Episode 49 — Crossing the Sea
～ Part 2 ～
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“UOOORYAAA—————-!!”
A full body kick performed by Kyousuke who was in Stream Cross state bored into one of the tentacles clinging to the warship. But the tentacle, its thickness alone would be 2 to 3 meters, didn’t even twitch by the crushing attack. Kyousuke made a sword hand and glared at that tentacle again.
“Rin, chop it with Cutter!”
“Roger that!”
The instant he swung down the raised sword hand, pressurized water emitted with diameter of barely 1 millimeter. No matter what kind of mollusk body it was, the tentacle couldn’t kill the shock of the ultra-high pressured water current and was unsatisfyingly severed. To not let the Water Cutter damage other equipments on board, Rin quickly stopped it.
The severed tentacle wriggled on the deck and soon stopped moving. The thorns growing on the suction cups were scratching the deck.
“All right, one down!”
“Is this edible…?”
The heavy cruiser branch school and the maritime caravan sailing ship was currently being attacked by a kraken.
It was a sea monster you don’t know well if it was a squid or an octopus. According to Selena’s Memo, it was a descendant of the aquatic monster the Sea King directly gave birth to, but that kind of thing was trivial. It had a stupidly gigantic body, adding the length of its tentacles which by themselves were more than 50 meters, this side had to fight with those on board and sometimes in the sea as well, so they were forced into a considerably difficult battle.
At first, Kaoruko had tried to tempt it, but while still didn’t know well whether it was working or not, he was repelled by a tentacle and was sent flying. No, since he was sent flying, it probably was ineffective. Anyway, at the moment, they were fighting to protect the merchant ship which was entwined by the giant squid tentacles and was likely to sink at any moment now from the kraken.
Kyousuke and Rin had just finally chopped down one tentacle on the heavy cruiser branch school’s deck.
This kraken looked to be considerably stubborn, it was stretching its tentacles to both the merchant ship and the heavy cruiser branch school. But size-wise, the heavy cruiser branch school would need the most difficult technique to sink, that or an iceberg. If one had to say, then it was the merchant ship that was in danger unless they protect it.
Ryuzaki had already performed «Perfect Dragonization» and was spraying breaths to the kraken from the sky. Not just Ryuzaki, Karasuma, Saruwatari, Harui, the students who were capable of flight had been attacking the main body of the kraken several times. People such as Okumura, Zeku and then Kensaki had already jumped over to the merchant ship’s deck and started lopping off tentacles.
“Kyousuke-kun, we too!”
“All right, let’s go!”
Rearranging the leg bones in reversed joints, they lightly jumped over ten-odd meters between the ships. Kyousuke and Rin, as it was, settled down on the merchant ship’s deck.
“You came, Utsurogi!”
It was exactly at the moment Kensaki and the others cooperated and lopped off one of the giant squid tentacles.
“I’ll help. How many tentacles remained?”
“As far as we can confirm, it’s 12. But no one can tell.”
Kensaki’s face which was rolling on the floor grimaced. Since leaving it there seemed like it would be trampled in an emergency, Kyousuke gently placed it on a wooden box in a corner.
On the other hand, Rin who heard the number of tentacles groaned.
“Too many. Squid has only 10 tentacles, isn’t it?”
“I think there was an octopus specimen with 96 legs at .”
“Utsurogi, Himemizu, kraken is neither a squid nor an octopus in the first place debu.”
Several tentacles were still persistently sticking to the heavy cruiser branch school. But since quite a lot war potential remained over there, there would be no need to worry. While thinking so, the prime example of a reliable man, Goubayashi jumped out of the cabin. A mantle trailing behind him, his body cladded golden fighting spirit.
A tentacle extended in a slapping down motion, receiving that directly from the front, he grabbed it with both arms and then forcibly tore it a part. Furthermore, he did a backward roundhouse kick, bisecting another approaching tentacle. Was it really because of that fighting spirit that he managed to sever that mollusk body with a crushing attack, or else was it one caused by the extraordinary physical ability of an ogre?
Looking closely, Kyousuke noticed that Shokuzura who didn’t show any individuality other than that intense appearance so far was unusually standing on the deck in high spirit.
“My tentacles and your tentacles…. Let’s see which one of us is on top with this battle!!”
