Episode 21/Chapter 3: Midgard (3)

There were several kinds of sea creatures. Big fish, sharks, sea snakes, squids, octopus, etc. But if they had a point in common, it was that they were huge, to the point of surpassing the imagination.

The sea creatures, which received the help of buoyancy from the sea, found it easier to maintain their bodies compared to the land creatures, which were impeded by the gravity.

Just looking at the Kraken which was making a mess out of things in front of Tae Ho, it couldn't be imagined how big it would be. The tentacle he had cut down was like a log.

'It's a fortress. It looks like it's at least forty meters long.' Cu Chulainn said in a low voice. He had caught several sea creatures when learning in the land of darkness.

'It looks like a really rough guy!' Adenmaha complained, yelling and moved quickly. She couldn't even go underwater as Tae Ho was riding on her but she wasn't a sea serpent for nothing, as she showed movements completely different to the ones she had shown on the grassland. She completely dodged the tentacles that attacked them from the sides and the tentacles that emerged from the water.

"Adenmaha! A bit to the left! We have to bait it!"

'That's easy to say!'

However Adenmaha still did as she was told. Maybe it was to keep the geas 'Obey Your Master', but her hard work was really commendable.

Adenmaha breathed out icy breaths while dodging the tentacles and made the water freeze for a moment. That ice became a foothold and at times a shield which blocked the tentacles.

"You fight well."

'I told you I was strong!' She grumbled a bit but also showed that she was proud of herself.

It would have been dangerous if Scathach had retired to the sea, because he wouldn't even have been able to ride on her.

'You thought of something weird, right!?'

"No, I never did that!?" Tae Ho refuted strongly and swung his sword.

Tae Ho couldn't be playing when Adenmaha was fighting like this. Instead of the Sword of the Winter Wolf, which was comparatively short, he wielded the Giant's sword that the eldest brother of the three troll brothers had used. As it was meant to be used by trolls, it was much longer and heavier than a two-handed sword but that wasn't the case for Tae Ho.

"Urat!"

After showing the strength of an intermediate-ranked warrior he could handle the huge sword as if it was a theatre item made of styrofoam. Tae Ho swung the Giant's sword and cut down the tentacles.

'It seems like it's regenerating its tentacles. After you distance yourself from it, aim for its legs then.' Cu Chulainn advised him again. The Kraken, which could be described as a giant squid, had ten legs and close to twenty tentacles.

It wasn't that hard to differentiate the tentacles from the legs, because in the first place, their sizes were different. However, Tae Ho's primary objective was to lead the Kraken away from the accident place. Because of that, he focused on surrounding it and getting on its nerves.

Tae Ho cut down one more tentacle and looked at the direction he had come from. The warriors of Valhalla were rescuing the survivors from the flying ship.

Just as Cu Chulainn had said, now that he had distanced himself from it, he would be able to start the real fight.

But now that he tried to do so he couldn't think of any particular method. Cu Chulainn spoke again.

'I don't recommend using Gae Bolg. Its body is under the sea so if you hit one of its legs, you would have wasted Gae Bolg for cutting down one of its legs.'

Tae Ho had faced a similar thing with the giant of Strength, Harad. He had ripped off his own shoulder and limited Gae Bolg's curse to only his right arm.

'In addition, Gae Bolg isn't completely charged yet. As you don't have teacher's blessing either, you can't finish him off by using Gae Bolg from start to end.'

Gae Bolg, which had only two of the five fragments, wasn't complete. As he had operated its power by borrowing Scathach's power, he had been able to use it for merely ten days, so it was obvious that he wasn't able to use it properly.

Tae Ho took a deep breath in the tense situation. He pushed aside the thought of using Gae Bolg for now and thought of the things he could do right then.

'I will first aim for its legs.'

Even though it had dozens of tentacles, it only had ten legs. No, in the first place, the number of tentacles was also limited. If he kept cutting them down, the one that would feel more stifled would be the Kraken.

"Tae Ho!"

Siri's voice was heard from beyond the wave that the Kraken had made. Tae Ho hurriedly turned to look and saw Siri and the warriors of Valhalla riding on Scuabtuinne. As they had more or less finished with rescuing, they had entrusted Ingrid with the flying ship and came to help him.

They would have charged towards the Kraken and slashed its tentacles if they were on land, but they couldn't do much on the sea. Although there were eight warriors, they only had one boat.

But even so, they were reliable, because it was still better than fighting alone with Adenmaha.

