Chapter 189 : Woodrock (8)
Woodrock (8)
"Young master. I think the monsters are almost all cleared up. There are 20 left ahead."
Rio, wearing a calm expression, cut down the monsters.
She dodged the suddenly-flying tentacles by tilting her head back, then unleashed a crimson slash that finished off another one.
"Correction. Nineteen left. Shouldn't we call the passengers and crew now?"
There were now only a few monsters left.
If they managed to get rid of the monsters hindering the voyage, the passengers could turn the ship around again.
"If we just stay like this, the ship's schedule will be delayed. If we arrive late, the Holy Nation side will have harsh words for us."
"Don't move too hastily. Even if we take care of the guys here, there are still the ones underwater."
As Louis said, finishing the ones on the deck wasn't the end.
Even now, countless monsters were swimming underwater, spraying tentacles toward the ship.
If it hadn't been for Pram's deployed barrier, the ship would've long become a beehive and sunk.
Kieeeek!!
The last monster that climbed onto the deck let out a shriek as it was annihilated by Victor's punch.
"Young master! It's all done here!"
They handled everything on the deck, but everyone knew it wasn't really over.
Pram, who was still maintaining the barrier, knew this fact better than anyone.
"By the way... how long am I supposed to keep this barrier up for?"
"Until we arrive?"
"And what if I run out of magic power before then?!"
They still couldn't tell how long it would take for the ship to reach Woodrock.
There was a good chance Pram's mana would be depleted before arrival, so it was unlikely the barrier could be maintained all the way.
"Besides, if we keep sailing with the barrier up, it'll be a problem, too. We'll just be leading all those pursuing monsters right to Woodrock as things stand."
Louis nodded at Silia's comment about the ship luring monsters along.
Since monsters consider humans their staple food, this ship was nothing short of a pantry to them and they'd be bound to stick to it.
"But if we drop the barrier just to hunt those creatures, the people inside the ship might be sacrificed. Sure, we could fight while protecting them, but we haven't grasped how many there are."
"Yeah. Like Victor said, those guys look to be disgustingly numerous, right?"
The monsters swimming toward them seemed endless, saturating the water.
The mass of monsters chasing after the ship looked as if a gigantic tail had sprouted from the vessel.
"It really does seem endless."
Louis, using extrasensory perception to gauge their number, agreed as well.
"But you guys know from living in the demon realm, right, how to drive out those types of monsters."
"You mean take down the leader, right?"
"But among those things, I don't see one that looks especially strong like a leader... Huh?"
Just as Rozen was speaking, he shuddered at a bizarre energy he sensed from the sea.
"The water... is turning black..."
It wasn't just darkening; smoke was rising from the water itself.
Noticing something was wrong, Silia tossed an empty oak barrel into the sea.
Sploosh—the barrel, rather than sinking or floating, dissolved instantly. The team members were horror-stricken at the sight of the barrel disintegrating as if it had fallen into a furnace.
"Did the water turn acidic?"
"But those creatures are just fine."
Even though the sea itself had become acid, melting everything, the monsters swam unharmed, now moving even more energetically as if in their home turf.
"Guys, remember demon realm survival guideline number two?"
"Yeah. If the surrounding environment changes, always flee."
"And why was that?"
The reason the monsters' environment changes so often is because monsters capable of altering the environment and causing disasters run rampant.
"It's a sign an high-rank monster is nearby."
It could be a rain of poison, or a suddenly arctic cold despite bright weather, or disorienting fog.
High-rank monsters alone could induce such disasters simply by appearing.
"You said just now if we take the leader, it'll all be resolved, right?"
Louis focused on the center of the darkening area in the sea as he spoke.
"You've shown yourself at last."
At that instant, a massive underwater explosion erupted from the center, and something stuck its head out.
It was so dramatic it could be mistaken for a bomb detonating, but this was merely the result of moving its body—a massive crocodile-shaped monster.
"High-rank monster. Not just any, either—a big one."
An high-rank monster, called a walking natural disaster.
Among those, none are more dangerous than the Devilgator.
As it opened its axe-like eyes to glare at the ship, the acidity of the sea deepened.
"Young master! I don't think the barrier will last much longer!"
"Can't you make it stronger?"
"If I try, I'll just end up wasting my magic power!"
Currently, Pram's barrier was the only thing protecting the entire ship.
The rest of the team were focused on attack, and unlike Pram, they had no way to defend multiple people at once.
As their only means of protecting the ship was Pram's barrier, they had to deal with this acidic sea first.
"First, gotta do something about this black water."
Louis limbered up as if preparing to show off his skills.
Hidden nearby, Kaid was, of course, left dumbfounded at this.
"Yugwang, is that guy insane?"
"Surely... he does not seem sane, indeed."
His guard, Yugwang, gaped at the sight of the Devilgator, the high-rank monster in the sea.
"Monsters capable of causing disasters just by existing don't exist even on our continent. But... to be so calm when facing such a monster, I cannot fathom it."
To Kaid and Yugwang, who had never faced such walking cataclysms, the special task force seemed outright insane.
Even seeing from afar, they were nearly overwhelmed simply by the Devilgator's presence.
Feeling this intimidated should have been the normal reaction, but why were these people so unfazed?
