Chapter 97
Richmond spoke in his smooth voice.
“I was worried that the contractor might say she wanted to give up and go back.”
Ulken burst into laughter.
“Haha! She’s not that kind of person. I knew this would happen!”
“Of course. We already survived a near-death crisis. We can’t just turn back now. Besides, unless we get rid of that monster, we can’t move forward.”
Ariella looked at each of her companions, confirming their will.
Ludwig clenched his teeth and said,
“I can’t sleep if I don’t pay it back for what it did. Besides…”
He turned to Ariella.
“You said it’s much stronger now than in the old records, right? It even has strange new abilities—storms and tidal waves.”
“Yes.”
“If we leave it alone, it’ll grow stronger and might even crawl onto land someday. That would put the Demon King’s Domain in danger. We must cut its breath now.”
Pi joined in.
“If Ariella says we’re doing it, I agree! But this time, I’ll help too!”
It seemed everyone felt the same way.
But willpower alone couldn’t defeat the Sea Serpent.
Ariella continued,
“Ludwig pointed out something important. The biggest reason we lost before was lack of information.”
She had relied only on records from hundreds of years ago.
“We didn’t know the Sea Serpent’s abilities. We wasted too much mana because of the storm. And we didn’t even predict the tidal wave.”
It was, in truth, the worst environment to fight.
“Luckily, now we have information. We’ve seen how the Sea Serpent fights.”
Ariella explained her plan.
This time, all five of them would combine their powers in one strategy.
“Pi, I made a mistake before. I thought only about keeping you safe, so I sent you away.”
“You don’t need to. I’ll protect Ariella! I’ll bite that Sea Serpent myself if I have to!”
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not asking you to stand in front of the monster and fight.”
“Then what?”
“There’s a way for you to help even from a safer place.”
Ariella explained further.
A moment later—
“Oho!” Richmond’s eyes lit up.
“With this, we might really be able to do it.”
The others nodded in agreement.
Ariella smiled at them.
“Let’s go. This time, we’ll chop off that sea snake’s head.”
They returned across the sea to the island where the Sea Serpent lived.
The wind was calm.
Unlike the last time, when the waves had raged madly, now the sea was strangely quiet.
But the air was heavy with tension.
“Pi.”
“Yes!”
“Wait for the signal in the place I told you. You remember what to do after that?”
“Of course! Pi never forgets. Trust me!”
Pi dropped Ariella on the island and then took off again.
This time, he didn’t fly far—just enough to stay out of the Sea Serpent’s reach.
The rest of the group moved toward the cave.
The collapsed entrance had been dug open again.
Ariella knew the Sea Serpent was crouched inside.
“Ludwig.”
“I know.”
He turned his back to the group and faced the sea.
Planting his feet on the shore, he stretched out his hand toward the waves.
In his mind, he recalled a new image Ariella had taught him.
“Imagine lighting a fire underwater. A fire that spreads heat over a wide area… like an ocean current of flames.”
“An ocean current?”
“Yes. Don’t tell me you forgot what that is?”
“Water in the sea… flows?”
“Exactly. Imagine heat swirling and flowing along with the seawater.”
As he practiced, a colorless flame formed in his mind.
Rumble—!
The crashing waves slowed.
Then the seawater began to boil.
Hiss—! Steam rose from the surface, spreading like fog.
It was as if the whole coastline had turned into one giant cauldron.
The air was filled with the sound of sizzling, like oil splattering on a hot pan.
“Oho,” Richmond exclaimed.
“Still amazing to see.”
The sea was boiling.
“It’ll react soon. It’s like its home is on fire.”
Ludwig held the fire current steady.
If the Serpent went into the sea and raised tidal waves, they’d never win.
They had to drag it back onto land.
“The Serpent is moving!”
Scalding water had rushed into its lair, forcing it upward.
“Kwaaaaa—!”
The ground shook as the enormous monster burst from the cave.