Immediately after that, Shokuzura Nadehiko ate a tentacle punch and flew into the sea. Since there was the underwater troops composed of the Uozumi siblings and the sahagins, he would probably got saved soon. Limited to this time, Sugiura Aya – normally not a combat personnel – had also turned support from within the sea.
The tentacles sticking to the heavy cruiser branch school were entirely chopped off by Goubayashi. Regaining her freedom, the branch school started turning around, directing the warship’s bow to the kraken. Goblins came out from the cabin and stationed at the gun turrets.
Having said that, the machine guns’ ammunition was limited. They probably could only made restraining shots for crisis avoidance and not right now.
The aerial unit was continuing a good fight as well. Karasuma, Harui, Saruwatari, all members were capable of using wind attribute spirit magic. Starting from «Wind Cutter», attack magic of wind attribute which specialized in cutting, could deal quite a telling blow to the kraken. Ryuzaki’s flame throwing was effective as well. As for Kaminari, a blitzkrieg – namely, lightning war – was impossible, but with Nekomiya riding on her head, they slipped through the tentacles, repeating hit-and-run attacks.
“Let’s go! Crystallization of my youth!”
Saruwatari faced both palms together and accumulated wind energy. When he brandished it greatly in the air like baseball pitch, the wind magical power accumulated into a spherical shape vigorously flew out.
“Blast Blaster!!”
It was wind blades compressed into a sphere. It bit a hole in the kraken’s ‘belly’, but it couldn’t quite penetrate it. The meat was too thick.
“Saruwatari, what’s that just now?”
Harui sent chilling eyes at Saruwatari.
“Crystallization of my youth…. It’s magic ball!”
“Ah, yeah…. Right…”
Harui didn’t retort any further.
As expected, if it’s just bringing down the kraken, it would be faster to make concentrated attack at the head or belly that was packed with critical organs like the brain and such, but there were many students who couldn’t fly so that was difficult. Kyousuke and company had no choice but to steadily peel off the tentacle clinging to the merchant ship.
“I mean, what happened to Hino? Won’t it be faster if you combine with Hino?”
While hitting a tentacle with her sword, Kensaki shouted. Kyousuke launched Water Cutter at the tentacle clinging to the mast.
“Akira is still in bed with seasickness, really seasickness this time!”
“Then Rin! Rin can fly too!”
“Water is insufficient! We’ll be head first to the sea if it ran out!”
Not something they could have their way with at all.
“There are guys who haven’t come out yet. Harao! If there’s his telekinesis!”
“Sleeping.”
“How about Kinogasa! Let’s cover the tentacles in mushrooms with his spores!”
“Since he’ll be all wrinkled if he falls in the sea, he’s too scared to come out.”
“What about Yukinoshita! Encase it in ice with Freeze Beam!”
“Please pardon her since the weather is so hot that she’s half-melted.”
Even assuming the eternally sleeping Harao Masaki was out of the question, there were also species that couldn’t show their full potential due to the environment such as Kinogasa the matango or Yukinoshita the snow woman, so a naval battle was quite a troublesome thing. Akira being put to bed as well, was because he might very well die if he was to fall into the sea when they made him come out in such a bad condition.
Furthermore, Yukinoshita Suzuka who reincarnated as a snow woman was seen as being endowed with considerable potential, but the person herself had a fatal problem in her personality and didn’t come out to the front line much. Since she was the ‘heated’ type of girl who encouraged herself when making a stand against predicaments or adversities, when unskillfully got into a pinch, she would arbitrarily got heated and arbitrarily melted. Basically useless.
“So–sorry I’m late!”
Together with that voice, a girl tumbled out of the cabin.
“Sakuma Sachiko has come to the front line together with Inugami-san!”
It was Sakuma the succubus. And accompanying her, Inugami – already transformed to a wolf – jumped out on the deck. After confirming that there was no tentacles clinging to the branch school, Inugami jumped over to the merchant ship over here together with Goubayashi. As for Sakuma, she spread her wings and went to assist the air battle group.
Akai didn’t come out. Forcing her who hadn’t sucked blood was just a little impossible at the moment.
“The Uozumi siblings are currently going around cutting the remaining tentacle in the sea.”
While tearing apart one tentacle, Goubayashi said so.
“Once we cut off every tentacle, we will burn down the main body in one go with Sakuma’s magic. Utsurogi, you’re good to go?”
