Chapter 424: Against the Pulse?
As soon as Lillian’s grip relaxed, so did her fingers, which slowly unwrapped themselves around the edges of the Leviathan’s scale and the hilt of her shortsword.
Soon enough, she drifted away and was then bashed to the side accidentally by the rising Leviathan, who continued to drag its 50 metre long body towards the surface.
When it seemed that Lillian would be stuck inside the sea to drown, without any way to move in her condition, something—
"Arrr...!"
—Something managed to grab a hold of her.
Something... Hooking the back of her collar.
Despite the water around them, the sound of a stereotypical pirate growling and echoing inside her ears magically.
The growl... Came from no one other than Captain Righthook, whose arm had unnaturally grown in length as though it was made of rubber!
As Lillian’s body was pulled along with the Leviathan, the Captain hastily reeled in his arm, bringing Lillian closer to his body as he inspected her condition.
He looked at her mask, which continued to shift in shape before looking around it and finding trails of blood exiting the gaps in her mask—he had identified that Lillian was drowning in her own blood.
The Captain let out another growl before yelling in a booming voice that caused her eyes to flutter slightly:
"Arrr... THIS ISN’T THE END FOR YOU, MATEY! WE STILL HAVE A FISH TO CATCH!"
Once Lillian had faintly heard that, she felt the blood inside her mask magically disappear, and in its place were gulps of oxygen that she unconsciously began breathing in.
Captain Righthook, having transformed the blood inside Lillian’s mask into oxygen, clung onto her body as they rose higher and higher up the depths of the sea, finally reaching the light.
Until eventually—
SPLASH!
—They broke through the surface of the water.
Lillian, whose mind had finally recovered with the help of the Captain and also with her Parasitic Lines, woke up immediately.
Watching as Lillian woke up, the Captain nodded in satisfaction as he firmly patted her back. "Welcome back to the world of the living, Matey..."
And after saying that, he created a pair of wings before flapping them.
Pulling Lillian along, the two now found themselves several dozen metres away from the Leviathan, who was strangely looking up at the chaotic weather with a melancholic expression.
Lillian created an invisible platform underneath their feet, allowing them to stand on and rest as she analysed their current situation.
Now that they were no longer at any risk of perishing from water pressure, they needed to devise a plan on how to put down the beast once and for all...
Lillian summoned the Black Maw after realising she had lost her shortsword and looked towards the Leviathan and found it to have begun to glow a radiant light.
She widened her eyes and immediately looked towards the Captain. She then began to yell out commands, while the Leviathan continued to look up towards the sky.
It listened closely to the sound of heavy rain, followed by the sound of thunder. Although it was nearing the end of its life, it found comfort in the noise, despite its inability to admire it with its eyes, which were now destroyed.
It couldn’t remember why it had risen back to the surface. But what it could remember was that the humans were still alive.
The humans who had caused the death of her brother and also his torment today. And while it couldn’t kill them with the water pressure, it wasn’t going to stop until its last breath had left its maw.
And with such a thought in its mind, the radiating glow along the thousands of scales on its body glowed even brighter.
Then, with a wrathful roar that caused the clouds above to slightly part, a sudden—
BOOM!
—Energy pulse erupted with it at the centre.
The bluish pulse surged outwards from all sides, reducing the water around the Leviathan to evaporate into boiling hot steam and causing drifting debris to be reduced to ashes.
’Mana Pulse...’
Lillian watched as the gigantic mana pulse rushed towards them like a towering tsunami, intending to swallow them whole and reduce them to nothingness.
Her face darkened...
Mana Pulse was a common technique found by those able to control their mana freely. It was a technique that allowed you to shoot your mana outwards in an omnidirectional mana.
Its main purpose was for sensory. However, as long as you had enough mana, even making a move used primarily for sensing your enemies could be used as an attack or defence in some scenarios...
But, unless your reservoir of mana was large, it was nearly impossible to fully produce.
However...
For someone like her?
’I...’
With her amount of mana...
’I can do this!’
Although she didn’t have a reason to in the past and had never attempted such a technique... She had one thing going for her.
TALENT.
Lillian stomped both of her legs on the air platform below her, and so did the Captain, who, just like her, was as capable of producing such a technique.
The two of them raised their arms and directed their palms towards the incoming energy pulse with a determined glint in their eyes. Their mana then bursted open like a massive flood.
Then... Their mana took form.
Their mana shot out in a large pulse, momentarily crashing against each other before fusing into one large and powerful one.
The concept was simple. All Lillian needed to do was push out her mana forcefully. Perhaps it was because of the Mana pills she had digested, but she found such a thing easy to accomplish.
"BRACE YOURSELF, MATEY!"
As their combined mana pulse crashed into the Leviathan’s, they were immediately forced back a step as the heat from the seabeast’s washed over them with intensity.
And so did its Predatory Aura.
The two energy pulses clashed and were locked in an intense struggle. The Leviathan’s pushed back against Lillian’s and the Captain’s, whose arms began to shake painfully.
Both of their eyes widened, especially when they got a teaser of the burning pain of the Leviathan’s mana pulse, which had burnt the layer of skin off their hands.
Fortunately, Lillian had her gauntlets to protect her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t experiencing the pain of being burned alive.
The Captain gritted his teeth; he refused to back down. He took a step forward and expelled more mana; he couldn’t back down!
Lillian watched as he took a step forward and did the same despite the pain. Her mana, which had already been reduced to less than half, shot out of her body.
"HAAAA!" Lillian roared out loud as she continued to push on, along with the Captain.
The more they continued to push on, the more serious burns appeared on their body, even burning off the muscles on their bones!
This was more evident with Lillian, who struggled the most in this clash—since, at the end of the day... She was still only a Tier 2 Mage...
Lillian took a worried look at the Captain’s face. She knew something
about the Bearded man that he doesn’t want anyone to know.
And that was that... He was of the 3rd Tier.
Yet, such information wasn’t going to help them, for compared to a Tier 4, their mana was visibly far inferior in comparison, regardless of whether or not their enemy was a human or not...
Thus...
The Captain’s face darkened, while Lillian yelled out in fear:
"D-DAMNIT—!"
BOOM!
...
Thus... Meant that they had lost the mana clash...