"I—I knew it! It must be the Leviathan!"
"Leviathan."
While the crew spiralled into panic, Ulrich simply gave them a dry stare.
"What the hell would y'know about sea monsters, you noble bastard?!" Grover lashed out.
"Edmar! Take the wheel! Get us out of here!" Meera shouted, her expression dead serious as she rapidly barked orders at her scrambling crew.
Ulrich forced himself to his feet, but immediately stumbled, nearly collapsing back onto the deck, not because of the violent pitching of the ship, but out of bone-deep exhaustion.
He pressed a hand flat against his chest. For a fleeting second, his lips curled upward into a smile, before his expression contorted in pain.
The sensation...
It felt exactly as though a cluster of white-hot needles had just been driven directly into his heart.
Then again, his original mana core had literally exploded into microscopic fragments and had been replaced by an ancient legendary Core. So naturally, he wasn't going to feel completely fine anytime soon.
But none of that mattered.
Because finally, for the first time in his life, he had a functioning mana core.
"Hey! Hottie! Step away from the rail!"
Hearing Meera's shout, Ulrich managed to steady himself against the woodwork and peered over the side, looking into the water to see exactly what was hunting them.
Narrowing his eyes, he tracked a massive, sweeping shadow gliding just beneath the surface.
"Is that the same monster?!" Grover shrieked, terrified it was the colossal beast that had just carried Ulrich up from the abyss.
"No..." Meera shook her head slowly. "This one is smaller..."
"You call that small, Captain?!"
"I called it smaller, idiot! Now get us the hell out of here!" She roared back, shooting him a glare.
She sprinted across the deck and snatched up her cutlass. She didn't bother grabbing her coat, hat, or boots, she didn't need them to fight.
She immediately vaulted up onto the prow of the ship, balancing perfectly on the railing as she scanned the water. It didn't take long to spot the massive shape slithering toward them, closing the distance rapidly.
"I think we have no choice but to fight it," she said.
Hearing that, Grover's face drained of all colour, turning as pale as a sheet.
"F—Fight it?! Captain, that is a sea beast from the Scar!" He shouted.
Any creature capable of surviving and feeding within the Maelstrom was unordinary, possessing a level of power far beyond normal monsters.
"Either we fight it, or it swallows us whole, dumbasses! Now prepare the cannons and the mortar!" She screamed.
The crew scattered, sprinting frantically to their battle stations.
Meanwhile, Ulrich quietly stumbled away, making his way down into the cabin.
"Captain! The red noble is fleeing into the cabin!" Grover immediately tattled.
"He's a noble, what did you expect, you idiot!" Edmar snapped from the wheel.
Ulrich ignored them entirely. As soon as he cleared the stairs, he collapsed onto his knees, his hand clawing at his chest as another wave of pain hit him.
He dragged himself awkwardly across the floorboards until he reached a stack of heavy, secured barrels. Reaching into the narrow gap between two of them, he pulled out a small, hidden small bag.
He ripped it open, retrieved a reinforced iron box, and pulled out two vials.
He popped the corks with his teeth and immediately downed them both. The second he swallowed the liquid, he wretched violently, vomiting a mouthful of thick, black blood onto the wooden floor.
"Nguhh!"
He gritted his teeth, fighting off the encroaching darkness, and forced himself to stay awake as he gasped for air.
Meanwhile, the loud, concussive booms of cannons began to echo outside. Heavy iron balls struck the water, sending massive geysers of sea spray raining over the deck, but the shadow kept moving.
"Is the mortar ready yet?!" Meera shouted.
"On it!"
Three men hurriedly loaded the heavy mortar, dropping an explosive shell down the barrel. One of them immediately pressed a glowing red rod to the fuse.
They took a quick step back and clamped their hands over their ears.
BOOOOM!!
The blast echoed like thunder, and a massive plume of water erupted directly behind the ship.
"Did we get it?!"
"As if! Just keep firing!"
Meera, still standing perched on the high point of the prow, scanned the water.
She could no longer see the shadow, but she could feel the beast lurking dangerously close.
For a split second, an eerie silence fell. The screams of her crew, the crashing of the waves, the roar of the cannons, everything seemed to fade.
Then she snapped her head to the right, just in time to see a colossal, circular maw lined with scythe-like teeth erupt from the water. It blotted out the sky as it lunged directly for her, swallowing the space where she stood under the dumbfounded gazes of her crew.
