Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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With one week remaining until the Great Sea Serpent’s arrival, Turan and his group spent their time training in magic or discussing how to coordinate their attack against the colossal beast.
Rowina, Armani, and the other mermaid royals joined in, debating what roles they should take.
“If you can’t breathe underwater and need to stay above, how about I support you? That wooden scrap you rode in on will obviously shatter the moment the real fight starts,” suggested a mermaid royal who could transform into a sea turtle, its shell alone stretching an impressive seven meters.
Turan marveled briefly at a physique even larger than Rowina’s, despite her greater strength, before asking, “Can’t you go any faster?”
“This is my max! To go faster, I’d have to shrink!” the sea turtle shouted, trudging along slowly as if weighed down by its own mass.
Fortunately, it swam faster than it walked, and even when shrunk, it could still carry three people, making it useful for resting—though rapid movement seemed out of the question.
Beyond that, the mermaid royals showcased transformations into various sea creatures: a sleek garfish, a squid, a swordfish, an orca, a jellyfish, and more.
Naturally, they didn’t just turn into large animals; like Rowina, each possessed one or two unique abilities—piercing with a sharp snout, emitting electricity from tentacles, or releasing sonic waves with a roar.
As the saying goes, what comes must go.
When the mermaids stepped up, Turan’s group reciprocated by revealing some of their own techniques: Turan’s signature slingshot skill, Meisa’s lightning spell, and Solif’s “Light of Judgment.”
As a golden whip lashed the waves, evaporating water into rising steam, the mermaids gasped in awe.
“Ohh…!”
“I thought demon powers were just about manipulating and freezing water, but they’re more varied than I imagined,” one remarked.
Perhaps because they rarely encountered human mages beyond the Karmain family, the mermaid royals found Turan’s group’s abilities utterly fascinating.
When Turan demonstrated an explosive spell using the Soul of Fire, one royal commented, “That’s like Mother’s technique. It’d have been great if she were here.”
“Mother?” Turan asked.
“Yeah. She stayed at the palace to protect the weak and young ones who’d be no help. This little guy stayed because there wasn’t time to drop him off,” a young princess explained, grabbing Armani—who was swimming alongside, playfully nuzzling his siblings—and stretching his cheeks.
If the mermaid queen was a capable fighter, though not on par with her husband, she’d have been a significant asset. It seemed they’d kept her back as a safeguard against the kingdom’s total collapse.
For Turan’s group, this was both a pity and a relief.
A stronger mermaid force would ease the hunt, but it’d also increase the risk of them seizing control.
“The mermaid king’s a whale, right?” Turan asked.
“Correct. He’s truly impressive. He’ll likely lead the charge in the fight,” a royal confirmed.
Currently, the king was absent from the island, tasked with luring the Great Sea Serpent here himself.
He was gradually provoking it from afar, guiding its path—or so they’d said.
They hadn’t explained the details to Turan’s group, but as a people who’d worshipped the Great Sea Serpent since ancient times, they clearly possessed extensive knowledge about it.
Perhaps it involved that trident’s power.
After assessing each other’s abilities and strategizing how to fight together, they split off to train separately for the sea battle ahead.
During this, Turan devised a few new spells: creating a tube connecting to the surface for quick breathing underwater or manipulating surrounding water to move his body, much like when steering the boat.
“Urgh…”
“Do better—this is the most important skill for you,” Turan urged.
“Easier said than done! Do you think I’m a genius like you two?” Solif grumbled.
Though Turan had created the spells, Solif—who couldn’t wield wind magic well enough to fly—practiced them most diligently.
Watching him flail while trying to move with water, Turan said quietly, “Bije will pair with you for now, but if it gets badly hurt and can’t fight, you need to be ready to battle underwater too.”
He avoided saying “die” aloud, lest it invite bad luck, but they all knew casualties were possible in this fight.
That was the nature of combat.
The risk varied with strength, but at its core, it was a gamble with lives.
Especially since they couldn’t fully predict this opponent’s power until they faced it.
Perched atop Turan’s head, Bije tilted its head and scratched words onto the water’s surface with its talons.
[Can we die?]
“You’ll be fine—just support Solif while flying with him. I won’t let you get into danger,” Turan reassured.
