Ch. 87
Chapter 87. Sea Horror
To the north of Weimar Wigma stood its tallest spire. A spire one tier higher than all the others.
This was where the academy’s headmaster resided.
Headmaster Waldorf Brisbane sensed an abnormality in the barrier magic that enveloped the entire academy.
‘Has someone taken advantage of the festival to launch an attack?’
Part of the massive wall of the headmaster’s office warped, exposing the outside. As he focused his gaze through the exposed section, it magnified like a telescope.
“Sea Horrors…….”
The reason was unclear. The emergence of Sea Horrors had already been anticipated, but he did not know why they were stirring on such a massive scale.
Still, this was no ordinary academy. It was Weimar Wigma, a magic academy.
Preparations to deal with threats rising from the sea had long been in place.
He raised his right hand. What began to gather there was a small magic projectile—about the size of a finger.
A very simple magic condensation, one that could be formed without even chanting a spell.
To it, he added a special method of magic.
His unique magic, 「Origin Amplification」.
The first formula.
“「Amplify」 one hundredfold.”
The distorted space before him was not a mere magnification spell. It was part of his unique magic, a proprietary force field, and also a special magic circle.
The magic projectile passing through that space resonated with the waves of magic spread throughout the unique space.
The returning magic waves were instantly condensed into the projectile, which continued to absorb them as it advanced.
The projectile fired through the warped space was launched at a speed far exceeding the speed of sound.
────KWAHHHHHHHNG!
A section of the sea surface exploded, forming a towering mountain of spray.
The violent death of a trembling fluid.
Visible through the gaps in the foam were fragments of Sea Horrors that had been completely pulverized.
The moment they detected the magical bombardment, the Sea Horrors that had been densely clustered across the surface scattered into the depths in an instant.
“A good reaction…….”
Recognizing that there was some form of command structure, Headmaster Waldorf formed another magic projectile.
‘Eliminate them before they dive deeper beneath the surface.’
Ten more projectiles were fired. The hundredfold-amplified shots rained down on the sea surface like madness.
—BOOM!!! KWAGAGAGAGANG!
Deafening explosions shook heaven and earth.
The strength of this amplification magic lay in its overwhelming magic efficiency.
After eliminating a large portion of the Sea Horrors on the surface, Waldorf gauged the positions of the enemies that had burrowed deeper into the sea.
Then he formed a massive spear of magic.
He shaped its form and created a vortex. Its spiral-like structure increased its piercing power.
SKAAAAANG!
The moment he fired the magic spear, a tremendous storm of magic swept through the headmaster’s office.
Documents and writing instruments flew wildly through the air, but Waldorf watched calmly.
“It missed.”
The spear, aimed at the largest Sea Horror caught within the barrier, narrowly missed its mark.
He conveyed his orders to the professors of the magic academy.
“All personnel, prepare for combat. Magical bombardment has neutralized over eighty percent of the Sea Horrors. However, a significant number remain. Evacuate the civilians and deal with the scattered Sea Horrors. Activate the magic armors deployed within the academy. The safety of the students is the top priority.”
* * *
The moment Yul said he sensed something, magical bombardment began in midair.
An overwhelming number of magical barrages were fired without even a moment to breathe.
“W-whaaaat!?”
Lucian screamed in shock, startled by the sudden explosions and vibrations.
‘What is this bombardment?’
Yul was taken aback by the defensive power of the magic academy. If one of his split bodies took a direct hit from something like that, it would suffer tremendous damage.
Seeing such bombardment unleashed without pause was astonishing.
‘They call it an academy, but it’s basically got artillery on this scale.’
Yul focused his mind, trying to grasp the flow of magic. He needed to identify where the bombardment was coming from.
‘Is reproducing lithium pressure nerves in a human body impossible?’
It was one of the evolutionary abilities he had possessed as an orca—an ability that allowed him to visually perceive phenomena normally measurable only by precision instruments.
If he had it now, it would have been perfect, but some evolutionary traits simply could not be manifested in a human body.
Still, returning to his true form would make it possible. Even so, Yul judged that protecting Lucian took priority over fighting in his true body.
“Lucian.”
“I can fight too.”
Lucian pulled a handgun from his clothes. It was a six-shot revolver packed with magic-engineering technology. But would it be enough to deal with the enemy?
“Let’s evacuate the people first while we deal with the Sea Horrors.”
“Yes.”
Professors appeared and immediately began evacuating people into the spires.
And in the middle of that, Frenda—who had been with her friends—spotted Lucian.
“Lucian”
“Frenda!”
The two met immediately, and Lucian asked,
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No. What about you, brother?”
“I’m fine too. Let’s take shelter in the nearest spire for now.”
The spires themselves were defensive facilities. Monsters wouldn’t be able to enter them carelessly.
At that moment, a Sea Horror surfaced from the water in the arena.
Before Yul could even sense it, it leapt up and attacked Frenda.
“Damn!”
Yul spotted it instantly, but the ambush was too fast.
He tried to deploy Telekinesis before Frenda could be infected, but he was too late.
Bang!
Lucian’s gun was faster. The Sea Horror, struck by the bullet, twisted its tentacles wildly and was flung backward.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Linda! Amy!”
Frenda’s friends screamed as more Sea Horrors rushed in behind it.
This time, Yul reacted properly.
He snatched a Sea Horror with Telekinesis and crushed it midair.
