Aria couldn’t hide her bewilderment at his sudden announcement. Walfred, by contrast, answered in a level voice.
"I’ve already told Hunter Elma."
Aria turned to look at Elma.
Elma had been listening to the two of them, and she nodded silently. As if to say: do everything exactly as he says.
"Ugh, all right."
With a sour look on her face.
Aria turned back to Walfred.
"So what do you need from me?"
"First, stack the lightening skill as many times as you can, same as the original plan."
"Got it. And the hovering skill?"
"You can skip that one."
"...I’m sorry?"
Aria’s eyes went wide.
The White Whale’s flight altitude was over 6,500 feet.
Without a hovering skill, how on earth was he planning to reach it? She didn’t bother hiding her shock as she opened her mouth to ask.
But Walfred’s answer came first.
"Instead, use that aerial leap skill from the first day of training. At maximum output."
"The aerial leap, at maximum output...?"
Aria was stunned all over again.
She couldn’t help it.
Nobody knew better than she did what happened when you used the aerial leap skill at maximum output on top of stacked lightening skills.
"Y-your body might not survive that! You’d basically become a human rocket and shoot up way past the White Whale’s altitude!"
"Yes, that’s the idea."
Walfred grinned.
Aria was lost for words.
After a blank moment, she looked at him like he was out of his mind.
"Okay, but the landing? What are you going to..."
"I have a plan for that too."
So quit arguing and cast the skill.
Walfred’s look said it all.
"...All right. I’ll try."
"Thank you."
Having gotten what he wanted, Walfred smiled with satisfaction. Then he smashed off a piece of the frozen sea and gathered the ice into his arms.
And right then.
"Emergency report from the scouts!"
"White Whale approach confirmed!"
"It’s heading this way!"
Urgent shouts went up from the hunters.
Not that anyone needed the report. Beyond the frozen sea, they could all see the massive snowstorm bearing down on them.
Whoosh! Whooooooosh!
A storm dragging a savage blizzard with it.
It swept across the frozen sea, closing steadily on the operation zone.
And then, at the heart of the snowstorm.
A monster shaped like an enormous whale, its body over 3,000 feet long, came swimming into view.
At that moment.
-----
[Warning! Warning! Warning!]
[A powerful enemy has been detected.]
[Boss: White Whale - Growth Form]
[Rank: S]
[This notification has been sent to every region of Key West. All hunters currently operating in Key West, evacuate Key West immediately!]
-----
Along with the powerful enemy alert.
A long, horrific, unnatural cry rolled out from beyond the snowstorm.
[....!]
The instant they heard it.
Every hair on the hunters’ bodies stood on end. It was pure instinctive terror, the kind any living thing feels.
"So that’s..."
"...An S-rank Boss Monster."
A body too vast to put into words.
Faced with that transcendent pressure, the hunters swallowed hard. Just as the overwhelming fear began to lock up their limbs.
"All hands, battle ready!"
Elma’s voice rang out.
A shout that thundered across the battlefield. The hunters snapped back to their senses.
Just as they’d trained over the past few days, they used the hovering skills Aria had cast on them and rose one by one into the air.
"When the White Whale enters range, we attack all at once! Everyone, ready your skills!"
The hunters moved on her orders.
Walfred was quietly watching them when the notification he’d been waiting for appeared in front of his eyes.
Ding!
-----
[A skill application request has been received.]
▷Support: Zero Weight (5 stacks)
[Do you accept this request?]
[YES] / [NO]
-----
Walfred hit accept immediately.
Five stacks of [Zero Weight] settled onto him, and his body turned as light as a feather.
Light enough that a standing jump right now would clear at least 300 feet.
’It’s still not enough, though.’
To reach the White Whale.
More than that, to pull off the plan he’d rewritten, he needed to go far higher than this.
"The aerial leap skill..."
"Phew, just finished getting it ready!"
Aria had wrung her mana out to the last drop.
And with her shout.
Ding!
-----
[A skill application request has been received.]
