Deep Sea Fish Hunting Specialty Broadcast

Chapter 119 : Fight League

When Vertea and Diego’s names were called as the next opponents, cheers erupted in the chat.

Ah, correction. They did erupt, but in a slightly different direction.

Since both Elvira and Diego had shown their faces on stream before, a colosseum immediately broke out in the chat.

─Teacher!! Teacher!! Teacher!! Teacher!!

─I think Teacher’s gonna win this one;; Can’t she just boil the 500m guy?

─ㄴ You really don’t know anything about fighting;; Giant bro just needs to go swoosh once and it’s instant death;;

─Well the host got out while complaining so can’t they just swim out

─ㄴ That was them struggling with all their might from 500m away ;;

Moreover, Vertea even had her own personal stream. From what Parang occasionally checked, she seemed quite popular in Western regions.

Anyway, once the argument about who would win started, the chat became absolute chaos.

Add to that the suspiciously intense English chat messages being thrown in, and it was nothing short of a complete mess.

Unable to watch any longer, Yuna froze the chat. Such division and fighting wasn’t good for the broadcast either.

But even she was curious. She turned to Parang, who was sitting next to her with a blank expression, and asked:

“So, who wins?”

“Hmm… They’re pretty even. They’ve fought six times, Vertea won three, Diego won three.”

─Balance is totally screwed

─Someone’s got 3 wins 3 losses, someone’s got 6 draws, everything’s just messed up lol

─At least explain how the fight works

“Ah, about the fight dynamics.”

To understand that, we first need to know Diego and Vertea’s skill compositions.

First, let’s look at Vertea’s case.

[ Status Window: Vertea Favron ]

[ Personal Skill: Thermodynamic Collapse(S) ]

[ Converts all energy generated from your skills into triple the thermal energy. ]

[ When fully submerged in water, completely resistant to all high-temperature damage. ]

[ Skill List ]

[ Waterproof Sanity(S), Aqua Pathfinder(S), Superconducting Photon Cannon(S), Galaxy Blast(S)… ]

[ Status Effects ]

[ None ]

‘Thermodynamic Collapse’ is exactly what it sounds like – a skill that converts skill output energy into heat.

For example, if Vertea fires a plasma beam, the linear space along its path would be subjected to tremendous heat.

Anyone who sees this status window tends to have one particular question. Parang did, and so did others.

Usually, for personal skills, information is displayed in the status window in the order of skill name, penalty, and skill effect.

But looking at Vertea’s skill description, one might wonder if this is really a penalty. If anything, tripling energy output seems more like a merit.

But it is indeed a penalty. An incredibly harsh one at that.

Basically, hunters are immune to effects generated by their own skills.

It’s only natural. How absurd would it be if an ice ability user froze to death?

However, Vertea’s personal skill completely trashes this fundamental rule.

The moment all skill output energy converts to thermal energy, Vertea becomes vulnerable to this energy herself.

That’s why ‘high-temperature damage immunity’ is proudly listed in the merits section.

No wonder she can’t pass the B-rank Hunter exam. She’s destined to remain C-rank forever.

In exchange, her combat ability underwater is absolutely exceptional.

Naturally, since it triples all skill output without question.

Plus, ‘heat’ is hardly visible to the eye.

Unlike exploding mines and flashing golden sharks, you only see a few bubbles rising and that’s it.

In caves or enclosed spaces like Objects, Vertea’s firepower shoots up to top-tier within Oceanos.

She’s a tricky opponent in many ways.

However, given her attack style, her win rate against other Oceanos members is just average.

Whether it’s Parang, Elvira, or Russell, they all maintain such fast-paced fighting styles that Vertea never gets a chance to deploy her heat zones.

Though against Xiao, who fights at the same slow tempo as Vertea, her win rate is overwhelming.

And in the case of her current opponent, Diego…

“It’s completely even.”

As Elvira said, it’s completely even.

Basically, Vertea has more than enough time to unleash her full firepower against Diego.

His combat tempo is overwhelmingly slow. Just growing giant takes an enormous amount of time.

The problem is, even when Vertea unleashes her full firepower, taking Diego down is tricky.

Since you can’t just boil a 500m giant whole, you need to focus on pinpoint strikes at weak points, but breaking through Diego’s deliberate defense is extremely difficult.

In the end, Vertea and Diego’s fights can be described as battles between one who seeks to penetrate and one who seeks to defend.

“That’s why the results keep changing with each fight. When one person comes up with a strategy, the other prepares tactics to counter it.”

“That’s why the results keep changing with each fight. When one person researches a strategy, the other prepares tactics to counter it.”

The viewers nodded in understanding after hearing the explanation.

Of course, that didn’t stop the arguments.

─Still think the Giant’s gonna win though

─I think Teacher’s gonna win;; Can’t she just boil his groin?

─ㄴhey hey hey;;;

“Let’s find out the result ourselves.”

“Ah, just a moment before that.”

Yuna paused for a moment, went to the submarine, and adjusted the cameras.

Soon, a new camera feed was added to the screen the viewers were watching.

“To better observe the battle situation, we’ll be simultaneously broadcasting footage from an infrared camera.”

─Oh

─Awesooome

─Queen Yuna

Meanwhile, Diego and Vertea silently stared at each other.

Diego couldn’t speak underwater to begin with, and Vertea was focusing.

Earlier she had grumbled about not wanting to fight Diego, but truthfully, she was burning with fighting spirit.

