With the assault of the fishing fleet, the intensity of the battle escalated further.
Boats surged forward, kicking up sprays of water.
The eyes of the Violets standing atop them burned with the flames of vengeance.
“Unit 4’s sacrifice will not be in vain!”
“There will be no sinking again!”
For just a moment of resolve, the Fifth Ship advancing while firing its machine gun was blown to pieces by the Fusion Creature’s main gun.
“No! We are sinking! Gwaaaah!”
As if mocking the stunned Violets, seawater poured down from above.
Unit 1 snapped back to her senses and finally spoke.
“…Let’s avenge the Fifth Ship!”
“Waaaaah!”
In response to Unit 1’s voice, the line of rubber boats echoed with cheers.
“We’re almost there!”
The rubber boats skimmed across the rough waves, cutting through the water as they charged towards the Fusion Creature.
They advanced fearlessly into the barrage of fire.
Numerous rubber boats sank with holes pierced into them, and many of their comrades fell into the water, but they paid no mind.
The Violets in life jackets had plenty of options.
“Should we swim over?”
“No, just reverse-generate! We’ll deploy from the ship!”
Flashes of light streaked across the sea as cannon shots burst forth.
The Fusion Creature resisted with all the remaining firepower.
But holding back the countless waves of boats was an impossible task.
One by one, dozens of small daggers aimed at the heart of the monster.
Tentacles shot up from the water, striking at the boats, and sailor ghouls unleashed gunfire.
The Violets simply dodged with agile movements or struck back with their bodies.
Every time the spear and sword traced their arcs, tentacles fell away, and black blood stained the sea.
“Ugh! Look at those eyes! It’s disgusting!”
“Let’s blow it up, quick!”
Finally reaching the ship, the rubber boat Violets leaped nimbly onto the vessel.
As they climbed up the hull and reached the deck, clicking pincers awaited them.
-Clang! Clang!
“Start close combat!”
The beasts that coexisted with the Fusion Creature weren’t only ghouls.
Swinging pincers reminiscent of crabs, they obstructed the boarders.
The tentacles of the hull also tried to shake off or capture these unwelcome attackers.
-Clang!
“Stab properly! The carapace is thicker than I thought!”
When Unit 3691 raised her shield to block a claw attack, a Violet behind her pulled the trigger.
A crackling sound rang out as the crossbow bolt struck the crab monster’s carapace.
As the fallen creature succumbed, fiery orbs flew in to explode against a new wave of incoming foes.
When a red rapier swung to engulf the ghouls grasping axes and bayonets, flames surged, granting them a fleeting sense of rest.
“Seems like those living in the water are especially susceptible. Fire magic works wonders!”
“I just heard the Flame Blade say it! It loves seafood!”
“Great!”
As the Violets climbed onto the ship one by one, it became increasingly covered by Violets that had rapidly regenerated alongside them.
The coexisting monsters were annihilated, and the tentacles were cut down by relentless hacking, the Fusion Creature writhed in fear.
“It’s that thing putting up a fight! Hold on tight!”
“Guaaaah!”
The body, peeking out from the bridge, thrashed.
The deck, slick with mucus and seawater, became treacherous, causing a few Violets to fall into the water.
Irritated, a Marine Violet shouted to the command center.
“Ugh, how annoying! I’m using the Vision Memory Chip here!”
“Permission granted!”
In the next moment, over ten staves aimed their tips at the monster’s head.
-Zap!
A burst of melting light incinerated the Fusion Creature’s head. The heat evaporated the surrounding water, cloaking the ship in steam.
As the steam cleared, a hole large enough for a person stood in place of its head.
“Did we catch it?”
“No, I can still feel the magical energy! The tentacles are still alive!”
Faced with one another, the Violets, without a moment’s hesitation, bravely dove into the huge hole in the hull.
In the damp darkness, a dim red flash welcomed them.
“Incursion team, entering! Shields up first!”
“Switch to shotgun and one-handed sword! Prepare for sentry!”
Inside was stifling and dark.
An unidentified liquid coated the floor, and a low humming filled their ears.
The Violets pressed forward, following the faint red light above them. Instinctively, they felt it.
The flow of Ether pointed in one direction.
