Chapter 132

The shark magical beast snatched the spearfish that had been caught on the fishing line. An unexpected turn of events.

The fishing line tightened to its limit.

Fwoooosh—!

The boat was being dragged. The bow surged forward, slicing through the waves. Each time the shark’s tail swept through the water, pushing it aside as it swam, the sailboat accelerated along with it.

So far, this was according to plan. Just as Jonathan had mentioned earlier.

Tie the fishing line to the bow and let the fish drag the boat around.

That was what Jonathan had said.

The sailboat itself was also a tool for catching fish. Once the fish became exhausted from dragging the boat around, they would pull the fishing line and reel it in.

In other words, all they had to do was wait like this… but there were a few problems.

The sailboat kept accelerating.

“W-wow!”

“Is this really okay?!”

Claire screamed the question, but no one answered. Because to anyone watching, it clearly wasn’t okay.

The speed is too fast.

The shark was incredibly fast, and its stamina was tremendous—it didn’t look like it would tire easily.

On top of that, the creature was currently swimming north. If this kept up, they might get dragged into the Demon Realm again, just like when they had been pulled along by that dragon monstrosity before.

I’m not repeating that nonsense again.

Once was more than enough.

Woojin calmly assessed the situation. Through the fishing line he could feel the shark’s movements. The creature was violently shaking its head.

Despite thrashing so fiercely, the fishing line showed no sign of loosening.

The hook must be lodged deep.

Earlier, the shark magical beast had bitten the spearfish starting from its head. That was a hunting method meant to kill large prey instantly.

It was efficient—but this time it had been a poor choice. Because of it, the hook had sunk deep into the shark’s throat.

Good. I can pull hard without worrying.

The hook was unlikely to come loose easily. Having reached that conclusion, Woojin put real strength into it.

Grabbing the fishing line with both hands, he pulled it toward himself with all his might. To help him, the others hurriedly joined in the tug-of-war.

“Pull—!!”

“I’m already doing that!!”

The four of them hauled on the fishing line with all their strength. With several people pulling together, the line came in relatively easily.

But the magical beast didn’t stay quiet either. The shark struggled violently to free itself from the hook, accelerating while constantly changing direction.

The sailboat lurched wildly in response to those movements. As a result, Woojin and the others were having a miserable time.

“W-woooahhh—!”

“Kyaaa—!”

Screams erupted everywhere. Items on the deck rolled around, and the four of them had to cling desperately to the line just to stay upright.

Damn it, this isn’t some banana boat ride…

It was complete chaos.

Their bodies were thrown left and right without pause. Despite the insanity of it all, Woojin continued doing what he had to do.

Leaning his body against the fishing line as if half lying down, he hauled it toward himself again and again. Each time he repeated the motion, the distance between them and the shark shortened.

At this rate, we’ll pull it up soon.

The shark seemed to realize that too. Suddenly, it changed its movements.

Through the line came the sensation of something surging upward.

Woojin immediately understood what it was trying to do. He had felt something similar earlier when they caught the spearfish.

It’s jumping.

That intuition became reality in the next instant.

BOOOOM!!

With a thunderous crash, the sea exploded upward in a towering splash. The shark leaped high out of the water, thrashing violently.

It was the classic “hook-shaking” maneuver used to throw off a hook.

A perfect chance to strike. Woojin tried to grab the harpoon fixed near his feet—

But a dark shadow fell over them.

“…Huh?”

Jonathan muttered stupidly. His eyes widened as he looked up at the sky.

The massive shark was writhing in midair, then tilted its body, using its head like a weight to change direction—straight toward them.

The shark was falling onto the boat. Its grotesque jaws split wide open.

Woojin and Claire quickly cast a spell.

“Ventus!!”

A gale spell.

A fierce wind spiraled out from their fingertips. The power of the spell was considerable, but it wasn’t enough to stop the enormous shark from crashing onto the boat.