It was then Cu Chulainn said something weird.

'Why don't you start fighting with all your strength, Adenmaha. If it's Tae Ho, he's a good owner, isn't he?'

He had used magic to make Adenmaha hear him. Tae Ho blinked unconsciously.

'Fighting with all her strength?'

Wasn't she already doing that?

Adenmaha's movements, which passed through the tentacles, were really fast. Her skills using the ice breath while moving were close to being marvelous.

However, Cu Chulainn had said that she wasn't using all her strength.

Adenmaha just groaned, she didn't reply. It seemed as if she was really hiding something.

Tae Ho thought of Adenmaha's geas.

Obey your master.

It wasn't a light geas in the end. No, it could be said that it had a really big restriction.

The bigger the restriction was, the bigger the price of the geas.

Perhaps Adenmaha's real strength might be even greater than now.

Tae Ho looked at Adenmaha. As he was riding on her neck, he obviously couldn't see her face. Tae Ho placed his hand on top of the scales on her neck.

Actually, it was simple to make her fight with all her strength. Because Adenmaha had the geas 'Obey Your Master'. He could just order her to do it.

However, Tae Ho didn't. Whatever their first meeting was, he didn't want to use Adenmaha, whom he could communicate with, as a slave.

That's why he said it as a request.

"Adenmaha."

Adenmaha didn't answer immediately. She just closed her eyes and yelled sharply, 'Ah, really! I dislike obvious tricks like this!'

He should just order her directly. So she could hate him more.

'Well, it's true that he's a better master than Bress.' Adenmaha mumbled as if talking to herself and then fell back and said, 'I can only exert my full power for a moment. And it also spends a lot of magical power, so you have to take care of me after that, okay?'

Polite and impolite words were mixed in her words. She didn't particularly say what she was going to do, but Tae Ho decided to believe in her. He looked towards Scuabtuinne and yelled.

"Captain Siri! Bracky! Get ready!"

"Alright!"

"Tae Ho?!"

Bracky wielded the hammer roughly and Siri, who was controlling the boat, wore a confused face. However, she was the one that had been in the most battlefields with Tae Ho. She had already thrown away her questions and was raising her crossbow to aim for an opening.

It was true that the most troublesome point was that it was hiding its body under the sea.

If they could only bring out its body outside of the water, the warriors of Valhalla would be able to combine all of their attacks and finish it in an instant.

Adenmaha passed the foremost tentacle and then turned again to the center and took a deep breath. She yelled towards Tae Ho for the last time, before showing her strength.

'Grab tightly!'

Tae Ho grabbed onto Adenmaha's neck reflexively. At that moment, Adenmaha showed the power she was hiding. White light exploded from Adenmaha's body.

The ones that were on the port raised their voices when they saw the white light, which resembled a sunrise. The warriors that were riding on Scuabtuinne and the ones that were on the flying pirate ship, Ingrid, King Sven and the rescued ones, all turned to look at Tae Ho.

It was the full power Adenmaha had spoken of.

That wasn't all. The light was just the preparation phase.

When the light that had dyed the world in white disappeared, the warriors raised their voices even more.

"Uh uh!"

"That!"

There was a beautiful woman with long white hair instead of Adenmaha. As she had a saddle on her back, reins on her neck and also the surprised Tae Ho on her back, it looked a bit shapeless but Adenmaha was as beautiful as a goddess.

'Well that's obvious, she's a real goddess.' Cu Chulainn laughed and said.

The Tuatha De Danann was a race of Gods. As there were too many Gods, excluding some of them, they were close to being superhumans rather than Gods because they actually had a lower status compared to the Gods of Asgard and Olympus, but even so they didn't stop being Gods because of that.

Adenmaha, one of the Goddesses of Tuatha De Danann.

The reason Cu Chulainn remembered her name was because she was a Goddess who had surrendered herself to Bress to protect the things she treasured.

'Power of the sea!' Adenmaha clenched her fingers and yelled. The strength of the geas amplified her power. The strength she had accumulated because of not using it after having become an underling of the Tyrant Bress burst out in an instant.

The sea split in two. It made the Kraken, which was hidden inside the sea, show up.

The surprising thing didn't end there. Just as Cu Chulainn had said, the huge Kraken, which was close to being fifty meters, surged into the air a little bit.

It was understandable for everyone to feel shocked. King Sven and the humans of Midgard couldn't utter a single word.

"She really was a Valkyrie?!"

Bracky said a weird thing. And at that moment, the warriors of Valhalla yelled in joy.

