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Renya hesitated on whether he should really toss Kilie, who had lost consciousness with foam around her mouth, into the sea, but in the end he limited it to dumping her on some random vacant area. Given that he hadn’t sensed anything shattering beneath his palm when he had held Kilie’s head in an eagle hold, Renya assumed that Kilie’s skull was most likely safe and sound.
If that assumption was correct, Kilie was still alive, which was slightly disappointing from Renya’s point of view. Although it was only for a bit, Renya had been tempted by the idea to make her shut up for eternity.
If the iron claw hasn’t finished her off, she might suffocate if I throw her into the ocean while still unconscious, and maybe, by some chance, the katurul might take her quietly away to some far and distant place.
“It must be somewhere out of the public’s eyes…”
Until Kilie started to kick up a fuss over Renya tightly grabbing her head, no one paid any attention to the two. However, now that Kilie had made so much noise, even the people, who had absolutely no interest, were looking in Renya’s and Kilie’s direction, wondering just what was going on. Not to mention, that it wouldn’t be strange for one of them to quickly notify the city guards, which would be the worst outcome for Renya, considering it was a fairly good-looking girl who was laying on the ground with foam around her mouth and the whites of her eyes showing.
But then again, the people around here already recognized Renya’s face and somewhat knew his antics, thus the gazes directed at him were mostly ones of defeat, having completely given up on commenting on his behavior.
Although Renya believed that he reaped what he had sown, he didn’t find it amusing to be looked at like that.
“No, even if I toss her into the sea, the probability that she’ll be carried away is low, I guess.”
Kilie could understand the katurul. For some reason no one thought it weird that she was able to do so or even asked why she could do it, and Renya himself had no plans to investigate the reason since he didn’t really care all that much in the first place, but either way, her being able to communicate with the katurul meant that she could also be called its kin.
In other words, the katurul should consider Kilie as a friend to some degree and as someone not to be hindered. If that way of thinking were correct, it would be difficult to believe that the katurul would cause Kilie any harm. Rather, Renya believed that the katurul would pick up and bring Kilie ashore again, if he were to toss her into the sea while unconscious.
As far as Renya saw from its behavioral pattern, he couldn’t believe that the katurul would harm a ship trying to fish or travel between the continents in some way, but it seemed that the katurul was truly merciless towards ships and the people aboard said ships.
Otherwise they wouldn’t prohibit every single ship from setting sail or building a port despite having such rich fishing grounds right on their front door, according to Baron Gordonal.
Given that the territory was weak in terms of cultivation due to the salty sea breeze, it has been a dear wish for generations of family heads of the baron Gordonal house to use marine products as their special, local product. Not only Baron Gordonal, but also the city residents were deeply thankful to Renya, who not only made it possible to circumvent that fishing restriction but also provided a market to sell the seafood, but that was a different matter altogether.
For the time being, Renya lifted his feet out from the ocean while leaving the unconscious Kilie where she was on the wharf, faintly hopping that she would fall into the water by herself.
As if saying, “Just a little bit more,” the katurul’s tentacles wobbled back and forth within the ocean, but Renya’s toes, which had been soaking in the sea for a fairly long time, had started to get even wrinklier skin due to the salt water.
He created a water sphere without chanting and used it to rinse off the salt water on his feet. He then dried off his feet, without even needing to wipe them off with a cloth, by creating a gentle breeze. Support the translator by reading this at Infinite Novel Translations. Thanks!
After confirming that his feet were completely dry, Renya lowered the cuffs of his pants, and put on his boots. Once he looked at Kilie with a glance, she was still unconscious, and several tentacles that stuck out from the wharf were gently nursing her by wiping the foam from her mouth with a cloth, which made Renya wonder just where they had procured it, and placing cloths that were wrung after wetting them on her forehead.
Surprised by such a sight, Renya doubted whether the katurul was really a being that would rob people of their consciousness and drop them to the very bottom of insanity, from where they wouldn’t ever be able to recover if they were unlucky, by just showing itself, if it felt like it, but Renya immediately pushed those thoughts away.
Even if I think about it, it won’t change anything anyway. In the first place, the katurul is recognized as an existence beyond human understanding.
