It was midday on a certain part of the island, and the land spread out before the group was a complete wasteland.

  Trees had been eaten through and torn down, the ground was barren with rocks and mud, and all the color was either eaten away or destroyed. Behind the tragedy, a row of mountains stood at the island's edge. Within the rock face, hundreds of burrows were visible.

  “We are here…” Triton said.

  “So we are,” Matron Chrysanthia chimed in from behind. “However, you’ve yet to explain what exactly you want us to do.

  “I told you already: we are going to get rid of some terraclaws that have been harassing the island.”

  “And why exactly do you need us for that? And for that matter, why them?”

  The matron then nodded over to the group of blue-scaled zaurian men that had been gathered to their left. Triton had asked them to help kill some monsters, and they immediately agreed the second that killing was mentioned.

  Of course, they had a purpose… but the matron wouldn’t like it, which is why he withheld that information. Now that he was here, he decided to just come out with it.

  “Well, they’re going to be burning the area to cinders, of course.”

  The matron was immediately taken aback in revulsion, as did the group of luxen warriors clad in golden armor behind her.

  “Burn the jungle!? Barbaric!” She cried. “And why are we here!? To bear witness to this atrocity!?”

  “No, you’re going to be setting up a barrier to prevent both the flames and the terraclaws from getting out.” Triton clarified. “From what I understand, your arts are very good at creating barriers for protection.”

  “Crafty old bastard,” the matron spat, “you waited until now to say anything because you knew we wouldn’t agree.”

  “Matron, please be reasonable.”

  The last voice came from a zaurian, one with long horns and a tall muscular physique, who walked with an uncompromising swagger.

  “Look at this place! The monsters—what did you call them? The terraclaws! They’ve destroyed this place beyond recognition! You can’t seriously call this place a jungle anymore, can you?”

  “Just because it’s decayed doesn't mean we burn it to ashes! And besides, who are you to be telling me what I can or can’t consider a jungle!”

  The tall zaurian sheepishly grinned in response.

  “Dear Matron, I am Kaito, one of the warriors who was taken from my homeland by the dominators, same as you.”

  [Kaito (Deep Sea Diver) Lv. 208]

  “Warriors? Is that what you call yourselves? All I see is a bunch of primitive brutes who can’t do anything more than swing their clubs around,” she replied with a cold gaze.

  Kaito’s smile gradually faded and was slowly replaced by a look of cold fury.

  “[Primal Reversion],” he mumbled under his breath.

  In an instant, his body shifted. Two legs morphed into one serpentine tail, and his body gradually lengthened until he was as tall as a tree. His arms grew even bulkier, and his flat face gradually grew into a lizard’s maw. The transformation was completed with a mane of white hair that crowned his neck, along with a set of horns that protruded outward.

  “Care to say that again!?” He growled in his monstrous form.

  “Try it, you ugly lizard!”

  The disagreement gradually descended into blows, and Triton could do nothing but sigh as he waited for the two to be finished.

  I bet Lukey doesn’t have to deal with anything like this.

  …

  “RUN FASTER!” Lukey yelled.

  “I’M TRYING!” Saphina chimed from behind him.

  They were forced to trudge through the shallow water to dodge the attack, but while Lukey had no problem bouncing across the water, Saphina was struggling to keep up. Even if she had higher agility than him, it was offset by her trudging through knee-deep waters.

  Lukey looked behind him to see Saphina struggling, then he looked up to see three projectiles sailing right towards them.

  “INCOMING!” he shouted.

  Lukey quickly jumped out of the way, reeling his legs in preparation and leaping to his left to get clear of the oncoming projectiles. He had only just managed to get out of the way before three explosions of water followed shortly after. Once he landed, Lukey turned around to glance at Saphina’s situation.

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t so lucky.

  Saphina was lying in the water, propping herself up with one arm as she held her leg with the other. Her face grimaced in pain, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened. She tried to dive out of the way, but the force still managed to graze her leg, rendering her unable to continue the escape.

  “Grrr, I’m fine!” Saphina shouted. “Just get to safety and tell Triton to get those Dragon’s Lance guys.”

  Lukey wanted to agree with the statement, since it was only the most logical thing to do. Dragon’s Lance specialized in dealing with tyrants, so they could handle the situation much better than he or Saphina could.

  Unfortunately, that option was utterly impractical at the moment. Not only was Triton currently busy with destroying the terraclaw nests, but even if they managed to warn Dragon’s Lance, there was no way they would come fast enough to assist in time and save Saphina.

  What a terrible situation; this thing is nothing like that stupid eel from the reef! What is it even shooting us with anyway?