“Ugh, yuck! It stinks! What an awful smell!”
“Hold your breath and keep going!!”
Here and there, ghouls that seemed fused with the walls thrashed and waved their arms.
Somewhat smaller than the monsters faced on the deck, they desperately charged to stop the Violets.
The girls smashed every approaching enemy with shotguns, tore them apart with axes, and cut them with swords.
-Crack!
Unit 1881 broke through a wall blocking the passage, grumbling.
“If I had known, I wouldn’t have come in here! Why can’t we just blow it up with magic?”
Unit 889 retorted while clearing the debris.
“You’ve seen it! The external armor is tough, and magic doesn’t work on it. We don’t know where the specific machinery is!”
The purpose of the incursion team was twofold.
One was to blow it up.
If they got to the location of the Fusion Creature, the Violets intended to directly destroy its heart with bombs and magic.
If this method failed, it wouldn’t be a big problem.
Because the incursion team had another role if they failed.
While wandering through the cramped interior of the vessel, the incursion team reached their target.
“Is that the heart? Isn’t that what we were looking for?”
In the vast internal space, a massive heart throbbed violently.
It was a grotesque amalgamation of a living creature’s heart intertwined with the ship’s engine.
They held their breath for a moment. For the final strike.
“I can feel the magic! Let’s finish it!”
As they approached the heart with bombs, it pulsated loudly.
“It’s moving!”
From the writhing heart, an eye rose. Dozens of tiny eyes glared at the frozen Violets.
Among those eyes, a gigantic yellow iris, as big as a human body, bulged out and blinked several times.
That gaze was directed at the bomb.
“Wait, just a second—”
A shockwave emanated from the Fusion Creature’s eye.
“Gak!”
“Gyaaaaah!”
The shockwave struck close range, sending the Violets flying with their shields into the wall.
Unit 561 sprang up, grabbing the bomb and charging forward.
“I’ll grab it! Long live Violet independence!”
Just as they were about to gloriously blow themselves up, the heart of the Fusion Creature quickly extended a tentacle to smack Unit 561 away.
“D-don’t!”
-Crunch!
“Magic! Prepare magic!”
Even while feeling embarrassed by their botched explosion, Unit 2981 drew her staff and aimed it.
Sensing the concentration of magical energy, the Fusion Creature deployed a barrier.
The clash of flashes. High heat swept through the narrow engine room.
“Did we… did we take it out?”
Unit 2981, charred black from the explosion, raised her head. The other members of the incursion team seemed either unconscious or dead.
Amid the hazy vision, the still-writhing heart of the Fusion Creature came into view.
With a sense of injustice, Unit 2981 shouted.
“Damn it! Did you lock in the coordinates? Take it out! Broken Arrow!”
In the battleship’s interior, the staff pointed toward the location where their living forms could be detected.
The Violets on the deck outside were preparing to unleash consecutive melting beams upon the detected location.
By concentrating their magic as if drilling through the ground, it would likely break through.
Multiple beams of focused melting light struck through the floor and slammed into the heart.
-Bang!
The incursion team fulfilled their role as human coordinates and disappeared.
The ship shook violently as the Fusion Creature burst through the ceiling into the open, now blackened and burned.
“Darn! We missed!”
“Get ready for another melting beam!”
Whatever happened, this monster is finished. Given its current state, it would surely be dead.
The waiting Violets focused to prepare a new spell.
Aiming, concentrating magical energy, using the memory chip, and firing—
Nothing happened.
“Ah, we’re out! Vision Memory Chip!”
A variable had occurred; the melting beams had run out.
The Violets quickly searched through the network.
The memory chip storage was filled only with low-level spells.
“Where did all the magic go?”
“Didn’t we…”
As they shot high-powered spells at the battleship earlier, the fact that they had used up their magic was revealed too late.
Taking advantage of this, the heart of the Fusion Creature writhed and tried to escape into the sea.
Although various magic and gunfire concentrated on the heart that had emerged from the ship, it stubbornly held on.
“It’s frustratingly tough!”
The Violet felt regret deep inside.
While the battle had been declared a victory, allowing the Fusion Creature to escape could lead to an even stronger monster attacking passersby.