▷Support: Gale Leap
▷Leap: Dragon-Riding Ascent - Maximum Output
[Do you accept this request?]
[YES] / [NO]
-----
At last he was ready to launch.
Walfred pulled out the Special Mana Recovery Potion he’d tucked away and drank it. Then he bent his knees as deep as they would go, set to spring.
Ready to launch at any instant.
Meanwhile, at that same moment.
"Commence attack!"
At Elma’s signal.
The hunters unloaded their attack skills at the White Whale like they’d been waiting all day for it.
They had one goal.
Split the thing’s attention so their key asset, Walfred, could close in on it.
Boom! Kabooom!
The attacks came without pause.
Chains of explosions sent pale smoke billowing up until it filled the air all around the White Whale.
And in that moment.
’Now!’
Walfred, waiting for his opening on the ground, took advantage of the smoke blinding the White Whale and accepted the skill request.
And.
Crrrack!
The frozen sea caved in.
An instant later Walfred’s body shattered straight through the thick ice floor and shot into the air.
Whooooom! Rrrrumble!
Like a missile taking off.
Walfred became a human rocket, climbing higher and higher. In a heartbeat he blew past the White Whale’s altitude and kept going.
Only after he’d risen so high that the White Whale’s body looked like a toy below him.
Did the climb finally stop.
Whooosh!
For a single instant he hung weightless, and then his body began to fall back toward the ground with terrific acceleration behind it.
And.
"Frozen Weapon."
Sensing the drop, Walfred converted the chunk of ice he’d brought with him into an ice hammer.
Then, glaring down at the toy-sized White Whale far below, he activated another skill.
"Titan Attack. Begin charging."
[Titan Attack], the skill that burned enormous amounts of mana to massively boost attack range and power.
Charging the ice hammer at the same time drained his mana fast.
[Titan Attack: Charge initiated]
[Ice Hammer: Mana charging initiated]
[Current charge time: 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds...]
The closer the ground came.
The bigger the ice hammer grew.
What had started at an ordinary size was now nearly as big as a midsize car. Walfred held onto it with a terrifying grip and rode it down.
At that moment.
[The effect of an applied skill has expired.]
[Support: Zero Weight (5 stacks)]
The lightening skill wore off.
With his true weight back, Walfred’s descent got dramatically faster. Like a meteor coming down.
And at last.
[Maximum charge limit reached]
[Ice Hammer: Charge complete]
[Titan Attack: Fully charged]
The ice hammer and Titan Attack.
Both skills had finished charging completely.
Did it sense something was off?
[.....?]
The White Whale, which had been soaking up the hunters’ attacks at around 2,600 feet, suddenly twisted its body and looked straight up.
And in that instant.
Its eyes met Walfred’s as he fell toward it with an enormous ice hammer in his grip.
[.....!?]
In that moment, the White Whale’s eyes flooded with shock.
Confusion, alarm, and fear.
Sensing the danger on instinct, it frantically twisted, trying to change direction.
But.
"Burst!"
Walfred wasn’t about to let that happen.
He chained Instant Burst one after another, closing the gap in a single motion. Then he aimed for the White Whale’s back and swung the ice hammer with everything he had.
CRAAAAAAACK!
A blow that came down like lightning.
With a roar loud enough to split eardrums, the White Whale’s flesh burst outward in an explosion of meat.
And that wasn’t all.
With the sound of bones giving way, its back bent backward at a grotesque angle, like a drawn bow.
Crunch! Snap!
And from the point of impact.
A shockwave tore outward, dragging a violent blast of wind with it.
Whooooosh! Rrrrumble!
Powerful enough to sweep away the entire snowstorm the White Whale carried with it. The sky, packed with dark clouds a moment ago, cleared in an instant.
The White Whale had taken a blow you could fairly call a natural disaster, and its body couldn’t absorb the impact. It plummeted.
Boooom! Craaaash!
The colossal body slammed into the ground.
The instant that 3,000-foot body drove into the frozen sea, the solid ice collapsed and the entire surrounding area was flattened.