After the dust of the battle settled, Alice finally had time to look around and see the reality of the situation.

One soldier wept next to the mauled corpses of his friend.

"Why did it have to be you..." He cried. "Bastards, I will never forgive you." He slammed the ground, his tears mixed with dirt.

Medics turned the bazaar area into an infirmary for the wounded.

They had limited supplies here, only stabilizing critically wounded until proper equipment arrived.

Even the knights didn't go unscathed. There were no serious injuries except Captain Lance, but they were tired.

Alice felt a sense of duty to step forward and support all these tired people emotionally, but when she tried to take the first step forward, her legs didn't lift.

She felt the world's weight was on her back as all the glamour was gone and reality settled in, making it nearly impossible to stand, let alone walk.

"What am I even going to say." She thought, clenching her fist.

"Something to comfort them, make them remember they didn't suffer for nothing." The sword spoke up.

"But do I have what it takes to?" Alice took a step back.

"If only I had been faster, smarter. If only I had been better. The captain wouldn't have been hurt, and those soldiers wouldn't have died." The thoughts were eating her brain. There was a pain in her chest, suppressing all the pride she had a moment ago.

"And worse, what if I speak wrong?" Another anxiety added to her already chaotic mind.

"You did everything you could. No one blames you. Rather applaud your bravery and strength."

"But-" Alice tried to speak, but the sword cut her words.

"This is the truth of life. We fight to survive, sometimes fail, and sometimes succeed. All these people know that. And if you don't speak now, it would be worse than choosing bad words." The sword said. "Wipe your smile, and give them your condolences. It is your duty to, at least try to, comfort them."

Alice nodded and drove forward. "I hope father is alright. I can handle only so much pain today." She thought as she walked to give her speech.

***

On the other edge of the island, the elite of the knights, led by the family head, moved to destroy the source.

"There is the bastard who attacked my home." Grinding his teeth with a smile, his anger barely hidden.

"Larger than a cargo ship, with a gaping mouth, has ten spiked tentacles and a shell on its back." He said out loud. "Any data on the beast?"

"No," said the knight carrying a tablet. "Database shows nothing."

"Bullshit." The leader said. "It has battle scars," He pointed at a crack on top of the beast's spiked back. "This is no ordinary beast, so damage like that must have come from the vessels those UN guys brought. Search deeper."

"Yes, General Galahad."

Galahad smiled. "This old man stayed at home far too long." He summoned a simple spear with a steel pole and a gold tip on one hand and a buckler shield with sharp edges on the other.

"Not going to use your sword, sir?" One of the knights asked.

"Not this time." Galahad shook his head. "Big one, I call it the Gaping beast. It is my hunt. All of you, deal with the small ones, and don't disrupt me unless I call the aid." He ordered them and rushed forward.

He had great speed despite his age. The Crimson he passed stood in awe as he approached the giant monster.

"General Galahad, are you sure about this?" His helper asked him over the communication line built in their armor.

"Absolutely," After answering, he aimed his spear, charged it with aura, and threw it to the monster.

The spear whistled through the air with a shining golden trail.

It looked more like a modern heavy armor-piercing ammunition than a medieval weapon.

It also hit like one. The spear pierced the tentacle and cleaved away a decent chunk of it with little to no difficulty.

The Gaping beast dropped the ship it was chewing and screamed.

All the other Crimson in the area turned and began moving towards it.

"So you are their leader." Galahad smiled and recalled his spear.

"The shell looks tough, but the soft tissue is weak. It will take time to damage the organs, but it's doable. Focus on your mission." He ordered his team over the comms.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Soon, he had reached the harbor, swarmed with a small swarm of though-looking Crimsons. He ignored them.

Galahad jumped over the small swarm and leaped into the Gapping beast.

The Gapping beast monster tried to hit him with a tentacle, but Galahad grabbed one of the spikes and climbed over it.

"Thanks for the help!" Galahat shouted to taunt the beast. When he gained his balance, he charged forward with immense speed, his eyes locked at the root of the tentacle.

But the monster was not defenseless. It tried to shake Galahad off by hitting him with another tentacle, but once again, a powerful spear shot pierced through the tentacle.

The Gaping beast was in agonizing pain. It was shaking its whole body to throw Galahad away, but he was holding on to the beast, not letting himself go.

Meanwhile, his team had already cleared the swarm on their way and were fighting with the Crimson in the harbor.

"Can't stay idle in front of the younger generations, can't I," Galahad pumped up and charged again.

The Gaping beast struggled violently, trying to throw him away, but Galahad resisted and slowly approached the body.

The Gaping beast raised its tentacles, each creating a short-lived waterfall on their rise.

All tentacles were bristled with bony spikes like the thorns of a bramble.

Galahad shot down the first tentacle with a spear shot, but when others struck, he raised his shield and grabbed and grabbed a spike.

When Galahad poured his aura into the shield, a massive, spectral copy of it appeared just above him, right in time to block the first attack.

Tentacles bounced each time they struck the shield, but the beast attacked repeatedly, not giving up on this opportunity.