“Hurry and run, now.”
“Th-thank you.”
“Lucian, take Frenda and her friends to the spire.”
“Understood. Please be careful.”
“Don’t worry.”
Only after Lucian safely entered the spire could Yul move freely. Once outside, he saw infected humans everywhere.
Right in front of him, a man wearing a teaching assistant’s badge had already been infected by a Sea Horror.
Black veins spread across their entire bodies, and their bloodshot eyes made them look even more grotesque.
“Grrrrrrrrr.”
“Hey. Get a grip.”
“Graaah!”
As it charged like a mad thing, Yul kicked it hard in the side. The impact was enough to shatter several ribs.
Yet it rose again, like a zombie.
‘Is it controlling the parasitized host? I should leave the humans to handle their own.’
As regrettable as it was to say, a parasitized human was far less threatening than a parasitized Seaborn.
When a human was infected, they couldn’t use magic and simply became a zombie. But when a Seaborn was infected, it turned into a rampaging monster in all directions.
Some Seaborn were already infected. Nearby, Yul caught a herring that was rampaging and smashing festival signboards.
‘It’d be best to perform precise surgery with Telekinesis.’
He inserted Telekinesis into the thrashing herring’s body, precisely crushing only the parasite, then extracting it after inflicting minimal damage.
‘It works. I can remove them faster than expected.’
Normally, this kind of rapid removal was difficult, but Yul could immediately sense the aura of these creatures, making it easy to restore the Seaborn to normal.
“Kraaaah! My Gideon!”
“You can’t stay here—evacuate! Yuk!”
“……Is that one infected too?”
Yul spotted Gideon, a hermit-crab-like Seaborn.
At that moment, Gideon was being restrained by professors using magic.
Massive magical chains bound the Seaborn while spells were cast all around it.
‘Something’s off.’
He couldn’t understand why the Sea Horrors were launching such a large-scale assault on a magic academy.
They were creatures that normally parasitized any Seaborn along the coast without much intelligence.
‘They want something.’
Yul snapped his fingers, detonating a Sea Horror crawling up from the water below.
‘What’s that?’
That was when he found a Sea Horror with an eyeball. Unlike the others, it wasn’t ambushing from underwater—it was quietly observing the surrounding creatures.
‘Like a surveillance camera…….’
And it stared straight at Yul.
The moment Yul dealt with the eyeballed Sea Horror, dozens more Sea Horrors began swarming in from all directions.
He gathered them together with Telekinesis and compressed them.
Without even a moment to catch his breath, a distant Seaborn began moving its massive body toward Yul.
The gigantic creature resembled a polar bear, walking upright on two legs, its entire body clad in armor.
‘Armor fitted by a Sinker.’
Judging by its precision, it was an artificial product made by humans.
“Lostura is infected! It’s approaching this way!”
“Prepare binding magic!”
Two nearby assistant professors raised their staves with grim expressions.
‘Lostura?’
Wasn’t that supposed to be the strongest Seaborn at the academy? From the polar bear’s body, a frost-like chill was pouring out.
-Kuuooooooooh!
“Aaaargh!”
“D-defense…….”
Pshjjjjik.
The two assistant professors were crushed by Lostura’s forepaw as it accelerated at terrifying speed, reduced to chunks of flesh.
‘Insane.’
Yul realized that while the monster was smaller than Gideon, it possessed tremendous speed and strength.
‘Is the infection near the heart?’
Lostura scanned its surroundings, then spotted Yul and let out another feral roar.
Yul immediately released his human form and returned to his original state.
A split body of the Deep King Tribe.
Battles between Seaborns were, at their core, contests of scale. The larger the creature, the stronger it was.
-Kuuoooaaargh!
The instant the sound burst from Lostura’s maw, the temperature of the surrounding space plunged. A thin layer of frost began forming on the ground.
‘Is this a skill too?’
Perhaps something like a freezing roar. Yul leapt into the air.
‘To a distance it can’t reach.’
The moment Yul moved, Lostura broke into a sprint, stepped on the facade of a nearby shop, kicked off a standing pillar, and leapt upward.
Yul immediately slammed Lostura into the ground with a tail strike.
Lostura’s forepaw struck Yul’s tail, leaving a wound and freezing part of it, but nothing more.
「Regeneration.」
The wound began to heal through the regeneration skill. At the same time, he activated another skill.
「Evolution.」
He felt his magic drop sharply. It was a technique that altered part of the body—on Yul’s head, a horn grew like that of a narwhal.
Its tip was sharper than anything.
‘Evolving a Seaborn body consumes several times more magic than evolving a human body.’
He spread his two pectoral fins like wings and began to spin.
「Flight」, 「Telekinesis」.
To the Deep King Tribe, the sky was no different from the sea. He used the spinning technique he had often relied on in his orca days.
Tremendous acceleration through rapid rotation, and posture control through rotational inertia.
Yul began his descent straight toward the falling Lostura.
Due to the mass of his body and the acceleration, an enormous sonic boom echoed.
The spiral horn pierced through Lostura’s armor and stabbed straight through its heart.
‘The horn shattered.’
But from the impact, Yul’s horn shattered as well.
The bones of the Deep King Tribe were harder than steel, but newly evolved parts seemed to be different.
As Yul finished off Lostura in a single blow, a magic signal flowed into his mind.
-Finally, I’ve found you.