Chapter 87
Lee Shin found the sight of the pirate ship rushing toward his ship ridiculous.
‘Are they really out of their minds?’
Lee Shin thought that Maldarian would know that defeating the challengers’ ship would be impossible, even if Maldarian and Hactos used their combined might.
Soon, Lee Shin realized that Maldarian was trying to use him to eliminate Hectos. If Maldarian had brought all four pirate gangs, Lee Shin might have considered that those pirates were trying to win against him, but with only two, it was impossible.
"Ha…" Lee Shin sighed.
And that was why one shouldn’t let pirates go free. Things like these occasionally happened when pirates tried to use their rusty brains.
Pizz—
A thunderbolt had materialized from Lee Shin’s fingertips and was now dancing on his palm. Normally, Lee Shin would not have been so annoyed, but the timing was just terrible. The sea was tumultuous and raging, and Lee Shin could feel the intense energy of death from below.
Lee Shin knew that he had to resolve this situation quickly. Lee Shin shot the thunderbolt on his palm to the sky; the calm sky vibrated. Clouds with lightning crackling inside gathered in the sky.
Rumble— Crack—!
Hectos was about to shoot the burst cannon, but his face turned pale when he noticed the climate change.
‘Ugh this bastard...!’
Although Maldarian had said that the thundermancer was not here, Hectos had carefully scouted the ship just in case. He hadn’t found the wizard then. Lee Shin might have been inside the cabin, but since that could not be confirmed, Hectos had deemed that Lee Shin wasn’t there.
Moreover, since Maldarian’s pirate gang was also within the wizards' attack range, Hectos had no choice but to believe Maldarian’s words. However, Hectos just realized that the thundermancer was on board.
That meant that either Maldarian was a spy or also got the wrong information. Since Hectos thought that there was no way Maldarian would be on Lee Shin’s side, Maldarian must have also gotten the wrong information.
‘Ugh that idiot!’
Hectos blamed himself for believing the words of that idiot and gritted his teeth. Now that it had come to this, Hectos had to attack the ship somehow and take advantage of the confusion to escape.
"Fire quickly! Aim for that ship!" Hectos ordered his crews on the ship.
"Yes, sir!" one of the crew members replied.
Energy began to gather in the burst cannon. The Twyde bomb, which had the maximum output with the addition of the mana stone, rotated fiercely and was fired.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The three burst cannons in the front had fired simultaneously, spewing flames.
[Thunderbolt]
Rumble— Crack! Craaak! Craaack!
At the same time, a thunderbolt from the sky struck the Twyde bomb directly, causing a massive explosion over the sea.
Booom! Pizzz—?
The simultaneous detonation of three Twyde bombs was devastating. In an instant, the sea was split, pushing seawater in all directions. The surrounding ships even started to sink, unable to stand the massive waves.
"Ugh! Hold on tight!" Hectos shouted.
"Abandon the sunken ships!" Hectos shouted again.
"Try to get on board on your own, you idiots!” Hectos shouted for the third time.
Hectos held onto the ship's railing and tried to balance himself on the swaying ship. He had never imagined being hit by cannonballs detonated by magic. And it was worse than anything he could’ve imagined because three Twyde bomb cannons had exploded simultaneously.
To be more accurate, Hectos refused to even imagine the unpleasant event. And the wizard responsible for such an event was Hectos’ enemy.
"Fire! Keep firing!" Hectos ordered.
"No, we can’t do that anymore! The waves are too strong and high!" a crew member shouted.
"It's difficult to maintain balance!" another crew member shouted.
The power of the waves and the time their peak lasted made it hard to believe an explosion created them.
‘What's going on?’
Hectos sensed something and an eerie object began surfacing from the ghoulish depths of the ocean at the same time. The ocean was bottomless, so even if that explosion had split it, was it really possible to see its base? A dark shadow emerged from the blue ocean, followed by sudden and violent fluctuations.
At the same time, the southern part of the sea, where Maldarian’s pirate ship was, started to surge greatly, and waves massive enough to engulf the large ship rushed in.
‘Shit!’
As soon as the Twyde bomb exploded, Lee Shin regretted it. He should have aimed for the creature emerging from the sea, not the Twyde bomb.
"Everyone, get inside the ship right now!" Hwang Il-Han shouted to everyone on the ship.
