Puchi!
The blade of the Kasaka's Venom Fang dagger plunged deep into the White Whale's left eyeball, leaving only the hilt exposed. The ruptured crystalline lens, mixed with viscous bodily fluids, gushed out!
"Not done yet!" Natsuki Subaru twisted his wrist, and the dagger swept horizontally, bisecting the eyeball. Immediately following were two more fierce slashes, completely gouging out the massive eye.
"Well done, Lord Subaru!" Wilhelm seized the opportunity to press forward, his sharp longsword simultaneously piercing a vital spot on the White Whale's other side, a rare, excited smile appearing on his aged face.
"The White Whale's eye fell out—!"
"Heavens, this is unbelievable!"
"Lord Knight Subaru did it!"
"He's just like a hero from the legends!"
The soldiers' gasps of astonishment rose one after another; everyone had witnessed this shocking scene. The White Whale's massive left eye, along with gushing black blood and viscous fluids, fell with a crash, bursting like a liquid-filled leather sack on the ground, splashing up a foul-smelling mist of blood.
"What astonishing skill..." Crusch stood at her command post, her emerald eyes shining with shock. This duchess, who was always calm and composed, was now stunned by the strength Natsuki Subaru displayed.
At this moment, the White Whale, being toyed with in the palm of Natsuki Subaru's hand, was completely unable to resist. Despite the disparity in size, the gap in strength made this battle a one-sided affair.
"—SCREEEEEE!!" At this moment, the excruciating pain from its lost left eye drove the White Whale into a complete frenzy, its remaining right eye instantly turning a terrifying blood-red. It thrashed its body madly, which only served to tear its wounds even more severely.
Taking advantage of the White Whale's rolling momentum, Natsuki Subaru's dagger carved a perfect circular wound on its back, as if the Mabeast had actively offered its body to the blade.
Crusch, on the ground, immediately understood and commanded loudly, "Magic troops, covering fire!"
A rain of arrows and a barrage of magic erupted in response, creating the optimal attack environment for Natsuki Subaru.
Natsuki Subaru, charging with his sword, sped across the White Whale's back like a phantom, his blade vertically slicing the Mabeast's body. To see his movements, one had to follow the gushing fountains of blood that erupted slightly later to catch that black figure moving rapidly from tail to spine. At this moment, Natsuki Subaru was like a mythical demon god descended.
"OOOOHHH!!!" This superhuman display of combat prowess instantly caused the morale of the observing subjugation party on the ground to skyrocket.
Boom, boom, boom!
The firing rate of the Magic Stone Cannons suddenly increased, and the offensives of the mercenary group and the Earth Dragon cavalry also became fiercer. The White Whale, rolling in agony in the air, was completely unable to withstand this tempestuous assault.
Finally—
CRASH!
Under the combined fierce attack of Natsuki Subaru and Wilhelm, this behemoth that had ravaged for four hundred years crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust that filled the sky. It was known that most of the damage in this battle came from Natsuki Subaru. After all, the 40% all-stats bonus from his "Wolf Slayer" title, combined with the bleed and paralysis effects of the Kasaka's Venom Fang dagger, had turned him into a true Mabeast slayer.
"Heave-ho! The White Whale is down! Everyone, get 'em!" Ricardo, riding a galloping Earth Dragon, took the lead, letting out a heaven-shaking battle cry. The beastman captain brandished his giant cleaver, hacking madly at the fallen White Whale like a storm, each blow sending up a great spray of black blood.
"Heave-ho—let's go—!"
"Sister! Don't charge too far ahead! Everyone, prepare to attack!" Mimi and Hetaro, the twin vice-captains, quickly spread out, issuing precise commands to the Iron Fang mercenary group.
The well-trained pack of Earth Dragons leaped forward abruptly, and the mercenaries swarmed onto the White Whale's massive body like a tide. Swords and spears left hideous wounds on the Mabeast's body; the scene was like a swarm of venomous insects tearing at a dying white giant.
