by Hyougetsu
“Kentauros, charge! Cooperate with the mermaids to find the reef that makes up the core of its body! If its tentacles are here, it has to be close! Engineers, fire off the signal flares telling the merchant ships to advance!”
The flares were bright enough that they were dimly visible even through the thick fog. I had no idea if the ships waiting outside had been able to make out the entirety of the order or not, but hopefully they’d at least charge toward the light. Just in case, I sent off a few kentauros messengers to relay my orders directly.
The Island Kraken now had three tentacles wrapped around Lacy’s fake ship. Thanks to its obsession with the illusion, the kentauros warriors were safe. However, there were still five other tentacles to contend with. And there was no telling when our octopus friend might start using them. It’d be a problem if it went after the kentauros, but it’d be an even bigger one if it targeted the ships.
Right now, my biggest concern was the merchant ship up ahead. The Island Kraken was ignoring it entirely, despite the fact that it had assaulted Lacy’s illusion the moment it got into range. In fact, it seemed almost as if it was waiting for us to approach the ship. That thought gave me an idea.
“Have the mermaids on standby investigate the underside of that ship! But tell them not to get too close!”
My hunch turned out to be correct. There was a huge hole in the hull of the Rainbow Clam. The ship and its crew had long since fallen prey to the Island Kraken. Normally it would have sunk to the bottom of the sea, but the Kraken had wrapped a tentacle around it to keep it afloat. The beast had learned that if it made the ship look like it was still intact, other ships would try to rescue it. It was using the ship as bait. Damn, I forgot how smart octopuses were. However, thanks to this, we knew where half of the Kraken’s tentacles were. I readied the catapult as I waited for our merchant ships to join us.
After a few minutes, I spotted the merchant ships’ silhouettes through the fog. They’d planned their approach well, and had managed to rendezvous despite the lack of wind. Garsh’s sailors knew their stuff. However, now that they’d arrived, they were trapped in this windless, tideless expanse. If our assault failed, we’d have to move the crew onto our warships and abandon those vessels. We were committed now. Even I couldn’t help but be a little nervous.
According to Melaine’s notes, the Island Kraken’s tentacles were powerful enough to lift a ship out of the water. But from what I’d seen so far, they didn’t look quite that strong. They were, however, the perfect thickness to maneuver through tight spaces while still being able to crush a human with ease. If one of those got around anyone, they were done for. Just then, the kentauros squad returned from their mission. Firnir galloped up to the flagship and shouted, “Vaito, we found the reef! It’s further in!”
“Well done, Firnir!”
“Be careful! There’s tentacles guarding the reef! We already lost two men!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll avenge them! Have your squad retreat!”
Octopuses used their tentacles to swim, as well as hunt their prey. So long as the Kraken was using all its tentacles to fight, it wouldn’t be able to move.
“Have the warships tow the sailing boats! Dragonkin engineers, load the catapult’s first barrage!”
Sailors hitched the merchant ships to the warships, and we rowed around the tentacles attacking Lacy’s illusion. We needed to get closer to be able to see the reef through the fog. But if this octopus was smart enough to use ships as bait, chances were it’d realize the ship it was attacking was fake pretty soon. If we didn’t hurry, we’d become its next target.
The mermaids started singing, and used the echoes bouncing off the reef to measure not only its size, but to pinpoint its location. I was pretty surprised, but apparently they had built-in sonar capabilities.
“Mr. Veight, the reef is about this big.”
The mermaids formed a ring in the water to give me an approximation of the reef’s size.
“Damn that’s huge...”
Their circle was roughly the size of two tennis courts.
“Lacy, how many more ships can you make?”
“If all you want them to do is sit there I can make maybe 10-20 more, but I can only control one at a time. Moving them takes up all of my focus,” Lacy replied apologetically. So our decoys are limited.
“Alright, leave your ship to its own devices for now. Start preparing the next illusion.”
“Yes, sir.”
