World: MSS

Imugi.

Grade-2. More often than not, a Field-Boss class monster.

Technically a drake-type. Not a full dragon. That was good for us. All dragon-type monsters have one thing in common, the active ability: [Dragon Fear]. If we got hit by it… No use in thinking of that now. It was not a dragon but the Imugi unique in the sense that it could evolve into a Grade-S Dragon-type monster given the right circumstances.

The hull groaned again and there was one horrible second where there was physical pressure in the air. A sense of alarm that descended on us like a mental anvil, crushing us underneath its weight. A sense of foreboding where all your subconscious did was pick up the clues, then start screaming at your conscious mind that something bad was going to happen. Really bad.

It was accompanied by a physical effect of the wooden hull actually warping. The entire boat leaned to one side and some of the wood splintered. No water was being let in but it was scary all the same. If you're in a boat and the whole thing starts moving and you could feel that it wasn't water that was pushing against the boat, you'd scream too.

Everyone screamed.

I was caught in the middle of the stairs and held out a hand for balance. Skaris was quicker, using his bigger figure to support Aurora. Even in that situation, Aurora used her arms to hold Stole, Kyrian and now the orc girl in place to keep them from falling backwards.

"AAAAHHH!"

"Shitshitshitshithist–"

Someone began to cry.

The boat shifted and through the window, I saw the elevation change.

Then the next moment a sense of dread pocket itself in the depth of my stomach as I experienced free-fall.

A huge splash.

The feel of the boat swaying up and down, trying to right itself.

Boxes falling. People falling on their knees and trying to hold on for dear life. Plates, forks, soup all abandoned and now spilling freely onto the floor. Zenom holding Cecilia with a steadying hand on one of the walls.

Chaos.

"Up to the decks! All of ye! Now!"

Fluporuin's voice cut through the imminent chaos. Years of being a captain out at sea meant that Fluporuin had the lungs to show for it. But there was only so much that a single Dwarf could do in the general sense of directionless mass panic.

"Up. Now." I growled, pushing on Skaris' back.

"To the deck?" Kyrian said, wide-eyed. One of the few times that I saw Kyrian actually panicking and now was it. There's a difference between having a healthy amount of fear as an adventurer and panic. Fear can be used as a tool. Panic renders you useless. "But–"

"Unless we all plan to drown here," I stopped talking, heaving as Skaris almost lost balance. The poor boat moaned again and the sense of foreboding dread grew bigger –enough to thrust me into a sea of growing panic. It's easy to lose yourself in the emotions of the crowd. I clamped tight control over it, swallowing the lump in my throat to continue, "Move!"

With that word, I shoved and Skaris got the message. He growled a curse and began herding the three much smaller individuals up the stairs. Aurora got the message and led the way, keeping a hand on the orc healer lest she lose control. But contrary to my fears, the orc priestess remained calm; holding Aurora's hand for dear life.

"Everyone! Up to the hulls!" Zenom rallied the cry, repeating Fluporuin's orders and his previous direction.

"Move! Move!" I did my own part, pushing an frozen auxiliary adventurer up the stairs. She gave me a blank stare and a slow blink. There was blood dripping from her head. Probably hit it when the boat moved.

There was the sound of something cracking and everyone screamed once more as the boat jerked sideways. This was different. The boat wasn't just slowly being pushed aside or scraping on the belly of a monster the size of a literal mountain. No. Something had slammed into us and it sent another stab of fear into the vulnerable air of growing anxiety. Almost enough to make the bubble burst.

More screaming.

More shoving.

Only a few steps left.

"Run! Up the stairs!" I screamed at my party mates, ready to kick Kyrian if he still had that panicked look on his face. "Weapons out, now!"

Right before we burst out of the double doors, Dimension Rings flashed and weapons found themselves in their owners hands. Skaris with [Strange Antler]. Kyrian with his staff, Stole with her arbalest and Aurora who took out her shield and smashed through the door.

And I got my first look at the Imugi.

I hadn't felt fear such as this since I was in Samak Desert.