“Ehh, me?”
Kyousuke reflexively turned around and asked.
“I heard from Hakuba. He said there is a tactic of strengthening Sakuma’s magic with «Characteristics Amplification». Certainly it was Giant Burst…”
“It’s Big Burst…”
As a son of a temple, Goubayashi looked to be unrelated to worldly desires, but had he really noticed the evil meaning Hakuba had loaded?
“Eh, Kyousuke-kun. I heard that for the first time. What is it? What’s that about Saa-chan big bust?”
“Rin…. You’re straight as always…”
“Fuu, Utsurogi. That’s one of Rin’s good points.”
The one who crossed their arms and proudly said a misplaced comment for some reason was Kensaki.
Anyway, attacking by amplifying Sakuma magic offensive ability with Kyousuke’s power was called Big Burst. Specifically speaking, it needed not to be Sakuma, even other students attack magic worked as well, but with Kogane gone, the one who had the strongest magic attack was Sakuma, so it was inevitably calculated that they could bring out the most firepower by buffing Sakuma.
“I see I see.”
It was instantly transmitted to Rin. It was one of the conveniences of the combine state.
“I suddenly thought of this Kyousuke-kun, will the effect of «Temptation» be amplified as well when using «Characteristics Amplification» on Saa-chan or Kaoruko-chan?”
“Yes? Well, it will? I have never seen Sakuma use «Temptation» though.”
“Fumu–…”
Rin leaked out some kind of voice. Kyousuke raised his face and watch the air battle group.
The kraken already had no tentacles left to intercept the air battle group. Probably the remaining legs were in combat with the Uozumis in the sea. Magics and breaths aiming at the belly which became defenseless exploded one after another. It seemed likely they could defeat it even if he left it alone.
“Say, are you going to shout the technique’s name to bring out the spirit?”
“Eh, umm. It’s nothing much…?”
“Then let’s shout.”
“Su–sure…”
Rin said much too indifferently. Kyousuke cleared his throat a little and called out to Sakuma who was flying in the air.
“Sa–Sakuma! Let’s use Bi … Big Burst!!”
Even though it never means to be indecent, this is way too embarrassing to speak. What kinda play is this?
Flying in the air, Sakuma immediately noticed that voice and flew over to the merchant ship. She was making an excessively happy face.
“Understood, Utsurogi-kun! Let’s go with Big Burst!”
“I don’t understand well, but can that Big Burst bring down that kraken?”
Since Kensaki came along and joined the conversation with an appearance that she absolutely didn’t notice at all, Kyousuke started holding his head.
“Ah, eh, umm, Himemizu-san. I will borrow Utsurogi-kun’s power.”
“Since Kyousuke-kun is not mine, please borrow as much as you want.”
“Utsurogi-kun, please treat me well!”
For some reason, Sakuma’s cheeks blushed and she became all smiley.
It could have been his imagination, but recently, Kyousuke felt like she had strangely made a breakthrough somehow. He didn’t quite understand what breakthrough it was, but should he call it defiance or positivity? Well, it was a good thing either way.
Since Sakuma turned her back over here and started chanting, Kyousuke’s hands started to wander. It was because of a very difficult problem of where to put his hands. As the result of thoroughly hesitating, Kyousuke, like last time, finally touched her shoulders.
“Uoo, Saa-chan’s shoulders, so soft.”
Even the words Kyousuke had made sure not to so much as think about, Rin had spoken them. Sakuma’s temperature raised a little.
“Everyone avoid it! Utsurogi and Sakuma is using Big Bursstt!!”
Kensaki’s big voice echoed, everyone who had joined in the air attack to the kraken main body greatly spread out.
“Sakuma, I think you knew but please make sure not to break this ship.”
“Yeah, I know…!”
Finishing chanting, Sakuma directed the gathered magical power to the kraken. Black flame greatly flared up from her palms, making a sinister claw-like shape.
“Evil Flare - Big Burst-!!”
Together with Sakuma’s shout, brutal claws of wicked flame was released. As if they were separate living things itself, 5 claws cut, surged through the air and swallowed the white and soft body of the kraken. That greatly bit into the kraken’s abdomen which was full of wounds from the repeated attacks of the air battle unit so far, several seconds later, it exploded.