'Just what is this continent?'
Since Kaid arrived on this continent, he'd experienced one impossible event after another.
His worldview, which considered everything other than himself as "things," was almost shattering apart.
'Was I really this small and pathetic...?'
Did this mean he was nothing compared to the world?
Normally, he would have tried to solve anything with his own talent, but now, his body wouldn't move.
No matter his talents, if he stepped out now, he would surely die.
That's why, like a helpless civilian, he could do nothing but rely on others.
Though humiliating, Kaid instinctively accepted it.
And soon he would see for himself why this was the right move.
"Elder Sister, take care not to let any passengers get hurt."
"You too, be careful not to wreck the environment."
The moment Louis finished his light banter with Silia, he jumped toward the sky.
With inhuman leg strength, his body touched the clouds, and frost began to form on him.
Chaos Dragon, master of the five attribute powers.
The aura of one of those powers merged with the aura enveloping Louis's body and erupted outward.
Even the air began to freeze, tiny ice crystals filling the void until the scenery overhead was transformed as if the season had turned to winter.
'Let's go with moderate output.'
Suppressing the wild cold, Louis dropped back down to the ground—more specifically, into the inky water below.
Zzzzzzzt!!
The moment his body collided with the surface, everything in the vicinity froze solid in an instant.
The Chaos Dragon's cold froze everything indiscriminately, the blackened sea transmuted and spreading across the whole of it.
Only after his body had touched the water did Louis release the full shackles on the rampaging cold, which then swept from the darkened sea all the way back to the port where the ship had departed.
With the ship about halfway to Woodrock, fully half of the 300km-wide crater-sea was now frozen over.
"Haaah..."
"Wow..."
Kaid and Yugwang, witnessing it with their own eyes, could not hold back horrified gasps.
To see a single person freeze the sea beyond the horizon—this was enough to leave anyone speechless.
"Hey, Louis, you crazy bastard! Didn't I tell you to be careful!"
Was he overdoing it?
Silia exploded in anger since such wide-scale freezing had damaged the natural scenery.
"They wrecked the environment first! Would it change anything if I held back a little?"
"In what world is this 'a little'?!"
Louis' claim that this was 'a little' left everyone dumbstruck, but in fact, a problem had already been solved: the sea could no longer become black acid.
"Sorry about this, guys. Looks like your home ground is gone now."
Louis said, glancing at the Devilgator now frozen in the sea.
Its underling monsters were likewise frozen along with the water.
The seemingly unending horde had been neutralized by just one of Louis's strikes.
Crack!
But the leader was different; the Devilgator slowly began to break out of the ice.
Kwahhhh!!
With a roar, the Devilgator shattered the ice. Its axe-like eyes now glowed red with a fierce glare.
"Are you mad?"
Crackle!
And the Devilgator wasn't the only one angry—the other, frozen monsters also began to slowly crack the ice, trying to break free.
"Guys! Take care of those things!"
At Louis's order, the team members hurried to smash the frozen monsters before they could break out like hatching chicks.
"Anyone else who can fight, please help, too! And you two from the East Continent!"
"Huh?"
"...!!"
At that, Kaid and Yugwang snapped to attention.
"If you want to survive, how about lending a hand?"
Was he really ordering me?
Other than his father, he'd never been ordered by anyone before, so normally, he'd have considered it presumptuous and ignored it.
Yet now, he found himself naturally complying with Louis's words.
It was the first time in his life he obeyed a command from someone not his father, especially from a complete stranger.
'Is this really right...?'
Even as he cut down the frozen monsters as commanded, doubts arose in Kaid's mind.
Was it really meaningful to follow that order so meekly?
If that guy lost to the crocodile monster, then all of them would die anyway.
'And what if it turns out to have been for nothing?'
As Kaid hesitated for a moment, the Devilgator roared.
Now, furious at having been frozen, it glared with blood-red eyes and gathered black energy at its mouth.
"Damn."
Sensing the power, sweat ran down Louis's face. The Devilgator unleashed a pressurized jet of black acidic water from its mouth.
KWAHHHHH!!
With an explosive roar, the black water jet shattered the ice and surged forward.
Fortunately, it didn't hit the ship with passengers on board, but instead Louis took the blow head-on.
A tremendous crash followed by a shockwave smashed the surrounding ice.
If not for Pram's barrier, the ship would have been blown away, too.
Of course, this was just a secondary effect from the blast.
The real attack—the acidic roar—sliced through the frozen ocean beyond the horizon, reaching even to the land.
A straight line of massive water pressure cut the frozen sea in half and even flattened an island-turned-mountain that rose from the sea.
"Haaa..."
Aghast, Kaid ceased his actions. Did this continent overflow with such monsters?
Then what level were the people dealing with those monsters?
'Hold on, didn't that guy just get killed?'
Given a direct hit like that, the chance of survival was basically zero.
So what was the point of listening to that guy's order? As self-doubt and anger rose in Kaid's chest—
"That damn hurt."
From within the shattered ice, Louis strode out unharmed.
"Looks like I'll have to start getting serious now."
What emerged was no longer the youth Kaid thought he recognized.
Only a monster—something neither human nor dragon—walked out with slight wounds.