Chapter 59 - Lunatic Wave (5)
“Artpe!”
“Oppa!”
The moment Maetel neatly annihilated all the Demons she came running towards the port. In a flash, she used her amazing jumping ability to climb atop the vibrating wall. It took her a single leap, and when she arrived at the top, she clung to Artpe. As if Sienna didn’t want to lose to Maetel, she tried to jump onto the wall, but her physical ability was inferior compared to Maetel. She had to push off once more midway up the wall.
“Artpe. You did this, right?”
“That’s right.”
“It is really high up here!”
Maetel’s Mana detection had always been exceptional, but it became much more sensitive as she traveled with Artpe.
She was like a hound that could smell anything that possessed Artpe’s Mana. When she saw the unique wavelength of his Mana being emitted in droves from the barrier wall, she knew his hands had touched the wall.
[Keeeeek! Come down here, humans!]
[L...listen to my song! Hear me sing!]
The more important fact right now was the fact that numerous monsters including mermen were unable to invade the territory of humans. This was thanks to the barrier wall being in the way.
Artpe and Mycenae were killing a ma.s.sive amount of monsters, but the number of monsters present in the ocean was growing. It was said that the ocean was a treasure trove of life, and this phrase was being proven right by the ma.s.sive number of monsters that was continually growing.
It made one wonder if there was an end to this monster rush.
“We are fine for now. We’ll be able to relax until the barrier walls falls. ”
“Ah. So that is why I saw people carrying out tasks all over the city instead of manning the wall.”
“I found it particularly reprehensible that they left everything to you….. If an outsider saw this, one would think you were Frate’s lord.”
The residents of Frate had many tasks to do if they wanted to face the Lunatic Wave. Food had to be put away as reserve. Then they had to close several roads that could be used by the monsters once they entered the city. More barriers had to be erected on the roads.
However, this year’s Lunatic Wave had arrived so suddenly that they would have had to endure it with nothing but their body. However, Artpe had executed an effective plan that had given all humans within the city some time. It had given the humans some breathing room. It was unintentional, but Artpe was carrying out tasks that befit a hero.
“Artpe is too kind.”
Maetel had no idea how a wall could continuously vibrate and make waves without an outside source of Mana. However, she understood that many people would be saved thanks to what Artpe had done. However, Artpe decisively shook his head from side to side.
“I’m not kind. I just want to smash all the plans hatched by the Demon King. Moreover, I want to kill all the monsters, so I can monopolize the rewards.”
“Hoo-hoo.”
Whenever he got embarra.s.sed, he always uttered such silly things. Maetel found that part about him to be endearing. Maetel was having such thoughts to herself. Artpe snorted as he avoided her gaze. As consequence, the blameless monsters were cut into pieces by the Mana Strings.
Instead of flirting with Artpe, Sienna had decided to kill the monsters. However, when she caught sight of the mermen, she tilted her head in confusion. She asked Artpe a question.
“Oppa, they look like humans. They aren’t humans?”
“Mmm······ I guess this is a good opportunity to give you this explanation.”
The mermen had pushed through the wave to approached the barrier wall. However, they couldn’t do anything, because of the vibration caused by the wall. Unlike the dog-headed Gnolls, the mermen had the ability to adapt. They gave up on trying to climb over the wall, and they focused on directly attacking the humans on top of the wall.
Their upper body looked human above the surface of the water, and their lower body was under the surface of the water. It made it very difficult to differentiate them from humans.
“In the case where monsters look like humans, it is mostly a ploy to take the humans off their guard. Since they look like humans, it causes humans to have a sense of kinship with these types of monsters. It drops the guard of the humans. These types of monsters use this weakness to attack their opponents.”
“Yes, I see. Is that how it is?”
Maetel was a cruel hero. When she determined her opponents were bad guys, it didn’t matter if her opponents were humans or non-humans. She ruthlessly cut them down. She tilted her head as she asked a question. Artpe brushed off her words as he continued to speak.
“There is nothing strange about monsters resembling humans. The dominant race of this land are humans. The important thing isn’t the appearance of the monsters. It is more about our mental att.i.tude towards the monsters.”
“Artpe, that shouldn’t be a problem for us, right?”
