, with pinpoint accuracy, filled the Hive with an overwhelming sense of alarm.
Yul burrowed so deeply that even the tentacles could no longer reach him.
To survive, the Hive continued to think.
And soon, it pushed the human brain being digested in its stomach to its absolute limits.
‘Separate.’
It tore away the outer shell where countless organisms were fused together, ripping it clean off its body.
It intended to compress the torn-off shell with immense force to deal with Yul—but there was a problem.
-You haven’t forgotten me, have you, Hive?
An overwhelming surge of magic roared.
-I am Gehenna, the Conqueror of the North!
【Mantra Combination!】
From his entire body, blue light burst forth.
【Frozen Heavens, Snowbound Earth (寒風裂骨)─】
A terrifying cold surged upward, instantly freezing part of the Hive completely.
-O cold that rises to the very marrow! Raging storm!
【Bone-Rending Cold Wind (寒風裂骨)】
At that command, the cold immediately shot inward like awls from every frozen area.
A dreadful storm of magic raged, so intense that even Yul—drilling through the Hive’s interior—could feel it.
‘So this is the power Gehenna wields?!’
It was a freezing storm of truly massive scale. For an instant, it felt as though the entire sea might have frozen over.
However, Gehenna would not be able to exert any more power beyond this. He had said he only possessed enough magic to strike once.
If he poured out all of his remaining strength, he wouldn’t even have the spare magic to maintain the seal on his side wound.
‘I’ll have to hope he survives.’
Thanks to that, Yul gained even more momentum. With monstrous force, he pushed deeper inside.
At times, he encountered areas where Gehenna’s cold had penetrated, but by spinning the blade of the Krellsite spear, he pierced straight through and advanced further.
‘I’m finally here!’
Breaking through the biological carapace and “devouring” the flesh of the inner membrane, Yul bored straight through the seemingly endless interior of the Hive.
Forcing his way through a narrow gap, Yul soon found it—at the end, a core that looked like a deep crimson heart.
The surroundings were dyed a vivid dark red, the walls looking as if they had been carved from gemstones. The floor resembled a bathtub overflowing with a sea of blood.
At the center stood a gigantic, jewel-like core, pulsing steadily.
Countless lines extended from the core in all directions, with magic flowing along them.
No matter where one looked, it didn’t feel like the inside of a living creature at all.
-Alright, let’s finish this.
-That’s as far as you go.
Yul saw something crawling up from the floor.
It had the shape of a human, but its entire body was made of blood. A bizarre creature that looked like an imitation of a person. Without a doubt, a creation of the Hive.
-I’ll admit it. You are our most dangerous enemy. However…
-So what!!!
No more talk. They were fighting with their lives on the line—what was there to talk about?
Yul advanced, thrusting his spear forward.
At that moment, the flow of the internal “liquid” changed. No matter how much Yul twisted his body, he could not advance.
Moreover, the surrounding fluid was no longer under the control of the Horn of the Sea King.
-We’ve grasped the gist of your abilities. This is a place we completely control.
-You bastard.
-Human intellect is astonishing. Maintaining this consumes tremendous energy, but it allows us to eliminate threats like you.
It seemed to have fully absorbed a human brain.
-I can’t kill you, and you can’t kill us. So let’s negotiate. If you leave with your group, we’ll spare your entire race.
-What did you say?
-This shallow sea…… no, this sea you orcas call the Great Azure Ocean—all life within it will become one with us. From the tiniest plankton to the greatest Sea Dragon Tribes. And when Heaven and Earth Resonance opens, a new world will unfold. We’ll let your tribe live until then.
-What utter bullshit.
* * *
Around that time, Thibaut Marchand and his crew were watching the massive clash from a distance.
“Do you see it?”
“I see it.”
While the sailors took turns peering through the lone telescope they had, Marchand observed the distant battle through the captain’s personal scope.
Third Mate Arthur asked,
“That freezing magic…… who on earth could that be?”
