## Chapter 960 – The Sea

Amidst the chaos, the military remained intact.

Some soldiers, seemingly with their minds shattered, tried to proselytize the benefits of aquatic life, inciting residents to head to the beach. However, the regular army quickly intervened, initiating evacuation and shelter operations.

“We must go!!! We must go!! The Sea God is calling me!!!!”
“Please!!! Mother Sea!! Let me return to you!!! Bestow upon me the blessings of gills and fins!!!”
“Get out of the way! Can’t you hear the sea’s call…!!!”

But the residents, having suffered severe mental attacks and completely lost it, simply went berserk and sprinted towards the beach.

It was determined that they were brainwashed by an unknown mental attack while in a state of panic after witnessing the giant Sea God.

Just like how I was terrified a moment ago.

“Subdue them! It’s okay to break bones!!! They’ve gone completely mad!! They’re going to die!!”

Nevertheless, the excellent soldiers kicked and clubbed the crazed residents, saving lives.

Paradoxically, saving the residents required inflicting murderous and destructive beatings.

Common sense and morality were overturned, and a world where right and wrong were indistinguishable had arrived. The being from the deep sea was that lethal. Behold, the sight of two-legged fish sprinting across the land. Humans yearning to return to the sea…

“I guess my mental fortitude has gotten quite strong lately.”

A mental strength stronger than anyone else.

Perhaps if it were the me from my noob days, I would have panicked just from witnessing that Sea God and gone crazy like those residents, scrambling to get down to the beach.

“Dude. I don’t think so. Sometimes when I see you freaking out, I can’t tell if you’re doing it on purpose or if you’re genuinely shocked.”
“It’s a good mix of both. The ability to use both freely is the true virtue of a warrior.”
“Then just become a mage.”
“Too late.”

Warriors and mages have different ways of accumulating mana, so changing professions is difficult.

Anyway, I approached an officer and spoke to him.

“Greetings.”
“Who are you… Ah. A warrior from somewhere.”
“I am a paladin affiliated with the Brass Celestial Society.”
“A, a paladin?”

The officer’s eyes widened at my words.
I showed him my necklace.

“Indeed. I came for a vacation and encountered this disaster. I have a question. Does the barony have a tactical system that can inflict clear damage on that Sea God? That thing?”
“There is a mage hired by the lord… but I don’t know how effective it will be against such a huge monster. The same goes for the weapons.”
“This is a problem. But if we can come to an agreement, I am willing to lend my strength. As a paladin who serves the god Verde, I cannot bear to see such a monster rampaging. Can you inform your superiors of this?”
“Gladly!!”

The officer, answering vigorously, shouted loudly.

“No engagement with that monster is permitted! Prioritize rescuing the residents!! They are in a state of madness, bewitched by the Sea God! Whether they are tourists or residents, if they try to go down to the sea, drag them back, even if you have to beat them! Spread the order quickly!!”
“Understood!”
“Understood!”

He knows his job properly.

“Come! Follow me! I’ve sent a messenger, so the lord will soon be aware of this situation!”

Yeah, we need to sort out the situation quickly.

“Just a moment.”

I asked for his understanding and informed my women.

“For now, go to the lodging we secured and stay with the Ilryong kids. If something happens, we need to move the luggage to the rear. I’ll go talk for a bit.”

They told me to be careful.

“Yeah, even if you kill it, you need to talk to the lord here first to get something out of it. Be careful.”
“Sis always knows these things.”

Karin is really good at this kind of thing.
I sent them upstairs and followed the officer.

* * *

Following the officer’s guidance, I waited at the command post until the lord arrived. With the situation being urgent, the greetings were kept very brief, and I went with him to survey the scene.

“I’ll be damned if I’ve ever seen a monster like that in my life.”

Far away.

Looking down at the beach where the chaos was unfolding, the lord spoke in astonishment.

“When I was young, I went out to the far sea and fought with mermaids. I killed mermen without hesitation, and when water giants came ashore, I annihilated them very well. When I encountered a sea serpent… honestly, I thought I was going to die. I was lucky then. It dragged another ship instead of ours.”

The lord, who looked at least over seventy, seemed relatively hale thanks to training in mana, but he seemed to be aging by the minute.

“But what the hell is that? A Sea God? You said Sea God? Is it perhaps a god worshiped by the mermaids? I knew they had gods, but I didn’t know it was a being that actually had a form in this world.”

The lord asked me with an anxious look.

“I’m a paladin, but I don’t know much about things like that.”

How would I know?
Whether that’s the mermaids’ god or whatever.

“I can’t believe that such a two-legged monster has come to my territory. I’ve never even heard of such a thing in my life, let alone a kraken… Do I have to fear sea monsters on land now, just like when I’m on a ship? My army wasn’t made to fight things like that. We can’t possibly stand against it…”

Watching the town and beach being destroyed, he seemed to be in despair.

—Fwoooaaaaaaak!!
—Kooong!

Even in the midst of this, the Sea God was gradually coming up from the coastline, repeating its acts of destruction.

“I will pay you properly if you lend me your strength. Can you kill that thing?”

Whatever the case, we need to talk about money properly first to avoid any future problems.

“No one can guarantee that they can kill something like that. I’m just lending my strength.”
“That’s good enough. Please do something before it destroys my business, no, the whole city.”
“Understood.”

I nodded.

“But if you rely only on me, you might get hurt, so make sure to look for other means right away. It would be ideal if I could kill it, but I might not be able to.”
“…I will.”

