Chapter 248: A Kraken

Seth had heard of them, of course. Any spirit mage worth their salt had read about them in the academy’s bestiary.

But reading about them and standing on a ship that was currently being regarded by one as a potential meal were two very different experiences.

The creature’s body was massive enough that only a fraction of it had surfaced, yet that fraction alone dwarfed the ship completely.

Its tentacles were spread across the water’s surface in every direction, each one thick enough to wrap around the ship twice over.

“Y-young master,” one of the spirit mages called out, his voice barely holding together.

The creature’s eyes locked unto the ship and its gaze was accompanied by a heavy pressure that fell on all their shoulders.

“W-we’re going to die,” one of the sailors let out.

Honestly, Seth couldn’t blame him for thinking that, after all, none of them were above A-rank, and the thing looking at them was very clearly S-rank.

But he refused to die here today.

“Get yourselves together,” Seth shouted, “I’m certain that the Grand Duke is currently searching for us, so we just have to hold on until then.”

His words seemed to have achieved the intended effect, as the expressions of the spirit mages recovered… somewhat.

“Cannons,” Seth ordered the captain without wasting another second.

The captain immediately relayed the order and the crew sprang into action.

Multiple spirit mages that were below deck immediately started channeling their elements into the cannons.

The cannons immediately lit up as they amplified the elements to the max and then the next second,

BOOM!

The cannons launched multiple different elements and they all landed directly on the Kraken, completely enveloping it in smoke.

Seth looked at the smoke with narrowed eyes.

The attacks had been amplified by the cannons, making them effective against even an S-Rank beast.

So there was no way that Kraken had remained unscathed.

His thoughts were proven wrong when a giant tentacle suddenly emerged from the smoke and attempted to slam directly into the ship.

Fortunately, Seth reacted fast enough and created vines thick enough to stop the tentacles in their tracks.

But the force from the attack still caused the ship to tremble, knocking some of the spirit mages off balance.

Seth gritted his teeth as he poured more mana into the vines, but the Kraken simply pulled back its tentacle, snapping them like they were nothing more than threads.

“How tough is that damn thing?” one of the spirit mages muttered.

Tough was a massive understatement.

The smoke cleared, and the Kraken emerged completely unharmed, its eyes were still fixed on the ship but it seems the attacks had annoyed it.

“Again!” Seth gave the order before turning to the rest of the spirit mages and added, “we’ll back up the cannons.”

“Yes, young master!” The spirit mages said as the prepared their attacks.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The spirit mages immediately launched their attacks at the Kraken the moment the sound of the cannons were heard.

The barrage this time, cause the beast to let out a screech and for a moment, Seth thought they had actually managed to hurt it.

But that hope died quickly as he realized that the screech wasn’t one of pain, rather, it was one of anger.

The Kraken’s demeanor changed completely, and its seemingly unhurrued actions were replaced by its angry frenzy.

Its tentacles rose from the water simultaneously and the next second,

“Young master—”

“BRACE!”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The tentacles came down on the ship all at once, cleanly cutting through the metal that made up the ship.

The deck split down the middle and several spirit mages were launched overboard by the impact, their screams immediately cutting off the moment they hit the water.

Seth grabbed onto what remained of the railing, his vines desperately wrapping around the broken sections of the ship to hold it together.

Unfortunately, more tentacles came down on it, immediately snapping the vines and crushing a couple of spirit mages.

“ABANDON SHIP!” the captain’s voice rang out.

The remaining spirit mages scrambled, some jumping into the water, others clinging to whatever debris they could reach.

Unfortunately for them, nowhere was safe.

The Kraken launched its tentacles at them, grabbing multiple at a time and before they had the chance to struggle, they were launched into its mouth.

Seth looked around at the chaos.

He was supposed to be the one protecting these people, and yet, here he was, watching them die without being able to do nothing.

Would he be able to face their families like this? Could he even face his father after this?

Perhaps it was better if he died here, after all, no one was willing to serve a master that couldn’t even protect them.

“Hey!” He suddenly yelled, grabbing the attention of the Kraken, “why don’t you try someone who can actually fight back?”

The Kraken’s eyes moved from the spirit mages in the water to Seth.

That’s good.

Seth immediately launched a couple of vines directly at the creature’s face, making sure it stayed focused on him.

And it worked.

The tentacles that had been reaching for the spirit mages in the water redirected themselves towards him instead.

“Young master!” one of the surviving spirit mages called out.

“Get everyone out of the water!” Seth shouted back.

There were debris big enough to hold a couple of the spirit mages, so they should be safe…. at least until his plan was completed.

He leapt off what remained of the deck just as a tentacle came crashing down on it, completely obliterating the section he’d been standing on.

He landed on a piece of floating debris, barely keeping his balance as another tentacle swept towards him.

Seth used a wall of vines to block it, but the impact launched him into the water.

Instead of panicking though, he calmly kept himself floating as small buds started blooming everywhere on the Kraken that his vines had touched.

And the next second,

BOOM!

The flowers used the Kraken’s own mana to power up and exploded, annoying the creature even more.

But it also gave him enough time to find a debris to recover on.

Unfortunately, the buds, as much as they were acting as a distraction, did basically no damage to the creature.

So his plan was quite simple, ensure that the creature got annoyed enough to try and swallow him and from inside, he’d try to cause it explode.

Even if that meant dying in there.

It wasn’t a great plan, it was, in fact, a terrible plan.

But given his current options, it was the only one he had.

Seth launched another wave of vines at the Kraken, making sure to keep its attention fully on him while the surviving spirit mages pulled each other onto the debris around them.

The buds continued blooming and exploding across the creature’s body, each one insignificant on its own but collectively enough to keep it irritated.

The Kraken’s patience finally ran out.

One of its tentacles shot towards him with considerably more speed than before, and before Seth could react, it wrapped around his entire body and lifted him into the air.

He struggled but it was pointless as the grip was absolute.

The creature brought him close to its face, studying him briefly before its mouth began to open.

Seth took a deep breath.

‘Father is going to be furious,’ was his last thought before he closed his eyes and waited for it to swallow him.

His mana had already wrapped around him, and the moment the Kraken swallowed him, he’d cause flowers to bloom on himself before exploding.

But before that could happen,

BANG!

Something suddenly slammed into the Kraken, causing it to let out a screech of pain and toss Seth towards the water.

But before he could reach it, a couple of strings suddenly wrapped around him, stopping him midair.

Seth opened his eyes and immediately noticed a silhouette from within the fog.

It soon revealed itself to be the Sea Guardian, the very same ship that the Grand Duke was on.

“It seems we made it just in time,” a voice from above caused Seth to look up.

Floating in the sky directly above the Kraken, was Lady Renelle’s butler. He had both hands in his pocket as he looked down at the Kraken with glowing grey eyes.

“I’ll take it from here.”

Alright, it’s been a while, but here’s a recommendation for a good book (well, it’s good so far.)