Considering four of its tentacles were in sight, I doubted its main body could be that much further. As expected, the reef came into view after barely a minute of rowing. The fog was thickest here, which was why we hadn’t been able to see it until we got much closer. If it weren’t for the kentauros and mermaids scouting for us, we might never have found it. But now we had this octopus bastard in our sights. While a decent chunk of the reef jutted out of the water, most of it was still underwater. Using what was visible as a base, I tried to guess what the rest of the Kraken looked like underwater. I’d seen plenty of octopuses in aquariums back in Japan, so it was easy enough, even for a guy with no imagination like me. Alright, let’s start with this spot. I turned to the engineers and gave the order to fire.
“Target the section of sea right in front of the reef! Fire!”
The dragonkin relayed the order back, and with practiced movements the crew took aim.
“Target acquired! Firing the first barrage!”
Garsh turned to me with a smile, his earlier nervousness gone.
“So that’s yer famous secret weapon, huh?”
“Something like that.”
The catapult swung forward, launching a barrel into the air. It traced a neat arc through the air, and splashed into the sea right where I wanted it. The force of its fall sent it down a few feet, but then it floated back to the surface. And sat there. Garsh watched in disbelief for a few seconds, then rounded on me.
“O-Oi! Nothing’s happening!”
“Calm down. That was just a calibration shot.”
I only had one actual round of ammunition. I needed to make sure it hit, or we were screwed. On the other hand, as long as this landed, victory was a foregone conclusion. Hence why I was being cautious with my shots.
“Load the next shot! Prepare to fire the Silver Lightning!”
A nervous current ran through the engineers. However, Kurtz remained professional and relayed my orders.
“Roger, loading the Silver Lightning!”
He brought out a marked barrel and carefully lowered it into the catapult. While the Kraken’s tentacles could turn onto us at any moment, it wouldn’t do to rush this step. If this went off on the ship, it’d be a bigger problem than any tentacle. Unable to contain his curiosity, Garsh asked, “Is that it?”
“Yep, this is it.”
Honestly, even I was terrified of our weapon.
“All mermaids and kentauros, retreat behind the flagship! Don’t stay in the open water!”
After making sure our allies had evacuated, I gave the order, “Fire the Silver Lightning!”
The catapult arm shot forward, the frame’s wood creaking with the strain. Like the last barrel, this one too shot through the air and came to rest in the water before the reef.
“Oi, this isn’t any different from last time!”
I had no time to deal with Garsh right now.
“Lacy!”
“I’m on it!”
Just as we’d rehearsed, Lacy created an illusion around the barrel. In seconds, it had been transformed to look like a human flailing in the water. More specifically, it looked like Lacy flailing around in the water. Her flailing movements resembled the way she’d splashed around when she’d first started learning how to swim.
“Is it just me, or is that an illusion of you?”
“It’s easiest for me to make a moving image of myself, so...”
I get that, but now you’re going to have to see an illusion of yourself get eaten, you know? Tired of gra
ppling with a ship it just couldn’t seem to get a grip on, the Island Kraken changed targets to fake Lacy. It wrapped one of its free tentacles around her, and dragged her under. Even though I knew it was an illusion, it still hurt to watch.
＊ ＊ ＊ ＊
—The Terror of the Deep—
The Terror of the Deep was frustrated. He’d thought that if he put one of those creaky shell-things on the water, more creaky shell-things would come. And they had. Dozens of them. But something was different this time.
The creaky shell-things were supposed to have tasty meat-blobs on them. They were slower than fish, and much warmer. And they had all these stick-things for gills that they flapped around with. But most of all, they tasted great. They had no scales, or shells, just soft, soft skin. Nothing gave the Terror of the Deep more joy than eating them.
Yet this time, none of the meat-blobs were falling into the water. Keeping the creaky shell-thing afloat took a lot of energy, and made him too tired to swim. How dare those weak creatures force him to work this hard! He would make them pay for this. Insolent prey such as them needed to be taught who was the ruler of these seas. Never once had the Terror of the Deep tasted defeat. So he had nothing to fear. He would teach these meat-blobs a lesson.
