"A beast… that can use Natura… you say…?" Yukio gasped.

"We need to turn this boat around right now," Randolf said with urgency.

"No… We fight it…" Shin proclaimed.

"Huh? Shin, are you being serious right now? That is not something we can bring down!"

"Since when did you turn into such a coward, Mister Randolf? Weren't you the one who helped me in using my weapon?"

"This isn't about cowardice! Do you have any idea what danger level that thing has been labeled with?! Other than people near the 3-star ranges, nobody can defeat it! It's way too powerful for any of us!"

"Weren't we about to face powerful people to begin with? What's the difference?"

"PEOPLE is something you can reason with! You think you can talk yourself out when it's about to eat you?! Two of our main fighters are down, that thing can use Natura in who knows what ways, and you still expect to deal with it?!"

"If I use my Material Natura in the harpo—"

"Oh, so this is what it's about, huh? You want to attract more attention to us?"

"No, you already saw them fleeing, didn't you? I doubt they'll come even if I do attract attention."

"But more of that will! One is bad enough and you wa—"

"No, Shin's right," Arashi interrupted solemnly. "Normally, these guys shouldn't be spotted unless we're near the equator. We're the unlucky ones to encounter it. I'm pretty sure we won't find another for a long time."

Randolf clicked his tongue and sighed. "Fine, I give up. Do what you want!"

Shin smirked. "Rest assured, Mister Randolf. Diav might be down, but not me. It's time you get to see my powers in action! And besides…" And he approached the frontmost corner of the yacht, rested one leg on its edge and held the harpoon launcher over his shoulder, "Hunting beasts like this is my specialty."

They continued to approach each other. As the beast got closer, they noticed that what they thought was a silhouette was not really a silhouette, but its actual skin. Pitch black, waxy skin. Eyes barely noticeable under the glaring reflections from the sun.

Shin prepared himself as he gulped. He was waiting for it to come as close as possible before it rose. But as soon as it got about thirty meters close, instead of rising, it dipped its head back inside.

"Oh no you don't!" he shouted as he launched a fully charged harpoon at the top of its head, just as it barely dipped under the surface.

TCHSHHCHRRRR

The whole area lit up with lightning as the harpoon discharged everything it had once it landed on its head. Whether it pierced its head or not was completely unknown in the flash.

Gawwww

With a deep hum-like groan, the beast rose up… and up, and up, and up; and continued rising until its head blocked off the sun from their view.

Everyone froze and the yacht continued to rotor forward in silence. In fact, from the waves created by its sheer rising, they were sent back a few hundred meters. But even if they were now so far away from the beast, from their view, they still felt like they were incredibly close. That was because… its neck alone was five times as thick as the yacht!

"So then, Shin," Randolf casually spoke out. "You still want to fight it?"

Shin gulped as a drop rolled down his forehead, an awkward smile appearing as if to ridicule himself. "You bet I do!"

"Well? Do you have a—"

"EAT THIS!!!" he shouted and launched another full power harpoon at its body aimed straight ahead.

With every inch of air it passed through, the electric currents surging within were conducted through the moist, salty air and into the sea water, making it look like an incredibly dangerous and powerful weapon. And when it finally struck its skin…

Clank! Sploosh!

All its charge dissipated in the beast's energy shield, making it only seem like a stick thrown at a brick wall.

Hurff!

It puffed out a brief jet of air from its nostrils in reaction.

Arashi smacked her forehead. "I regret everything, now."

"Did it just scoff at me?!" Shin was angered. "That's it! Yu, you're up!"

"E-eh???" Before Yukio could react, Shin grabbed him by his collar and waist, and threw him far to the right.

"Shin! What are you doing?! Are you out of your mind?!" Randolf exclaimed.

"Mister Remcon! Stop the boat!" Shin exclaimed.

"Don't just stop it! Go get him!"

"No, wait," Diavolo said from the back, "He's onto something…" and wearily sat on a side bench with Suzume's help.

"What could he possibly be upto?! He threw him into the—!"

"Shin! It's no good! I can't see anything!" Yukio's voice resounded from a distance. Looking there, they could see him safely floating upto his shoulders.

"Just as I thought…" He thought for a couple of seconds. "Yu! This'll be good practice! I'll leave that side to you! Mister Remcon, turn left!"

"What do you mean? What's going on?" Randolf asked.

"I noticed as soon as the harpoon fell into the sea. It immediately vanished instead of fading out. That thing is probably secreting something."

