Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 438: The Yngling Descendent

Chapter 438: The Yngling Descendent

"Hahaha! Sovereign Spark Barrage!"

Running along the water, the wielder twirled their blade and generated multiple orbs of crackling pink energy that hovered along their dashing figure. At the same time, the pink sword became enveloped in red markings. Slowly crystallizing, slowly emerging...

"Plus...! Yngling Sigil Marking: Monster Slayer!" Astrid Yngling spoke not in English or Japanese but in the noble language granted to the Ynglings. This completed the markings. This began step three.

Step three—attack.

No one attacked harder and faster than Astrid Yngling. Her pink blade made contact with the Bake-kujira. The massive, five-hundred foot monster weighed thousands of metric tonnes and yet—

Crack.

An explosion erupted and Astrid Yngling managed to slow it down. She bounced back twenty feet, narrowly avoiding the hiss of steam, and stood calmly on the water. Grinning, the pink woman pointed her sword toward the skull of the pursuing whale. It had slowed down but it did not stop.

"Hello there, Bake-kujira! My name is Astrid and I’m the newest member of the Yngling family! Nice to fight you!"

She was the first. She wasn’t alone. Behind her on a boat was Mikinosuke and behind him was an army. To the east and to the west, more armies.

"ATTACK!"

Twin swords raised, Mikinosuke roared.

Twang! Twang! Twang!

Everyone charged. Everyone attacked. The students of Miyamoto Musashi, Nash and his crew, the samurai, and every available player. Most were on large boats. Arrows were aimed and fired, soaring above.

Hundreds of monsters were summoned in heaps of steam. The boats were already in formation. The Bake-kujira was already surrounded and everybody was attacking from short and long-range. The monsters were killed before they swim in the waters or take to the skies.

For those that did...

Bang!

"Hahaha!" Astrid was at the front of it all. She jumped right at the skull, unafraid, and dragged the tip of her blade along the skull. Steam followed, trying to catch her. Pink lightning crackled under her boots. "Too slow!"

She jumped, laughing, and landed at the tippy-top of the skull. A flat plane for her meager size. Heat pooled around her feet. "Yngling Sigil Circle..." She flipped her sword over and slammed it down. "Hagalaz! Monarch’s Wrath!"

Plunging downward, the blade actually pierced through what everyone assumed was impenetrable bone. In that moment, a massive magic circle spread composed of unreadable runes and symbols. The clouds above darkened and the magic circle roared a command to the storm above. A barrage of massive lightning strikes descended like divine judgment.

"Haah...haah!" Astrid raised her sword and slammed it down again. "Hagalaz!"

Lighting struck again. This time, the Bake-kujira reacted and stopped entirely. The arrows, the strikes from the students of Musashi and Nash and whoever—they were all but insignificant ants. None of them posed a threat.

Not until this woman appeared.

"Hagalaz!"

Paper cuts. Astrid was inflicting paper cuts. It did not come close to killing or gravely injuring the Class Five monstrosity. It did, however, inflict pain.

"Hagalaz!"

Around her, monsters birds emerged. Panting, Astrid was about to stop and enter battle.

"Keep doing what you’re doing, woman!"

Kurōtarō, the walking fortress in crimson Heian-era armor, waded every monster like an unstoppable tide. His massive nodachi cleaved through the birthed creatures as if they were nothing but paper. Scattering lesser monsters in its wake and doing.

Steam did not hiss out. These monsters were desperately made. Weak enough for the samurai to one-shot them and protect Astrid completely.

Slam!

"Hagalaz!"

Crack.

A large, human-sized crack. So small and insignificant compared to the whole. But whether it was human or whale, the pain of a blister was the same. The panic was the same.

The Bake-kujira groaned and its skeletal form glowed faintly blue. Its glowing ribs expanded and it released bursts of scalding vapor. Yet, thanks to the metal weapons scattered throughout the water by Remmy’s fishermen, the leviathan couldn’t accurately sense its attackers. Its steam hissed wildly into empty spaces, missing the boats and warriors entirely.

Most importantly because of the gunman kicking through the air.

"And some of this and some of that...!" Booker Davis Jr. blinked in and out, perfectly tracked by the echolocation and imperfectly not caught by the steam. He moved nothing like a human, one moment standing atop a monster’s head and the next disappearing before the steam could hit him. Each time he reappeared, the crack of his pistols rang out like thunder.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His metal bullets crashed into the Bake-kujira’s glowing skull and back and ribs and fin and whatever. He tries to shoot at the spots where the steam came from. It didn’t do major damage. It was not weakness. It did, however, annoy the whale. The time was mounting up and he left behind faint scorch marks. Though the damage was minimal, the whale-monster reeled back, confused and enraged by the constant barrage of unpredictable attacks.

"Confused, huh?" Booker muttered, flipping in midair and landing on the edge of a nearby boat. He holstered one pistol and reloaded the other with smooth precision, his eyes scanning the battlefield. "Good. Stay confused."

"Oh, it’s you."

"Ah, Samantha." He didn’t look, he knew which boat he landed on. Samantha and her guild, the Children of Athena. They too were attacking from long range, destroying huge hoards of monsters. A little before Booker had arrived, however, they had stopped. They were drinking potions to replenish themselves.

This was the signal. This was when they were supposed to cast the cooperative spell. One half of her guild was to the west and here they were to the east of the Bake-kujira.

Except...

"Looks like you’re off the hook," Booker remarked.

"We are simply lucky that we’re blessed with men like you," Samantha said, pleased.

Right. Both Booker and Astrid were stronger than thought possible. The number of monsters spawning were being focused on her. Astrid’s lightning spell from the clouds was working. Major damage was being done, drawing attention alongside the intense confusion from the sheer number of random metals in the sea and the individuals attacking. Sword strikes and arrows and fists.

The Bake-kujira was getting pummelled.

"I’m going to take out its echolocation," Booker declared.