The countless tentacles came down from the air. Simon, cape fluttering in the air, grabbed the greatsword with his right hand and swung.
Slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash!
The sky split in two, and dozens of tentacles were cut in half, falling all over the deck.
"......?!"
Looking at the falling tentacles, Pinch's expression quickly hardened.
The power levels had all of a sudden changed. Just a moment ago, Simon was being driven into a corner by Pinch, but now even his atmosphere had changed. It was like he was a different person.
The moment Pinch reflexly took a step back, Simon's body shot toward him like a bolt of lightning.
'......What?!!'
Slash!
Simon swinging the greatsword up was faster than Pinch pulling his body back.
Pinch's right arm flew into the sky, blood trailing behind it.
"K-Kuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"
Pinch writhed in pain.
"My arm!! My arm!!!"
Pinch felt his doubts as he ran wild in extreme pain.
'It’s like the tentacles before. Why are they not regenerating?'
His gaze turned to his severed arm. As if the part sliced by the greatsword had been necrotized, it had changed into something that didn’t look like part of his body.
"Give up."
Said Simon, wearing a skull helmet, as he easily lifted the greatsword with only his right hand. A shadowless green-blue cape fluttered in the wind.
"Next time it’ll be your head."
"......!"
It was overwhelming.
A deep sense of fear and dread formed inside Pinch, looking at his much-younger junior.
His twenty-plus tentacles and one of his arms had become impossible to regenerate after a single blow. Pier's greatsword was the perfect counter to Pinch, who was normally impervious to harm.
He bit his lip, then shook his head with a resigned smile.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaah… Fine. I admit it."
"?"
"Certainly, when I was 17, I did also get comments that I was a genius. But I wasn't as strong as you. If the Special Admission No.1 is at this level, it makes sense that I couldn't get into Kizen."
Simon frowned.
"Even now, you keep that inferiority complex about your level of education? What you need to think about now isn't Kizen, but the innocent people who lost their lives because of you."
"I wonder."
Pinch, head bowed and dazed, slowly shifted his eyes to face Simon.
"For a necromancer, death is as close as a good night's sleep. After my sister's death, the death of others stopped making me feel anything."
"......"
"Other than that, the undead you control seems pretty amazing."
Pinch tore open his tattered shirt. A jet-black magic circle covered his chest.
The formula was too complicated for Simon, a first-year at Kizen, to understand. But he could recognize the formulas drawn on the sides.
'Circle of Soul Bind!'
It was a formula that fed directly on the jet-black of the attached living organism, and, once formed, stayed effective until the organism died.
The reason why Pinch's body changed to liquid and then returned was probably due to the effect of the magic circle.
"Your undead and the monster I control. Aren't you excited to see which one would win?"
Pinch placed his palm on the rune in the middle of his chest before twisting it as if turning a knob. Jet-black began to run wild inside his body.
"…What are you trying to do now?!"
The moment Simon grabbed the greatsword and was about to jump in, Pier stopped him.
[Get away, Boy!]
"What?"
Pinch's whole body turned to liquid and inflated like a balloon. Then, with a loud bang, Pinch was no more.
Simon blinked repeatedly in shock.
Pieces of Pinch's flesh and organs scattered across the deck.
'Huff…!'
Simon dry heaved at the terrible scene. Gasping for air, he looked at the ‘things’ scattered around that once made up Pinch.
The organs and flesh, beating as if alive, drooped, and after a while, stopped moving entirely.
'He killed himself.'
"Comm—! I mean, Master!"
Elizabeth transformed back into herself and came up on the deck. Shun was in her arms, but Elizabeth covered his eyes to stop him seeing the remains of Pinch.
"Is it all over now?"
"Looks like it."
Simon glanced around his surroundings.
"…Something feels off."
Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish!
A powerful storm blew. The mysterious sea fog also got thicker and thicker, blocking out the sun.
Swaaaaaaaa!