"The warrior that rode on a Valkyrie!"

Everyone got a hold of themselves at that yell. Even Valkyrie Ingrid muttered the words 'It was real?'

And at that moment, it was.

'Uwaa! I'm dying!' Adenmaha barely managed to say. It seemed like she really was going to die.

"Bracky!" Tae Ho yelled urgently. Then Bracky turned to look at Siri.

"Siri!"

It seemed as if she had already received the request, as Siri hurriedly fired her crossbow. Steel rods started to hit the middle of the Kraken's head.

"I'm going!"

[Saga: Thunder Enters his Hammer]

Bracky swung his hammer widely and then lightning fell down from the clear sky. It hit the head of the Kraken, with the steel rods acting as a conductor.

Babang!

A late thunder was heard and the sea gathered once again. Adenmaha also returned to being a sea serpent.

But there was one thing that didn't return to normal.

The Kraken, which had lost consciousness after being struck by lightning, floated in the water. This was the opportunity.

"Sorry!"

She had even said to take care of her!

Tae Ho yelled shortly and then jumped from the saddle. Adenmaha had known, with a bit of resentment, that this would happen, but she also knew that this was the only opportunity, so she did the only thing she could, cheer for him.

'Go, please! Quickly!'

[Saga: The Charge of a Warrior is Like a Storm]

He kicked in the air consecutively. It didn't stop creating thunder and storm, but he compressed them by running.

"Let's go too!"

"Ou!" Bracky yelled and the warriors of Valhalla answered. Siri turned Scuabtuinne towards the Kraken and charged towards it.

Bracky burst one of the huge eyes of the Kraken with his hammer and the warriors of Valhalla cut down the legs of the Kraken with their respective weapons and sagas mercilessly.

Then Tae Ho arrived. He threw the thunder he had compressed towards the steel rods Siri had fired.

Babang!

An explosion burst out again. The Kraken, which had regained consciousness after having one of its eyes crushed, let out a terrible cry.

But they didn't think of stopping there. Bracky swung his hammer to wedge the steel rods even deeper, and Tae Ho stabbed deeply with the Giant's sword, right next to him.

The blade of the Giant's sword was three meters long. Although the Kraken was huge, it wasn't a length it could ignore. In addition, the place Tae Ho had aimed for after looking with the 'Eyes of the Dragon' was the spot that contained the core.

Tae Ho stabbed until it reached the hilt and then transformed the Giant's sword into the Sword of the Winter Wolf. He filled the wound created with the Giant's sword with ice.

It was a terrible ice attack. The Kraken struggled as the insides of its head started to freeze. Waves were created and the sea undulated, as if a storm was falling.

However, the warriors of Valhalla had already stabbed the Kraken on several places of its body with their weapons and had activated their sagas. As the Kraken became perplexed, it lost the opportunity to dive deeply and they started to pour lethal attacks on it.

King Sven couldn't shut his mouth. It wasn't because of the flashy attacks occurring in front of him. It was because he had realized how they managed to become the warriors of Gods.

Eight warriors slaughtering a Kraken was like a scene from a mythology. And Tae Ho decorated that scene.

"Gae Bolg!"

Just like Cu Chulainn had said, Gae Bolg was incomplete right now. The power of the curse wasn't as strong as when he had used it on Hadar and Midak. It wouldn't be excessive to say that the Kraken was already half dead. As he poured the curse of death directly into its core, it couldn't endure it anymore.

Its legs and tentacles dropped lifelessly. The waves that the Kraken was making disappeared, like a lie, and the sea became calm once again.

[The Defeated]

[Kraken]

The red letters turned white, as if proving its death. The bloody red runes surged to the sky and became sucked into the bodies of Tae Ho and the warriors.

[Synchro rate: 35%]

It was obvious, as he had defeated strong opponents like Midak and the Kraken. But something he hadn't expected happened.

The empty slot of the saga, which was lined up below the 'Immortal Warrior' and the other lower sagas, was filled up.

Until now it had been something he was accustomed to, because it meant that a new saga was created.

But that saga was too different to the ones until now.

It wasn't a saga that had been derived from the Dragon Knight Kalsted, but a completely new one.

"Are you kidding me?"

It was the thing he had been wondering but now could only accept. And now, it would be good to say that it was his nickname!

[Saga: The Warrior That Rode on a Valkyrie]

Just what was its effect?

Tae Ho burst into laughter unconsciously.

< Episode 21 - Midgard (3) > End