When the Scions of the Akka Xalud summoned the Grade-1 Boss-Class Monster, [Mother Centipede].

And now…

"My god." Borealis said next to me, "What…" He couldn't finished.

How could he?

Everything turned dark as the Imugi slithered past us.

A colossal sea snake.

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The trunk of its body was thicker than our boat. Thicker than aircraft carriers back on earth. So thick that it blotted out the sky.

Long serpentine movements rose up out of the water and then sank. A movement on a scale so big that it dizzied us just to look at it. Impossibly slow because of the sheer size of the thing.

I cannot describe it in words.

I can only say this.

When people on earth speak of myths; the Imugi from Korean Myth, the Leviathan from the Bible and the Jormungandr from Norse Myth… When they tried to draw pictures of it… When I saw these grade-2 monsters on the videogame screen…

They did not do it justice.

How could they?

If it coiled half its body, it could create a mountain. The grade-4 Myung-sa was but a baby before the might of this monster.

Stole recoiled, backstepping until she bumped into Skaris. Even Skaris, the most fearless adventurer I know, stood transfixed. His eyes wide with shock and disbelief. Things can only get so big before the mortal brain can comprehend it.

I could not see its head. I could not see its tail. It had no beginning and end.

It just was.

The monster wasn't attacking us.

It was just passing by.

Black obsidian scales the size of two-story buildings lined its sides; absorbing any semblance of light. I quickly saw that the scales were vibrating, flapping open and closed with bursts of hot steaming air. With a sudden realization, I realized that the thing was breathing through its scales.

Hundreds upon thousands upon tens of thousands of coral beds, lampreys and barnacles stuck to the sides. The thing wasn't just a living creature, it was an entire ecosystem unto itself.

"Starboard! Starboard!"

Fluporuin's voice brought me out of the self-imposed hypnosis. He grabbed hold of the ship's wheel and strained against it. The sailors scrambled, some of them crawling towards the sails. I quickly saw why.

Rather, I felt it.

The Imugi's body slightly rose out of the water; waterfalls cascading down the scales. I had forgotten that we live in a three-dimensional world and it wasn't just the height that we needed to worry about. It was its width. As the Imugi's body rose, scales struck the bottom of the ship and we all vaulted to one-side as the impact was enough to send the ship keeling sideways.

People screamed as the ship screamed with them.

"Mages! Goddamit! Mages do you fucking jobs!" Fluporuin screamed.

The ship's mages worked as one, activating the ship's enchantments. A combination of gravity magic and buffs, most likely. The ship immediately stopped bowing to one-side, the starboard side railings coming dangerously close to sinking beneath the water's surface.

And everyone, including me, got a look down at what was happening.

We weren't on the sea.

We were on a wave.

No… not a wave.

On the peak of a tsunami.

The movements of the Imugi was reverberating throughout the endless ocean. And in this spot, even without a storm, waves surged to massive heights. At first, my brain couldn't comprehend where this sense of vertigo was coming from. Why was the surface of the water so close, yet behind it, there was a second surface a few hundred feet away?

…Then we began to fall.

The screaming reached a crescendo.

The only one who kept his calm was Fluporuin.

"MAGES! MAGES! FUCKING MAGES!" He screamed over and over again.

The surface of the water hurtled towards us at unbelievable speeds. My head turned blank as Stole screamed next to me. My feet slowly felt the floor and only by holding onto the doorframe did I manage not to fall.

I was one of the lucky ones.

Adventurers fell from the boat like ants, becoming tiny dots in the distance as they hurtled down like rain.

"MAGES!" Fluporuin kept screaming.

The boat began to groan; not unlike when the Imugi kept 'bumping' into us. I could feel the wood being stretched to their limits, the buzz of ambient mana in the air and the hired Mages activated the enchantments. The large multi-decked galleon-sized ship began to slow; every single one of its sails unfurling as the wind buffeted us from the bottom-up.

The hum of spells activating.

One of the masts cracked and disappeared behind the boat, carried away by its own sails acting as parachutes.

Wind stabbing into my throat, stretching my cheeks.

