Chapter 417: When Waves Collide?
The two-headed sea serpent with dark azure scales, which glowed an incandescent blue whenever it charged up for an attack, was known as a ’Twin-headed Seawater Leviathan’—a feared existence in the seas of the Trial World, Hearth.
It was feared because it was born a Husk rather than starting out at the very bottom of the food chain. And because of this and due to its long life span, it had been able to acquire years of experience in utilising the mana.
As rain continued to fall from the sky and pelt the sea below, as the clouds above still continued to roar and cheer for the inevitable battle to come, the Leviathan locked eyes with the wooden vessel once more.
Their tongues slithered out and rapidly flicked up and down in the direction of the damaged ship as the two heads still felt the blow from the Captain’s attack.
The scales along their body glowed a faint light once more as the surface of the water around them bubbled and shifted before slowly rising.
The tides slowed down before rapidly speeding up as the Leviathan began to manipulate the water around it.
Soon enough, after a cycle around its body, a massive wave rose up from the surface of the water with a height of around 15 metres.
The Captain’s face darkened.
If the wave were to crash into the ship, all of them might be thrown off the deck and into the sea—such a scenario would leave them even more vulnerable than they already were!
As the bearded man took a step forward, intending to face the wave and intercept it, Lillian had already taken that step and leapt off the side of the boat.
Everyone on deck widened their eyes and immediately rushed over the side as they found Lillian to have fallen down to the surface of the water and was now standing on it.
Then, with grace, Lillian went down onto one knee and placed the palms of her hands on the surface of the water. She was going to need to create a wave equally as powerful as the one rushing towards them.
And for that, she was going to use the large abundance of water around them as a resource.
"I can do this, I can do this...!"
Shooting her mana into the surface of the water below her, she willed the water to move. And after just a split second, the water did.
Just like it did around the Leviathan, it began to swirl around Lillian’s body before rapidly rising, soon enough, reaching the same height as the wave. Fortunately, the act of manipulating another source of your element reduces the mana cost.
And because of that, to create a wave as large as 15 metres took about a quarter of her mana. However, this would all mean nothing if Lillian didn’t calculate her counter correctly.
After another cycle around her body—and pushing back the side of the ship, which had already repaired itself miraculously—she sent it forward. Lillian needed both crests of the wave to meet!
As the opposing waves rushed forward, one made by a monster and the other made by a human, they eventually met down the middle, followed by a loud rumble from their moment of contact.
The two waves crashed into each other, momentarily resisting and pushing each other back as though they were mortal enemies before combining.
And just like Lillian had hoped, the crests of both waves met—causing the motion of the opposing wave to become nullified.
"Haaa..."
With her arms raised forward, Lillian let out another shaky breath as sweat appeared from behind her mask. Her arms shook as well due to the weight of controlling the large wave.
As she slowly pushed herself off her knees, she looked down at her reflection on the surface of the water. Although she could’ve theoretically manipulated the water from onboard the ship, it would’ve taken her much longer and more focused to achieve such a feat.
Watching as a massive wall of water formed and shot into the sky due to the two waves meeting, she hurriedly teleported back onto the boat.
And in doing so—
"Carry with your back, mateys! And load it quickly!"
—She found the Captain instructing Viesta, Nearlo, and Jon (the bodyguard) on how to operate the cannons.
And good thing they were, for the Leviathan had begun to charge straight towards them.
"ARGH! What’s the point!? The fuses are wet! It won’t light!" Nearlo yelled as he held a torch under the fuse, which had already become dark and soaked from the rain.
The Captain grinned as he readied his cutlass, "Don’t underestimate MY ship, matey! It can make the impossible—"
Sizzle.
"—POSSIBLE! KAHAHA!"
The flame that was held under the fuse managed to light it somehow. Everyone’s eyes widened as they watched the spark travel down the fuse before shooting out with a loud—
—BANG!
The cannonball shot and glided through the air before crashing into the thick and eroded scales of the Leviathan’s right neck. It would then crack open and release a powerful explosion, which caused it to stop for a brief moment in its charge.
And after regaining itself, the Leviathan would then begin to be pelted with countless cannonballs.
The fuses on the cannons, which had all been burned, began to slowly regenerate themselves magically—this led to a constant reloading of cannonballs.
BANG! BOOM! BANG! BOOM!
Sounds of a dozen cannon fire and a dozen cannon explosions rang aloud, only to be overshadowed by the sounds of thunder and continuous rain, which continued to fall from the dark clouds, who spectated the exciting battle below.
Lillian, who watched this happen, was about to buy a mana potion and drink it. But that was when... She was approached by the Captain.
He had a plan.
Viesta watched in the corners of her eyes as Lillian disappeared with the bearded man, but chose to ignore them for now. She couldn’t spare a single moment of thought.
After a few minutes of continuous reloading and firing, the clouds roared again with thunder, as though it was cheering for something it hadn’t noticed first before anyone else.
Nearlo, who was about to shove in another cannonball, found his supplies to have run out, "Shit!"
Startled, he looked towards the others.
"Can someone pass me a cannonball?! Quick!"
Viesta nodded and looked towards her pile and found that she too had run out. And this was the same for Jon, whose face immediately became pale.
"Damnit! I’m out as well!"
"I’m out too, Master Nearlo..."
With the obvious sign they were out of ammunition for the cannons, they looked towards the Leviathan and found it to be masked by a thick black cloud, which soon parted.
The Leviathan bursted out from the cloud, snarling at them with their singular eyes as they felt some parts of their scales crumble like stone. They had even felt shrapnel from the cannonballs digging into its exposed flesh from its earlier injuries.
The two heads gritted their jaws as their respective pupils dilated and constricted into slits.
Their scales then began to glow once more as they slowly opened their maws—they were going to release another scorching beam attack!
As Nearlo panicked, Viesta looked around, intending to swiftly notify the Captain so that he could repel the attack once again.
That was what she wanted to do.
However...