[Turan can’t die either. Nor Mate, nor Servant.]
“Who’s the servant?” Solif snapped, glaring as Bije flapped its wings lightly, splashing water with a gust.
Spitting out seawater with a pfft, Solif asked Turan, “So you two will fly around fighting directly?”
“Yeah. Carrying all three of us in a storm would be too much for Bije,” Meisa answered instead, smoothly manipulating water to move herself.
Though slower to pick it up than Turan, her genius in magical aptitude shone through.
Solif stroked his slightly grown silver beard, his tone worried. “But is it okay to use everything without holding back? I’m concerned rumors might spread elsewhere.”
“Well, these mermaids don’t seem to interact much with the surface… It’s just a guess, but I think this kingdom will soon cut ties with the Karmain family. After that, they won’t have much dealings with other great families either,” Turan reasoned.
The mermaid king’s distaste for Karmain’s god, the Lawyer, combined with his ambition to revive the old royal powers using the Great Sea Serpent’s corpse, led to this conclusion.
It wasn’t surprising that a group with enough strength for independence would tire of subordination.
Hearing this, Solif slapped the water with a splash and exclaimed, “Oh, right! What about that?”
“What?” Turan asked.
“The Great Sea Serpent’s corpse. You’re not really handing it over completely, are you?”
“If they don’t break their promise, I won’t break mine. That’s what a promise is,” Turan replied.
Even now, some noble-class mermaids occasionally eyed Turan’s group with hunger, but the royals showed no such signs.
Thus, Turan treated them as rational beings—people—and dealt with them accordingly.
If they honored their word, he’d honor his; that was the golden rule.
Meisa, listening nearby, cleared her throat lightly and added, “I agree. Plus, like Turan said, if these mermaids get stronger, it pokes a hole in the gods’ dominance, right? I think that benefits us.”
Outvoted two to one, Solif groaned, “Ugh,” and flopped onto the water, skillfully hardening it into a bed-like surface with his newfound proficiency.
“Fine, I don’t know. You’ll figure it out,” he muttered.
“No need to worry too much. Once we’ve hunted the Great Sea Serpent, we’ll be strong enough to stop them from oppressing humans with their new power,” Turan said.
Per the king’s words, it’d be far weaker than its prime, but defeating a creature capable of such natural phenomena would surely grant immense strength.
Perhaps they could surpass top-tier nobles and reach the heels of great family heads.
“Besides, even if they gain the power to become Great Sea Serpents, it won’t be a huge threat. Only one will survive to become king anyway,” Turan noted, referencing the mermaids’ customs.
Solif and Meisa immediately turned their gazes to the royals playing among themselves at a distance.
There, a young royal was dumping sand on Rowina’s head, only to yelp as she smacked him.
“Yeah… Speaking of which, they’re really something else,” Solif mused.
“What?” Turan asked.
“They’ll kill each other to inherit the throne later, right? How can they get along so well now?”
“I couldn’t even stand next to them if it were me,” Meisa chimed in, sprawled limply on the water.
Turan glanced at the mermaids briefly before offering an explanation. “Well… I guess their moral framework’s just different from humans’.”
Truthfully, even he found it hard to grasp.
Siblings destined to kill each other acting so cheerful together?
If he were a mermaid royal, he’d have schemed to eliminate his siblings by any means.
Conversely, if he judged himself unable to win, he’d have fled the kingdom outright.
Yet here they were, treating each other as family despite clear disparities in strength and talent.
At that, Solif and Meisa stared at him.
“What?” Turan asked.
“No, I never thought of killing them off first,” Solif said.
“Sometimes I think your emotions are a bit off,” Meisa added.
“Really?” Turan replied.
“Yeah, really,” they nodded in unison.
***
After training, tired of fish, Turan’s group hunted a beast and cooked it with spices and grain flour brought from Miguel Island to fill their stomachs.
Satisfied, Turan turned to Meisa, who’d taken only one bite before losing her appetite. “Let’s go replenish your meal.”
“Okay,” she nodded, glancing at Solif.
Though they’d done this many times over their long time together, she still hesitated to let Solif see this feeding process, as if it were akin to hiding a bathroom visit.
“Bring some water back,” Solif said, deliberately acting casual—though that sometimes made the mood even stranger.