"These things are soft but pack a punch," Galahad said, chewing his lips. "Should have kept attacking, well, do with what you have."

Galahad resummoned his spear, loaded it with aura, and thrust it below himself, destroying the tentacle it was on.

The pain knocked away the Gaping beast.

Galahad took a deep breath before he dived head-first into the sea.

His armor locked some of its parts to adapt underwater while weight pulled him down.

"Too dark." He loaded his spear with energy to illuminate the surroundings.

"This looks bad." Galahad raised his shield.

The Gaping beast had shot several horn-like body parts of itself towards Galahad.

Each part was swimming towards him with thin but large flaps and had glowing, semi-transparent blobs on them.

"Parasitic biological torpedoes, look at that!"

Torpedo collided with the spectral shield, exploding with extreme force, pushing Galahad hundreds of meters away in seconds.

Galahad tried to cut his momentum by swimming forward. He wasn't damaged. Still, that didn't mean he could be on the open sea against this opponent.

"One attack with my defenses down, and I might die here." His heart pumped faster with thought.

Without wasting time, the Gaping beast shot another torpedo and struck Galahad's location with one of its tentacles.

Stuck between a torpedo and the tentacle, Galahad tried to be focused.

"I can't stop both attacks with my shield, neither afford to take any of them head-on, can't I? Galahad smiled. "I couldn't expected any less." He pointed his spear to the torpedo and shield to look away from the harbor.

"Just need some kick from that annoying parasite."

When the torpedo reached Galahad, he moved his entire body with extreme speed and precision to displace the torpedo in front of his shield before it exploded.

Tentacle missed him by only a couple of meters, splitting the sea and moving through reinforced concrete docks like they were nothing.

Galahad stopped when he hit a concrete wall. "Finally, surface." He loaded his fingers with aura and penetrated the concrete as he climbed to the harbor.

When he finally exited the water, he leaped into the air and landed on a defeated Crimson's body.

His landing smashed the body and scattered it around.

Unlike the sea, where a raging monster trashed everything around itself, it was quiet here.

"All Crimson are defeated already," He looked at his knights, all standing in line, watching their leader fight. "I must say that I am proud of all of you."

Vice leader nodded. "We didn't intervene, just as you ordered."

"You are now making me feel sad for keeping all the fun to myself." Galahad looked at the Gaping beast in pain, approaching them. "Well, this thing will destroy our pretty harbor if I keep brawling with it, so let's end this quickly. Keep yourselves above the water and attack the soft tissue. I will attack the wound on top."

"Yes, sir!" All knights shouted.

"Good, now, charge!" Galahad leaped forward.

Knights, following Galahad from behind, scattered around the Gaping beast before they initiated the assault.

They damaged the beast with a barrage of ranged attacks first.

Spears, arrows, bolts, and condensed energy attacks flew toward the Gaping beast, cracking its shell and destroying its flesh on impact.

The Gaping beast, confused and terrified, trashed around, attacking everything and anything with its massive body.

It barely handled one of them before. How could it survive against a dozen?

As if the wounds from those damned humans and their metal giants weren't enough, when it tried to go up and hunt for food to replenish its body and lost minions, these monsters showed up.

"Escape, retreat, move," these words repeated in its mind in a pattern.

But as soon as it tried to turn around, it trembled with pain and screeched in agony.

"Where do you think you are going!" A bulkier-than-normal knight threw a gigantic harpoon with a long chain on its back toward the Gaping beast's head.

The harpoon got deep into its body, and when the knight pulled it away, it opened its many hidden blades and shredded through the Gaping beast's flesh until a bone stopped it.

Beast endured the pain and tried to move, but it was just the start.

Another knight, who wielded a giant axe, slashed apart one of its tentacles from its root with a single powerful strike that made a thunder-like sound on impact.

It wanted to attack that one knight, but it kept moving to the sea. "Pain, ignore, escape, retreat, survive," It reminded itself.

Then, a knight with a lance pierced through one of its eyes, followed by one more cutting another tentacle.

The Gaping beast was barely moving at all as it was almost all crippled.

But it still repeated. "Pain, ignore, escape, survive, escape, survive, ESCAPE, SURVIVE-

The pain moved through its body like lightning, but it didn't even have the strength to give one last dying scream.

The Gaping beast's eyesight suddenly blurred and darkened while its blood filled its gills.

It tried to push itself forward, but no result.

On top of the Gaping beast, Galahad had charged his spear while his knights wounded the monster.

And when he felt he gathered enough energy, it stabbed the beast from its wound.

A powerful, focused energy beam attack pierced the Gaping beast's body, destroying its organs, flesh, and veins.

The attack came out of the other side, illuminating the sea floor covered in flesh, concrete, and scrap metal.

The beast's remaining limbs twitched in a final, desperate attempt to move, but to no result.

Oxygen bubbles surfaced on the blood-tainted waters while the giant corpse slowly sank.

Galahad raised his spear, glowing from all the aura he loaded into it as the beacon of the beast's defeat. "Victory is ours!" He shouted.

"Victory is ours!" Other knights cheered after him.