"W-what?! How do you come to that conclusion?! There's no light falling on us at the moment. So it could easily just vanish into the water!"

"By the smell."

"Explain."

"It smells like a compound from a certain plant I've been dealing with. Although I'm not exactly sure what it is, it's definitely something that shouldn't just be in the sea naturally. And so, if it's a secretion, there is one, if not many, opening somewhere on it. That's good, because openings like those are usually weaker than going for its mouth."

"Fufu!" Arashi giggled. "Looks like all those times working as an herbalist came in handy."

"That, and sniffing out the environment is kind of part of what a hunter does. This is right up my alley. Always remember: there is no creature out there that doesn't have a single weakness. The precautions of nature are impressive but always imperfect."

"So are we going to simply go around looking for holes?"

"All the while making sure we don't get hit by it, yes."

"Say, doesn't this smell like…" Diavolo sniffed the air. "Petrol? No…" Another sniff. "Gasoline? I don't know, some form of oil."

"Are you saying it's flammable?" Arashi raised an eyebrow.

"No… no no no. Why would a creature just surround itself with flammable liquids? That's dangerous for it as well!" Randolf shook his head.

"Ack! It hurts!" they heard Yukio from a distance.

"Oi Yu! You alright?!"

"Y-yeah, I think so, but… it's impossible to stay close to it for a long time! At first it simply itches, but soon it really stings! I can't even keep my eyes open for more than a second!" They saw him splashing his eyes with 'safer' water.

"I see now… it isn't much of a problem for land creatures, but sea creatures that breathe the air from the water would have a really hard time if it got some of that in it. All this guy needs to do is surround itself with a cloud of the secretion and it has itself a protective home. Flammability is simply a byproduct."

Guu guu guu guuuuu!

It let out a series of deep groans.

"It's… laughing…" Suzume let out. "It's simply observing us and enjoying itself because it knows we can't win…"

"Damn this guy! I was wondering why it hasn't been doing anything this whole time, but to think it was looking down on us!" Shin made a tight fist.

"Move aside. I need some space," Diavolo said, wearily approaching the front deck.

"You sure you're alright?" Shin asked, concerned.

"Not really… But I'm definitely good enough to do THIS!!" And he shot a fire projectile at it, only to be blocked by its natura shield.

Guu guu guuuu!

"No, we already established the fact that that won't work, Diav…"

"I have a hunch…" And he shot three more jets of projectiles at it and observed it blocking itself. But immediately, Diavolo smirked. "Yukio!! Shoot the contaminated water at my next shot!"

"Diav, what are you…"

Calmly, Diavolo charged up a much stronger fireball and after a few seconds, he shot it out. Responding to this, Yukio also shot out the nearest portion of contaminated water at it as fast as he could, given his distance. As soon as the two made contact, it exploded into a spontaneous ball of red hot gas and fluid and scattered and enveloped a portion of the beast directly ahead.

Surprisingly, the skin of the beast also burst into flames as its eyes opened wide and it let out groans of pain. It flailed strongly and dove into the water immediately.

"What the… what happened?" Randolf asked, confused and deeply curious.

"Shin was right, that's what."

"I was?"

"Don't ruin it. The whole time, its eyes have been fixated on us. For a few moments, its gaze shifted to Yukio, but as soon as he went underwater, it stopped paying any heed to him and looked at us again. Every single shot I took, it paid very close attention to its path. It was able to block every single one of them but if a huge explosion caused it to take damage then—"

"— Then its shield is actually localised, DIAV YOU'RE A GENIUS!!"

"In fighting, maybe, but hunting is your specialty. You should've gotten it sooner. Did babysitting plants dull your senses?"

"Oh, shut up. If this much is known, then we can take it."

"I'm sorry, what's going on? What do you mean we can take it?" asked Randolf.

Diavolo and Shin looked back at him, and then back at each other, and smiled.

"As we finally know, even if that thing has a Natura shield, it's not a full-body armor - it's localised," Diavolo started to explain. "If that's the case, the only way we can make it to its skin is if it can't see us coming for it. Fortunately, its own secretion can work to our advantage. Our goal of finding those secretion pores still remains, meaning we won't have to damage it, it will damage itself as long as we can get the fluid on those pores to ignite."

"Our only hope of attacking it is if we scatter around till it can't keep track of us," Shin continued. "We don't have extra boats and Diav can't go swim because he might accidentally end up igniting himself. And of course I can't enter the sea either for obvious reasons, so it's up to you guys."