"ROAR—!" The White Whale thrashed its body madly, trying to shake off these invaders, but its massive size exposed a fatal sluggishness.
Just as the White Whale was struggling—
"All units, withdraw!!" Crusch's cool command pierced the entire battlefield. The Iron Fang mercenaries immediately executed the order, leaping off the White Whale in perfect unison. All the Earth Dragons landed lightly, and the freed White Whale finally got a chance to counterattack, its massive body beginning to spin violently.
Natsuki Subaru and Wilhelm exchanged a look of understanding and simultaneously leaped off the White Whale's back.
"Its flank is wide open—magic attack!!" Crusch seized this fleeting opportunity, the longsword in her hand swinging out an invisible blade, drawing a perfect diagonal line, leaving a deep, linear wound on the White Whale's side. And this slash from Crusch seemed to be a signal, as the third faction, which had been waiting in the wings, finally joined the battle.
"—Al Goa!!" The mages' uniform chant echoed in the air. They had been concentrating on preparing this large-scale joint spell since the beginning of the battle.
A second, scorching sun suddenly appeared in the low sky. A giant fireball over ten meters in diameter emitted a horrifying high temperature, making even the distant soldiers feel a burning pain on their skin.
"Boom!" The fireball struck the White Whale's exposed flank with astonishing speed, the flames madly pouring into its body through the wound. The agony of its internal organs being burned made the White Whale let out a heart-wrenching scream, and shattered fragments of flame rained down, forcing the mercenaries to scatter and dodge.
"The power of this magic fireball... it's practically comparable to a tactical missile." Natsuki Subaru, standing at a safe distance, couldn't help but click his tongue in awe as he watched the scene. The battle to subjugate the White Whale was showing a one-sided, overwhelming trend, thanks to an unprecedentedly perfect surprise attack.
At this point, the White Whale's aura had weakened by nearly half. "If it continues like this, maybe the battle can be ended without me needing to act again."
However, Natsuki Subaru keenly sensed something was wrong. In the White Whale's remaining single eye, a strange pink light was flashing.
At this moment, half of the White Whale's body was engulfed in magical flames. The fire continuously spread along its thick fur, showing no signs of extinguishing. Wounds from Magic Stone Cannons and close-combat attacks covered its entire body, black blood constantly dripping like springs; the scene was extremely tragic. This tragic sight would have been fatal for any Mabeast, but Natsuki Subaru knew that the real battle was only just beginning.
Suddenly—
The White Whale's remaining right eye abruptly burst with a glaring blood-red light, locking directly onto the retreating subjugation party. In extreme hatred and anger, its massive body began to tremble violently, its flesh undergoing a horrifying mutation.
"Is it... going to use the white fog..." Natsuki Subaru narrowed his eyes.
The pits all over the White Whale's body suddenly opened simultaneously. No, to be precise, those pits had all turned into mouths full of sharp teeth.
"SCREEEEEE!!" Hundreds of mouths simultaneously emitted a piercing shriek, a terrifying sound that should not exist in this world. The sound was like sharp nails scraping directly on everyone's brain nerves; even the Earth Dragons went limp on the ground from instinctual fear.
Then, an overwhelming dense fog spewed forth from these mouths. In an instant, the entire plain was enveloped in white fog. The bright world created by the Night Banisher stones was once again plunged into chaos.
"All units, attention! Immediately execute fog response protocol, Anti-Magic Stones at the ready!" Crusch's cool voice pierced through the dense fog, giving commands with composure.
"Exactly as I predicted." Natsuki Subaru narrowed his eyes, his powerful perception allowing him to clearly see the flow of magic within the fog. If one hadn't seen the real thing, one might have thought this was just ordinary fog. But after witnessing it firsthand, no one would think so. Wherever that bizarre white fog passed, the ground corroded with a 'sizzling' sound. Rocks melted rapidly like ice under a hot sun, and grass and trees turned to ash the moment they came into contact with the fog.
