D.I.O

Bam! Poof!

The Specters that were hit by the Kraken’s tentacle exploded upon contact. Specters were ghosts, meant to be impervious to physical attacks. However, the Kraken wasn’t just a physical living organism. It also possessed spiritual and divine qualities. It was impossible for a living organism to have such a large form without possessing some type of special quality.

Crack! Boom!

The magic spells that hit the Kraken’s skin only caused slight scratches and tears; they didn’t pose any danger to the Kraken. This was a show of how much life force the Kraken truly possessed.

Whoosh!

The ten tentacles of the Kraken wrapped tightly around the Dead Man’s Ship, causing precarious cracking noises to ring out across the sea. The Dead Man’s Ship started to shake. Seeing this, Heinkel’s eyes seemed to burn like flickering fire.

“A mere animal existence!”

Dark magic rippled and roared around Heinkel’s body. Below his feet, his shadows began to extend and rise. He was utilizing the technique that he had perfected through a countless amount of research and training. Although it was a high-level spell, he did not have to chant for long.

Kyak!

Under the overwhelming aura, the Kraken recoiled. Two longer and thicker tentacles hid among the Kraken’s ten tentacles. The Kraken raised one of them high up in the air and swung it down with tremendous force. The destructive power of the attack was comparable to a sizable falling meteorite. However, right before the moment of impact, one of the Dead Man Ship’s latent spells was activated, causing a magic barrier to form around it.

Boom!

When the tentacle collided against the magic barrier, the barrier shattered. However, it was able to glance off the Kraken’s attack.

“Protect the leader!”

Sss!

The remaining cannon slots that had not been destroyed by Merlin opened up and unleashed cannonball rounds at the Kraken. Then, hundreds of higher-level undead started to climb up to the deck. Then, seemingly without care for their own well-being, they started to attack the Kraken, slicing through and wounding its dense flesh.

Kyak!

Wriggling in pain, the Kraken swung its two larger tentacles wildly. Obviously, the destructive force behind those tentacle strikes was beyond imagination. Especially considering how they possessed spiritual power that could rip through shields or barriers like paper.

Crack.

As the Kraken tightened its grip even further on the ship, a large crack appeared across the ship’s deck.

Boom!

The building-sized Kraken tentacle smashed onto the deck of the ship, and various undead monsters started flying off like pieces of popping popcorn.

“Damn monster!”

A Death Knight wearing a shiny coat of black armor raced up the massive tentacle. Plumes of black smoke trailed behind him. He moved unbelievably fast; one would have thought that it was a loose black arrow rather than a running knight.

Whoosh!

The Kraken continued to wave its tentacle around, but the Death Knight continued onward unfazed, as if he was magnetically attached to the tentacle. Even at moments where the Death Knight was forced to move backwards, his speed did not reduce. In what seemed like a brief moment, it reached the Kraken’s body, which spanned the length of two to three football fields.

Sss!

Sparks began to fly as a flame flared up from the handle of the Death Knight’s sword, expanding until the entire sword was engulfed in fire. Then, the Death Knight jumped. The sword blade, covered in dark qi, struck out like lightning towards the Kraken’s weak point, its eyes.

Bam!

However, at that moment, the Kraken closed its eyes and let out a roar, quickly dispersing the sword qi. The Kraken’s eyelid was strong enough to sustain the powerful attack. The eyelid had obviously taken some damage, causing it to flap around like an untightened sail, but no harm had come to its eyes.

Roar!

Bam!

Ivan, the Death Knight that had launched the attack, was left vulnerable and couldn’t avoid being tossed off the Kraken’s shaking tentacle. He sustained an immense amount of damage after being thrown off. The Kraken swung its tentacle around again, smacking Ivan in mid-air.

“Leo!!”

Brr!

From within the large open split that had formed on the deck, a ghost horse, Phantom Steed, shot out and flew towards Ivan. It soon safely caught Ivan on its back.

However, Ivan was already in a critical state. Even if he immediately took rest, it would take him at least 10 hours to recuperate and recover from his injuries. However, the ship would surely sink within that time. Ivan needed to take action immediately. At the very least, he needed to buy time for his leader, Mage Heinkel, to finish chanting his spell.

“Fly!”

Hee-hing!

After flying high up into the sky, Ivan and his steed shot down like a bolt of lightning. Again, their target was the Kraken’s eye. The Kraken had assumed that it had taken care of Ivan, and was fully focused on neutralizing Heinkel. It was completely oblivious, and defenseless against Ivan’s current attack.

Crack!

Ivan’s sword pierced the Kraken’s eye, which was as large as a modern transportation container box. The Kraken’s eye was strong, despite its damaged eyelid, but it stood no chance against a sword that roared with dark magic.

Kyak!!

The monstrously large Kraken cried out and thrashed its tentacles around violently. The chaos caused the sea to overturn, it was as though the sea was being upended and trying to empty itself. The Dead Man’s Ship, which was unaffected by physical waves, creaked as the Kraken’s grip loosened. Ivan had bought enough time for Heinkel to complete his spell. A large plume of dark magic emanated out from Heinkel.