Just then, one of them started splashing around in the water. Finally, the Terror of the Deep would be able to enjoy a meal. First he would eat this one, then he would devour the rest. He extended a tentacle, and carried the hapless meat-blob to his mouth. However, something felt off...
＊ ＊ ＊ ＊
“Oi, what’s going on?”
I was just as worried as Garsh, so I didn’t even know what to say to reassure him. Still, I was the commander of this operation, so I had to look confident.
“Everything’s going according to plan.”
Just as I plastered on a fearless grin, an explosion rocked the sea. A huge pillar of water shot out of the center of the reef and rained down on us. Flickering yellow lights dotted the inside of the sea, and the water began to boil. All of the Island Kraken’s tentacles retreated back to the reef. In doing so, they abandoned the Rainbow Clam, which started to sink.
“Perfect!” I shouted, elated by our success. Seeing Garsh giving me a blank look, I decided to explain. “The thing we threw down there is one of the demon army’s secret weapons. It explodes when it touches water.”
“Holy shit... that’s insane.”
“Not only that, but it also turns the water around it into poison that melts flesh.”
“You guys are monsters!”
“No, we’re the demon army.”
Even if we weren’t really evil, we had to at least act the part. The barrel I’d fed the Island Kraken had been packed full of metal sodium. Back in high school, my science club friend had shown me a video of what happened to pure sodium when it touched water. It exploded. On top of that, it polluted the water due to the chemical reaction caused by exposure to water, so it was perfect for killing aquatic monsters. However, an element as unstable as sodium was liable to explode just being exposed to water vapor in the air, so on Earth it was normally packed in oil. It wasn’t the kind of thing you tended to find in nature. Naturally, that held true for this world as well. The sodium Kurtz had fired had been made by the old Demon Lord and Master. Before he’d died, the Demon Lord had experimented to see how much of the science he’d learned on Earth applied here. I’d only learned about it afterwards when reading his notes.
There were plenty of things that weren’t exactly the same across worlds, so many of the Demon Lord’s experiments had produced unexpected results. In truth, I wasn’t even sure if the substance I’d used just now was actually sodium. It had the same properties, so I’d just figured it was. I guess since it did what I wanted it to, it doesn’t really matter what it is. While that was enough to satisfy me, Kurtz sighed as he watched the water roil.
“To think the previous Demon Lord’s legacy would be used in such a way... Sir Veight, why is it that you seem to adore explosions?”
“Not sure... Maybe because I’m a soldier?”
I could feel the engineers giving me angry glares, but considering how helpful this would be in combat, I hoped they wouldn’t mind me doing this again. In response Kurtz said, “While I am glad this has proved an effective weapon, I hope you realize we will not be able to make yellow Dragon’s Jewels for a while now.”
“I know. Sorry about that.”
The yellow color in fireworks was made by burning sodium. That was the same reason dropping table salt into a fire turned it yellow.
“Actually, could you not substitute salt into the Dragon’s Jewels?”
“Salt absorbs moisture, and water makes Dragon’s Breath useless.”
So it’s not gonna work, basically. I thought back to the chemical formulas I learned in school. Umm, Sodium’s Na, while water is H2O. If you put the two together, you get an exothermic reaction that makes sodium hydroxide, which I think is alkaline. And that molecule’s NaOH, so the extra hydrogen atom becomes... Ah, that must be the gas that gets released. So that’s why there’s an explosion and not just heat. I’d never really thought about why sodium and water exploded when they came together, but now it made sense. Science sure is interesting.
My guess was right now, the Island Kraken was suffering from some pretty bad burns. Its tentacles were thrashing about wildly, churning up the water. One of them slammed into the sinking Rainbow Clam, knocking its mast clean off. I’d been prepared for a rampage, but this was more violent than I expected.
