Magnus is heavy and large.
And according to the common rules of this world, if something is big and heavy, it’s slow.
If there were a 100m giant, it would generally take dozens of seconds to take a step.
Unfortunately, in this heartless sea, such implicit rules have long since become a crude joke.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
A 100m statue charged towards Parang.
With holes all over its body and major joints smashed, it was still moving at a fast pace.
A 100m person’s stride is about 40m.
In less than 3 seconds, it took four steps, which is a speed of approximately 50m per second.
The strength of statues, excluding Titans, comes from their overwhelming physical power and reckless movements.
A stone of 10m or 100m mimics the movements of a fighter, giving each action immense destructive power.
When dozens or hundreds of them gather, calling it a calamity of the deep sea is truly an understatement.
On the other hand, it’s ironic that the Titan, which can exert the greatest physical force, hardly moves and fights in a different way.
At one point, there was a hypothesis raised that Titans and other statues were not separate races, though it was later refuted by Vertea, the one who proposed it.
Whoosh!!
Parang executed a swimming maneuver close to acrobatics, changing direction at a right angle.
And then, whoooosh!!!
Boom!!!
Magnus clapped his hands like catching a bug, crushing the space where Parang had just been.
“Russell!!!!”
She signaled to Russell, who was circling around Magnus’s head, looking for an opportunity.
“Uuuuuuugh!!!”
Screaming, Russell charged at the back of Magnus’s neck, with yellow light bursting from him.
As his arm swung, it wrapped around a matching-colored aura,
Zzztzzztzzztzzz-
It coalesced into the shape of a shark.
One, two, three, four…
The one shark had turned into a school of sharks.
Boom!!!
Russell slammed his fist into the back of Magnus’s neck, and with a tremendous noise, the yellow energy erupted, causing the shark horde to rush in, creating additional explosions.
…Bang!
Boom!
The last shark charged and sank its jaws into the statue, and just after the explosion it created, a red aura burst out, signaling that the core had been destroyed.
“ ”
Magnus’s body became stiff and then collapsed.
Dududududu-
Kuuuuung-!
As the 100m giant fell, the surrounding area vibrated violently as if an earthquake had struck.
The area was already filled with shattered white fragments and fallen statues.
The reason the fallen statues didn’t vanish in light was that their bodies were considered ‘drop items’ within the system.
Zzztzzztzzztzzz-
The Magnus that Parang and Russell had just taken down also vanished in white light, leaving behind a gemstone and arms, legs, and a face.
Why it disappears like this, Parang has no idea. Is it asking her to make armor out of it?
Well, whatever the origin of it may be.
From a distance, it would definitely look like a pile of corpses, forming a mountain.
It truly cannot be denied that it’s a grotesque sight.
Whether it’s a stone or something else, the statues have the shape of humans.
However, Parang and Russell felt no emotion upon seeing that scene.
They had slaughtered over ten thousand statues.
There was no reason to feel anything upon witnessing such a sight, nor any time to spare for it.
After all, their remaining companions were still fighting the Titan.
Kuuuuung-
In the distance, the thunderous sounds from Titan’s heavy movements continued to echo.
1km.
It’s not a size allowed for a living being.
Watching such a gigantic creature thumping about in the abyss, one couldn’t help but feel their legs go weak and a sense of despair wash over them.
What would it be like in the situation where one had to confront such a giant?
Parang stared at the Titan.
It felt like a mountain was moving.
Her companions were now facing that moving mountain.
“……Let’s go.”
Parang dashed toward the Titan.
#
As soon as Parang reached the Titan, it tumbled over with a loud noise toward her.
It didn’t fall. It merely tipped over.
But even tipping over created a shockwave like a natural disaster, so Parang instinctively crossed her arms to shield her face.
If it had been just 100m closer, she would’ve been squished.
In the distance, about 1km away from Parang, Diego’s hand, which had enlarged to maximum size, was seen gripping the Titan’s ankle.
He had tackled it in a bare-knuckle fight.
With Diego’s maximum height reaching 500m, it was like a fight between a 4m tall person.
All while he was encased in thick diving gear.
Truly a monster.
Thud thud thud- Kuuud thud thud thud-
From around the fallen Titan, turquoise flames erupted, forming bone pillars that wrapped around its arms and legs.
Those looked like the ribs of a quadruped animal, trapping only its arms, legs, and fingers to the ground.
It was probably because Xiao hadn’t found a bone large enough to wrap around the torso.
If such a bone existed, it would also pose another problem.
Parang gazed with mixed feelings at the bones restraining the Titan’s arms.