Maetel once again let out a bright smile as she b.u.t.ted into the conversation.
“When they do bad things, we kill them. However, that doesn’t mean all monsters do bad things!”
“······yes, that’s right.”
She got half of the answer right. Despite this fact, Artpe let out a bitter laugh as he nodded his head. He acknowledged her anwer. For Maetel and Sienna, the depth of this answer was sufficient. The rest could be taken care of by Artpe.
‘It would be great if good and evil can be determined in such a simple manner… The problem arises from the fact that not all monsters are evil. There are monsters that have developed their intelligence, so they have the self-control needed to suppress the urge to harm other creatures. Sometimes it is hard to determine the line between monsters and other foreign races. This problem comes up for discussion sometimes between humans and even the Demon race… Tsk. I can think about this later.’
Artpe retracted such thoughts as he raised his head. Many mermen had thrown their body against the vibrating wall early on, so their body was dyed with their blue-colored blood. All their eyes had turned red, and they were throwing spears towards Artpe and Maetel. It seems these mermen were unable to control their base instincts.
There were many individual differences between Mermen. They were similar in that facet as the humans! However, none of them should have been affected by the Lunatic Wave. So they didn’t have to think too hard before acting against the mermen!
“That is why we can just kill them all.”
“Yes. Understood, oppa!”
Sienna let out a bright smile as she extended both her hands. She possessed a special Mana that was unique to her. She was the only person on this world, who possess it. Her Mana flowed through her body, and it gathered at her fingertips.
“Divine Punishment!”
She couldn’t jump into the ocean to wage an underwater warfare. This was why she chose to use the attack magic of a priestess! She possessed a high rank cla.s.s of Warrior Priestess, yet she hadn’t been able to learn much specialized skills of her Cla.s.s. However, she had learned a simple spell where she could smite her enemies by gathering her holy power.
“Divine Punishment! Divine Punishment! Divine Punishment!”
Normally, this attack magic was used to keep others in check. However, Sienna was able to overlap this weak attack magic multiple times to expand its power and area of effect. She was able to come up with a powerful magic on the spot, and the attack struck the ocean.
It was the same concept of waves adding to other waves to create an enormous wave. She combined several attack magic into one. She was able to cause meaningful damage to her targets!
[Kee-ahhhhhk!]
[It hurts! I want to go home!]
[Koo-hahk!]
Sienna’s overpowering magical energy washed was the ocean, and it inflicted stun effects to the monsters. If one didn’t know she was a Warrior Priestess, one would mistake her for a magician.
“She really does have talent for magic…. Huh?”
Artpe was lamenting the fact that Sienna had been unable to traverse the road suited for her when he felt someone tugging at his sleeve. He turned to look behind him. It was none other than Maetel. Her cheeks were puffed out.
“Artpe, what should I do? There are too many monsters to target each of them with my long sword!”
“You can’t do anything here. You should make preparations. I’m sure the higher ranked monsters will show up later. You should eat and recover your stamina.”
“I’m not hungry yet!”
“Over here!”
“Everyone gather over here! The inner wall isn’t vibrating. Place the ladder here!”
Maetel was sulking in a major way as she stamped her feet. At that moment, humans were climbing ladders to climb up the 1st tier barrier wall. The number of humans on top of the wall was steadily growing. These were foreign n.o.bles, merchants and knights. They had just finished lamenting the fact that their boats had sunk to the bottom of the sea. Afterwards, they had had come to the barrier wall with their fighting equipments.
Even if they were foreigners, they couldn’t ignore the danger being face by Frate!
“I’ll help in the defense, magician-nim!”
“Magician, thanks to you this city...no, this country was saved. From now on, I will help you with everything I got!”
“······could you point out which son of a…. Could you point out which monster sunk our ships?”
Artpe put on a suitable business smile as he a.s.signed them to various parts of the wall.
Maetel finally came to a big decision as she raised her head.
“I understand now..”
“You should go there…. I told you I don’t know which one did it. Salvage? You should ask your own country about that…. Huh? What did you just say, Maetel?”
“It’s been my dream of mine to enter into the ocean!”
