Chapter 426: Professor Alenora
"The Bake-kujira, a skeletal whale, unknown in size but estimated to be over a hundred feet long. Bones are white and heavily dense. Traditional weapons up to Class Four are almost useless against its frame. Being in the water, its bones are glossed and wet and so explosive and fire element attacks are ineffective. Weapons will need to be designed to penetrate the bones."
"So lightning will be super effective."
"Yes. Do not expect it to be easy though. Its flames are a whole other problem—mana-infused yokai fire that can incinerate an island in seconds. And then, of course, there’s the plague."
"And steam."
"Steam?"
Ah, so the professor didn’t know. It seemed the history books didn’t know everything.
"The steam is the big one and the whale’s primary method of attack," Kazi explained to the professor. "It does seem to have a limit. It’s how the samurai were able to resist. If it emits steam at its skull, left fin, right, and tail, for example, everything else is vulnerable."
"Except with its magnetic sense and echolocation, it is able to predict your attacks," the professor countered. "Unless...you have a plan to disable one?"
Kazi grinned.
Samantha interjected, her pen scribbling furiously. "The plague, how does that work, professor? The steam is tangible and conjured like we would a spell but the plague...how? How is it mana-based?"
"Mana-based is indeed the correct train of thought here. Upon sufficient time, the Bake-kujira spreads corrupted mana, which manifests as something close to a Territory although not quite. Do you know what a Territory is?" Kazi didn’t have to say it because Professor Alenora explained anyway. "It is a term the Old Mage Tower coined regarding the ’Territories’ the gods established. The most popular, for instance, is Mount Olympus. That is Zeus’ Territory and he is utterly omnipotent there. Hades rules over the Underworld. Another Territory. Athens became a Territory of Athena after a contest against Poseidon."