Of course, Woojin and Claire already knew that. The gale wasn’t aimed at the shark at all.

WHOOSH—!

The triangular sail billowed to its fullest. Driven forward by the favorable wind, the sailboat surged ahead. Arwen also quickly flapped her wings, adding more wind.

At the same moment, the shark fell. Its savage jaws plunged downward toward the sea.

BOOOOM!!

A tremendous splash erupted as the shark magical beast’s massive body slammed into the water. Foamy white waves surged upward.

The sailboat rocked violently up and down—but by a hair’s breadth, they had escaped the killing zone.

However, they couldn’t relax yet.

“It’s coming!!”

Woojin shouted and grabbed the harpoon. The shark’s dorsal fin suddenly emerged from the water. The magical beast began circling around the boat.

A cornered rat bites the cat. Perhaps realizing it could no longer escape, the shark—once timid—now launched an aggressive attack instead.

The shark’s dorsal fin rushed straight toward them. Woojin responded by throwing the harpoon.

THUD!!

The harpoon plunged deep beneath the water. Thick blood immediately began spreading across the surface. The strike had clearly landed.

But the shark didn’t stop. It continued charging forward.

Seeing this, Claire quickly placed her hand on the deck and cast a spell.

“Defensio!”

A defensive spell.

A bluish barrier wrapped around the sailboat. At the same time, the shark slammed into the ship.

BOOOOM!!

A deafening crash exploded. Thanks to the barrier, the hull didn’t shatter—but the impact was so powerful that the boat tilted as if it might flip over.

A sudden steep slope formed across the deck.

Jonathan grabbed the railing and held on, but Claire—focused on maintaining the spell—rolled across the deck.

“Kyaaa—!”

Claire screamed as she nearly fell into the sea. But Arwen rushed over, grabbed her, and flapped her wings, lifting them both into the air.

They were safe.

After confirming that, Woojin hung from the outside of the railing and activated his weight increase ability. His weight multiplied dramatically.

The added mass stabilized the ship’s center of gravity, preventing the dangerously tilted vessel from capsizing.

The ship regained stability. All four of them stood safely on the deck. Somehow, they had survived the crisis.

“Jin! Catch this!”

Jonathan threw a harpoon toward him. It was a specialized harpoon designed for whale hunting. Woojin caught it midair and immediately aimed it back at their prey.

Kiiiiing!

A dark blue glow wrapped around the harpoon. It was a technique that used mana to strengthen a weapon.

Woojin hurled the harpoon. It shot forward powerfully and struck the shark beneath the surface with a flash of light. The pain must have been severe—the startled magical beast dove deep into the water to avoid the harpoon.

But it was meaningless.

Good thing we tied a rope to the harpoon too.

Just in case the creature spat out the hook, they had tied a rope to the harpoon as well.

Woojin grabbed both the fishing line and the rope at the same time and pulled with all his strength. The shark was quickly dragged up toward the surface, like someone being hauled up by their hair.

After that, it became a repetition of the same process. Jonathan, standing beside him, kept handing him harpoons, and Woojin received them and threw them one after another.

Thud! Thwack!

Kuwaaaak—!

The shark twisted its body and screamed. It lashed its tail repeatedly, smashing into the sailboat, but thanks to the protective spell, the ship didn’t suffer serious damage.

Woojin asked to confirm.

“How much longer can you hold the barrier?”

“There’s still plenty of room. Just finish it off.”

Claire answered calmly. The female mage wore a slightly irritated expression.

A foul smell suddenly stung the nose. Earlier, when Claire had rolled across the deck, she had ended up covered in fishing bait. Because of that, she seemed thoroughly irritated.

No need to rush, then.

He had been considering jumping into the sea and cutting the creature’s throat if necessary, but it seemed there was no need for such trouble.

Woojin continued throwing the prepared harpoons without pause. Struck repeatedly by the spearheads, the shark screamed again and again.

Before long, its body drooped limply, covered in harpoons like a hedgehog.