“Don’t get close, you’ll get caught up in its tentacles! The water around it’s been turned to poison so just wait it out!”
While I’d love to charge right away, I needed to wait for it to weaken some first. The magic the Island Kraken used to still the wind and waves wasn’t something it controlled consciously. The ability worked on instinct, so it couldn’t turn it off. Which was why it couldn’t just escape with the tide, or use it to wash away the sodium hydroxide. The longer it bathed in the alkaline solution, the more its body melted away.
Now then, while everything was going according to plan, I couldn’t relax just yet. Normally the Island Kraken lay in wait and attacked anyone who got too close, but now that it had been injured this badly, I suspected it would try to flee. Monster or not, it was still an animal with animal instincts. If it escaped deep underwater, we wouldn’t be able to chase it. So we needed to capture it while we still had the chance.
“Ballista squad, begin firing!”
The moment the signal flare went up, the six merchant ships started loosing long shafts at the reef. The canines on all six ships ran to and fro, fetching replacement quarrels and rewinding the ballistae’s strings. While it made for a comical sight, they worked with exceptional efficiency. Their small builds worked to their advantage, allowing them to navigate the crowded deck without running into each other. The ballistae had been outfitted with bolts as thick and long as spears for this fight, so while the quarrels didn’t travel far, they had a lot of power. The arrowheads had also been barbed, so any that hit, stayed stuck in the Kraken. On top of that, each bolt had a length of rope tied to its end. Any bolts that missed still tangled around the Kraken, and those that flew completely off their mark could easily be recovered. I’d basically turned the ballistae into harpoon-firing machines. The problem now was figuring out where to focus our attacks. The reef was too hard for our bolts to penetrate, and the tentacles were thrashing around too much to aim clearly at. However, the Kraken’s main body was safely underwater. Thinking about it, the Kraken had a pretty solid defense too. No wonder humans call it the Terror of the Deep. However, I knew cephalopods had pretty low stamina. In fact, few creatures could keep fighting for as long as mammals and birds. I was relatively certain this octopus didn’t have much stamina either. Besides, it was fighting in a bath of corrosive acid. I guess we can wait and see.
“The third merchant vessel, Surging Seas, has taken a hit on its mainmas
t! The fourth warship, Pirate Queen, has suffered some damage to its starboard side!”
It appeared some of the ships had gotten too close to the tentacles. But seeing as we really had no idea how far they could reach, it was understandable.
“Tell all ships to retreat a short distance! Surround it in a semicircle, but hold your fire!”
While a few ships might have gotten hit, so far we hadn’t had any additional casualties. I wanted to keep it that way.
“Admiral, what now!?”
“This isn’t looking good!”
Seeing the sailors start to panic, I leaned against the gunwale and scratched my head.
“Don’t look so worried. Take a short break until it tires itself out.”
“Are ya kidding me!?”
“This guy’s got nerves of steel...”
Sorry I’m a failure of an admiral who’s improvising things now.
Once the Island Kraken appeared to calm down somewhat, I ordered the merchant ships to resume their bombardment. While the ballistae didn’t have much accuracy, the canines made up for it with their tenacity. They kept on firing relentlessly, and before long the Kraken’s tentacles were riddled with harpoons. The ropes of the harpoons were tied to the ships, so if the Kraken tried to go anywhere, it’d have to drag six ships with it. As things stood, I doubted it could flee underwater. It might have been able to drag six ships at full strength, but right now it was likely exhausted.
“Recover any bolts that missed and fire them again! This is our only chance to reel in that monster octopus!”
“Yes, sir!”
The nearby canines waved cheerfully to me as they acknowledged my command. After repeating the process a few times, all our harpoons were either embedded into the Kraken or broken; meaning the ballista squad’s work was done. That damn octopus was bound to six ships, so it wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. On top of that, half its tentacles were tied up. Furthermore, the explosion and resulting acid bath should have done a lot of damage to its vitals.
