The sun shone brightly, and the air felt warm. The surface of the sea stretched out like an endless mirror, its waters a blue-green hue. Neither of them spoke. Ganendra was busy inspecting his sword, while Oba focused entirely on the engine and the wheel to keep their ship steady against the current.
The peaceful atmosphere aboard the ship changed drastically when the small waves suddenly swelled. The wind howled, the sky darkened, and the ship's hull was violently battered by the raging seawater.
"It's coming!" Oba shouted over the wind. His hands clung tightly to the ship's deck railing. He hunched over so the powerful gusts wouldn't throw him off.
The seawater around the ship suddenly began spinning rapidly, forming a gaping, seemingly bottomless hole. The air filled with a thick, fishy stench, accompanied by bursts of black foam erupting from the sea. A gigantic black shadow moved swiftly through the darkness of the oceanic void. Many times larger than the ship they were riding, its size created massive waves resembling a tsunami.
"Hey, do something, quick! Or my ship could be destroyed!" Oba cried in panic. Without realizing it, Oba bit his fingernails as he watched Ganendra standing firm, staring at the gigantic octopus monster—the Kraken.
Oba had no idea how Ganendra could still stand upright amid the increasingly violent waves.
When the Kraken fully surfaced, Oba's body began to tremble violently. He was so terrified by the Kraken's size that he wanted to disappear right then and there. But he couldn't. He had already been trying to escape for some time. The ship's engine roared in vain, its propeller repeatedly lifted into the air by the violent rocking caused by the Kraken's waves.
Three pairs of blood-red eyes spun rapidly in every direction, leaving it without a blind spot. All six eyes stared coldly at Ganendra, who still stood firm as if challenging the Kraken.
Lightning split the dark sky, heralding the beginning of a bloody clash between man and a legend of the sea. Two of the Kraken's massive tentacles emerged from the darkness, and Ganendra swiftly slashed through both with his sword.
Thick, foul-smelling black fluid sprayed from the severed tentacles. Then a deafening, high-pitched roar rang out. The ship rocked violently again as the severed tentacle pieces plunged into the sea.
"Aaaa... No. I haven't gotten married or had kids yet. I don't want to die! Help me, Grandpa!" Oba wailed, covering both ears.
Just as Ganendra tightened his grip on his sword, water as high as a house shot into the sky, followed by the emergence of a slimy, pitch-black mass of flesh. A tentacle as thick as an ancient banyan tree whipped toward Ganendra. He nimbly leaped high into the air to avoid it. But Ganendra miscalculated when another tentacle followed, slamming into his body and hurling him into the air.
The world seemed to slow down. Beneath him, a gigantic whirlpool spun into a funnel of death. In its center, three pairs of eyes as large as war shields emerged. Their pupils were vertical and red, glaring at Ganendra with pure hatred.
Ganendra used the momentum of his fall. He quickly twisted his body around and drove his sword into the nearest tentacle as it tried to grab him. The monster's slime briefly resisted the blade, but the weight of his body and the force of gravity tore through the thick flesh. Thick black blood sprayed out, hot enough to blister the skin of his arm. The monster let out a thunderous groan, its vibrations stabbing at Ganendra's eardrums as his body was hurled into the churning, icy water.
"Ganendra!" Oba shouted in panic. He roughly raked a hand through his hair, at a loss for what he could do to help Ganendra.
Ganendra's lungs felt as though they were burning. Enveloped by the cold, murky seawater, his movements slowed, while the Kraken's tentacles moved as swiftly as deadly whips. A powerful strike from the darkness slammed into his ribs, throwing Ganendra deeper toward the whirlpool. His consciousness was on the verge of slipping away, triggering his survival instinct and making his hand grip his sword even tighter. He was forced closer and closer to the whirlpool's center, heading straight for the hole of death.
There, at the bottom of the whirlpool, the Kraken opened its hideous maw. Hundreds of razor-sharp teeth lined its interior in a circle like a ring of hell, ready to pulverize anything that entered.
Yet in the midst of that despair, Ganendra saw something. In the fold of thick flesh above its chewing beak sat a large crystal, unprotected by the heavy slime or any layer of armor. The crystal pulsed faintly, emitting a dim reddish glow.
"What's that?" Ganendra wondered, his thoughts fixed on the glowing red crystal. Then, suddenly, an answer came to him. "That's its weak point."
The Kraken began sucking in the water, pulling Ganendra straight toward its mouth. Instead of resisting the current, Ganendra used its force. He straightened his body like an arrow, aiming the sharp tip of his sword directly at the pulsing red point, staking his entire life on one final strike.
The blow landed with devastating force. Ganendra's sword drove straight through the red crystal, creating a massive crack. The Kraken let out a thunderous groan—a supersonic shriek that made the water around them vibrate violently all the way to the surface. Oba's ship rocked violently again. Although Oba had moved slightly farther from the whirlpool by then, the crashing waves still left him dizzy.
Oba stared at the whirlpool. He could no longer see any sign of Ganendra. "I hope you can defeat that monster soon. I can't stand being here anymore."
A pair of poisonous tentacles shot toward Ganendra, blinding him and burning the surface of his face. A violent reflex born of the monster's pain hurled Ganendra away. The Kraken panicked. The ancient creature, accustomed to being the absolute ruler of the ocean, now felt the fear of death. With its tentacles flailing wildly, it turned its gigantic body around and swam rapidly into the darkness of the deep-sea trench to save itself.
Ganendra's vision blurred, his breath caught in his throat, and his chest felt ready to explode from lack of oxygen. His common sense urged him to swim to the surface at once and find air.
But the flash of rage and determination in his eyes overcame reason. If this monster was allowed to live, it would return and claim even more victims.
Ganendra refused to let his prey go. He kicked through the water with the last of his strength, cutting through the turbulent underwater current, while clutching his sword, still drenched in the monster's black blood. Ahead of him, a trail of dark blood continued to vanish into the darkness of the deep-sea trench. Ganendra knew he had reached his limit. Even so, he kept pursuing it.
With determination that refused to die out, Ganendra plunged deeper and deeper, following the trail of the sea ruler's blood into darkness he had never touched before.
And for the first time, Ganendra didn't know whether he was chasing victory or heading toward his own death.