“Therefore, I state! I give an order! There is a loathsome enemy before me!”

The dark magic roared like flames around Heinkel and swiftly gathered in the air, forming the figure of a living organism.

It had wide wings and fiery red eyes.

“Go, Dark Dragon of Nemesis!”

Kya!!!

The dragon cried out and flew out towards the Kraken’s head. The Kraken was blinded, but it seemed to have other sensory abilities that allowed it to pinpoint the dark dragon. The Kraken swung its tentacles to strike the incoming attack, but the dragon easily avoided each swing. Soon, the dark dragon took in a deep breath and exhaled a Dark Breath attack.

Crack.

After being struck by the dark dragon’s Dark Breath, the Kraken’s skin started crumbling. The tough Kraken skin, which seemed like it could sustain a modern nuclear weapon strike, crumbled like dirt under the Dark Breath attack. The Kraken’s defenses were brought down all at once.

Crack!

Like a hawk swooping down on its prey, the dark dragon landed on the Kraken’s large body and started tearing into the Kraken with its powerful jaws. As if it was being weathered down, the Kraken’s body slowly began to crumble further.

“Now’s our chance! All-out attack!!”

Once Ivan shouted, the rest of the Death Knights moved like ants atop the Kraken’s large body and launched attack after attack. Many undead were forced underwater, but they were undead beings, moving corpses. They did not have to breathe, and were completely unfazed.

Crack! Crack!

The Kraken’s body, critically weakened by the dark dragon’s Dark Breath, was slowly breaking down from the Death Knights’ barrage of attacks. Since the Kraken was so monstrously large, it wouldn’t succumb to death any time soon, but its skin was completely ravaged. The powerful life force that the Kraken possessed was being whittled away to critical levels.

Kyak!!!

“End it!”

After shouting those words, Heinkel started chanting his next spell. The Kraken was already in a critical state, but Heinkel refused to take any chances. If the Kraken went underwater and capsized the ship, or something destructive like that, Heinkel and his corps would be put in a difficult situation.

Whoosh!

A black fog arose from between the Kraken’s tentacles. It wasn’t the same as the ink produced by squids.

“Ugh! Is it trying to mess with our vision and recognition ability?”

Heinkel sensed his surroundings darken, and a chill formed in the air. He didn’t have eyes like living organisms do to see what was around him. Heinkel utilized a magic-based recognition ability to ‘see’. This made him able to sense what was around him, even if he was surrounded in darkness. Moreover, he could always sense everything around him, without having to focus on any one point. However, even for him, his surroundings had been shrouded in darkness by the Kraken’s black fog.

Bam!

Kyak!

The shriek was accompanied by a shockwave. Heinkel felt his connection to his own magic power momentarily snap and cancel. Immediately, he realized that his dark dragon had disintegrated.

Crack!

In the meantime, an ominous sound rang out from the Dead Man Ship’s hull. The main line that connected the front of the ship to the back had snapped. The Kraken had started squeezing the Dead Man’s Ship once more!

“Fuck!”

Heinkel grinded his teeth as he moved his hands. He made his magic power act like the wind. The Kraken’s black fog seemed to be a localized spell. It took a considerable amount of Heinkel’s magic power to clear away the blinding fog. There was nothing else Heinkel could do; he had to clear away the fog to save the ship and its crew.

Whoosh!

The fog cleared, revealing an unbelievable sight. The Kraken’s skin, which had been ravaged with injuries just moments ago, had completely healed itself. Even its eye, which had been punctured and damaged by Ivan, was completely healed.

“An ultra-recovery ability…? From a being of that size?”

In reality, ultra-recovery wasn’t such an impressive ability. Werewolves, trolls, and many other standard monsters possessed an ultra-recovery ability. However, it was surprising that a monster as large as this Kraken possessed such an ability. A tremendous, concentrated attack was already needed just to inflict damage on the Kraken, and now it had revealed that it could easily recover and return to normal using a simple recovery ability.

Kyak!!!!

Crack!

The Kraken shouted as the Dead Man’s Ship crumpled. The large ship split into two pieces and began sinking. The many undead within and atop the ship began to jump off into the sea. Those unfortunate enough to land in the path of the Kraken’s crushing tentacles were killed instantly.

Boom!!

Amid this chaos and destruction, the Kraken raised both of its larger tentacles high into the air. They stretched upwards like rubber bands, extending to a length of 400 meters.

The tentacles must have weighed tons, even by a conservative estimate, and they were now up in the air, 400 meters in length. If those tentacles swung downward…

“Damn.”

Heinkel couldn’t help but let out a defeated sigh. He instinctively chanted and completed a defensive spell, but it was no use. The Kraken’s tentacle swing didn’t just possess a physical force; it contained a spiritual force that could instantly disintegrate a spiritual power-based being on contact. The source of that spiritual power was likely just from its large life force, but that mattered little now.

Once the Kraken’s tentacles finally reached their apex…

Ping!

A metallic, silver arrow flew across the air between Heinkel and the Kraken.