"This is the true Mabeast of Fog, the White Whale!" Natsuki Subaru gripped the dagger in his hand, thinking to himself. According to the intelligence he had given Crusch before the battle, the fog released by the White Whale was divided into two types. One was a relatively mild, diffusive fog, mainly used to expand its area of activity. The other was this destructive "consuming fog" before them. The threat posed by the latter could be understood at a glance; it was a lethal weapon that could erase existence itself.
"Magic Stone Cannon troops, Anti-Magic Stones, volley fire!!" With Crusch's order, Ferris immediately directed the magic troops to adjust their aim. The cat-eared boy had completely shed his usual frivolity at this moment, his amber eyes filled with concentration.
"Ready—fire!" Ferris's sharp voice was exceptionally clear on the battlefield.
"Boom, boom, boom!" In a series of explosions, the specially made Anti-Magic Stones drew bright trajectories as they shot into the fog layer above. These carefully polished magic stones exploded in the air, bursting with a dazzling blue light, piercing the dense fog like the dawn's first light.
"The white fog has been successfully dispelled—!" Cheers erupted one after another among the soldiers.
"Now, the real battle is about to begin." Natsuki Subaru murmured, gazing at the battlefield situation. The shattered magic stones in the sky bloomed with a dazzling light, splitting open the view-obscuring white fog like sharp blades. Although it couldn't disperse the fog covering the entire plain, it at least neutralized the most dangerous dense fog state. Such an effect was already significant enough. After all, this lethal fog was, in reality, a physical manifestation of the White Whale's massive mana. When this directionally-charged mana spread out, it formed this fog of death. And the power of the Anti-Magic Stones was precisely to disperse the fog by forcibly reverting the surrounding mana to a colorless state or neutralizing it.
"..." Crusch roughly wiped the sweat from her forehead, panting heavily on the back of her Earth Dragon. As the core of the dispersal operation, she was quickly surrounded by the regrouped members of the subjugation party.
"What's the casualty situation?" Crusch asked in a deep voice, looking around at the various squads.
"My squad originally had fifteen men, now we are short six."
"Fifteen-man roster, one missing."
"Two members missing... but... I can't remember who..."
"Three missing... it's all my fault for my command error!"
Reports from the squad leaders came in one after another, but all carried the same strange, complex emotion. Because no one remembered the appearance or name of their missing comrades.
"This is the terrifying aspect of the White Whale's consuming fog." Seeing this, Natsuki Subaru couldn't help but sigh. It was known that beings devoured by the White Whale's white fog would not only disappear from the world, but even others' memories of them would be completely erased. The only thing left was the empty fact that someone had disappeared. That was why Crusch had deliberately fixed each squad's roster at fifteen. At least through the number of missing members, they could confirm their own losses.
"Screee!" Suddenly, a piercing cry echoed across the plain. In the gradually thinning fog, three massive white figures were swimming through the air. Those terrifying creatures, covered in distorted mouths, continuously emitted a horrifying, grating sound. Such a monster, which had devoured countless travelers and erased innumerable lives, was enough to drive one to despair even as a single entity.
And now, the White Whale had split into three.
However, thanks to the intelligence provided by Natsuki Subaru in advance, Crusch and the others had already anticipated this scene. It was known that when the White Whale was severely injured or felt threatened, it would automatically split into three duplicates to continue fighting, while the main body would withdraw from the battlefield to recover.
"What a cunning Mabeast..." Natsuki Subaru looked up at the three white shadows swimming in the sky and turned to Crusch. "According to the original plan, Miss Crusch, you and your forces will handle the two duplicates, while I go after the White Whale's main body."
"Your courage is truly admirable." Crusch's brow furrowed, her fingers unconsciously stroking the hilt of her sword. "But the White Whale's main body, even if injured, is by no means an opponent one person can face."