"Captain!" shouted a crewmate.
"We're doing our best to get inside!" shouted another.
A powerful mana wave—more dangerous than anything they had encountered before—streamed fiercely toward the challengers from the sea. Hwang Il-Han gritted his teeth and struggled to keep the ship from capsizing, but that seemingly could happen any second.
When Vuela noticed the large wave, at least three times higher than the challenger’s large ship, he brought his sword close to his body.
“Keugh!”?Vuela gasped in pain.
Vuela realized it would be impossible to survive this danger unscathed, so he intentionally wounded himself. Then, his pupils turned red, and his mana became much stronger. Vuela, barely managing to keep his mind straight, poured his fierce mana into his sword.
[Wave Cutting Sword]
Vuela swung his blade and cut the wave. Such skill was the most fundamental idea of this swordsmanship.
Swoosh—!?
Vuela exerted his mana to the extreme, swiftly spinning and splitting the approaching waves in half. The center of the wave was cut, causing the remaining waves to break apart and crash onto the sea.
Kwaaahhh!
If the waves had collided as they were, the ship would have been destroyed and hundreds of challengers would have lost their lives. The challengers had witnessed Vuela performing the feat and felt their hearts skip a beat.
‘Shit... The tower I was climbing wasn't really a tower.’
Did this feel unreal because it was far too removed from reality? Despite almost dying just now, the challengers could not determine if this was a dream or reality.
"Ugh!"
“Keugh!”
As the ship suddenly bounced up into the sky, challengers who had not made it inside were thrown out of the ship.
[Psychokinesis]
Lee Shin caught the challengers flying off in all directions, threw them into the ship, and scattered his mana. If Lee Shin acted passively, the monster would just drag him around.
"Rin!" Lee Shin called out.
"Yes, did you… c-call me?" Rin replied.
Although she appeared at Lee Shin’s call, she was shaking, seemingly frightened.
"I'm sorry, but can you help those who fell into the sea?" Lee Shin asked Rin.
"Sure," Rin replied.
When the waves had risen, the monster’s tail had come into view. The tail was so massive that the monster could destroy a large ship by just shaking it a bit. And the black shadow under the sea seemed boundless, so Lee Shin was sure it was Abaim Monstre.
‘Did Abaim Monstre follow the mana left behind after I put its heart into the subspace?’
Since the monster's second heart was already in the subspace, it could not find its location. That was why the monster did not swallow Lee Shin with the ship. The monster was trying to find its heart.
‘Okay, then I will need some bait.’
Lee Shin opened the shadow space, called out his subordinates, and ordered them to protect the ship. Then, he flew over to Hectos’ ship with psychokinesis. Although Hectos’ ship was twice as big as Lee Shin’s, it was about to tip over.
Safely arriving on the ship, Lee Shin immediately took out the second heart of Abaim Monstre from the Subspace Pocket.
Woong—
As soon as that unstable energy appeared, the sea reacted.
"Watch out! There’s a whirlpool!"
"It's sucking us in!"
"Evacuate! Get out of here quickly!"
A huge whirlpool materialized under the pirate ship. Lee Shin immediately gathered all of his mana. He had to properly execute this attack even if it cost him the 300,000 mana stored in his silver tree wand.
Kwaaaah!
As the raging whirlpool rose, the head of the huge monster began to appear. The people on the ship were drenched in seawater, which was rushing in from all sides, decreasing their stamina in real-time. It felt like their minds were going blank just being near the monster, probably due to how much mana the creature possessed.
It was difficult to keep their minds straight without biting their lips till they started bleeding. Now Lee Shin could finally understand why the gods had come out so arrogantly and confidently. Endo was only an appetizer compared to this creature.
Swish—
The black mana consumed the negative emotions in the surrounding and soared toward the sky.
[Dark Thunder]
Despite climbing the tower numerous times, Lee Shin had never used the Dark Thunder with full force before, not even once. He had used it before on the third floor and during his recent fight with Endo, but not at full force.
As a wizard, Lee Shin always tried to solve a situation in the most efficient way. Since this was how he had lived until now, Lee Shin had naturally used the appropriate amount of power without even thinking about it.
However, now things were different. He Who Knows Death was speaking to Lee Shin, warning him that he could really die this time. This was unlike being in danger of death due to carelessness or mistakes.