  Lukey strutted over to one of the submerged projectiles and looked down. Below was what looked like a shattered glass ball, with large pieces jutting out of the sand. It was large enough that he could put both palms over it, and it had a glossy green sheen as well.

  Balls of glass? Is that what that tyrant's launching at us?

  Lukey looked back and into the distance where Norman was launching his attack. An initial scan with [Ripple Sense] revealed no notable differences to ordinary Ogoronia. However, there was clearly something different, because the cannoneer was waving something in the air above his body.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Based on memory, Lukey could tell that it was a snorkel: a tube that sea snails and sea slugs used to breathe underwater. Norman, however, clearly had a different approach, because his snorkel was far larger and longer than that of any other Ogoronia Lukey had fought up until now.

  Norman, the cannoneer, huh? He probably makes the glass balls himself and uses his snorkel to launch them. Judging by all the empty shells around, it must have attacked and cannibalized any Ogoronia that came into range.

  It was a reasonable explanation, but what still wasn't clear was how it knew exactly where Lukey and Saphina were. They must have been fifty yards away, yet the snail sensed exactly where they were and launched its attacks with deadly accuracy. It made no sense until Lukey began recalling previous encounters with the Ogoronia.

  They always knew where I was, even when I was far away from them. They’re blind, so they couldn't see us; they don’t have a nose or ears… is it touch? Can they track prey through touch alone?

  It sounded absurd, but it was eerily similar to the way [Ripple Sense] worked; the waves bounced off the object in question and traveled back to the receiver, letting that creature determine where the waves came from. The Ogoronia couldn’t use [Ripple Sense], but perhaps they had something equally as good, where they just felt the ripples in the water and used those to track prey.

  So, the more we move, the more it can see where we are. If that's the case, I have an idea.

  Lukey stood up, careful not to disturb the water, and then he looked over at Saphina, who was struggling quite a bit.

  “Saphina, stop moving.”

  First, she gave a confused look, then an irritated one.

  “Stop moving!? If we stop moving, that thing is going to shoot us down!” She cried.

  “Maybe not. Look.” He said, nodding in Norman’s direction.

  The Ogoronia had stopped assaulting them for a while now and had already begun slowly crawling in their direction. Unlike other Ogoronia, this one looked like it was leisurely crawling in their direction. It wasn’t at all concerned with trying to rush down its opponents like its inferior brothers would always attempt to do.

  “It thinks we’re dead, and now it’s coming over to eat the remains.” Lukey explained. “Just wait for it to crawl up to us.”

  “And then what!?” she shrieked in a half-whisper.

  Lukey glanced at Norman, then at Saphina. He knew he had to do something, but nothing could be done without great risk. In the end, the fact was that Saphina was unable to outrun Norman, and there was no way to get away from him without causing ripples in the water. The cannoneer was clearly well trained when it came to aim and focus, so it was impossible to dodge the glass without some impressive speed.

  Lukey sighed.

  “I’ll distract it, and you run away.”

  “Are you crazy!?” Saphina yelled, almost disturbing the water as she made to stand up. “I don’t care how smart or strong you think you are! That thing is far smarter and stronger! It’s even able to hurt me, and I’m roughly ten levels above it!”

  “I’m not going to try and kill it; that’d be dumb.” Lukey asserted. “I’ll just keep it busy while you try to get away. After that, try and get some help.”

  “Lukey, don’t…”

  Lukey stopped listening. If he did, it would continue to sow doubt in his heart until he eventually lost his will and there was no plan at all. He was well aware of how stupid his plan was; after all, he couldn’t even kill a single Ogoronia without Saphina’s help, and that was just with the normal Ogoronia. Norman was a tyrant, a tactical mastermind that rose through levels by abusing their unique abilities. All the available information showed that Lukey would probably die if he ever challenged that thing to a fight.

  But dammit, he could never live with himself if he let someone get eaten right in front of him.

  Better to die risking it all than to live forever filled with regret.

  At this point Norman was around ten yards from Lukey and still approaching. He was careful not to tip the snail off by making any sudden movements, so he slowly bent down into a crouching position.

  I’ll use [Fisherman’s Stance] to jump onto the head, then I’ll start doing some damage.

  Lukey waited patiently for Norman’s approach, tuning out Saphina’s protests as he did. Norman slowly approached Lukey, thinking that he was an edible carcass, crawling closer and closer until he was roughly five yards from Lukey. Lukey saw this moment as his chance, and he immediately began charging his legs for a large leap. Unfortunately, Norman immediately noticed something was up when Lukey began his stance.

  C’mon, I need a little more.

  Lukey willed the aether to charge his legs faster, and the familiar surge increased in volume. Meanwhile, Norman was getting his cannon ready, extending his snorkel and pointing it directly in Lukey’s direction. Lukey found himself staring directly down the barrel of a lethal weapon but forced down his panic as he continued to charge up.