After all, isn’t it when facing an equal opponent that you most want to win?

In her mind, plans for the upcoming battle were already rapidly taking shape.

The same would be true for Diego.

“Shall we begin?”

Vertea spoke into the small microphone attached to her clothes.

A moment later, Yuna’s voice came through her earpiece.

“Yes. Please begin!”

BOOOOOOM-!!!!

Simultaneously, with an earth-shattering roar, Diego began to grow massive before her eyes.

[ Skill ‘Aqua Jet (A)’ activated. ]

Vertea immediately burst forward like an explosion, spinning madly around the transforming Diego while unleashing a barrage of skills like a storm.

[ Skill ‘Galaxy Blast (S)’ activated. ]

[ Gained status effect ‘Zero Gravity’ for 1 minute. ]

[ Skill ‘Superconducting Photon Cannon (S)’ activated. ]

[ Extremely vulnerable to heat damage for 3 minutes. ]

[ Penalty has been offset. ]

[ Skill ‘Crimson Spear (A)’ activated. ]

…

In an instant, dozens of skill usage messages floated before Vertea’s eyes.

At the same time, an enormous amount of bubbles erupted around Diego, who was positioned at the center of the spherical object.

‘I need to accumulate as much damage as possible while he’s still small.’

Once Diego completed his transformation and began fighting in earnest, it would be much harder to stack damage.

She poured everything she had into her offensive.

Eventually, the bubbles churning around Diego began to spread wider and wider.

“Insane!! Are you seeing the thermal camera feed right now?!”

Yuna continued her enthusiastic battle commentary without tiring.

The thermal camera footage being broadcast showed Vertea’s attack strategy clear as day.

─Wow I thought she was just firing randomly

─It’s crazy how she’s hitting the same spot while spinning;; How’s that even possible?

─I’d get dizzy and collapse just trying to spin like that

─But why keep circling around? Isn’t that just wasting energy?

“Isn’t that obvious? It’s to avoid revealing her position.”

Elvira said, sitting with her legs crossed.

Parang looked at Elvira with an expression of disbelief.

“…When did you start talking casually with the viewers?”

“I just felt like it. They like it this way too.”

“Why…?”

Well, anyway. Elvira’s analysis itself wasn’t wrong. Parang added some explanation.

“Look at the regular camera feed instead of the thermal one. See those shockwaves constantly exploding along Vertea’s orbit? That’s Diego trying to keep her in check.”

─Isn’t it standard practice to be immobile during transformation??

─That rule’s already broken since he’s being attacked during transformation;;

Just as Parang said, continuous large and small shockwaves were erupting around Diego.

It was clearly visible how the shockwaves grew larger as Diego’s size increased.

While dodging these seemingly random shockwaves, Vertea repeatedly heated specific points on Diego’s pressure suit.

“She’s using skills to find and target the weakest points. Being a researcher, she has lots of detection and analysis skills.”

Vertea was focusing her heating on Diego’s abdomen and neck.

Through the thermal camera, these two areas stood out bright red.

─Looking at this, Teacher seems to have an overwhelming advantage

─FR

─But how much bigger is he gonna get holy

As the chat reactions indicated, Vertea had the clear upper hand so far.

While she hadn’t allowed Diego to land a single attack, Diego was helplessly enduring Vertea’s attacks.

“At this rate, will Vertea win?”

“Yeah. She really came prepared.”

Diego’s current height was about 300m. There was still plenty of time left until his transformation would be complete.

However, Vertea didn’t have the luxury of time either.

If Diego completed his transformation, Vertea’s chances of winning would plummet.

If she couldn’t accumulate enough damage to stop Diego’s transformation in a short time, the tide would obviously turn in an instant.

‘Please… stop… stop…!!!’

Everyone watched their all-or-nothing battle with bated breath.

And finally.

KUUUUNG-!!!

Unable to endure the pain, Diego failed to complete his transformation and fell to one knee.

Final height, 430m.

The chat exploded with reactions.

After all, Diego hadn’t managed to complete his transformation.

─Teacher!! Teacher!! Teacher!! Teacher!!!

Yuna too, sensing the battle was over, began brainstorming ideas for equipment.

‘It’s a shame we couldn’t see Diego’s combat style.’

Unlike with Vertea, they hadn’t gathered much combat data from Diego, which was disappointing.

But since the equipment that size-manipulation ability users can use is quite limited anyway, it’s just a matter of applying what seems to be the most appropriate archetype.

However, there was something that neither Yuna nor the viewers knew.

“So this means Vertea’s victory?”

“No? This is where it begins.”

“Huh?”

Yuna stared at Parang with a blank expression.

“Just grab onto something tight. Russell, take care of the submarine.”

“Got it.”

The Oceanos’s movements were so precise and automatic that Yuna didn’t even think to ask for additional explanation.

“Please stay in here.”

Though she couldn’t have anyway, since Xiao had already half-forced her into a cage made of bones.

“I mean, no matter what, keeping me confined like this, at least some explanation would be…”

Yuna, who could barely see ahead, started to say something but stopped.

KWARRRRRRRRR!!!

Right after, the entire object rumbled as if hit by an earthquake, and everything around began to be pulled towards Diego.

“WAAAAAHHH!! HOLY SHIT!! THANK YOU SO MUUUUCH!!!!”

Yuna trembled as she held onto the bones tightly, expressing endless gratitude to Xiao.

Now as always, anyone who saves your life is a good person.