Meera reacted purely on instinct, launching herself backward a fraction of a second before the jaws snapped shut. She hit the deck hard and skidded across the wet wood.
Silence crashed down over the ship, every man's expression twisting into pure horror.
They had never seen a sea monster of this size.
They all slowly turned to look at their Captain, who was staring back at the beast with a hardened glare.
It seemed the Goddess of Fortune's luck had finally run out.
"Keep firing! Get every cannon ready to fire at point-blank range!" She screamed.
"Captain!!"
Grover suddenly shrieked, pointing right behind her.
Meera spun around. The massive, gaping mouth had breached the surface again, and this time, thick, slick tentacles shot from its throat, wrapping around her arm.
She instantly swung her cutlass, slicing cleanly through them, but a dozen more immediately shot forward, binding her arm and completely immobilizing the hand holding her sword.
"Damn it!"
Edmar charged in instantly, his saber flashing as he hacked the tentacles away, freeing her.
"Move, Captain!" He shoved her forcefully toward the centre of the deck, but immediately fell to his knees as a fresh barrage of tentacles snaked around his legs.
Meera spun back around, vaulting over Edmar's back, and cleaved the thick appendages holding him. But the moment she struck, a massive cluster of tentacles whipped around her waist, instantly hauling her backward toward the waiting maw.
"Captain!!" Edmar lunged forward, catching herds by the wrist, but Meera forcibly shoved his hand away.
"Go!" She shouted.
Feeling herself being rapidly dragged into the abyss of the beast's throat, she let out a sigh.
The screaming of her crew, the violent rocking of the ship, the roaring of the wind…everything seemed to slow down…
'Is this how I die?'
'Well, I suppose I was already lucky to have survived this long...'
She started to close her eyes, accepting the dark.
But just before they shut entirely, a figure suddenly vaulted through the air directly into the monster's gaping mouth.
Her eyes blew wide in shock.
Ulrich.
He plunged straight into the beast's throat, wrapping his arm tightly around her waist and dragging her deeper into the dark.
Pitch blackness instantly swallowed them, and she felt the hilt of her cutlass slip entirely from her grip.
'What just happened?'
She was completely disoriented.
It was pitch black, hot, and disgustingly slippery.
She was inside the monster. And she was still alive. Wasn't she?
And the man holding her...
Suddenly, a brilliant, beautiful spark of crimson light flared in the dark, illuminating Ulrich's face.
His expression was dead serious. In his left hand, he held her cutlass, pointing it upward as they slid uncontrollably down the slick, fleshy slope of the beast's throat.
And then she saw what he was doing. His hand was moving in rapid, impossibly precise motions, using the blade to carve blazing runes into the air itself. She recognized the shapes, but she had no idea what spell he was attempting to cast.
The moment he finished, the crimson runes collapsed inward, fusing directly onto the steel of the cutlass.
"Hold onto me," he said quietly and too calmly for their situation.
Meera immediately locked her arms tight around his chest.
Ulrich bent his knees and launched himself upward, driving the glowing blade straight through the thick, muscular roof of the beast's throat.
A second later, vicious, foul-smelling liquid splattered across them as the blade breached the skin, and the night sky burst back into view.
Meera stared in awe at the stars directly above Ulrich's head.
She barely had time to process what was happening before Ulrich tightened his grip around her waist and launched them both through the jagged, bleeding tear in the monster's flesh.
A deafening bestial screech tore from the worm as it thrashed wildly in agony.
Ulrich hit the slick exterior of the beast's body and immediately began sliding down its length, holding Meera tightly as he locked his eyes on the creature's massive tail, which was currently rearing high into the air, preparing to plunge back into the sea.
The exact moment the tail reached its apex, Ulrich hit the tip, bent his knees, and pushed off.
Using the momentum of the thrashing beast, he launched them through the air, hurtling high over the water toward the retreating ship.
His trajectory was flawless. The crew stood with their jaws hung open as Ulrich plummeted from the sky, crashing onto the deck. His bare feet skidded violently against the wet wood before he lost his balance, tumbling and rolling rapidly across the planks while keeping Meera tightly shielded in his embrace.
"Nghh!"
He stopped dead when his back slammed into the wooden rail at the edge of the deck. The wood cracked deeply under the impact, but fortunately, it held.