The death agony didn’t echo. In exchange was sound of explosion. The body of the kraken which was greatly bursted open slowly collapsed on top of the ocean, raising a water column.
“All, all right…!”
Sakuma clenched both fists and expressed her joy.
“Bravo!”
Rin too sent words of praise to Sakuma.
Kyousuke greatly sighed. The combat ability of everyone in the class was increasing and it wasn’t an especially hard fight, but the opponent was troublesome. As expected, fighting with this big a giant sea monster might go hand in hand with hardship.
“…Ooh, has it ended?”
Welkano-shi who had withdrawn to the cabin suddenly showed his face and said so.
“…Yes, the ship too is protected without getting any big damage.”
The one answered him was Goubayashi. His tone was polite, but since he hadn’t canceled the fighting spirit, the intimidating atmosphere was still amazing.
“There’re not so many adventurers capable enough to repulse a kraken on the sea. Truly as expected of you.”
It was worn-out flattery, but it didn’t feel bad at all to hear it.
Welkano-shi showing his gratitude was probably the truth, but he was still putting some distance between them. It was reasonable to be scared when being show this much power. Only Remy was peeping her face out a little from the cabin, but as expected, other merchants showed no signs of coming out at all.
“Then we will return. Let’s set sail again once things calmed down.”
Probably judging that overstaying on this deck would just scare the other party, Goubayashi said so and waved his hand to the aerial unit. It was easy to jump from the heavy cruiser branch school to the merchant ship because the branch school’s deck was higher, but it wouldn’t go well when going the opposite way. They needed to have Kaminari and Ryuzaki properly carry them.
“As expected, it’s scary looking from humans’ perspective.”
Muttered Rin.
“Well, I am also human though.”
“Yeah…. From Welkano-san group’s perspective, we’re really just ordinary monsters…”
Sakuma nodded to Rin’s words.
Not that it was a particularly heavy mood, but neither did it feel good to feel the depth of the ditch between them. As a matter of fact, Kyousuke was thinking about clearing the maritime caravan merchants’ wariness with the matter this time and having them share blood for Akai. But as expected, the prospect was dim.
“I’m also thinking the same thing though…”
In the meantime, Kaminari and Ryuzaki descended on the merchant ship’s deck. Riding on their back, Kyousuke and the others was going back to the heavy cruiser branch school. Looking back down, the merchants had finally came out of the cabin and started checking for any damage to the ship.
At that time, Kyousuke suddenly heard a scream coming from below. It was a throaty scream of a man.
What happened? As he thought so and once again turned his gaze back, he heard a girl’s voice shouting this:
“Not good! I forgot my head again!”
Riding on Kaminari Totoha’s back, the headless public morals committee member panicked.
At the time of being attacked by the kraken, they were thinking if they would have to fight sea monsters like this several times. But since then, the heavy cruiser branch school and the merchant ship crossed the sea favorably without meeting any big obstacle.
In the meantime, they tried to deliver cooking using kraken legs or caught fishes dried overnight to the merchant ship, but those people didn’t show any sign of opening their heart at all. Speaking strongly, it was only the half elf Remy who showed interest in the heavy cruiser branch school, but Welkano-shi didn’t allow her to cross over to the ship over here.
Only, several days before arriving at Albadanba, the students of 2nd year class 4 heard a very interesting story from Remy.
It was information such as what kind of monster raw material was being traded for a high price at Albadanba. They didn’t think about trying to cut up their own body to sell, but if it was something they could produce, there was no method not to prepare it.
Kumosaki who heard that arachne threads were especially popular was diligently producing threads. Kinogasa as well, desperately launched spores, covering the home garden in mushrooms and was completely chewed out by Hanazono.
Kuremori made little music boxes using the surplus material, Gofunkawahara and the goblins with dexterous fingers as well, were making wood carving handicrafts and killing time.
Naturally, there were also students who were going nuts over the video games confiscated at the old castle and didn’t think about such a thing, there were also students who just vacantly gazed at the horizon, unchanged from usual, and if there were students who enjoyed fishing, then there were also students who were enthused over drying those.
With this and that, about 2 weeks had passed. It was time when about 2 months and a week had passed since they came over to this world.
While each person had their fill of the boat trip in their own way, they finally arrived at the Maritime United Nations Albadanba.
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