Debuff Master-Chapter 1062

Chapter 1062
Splash!
Siegfried dove straight into the waters.
‘
Will this work?’
He spread his wings and began swimming through the water as if he were flying.
Swoosh!
And just like that, he started zipping through the water like a submarine. Thanks to his wings acting like fins, he was able to dive at incredible speeds.
‘
You’re one dead whale!’
With his newfound ability, Siegfried chased after the fleeing sperm whale in the distance.
But Albion was not going to let himself get caught so easily. As expected of a sperm whale, Albion dove deeper and deeper into the waters, heading straight for its very depths.
On top of that, his speed was so insane that Siegfried could barely keep up, much less close the distance between them. Even with all ten of his wings working to propel him forward, all he could manage was to stay on Albion’s tail.
Ten meters, twenty meters, thirty meters, forty meters... by the time he had reached about fifty meters deep—
“
Argh!”
Siegfried suddenly felt an intense pressure pushing down on him, and he began to feel out of breath. He hadn't noticed it while chasing after Albion, but now that some time had passed, he was beginning to run out of oxygen.
[Alert: Warning! Warning!]
[Alert: Oxygen level critically low!]
[Alert: Status Ailment!]
[Alert: You will lose consciousness in 60 seconds!]
No matter how powerful Siegfried was, he was still just human in the end. He was not a fish or any kind of marine creature, so he had his limits when underwater.
‘
Damn it!’
As he kept pursuing Albion, Siegfried fumed in frustration at the oxygen warning blaring in front of his eyes. He had to catch that giant sperm whale somehow, yet he was now being forced to surface just to catch his breath instead.
‘
Am I seriously going to lose him from right under my nose?’
It was then.
“
Keke! Having a rough time, aren’t ya?”
A mocking voice suddenly pierced through Siegfried’s mind.
“What did you say, you damn fish?!”
Siegfried replied telepathically.
“Kekeke! You just made a huge mistake, dipshit. Beasts like you that live on land are powerless underwater,”
Albion said with a laugh.
“Huh?”
“I’m going to make you regret following me down here.”
Just then...
Whiiiing!
A powerful sonic wave pierced straight into Siegfried’s ears.
“
Aaack!”
he screamed in agony from the sheer pain, even though he was underwater.
It felt like a stake was driven straight into his eardrums, and it was a kind of pain that he had never felt before. This sensation was very different compared to having his bones broken or his skin burned.
‘
W-What the hell was that—?’
But before Siegfried could even finish his thoughts...
BAAAM!
Albion charged in at terrifying speed and tackled Siegfried
with his massive body, sending him flying dozens of meters back.
[Siegfried von Proa]
[HP: ■■■■■■■■□□]
The damage from that one tackle was so powerful that Siegfried’s HP was reduced by a whopping twenty percent in an instant.
“
Kuheok!”
Siegfried coughed up blood, writhing in pain.
He felt like he was hit head-on by a dump truck.
“
I’d love to finish you off, but I’ll let you off for being a cute little land beast. Kekeke!”
Albion sneered telepathically before turning and casually diving deeper, eventually disappearing into the distance.
[Alert: Oxygen level critically low!]
[Alert: You will lose your consciousness in 27 seconds!]
[Alert: You will lose your consciousness in 26 seconds!]
With oxygen running out fast, diving any deeper was no longer an option for him.
‘
Do you really think... I’m just going to... let you swim off...?’
Siegfried glared at the sperm whale’s fading silhouette while swimming up toward the surface.
And then—
Whoosh!
He formed an aura blade in the shape of a spear in his hand and hurled it straight toward the fleeing sperm whale.
Puuuuk!
The spear pierced Albion’s back.
“
K-Kuurgh!”
It went in so deep that Albion screamed in agony. The spear was no ordinary one, as it was formed by compressing dozens, no, tens of thousands of aura blades into a single one. In other words, it was not an ordinary aura blade.
‘
This isn’t over. Just you wait, you damn fish,’
Siegfried growled inwardly after landing a solid hit on the sperm whale.
Splash!
Then, he finally broke through the surface.
***
Siegfried gasped for air as soon as he broke through the surface, desperately replenishing the oxygen he had been deprived of.
He had been on the verge of blacking out from lack of oxygen, so it took him some time to recover.
Of course, he still recovered far quicker than an ordinary person.
“What happened?” Shakiro approached and asked.
“I got hit,” Siegfried replied.
The look on his face showed just how displeased he was with what happened, and in truth, he was really pissed.
“I managed to hit him back, but I still let him get away.”
“Fighting underwater is difficult by nature,” Shakiro said, as if sympathizing with his frustrations. Then, he added, “No matter how strong we are, how could we win against a creature in its own natural habitat? Unless we’ve got gills too, there’s a limit to what we can do underwater.”
“Yes, I understand. But that does not make it any less frustrating...”
“I know how you feel.”
“We should not have let that guy get away...”
“So what’s your plan now? Are you going to look for another wing?”
“No,” Siegfried shook his head. Then, he said, “We do not have the luxury to go around searching for another wing right now. And I am not going to give up that easily.”
“But it is almost impossible to track a sperm whale that dove into the depths of the oceans.”
What Shakiro said was not wrong. Sperm whales had exceptional diving capabilities. They were not just good at diving, as their diving capabilities could be considered to be on a whole new level altogether. Even in the real world, there were few mammals capable of diving as deep as a sperm whale.
“No, it is possible.”
However, Siegfried did not seem to agree with what Shakiro said.
“Do you think so?”
“Yes. It’s still a mammal no matter how deep it can dive, right?”
“That’s true.”
“It will have to come back up for air eventually. How far could it possibly flee while holding its breath? A hundred kilometers? Two hundred?”