Half of the colossal creature had frozen over, and even the surrounding sea had turned to ice.
“An unbelievable level of power. Even an archmage would find such a display impossible.”
“Even Lady Juette, the Archmage of Frangia, couldn’t manage that. So this is a battle among the great creatures of the sea. Perhaps humans were never meant to venture out onto the ocean.”
“That can’t be….”
“In any case, trust Lord Yul. He said he would take the lead.”
“He’ll pull it off, right?”
“If he doesn’t, we die too.”
Marchand gestured toward the battered ship. The sails and anchor had been torn away; they were barely holding on.
Suddenly, the third mate turned his head.
“Huh? Captain, what’s that? It looks like a squid.”
“……A squid?”
Marchand saw a squid moving as if it were running across the surface of the sea. A squid with a spear-like horn rising from its head.
“A spear-horn squid…?”
“It’s holding a spear in its right hand, ah, no, is that a hand or a tentacle?”
“I’ve never seen a sea creature like that.”
The white spear-horn squid raised a long spear and hurled it at once.
An immense shockwave tore through the air, and the ship rocked violently in the resulting tempest.
-I, Yalmuka, one of the Three Grandmasters and a master of the Boundless Spear, have arrived!
-Reinforcements!
-Reinforcements sent by Lady Lancia?!
Though the humans could not hear the cheers of the orcas beneath the sea, they could see the spear streaking straight toward the center of the Hive.
* * *
After a brief standoff, as Yul was thinking of a way to break through, he sensed something.
‘What? Something’s coming!’
A projectile, fired at terrifying speed, pierced the Hive’s outer shell and came racing through the path Yul had carved.
-Yul! That’s the reinforcements’ spear!
The moment he heard Tuania shouting from afar, Yul twisted his body and veered off at an angle.
A spear pulled by terrifying force shot through like a laser, tracing a trajectory like a flash of light.
The impact struck the vast barrier region around the core.
The surroundings collapsed as if shattered glass were exploding outward.
-Kugh!
Yul did not miss this chance. With the Krelsite spear, he pierced straight through the flow of the magic fluid.
He advanced directly toward the core.
-Die!
He snatched the massive, red, gem-like core with his mouth, ripped it out, and then escaped from the center.
Crunch.
After breaking free, Yul crushed the core caught in his jaws with sheer biting force. It was as hard as a jewel rather than flesh, but Yul’s reinforced jawbones made it possible.
-Did we… win!?
-Well done! It worked!
-The Hive is collapsing!!!
From afar came the triumphant shouts of the orcas.
The Hive’s tissues, which had continued to writhe even after being separated from the main body, began to fall still one by one.
The severed masses failed to maintain cohesion and collapsed.
-A Patroller orca defeating the Hive! My god, such a heroic feat!
-A hero has been born!
Despite the countless voices of excitement and acclaim, Yul did not feel particularly happy.
There had been innumerable sacrifices among the orcas, and Nugh had died. He had avenged his share, but those who had left would not return.
Yul headed outside. He was curious about who had helped him at the end.
-Heyo. You’re still alive, Gehenna.
-Yalmuka… Ugh.
-Haha. You won’t last long unless you get treatment right away. Luckily, a healer is following behind.
As Yul approached, he could see the spear-horn squid.
‘Huh… that’s a creature from my evolution list.’
Aside from its white body and the spear-like horn atop its head, the squid looked no different from an ordinary one.
-So you’re the warrior who slew the Hive? Impressive. I am Yalmuka, one of the Great Powers of the Great Azure Ocean.
-Did you help me?
-Yes. I poured all my strength into my Boundless Spear. I received a plea for aid from your Matriarch, Lancia, and rushed here at once.
So, there were reinforcements. To think they arrived so quickly.
-Lancia mentioned that there’s another secret hidden behind all of this.
-A secret?
-Yes. She said it’s connected to the Deep King Tribe. You should hear the details directly from Lancia.
A secret behind it? Yul decided to recover his strength first.
He was utterly exhausted, mentally as well.