We were on our third day of scouting for the Kraken, and I asked Vespera to add the gravity enchantnt to the armor of the knights from the 4th.
After a few minutes, we all went to the pier and explained to the knights how to control their flying by using air magic to propel themselves in different directions.
Thanks to the fact that they had much better control of their magic than a year ago, they picked it up quite fast. In fact, they helped us scout that day as they learned how to fly around.
This ti, I took the group to the sa spot where I had felt that strange sensation at the bottom. However, flying so high in the sky didn’t allow us to feel anything, so we all got closer to the water as we kept hovering in the air.
Since Vespera was the only one who had felt a devil’s aura before, I asked her to dive with to see if it was the sa. Casting a bubble around both our faces for breathing, we dropped into the water.
As we both used wind magic to propel ourselves underwater, we reached a point where the bottom of the sea looked completely black from the darkness.
[This is around the area I felt that energy...] I said to Vespera, using our companion telepathy.
However, Vespera’s eyes were fixated on the bottom with sowhat of a shock. She pointed her finger downwards toward the darkness and cast a small mote of light that descended slowly, illuminating its surroundings.
We both stared expectantly as the light slowly dropped into the deep, and a strange dark aura appeared just a few seconds later.
[That’s the one-...] I tried to talk to Vespera using telepathy but was suddenly cut short as she grabbed from my torso and propelled both of us quickly to the surface.
As we ascended, I saw one of the Kraken massive tentacles that had tried reaching for us.
("I didn’t even see it coming!") I thought as Vespera kept bringing us upward until we were out of the water.
Luckily, the Kraken didn’t keep chasing but retreated as soon as it missed the first ti.
We regrouped with everyone on the shore and told them I had seen one of the tentacles trying to catch us, but I couldn’t even see it coming. It was thanks to Vespera that the monster didn’t grab and pull into the deep.
"It’s not you, Ichiro. That thing is casting a weird spell to hide its presence. That’s why you couldn’t sense its attack." said Vespera with a serious tone.
Ever since we got out of the water, Vespera had turned her nonchalant attitude around and looked quite severe and sowhat shaken.
"Are you okay, Vesp?" I asked, noticing this was the first ti that my companion had shown fear for anything.
"I’m fine... I’m not afraid of so dumb squid. It’s more about that demonic power..." she said, gripping her arm with a little embarrassnt.
Vespera explained to us that Legendary Beasts like her were powerful enough to take down S-ranked monsters and the like. However, a devil could also use their powers to take control of Legendary Beasts and make them do their bidding.
She told us that devils liked to raise their best monsters until they were at the level of Legendary Beasts, and sotis, they even evolved into one.
A long ti ago, Vespera told that to beco a Legendary Beast, God Garon had to recognize said beast and give them his blessing. Nonetheless, the devils had their own thod of creating monsters just as strong, which were called "Accursed Beasts."
Her theory was that a devil was infusing power into the Kraken, wanting to evolve it into an Accursed Beast. That’s why its presence felt so faint, and the aura emanating from it felt so eerie.
"How long can it take for it to evolve?" I asked.
The entire group gathered around the Queen Demon Spider to listen closely, including Harvey and his knights.
"It depends on the devil’s power. It could take years or a few months..." she answered.
We already believed that the Kraken had been alive for a long ti, considering the Duke of Port Town Blue told us the story of him seeing it in the ocean around 30 years ago.
He did ntion that the size wasn’t near as close as to what it is now. So it was possible that no devil was infusing power into the monster back then.
"Either way, we won’t be able to fight that thing underwater..." said Vespera.
She had a point. Our senses were already muffled enough underwater, and the energy that emanated from the Kraken made it even harder to feel anything.
I couldn’t see that last tentacle going for , so we had to find a way to lure it out to the surface.
"That monster won’t co out for small prey like us..." said Vespera.
"You an...?"
"I think we are going to need to wait for the Duke’s attack..." said Vespera, her eyes serious and determined.
Honestly, when she got serious like that, it was pretty hard to ignore her warnings.
We returned to the town and visited the Duke to tell him about our findings and how the possible culprit for the Kraken being on their shores was a devil.
The duke looked terrified at the ntion of a devil, asking us if we were absolutely sure of what we saw. However, I told him that Vespera sensed it and that doubting her wouldn’t be wise as she was a Legendary Beast.
The duke understood but also realized that the mission to kill the Kraken was even more dangerous than he imagined, then wondered if he should cancel the attack.
"Don’t cancel it," I said.
The duke looked at with confusion.
"The Kraken won’t co out to the surface unless there is worthy prey for it. Having the armored boats could prove useful..." I explained to the duke.
We recomnded that, instead of sending so many people into the boats, send only the very best that had the skill to survive such an encounter.
"Makes sense. The boats themselves are what will make the Kraken co out, not the people..." said the duke as he nodded with understanding.
After the eting, lina and I put on our hoods and went around town, giving potions and food to people like usual. anwhile, the knights and the duke went to the barracks to speak with the other orders.
Later that night, Harvey told how it went.
Apparently, the knights of the 2nd and 7th orders were quite offended when the duke said that only the strongest knights should go.
The duke gave them a choice to go or not but also explained the gravity of the situation. However, all of the knights still chose to fight.
"Seems to like these guys have a huge ego..." I said.
("Well, we tried to warn them... At this point, don’t bla if soone dies...") I thought, but I didn’t say that out loud because it would have sounded kind of rude.
After a good night’s rest, we woke up early in the morning, ate breakfast, and left the inn to go to the pier, where preparations for the attack were already taking place.
There were three massive vessels that had armor of iron spikes coating their fra, tip, and rear, along with a dozen cannons on both sides. Each boat could easily hold around 200 passengers.
The knights of the 2nd boarded the first, accompanied by a group of adventurers.
The knights of the 7th boarded the second ship without their commander and with another small group of adventurers.
On the third boat was my group, the three knights from the 4th order, Commander Valentina, and another small group of adventurers.
I wondered why Valentina would want to board with us, but her attitude had changed from rude to sowhat indifferent, which was much better than having her bickering in my ears.
"Is there a problem if I join you?" she asked without expressing any emotions.
"Sure, but why? Won’t your knights miss you?" I asked.
"The sub-commander is with them. There is sothing here that interests more at the mont..." she said with the sa nonexpressive face.
"Alright then, whatever. Try not to get in the way, though." I said. However, I didn’t an for it to sound as rude as it ca out.
Valentina seed a little upset at that comnt but quickly recomposed herself after the preparations were done.
Once everyone was on board the three ships, they departed the pier in a triangle formation, with the first vessel carrying the 2nd order in the front.
I saw their commander standing at the tip of the boat with his sword pointing forward, yelling sothing like, "Let’s show everyone how the knights of Port Town Blue deal with pesky monsters!"
I heard Valentina sighing next to with embarrassnt as we all saw Commander Garret do his little show to his knights.
("Man... I have such a bad feeling about all this...") I thought as the vessels slowly made their way out of the shores into the open ocean.
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