She had suddenly made an offbeat announcement, Artpe was going to laugh it off. However, Maetel didn’t give him the chance to reply to her words. She took couple short breaths before jumping off the barrier wall.
“Ee-yahhhhhhhhhhhhhp!”
She didn’t jump towards the inner part of the wall. She jumped outwards where it was teeming with hundreds of thousands of monsters! She jumped towards the location crowded by an overwhelming number of monsters.
“Oooh-ahhhhhhhh, Maetel!”
“Huhk! The berserker jumped into the ocean!”
“As expected of the berserker…! I’m sure of it. She is trying to just end her life through this fight!”
“I’m pretty sure she lost to the priestess in the quarrel for the magician"s love.”
Crazy nonsense were being spouted by the people around him. Artpe wondered if he should drop them all into the ocean, but he decided it wasn’t time to do that.
“Maetel, you idiot! Come back up here right now! If you had an artifact that allowed you to walk on water, you might…….”
“Hoo-ahhhhhhhp!”
As always, Maetel extinguished Artpe’s worries. When she was about to hit the surface of the water, she took a violent swing with her long sword. Three mermen were cut open, and she used the recoil of the attack to jump once again into the air!
“Eh-eet, hahp!”
[Koo-ahk!]
[Kyahhhhhhk!]
It would have been disappointing if it had ended with a single attack. However, Maetel once again swung her sword right before she fell in a different location. This times she cut open four monsters.
She kept repeating it again, again and again!
“Uh······.”
He had been about to use his Mana String to fish her out, but Artpe froze halfway in an awkward position. She said it had been her dream to enter into the ocean, yet there wasn’t a single drop of water on Maetel’s body. It was as if she was playing on dry ground. She was hopping across the water!
“That is······ Uh…….”
“Customer, what am I supposed to say when you look at me as if to say ‘how is that possible?’.......”
“Unni is amazing······.”
The fact that she was able to move around lightly without feeling the weight of her armor was the norm for her.
However, she currently had to take into account of the location of the monsters, their resistance to her attacks, the power of her swings, the recoil of her attacks. .h.i.tting the surface of the water…… The fact that she was able to calculate all of that factors before moving…..
“······you want to try that, Alfred?”
“I"m sorry, lord. I’ll die if I try that.”
Artpe had wondered if other knights had Skills that would allow them to jump into the ocean. Fortunately, no swordsman or warrior was able to do so. Everyone was absentmindedly watching Maetel go ham on top of the ocean.
“Yes, it is as expected. She’s the one that is strange. It is only her.”
“This scene is worthy of being recorded in the history books. However, it does look unsightly!”
It really would have been a interesting sight if around 100 knights jumped into the ocean by following Maetel’s example. He was a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to see it, but he tamped down on such thoughts.
At that moment, he saw an enormous shadow appear in the distant ocean.
“Mmmm······.”
He felt an atmosphere that could only be felt when the final boss came out. Artpe hoped it wasn’t the case, but when the enormous shadow entered into the range of his Read All Creation ability, his hope was dashed into pieces.
[Kraken]
[Level : 267]
“My goodness. This is nuts.”
“What’s wrong, customer? If we can hold out like this for several days, everything will be fine…..”
Artpe let out a bright laughter as he answered Mycenae’s question.
“The Kraken has surfaced.”
“······customer, you are really good at making a joke.”
If she really thought he was joking, she wouldn"t have put away her ballista. She was getting ready to run away. If it was Artpe’s words, Mycenae always trusted it to be true before asking any questions. It was a somewhat praiseworthy and cute.
“Where are you going?”
“Let me go!”
However, that was a separate issue. He wouldn’t let her run away. Mycenae had quickly packed her items. However, he firmly gripped her should when she turned away.
“Mycenae. Since, we’ve come this far together, let us meet our end together.”
“You only say my name in an attentive manner in situations like this! Let me go! I have to live!”
“If you run away to the city, I’m sure there are Demons waiting for you.”
“Ooh-ahhhhhhh! Customer, you are bad! You are a bad guy!”
Mycenae let out a cry. In the next moment, it was as if the monster was responding to her. A enormous tentacle appeared in the distant ocean.
The boss wave had begun.