There was no way that a human like Renya could understand the reasons behind its actions, even if he tried to analyze them.
Renya irresponsibly summed it up with the idea that the katurul must have a reason grounded on some kind of truth secretly existing at the very end of the universe or at the furthest depths of profoundness, and decided to let it do whatever it wanted. Standing up from the edge of the wharf, he was about to turn on his heels when he witnessed midways yet another unbelievable scene.
“Yaaaa!”
A longsword, which was swung to its full extent alongside a yell of fighting spirit, cut through the air, and repelled several attacking tentacles in one go. That longsword had its blade dulled as it was made for training purposes. Although it was one of Renya’s creations, focusing only on sturdiness, the longsword’s parts, which came in contact with the repelled tentacles, definitely had cracks, where the metal had been somewhat chipped, despite the blade’s edge being dull.
Shion, who slipped in close on the tentacles that had been thrown backwards, unleashed a sharp blow against the tentacles’ base before they could fix their posture. Due to the slash that dug out the ground, several of the struck tentacles lost their power, dropped to the ground and stopped moving.
After some time passed, those tentacles were apparently retrieved with some kind of method, slowly being dragged underground and disappearing. In exchange, an even bigger number of new tentacles showed up, and released thin, sharp water jets from their tips, targeting Shion, who had warily readied her sword.
Watching one of the shots widely missing Shion and deeply piercing into the ground, Renya noticed the firepower behind those water jets, and hurriedly erected a mana wall around the battle site.
Although it was called ground, the battle ground was covered by stone paving, meaning, the water jet released by the katurul’s tentacle broke through stone. If such a powerful water jet hit a human body, heavy injuries would be inevitable.
It should have been training that was mostly just playing around, but Renya was puzzled as to what had taken place while he wasn’t paying attention to the mock battle for it to develop into the current situation.
Unrelated to Renya’s thoughts, the water jets that were continuously fired at Shion looked somewhat dangerous, but Shion shortened the distance to the tentacles while smoothly dodging the water. Seemingly understanding that Shion had closed the distance between her and the tentacles, the katurul stopped firing water jets all at once, and assailed the nearing Shion with the tentacles by lashing them out like whips. But those were all deflected by Shion’s londsword.
With Shion apparently unable to knock out the tentacles with just one blow, the tentacles, which were knocked down to the ground, wriggled around and tried to raise their bodies again while being stepped on by Shion who ran around stomping down on them.
Renya widened his eyes at Shion’s speed, who was stomping on the tentacles without hesitation, and her judgment to knock out several tentacles at once by calmly aiming at places where several tentacles were gathered.
There was no doubt that Shion had grown as a swordfighter. Moreover, despite being totally messed around with when they started this training session, she had reached a point where she could deal with the tentacles’ attacks to the point that could be regarded as a decent battle in a small amount of time. Renya couldn’t hide his astonishment at this fact.
Without even taking any notice of Renya, Shion narrowed her eyes while looking down at the tentacles trying to somehow escape her trampling, focusing her senses in some way.
“Through learning by watching…”
“Are you kidding me?”
The surrounding air was sucked towards Shion’s chest, who was concentrating, alongside a shrill sound. That air formed a transparent sphere like a vortex, the wind circling with.
Renya had seen such a spectacle somewhere before.
“Fang King’s Roar!”
Once the compressed cluster of air was released and hit the swarm of tentacles, which couldn’t break away from beneath Shion’s feet, the tentacles were slapped against the ground by the roar’s pressure.
The after-effects of the attack Shion released clashed against the mana wall created and maintained by Renya while causing her hair and clothes to flutter.
The Fang King’s Roar was a wide-range attack used by Hero Lepard. The one he used was a technique that would cause a huge impact and pressure in a fixed direction by compressing the surrounding air into a vortex, adding a rotation to it, and releasing it towards the target. Although it had the flaw of needing quite a long time in order to amass enough air before its release, its offensive power, once it was fully charged, was immeasurable. The area receiving the attack would be largely gouged out, leaving nothing behind in its wake.
Shion’s imitation definitely fell short in terms of range and firepower, but the issue here wasn’t the attack’s firepower, but the part about Shion consciously manipulating mana.
