Chapter 70 : Seaborn Duel
Chapter 70: Seaborn Duel
Yul used the Polymorph skill.
Human senses vanished far away, and soon something else flooded in. Vast, overwhelming sensations. Yes, the senses of a marine creature.
‘This isn’t canceling Polymorph. I’m using Polymorph again to become that creature.’
When Yul, transformed into a split soul of the Deep King Tribe, appeared in midair, everyone looked utterly stunned.
“W-what kind of creature is that?”
“I’ve never seen it before.”
“Whose Seaborn is it? Does anyone know?”
“Is it a professor?”
“There’s no way a professor would have a Seaborn like that.”
Amid the tremendous uproar, Yul rose loftily into the sky.
“It’s not coming down?”
“A-airborne levitation?”
“It’s the [Flight] skill!”
Sorry, but this isn’t a skill—it’s an innate ability of the creature itself.
Yul charged straight at Gideon, who was turning the sperm whale into a bloody mess, and slammed into it with a full-bodied tackle.
From the impact, the claw gripping Yeruld shattered.
Crunch.
Yeruld barely managed to escape from the broken claw, but it was severely injured, drenched in blood.
It couldn’t even return to the sea and collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath.
“Yeruld!!”
As Brodin ran toward the fallen Yeruld and a professor hurried over to use healing magic, Yul looked at Gideon.
Even though the fight was effectively over, it showed no sign of listening to its master’s commands.
The desperate shouts of the man called Yuk beside it didn’t seem to reach it at all.
‘Should I try talking to it?’
Yul emitted a magic signal and attempted to convey his intent.
-Hey, can’t you hear me telling you to stop?
But there was no response. It seemed completely immersed in battle.
Taking the opportunity, Yul decided to use a skill.
Even after the Stone of Authority disappeared, Madness still remained within him.
「Madness」 activated.
In an instant, he felt an overwhelming increase in physical ability. In exchange, his field of vision narrowed drastically. The center of his vision was like a buttonhole, while everything else was tinged red.
There was nothing to worry about. He hadn’t lost his reason. And the enemy was clearly visible.
Rip!
He tore through the air and charged across space. As the crimson-skinned Yul approached menacingly, Gideon raised its claw, preparing to grab him.
If caught by that massive claw, Yul’s body would be seized in a single move.
Yul twisted his body, rotating once in midair.
Lightly slipping past the claw, he maintained his charging speed and pressed forward with sheer mass.
Crunch.
Struck by the terrifying impact, Gideon tilted and failed to regain its balance, getting shoved backward as if falling over.
‘That wasn’t as big an impact as I expected.’
The opponent was a Heroic rank creature, just one rank below Yul. The durability of Heroic rank creatures was higher than expected.
‘If I had fought with my physical stats from the early Orca days, it would’ve been tough to handle alone.’
With its center of gravity low, it quickly got back up. The crustacean legs resembling those of a crab dispersed the damage.
However, Yul hadn’t intended to deal heavy damage with the opening strike anyway.
Hovering high in the air, Yul looked down at Gideon, which was still emitting strange magic power from its body, and pinpointed the location.
‘It seems to be inside the conch shell.’
He dove down, feinting an attack.
Gracefully evading Gideon’s swinging claw, Yul’s tail fin smashed into its carapace.
Crash!
The conch shell covered in barnacles shattered. The fragments flew everywhere, some seemingly reaching even the distant spectators.
“Argh! It flew over here!”
“Barrier! Put up a barrier!”
“N-no, more importantly, it shattered the carapace in one hit!”
“That destructive power is insane.”
“Damn it! Don’t kill Gideon!”
The last shout came from Yuk, Gideon’s master. What a ridiculous guy.
In any case, Yul had no intention of killing his Seaborn. He was only trying to locate the source of the magic power that he suspected was triggering the rampage.
Extending part of his pectoral fin, he rummaged around inside the shell and found it.
A pitch-black, sticky mass of living tissue. From it, something like black mud, as if smeared with tar, dripped steadily.
“D-did you see what he just pulled out?”
“W-what is that thing?”
“Holy crap!”
As Yul tore out the living tissue, the Seaborn called Gideon collapsed limply on the spot.
‘It shouldn't be dead.’
He had only broken the carapace; there had been no fatal internal attack.
Yul examined the dark mass of living tissue he’d pulled out. It looked almost like a heart.
It also resembled a type of parasite that infiltrated a creature’s body and lived inside it with multiple tentacle-like appendages.
Yet there was no visible head or torso. The entire body was a round, heart-like shape.
Then, the living tissue began to writhe.
‘What?’
As if alive, it started moving using its many tentacles.
Like an octopus, it used its tentacles to crawl along the ground.
“I-it’s moving!”
“It’s coming this way!”
Realizing that spectators and Lucian were in that direction, Yul acted instantly. He brought his body down in a crushing strike and pulverized it.
‘I wanted to investigate it, but what a waste.’
Struck by Yul’s attack, the living tissue was flattened, lost its form, and soon ceased functioning.
“W-what in the world is that?”
Even the professor who had come to take control was shocked. But there was something even more astonishing.
Yul, who had been gazing down loftily from the sk,y began to shrink again through Polymorph.
What appeared was a naked man with blue-black hair.
“Are you kidding me?!”
“N-no, h-how did that Seaborn just turn into a person?”
Yul paid little attention and walked over to Lucian.
“Lucian, lend me a coat.”
“Ah, here you go.”
Transforming was always a pain because it tore his clothes. It was an unavoidable side effect of his physical body literally changing.