.
If Lee Shin did not pour everything he had into this—no, even if he did pour everything, he could still die if luck was not on his side. Furthermore, Lee Shin could sense the Silver Tree Wand's pain.
"Strike down!" Lee Shin ordered.
Kwaaaah!!
Rumble— Crack! Craaack! Baaam! Booom!
The black lightning struck down from the sky, and a single black flash struck the monster instantly and repeatedly.
Kraaahhh!
Lee Shin frowned when he heard an agonized scream from the depths of the sea. Due to the instinctive mana wave that Abaim Monstre emitted, Lee Shin was momentarily distracted, and Dark Thunder disappeared.
Crack—! Thud!
Abaim Monstre, screaming in agony, swallowed Hectos’ pirate fleet and disappeared into the deep sea.
"No!" cried Vuela and the Korean challengers.
“Damn it!” other Korean challengers shouted.
Vuela and the Korean challengers had screamed because they had known Lee Shin was on Hectors’ ship. It was clear that even if it was Lee Shin, the chance of his survival was extremely low now that the monster had swallowed him.
The turbulent seawater finally became silent as if nothing had happened. The black silhouette of the monster also suddenly disappeared.
"Is your master... okay?" Vuela asked May.
"The mana flow is still there. If our master dies, we'll lose mana and collapse,” May explained to Vuela.
Since there was no expression on May’s face, Vuela could not tell what May was thinking, which frustrated him.
"Aren't you even worried about your master?" Vuela asked, looking at May.
"I'm more worried than you, so shut up," May replied.
"What did you say?" Vuela shouted at May.
The situation became tense, and Vuela and May became sensitive and aggressive toward each other. Therefore, Warrie intervened to mediate.
"If you two fight each other, the master will suffer. So stop it,” said Warrie.
"Every second we remain summoned, we are consuming more of our master’s mana,” said Ahn Jin.
After hearing Ahn Jin's words, the two started calming down.
"Staying calm is the only way we can help our master right now,” said Lakers.
"Lakers, you're probably not even worried about our master,” said May, looking at Lakers.
May sighed as he watched Lakers calmly leaning against one side of the ship.
"I, too, acknowledged our master and have become his subordinate. So, please refrain from saying such things. Becoming our master's subordinate before me doesn't make you stronger than me,” Lakers replied.
"Ha, I might as well crush you here so that our master doesn't have to waste any more of his precious mana," said May, mad.
"You're being foolish," said Lakers.
Just as the fight was about to move from Vuela and May to Lakers and May, Hwang Il-Han shouted at them with a stern face.
"Stop it, all of you!" Hwang Il-Han shouted at the undead.
When May noticed Hwang Il-Han’s trembling hands, he became calmer. May could not tell if Hwang Il-Han was afraid of dealing with monsters he could not even defeat or if he was worried about Lee Shin.
However, May at least knew that Hwang Il-Han could be more helpful to Lee Shin than him.
"I'm sorry," May apologized to Hwang Il-Han and suppressed his anger.
"All we can do right now is pray for our master's safety." Warrie let out a sigh mixed with a lament as he looked out at the calm sea.
***
The inside of Abaim Monstre was filled with darkness. Walking on the sticky ground, Lee Shin cast the light magic. The floating light ball illuminated the surroundings.
"This is…” Lee Shin muttered, looking at the monster’s body.
Was he really inside the monster’s body? The space inside was too wide to think so. From afar, Lee Shin could see the flag of Hectos’ pirate ship. However, only a part of it remained, hanging somewhere.
That was one of many things. Remnants of broken ships and the corpses of various monsters and marine species were scattered around. The message that said Lee Shin had cleared the hidden stage had not yet appeared, meaning Abaim Monstre was not dead yet.
‘Did I fail to kill the monster even with Dark Thunder at full force?’
This was the first time Lee Shin could not kill someone or something, even after giving his all. Even though Dark Thunder was cut off in the middle, he felt that the result wouldn’t have changed even if that hadn’t happened.
Nevertheless, Lee Shin was confident that he had caused considerable damage to the monster. The monster seemed to be in recovery mode or just quiet, but no one knew when he would move again.
Considering the source of that tremendous mana, the monster would recover quickly. Therefore, Lee Shin had to find the bastard’s heart as soon as possible.
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