“There would be a limit, sure. It can swim for who knows how far, so are you planning to scan the entire ocean in search of that whale?”
“I can’t do that, but someone can.”
“
Hm?
”
“Please give me a moment.”
With that, Siegfried soared higher into the air and began scanning the area around him.
Roughly thirty seconds later—
“I will be back.”
Leaving those words behind, Siegfried shot off at terrifying speed.
Where was he headed?
His target was a patrol vessel of the Holy Alliance. A tiny warship doing routine patrol duty all alone.
Boom!
The sailors aboard the patrol ship were thrown into chaos when Siegfried suddenly dropped from the sky.
“Who the hell are you?!”
“How dare you!”
“Do you know who you’re messing with?!”
As expected of hardened sailors, they quickly regained their composure and attacked.
“
Tsk...
What a pain,” Siegfried clicked his tongue and grumbled before unleashing a flurry of aura blades that sliced through every sailor who dared to charge at him. Then, he unleashed one of his signature moves—Green Hell Magno.
“
Gah!”
“Arghhh!”
“U-Urghh...!”
And just like that, the patrol ship turned into a ghost ship shrouded in death.
“Where’s their comms?”
As soon as he seized control of the vessel, he searched for the communications devices and contacted the headquarters of the Guardians.
— Greetings, Your Imperial Majesty. How may I help?
Cheon Woo-Jin couldn’t log in due to his death penalty timer, so another member of the Guardians picked up the call instead.
“Here’s the situation...” Siegfried proceeded to explain everything and requested a search across a five-hundred-kilometer radius centered on his current location.
— We will begin the search immediately.
“Thank you.”
— It is only our duty to assist Your Imperial Majesty! We will relay all information in real-time!
The Guardians gladly accepted Siegfried’s request.
‘
Hohoho! I dare you to try coming up for air, you damn fish,’
Siegfried smiled ominously, already picturing himself butchering the sperm whale.
By monitoring such a large area, he would definitely spot Albion the moment he surfaced for air.
The second round of their bout would start the moment the sperm whale was spotted.
But that was not all...
Siegfried also donned the Pirate King’s hat and began summoning the sea monsters he had tamed during his journey across the Green Isles, which were scattered across the world’s oceans
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Albion had used his innate advantages as a sperm whale to screw Siegfried over, so Siegfried was going to strike back by unleashing the sea monsters under his command.
“Just you wait, you son of a fish mammal.”
Grinding his teeth, Siegfried waited for the arrival of his sea monsters.
***
A few hours later—
“All stand by and wait for further orders,” Siegfried addressed the sea monsters under his command.
The sea monsters that had been scattered across the world arrived in front of him in the blink of an eye, thanks to the High-Speed Sea Route Passage.
“Krragh!”
“Kreuk! Kreuk!”
“Grrrrk!”
“Kieeee!”
Dozens of sea monsters lingered around the patrol ship Siegfried had taken over and waited for the order to strike.
Once Albion showed up, they would lunge at him immediately.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Siegfried muttered under his breath while waiting by the communication device.
The Guardians were tracking down Albion and would be contacting Siegfried the moment the sperm whale surfaced.
“That’s some terrifying persistence...” Shakiro muttered, shaking his head.
He did not expect Siegfried to throw absolutely everything just to capture a sperm whale. The situation was indeed dire enough to warrant it, as they couldn’t afford to give up the wing embedded in Albion’s back in order to save Michael.
However, Shakiro saw it differently.
‘
He’s seriously pissed off right now.’
In Shakiro’s eyes, it seemed Siegfried was more driven by rage than urgency.
Why?
It was all because he looked as if he was determined to hunt Albion down and make him pay for making a fool out of him.
And Shakiro was correct...
“That son of a fish... Should I fillet him and make some whale sashimi? Oh, wait... Wasn’t sperm whale waste called ambergris or something?
"That thing sells for a fortune, right? And what about the hide? Can I use that for anything?” Siegfried muttered under his breath with a manic grin, imagining all of the byproducts he could extract from the sperm whale.
At this point, Siegfried was no longer just thinking about retrieving Michael’s wing anymore. He was out for blood. He was hell-bent on making the sperm whale pay for making a fool out of him.
Roughly ten minutes later...
Beep! Beep!
— A large sperm whale has been spotted about one hundred fifty kilometers from your current position, sir!
“Give me the coordinates! Coordinates!” Siegfried shouted into the communication device, nearly grabbing it with both hands.
— We will send it at once!
As soon as he received the coordinates from the Guardians, Siegfried shot up into the air.
“Follow me!” he shouted at his army of sea monsters and took off straight toward the location.
Covering one hundred fifty kilometers was no easy task, as he would have to push his flight speed to the absolute limit.
There was a risk that Albion would just dive back down after breathing in air, so Siegfried had to rush or else everything would all be for nothing.
Meanwhile, Albion had just resurfaced to take in air.
‘
Argh! That damned land beast!’
He was still suffering from the searing wound caused by the spear hurled at him.
‘
I should’ve just dragged him down to the depths and drowned him...’
‘
Hm?!’
He suddenly sensed something was flying toward him at an absolutely monstrous speed, causing him to whip his head around.
“Just wait right there, you damned son of a fish!”
Lo and behold, there was Siegfried flying toward him faster than a fighter jet, and his face was twisted like a demon out for vengeance.
And he was not alone.
Shwaaaaa!
Dozens of sea monsters sliced through the waves, closing in on the exact spot where Albion had surfaced to rest.
‘
T-That crazy land beast!’
Albion shrieked inwardly.
The sperm whale was absolutely stunned.
Why?
It was all because he had never imagined that the so-called
land beast
, Siegfried, was still chasing him, even though he was more than a hundred kilometers away from where they had previously fought.