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I give the order to the Belrüsa soldier.

“Fire!”
“Roger that!”

The next instant, my body is hurled high into the air. It’s far more violent than the sensation of being lifted by an elevator. My insides feel light and floaty.
To reduce air resistance, I fly with my arms and legs crossed in front of my body.

“Wooohooooo!”

The ferocious acceleration and wind pressure make my vision blur, but for me as a werewolf, it’s nothing but exhilarating. I’m in top form.
Now then, I need to cast the spell before reaching maximum altitude.

The art of walking on water is one of the enhancement magics, and its core principle lies in mastering the manipulation of buoyancy. Many other techniques are involved, but buoyancy comes first.
For that reason, a mage first learns a spell that increases or decreases their own body weight. It places a heavy burden on the body and, on its own, has little practical use.
But what happens if a mage flying through the air via catapult increases their weight to the limit—specifically, to several hundred kilograms?
They’d probably make a pretty good projectile.
As long as they don’t get crushed themselves.

While airborne, I activate other spells: hardening, strength enhancement, and attack power enhancement.
With this, I can withstand the impact, and my joints and skin won’t dissipate the shock. The power of my strikes and kicks skyrockets.
Fine adjustments to the landing point can be handled by controlling my posture in midair.
All that’s left is to make my body as heavy as possible at the moment of impact.

The trajectory reaches its apex, and I plunge downward toward the island octopus’s crown.
The centaur cavalries seem to have noticed me, and Filnier is looking up as well.

“OUTTA MY WAY!!”

I shout, gauging the distance as I increase my weight to the absolute limit. Maximum output only lasts a few seconds.
I tested this once during my training days, so I already know this attack has power.
For just an instant, I hear Filnier shouting.

“SENIOR?!!! What are you doing!?”

What am I doing? Just plain physics.

“URYAAAH!”

I catch the exact moment of impact and kick the island octopus’s shell with all my might.
Overwhelming speed and mass, combined with a werewolf’s power. All that destructive force concentrates into a single point at my magically enhanced, razor-sharp claw.
There’s nothing this won’t shatter.
The thick shell that gave the centaurs so much trouble shatters into pieces with ease. To my magically reinforced werewolf body, it feels as fragile as an eggshell.

Fragments and a thunderous crash. For an instant, my five senses whited out.
I sink waist-deep into the reef and land on the squishy ground below. Thanks to all the enhancements, my legs and hips are fine. If anything, my neck hurts a little, but it’s manageable.
This squishy surface must be the island octopus’s main body.
The very weak point it tried so desperately to protect with that thick shell.
Then I won’t hold back.

“Die already!”

My werewolf claws slice through the island octopus’s skin like a sashimi knife.

As soon as I begin attacking, the island octopus starts thrashing like it’s gone mad. So it still had this much strength left.
I hear Filnier’s voice from above.

“There you go again, doing something reckless… Alright, I’m following you! Begin attack!”
“OOH!!!”
“Support Lord Veit!”

From there on, it turned into a full-blown octopus-beating frenzy.
The centaur cavalries charge at the writhing island octopus.
Once the shell cracks, it becomes brittle, and their hooves drive crack after crack into it. The shell breaks apart rapidly, and the holes widen.
Little by little, the island octopus’s main body is exposed.
An octopus without its thick shell is little more than a lump of flesh before the ferocious centaur cavalries.

“Bless us, ancestral spirits!”
“This is for our fallen comrades!”
“You damn octopus!”

Shouting all the while, the centaur cavalries and I beat the octopus senseless.

Before long, the eight members of the werewolf unit join in as well. It seems they ran across the ice.
The Garne brothers arrive first, pushing me aside as they start carving into the island octopus with their claws.

“Hey, Veit, we’re here to help!”
“Leave it to us!”

I appreciate the sentiment, but the top of the octopus is already packed with centaurs. They’re just getting in the way.

“Shut up, I’m at the good part right now! Go dig for clams or something over there!”
“Hey bro, what’s digging for clams!?”
“How should I know! Move it, Niebert!”

Then Monsa shows up as well.

“Captain, you’re gonna get yelled at by Fern again, you know?”
“Don’t you dare say anything! Here, you can hit it here.”
“Ahaha, alright, I’ll keep quiet!”

We shove each other around, happily punching and kicking the island octopus together.

The fleet is the one that takes collateral damage.
The island octopus, frozen and having its head smashed in, flails its remaining tentacles wildly.
Eventually, thinner sections of the ice crack, and the tentacles start rampaging again.

