---

The cannons of the ship erupted in flames simultaneously. The shots fired from both sides weren’t strong enough to shake the ship, but the loud report, fitting for a weapon named ‘Dragon Killer,’ seemed to resonate across the entire sea.

At the command of Jenis, the crossbowmen also aimed their giant arrows at the tentacles that appeared on both sides. It would be a lie to say the cannons and crossbows were useless. However, it was true that the first volley barely managed to scratch the tentacles.

“This looks tough.”

Jeongjae said as he created a circular magic circle in his hands, struggling to push back the advancing tentacles. The Kraken’s physical power felt like a giant tree was moving by itself to crash into the ship. Jenis looked up at the wyverns circling in the sky and once again ordered the launch of rocket arrows.

“Divine Spear of the Sky!”

“Yes, my lady!”

As Jenis gave the order, the rocket spear loaded with gunpowder soared into the sky, bursting into flames. The soldiers’ aim was accurate, but unfortunately, the wyverns didn’t take the same attack twice. The ‘Divine Spear’ didn’t have a homing function. With a single dodge, the wyverns expertly evaded the rocket, and the expensive anti-aircraft shells fell to the ground, their fate sealed.

With a click of her tongue, Jenis deployed a defensive magic circle toward the wyverns.

“Professor, it seems the ship is surrounded!”

“It’s obvious just by looking at it!”

“I’m sorry, but without my staff, I have no chance to win a magic duel against the Kraken. You’ll have to take care of that.”

“What are you going to do in the meantime, Jenis?”

“I’ll control the staff!”

Right now, the staff was placed in a secret compartment between the first and second decks, faithfully serving as the ship’s power source. The design in that regard was meticulous. The engine of this ship was something so precious that it could not even be compared to a normal engine, thus it was protected in the safest and solidest way inside the ship.

Only Jenis Harker could remotely influence the staff to control the ship’s movement and speed. To say she was controlling the staff meant she was steering the ship. Jeongjae nodded as he saw Jenis deflect the fiery pits dropped by the wyverns back into the sea.

“I’ll take care of the ship’s defense! Focus all your efforts on the control!”

“Then I’ll trust you!”

With her eyes tightly shut, Jenis concentrated her entire being on the magic of the staff. Jeongjae summoned five defensive magic circles simultaneously, nearly screaming in pain. The magic circles Jeongjae conjured formed a perfect barrier, blocking the Kraken’s tentacles and the wyverns’ bombardment on the sides and rear of the ship.

One of the Kraken’s tentacles struck the side of the ship fiercely instead of the protected deck, but it hit Jenis’s armored protection and bounced off without causing any significant trouble.

If the tentacles couldn’t pierce the deck or the armor, the Kraken had no viable way to swallow the ship whole. Jeongjae felt the wyverns’ fiery attacks continuously pounding against his shield and began to sweat from his forehead.

Then it happened. Unable to find a way to breach the ship’s defenses, the Kraken began to chant a powerful enchanting spell targeting the crew. Jeongjae was the first to notice the spell starting to take effect. Jenis was too focused on her magic, and her mental strength was too strong to be affected by the Kraken’s allure.

The sailors suddenly felt overwhelming fatigue and fear, but they could not comprehend that it was due to magic. Ultimately, Jeongjae had to take on the duty of defending against the spell before it heavily influenced them.

“Dark magic enchants the pure souls of humans, but the mage atop this ship will not stand by idly.”

In fact, spells are often concocted by mages on the spot. The chants for using mana and creating magic can vary as much as the methods for writing scrolls. A good spell leads to excellent concentration, and excellent concentration leads to powerful magic.

The mage reciting a spell is in a state of ecstasy. Most of the time, they don’t even realize what they are saying as they begin to utter the incantation.

“Come at me, King of the Sea. Pour your spells upon me, not those insignificant fools. Realize, you lowly sea dragon, that your magic will never be my match!”