  Now or never.

  All at once his legs extended, throwing him airborne and shooting him straight out of the beach shallows. Lukey rose above Norman, and as he did, he heard and witnessed an explosion of water directly below him from Norman’s cannon. As he flew above the watery explosion, Lukey was once again forced to stifle his fears as he prepared to descend upon Norman’s head. Lukey prepared his spear and pointed downwards.

  “Hit the Mack!”

  Gravity did the rest of the work; it sent Lukey and his spear plummeting straight downwards from the peak of the jump. It took a lot of practice, but Lukey had enough experience by now to perform this jump perfectly, aiming it towards the center of Norman’s head, just below his shell. His aim was true; Lukey’s spear was driven directly into Norman. Meanwhile, Lukey landed on top and held his spear firm.

  Lukey could tell that Norman did not like this. From Norman’s perspective, his prey had flown out of the water and landed on it, while a sharp tool was driven into his flesh. The Ogoronia immediately began thrashing about, trying to shake Lukey off. Unfortunately, Lukey was holding tight to his pole-spear, and he would not be driven off very easily.

  “Saphina, get out of here now!”

  The Ryugu girl looked like she wanted to say something but bit her tongue as she forced herself up and began limping away from the tyrant. Meanwhile, Lukey did his best to hold onto the spear embedded within the tyrant’s top. Unfortunately, all its thrashing loosened the spear quite a bit, which forced Lukey to think of a new course of action.

  Lukey gripped his spear with both hands, then crouched down. He then flooded his legs with aether like before, building up the tension. In one movement, he released his legs and shot up, ripping out the pole-spear as he did. Lukey made sure to push away from Norman as he jumped and ended up landing a short distance away from the giant snail, who had stopped thrashing.

  Now, it was angry.

  Once Lukey landed in the shallow water, Norman immediately knew where he was and practically spun in place to face Lukey. Once again, Lukey was staring down Norman's cannon, but this time he was a little more prepared. Lukey had already begun charging aether in his legs the second he touched the ground, so when Norman pointed his cannon down at Lukey for the second time, he pushed off with his right leg.

  Lukey side-leaped out of danger, and not one second after, another explosion of water followed in his wake. Once he landed on Norman’s right side, the whole cycle repeated itself; Norman detected Lukey, rapidly changed direction, and launched another glass cannonball. Once again, Lukey dodged, this time leaping to Norman’s left.

  It may be able to sense where I am, but it still isn’t able to track me properly when I’m out of the water. Maybe I can use this to my advantage?

  Before Norman could get a chance to properly aim again, Lukey charged up and leapt onto his head. Once again, Lukey’s spear was driven into the mass of flesh, which writhed and flailed around in an attempt to remove the pest that stung it. Lukey held on and even managed to try driving it deeper in before he jumped off and yanked the pole-spear out once more.

  Lukey hit the water, and when Norman spun around to put the cannon in his face, he quickly began leaping to the side. This time, instead of dodging back and forth, he kept shifting right, leaping around to try and get behind Norman. The first couple leaps were spent narrowly avoiding cannon blasts until Lukey finally managed to outpace the creature. Lukey charged up his legs, aimed his spear forwards, and drove it right into the cannoneer’s backside.

  I’m doing it… I’m injuring him!

  Lukey felt a rallying surge as he watched himself consistently outspeeding the giant snail. Each one of Norman’s blows could be considered extremely lethal to someone as frail as him, but those things didn’t even matter when Lukey could dodge in rapid bursts of speed. Maybe he wasn’t doing much damage, but if he could keep it up, then sooner or later the cannoneer would simply give up.

  Left, right, and over top. Lukey pushed [Fisherman’s Stance] and his legs to their limits as he dodged circles around the cannoneer. Eventually, Lukey’s spear found its mark on every side of Norman’s body, piercing soft flesh and making new holes with each attack.

  The punishment continued until eventually, Norman decided he had had enough of the assault. Instead of launching another blast that Lukey could dodge, he began waving his fleshy wings to bury himself in the dirt and quickly sped off beneath the sand.

  Did… Did I do it?

  Lukey began to feel a surge of pride as he realized he had single-handedly fended off a tyrant. That was the kind of thing that required a team of people to do, and even then, considering how smart and strong they were, it wasn’t easy. Lukey looked behind himself to see Saphina standing safely out of the shallow waters, watching in amazement.

  Good, she’s safe.

  Lukey planned to run back to shore, but before he could, he heard three shots fired off in the distance. He looked over in the distance, toward the source of the blasts, then looked up to see three glass balls arching through the air in his direction.

  Aw… coconuts.