“Filnier! Take care of that side!”
“Eeh!?”

Filnier, who was gleefully beating the octopus next to me, looks annoyed, but this is an order.

“That spear of yours can cut off the tentacles, right? Hurry!”

Filnier shoulders her massive spear and calls out to the nearby soldiers.

“Alright, alright, I get it! First unit, follow me! We’re taking down the tentacles!”

About forty of the soldiers who had been aboard the flagship with Filnier ran across the ice to deal with the tentacles.

The frenzied octopus-beating party finally ends, probably several tens of minutes later.
The monster feared by the Belrüsa pirates and merfolk as the “Demonic Sea” floats limply on the sea surface.
The area is muddied with blue body fluid and black ink, broken ice drifting about. A foul stench hangs in the air, making for a rather gruesome scene.
Before long, it all begins to drift away. It seems the ocean currents are gradually returning to normal.
A cool sea breeze brushes our cheeks. The stench flows away, and we draw in slightly fresher air.
It seems the island octopus’s influence is fading.

“It seems it’s over. Raise the victory cry!”

At my command, the werewolves and centaurs nod deeply, satisfied.

“OOOHH!!!”
“Victory for the Demon Lord!”
“And thanks to our ancestral spirits!”

The Garne brothers and Monsa grin with relieved expressions.

“Hah, that was nothing!”
“Told you, werewolves are the strongest, bro!”
“Strongest is nice and all, but I really want a bath when we get back. Ugh, I’m covered in slime…”

Everyone’s pretty carefree.

The island octopus’s body has completely lost its buoyancy, with more than half of it submerged. The shell it used to disguise itself as a reef must have doubled as a flotation device. With the shell shattered, it’s slowly sinking.
The water in this area is contaminated in various ways, so I don’t really want to touch it.

“Centaur unit, stay alert around the perimeter. Sharks might come for the meat. Werewolf unit, withdraw.”

I cast water-walking magic on everyone and return to the flagship with the centaur unit.
On the fleet side, everyone is waving bandanas and hats, making a huge racket. Cheers reach us.
We won.
That realization finally sinks in.
I feel like Kurtze the engineer is looking at me from the ship with something to say, but I pretend not to notice.

Now then, as usual, the cleanup will be a pain. Preparation is fun, but cleaning up is just a hassle.

“Dragonfire engineering unit, collect samples of the surrounding seawater! After inspection, disperse the antidote in appropriate amounts!”

We brought neutralizing agents just in case, so we’ll scatter them as a token measure before leaving. We won’t need them anymore.

The ice Master created will melt naturally, so that’s fine.

“Belrüsa marines, repair the ships! While that’s going on, dogfolk unit, begin withdrawal operations! While you’re at it, pick up any trash you can find—ropes, bolts, anything!”

For dogfolk, picking up trash is entertainment. Sliding around on the ice, they happily collect the debris.

“Water quality testing and detoxification are complete.”

A dragonfolk under Kurtze brings me several strips of purple cloth. They seem to be something like litmus paper.
From the explanation, it seems the water has been neutralized quite a bit. There’s no way to fully restore it, so this will have to do.
The bigger issue is the island octopus’s bodily fluids. It even spewed ink.
If it were squid ink, I’d be happy, but apparently octopus ink isn’t that tasty.

“By the way, Lord Veit, what will you do with the corpse of the ‘Demonic Sea’?”

Ah, right. This thing is pretty inconvenient.
Maybe it would be best to have Master dismantle it, just in case. If left alone, it’ll probably become fish food.

“We haven’t decided on disposal yet, but I’m open to suggestions.”

The junior dragonfolk engineer lowers his voice awkwardly.

“Actually, the Belrüsa governor has said he’d like to take it back, if possible…”
“Is he serious?”

What does he plan to do with it? Eat it?
The engineer lowers his voice even further.

“He wants to show the citizens of Belrüsa the results of the battle.”
“I see.”

In that case, that’s fine. As a governor, demonstrating military success to the populace is important. It’s good publicity for the Demon King Army as well.
If we freeze it and keep it afloat, towing and preserving it will be easy.

“Then inform Lady Gomoviroa and have the island octopus’s corpse frozen. We’ll tow it back.”
“Yes sir.”

Still, if we’re going to freeze it and take it home, throwing it all away afterward feels a bit wasteful.
The tips of those legs, having stayed above the water for so long, haven’t melted much and still retain their shape…
Hmm.