Thus, the contract with the lord was established.

He said he had spent decades at sea but had never seen anything like that. He was a seasoned man of the sea, but humans can’t stand against such monsters.

Ordinary soldiers or mages, or even knights, can never deal with such things. How can riflemen catch fighter jets and destroy 3rd generation tanks?

Middle Eastern terrorists cannot inflict significant damage on the US mainland. On the other hand, the US military pours expensive weapons on terrorists and beats them up as they please.

On Earth, with enough technology and capital, you can unreasonably overwhelm the enemy. Similarly, in this world, you can bring in such transcendent asymmetrical power to force unreasonableness on the enemy.

It feels unfair, but that’s how the world actually is.

A three-year-old cannot beat a 2m tall, muscular martial artist from the special forces. Even if the toddler has a natural talent for murder, if they fight seriously, the toddler can only bite off the balls of the eldest son of the Kim family, whose balls were bitten off by a dog on Boknal, and get beaten to a pulp and die.

But there is a way: the toddler’s parents call the authorities. No matter how strong a martial artist from the special forces is, they cannot beat the authorities. Regardless of individual strength, they will have to live in prison for the rest of their lives unless the sky falls apart.

That’s how it is.

There are always hopeless situations.

But just as there is light in the world, there is also something close to the answer.

That was a hero like me.

“Actually, if the attacks work, the four of us alone are enough. It’s just unnecessarily big. Being that slow, it’s just a huge target.”

Liztina said, equipping the gauntlets she had procured.

“Well, yeah. As you said, it’s better to leave out the mages in the first place. They can’t run away as fast as we can.”

Karin grabbed the hilt of her sword.

This attack operation would be carried out by the four of us: me, Claudia, Karin, and Liztina. The thing is big and slow. But it has ranged attack methods. Rather than letting the mages get hurt, we agreed to try hit-and-run tactics with those of us who can use physical abilities.

“Shall we go and slash its ankles first?”

Karin seemed to be looking forward to slicing up the thing.

“We have to. We can dodge all the attacks anyway. Actually, it’s so big that the only place to aim for is there. We have to knock it down to kill it.”

I nodded.

We are superhumans.

Superhumans who can avoid that giant stomping its feet while running. All four of us can do that. If we go and somehow cut off its ankles while being careful, even that kind of thing will be easy.

Think of the powerful enemies we’ve killed so far.
If it’s that slow, we can’t lose.

“Katt is right. We have to aim for the ankles.”
“Then shall we all aim for the right ankle? Or split up and aim for both?”

That’s how we established the plan.

“Let’s focus on one first, since we don’t know if it will work.”

We’ll just go down there and the four of us will aim for one of its ankles. We’ll try to lure it towards the sea if possible, but if not, there’s nothing we can do. The town is being destroyed even as we speak.

Dodge appropriately, run appropriately.
This kind of fight is our specialty.

“Let’s go!”

Thus, we drew our respective weapons and quickly descended below. The closer we got, the larger the Sea God’s body became. It’s almost the size of an apartment building.

—Fwoooaaaaaaak!!

The thing is still destroying buildings while walking slowly.

—Kooong.
—Kooong.

Its heavy steps were certainly fatal, but not unavoidable. It hasn’t even noticed our attack yet—

—Hwaeek!

Suddenly, the thing looked at us.

“Shit, we’re caught!!”

—Hwaaak!

At the same time, the thing raised its huge foot, and we looked at it once and shot our bodies forward head-on.

—Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung!!!!

A roar erupted from behind as the huge foot fell, and the ground shook. We didn’t care about such things at all and just rushed towards the opposite ankle of the thing. It was a moment that took only about 2 seconds.

—Kwaang!!!

As we collided, we struck the Sea God’s ankle with the combined power of four people.

—Thud!

Fragments of scales flew as the thing’s foot twitched once. We instinctively felt that the attack was working very well, and we were skilled warriors who never missed such things.

Of course, we were also skilled enough to unleash more than ten powerful strikes per second.

—Kwaang!!!
—Pueoooong!!
—Tukwakwakwakwakwakwang!!!!

Only 3 seconds had passed since the initial collision. The Sea God’s thick ankle had already been completely ruined, with even the bones being cut.

“This fucking bastard was just a big idiot!!!”

Karin shouted vigorously against the backdrop of a huge scream.

“It’s falling! This bastard is falling! This fucking bastard!!!”

At that moment, the Sea God began to lose its balance and fall.

“Run away quickly!!!”

Of course, we could avoid that in an instant as well.

Just look at the direction it’s falling and shoot your body in the opposite direction.

—Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!!!

Thus, the Sea God lost one ankle and fell awkwardly. It was the result of unleashing our excessively strong power at once. It doesn’t have extreme defense like the Spirit King, nor does it have an unrealistic shield like the Otherworld Monster King.

This is just an idiot.

Now that we’ve knocked it over, it’s over. We just need to climb on top and cut its bones. It’s already been proven that our attacks work very well.

In the first place, no matter how big and strong it is, it can never stand against superhumans like us if it’s this slow!!!

“Climb on! We have to cut its neck or spine quickly!”
“Understood!”

—Paaat!

We jumped up and climbed onto the back of the Sea God, which was struggling. If we kill this bastard, we can enjoy our vacation again!! Above all, Sea God sashimi…! I’m dying to eat it!!!