184 Assassination
The ocean floor were at absolute mess as there were no signs of life to be seen—like the rest of 65% unexplored parts of earth which the scientists never bothered exploring.
No, that is a lie. Although there are no signs of life nearby, there were the remain of the actions caused by lives around.
In fact, there were too much. The unexpected city below the sea—there were no constructions that weren't damaged by either fangs, claws, etc…
In fact, the worse damage seemed to be caused by an disaster rather than something brought by a creatures.
[Let's waste no more time.] Kuro looked at Ayame.
In return, Ayame nodded back to him.
17 didn't bother confirming her response as he started his thing.
[Shion's Amazing Dust Search - 17 Remodel]
Kuro closed his eyes as countless of minuscular mana orbs spread apart. Although the detection weren't as accurate and as good as his Ki Sense,
The range he can spread his mana dust were much more than Ki Sense due to the water mana current carrying his mana dust.
Besides, 17 preferred the magic and was he more proficient at it than Kuro.
[MP -7%]
[MP 11/100] 17's game brain instinctively made the world looks more like a game once again.
Besides the ocean creatures in the higher levels rushing toward bridge, Kuro's mana detected a life signs 1,300m toward the east.
[Portal]
17 opened a portal as he entered toward it—following behind him was the Oni.
-----
Beyond the portal were the army of different types of sea creatures-by the count of it, it easily surpassed the counts of half a million and it seemed like that the ocean creatures on surface levels
were but a part of little numbers of this. As soon as he passed, the portals, his brain were attacked by the infinite amount of information 17's intelligence delivered.
[Anglowfish]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]
[Anglowfish]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]
[Ant Shark]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]
[Chimerab]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]… -> [Abnormal Status: Starve]… -> [Abnormal Status: Crave]
[Mermaid]
[Abnormal Status: Hunger]
'Hmm… so that's it.' Kuro figured it out instantly even faster than the armies below him can react to him as he looked at Ayame.
[Change of plan, semi-genocide.] 17 looked at her so seriously that she couldn't joke at the sudden choice of words in Kuro.
[Semi-genocide so… we kill them while keeping them alive?] Ayame wrecked her brain.
[That's my Ayame.] Kuro nodded to her as he manipulated his mana to create a mana wall behind him and kicked it to launch himself forward.
The armies seemed to notice or rather, smell his fresh meat as they rushed toward him without the permission of their queen.
In order to survive the harsh environment of deep sea, their appearance were altered to its and they looked terrifying with few exception.
Now that they were coming toward him with their jaw opened—some of their mouth even indicated the countless worm-like wiggling tongues searching for prey.
If it were an ordinary person, they would've fainted at such sights but 17 weren't ordinary. Despite the terrifying scenery, he kept going forward as countless magic circle he have been writing appeared behind him.
Seeing through his intention, Ayame brandished her swords in diagram as destructive energy arc were launched—temporarily cutting the water in the way it's travelled.
[Ayame's Halfwitted Asura Destructive Slash]
As the 1,000 years worth of sleeping potential were unleashed, it stopped the armies in entirety and pushed them back, allowing Kuro to proceed to his assassination target.
Once Kuro were nearby his target which was the mermaid whose abnormal status were less worse compared to her armies, hundreds of low level dark magic were launched toward her
[Daddy's Knives] 'his naming sense is oddly disturbing (6)'
Daddy's Knives is a gathering of basic magic called: Black Knife. By suppressing their cast time, Kuro drew a hundreds of it magic circle till now
And these magic are now being casted at once targeted toward the mermaid.
As the black knives about to stab the mermaids' body it was stopped by an invisible barrier—their momentum completely stopped by something foreign—now they were hovering underwater before slowly disappearing.
"Grrrrr" the mermaid opened her mouth like a lion growling but Kuro's figure weren't there anymore.
[Silent Thunder God]
To the mermaid's surprise, when she spotted Kuro, he was behind her and it was already late as Kuro's hand were on her mouth
{Underwater Shockwave!}
As the mermaid tries to move her hand to cast a spell to push back Kuro, she finds out that her hands were severed by the portals that appeared like handcuff and closed.
The next moment, the mermaid panicked as she started to gather her mana inwardly but without her hand to habitually control her mana, her speed was slowed and Kuro's action were faster than her.
[Shion's Amazing Mana Dust: 17 Remodel]
The mana dust Kuro summoned from his fingertips entered inside her body from her mouth as it spread to every part of her body.
'Found the little parasite…' 17 thought calmly. If it was Kuro, he would've backed away and search for the opportunity to remove it without damaging mermaid.
But unfortunately for the mermaid, although very much-like, 17 was a part of Kuro and not entirely Kuro.
For the last part one of the blue mana orb turned from blue to red as if being accelerated. From then, a chain reaction occurred as the dust inside the mermaid turned violent.
[MP -11%]
[MP: 0/100]
boom.
An small explosion were suppressed by the water but as the explosion were directly undergoing inside the mermaid's body, her body were obliterated along with the parasites infecting her body turned to ashes.
"%%%—-)+;!!" Uncomfortable voices screeched as the mermaid's flesh launched in all directions.
Although Ayame helped 17 in his plans, she widened her eyes toward his brutality, looking surprised as well.
She knew that a war gives you no decision to choose a way to kill your enemy but, even if she know so, it still didn't prevent her from looking at him with such eyes.
Aside the mermaids' flesh splattering around, as the parasites in mermaid killed, the ocean creatures stopped their movement as if they were under some brainwashing,
although it's opposite exactly. The craving in their brain replaced to hunger as they turned less violent.
[Ayame.] 17 called Ayame out.
[Mission Complete: 50% / 50%]
[Time Spent: 38 Minutes]
[Hidden Route Discovered: Neutral Monsters' Discovered]
[Evaluation: …. D Grade]
[Evaluation Reasoning: Due to taking too much time, many lives was probably lost.]
[Real Reason: gave a bad impression to Ayame—may potentially affect the relationship between Kuro and her in the future.]
[…?] In contrast to her usual cheerful response, Ayame looked at 17 with a trace of fear in her eyes.
[…nothing.] 17 backed off, ran away.
17 may be creative but he wasn't heroic. He was a coward who would be scared if he noticed the potential damage in relationship with others.
Cowardice were one of the reason why he was good at reading others' emotions. As the inner introverts kicked in, 17's souls retreated to the deepest part of his returning the original Kuro.
Kuro had nothing to say. He wasn't either at Ayame's side nor 17's side. Because he understood both of their feelings.
It isn't weird to be scared off of a person who can easily blast a person without blinking.
At the same time, because that lunatic is a part of him—couldn't he completely side with Ayame.
In the end, he was slightly sad. Sad despite understanding her feeling. Solitude because he was made aware that he is different.
———
Small author note:
[Silent Thunder God] is an copied technique of 17 originated from Minato.
How the technique works are literally the same as Bullet Teleport in Chapter 178 Kuro used to save Shion.
Tying the spatial thread to bullet, he can teleport to that places.
The differences is, Kuro took off the bracelets and tied the spatial thread toward it. While proceeding toward the herds of deep sea creatures, Ayame used her technique,
Which not only repelled the herds, but also secretly launched the bracelets toward the mermaid. Now for the final touch, with the flashy magic of
[Daddy Knives], he hid it whilst fully diverting the mermaid's attention to him.
Thought of trying to make this an epic fight but continued to the concept of 'assassination'
I also tried adding personality to Ayame, instead of her just being a grateful girl to Kuro who likes him because he is cute,
I tried adding emotion to her.
This was possible because I don't love hololive as much as I did before right now.