At that moment, the dark curse of the Kraken that had enveloped the entire ship concentrated in one place and fully focused on Jeongjae. Maintaining five magic circles was exhausting enough, and now Jeongjae was sweating profusely as he began to groan under the encroaching shadow magic of the Kraken.

After about 15 seconds of this standoff, Jeongjae could no longer remain silent and let out a string of curses.

“This is tough, really freaking tough! Damn it! I can never see a good day when I meet the Kraken! Jenis, how much longer?!”

Hearing Jeongjae’s shout, it seemed Jenis finally grasped the situation unfolding aboard the ship. The Great Sage nodded with a frantic expression.

“I-I’m sorry! But hang in there a bit longer! We’ll break through soon! I’m relaying this to the whole ship! All forces! Reload your weapons! When I give the signal, prepare to fire again!”

Jenis’s command was immediately relayed to the cannons on the lower deck. The enormous cannonballs, the large crossbows, and the ‘Divine Spear’ were all in position, ready for Jenis’s next order. While the soldiers reloaded their weapons, Jenis poured magic into the staff to increase the ship’s speed.

The cutter sliced through the waves, moving rapidly. All the crew members, including Jeongjae, swayed as they struggled to maintain their balance. In particular, the soldier in charge of the anti-aircraft cannon had to be extremely careful not to accidentally step on the pedal.

Jenis focused her mana to unleash the maximum speed possible and moved the ship forward. Realizing that the armored ship was trying to break through the tentacle blockade, the Kraken immediately raised one tentacle to block the ship, but Jenis did not slow down and charged straight toward it.

“Two seconds until deployment! Prepare!”

The Great Sage cried out. Jeongjae noticed the black magic of the Kraken that was covering him had ceased and widened his eyes as he witnessed the sharp prow of the ship collide head-on with the Kraken’s tentacle.

A crash occurred. Many soldiers imagined they would experience a jolt strong enough to capsize the ship from the impact. However, after the collision, it was not Jenis who screamed but the King of the Sea, the Kraken.

The blade did not only slice through the water’s surface. The massive cutter, forged by human hands, cleanly severed the tentacle blocking its path and sent it soaring into the air. With graceful movements, Jenis advanced forward, ensuring that the Kraken’s wounded leg would not cause her any harm before it fell back into the ocean.

Jeongjae dismissed the protective magic circles he was maintaining, then wiped the sweat from his forehead with his robe. Jenis smoothly rotated the ship 90 degrees, setting the cannons’ aim toward the Kraken. She commanded, “Fire!”

Boom! The sound of cannon fire echoed. However, unsurprisingly, only one side of the cannons fired. Four cannonballs flew toward the Kraken’s octopus-like limbs, including the severed tentacle, delivering nothing more than minor impacts. At least, it was enough to stop the Kraken, writhing in pain from its severed leg, from approaching them.

“This ship is really strong!”

Jeongjae clenched his fist with a joyful expression. Jenis turned back to him with a worried look but couldn’t hide her satisfaction in landing a blow on the Kraken.

“It was initially designed to make even the ram a tactic. But it exceeded my expectations!”

“Come to think of it, even Cthulhu could have its head blown off by a steamship’s ram charge.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Never mind, don’t worry about it.”

Jeongjae nonchalantly blurted out a piece of trivia only familiar to those from his world, waving his hands awkwardly. Anyway, with this, the Kraken wouldn’t be able to approach ‘HMS Victory’ recklessly. The Kraken probably never expected that even with the ship’s prow being so sharp, it would sever its leg from a single charge.

Now, this ship was not just a sturdy fortress, but had transformed into a flying blade capable of inflicting wounds on the sea dragon just by glancing against it. While the power of the cannons wasn’t significant enough to make a real impact against the Kraken, the creature had seen the ‘Van Fleet Magic’ used in actual combat before. Naturally, it would feel a sense of wariness.