A crowd of spectators surged forward, reaching out for handshakes, but several professors in robes appeared instead.
“That’s enough! That’s enough! This commotion will not be tolerated! Everyone, return to your dormitories!”
“Visitors, please disperse at once!”
Buzz, buzz.
As countless students disappeared under the professors’ control, one professor approached. It wasn’t Professor Quentin, but an elderly man with an unfamiliar face.
“Young ones, would you mind having a word?”
“Ah, Headmaster!”
The headmaster? Yul looked at the old man with curiosity. On the surface, he just looked like an elderly mage.
“Brodin, Yuk, and you as well, Lucian.”
“Understood.”
“Your respective Seaborns have been entrusted to treatment. And you…….”
As he spoke, the headmaster looked at Yul.
“You won’t be undoing Polymorph, will you?”
“There’s no need, if it isn’t necessary.”
“Very well. You will come along too.”
* * *
Due to the sudden commotion that occurred the day before the entrance ceremony, the faculty had gathered together.
Before them stood the parties involved in the incident.
The headmaster interlaced his fingers and looked down at them.
Yuk was one of the children of the academy’s patrons. In other words, he was the scion of an extremely wealthy family—what people nowadays called a gentry—but from a commoner lineage.
Then there was Brodin, prince of the small kingdom of Arsen. Although he was the fifth prince of the kingdom and far down the line of succession, he had entered the academy with the support of the royal family.
The common point between them was that both had received substantial family backing and had established Communion with Heroic rank Seaborns.
They despised each other. Yuk scorned Brodin for strutting around, flaunting his royal lineage.
Brodin had not started the fight, but his immense pride had placed him right at the center of the conflict.
That in itself was one thing, but normally the size of a Seaborn corresponds to its rank.
Because of a duel between two Heroic rank Seaborns, part of the academy had been damaged—a considerable loss.
Furthermore, one Seaborn was left in critical condition, while the other had gone berserk and refused to listen to orders.
“Let’s say you were dueling. Then why, Yuk, did you keep your Seaborn moving until it was ready to kill?”
“I knew the rules and tried to stop, but at some point, Gideon stopped listening…”
“Did his Communion drop?”
“No, it wasn't that. It might be because of that thing he pulled out of its body.”
“Is that so?”
The headmaster said this while looking at Lucian and Yul.
His eyes lit up as he turned to Lucian—the son of Ian, the great mage who founded a new school of magic.
And he had brought a Seaborn that had overwhelmingly defeated a Heroic rank opponent. Judging by its size, it might be a Unique rank creature or higher.
Lucian, not being directly involved, spoke objectively.
“According to what Yul told me, that dark creature was the problem. You should hear it from him.”
All eyes shifted to Yul. Since there were professors who didn’t know the full details, the headmaster asked carefully.
“Are you a Seaborn?”
Without answering, Yul revealed the moonstone on his forehead.
“Moonstone…!”
“A true Seaborn, then. Though it’s possible someone implanted the gem directly into his forehead.”
“That’s impossible. Many have watched him transform.”
“Recently, Lucian bought a Skill Fruit, and it had a Polymorph skill.”
“Really? That’s a skill fruit I’ve never seen! Our Communion Department keeps records of Skill Fruits!”
A man in his 30s with glasses shouted, staring at Yul with fascination.
“You can record it later, Professor Schmidt. Anyway, according to you, the problem is that black mass?”
“I could feel dark magic emanating from it. It’s hard to describe... it felt sticky, murky, cursed, and just... dark.”
“From what you’ve said, it’s certainly not a good aura.”
A professor standing next to the headmaster brought the creature involved in the incident.
It had been crushed by Yul’s attack, so its original form was unrecognizable, but even its post-crush shape was grotesque beyond measure.
“This… we can’t describe it as any creature we know.”
“A heart? It looks like one.”
“Ha. You mean to say it’s a walking heart?”
The headmaster interrupted.
“This incident shall be dismissed as a duel caused by youthful vigor. However, everyone is to remain silent regarding this dark creature.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Understood.”
The headmaster then turned to Lucian.
“That applies to you two as well.”
“Understood.”
“Everyone, you may disperse. Professor Schmidt, stay behind.”
“Ah, yes.”
Professor Schmidt seemed eager to record the Skill Fruit, but he had been assigned to investigate the dark creature, so he reluctantly complied.
The students began to leave. As Brodin and Yukdisappeared, Yul looked at Lucian.
“Shall we go too?”
“Yes. A lot has truly happened today. By the way, Yul, would you consider staying in the dormitory with me? The noble dorms are quite spacious.”
“Is the food good? I had a meal at the inn, but it wasn’t great.”
“Our dormitory is excellent.”
As they chatted while leaving the conference room, the man who had disappeared, Brodin, approached.
“Thanks for stopping the fight. Thanks to you, Yeruld’s life was saved.”
He spoke to Lucian but kept glancing at Yul.
“It wasn’t me, it was Yul who did it.”
“Th-thank you.”
“Mm.”
Looking at Yul, he seemed flustered. It wasn’t fear or dislike of Yul but more that he hadn’t expected a Seaborn capable of using Polymorph.
Once he was gone, Yul remarked, “At least he knows how to show gratitude.”
“He looks rough, but he’s softer than you’d think. If his Seaborn had died, it would have been a real disaster.”
“Hmm. I see.”
That being said, the fellow named Yuk had vanished without a single word of thanks despite being helped. In Yul’s mind, Yuk's reputation dropped by several notches.