The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

The first thing that came into view was a huge humpback whale about thirty to forty meters long, the merman king's transformed body.

Unlike the other royals, his magical power had increased after transformation, and it seemed that even Meisa would find it difficult to guarantee victory against him in a one-on-one fight.

Normally, one would marvel at the sight and power of such an enormous whale, but now that was impossible.

This was because the presence of the monster approaching from behind was far more immense.

'The giant sea serpent...'

In the past, when Turan obtained the Mimicker relic, he had seen the corpse of a dead giant sea serpent with a man presumed to be one of the Prea god-folk, and had marveled at its magnificent grandeur.

But the sight of the giant sea serpent now alive and moving made those memories seem insignificant.

After all, admiring the majesty of natural landscapes like lakes and mountains is completely different from seeing those landscapes actually come alive and move around.

Moreover, the appearance of the giant sea serpent was quite different from what he had seen back then.

Unlike in the past when it was covered with moss, its entire body was now covered with brilliantly shining silver scales, and the few damaged parts were filled with something like swirling wind, similar to how the undead usually fill their missing parts with green light.

Finally, there was the vast magical power felt through the relic's senses.

The amount was similar to the head of House Labitas whom he had seen before.

That would probably be the harvest from this hunt.

"Damn impressive..."

Turning his head, Turan saw Solif muttering with a face full of excitement.

Given his original fascination with old myths and legends, he seemed newly delighted now that it felt real to face a truly mythical monster.

"Let's go!"

After shouting that, Turan took off with Meisa and moved toward the giant sea serpent.

Solif also took flight a step later, clutching Bize's legs, while the merfolk royalty approached the giant sea serpent through the sea.

As they got closer, the size of the target grew increasingly awe-inspiring. After momentarily shuddering, Turan stopped in place and created a wind path.

It was a bit more difficult than usual due to the violent vortices swirling in all directions, but he managed to create it somehow.

In that state, Turan took out the secret weapon he had prepared from his pocket.

It was a sling similar in form to what he had used before, but quite different in size.

Both the length of the string and the size of the pouch for placing stones.

While his previous sling was designed to throw stones about the size of an egg, the one he took out now was, with a bit of exaggeration, large enough to hold a rock the size of a person's upper body.

Turan placed a large boulder he had prepared on it and began to spin it.

'It still feels a bit awkward...'

Although he had no lack of strength, it was naturally different from what he was used to, throwing a stone of completely different specifications than he had thrown all his life.

He had trained for the past few days, but how could that compare to a lifetime of practice?

Thanks to being enhanced with magic, the sling spun smoothly without breaking, giving centrifugal force to the large boulder.

A moment later, the launched rock flew along the wind path at several times the speed of sound toward the giant sea serpent's head.

[□-----■-----□-----!]

The monster, which had been cutting through the sea effortlessly toward the island, twisted its body and let out a scream.

For such an enormous being, it might have been like a normal person being hit by a pebble the size of a fingernail, but the powerful magic imbued within exerted physical force beyond its size.

Naturally, the giant sea serpent's scream didn't end as just the cry of an animal.

The scream, or roar, that erupted from its widely opened mouth caused ripples and tsunamis in the surrounding area.

If ordinary people had heard this sound from nearby, they would have probably died from the shock alone.

Even Turan had to frown and cover his ears with both hands.

"Ugh..."

After screaming like that, the giant sea serpent turned its bizarrely glowing yellowish-green eyes toward Turan and immediately began to counterattack.

Water spouts rose from the sea, and several wobbly pillars of water shot up and flew toward Turan.

He quickly used flight magic to dodge one or two, but the number of approaching water pillars exceeded a dozen.

Considering that flight magic itself was not structurally a very robust technique, the moment he was hit just once, he would be shot down.

In this moment of crisis, Turan quickly detonated a handful of fire spirits he had prepared beside his body.

With an impact like someone striking his side, his body was instantly propelled away, allowing him to escape the range of the water pillars.

"Whew..."

One of the water pillars that passed by Turan struck the shore of the island behind him, and its impact was truly enormous.

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It carved a groove in the sandy beach that was dozens of meters long and several meters deep.

A direct hit might not kill him instantly, but it would certainly cause significant damage.

While Turan was distracting the giant sea serpent, attacks began from other directions as well.

"Aaaaaah-!"

Meisa, who could essentially fire lightning bolts without much magic consumption due to the thick dark clouds, was frantically scorching the entire body of the giant sea serpent, while Solif, hanging from Bize, moved around the trunk, burning and scraping off scales with his golden whip.

Meanwhile, from below, merfolk royalty transformed into all sorts of sea creatures tormented the giant sea serpent's body with their specialties, but the most noticeable among them was undoubtedly the merman king in the form of a massive whale.

When the giant whale rammed its head into the sea serpent's side, a thunderous boom resonated as if two mountains had collided.

"Ha..."

Even though his magical power wasn't dozens of times stronger than Rowena whom he had fought recently, the fact that he could exert such force with his overwhelming size alone was admirable.

Well, even if the whale's body length was less than half of the serpent's, the whale's trunk was much thicker.

In terms of overall weight, there might not be much difference.

Thinking it might be easier to catch those tormenting it in the sea than those flying in the sky, the giant sea serpent roared and wrapped its long body around the whale.

A jellyfish that had been trying to free the whale by piercing its tentacles into the scales and emitting electricity was struck by a tail swing and immediately crushed.

'That one died.'

At the appearance of the first casualty, the merfolk royalty visibly became intimidated.

Seeing the giant sea serpent open its mouth wide to bite the whale's side, Turan approached closer, poured fire spirits on its face, and immediately set them alight.

However, contrary to expectations, no grand explosion occurred because the black powder he had poured was soaked by the storm.

While he might have been able to protect the powder from getting wet close to his body, it was difficult to do so when sending it far away.

"Damn..."

He knew that fire spirits lose much of their explosive power when in contact with water, but to not explode at all?