The prey was dead.

Having judged that, Woojin pulled the rope and dragged the shark closer to the sailboat. Then he climbed over the railing and stepped onto the creature’s body.

…Suddenly, the shark opened its eyes.

“Kwaaak!!”

With a furious roar, the shark lunged with its jaws wide open. It seemed it had been pretending to be dead to catch its opponent off guard—

But it had chosen the wrong opponent.

WHAM!!

Woojin casually swung his fist and smashed it into the shark’s snout.

The shark immediately went limp again.

Now it’s dead.

With its snout crushed, the shark floated on the water, overturned and lifeless. They said a shark’s nose was its weak point—apparently that was true.

When Woojin said that, Arwen, standing on the boat, spoke with a puzzled look.

“It looked more like you just beat it to death with brute force.”

“Did it?”

How much strength had he used?

Woojin opened and closed his hand, reviewing the attack in his mind, but since it wasn’t particularly important, he let it go. Instead, he examined the magical beast he had just killed.

The shark had a faint brownish hue. Its head was slightly blunt, and inside its vertically split mouth were rows of small hook-like teeth.

When it bites prey, the teeth must curl inward and drag it down its throat.

Its appearance was quite intimidating.

The fins attached across its body were hard and sharp like blades. Its body length seemed to be at least twelve meters, and its torso was thick and bulky—like a well-fed bull.

…A bull shark?

Something he had heard before came to mind.

Sharks known as bull sharks were said to have the unusual ability to survive in freshwater. Sometimes they even swam up rivers connected to the sea and caused attacks on humans.

Perhaps the reason this magical beast had left the northern seas and descended into human waters was because it possessed a similar ability.

Of course, it was just a guess based on the flow of his thoughts, so it might not be accurate. The only certain fact was that the creature was dead.

Time to extract the core.

Woojin sliced open the shark’s belly with a dagger and took out the core. Perhaps because the creature was so large, the core was large as well—almost too big to comfortably hold in one hand.

Arwen quickly flew down beside him.

“Sir Jin, I’ll store the spoils in the bag.”

“Thanks, as always.”

Woojin handed the core to her. Arwen carefully held it to her chest and flapped her wings, flying back up onto the boat.

Seeing that, Jonathan muttered.

“Wings like a butterfly… how fascinating. Where on earth did you find someone like that?”

“Well, things just happened that way.”

Woojin answered casually and gestured toward the shark’s corpse beneath his feet.

“What should we do with this?”

“Hm… the shark is too big. I don’t think we can pull it onto the boat.”

Even if they managed to load it onto the ship, it would be so heavy the boat might sink.

At that, Woojin readily gave up the idea.

“Let’s leave the corpse here.”

“Just leave it? Hmm…”

Jonathan thought for a moment before speaking again.

“…Since we caught such a huge one, let’s take something as a trophy.”

***

Cindy sat in a tea shop with a good view, sipping her drink. If she turned her head and looked through the window, she could see the harbor right away.

…I wonder if Oppa is okay.

She couldn’t help worrying.

What if someone had gotten hurt? Feeling anxious, Cindy absentmindedly bit her nails.

Meanwhile, sitting across from her was the silver squirrel, Coco. The little creature was chewing on its third walnut and yawning, looking completely carefree.

Watching that relaxed attitude eased her worries a little. Cindy smiled and asked,

“Oppa will come back safely, right?”

“Beit.”

Coco nodded immediately, as if worrying was pointless.

After sitting there for quite some time…

“W-what is that?”

“Did they catch some kind of whale?”

Loud commotion suddenly erupted from the direction of the pier.

The squirrel turned its head toward the window. Cindy also stood up and looked over.

On the horizon beneath the orange evening glow, a sailboat was calmly entering the harbor.

On the deck was something unbelievable—the enormous head of a giant shark.

Standing beside the magnificent trophy, Jonathan shouted proudly.

“The enemy commander has been slain!!”

And that was quite literally the truth.