Matan’s Shooter

TL: xLordFifth

ED: 

[I cannot yield this place!]

The trembling transmitted through the seawater reached Leeha’s back. Something was coming. Something huge and very threatening.

“Ande—”

“Huuaaah!”

Before Leeha could give an evasion order, Anderson had already bent his upper body as much as possible.

Leeha felt a sensation of his back being forcibly twisted, but he couldn’t complain. Something narrowly brushed his head, giving him the feeling that something had passed.

There was no need to be curious about what it was.

After a while, the sight of part of the purification chamber’s wall collapsing vaguely caught his eye.

‘Is this the sea god’s skill? Crazy, this is almost dragon-level… Oh, of course!’

Dragon-level? Until now, Leeha had based his assumption on the strongest monsters he had encountered and experienced. However, that was a wrong assumption. The king of water spirits, the leader of the tribe of waves, a being that created an immovable giant island with its own power, ‘Sea God, Poseidon.’

If the sea god had seen Leeha, who called him dragon-level, he might have killed Leeha even if he was sane.

‘To compare it with a dragon, should I consider it at least on the level of Lord Bahamut? Well, just the shining crown alone looks incredibly impressive!”

If the light from the head lantern were spread in all directions, would it be similar? However, the brightness was on a different level. Anderson, who was holding Leeha, could safely escape, thanks to the light illuminating the purification chamber wall. If there were no light, after being slammed into the wall, he would have been subjected to a decelerated onslaught from the sea god.

“Sea—Sea God! I’m coming! It’s me, Anderson! Even if you don’t know my name—”

[Do you think I wouldn’t know you?!]

“What? If you know me, then why—”

“Do you think I ignored your filthy act just for the sake of our tribe’s safety?! But how dare you—”

Bwaaaaaaaah———-

Anderson shuddered again at the sound of the seawater vibrations.

“—To defile us with the aura of demons! Did I look that ridiculous to you? Le!”

Anderson folded his mermaid tail in half for evasion, and Leeha’s body was twisted.

Despite being in such a strange posture, Leeha did not ignore the sea god’s shouts.

“Le?! Bluebeard! Just as I thought! I knew it!”

The first thought that came to Leeha’s mind was that one of his speculations was correct.

He had believed that somehow everything would be connected. The discovery of mermaids, the appearance of fishmen, and even this quest! He couldn’t believe that the whole flow was just to sacrifice one expedition member as a scapegoat to reveal the location where the mana relay tower could be constructed.

“Maybe Bluebeard did something! Did the sea god come here to correct the purification chamber, and got attacked by Bluebeard? Did Bluebeard defeat the sea god?”

Even if Leeha lowered his estimate, it should be at least on the level of a Platinum Dragon Lord Bahamut. Leeha couldn’t be sure since he had never seen Bluebeard use 100% of his power.

“No, no, it doesn’t make sense.”

Shrinking his neck at the sea god’s roar from behind, Leeha changed his assumption.

The train of thought should not deviate. At a desperate moment like this, if the thought was not the most realistic and logical, all preparations would be in vain.

“Considering the time Anderson and  Sea Bream mentioned and when Bluebeard left the Old Continent— it doesn’t match.”

Fortunately, Leeha had heard and seen this incident from various angles. All the hints to correct his hypothesis were already in his head. When did Bluebeard pass through here? Did he contaminate the purification chamber, wait for the sea god to come to ‘purify’ it, fight and defeat him, and then transform him into a fishman?

That didn’t fit Bluebeard’s ‘grand plan.’ The reason he used all kinds of tricks and left the Old Continent was to buy time, wasn’t it?

“He wouldn’t have spent time in the sea! If he knew that the sea god was the cause after the purification chamber was contaminated for quite some time, then—”

‘Just by looking at the reaction towards Anderson, that’s right. Perhaps the reason no mermaid or fishman knows the whereabouts of the sea god is because… there might not have been any witnesses in the first place!’

The possibility that the sea god directly killed everyone approaching, mistaking all approaching mermaids and fishmen as Bluebeard. If that were really the case?

‘Contamination’ might not be as simple as just tentacles growing on the sea god’s waist.

It implied more than just changing the appearance to that of a fishman.

‘So, currently, the sea god is experiencing hallucinations, no, more than that— mental confusion…?’ Leeha looked back.

Anderson was certainly not slow, but it was impossible to increase the speed further while carrying Leeha, so the distance with the sea god was rapidly decreasing.

‘Then, what is the way to fix it? What—’ Before Leeha could organize his thoughts, the sea god swung his trident.

“I will never let you go, Le!”

Kwagwagwagwa————

The waves were not the ordinary ripples on the sea surface at this moment.

Waves crashed in the sea.

“Ugh, ughhh!”

“Splash, splatter!”

Despite the terrifying sounds from behind, Anderson did not let go of Leeha and Blaugrun.

Knowing that his swimming was delayed due to their weight, the merman never gave up on them.

“Ha Leeha-nim and Dragon-nim, even if I have to risk my life—”

Swish, while Anderson was speaking, the waves covered them. There seemed to be no apparent change from the outside, but the fact that the waves reached Leeha was evident from Anderson’s reaction. As if soaring through the air, Anderson, who lost control of his body underwater, clung tightly to Leeha, speeding towards the wall of the purification chamber.