Not far from the bones, Xiao was extending his limbs and spewing turquoise flames from his body.
Next to him, Vertea and Elvira were fiercely charging toward the Titan’s bound arms.
Bang bang bang bang!!!
Vertea, almost on the verge of shattering the bones, reached out and activated a skill toward the Titan’s entrapped arm, and soon the Titan’s surface began to glow red.
Vertea moved explosively, heating up an increasingly wider area.
Then, thud!!
Among the heated surface, a pulsating section appeared with a dull sound,
Boom!! Bam!! Plop!!!
In a flash, Elvira unleashed her skills, smashing the core at that section.
It was a technique favored by Oceanos when hunting Titans: fast, simple, and precise enough to deliver pinpoint strikes to the core.
As one core was destroyed, the Titan broke free from its bony restraints and shook off Diego, who was buying time atop it.
When Parang looked closely at the Titan, she noticed that a significant number of cores had already been destroyed.
The wrist, cheek, jaw, and so on were broken or cracked, and it looked like about three fingers had been forcibly ripped off.
Though she couldn’t see well from far away, it was highly likely there were countless similar marks on the torso and legs too.
All traces of destroyed cores.
Unlike other statues, Titans have numerous cores.
Based on Oceanos’s guess, a creature as large as a Titan cannot operate with a single core.
In fact, as they destroyed more cores, the Titan’s movement slowed down, and if the remaining cores fell below ten, it would stop entirely.
However, this was merely a guess; they didn’t know if it was truly the case.
After all, they had never researched the substance known as ‘core.’
They did not even know how the cores operated, nor what they were made of.
Of course, they hadn’t ever tried to study the cores.
It was just nearly impossible to detach the core from a frantically glowing statue for research.
Just detaching the core itself was a tough job.
So what they discovered was barely that it was ‘hot’ and ‘red.’
Questions like how it was contained within the statue, and how it generated power, remained unanswered.
Well, anyway.
The bottom line is that Titans have many cores.
No matter what nonsense goes on, statues won’t stop moving until their cores are destroyed, which means Parang and Oceanos need to work extra hard.
Creeeeak!!
By now, the Titan had freed itself from the bony restraints and cast Diego aside, starting its attack.
Parang realized it was time to intervene and aid her comrades.
But she was quietly observing the Titan rising.
As she faced the statue, memories flooded back.
Alice’s fate struck everyone in Oceanos with tremendous shock.
The comrade they had cherished more than anyone had disappeared.
Just imagine that Vertea would be kidnapped and dragged away by a monster of the deep sea tomorrow.
It wouldn’t be strange for all members of Oceanos to be driven mad, seeking to slaughter every monster in the world’s oceans.
But for Parang, it stung a bit more, a lot more.
She was the only person who witnessed Alice being dragged away.
Alice Melville had gone missing entangled with the Titan while exploring the East Sea with Parang.
This was an immense trauma for her.
‘Wow, crazy… it’s really huge. What could that be?’
The memory of discovering the Titan while exploring the East Sea with Alice was vivid.
‘W-what… why…!!!’
The shock of finding something that the Kraken couldn’t handle was fresh in her mind.
‘Parang!! Parang!!!!!’
Alice’s image being seized and pulled away by the creature.
‘Die!!! Die!! Please!!! Just die already!!! Shit!!!’
Her own frantic and desperate attacks still echoed in her mind.
‘Alice, Alice!! Please, no!! Damn it!! Come here!! Come here!!! Aaaaaaaaah!!!!’
Her image pounding the ground like a madwoman where Alice had disappeared underground.
Everything felt as vivid as if it had happened just yesterday—no, just moments ago.
She didn’t want to admit it, but clearly, ‘fear’ was mixed in with Parang’s feelings toward the Titan.
Deep within her heart, an incessant whisper continued.
‘Run. Hide. Run. Hide.’
Parang was aware of this fact but disliked acknowledging it.
So right now, Parang is frozen. She hates that she’s frozen, and she hates that she’s trembling involuntarily.
Parang is frozen.
Russell quietly watched her and then gently tapped her shoulders.
“If it’s too hard, take a break. I can handle it this time.”
“……No. I still have to do it.”
“You don’t have to push yourself so hard. You were stuck thinking about that time.”
“It’s fine,” she said.
“……Understood.”
Not finding anything more to say, he dashed toward the Titan first.
Parang tried to follow right away, but her body wouldn’t obey.
…………
Slap-!
Parang slapped her cheek hard.
‘Get it together. Yu Parang.’
The trembling in her legs subsided a little.
She dashed toward the Titan.