In a secluded spot in the forest, after the feeding, Turan watched Meisa re-don her magical gear and voiced a thought he’d been mulling over.
“After this hunt, we might need Solif’s help too.”
“With what?” she asked.
“This. If you get stronger, I might not be able to knock you out alone anymore.”
When she’d been frail and emaciated, it hadn’t mattered, but as Meisa grew healthier, subduing her was becoming tougher for Turan.
Even with equal magic, Turan’s physical strength outmatched hers due to his build.
But the issue was that Meisa’s magic ranked among the highest of top-tier nobles, while Turan’s was among the lowest in that tier.
If they absorbed the Great Sea Serpent’s magic after this hunt and she hadn’t hit her limit, she’d likely grow even stronger.
Absorbing a far greater being’s power was more efficient for someone already strong.
“Even now it’s like this—by then, it might take one person holding your legs while another knocks you out,” Turan said.
The spot where Meisa had instinctively thrashed earlier was practically torn apart.
She let out a small, “Hmm,” in response.
“That’s… a bit much,” she said.
“Yeah?” Turan replied.
“Yeah. If it comes to that, I’d rather go hungry for a bit. Or find another way.”
That “other way” was a recent realization: boosting her self-worth by helping people.
Had they not needed to hunt the Great Sea Serpent, they’d planned to roam the North Sea, rescuing struggling merchant ships to fulfill that need.
Now, with storms keeping both merchants and pirates at bay, that was difficult.
“Then we’ll prioritize finding that way afterward,” Turan suggested.
“Okay,” she agreed.
Thus, they preemptively set plans for after the hunt—a tacit vow that none of them would die in it.
***
As days passed with training and rest, the island’s weather grew increasingly hostile.
Stronger winds, driving rain, and even thunderstorms emerged.
Noticing the climate shift, the island’s animals stampeded in droves, and soon even the fish began leaping to the surface, displaying odd behavior.
The once-lively atmosphere among the group stiffened.
They realized a major battle loomed—and that some of them might not survive.
When the fateful day arrived, a ferocious storm engulfed the island.
“We can barely hear each other in this!” Solif shouted.
“Unless it’s urgent, use hand signals from now on!” Turan yelled back.
Of course, Turan and Meisa could transmit voices with wind magic, and Solif could project words with illusion magic.
But with every ounce of magic precious in the fight, they’d devised and memorized simple hand signals instead.
[See it?]
[Yeah.]
[Now?]
[Hard to tell from there. Was that ‘up’?]
As they tested the signals’ range, Rowina approached from afar, trudging irritably through the muddy ground.
Drawing near, she shouted, “Father’s coming soon! Location’s the east coast, as planned!”
“Got it!” Turan replied.
Relaying this to the others, he stroked Bije, perched at his side, to calm it before heading out.
At the destination, the mermaid royals were already assembled.
“Finally… here…”
“About… time…”
The storm drowned out their voices, rendering them nearly inaudible.
Makun, the king’s eldest son who could become an octopus, approached and spoke in a low tone, “Five minutes left.”
“Got it,” Turan said.
“Plan’s unchanged, right?”
“One adjustment.”
“What?”
“The barrier’s probably useless now.”
The previous day, Turan had poured most of his barrier mage bloodline’s magic into setting up a ward along the east coast, hoping it’d aid the fight.
Now, it was scattered—likely due to the storm’s magical force, amplified by the Great Sea Serpent’s fusion with a storm spirit.
Ordinary storms couldn’t do that.
Makun clicked his tongue. “Can’t be helped then. We weren’t counting on it anyway. Anything else?”
“Nope. And it might be sooner than five minutes—it’s coming now.”
“What? Right… Everyone, battle stations!” Makun bellowed.
At his cry, the royals’ forms began shifting.
Aside from Rowina and a few others suited for land, they plunged into the sea, while the sea turtle hoisted Turan’s group onto its back.
From there, Turan steadied his breathing, sensing the torrent of power approaching from afar.
“Here it comes…”
He felt a presence—stronger than before, likely the mermaid king—followed by a massive entity.
A giant serpent, its body swirling endlessly as if forged from wind.
The Great Sea Serpent was upon them.