[Splash, splish!]

“Fishman, puhaha—!”

“Gurgle, splash!”

‘Too fast, we might die on impact—’

Observing the rapidly approaching wall of the purification chamber, Leeha raised both hands to cover his face. In an instant, Leeha felt his position being reversed.

Pueok!

As the range narrowed down, the intensified water current slammed Leeha, Anderson, and Blaugrun against the wall.

“Keheuk!”

Compared to the expected damage, Leeha’s situation was surprisingly unharmed. In fact, the approaching light of the sea god was directly in front of him.

“Boo, splatter!?”

‘Anderson!’

Anderson truly kept his last words. The lesser water spirit rotated his body upon impact, taking all the shocks to protect Leeha and Blaugrun. Leeha felt grateful for the merman’s self-sacrificing spirit but couldn’t help feeling saddened at the same time.

‘Even if he’s kind, without him…’

Leeha held onto the unconscious Anderson and the anxious Blaugrun, struggling in distress. However, even a fast-moving merman couldn’t escape from the sea god, and human footsteps seemed powerless to repel him.

[Kyuuu, kyuuu…]

Blaugrun was trembling.

Even a dragon of the sea serpent class couldn’t break free from the majesty of the approaching sea god, narrowing the distance.

[Pathetic imitation, Le. To think you would struggle so much cornered. Is this the best the fragment of a demon lord can do?]

The sea god approached, slowing down. He knew very well that no ‘target’ within his sight could escape anymore.

‘What should I do? Damn it, weapons are useless anyway. It would have been nice if the electric shocker worked from a distance but at this rate…’ Leeha had to approach the sea god and attach the electric shocker’s rod to his body for the effect to take place.

However, the size of the blade of the trident was larger than Blaugrun. Handling it freely and using various skills, the sea god had no chance of getting close with his slow swimming skills.

Approaching the sea god with a clumsy freestyle or a breaststroke would have resulted in his body being torn apart in an instant.

[Minion of the demon lord, fragment of the demon king. I can forgive you. I, a representative of the spirit realm, understand your desire. Absorbing the power of water spirits to subdue the powers of other demons.]

The sea god slowly raised the trident. Despite the continuous keywords that disrupted concentration, Leeha’s thoughts did not falter. How to escape? What can be done against the sea god?

[But now, you must bear the consequences of your greed.

However, with the sea god already on the verge of attacking, there was not enough time to think. Even underwater, the mana particles gathering at the tip of the sea god’s trident were distinct. Something had to be done first.

‘Damn it, at least this—! Please, let it work, please, please, please.’

Flash—!

A special skill that required no casting time immediately activated. Above Leeha’s head, a gigantic illusion of Bahamut, large enough to fill the cave of the purification chamber, appeared.

At least the first objective of diverting the sea god’s attention and buying time to think had been achieved. The problem was that the sea god was much stronger and more capable than ordinary monsters or NPCs. No, if only there weren’t symptoms of mental disorder, this skill of Leeha would have worked.

‘What can you do now with something like gigantification, Le! [Chilling Trident]’

Because of the sea god’s perception, it seemed like that even to his eyes.

Mana particles did not disperse. Without any hesitation, the sea god immediately cast a spell toward the illusion of Bahamut.

Shwaah—–!

The blue mana particles gathered at the tip of the trident transformed back into the form of a massive trident and shot forward. With ominous momentum and size enough to overwhelm, the attacking magic pierced under Bahamut’s illusion, passing through before Leeha could even open his mouth. And when the illusion revealed itself to be just an illusion, it disappeared.

The enormous body of the Platinum Dragon vanished into thin air.

[Vanished?! What kind of scheme are you trying to concoct with such a mere illusion!]

For the first time, the sea god was perplexed. The reason for that was apparent. Therefore, Leeha had no choice but to bite his lower lip in frustration.

‘Damn it! We were almost there!’ Since he was approaching the sea god while drawing attention to Bahamut, Leeha had to resort to such a desperate move.

‘It’s so close, but not quite there!’ The last gamble that Leeha came up with was just that.

While diverting attention to the illusion, he would approach and use the electric shock device secretly! However, it didn’t take the sea god long to discover Leeha with his unfocused eyes.

‘Even if I hadn’t widened the distance… Damn it!’ With about six more beats of the drum, it would take several seconds to narrow the distance again. Leeha couldn’t afford to give up.

Leeha desperately played the drum. The remaining distance was about 8 meters!

“Pitiful, Le!” Now, was there no need for magic?

The sea god swiftly swung his trident. The remaining distance was now 6 meters, the exact length of the trident’s shaft! The blade of the trident was descending precisely towards Leeha’s neck.

“I made it, !” A reddish barrier enveloped Leeha, but that mere skill melted away like ice cream by the sea god’s trident.

The remaining distance was 4.5 meters! If this were on land or if he were running at full speed, he might have jumped and stretched out his hand to reach it barely. However, this was underwater, and with Leeha’s swimming speed, such a situation was impossible. Eventually, Leeha had to make a choice. In order to block the approaching trident for even a second and buy a little time, he had to make a decision.

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