The sea currents suddenly picked up and began to spiral in on something. The place where the three large pirate ships were anchored also shook violently.
"Commander! Behind you!"
Simon quickly looked back at Elizabeth's shout. The giant tentacles were rising up from the sea.
[What the hell is that?!!]
Swaaaa!
Swaa!
More legs rose from the sea.
There was nowhere to dodge. The legs surrounded the entire ship, wrapping around the anchor or coming up onto the deck.
"Urk, it's disgusting!"
"I don't like this!"
Elizabeth and shun backed away, voices shaking.
This time, the water rose up high a short distance away from the pirate ship.
'That's…!'
Simon went wide-eyed. What appeared from the depths was the body of a large octopus monster.
“Moreover, this corpse was not even an adult. No adult kraken has ever been captured yet, you see."
Simon remembered what he heard from the explanation about the Overlord at the exhibition on the first day he arrived at Blue Harbor.
This was the adult kraken.
* * *
Reaper Scans
Translator - Ramen
Proofreader - Artethrax
* * *
"Master! Why is that monster attacking us?!"
"I don't know, either!"
Thump!!
The kraken's body clung to the hull.
The beak in the middle of its body opened, and the kraken's legs wrapped the remains of Pinch scattered across the ground. Soon, it gobbled them all up.
'What the hell is going on?!!'
After swallowing Pinch's body, the kraken's body fell off the ship once more.
It was immersed in the sea, and only the top of the head breached the water’s surface. At that moment, the skin at the top of its body protruded.
Squish! Squish!
A lump was made on the Kraken's skin before starting to twist and twitch.
Arms popped out, a face formed, and several holes formed in the face. The holes shifted to become the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
It was bizarre to call it a human, as the eyes were further apart than they should be, and the mouth split the face vertically, but it was still vaguely ‘human’.
[I have surpassed you! And I have surpassed them! I'm the strongest in the sea now, as I have fused with the kraken!]
Kggggrrrr!
More than two dozen legs rose from the sea.
[With this body! With this power! I'll give you and the humans of Blue Harbor a watery grave! And I'll head to Roke Island! Nefthis will pay for her wrong choice! For I, Pinch, who wasn't chosen by that witch…!]
His vertical mouth opened, and his eyes, nose, and the rest of his head were split in half.
[Am the strongest!!]
Fwwwiiiip!
The two dozen legs lashed out. Simon hurriedly jumped up using Pier's power.
Ssssshhhhhk!
Fwip!
Tentacles lined with suckers grazed past Simon's body. Strong sparks flew from Pier's armor, and Simon felt the pain that Pier suffered.
It was a different level of power, speed, and flexibility from the tentacles that Pinch used when liquefying his body as a human. It was incomparable.
"Eliza! Take Shun and get inside the ship!"
"Okay!"
His shapeless cape fluttered like mad. As Simon was forced to get faster, faster, and faster, he shot out like a flash of light. Two dozen lines and curves chased after a single dot running on the deck railing.
"Kughh!"
Simon looked back and swung his greatsword.
Huge tentacles were sliced in two and fell apart, but this time, instead of regenerating from the stump, a new tentacle protruded on top of it.
[Hahaha! I won't fall for the same trick twice!]
Babababang!
Thump! Thump!
You could see the sucker-covered limbs wherever you looked.
And above all, the hull looked like it wasn’t able to take much more. The ship was going to sink at this rate. Simon didn't have much time.
[Boy! Behind us!]
"!"
Simon hastily raised the greatsword over his head. The kraken's legs, which struck like a spear, pushed Simon down against the deck.
"Kugh!"
The strong force broke the floor, and Simon fell downstairs.
Although he avoided getting a hole punched into his body with the help of the greatsword, two more tentacles came down, punching holes in the ceiling as they entered. Soon, the three legs started pressing down on Simon.
Baaam!
Thuud!
Thump!
Simon fell from the top floor to the middle, from the middle to the bottom, and…
Smash!