"That's right, Subaru-kyun attacked continuously just now, so you must have used up a lot of stamina..." Ferris's cat ears twitched, a look of worry on his face. "This is too reckless of you, meow~"
"Lady Crusch and Ferris are right." Wilhelm stepped forward, his silver hair fluttering in the wind, his eyes shining with fighting spirit. "Lord Subaru, it would be more appropriate for this old man to deal with the main body. This sword of mine has been waiting for this moment for too long."
"This battle plan was jointly decided upon. I understand everyone's concern." Natsuki Subaru's gaze swept over the three, then looked up at the giant white shadow in the sky. "But please trust me. After fighting for so long, the White Whale is already riddled with injuries. If we don't give it the final blow now, once it recovers its strength, all our previous sacrifices will have been in vain!"
"Your Excellency, are you truly confident?" The sword in Wilhelm's hand trembled slightly, emitting a clear hum.
"Mister Wilhelm." Natsuki Subaru showed a reassuring smile. "I came here fully prepared!"
"Understood. But remember, if you encounter any danger, you must retreat immediately. That is an order." Crusch's emerald-like eyes gazed deeply at Natsuki Subaru. Then she turned to the other two. "Sir Wilhelm, Ferris, we will proceed as planned and engage the White Whale's duplicates."
"As you command," Wilhelm bowed and accepted the order.
"You must come back safely," Ferris said to Natsuki Subaru. "I'll have healing magic ready, meow."
"Of course." Natsuki Subaru grinned. "I'm really looking forward to the victory banquet afterwards!"
Then, as he turned to look at the sky, Natsuki Subaru's expression sharpened. This plan to subjugate the White Whale had indeed been thoroughly considered. Crusch's faction had invested over two hundred elite soldiers, and Anastasia had also sent the thirty elite mercenaries of the Iron Fang. In comparison, although he, as part of Emilia's faction, had provided crucial intelligence, he really should make a contribution in actual combat. What's more, the current White Whale was already at the end of its rope. As long as he seized this opportunity and delivered a fatal blow, he could completely end this scourge. He absolutely could not give the White Whale any chance to breathe and recover!
And besides... how could I let someone else have the EXP from a boss of this level? Let me have all the experience points! Natsuki Subaru tightened his grip on the Kasaka's Venom Fang dagger, a determined smile on his lips.
At this very moment, the two White Whale duplicates swooped down, engaging fiercely with the subjugation party on the ground. The clang of metal and the boom of magic interwove, and the battlefield instantly boiled. And the White Whale's main body was suspended about 50 meters in the air, its massive body looming in and out of the clouds.
"This guy is really taking it easy, isn't it!" Natsuki Subaru tilted his head up, his gaze locked onto the White Whale circling high above. Its massive body obscured the moonlight, casting a suffocating shadow. At this height, a mere human body could never reach it. But at this moment, he was not fighting alone.
Thinking this, Natsuki Subaru said to Crusch beside him, "If you would, Miss Crusch."
"Understood," Crusch nodded, her long green hair fluttering slightly in the night wind. Thanks to Natsuki Subaru's crucial intelligence about the White Whale, she had already incorporated several wind magic specialists into the subjugation party, precisely to deal with the current situation.
"Knight Natsuki Subaru, prepare for assault!" Crusch ordered loudly without hesitation. "Cast Al Goa on him immediately!"
"—Al Goa!!" Several mages chanted in unison, and a verdant magical light suddenly unfolded at Natsuki Subaru's feet.
__
Greetings! ✨ Walnut here!
🔥 AN INCREDIBLE OFFER IS ON THE TABLE! 🔥
We're only 11 members away from our 55-member goal! 🎯
The second we hit it, 5 BONUS CHAPTERS for ALL STORIES will be released to everyone. No exceptions!
🪦 Your membership is the key. Let's make it happen!
100 powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone! 5 reviews = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone!
Secure your early access before it's too late!
👻 patreon.com/Walnutchan