"Or we could smoke up its vision like we just did now and take that chance to attack him," Diavolo pitched in. "Or both. It's kind of ironic how it uses its secretion to protect itself underwater but up here it'll cause its downfall, in both ways."

"It's not just that," Shin added. "I've been wondering for a while, about how we ended up encountering it even if we're so far from the equator. We could think of it as bad luck, but I think because it's weak. All animals want to thrive, and so they look for places where it can do exactly that. Looking at how afraid you guys and the other beasts were after seeing it, I thought it was a pretty big deal. And that probably is the case… generally, that is. At the very least, this guy couldn't survive in its true habitat so it decided to move to calmer places where it could rule more easily and get more ample food. It's not a leader, but a bully. As such…" and as he looked back, "we can definitely take it on!"

The three at the back simply stood there dumbfoundedly silent.

"...What?"

"No, it's just… didn't think you'd be so smart," Arashi confessed.

"How mean!!!"

GUWOOOOOO!

The beast groaned from its nose as it violently rose back up again. Rather, it was more like a roar than a groan this time.

"Alright team! Spread out!" Shin ordered, and immediately, Arashi leapt towards Yukio's direction for a quick briefing. Similarly, Randolf was also about to leap towards the right when, "Mister Randolf… be careful out there."

"What, just because I'm not entirely healed yet, doesn't mean I can't handle a little action. It's too early for you to worry about me like that, kid! And besides, I don't plan on dying here. I've got really nice patients waiting for me after all."

"That's good to hear. I've got lots to learn from you, other than weapons after all. Like that medicine you're using."

"Heh, that discussion is left for when we know your body can handle it." He smirked and leapt off.

"Diav, you—"

"Conserve my strength, I know." He sat down and pierced his gaze at the raging beast, while Suzume came forward and provided a drink. "Thanks."

Shin smiled in approval and also feasted his eyes on his prey. He observed as the three spiralled around it to find where its juices came out from, all the while randomly blasting it with energy to keep it busy. He observed how Yukio was creatively using his Material Natura skills to improve speed and maneuverability in water, improving with every second. He observed how Arashi occasionally borrowed some of Yukio's Material Natura when they passed by each other, to give herself a confusing degree of speed and unpredictability in her movement, causing the beast to have a harder time keeping track of her. He also observed how, even if Randolf controlled electric currents, he was still able to confine it skilfully to his immediate surroundings. The expansion of water beneath his feet caused by those heated currents propelled him quite faster than the average swimming speed.

As the earlier startled beast tried desperately to not make mistakes when monitoring the three tiny creatures, it created large waves that went in every direction. The yacht that didn't have the flexibility and versatility of a human body had a hard time continuing on its course to speed around the beast towards its original destination. The large tugs and pushes caused by those waves made Shin incredibly uneasy even if the mask he wore basically nullified his motion sickness.

Unbeknownst to him, the uneasiness was not simply in his head, but the compound in the mask wearing off. The drug in the mask lasts for a little over a day and was meant to be replaced daily. That's what they've been doing this whole time, but as soon as they reached the dangerous waters, they were too busy being alert and thus had slipped out of their mind. Adding in the fact that they had a tough battle against hordes of sea beasts, Shin's excessive breathing only made it worse. Now, the drug was beginning to slowly and inevitably become completely ineffective.

If only Diavolo had noticed his discomfort. Even if he himself couldn't do anything, he could at least tell Suzume to grab a new container, but his mind was fixated somewhere else. One could say that the relatively unoccupied Suzume could notice this problem, but it was simply that she had no knowledge of the replacement. The only people who knew about it were the two people involved and the doctor-come-roommate, Randolf.

There was a fourth individual who knew about this, and that was Layla, who on the second day, had noticed Hannah taking a new container from her bag out to Shin's quarters. But of course, currently, she was unavailable.

And now, finally, it was about time that the beast had noticed something different in the scenery. That white spec, the boat, was no longer North of it, but to the East; a displacement far too long to not take notice of. Focusing sharply on its deck, it looked at the tiny creatures and dully recalled the minute details on them, meaning that it had recognized that the human with the silver on its head was the one who had previously caused it problems.

Its pupils contracted and it clenched its jaw muscles.

The three noticed it turning its body around to face it.

Its body contracted like a feline predator about to leap at its prey.