“Professor, under the current conditions, using that would be impossible, right?”

“Yeah, my stamina probably can’t keep up. And if you were to use it, would you have the energy left to steer the ship?”

“Hmm, I think it would be difficult.”

“Ah, it’s coming from the sky!”

At Jenis’s gesture, the soldier responsible for the Divine Spear quickly pressed the pedal and launched a rocket into the air. The flaming projectile shot up into the sky, but of course, it looked like it would miss again, unable to penetrate the evasive maneuvers of the wyverns.

“Adjust trajectory!”

Raising two fingers to the sky, Jenis manipulated the wind to tap the tip of the spear. The spearhead, which seemed to veer off course, precisely pierced the heart of the wyvern. Jeongjae clapped his hands as he saw the several-meter-long dragon plunge into the sea with a splash.

“That was technical battle magic.”

“But the strongest foes still remain.”

Unlike the wyvern that had just died, another wyvern plummeted towards the ship, striking the armored deck fiercely. The magically reinforced iron plate managed to withstand this attack, but Jeongjae could see the scorched iron plating from over the railing.

“I don’t think we can just stand here indefinitely.”

“Absolutely not. We must at least hold the Kraken at bay. If it shows any signs of submerging, we must swim out and capture it ourselves. The sailing vessels in the rear have no means to oppose it, and if we allow it to escape, our fleet will face annihilation. That’s the end of it.”

“Then we should start circling around it.”

“That seems advisable. I’ll start moving.”

Following Jeongjae’s suggestion, Jenis slowly started to move the ship, circling around the Kraken. The remaining two wyverns, adjusted to the armored ship’s movements, also began to circle above. Jenis held off on giving a fire order hastily.

Not only was ammunition precious to waste on ineffective salvos, but she also didn’t want to give the impression that the cannons were not very threatening. Unless she used a full mana shell, no matter how much of a ‘Dragon Killer’ it was, it couldn’t inflict a lethal blow on the sea dragon. If this ship seemed inadequate in threatening the Kraken, it might be prompted to break the standoff and attack the Koesernis fleet instead.

Jenis maintained the high-tension standoff, circling the Kraken for nearly 30 minutes. With a worried expression, she wrung her hands and asked Jeongjae.

“Professor, isn’t there any effective attack magic? If we can’t use the cannons for a Van Fleet attack, we need an alternative…”

“Fire magic doesn’t make sense.”

“Don’t joke. What kind of idiot attacks the Kraken with fire?”

“How about lightning magic?”

“That would probably be blocked. It’s too easy to defend against.”

“It seems there’s no method other than bombarding with mana shells.”

“Should we use mana arrows to draw its attention?”

Another ‘Divine Spear’ shot forth, bursting into flames and heading for the wyverns in the sky. While the wyverns easily dodged the spear this time too, at least the ship’s weak anti-aircraft weapon was accomplishing its job of disturbing the maneuvers of the flying dragons.

“After all, using such large-caliber cannons for Van Fleet attacks is too taxing on mana. If only we had smaller cannons…”

In that moment, Jeongjae rummaged into his robe’s pocket and grasped a cold, hard piece of metal.

“Smith & Wesson?”

Jeongjae mumbled. Jenis shrugged.

“Is that a new spell? Or some term used in your world?”

“That’s… the name of a weapon company from our world.”

Jeongjae pulled a black revolver from his robes and aimed it at the Kraken’s tentacle. Jenis stared blankly at the sight of Jeongjae pointing the gun at the massive tentacle. The Grand Mage produced an extra scroll for ‘Van Fleet’ in his other hand and threw it into the sky.

“Thank you, Sherlock Holmes.”

Jeongjae muttered.

“Infinite barrage magic, Van Fleet.”

The revolver’s cylinder spun wildly, beginning to unleash bullets from the muzzle. Although they were pea-sized projectiles, each bullet contained a wicked power capable of making the Kraken scream underwater.

 

---