Its thunderous roar echoed between its sharp teeth.
“We meet again, you scaly beast!”
Ulken bared his claws and charged.
But this time, he only struck once before retreating.
His role wasn’t to deal the killing blow—it was to distract and draw the monster’s attention.
“Over here! Too slow! Hahaha!”
Already enraged, the Serpent grew even more furious and focused on Ulken.
That’s when Ludwig shifted his magic.
Sssshhh!
Steam from the boiling sea was heated again and compressed in the air.
“The sea looks like a disadvantage, right? Break that idea. Make it work for us.”
He finally understood the meaning of those words.
Kwaaaaa—!
The compressed steam burst like a tornado, smashing into the back of the Serpent’s head.
Boom!
“Kyaaaaak!”
The long body whipped violently.
Flames only burned its surface, but steam wrapped around its body.
That scorching heat slipped through its scales and deep into its lungs.
“Kyahhh! Kyaaaaah!”
The monster writhed as if it were being cooked from the inside.
Like other reptiles, the Serpent was cold-blooded.
Unable to control its body temperature, it thrashed in pain.
‘There’s plenty of water to boil around here!’
As the first cloud of steam faded, Ludwig boiled more seawater.
But heating it again took time, leaving a short gap between attacks.
“Kyahhh!”
The Serpent charged at Ludwig in rage.
But the others didn’t let it.
Ulken leapt in to shield him—
“Frozen Impact!”
From Richmond’s palm, a blast of cold surged out.
Crack—!
The steam coating the Serpent froze solid on its scales.
“Kyahhh!”
Its flesh, scalded by heat, was now shocked by freezing cold.
Its body contracted violently, cracks splitting across its skin.
Just like rocks that heat in the day and freeze at night until they shatter.
“One more!”
Ludwig launched another wave of compressed steam.
“Frozen Impact!” Richmond followed with freezing magic.
It was like tempering steel—repeated heating and cooling.
The Serpent shrieked in agony.
Still, it tried to fight back. It attempted to change the weather again.
But something was wrong.
The wind was weak—nowhere near storm level.
Ariella smiled.
‘You have no idea why the storm won’t come.’
Because an unseen ally was helping them.
‘Good job, Pi!’
To create a storm, the Serpent had to suck in air and form strong rising currents.
But this time, the boiling sea had already created a huge air flow.
That’s when Pi intervened.
Using Dragon Tongue magic, he pressed down on the steam, turning it into horizontal winds instead of upward drafts.
‘He blocked the airflow the Serpent needed.’
With Ludwig and the dragon working together, a wall of air currents had been built in advance.
Everything was going well.
But Ariella didn’t relax.
‘There’s still the tidal wave.’
Last time, the Serpent had delayed before summoning it.
‘But if things keep going against it, eventually…’
Then—
“Grrr!”
The Serpent made a strange movement.
‘Now!’
It abandoned the storm and turned its power elsewhere.
‘Hmph, I knew it. Now it’s trying to move the seawater.’
Its mana sank low, vibrating deep underwater.
It was calling up a tidal wave.
‘But we won’t be tricked twice.’
Woom—!
Ludwig’s mana surged into Ariella’s body.
She shouted her spell.
“Reverse Wave!”
Ariella had already analyzed the Serpent’s mana pattern.
She generated a wave that was the perfect opposite.
Woom—! Woom—!
The two forces collided and canceled each other out.
The tidal wave never even formed.
“Grrr?!”
The Serpent was visibly shaken.
This was a power it had used countless times, instinctively.
And yet, today, both storm and tidal wave had failed.
Its mana was spent.
“……!”
It no longer had the strength to keep fighting.
Sensing the crisis, the Serpent panicked.
At that moment, Ariella shouted sharply—
“Ludwig!”
Fwoooosh—!
He summoned a massive fireball in the sky.
In his other hand, he now held a sword.
The flames began to condense, drawn into the blade like a vortex.