They were about to attack, but with a snarl, it whipped its tail and washed them away. That was not enough to stop them from attacking. But enough to allow a gap for a pounce.

And so it did.

Its seemingly never ending body formed an arc across the sky. Its piercing eyes glared from its giant, round, yet terrifying face as it continued to approach.

Shin readied his harpoon and Diavolo gritted his teeth, taking a deep breath.

"YUKIO!" Arashi screamed, indicating a move.

What Arashi implied that he should do his best in launching her towards the beast. But that's not what Yukio assumed. His mind had become clouded leading to narrow lines of judgement. Actually, the beast's sheer size once it dove out of the water was too much for him to keep his composure. Previously, its secretions were clouding his vision, but once he truly got to see, it was too much. They can't escape. The boat will not be safe. They will die. He needs to do something. Thoughts like these were all jumbled in his head.

And thus, with all his might, he simply thought of stopping it. Whether it was possible or not did not occur in him. He simply wanted to blow it away.

As the beast approached, it opened its mouth and began charging up Natura in it. And that's when a huge burst of water gushed out from beneath it and struck its lower jaw. The startled beast lost control on the gathering energy, and slightly injured the interior of its mouth. Nothing much, but it was sudden enough for it to lose focus for a few moments.

Yukio heavily gasped for air as he floated. That was clearly too much for him. It was not a strong blast like Hannah's desperation, but it was enough that it drained him out, almost to the point of Diavolo. His body was confused as he tried to focus both on breathing and beating the water with his legs to stay afloat. He could no longer swim like before.

"Idiot," Arashi mumbled as she came to his side and held him. "I was hoping you'd be smarter than that. I found the hole."

And with that, Yukio followed her gaze and spotted it too. He awkwardly smiled. "Sorry."

"It's fine. But I'm gonna borrow some of your power for a second."

"Alright."

『Takeover』

She used his Natura to propel herself quickly towards…

"Randolf!!!"

"Yup, I saw it." And with a glance understood what she wanted him to do.

Randolf dove underwater. Arashi let go of Yukio five meters before she reached him. She leapt out and landed back on the water on her feet. Her feet landed just above Randolf's palms which were already prepared for the next move.

A surging current heated up the water beyond its boiling point. It burst and Arashi was sent flying towards the sky.

"DIAVOLO!" she shouted.

He looked upwards and saw her posture. It was as if she was about to jab something into something. And that's when he knew.

He placed his palm on the harpoon. "Shoot her."

"No need to tell me twice."

A harpoon charged with flame shot out straight towards Arashi. With great speed, it approached her and she caught it by her side. The momentum made her spin in mid air.

『Takeover』

She absorbed some of Diavolo's aura from it and controlled it as her own. She spread out her arms, decreasing her spin and flipped the harpoon over to point at its target.

"It's over." And she stabbed the soft opening.

BOOM! FWOOOSH!

The explosion blasted her away back towards Randolf and Yukio, whereas the beast screamed in agony. Similar to their previous clash, it dove underwater for help, but it was probably not helping. Even if the fire was put out, the pain going directly into its body was not something one could get over that quickly. Even if it was underwater, with its size, everyone could predict its writhing based on the waves being generated from that area.

With the beast finally taken care of, Arashi and Randolf carefully swam, holding onto the weary Yukio. Everyone that could see the scenery breathed a sigh of relief. At least for now.

The three got on board and the yacht restarted its engines in full thrust. There was no waiting any longer. They could finally rest and await their next adversary.

But of course that was simply wishful thinking. So what if that particular beast was the weakest amongst its group? Didn't change the fact that it was more powerful than all of them combined. They landed a direct hit, big deal. Wasn't lethal, right? They seemed to forget that it was not a normal beast, but one with an ego. One that could learn from its mistakes and understood its place in a hierarchy.

And as such, it rose again, and this time, with bloodshot eyes. Yes, it was furious. The opening that was struck continued to bleed and pulsate. One could simply imagine it trying its best to hold in the pain. It was time for round three.

"Oh… no…" The chase was back on.

Or was it? From its position far behind them, but slightly towards the right, it didn't seem to move a bit.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Randolf couldn't help but say.

The beast opened its mouth.

Yukio pushed everyone aside and headed towards the rear deck.

"Yu, where are you going?"

"To finish this."

The beast started to charge Natura in its mouth. And this time, it was doing it more vigorously than before. Much more vigorously.