It’s not like Shion had no magic talent. Although it was the basics of the basics, she could use the spell <Ignition>, and could use something like <Reinforcement>, albeit unconsciously. However, if it came to mana control at a level allowing her to generate proper firepower and releasing it as an attack, it would be very different to such elementary sorcery abilities.
“Chain attacks!”
In exchange for its smaller firepower and range than the one Lepard uses, Shion could apparently use her <Roar> in quick succession. A second shot was fired at the tentacles still trying to move after having been slapped against the ground.
Rattling vibrations ran through the ground. A portion of the people in the middle of work noticed it, stopped what they were doing, and began to look in Renya’s direction, curious as to what was happening.
“Renya-san!? What’s going on here!?” Kilie, who had apparently revived without Renya noticing, asked next to him, unable to hide her surprise.
“You sure got back up on your feet quickly.”
“I woke up due to those sounds and vibrations. So, just what the hell is going on?”
In response, Renya silently pointed in Shion’s direction. Following his finger with her eyes, Kilie saw Shion unleashing the third roar towards the ground alongside a meaningless scream.
The tentacles were slapped against the ground once more, and finally the stone paving also started to yield to the roars’ pressure and broke apart.
Seemingly having their stamina completely whittled down by the attack, the tentacles stopped moving and were drawn back underground while making a slithering sound. And then, a replacement tentacle appeared again, pushing its way through the stone paving.
“I feel like the firepower has been growing with each blow.”
In no time, Shion released a side swing with her sword towards the new tentacle. The sword dug almost halfway into the tentacle, which was as thick as an adult’s arm, with a heavy, wet sound, causing it to lose all power and drop limply to the ground due to that single blow.
The power of her slashes is continuing to grow as well.
Renya felt that the fact that Shion had reached the point where her attacks were connecting properly and gouging out the tentacles, despite the same attacks not hitting or merely repelling the tentacles previously, couldn’t be completely described with just the word growth.
“What did you say was Shion-san’s full name?” Kilie asked Renya, who felt a bad premonition, with a nonchalant expression.
“I think it’s Shion Femme Fatale.”
Once Renya said so while believing that this must be her full name according to his memory, Kilie clapped her hands together once as if having understood something.
“Aah…so that’s how it is. One part of her strength comes from the qualities Shion-san possessed to begin with. Another part stems from the power of her family’s bloodline. And on top of that, she has been right next to a source of very dense mana for an extended period of time. Yet another part is due to her eating a fairly large amount of Katurul-san’s flesh in a short period of time. And the last part is a result from her daily training…”
At the same time as the wounded tentacle was pulled back into the ground, another batch of replacement tentacles fired water bullets at Shion. Once Shion countered the bullets with her roars, the water bullets were scattered, turning into countless droplets.
Shion dashed forward as if cutting through the resulting cloud of droplets.
“Get to the point.” Renya urged Kilie on as he wanted to know about the outcome rather than the progress leading to it.
However, he couldn’t believe his ears when he heard what Kilie said next.
“It’s the outcome of various elements having come together. It looks like Shion-san has radically developed her own abilities and broken through some kind of limit.”
While stepping in sharply, Shion unleashed a low slash, smashing several tentacles simultaneously alongside the stone paving with the dulled blade of her sword. The tentacles, which were sent flying while scattering bodily fluids, and the stones, which were sent flying after breaking off from the paving, clashed against Renya’s mana wall at almost the same time, making the whole wall shake strongly.
Sensing that something was amiss now that things had come this far, the workers ran off somewhere to file a report or began to evacuate as they realized that they had to leave before they got dragged into the situation.
“That’s a good thing, or is it not?”
Once Renya asked while being fairly certain that the answer he was going to get wasn’t going to be something he wanted to hear, Kilie shook her head as if having seen through Renya’s thoughts.
“The manifestation of her abilities is a bit too sudden. Those powers are prone to run amok, I’m sure.” Kilie said in a carefree tone as if talking about tomorrow’s weather.
In the training area which Renya was looking at, while wondering how he should respond to Kilie’s words, Shion aimed at the new tentacles, which were trying to come out of the ground, and hit them with an even stronger roar. The tentacles, which were in the middle of popping out, and the stone paving were smashed to pieces and scattered everywhere.
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