Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

The tremors transmitted through the seawater clearly reached the back of Leeha. Something is coming. Something huge and very threatening.

―Ander―

“Hwaaaap!”

Even before Leeha gave the order to avoid, Anderson was already doing his best to lower his upper body.

Leeha felt like her hair was being forcibly broken, but she couldn’t complain. Because I felt like something was passing by my hair.

There was no need to wonder what it was.

Kugugugu…!

After a while, I could vaguely see a part of the septic tank wall collapsing.

‘Is this the Sea God’s skill? Crazy, this is almost like a dragon… Ah! ‘Of course!’

Dragon level? So far, I used the strongest monster that I had encountered and experienced its power as a standard, but that was an incorrect assumption.

The king of the water spirits, the leader of the wave clan, the being who created a huge immovable island with his power, the

‘Sea God’.

If the sea god had seen Leeha, who called himself a dragon level, he might have killed Leeha even if he was sober.

‘To compare it to a dragon, should it be considered Lord Bahamut at least? Well, that shining crown alone looks amazing!’

Would it be similar if the light from the head lantern was spread in all directions? But the brightness was on a different level.

The reason Anderson, who was embracing Lee Ha, was able to run away safely was thanks to the light shining on the wall of the septic tank.

If there had been no light, he would have been thrown against the wall and hacked to pieces by the sea god while he was slowed down.

“Sea, Sea God! That’s me! Anderson! Even though you don’t know my name-”

[You think I don’t know you!]

“-Yes? If you know me, why-”

[Ignoring your dirty plan is only for the safety of our clan! But dare you guys -]

───────────!

Anderson was frightened by the sound of the seawater vibrating once again.

[― Are you trying to pollute us with the energy of the devil? Did I look that funny? Le!]

Anderson almost folded his tail fin in half to evade, and his body was also crumpled and twisted.

Even though he was in such a strange posture, Lee Ha did not miss the sea god’s cry.

‘Re?! Bluebeard! Of course, after all! I knew it!’

The first thing that occurred to me was that one of my guesses was correct.

I thought it was definitely connected in some way.

The discovery of mermaids, the appearance of fishmen, and even this quest! I believed that there was no way that the series of events would end with one of the expedition members as a scapegoat just to reveal the location of the Mana Relay Tower construction.

‘Maybe Bluebeard did something! Did the sea god notice this and come to fix the septic tank? Then you got attacked by Bluebeard? Does this mean that Bluebeard defeated the Sea God?’

No matter how low you put it, an existence on the level of Platinum Dragon Bahamut?

Leeha wasn’t sure about that since he’d never seen Bluebeard at 100% full strength.

‘No, no, that doesn’t make sense.’

Shrinking his neck at the roar of the sea god coming from behind, Leeha changed his assumption.

The path of thinking must not deviate. Now that every minute is urgent, all preparations will be in vain if you do not think in the most realistic and logical way.

‘It is reasonable to say that there is no fight between Bluebeard and the Sea God. If you consider the time that Anderson and Sibrim talked about and when Bluebeard left the Old Continent – it doesn’t fit.’

Fortunately, Lee Ha heard and saw this incident from several angles.

All the hints to correct the hypothesis are already in your head.

When did Bluebeard pass by here? They polluted the septic tank, waited for the sea god to come to ‘purify’ the septic tank, fought him, defeated him, and turned him into a fishman?

That wasn’t right considering Bluebeard’s ‘grand plan’.

Wasn’t the reason he left the Old Continent after using all kinds of tricks to buy time?

‘There’s no way I spent any time in the sea! Bluebeard’s first goal is…’

[You can’t do anything to Undine’s clan alone without Gibrid and Pyroth-Kokri, Les!] ‘

Yes, to awaken another piece of the Demon Lord! The sea god said that he found out that this was the cause only after some time had passed after the septic tank was contaminated, right? I tried to solve it myself, but it ended up becoming contaminated. Looking at it that way, the chances of Bluebeard sneaking in and doing something to the septic tank and encountering the sea god directly are very slim.’

They only knew that it was contaminated, but neither the mermaids nor the fishmen knew that the sea god was near the septic tank.

That means, perhaps the sea god has been here ever since the contamination?

‘Just looking at that reaction towards Anderson, it’s like that. The reason why no mermaid or fishman knows the whereabouts of the Sea God may be because… there were no witnesses in the first place!’

There is a possibility that the sea god mistook all the approaching mermaids and fishmen for ‘Le’ and killed them directly.

What if it really happened?

‘Pollution’ is not simply something that causes tentacles to sprout from the sea god’s waist.

This means that simply changing the appearance to look like a fishman is not everything.

‘In other words, the current sea god is a hallucination, no, it’s more than that – a symptom of delirium…?’

Lee Ha looked back.

Anderson was by no means slow, but it was impossible to speed up even further, so the distance between him and the sea god was rapidly decreasing.

‘Then how can I fix it? ‘What-’

Before Leeha could organize his thoughts, the sea god swung his trident.

[I will never let you go alive, Le!]

Kwagwagwagwa────────────!

Waves are the shaking of the sea surface, but they were not like that at this moment.

Waves were crashing in the sea.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

“Purgrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

Despite the noise of fear coming from behind, Anderson did not let go of Leeha and Blaugrun.

Even though she knew that the weight was slowing her swimming, the mermaid never gave up on them.

“Leeha and Dragon, even if I had to risk my life-”

While Andersong was saying something, the waves hit them.

From the outside, there wasn’t much change. I could tell from Anderson’s reaction that a wave that couldn’t be clearly seen had reached the area below.