"What in the…" And he chased after him and grabbed his arm, "Are you out of your mind?!" and yanked him around.

"That thing is about to shoot that blast again and I need to stop it."

"Since when are you responsible for that? You expect to go all the way there before it's done charging up?"

Yukio took a gulp. "You saw what I could do just now. Let me do another one. Just one will do. I'll launch you guys forward and you'll avoid the blast."

"Well then what about you?!"

"...I'll be fine…"

"Oh so that's your big plan? Sacrificing yourself?!"

"I said I'll be fine. I can keep floating around the sea for ages, remember?"

Shin remembered how they had originally found him. A young boy cast adrift who knows when, only to end up on their island unconscious yet healthy.

He looked into his eyes and saw conviction. But he also saw uncertainty.

"Yukio," Arashi intervened. "Just look at yourself." She gestured towards his trembling arms with her eyes. "You're afraid. You're being rash. I didn't take you for the kind to lose focus if the opponent's too overwhelming. What's the matter?"

"... All my life, I had been the weakest amongst my friends. I felt like I was dragging them down. I was useless… but it's different now. On paper, I'm currently the strongest. It's time for me to prove it."

"You son of a—" Before Shin could finish, he collapsed onto his knees. He tried grabbing at his mouth but the mask was in the way.

"Shin?!" "Shin!" "What's wrong?!" they called out to him and tried to help.

Shin yanked the mask off his face and held his mouth tightly. He reached out for a plastic bag under the seat nearby, held it over his mouth and vomited. Everyone was confused as to what had happened, until Randolf realised the problem.

"The mask. It's the drug. He didn't replace it today! Hurry! Get a new container!"

"Eek! What is that?!" they heard a shriek from above and noticed Layla terrified at the sight of the enormous beast charging up a ridiculous amount of Natura.

Randolf noticed the object in her hand, "Layla! The drug! Throw it!" and shouted, snapping Layla somewhat back to reality and compelling her to toss in down, albeit timidly.

He hurriedly fumbled with the mask and tried to replace it, while Yukio, "Hannah gave it her all in that blast. Now it's my turn," leapt backwards off the deck.

"YUKIO!!!" everyone shouted and reached out to grab him.

From the moment it was declared that Shin's problem was simply his motion sickness drug running out, Yukio had already started preparations . His muscles flexed and he took a deep breath, channeling all the Natura he could muster and more.

As his perception heightened and his freefall appeared slow, he stretched out his right arm and held his hand like he was going to flick something, his left hand holding the former tightly in steady. Veins protruded from all visible regions on his body. His brain and heart pulsated stronger than ever before.

The water surrounding the yacht gathered behind it and bulged upwards, as if the boat rested on a giant hydrous palm.

And then, he flicked it.

FTWOOOSH!

With tremendous speed, the distance between him and the boat grew larger and larger. The waves that bulged upwards at the back of the boat exploded and blasted the boat forwards. It was working. It had worked! Hopefully now, his friends were safe and he had caught the beast's attention. They could escape at break-neck speed in the meantime.

The corner of Yukio's mouth wearily curled upwards as his body lost all its strength. Then suddenly, a large black object had appeared at the side of his vision, and instantaneously—

Hic!

Before Yukio's brain could even start processing what it was, his vision blanked out white, and quickly faded into the darkness.

At this moment, under this rash decision, Yukio had made two brutal and careless mistakes.

The first was not noticing how much energy the beast was drawing in. With that much being drawn in, even with the youngsters' level of expertise, it should've been possible for them to sense the lack of Natura around them if they tried. As such, Yukio was not able to deliver as much of a force as he was trying to.

The second mistake was forces. Yukio's flick pushed the ship forward, but at the same time, he was pushed backwards even more strongly. If only he had done the act after he dove into the water, he would've gotten better grounding.

From Yukio's point of view, the ship was moving away from him at great speeds, but it was actually him who was moving away from the ship. The black object that appeared on his final instant was the dreadfully large body of the beast that he had come closer to. If the boat was pushed a few extra meters, then Yukio was pushed backwards over a kilometer. But of course, he would end up falling into the water before he reached that distance.

Nothing was achieved. And all of this for what? Self-gratification? Proving himself? Helping his friends escape? No. Similar to Diavolo, he too was betting on something, but as Shin saw, he was uncertain. It was still weeks before everyone would get to know the true meaning of Yukio's current actions.