Then…

At the last second the boat swayed, almost at a ninety-degree angle and crashed into the water. Everything shook as seafoam sprayed high into the air. Curtains of sea bream fell over everyone; including seaweed, seasnails and even miniature grade-10 monsters that had been resurfaced by the Imugi's movement.

"Shit!"

"Fuckfuck!"

"Oh my fucking–"

I couldn't tell who cursed. I didn't care.

"Starboard; damage report!" Fluporuin's voice again.

Mages and Sailors alike shot back in terminology that made no sense to me. Fluporuin repeated the same for port-side.

I looked around. Everything was wet. Masts were missing. Floorboards had been ripped off.

"Every mage! Report! Just like we discussed!" Fluporuin called out.

Instinctively, I fumbled around; wiping the salt from my eyes. The first thing I saw was Skaris and Aurora; their bodies hovering over the other three. Stole looked dazed, her eyes wide with a fear so instinctual that I knew there was no breaking out of. Kyrian was a little better, with his staff in hand he got up and ran over towards the boat-mages to try and help out. I saw mages from the other parties doing the same.

"Doror." I gasped out. "Anyone seen Doror?"

"Inside. In case of emergencies, non-combatants and unneeded personnel are to remain in their quarters." Aurora said, her voice hoarse. She'd been screaming too.

Once more, the sense of vertigo returned.

"We're being raised again!" One of the sailors called out from the crow's nest. But it wasn't the usual voice.

…If the boat was falling, the crow's nest was probably the first to–

I cut that line of thought.

The Imugi's rhythmic movement was creating waves; waves which were literal tsunamis. And once more, we were being raised high into the air.

"Mages! Float us off!" Fluporuin ordered, "Full sail! Ahead! We're going to go around the bitch!"

"We can't! The wind's not strong enough!"

"Goddamit! Arione! That fucking pointy-eared bastard! Where is he?!"

My eyes snapped to various points around the deck but didn't see the elven mage.

…Where was he?

A grade-2 Mage.

He might not be able to do much by himself but…

He could at least help navigate the boat, couldn't he?

Looking around, I found most of the auxiliary forces. Borealis and his party. Some of the priests that were healing people who got injured. Zenom and Cecilia.

…Delas?

…Arione and Clover?

Where were they?

Were they below deck?

I was missing something. Something crucial. I felt like I got hit in the head. Something was happening here without my knowledge. Something like–

"DUCK!" Zenom cried out.

I saw a blur of white as Aurora careened over me, slamming me to the floor with the full-weight of her armor. Skaris hissed as he pivoted behind the doors, pulling Stole in after him.

Something whistled through the air.

Then–

My ears rang with a piercing sound.

A screech.

Hot. Fire.

Burning.

Everywhere.

Screaming.

Aurora, yelling. Right in my face. I couldn't hear her.

Arms felt weak.

Something wet dripping down the side of my head.

I looked to where she was pointing.

People dragging themselves up on the boat; coming from underwater.

No.

Not underwater.

Sides of the boat.

Coming out of boxes. Crates.

Swords and shields out. Axes. Scythes.

Then–

Delas, striding into the crowd of auxiliary forces with a gleeful smile and two daggers, blood whirling around him as he cut down half a dozen people in as much time as it took to blink.

And behind him…

A dwarf with a colossal harpoon and a colossal shield.

And…

A mage.

A bald mage.

A bald mage with tentacles tattoos on his head.

Except now, there was a glass-tube attached to his brain. Through the tube, I could see the wrinkles in his brain. The tube was filled with some kind of liquid. Some… potion; an elixir of sorts. I couldn't tell.

But I could tell this.

Dead-fish eyes.

His eyes searching, like I was.

Then meeting mine.

Hatred flared.

My hearing returning.

"–Lock, we're under attack!" Aurora.

Then.

"It is nice to meet you again."

Coum.

The [Player's Guild] was here.

And through out the sound of metal clashing on metal, screams of battle and warcries…

Fluporuin continuing to scream.

"Rising! RISING! BRACE YOURSELVES!"

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