Ankoku Kishi Monogatari - Chapter 93

Chapter 93.1: Kraken of Frozen Sea

◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

We were at the area around the head of aspidochelone, looking at the giant sea serpent who’d appeared in front of it.

The giant sea serpent was around 12 metres long.

But, I couldn’t feel animosity coming from that giant sea serpent.

It seems they aren’t coming to attack us.

「Uhm… something else seems to be coming this way, Master Kuroki.」

Polen said so to me while standing by my side.

It seems Polen had detected the other monster behind the giant sea serpent too.

「Indeed, Your Highness. The giant sea serpent seems to be trying to escape from something.」

The moment I said so, water columns rose from around the giant sea serpent.

「WHAT IN THE HECK IS THAT!!!?」

”
”
Putina screamed aloud upon seeing the rising water columns.

Some sort of tentacles appeared from the water columns.

Just one of those tentacles was far thicker than the giant sea serpent.

When that tentacle twined itself around the giant sea serpent, another huge water column rose from the sea.

「That’s the kraken’s tentacles. But, what a size…」

Liburm groaned by my side.

It seems that the tentacle was only a part of the kraken.

But, Liburm should’ve seen a Kraken before. What made him so surprised about this kraken?

Well, I guess that will have to wait after we take care of this.

Suddenly, six other tentacles came out from the sea, trying to catch Ezasa and co’s ships.

Though Ezasa and co’s ships were quite big, the tentacles had no problem twining themselves around their ships.

「Oh no!」

”
”
I summoned the demon sword of venous blood and took a flight.

「Haah!」

I sent a flying slash as I spun around in mid-air.

The slash sliced through the tentacles that were twining around Ezasa and co’s ship.

「Ooh!」

I heard cheering from the people around.

「GENERAL LIBURM!! USE THIS CHANCE TO SAVE THE CREWS OF THE OVERTURNED SHIP!!」

Though I managed to cut the tentacles, the other ships had already been overturned.

I could see the figure of the orcs being thrown out from the ships. They had to be rescued immediately.

「Understood, Your Excellency. GUYS, LET’S SAVE EZASA AND CO!!」

The subordinates of general Liburm, the lizardmen, took flight and started the rescue operation immediately.

Normally lizardmen were really bad with cold places. But, the winged lizardman were different from the normal lizardman. They had stronger cold resistance and could move without any problem even in cold places outside of the barrier around the mansion.

They picked up the orcs that had fallen into the sea.

The tentacles that received my slash withdrew while still twitching.

Seeing that, I descended back to aspidochelone.

「MASTER KUROKI IS SO COOL!!」

Polen ran toward me while clapping her hands.

Honestly, it feels good to be praised.

But, the others’ state aside from Polen seems to be a bit off.

Well, let’s set that aside for now and move to save the orcs.

There were two ships being turned over by the tentacles of the Kraken. Ezasa’s ship, which was cruising in the front most of the formation, was amongst the two.

The orc tribe had far more powerful bodies than the humans. It seems that none of them sunk to the bottom of the ocean thanks to the abundance of fat in their body which act like floaters.

Liburm’s subordinates were moving with tacit understanding to save the orcs.

「Are you okay, Ezasa-dono?」

「Yes, I somehow survived from that, Your Excellency…」

I scanned Ezasa’s body and found no external trauma on their bodies.

But, why did he look so depressed? Did he feel depressed since his ship had just sunk into the ocean?

「Nevertheless, for it to be able to sink a ship with just one of its tentacles… This is the first time I’ve seen a Kraken of such an enormous size.」

When I said so, the orcs who just bailed out from the sea were looking at each other’s faces.

「You’re slightly mistaken about this, Your Excellency. Their size isn’t supposed to be that huge. At least not to the point where they can sink a ship with just one of their tentacles. The Kraken we just met is simply out of norm.」

Ezasa then explained to me.

Female orcs had a bigger physique than their male counterparts. Nevertheless, Ezasa’s physique rivalled that of those female orcs.

Since he was more than two metres tall, his physique gave off quite the pressure.

「Your Excellency, that Kraken is abnormal. Catching that one is simply impossible. Let’s retreat for now.」

Ezasa brought his face closer as he told me so with flaring nose.

That’s too damn close.

「Your Excellency, I agree with Ezasa-dono. This is also the first time I’ve seen such a giant Kraken. Let’s retreat.」

Liburm agreed with Ezasa.

