Chương 14: The Beast of the Ocean

LANCE grit his teeth. A kraken, eh? He always wondered how the bandits managed to raid royal navy vessels, ships that were much better armored than they. Now he had his answer — a kraken. That made sense. The Kraken had fully emerged from the ocean. It was easily the size of a small village. Multiple tentacles with squeezing, fang-ringed suction cups smashed into the ground, boats, and any unsecured cargo. Lance saw its yellow eyes bore into him; the kraken wanted his blood!

The beast was under some kind of mind control spell. Such a shame for a creature as magnificent as this to be used for such partly purposes. Unfortunate as it might be, though, that did not change his purpose in being here, in freeing the people of the coast from the bandits and their malign influence. He rushed forward, toward the creature at full speed. Getting the idea from the bandit he killed, he transformed his weapon into a battleaxe.

With his increased stamina, Lance leapt free of harm's way when one of the kraken's tentacles slammed to the ground. Several more leaps later, and he found himself getting close to breaking a sweat. His stamina was great, sure, but literal leaps every few seconds would tucker anyone, especially after fighting dozens of bandits. When the beast was slow to react after one of its slams, that was when he brought his battleaxe down with all his might. And the blade... did nothing.

A small, superficial cut appeared on the kraken's skin, but it did not even draw blood. More tentacle slams, more leaps to safety, followed by more counterattacks with his axe, more power and heft behind each swing. Yet like his first attack, his follow ups did nothing more than to irritate the beast. It was time to switch tactics: Lance willed his battleaxe into a crossbow and fired a bolt into the beast's body. First, its eyes, then its tentacles, then suction cups.

He tried every part of its body, but all showed the same result — the beast unhurt, and very angry. His wakeup call to shift tactics again came when the creature slammed a tentacle onto him, and he hadn't the haste to dodge. Its tentacle was like a cart of bricks had been dropped on him. He got lucky and the part of his body covered by the tentacle did not have a barbed suction cup to maw him, but the weight of the tentacle would have killed a regular man. He heaved with all his might.

And by the slowest measure, he lifted, by inches, the tentacle from him, allowing fresh air to waft into him. Struggling still to lift the tentacle, Lance willed his System HUD opened: because this was an emergency, he injected Martial Prowess with ten Boon Points. Then, to help his energy reserves, he put five points into Stamina. Together, the points gave him that second-wind he needed, and he was able to throw off the heavy monster.

He leapt again for freedom and nearly became slammed again with a tentacle but dodged at the last moment.

"Shit," he mumbled as he ran out of the beast's range.

"How am I going to do this?" Killing a kraken was easier in bard's tales than in real life. Thick skin, ferocious temper, one had to have either a cannon or to throw an army and pierce the beast from the inside out to have any hope of killing it...

"Wait. Cannons!" Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Lance incanted [Search]. Alas, he found no cannons! None that were operational, that is. He searched his utility belt. Perhaps he had something he had forgotten, and which would prove useful in battle? He looked through his pockets too frantic but found nothing aside from medicinal herbs which he chewed with fevered grace. He had a single mana grenade, that was it.

"One mana grenade isn't going to kill a kraken!" He groaned. He had to think of something and fast. As he talked to himself and attempted to work out a strategy, the beast had slowly been inching itself onto the dock and dry land. It was clear to him that the beast had orders to kill him — thanks, dad! Then he remembered what he had joked about — how did one kill a kraken? Either by blasting it with cannons or by tossing a legion into it and having those warriors kill the beast from the inside out.

It was insane, but... maybe he could be as a legion? He had a grenade, he had a shield, and the kraken had soft, squishy organs on its inside. His body deciding for him before his mind committed. He ran and jumped, the climbed up onto the roof of the last standing warehouse. He incanted [Reinforce] on himself to help with the damage to come and to protect himself from gnawing teeth.

He dashed across the rooftop and seeing his opening, he leapt from the roof and sword first, tossed himself INTO the kraken's maw, sword first! It was a crazy plan. For all he knew, he was jumping headlong into certain death.

He had a massive advantage with his beefed-up stats, sure; then his [Reinforce] would give his skin an extra layer of defense, admittedly, but that meant little when the body of a kraken was involved; heck, he was intending on the grenade to blow it apart — maybe the kraken's insides would be too malleable and absorb the explosion? Lance guessed he was about to find out. He entered the kraken through its maw and (mostly) avoided its rows of knife-like teeth.

He had gotten a big breath before jumping and now held it, knowing that the air inside the beast would be limited and what little there was, would be stinker than a baby's nappy. Darkness consumed him seconds later and all around he felt the beast's squish, wet insides. Its throat, then stomach engulfed him without reprieve. Had it not been horrible beyond measure, he would have said it reminded him of being swaddled as a baby.

The stomach: he knew he arrived when sharp pinpricks of acid slathered his body like it was a fine steak. Nowhere other than the stomach could hurt him so, which meant, it was time for him get to work. In his hand, Lance took his weapon and willed it to transform into as large a shield as it could manage. That, combined with his arm buckler, and his [Reinforce] would hopefully protect him from the worst of the hurt.

In his other hand he pulled free his mana grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it as far away from himself as he could; whether that would help while he was inside a creature's stomach, was only the privilege of the Gods to know. Seconds after he threw the grenade, it exploded! He felt the heat and power from the grenade wash over him and rip apart his [Reinforce] incantation after blowing apart his buckler and bashing against his weapon-shield.

Reasonably sure, then, he was alive, though hurt, he shoved himself against the creature's stomach lining, operating purely on tactile sensations as darkness still covered him: pressed firmly against the beast's lining, he activated [Power Charge] as he jumped forward and willed his weapon-shield to change into a lance. He felt his lance hit and pierce multiple layers of fleshy insides, organs, veins, muscle perhaps.

His [Power Charge], containing all of his stamina and what he could dump of his mana, made him shoot out of the beast like a rocket! Daylight enveloped him, as did the sound of waves and the cawing of sea birds. He wiped his face clean of beast viscera. He landed with a hard thud on the harbor's ground before skidding to an abrupt halt against the harbor's perimeter fence. Wobbled legs, wobbled arms, Lance tried to get up, but couldn't, his whole body was slack.

He could open his eyes, and saw the kraken keeled over, dead, in the middle of the harbor's courtyard. The beast's organs spilled out from it in a revolting show. He closed his eyes again and panted. Then, the notifications came.