Above all, it would hurt their pride to let it slip away after such sacrifices.
“It’s trying to run into the water! Catch it!”
The Fusion Creature now attempted to escape underwater, dragging the Violets down with it.
It was too late. A new ship rushed in next to the hollowed-out wreck.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
A Violet marked as a shooter grabbed the harpoon’s handle.
Following the procedure, she released her magical energy as per the training, and the massive harpoon blade, resembling shark teeth, glimmered with red magical power.
“Harpoon! Fire! Quickly!”
-Whoosh!
The massive harpoon sliced through the surface, striking the Fusion Creature. The beast trying to escape underwater was pulled back to the surface.
A screech echoed. The wire of the harpoon gun sparked as it was tautly pulled.
The whaling ship’s smokestack emitted black smoke as it shifted into reverse.
“We have to kill it fast!”
The Violets revealed their final move, the most powerful technique they could use.
“Command center relays. Use the Hand of Destiny!”
While the whaling ship and Fusion Creature struggled, Unit 2501, standing on the deck of the now ownerless ship, aimed a golden glimmering gauntlet.
“Watch out for our abilities! Violet Beam!”
In order to unleash its full power, they reverse-generated the Hibernating Violet to charge it with four thousand units of magical energy gathered in the palm of the gauntlet.
The sensation of life being drawn away induced utter emptiness.
In an instant, the surface split apart, and a massive golden beam struck the Fusion Creature.
-Swoosh!
The shockwaves rocked nearby ships, and the closest whaling ship was thrown back, airborne from the impact.
In the place where the light vanished, there was nothing left.
A brief silence was interrupted by the sound of waves, filling the stillness.
“We won!”
“Wowaaah!”
The once-quiet ocean was painted with cheers.
After the battle, our Violets cleaned up the ship and departed for the harbor.
In accordance with industry customs where the hunter who ends the monster’s life holds the decision-making power, the battleship from the Great War that had become the Fusion Creature was now my loot.
“Ugh! It stinks!”
“Look carefully; there might be treasure!”
As the Violets rummaged through the wreckage of the salvaged battleship for anything valuable, the personnel from the research ship bombarded me with admiration and questions.
“How did you hunt that Fusion Creature? Where was the backup?”
“I used a precious relic weapon. The rest is classified information from our clan. I cannot disclose it.”
At that moment, I skillfully deflected their questions. Luckily, they had seen little as they fled far away.
“Really, did you not see the remains of the Fusion Creature?”
“That ship! Do you plan to sell it?”
Aside from the researchers, many were interested in the ship we towed. The Fusion Creature itself was surprisingly rare to find.
“I’ll sell everything we collected as loot. Ah, and…”
I shouldn’t forget to demand more money from the academy.
“Require additional funds.”
“What? What do you mean by that…”
“The contract did not include the appearance of high-risk large monsters. You remember, right? If we hadn’t intervened, it would have attacked this ship.”
The Violet in the skull mask extended her palm expansively toward the academy professor.
It was a meaning that even a fool could understand. Money, give me money, a lot!
“But this amount is a bit…”
“Don’t like it? Hmm?”
“I-I will give it!”
Ding! A clear chime echoed as the requested funds were deposited.
“Good, then our work ends here.”
As we left the research ship, students’ gazes felt different. Was this admiration?
“Today’s work is over!”
The incursion team Violets murmured after exiting the ship.
“I want to wash up!”
Today was fun but exhausting.
“Since we earned a lot, let’s focus on our studies for a while!”
After doing something difficult, the exhilaration and emptiness surged through me all at once.
For the time being, I should halt the operations of the Violet Navy. I’ve done too much.
Surely, there wouldn’t be another big job like this again.
As I thought so and returned home, another large request awaited us.
“I didn’t expect to initiate contact directly. They pointed exactly to the manager.”
The middleman of the labor company spoke with a slightly surprised expression. Doubting my ears, I asked again.
“So, Manager, where did the contact come from?”
Manager Leslie replied.
“Eckhart University.”
The familiar name stirred whispers among the Violets.
It seemed the sea had no plans to let me go for a while.
“Could it be a graduate student rescue mission?”