As if he was flying, Anderson, who had lost control of his body in the water, hugged Leeha tightly and started heading toward the wall of the septic tank at incredible speed.

[Kyuububup- Kyububuk!]

“Fisherman, puhaaa—!”

“Roaring, pogorok!”

‘It’s so fast, if you hit it, you might die-‘

Leeha raised both hands and covered his face as he watched the wall of the septic tank getting closer in an instant.

At that moment, Lee Ha felt his position being reversed.

Pow!

As the scope was narrowed to a specific area, the ocean current became faster and stronger, pinning Leeha, Anderson, and Blaugrun to the wall.

“Kehehe!”

Compared to the expected damage, the vision below was very fine. It was so bad that I could see the light of the approaching sea god directly in front of me.

“Boop, boop!?”

‘Mr Anderson!’

Anderson really kept his last words.

The lesser water spirit, in order to protect Leeha and Blaugrun, rotated its body the moment they collided and took all the impact.

Lee Ha was grateful to the point of tears for the mermaid’s spirit of self-sacrifice, but at the same time, she felt extremely sad.

‘Cha, that’s nice, but if there’s no mermaid…’ Leeha

struggled, holding on to Andersson, who had fainted, and Blaugrun, who was anxious.

However, even the fast mermaid could not escape from the sea god, and there was no way that a human’s kick could shake him off.

[Kyuuuu….]

Blaugrun was trembling.

Even a hatchling-level dragon could not escape the majesty of the Sea God, which was gradually narrowing the distance.

[You’re a clumsy alter ego, Les. That’s the best you can do when you’re cornered. Even the Demon King’s pieces can’t do much.]

The sea god slowed down and approached. He knew very well that the ‘target’ in his eyes would no longer be able to escape.

‘What should I do? Damn it, all weapons don’t work anyway. It would have been nice if the stun gun had worked from a distance, but as it is…’

The effect will only be activated if you approach the sea god directly and attach the stun gun’s rod to the sea god’s body.

However, the trident’s blade is larger in size than Blaugrun.

There was no way Leeha could approach the sea god, who manipulated it freely and used various skills, due to his slow swimming skills.

It was obvious that if I tried to do things like clumsy freestyle and balance, my body would be cut in half in an instant.

[Avatar of a demon, a piece of a demon. I can forgive you. It’s not that I, an axis of the spirit world, don’t understand your greed. I am not unaware of your desire to absorb the power of the water spirit and subjugate the forces of other demons.]

The sea god slowly raised his trident.

Even though keywords that would distract my concentration appeared in succession, my thoughts did not become loose. How do I get out? What can be done against the sea god?

[But now we have to pay the price for our excessive greed. 〈Chilling〉

However, time was too short to think about the sea god who was already on the verge of attack.

Even in the sea, the grains of mana that gathered at the tip of the sea god’s trident were clearly visible. First I had to write something.

‘Damn it, first of all, let’s do this – Hallucination: Bahamut! Please, eat, please, please, please.’

Hwaaaaa…!

A special skill that required no casting time was activated immediately.

Above Leeha’s head, an illusion of Bahamut was created so large that it filled the septic tank’s cave.

At least the primary objective below was achieved.

The goal is to attract the sea god’s attention and give him time to think.

The problem was that the sea god was much stronger and more intelligent than regular monsters or NPCs. No, maybe the skills below would have worked even if there were no symptoms of delirium.

[What can you do now by becoming gigantic, Les! 〈Chilling Trident〉]

In the eyes of the sea god, even that was seen as an image of Re.

The grains of mana did not disperse. The sea god immediately cast magic toward the illusion of Bahamut without any hesitation.

Shwaaaagh──────!

The blue mana gathered at the tip of the trident transformed into a huge trident again and was fired.

The attack magic, not only with its ferocious force but also with its size and enough to overwhelm the enemy, passed through the lower part of Bahamut’s neck before he could even open his mouth.

And when an illusion turns out to be an illusion, it disappears.

The Platinum Dragon’s huge body disappeared from nowhere.

[Live?! What kind of plan are you planning with this trick?]

For the first time, the sea god was taken aback.

That was the reason why his body, which had been approaching all along, suddenly retreated back. Therefore, I had no choice but to grit my teeth.

‘Fuck you! ‘We’re almost there!’

Because he was drawing attention to Bahamut and secretly approaching the sea god!

That was the last gamble Lee Ha came up with.

While the illusion attracts attention, approach directly and use the electric shock! However, it did not take long for the Sea God’s unfocused eyes to discover the following.

‘Even if I hadn’t widened the distance… damn it-‘

It was a distance that could be reached with five or six splashes, but it would take several seconds to close the gap again. But I couldn’t give up.

Lee Ha desperately splashed around in the water. The remaining distance is about 8m!

[It’s laughable, Les!]

Does this mean there’s no need for magic anymore?

The sea god quickly swung his trident. The remaining distance is now 6m, a distance equal to the length of the trident pole! The blade of the spear was pointed straight at Leeha’s neck.

‘It’s all here, it’s all – < Force Barrier >!’

A jade-colored barrier surrounded Leeha, but the skills so far were melted like ice cream by the sea god’s trident.

The remaining distance is 4.5m!

If it were on land, if you were running at full speed, you might have jumped and stretched out your hand and just barely touched it.

However, this is underwater, and I-Ha’s swimming speed is beyond reach. In the end, I-Ha had to choose.

To block the approaching trident even for a second, to buy a little time.