Five legs pushed down on Simon, finally breaking a hole in the bottom of the ship and pushing Simon into the sea.
The shock caused Simon to loosen his grip on Pier's sword.
"Huff!"
Simon held his breath. As he entered the seawater, Simon felt Pier, who he was still wearing, losing his strength. After all, undead were vulnerable to seawater.
[Boy!]
Fwwwwiiiiip!
He couldn't do anything with the force ramming down on him.
Pinch, who had led the kraken's body into the water without anyone realizing it, stretched out his arm.
One leg wrapped around Simon's waist, and it began to drag him down deep into the sea.
[It's all over now, Kizen agent!!]
Pinch's laughter filled with madness could be heard.
Simon slowly lost strength in his body. He was running out of air.
[Boy!]
Even Pier's voice in his head was starting to get muffled.
Simon felt his head go blank. The sea was so peaceful and cozy that it felt ridiculous to run frantically, avoiding the legs of a monster raining down on the ground.
[Hold yourself together, Boy!]
While his consciousness shook little by little, he could barely maintain it thanks to Pier's voice.
'Yes, I'm listening, Pier.'
[What are you doing??! Are you going to give up like this?!!]
'No, I won't.'
Simon stretched his right arm out toward the bottom of the ship as it got further and further away.
'There's too much at stake.'
The life of Shun, his client. The life of Elizabeth, who tagged along. The lives of the residents of Blue Harbor and the tourists. And the safety of his friends who were working on a mission or who were studying somewhere on Roke Island.
'Come.'
Simon's right arm, covered in Pier's bones, was dyed in jet-black. Bubbles rose from the bottom of the ship.
'Come!'
Swaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Simon's absolute order was activated.
As if it was a fish swimming through the sea, Pier's greatsword came down with tremendous speed.
Pinch saw it and sent his limbs after it in terror, but they were only torn apart and split open by the blade enchanted with the power of Destruction.
Taap!
And, in an instant, the sword came to Simon's hand. Simon tightened his grip on the handle and drew a downwards arc with his arm.
Slash!
The legs that wrapped around his waist were split in half. As the pressure on his waist was released, Sumon took up a stance as he brought his sword to his front.
[I'll explain the principles of slashing only once, so listen carefully!]
Simon tilted the sword to the side, and, at Pier's instruction, began to pour down all his jet-black into the sword. The sword wobbled and swayed with the tremendous amount of energy.
Bubbles formed in the surrounding sea water, and a dazzling light spewed out under the dark sea.
Fwip!
Fwwwwiiiiip!
Pinch immediately sent out two dozen legs. Even with the enemy's attack engulfing his vision, Simon firmly maintained his stance.
[Slashing isn't about cutting the target in front of you.]
Pier's voice came through more clearly than ever before.
[You must wield your greatsword and cut your opponent at a distance. However, the moment you recognize the 'distance' from the opponent in your head, it'll be a futile strike that only cuts through the air. Eliminate the distance and maximize the image of slashing the opponent through space!]
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuummble!
An enormous amount of jet-black was boiling up on Pier's greatsword. The surroundings roared violently.
With two dozen tentacles obscuring his vision, Simon clenched his teeth.
'Slash the opponent!'
Simon's waist turned, and his right arm moved. The bones of Pier, attached to his body, reproduced the experiences and the job they would've repeated hundreds and thousands of times, but in Simon's body.
'Through space!!'
As soon as the condensed jet-black came out of Pier's greatsword, a white slash cut through the sea and stretched out in a straight line.
Slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash!
The sea in all its depth had been split in two.
The slash cut through the sea and reached the sky above the water for but a moment.
The limbs and body of the kraken, which lay in the gap in the severed sea, were also split in half.
Pinch could only blink in his dismay.
'How…?'
The kraken's body split from the middle and broke into pieces.
'…How can such a power exist?'
Whiiiiish!
At that moment, Simon came right in front of Pinch while cleaving through the water. He used the jet-black remaining on the greatsword like a geyser.