「Please wait!! What will happen to the selkie if we leave such a huge Kraken then!? Some of our comrades were killed by that Kraken too, right!? Such a huge Kraken will definitely eat a lot of fish in this area!! We have to kill it right now!! So please subjugate it!!」

Inul, who stayed by my side, pleaded with a loud voice.

It seems he was desperate too with the selkie-tribe being in a predicament.

「What are you talking about? Are you trying to put Her Highness in a dangerous situation? It seems the selkie really have no idea about their position.」

Colour drained from Inul’s face when Liburm glared at the former as he spoke.

The selkie was a weak tribe. They were easily scared of Liburm, one of the eight demon general’s, glare.

「Good grief. Are they eating your comrades with their skin on just like a normal earless seal?」

Ezasa asked such a question to Inul after he left my side.

Since he left my side, Inul was in pinch.

Come to think of it, the orcs also ate earless seals. Thus, Inul’s face paled upon recalling that.

”
”
「No way… even though Her Highness has promised us that she’s going to subjugate the Kraken…」

Everyone turned toward Polen the moment Inul said so.

「Eh? A~h. Hahaha. You’re right….」

Polen spoke while scratching her head.

Sure enough, we promised to save them in the name of Polen. We absolutely couldn’t go back on our words.

Moreover, it was the first time Polen was being so assertive like that. Thus, I was troubled about whether I should send a lifeboat or not.

The Kraken from before was clearly an extremely dangerous existence.

Considering Polen’s safety, we should retreat for now.

But since the person herself wanted to save the selkies, I guess I had no choice but to come forward.

「GENERAL LIBURM!! EZASA-DONO! HER HIGHNESS WILL SUBJUGATE THE KRAKEN!! RETREATING HERE WILL INSULT HER HIGHNESS’ NAME!! BUT OF COURSE, I, AS HER ESCORT, CAN’T ALLOW HER TO RECKLESSLY CHALLENGE THE KRAKEN EITHER!! THUS, I PROPOSE TO GO IN HER PLACE TO EXTERMINATE THE KRAKEN!!」

I declared so.

It should be okay for me to go in Polen’s place since doing so would allow Polen to fulfil her promise to the selkies, while also preventing her from endangering her own life.

「Master Kuroki… are you sure about this?」

Polen wore an apologetic look on her face as she spoke.

「Don’t worry, Your Highness. I… will do something about this.」

Honestly speaking, this was the first time I was fighting a Kraken.

I wouldn’t have any trouble dealing with it when it came to the surface, the problem was when it tried to escape by diving into the ocean.

And I’m lacking experience in underwater combat too.

Can I win against this guy?

But well, I have no choice but to fight it.

At that moment, I felt a powerful killing intent swelling up from the sea.

「SUCH KILLING INTENT!!」

Petina let out an amazing voice while looking at the sea.

It seems I wasn’t the only one who felt that killing intent.

Liburm and Ezasa were looking at the sea too.

A gigantic presence was approaching in our direction and it was much bigger than the sea serpent from before.

「It seems we didn’t even have a choice to evacuate, to begin with…」

Liburm muttered so.

Giant waves attacked aspidochelone as that gigantic presence got closer to us.

The shaking it caused couldn’t even be compared to that of normal waves.

Inul and co were screaming in fear.

But, this was only the beginning, the real attack was only about to start.

When the wave had passed, a few giant tentacles were coiling around the aspidochelone.

Including the smaller ones, there were at least dozens of them.

Upon a closer look, I found out that even the length of the thiccest tentacles was bigger than Aspidochelone, which is already as big as an island.

「K-KRAKEN!!」

Ezasa’s subordinates screamed loudly.

The Kraken was coiling its tentacles around Aspidochelone in an attempt to drag the latter into the bottom of the ocean.

Few of those tentacles were attacking the people riding on aspidochelone’s back.

The Kraken was clearly pissed off.

Well, it might be because I cut its tentacle before.

「This is quite bad eh…」

Now we have no choice but to fight.

◆Princess of Hell; Polen

「AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S SHAKING! IT’S FRICKING SHAKIIIIIIIIIIIING! POH-CHAN HELP, I CAN’T SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!!!」

The giant tentacles suddenly appeared up from the sea, shaking the aspidochelone.

And since the ground was shaking, I could barely maintain my standing position.

A few of the tentacles that appeared from the sea were attacking us.

「YOUR HIGHNESS, WATCH OUT!!!」