“[Keep firing!]”

  Henry drove a bony spike into the red kraken’s brain while another cut into its eye. None of it was enough. The damn thing refused to die and now, it was trying to drag them along as it ran to god knows where.

  “[I’m low on mana! You said to save mana for after!]”

  Henry cursed, but didn’t insist. He was okay in the mana department, thanks to the couple of new traits he picked up, but this fight had been incredibly expensive. He hadn’t been hurt much thanks to his Arcane Fortification and Slick Coat, but both of him and Maurice were struggling to put this thing down, and the latter had quickly ran out of mana with nothing to show for it, making the crab’s frustration almost palpable to Henry’s Telepathic Sense.

  Damn Goliath…

  It seemed like while Henry focused on variety and versatility in his abilities, the Goliath kraken’s main focus was ‘don’t die.’

  That and strength. Henry had quickly learned there was no point in trying to overpower this thing. It could fling him around as if he was still and F-rank trying to wrestle a shark. He just had to keep Slick Coat going so he could slip out of the monster’s grip whenever it to crush him under its grip, and keep hurting it. At least until it ran out of mana.

  A spike of bone through the brain? Healed in seconds. Poison? Barely did anything, though the Goliath was struggling more and more with the toxins. Its skin was pocked with Henry’s envenomed bites, and they were taking longer and longer to heal.

  Henry spiked the Goliath into its brain again and watching spasm for a moment before it tried gripping him once more. Having to use Shapeshifting Arm had been the highest expense of mana, but it was necessary. Maurice had covered for him while he’d latched on to the giant and transformed the extremity of one of his arms, but he needed something to get to the creature’s vital organs. Anything else took too long and would heal too fast.

  “[Next time we’ll work on giving you the mana traits. Keep an eye out for clones.]”

  Henry poked his arm into the kraken’s brain again. Gripping on the fleeing monster with his arms, he filled his mouth with the serpent venom and used the Bite of the Sea Serpent in concert, sinking his beak in and tearing viciously into the gaping wound he’d just opened.

  The flesh pulsed with sickly green light and the kraken flailed in pain, while Henry kept Maurice close to his body and sliced at the trunk-like arms that tried to pull him off of its stomach.

  Henry dug in with his bladed arms even more and bit again, adding more venom. The kraken’s limbs flailed, and a shudder went through them.

  Finally, after nearly ten minutes of non-stop struggle, the kraken slowed. Its movement became an uncoordinated stuttering mess, and soon, it came to full stop and slowly sank to the seabed, with its too assailants on its back, and a welcome notification came through.

  1x [Juvenile Goliath Kraken (D) - Lvl 34] core (D) was collected.

  Henry let go of his grip over the kraken’s stomach and floated down for a moment, panting and sore. Then he looked around. He didn’t recognize the area, so he swam up to have a look.

  It was nothing special. Just a sparsly populated area of the kelp forest. Not too overrun with kelp. Some sharks had begun approaching the kraken’s carcass, but they quickly scampered away when Henry swam back down toward the carcass. He wanted to cut some pieces, but he was running out of space. Some of the serpent’s meat was still taking space and having already had some of the kraken, he decided to only take a few samples.

  Maurice began tapping on his arm. “[Henry. Hey Henry. I think something’s coming.]”

  Henry looked up and toward the direction Maurice was pointing at, and saw the moving shape. Correction: shapes. They were still far, and the distance made picking up details impossible even though the water was pretty clear, but with every second, their color deepened.

  Henry’s mouth would have been dry if he’d been on land. The shapes were clear enough now. He moved away from the carcass and swam around a reef, camouflaging to match the muted colors of the seabed as he glided away. Without stopping, he consumed the core.

  Light began to collect as Henry pumped his arms and looked back.

  Krakens. Three of them. One had recognizable colors, and two looked different. Distinct.

  Maurice seemed to shrink within his shell. “[I think you were right.]”

  For the first time since meeting the crab, he felt fear from the crustacean. A deep, primal thing that made Henry’s skin feel cold and clammy. “[I wasn’t right enough. I underestimated it.]”

  Henry saw the notifications from the core consumption roll in and dismissed them. All that he knew was that he’d just jumped from level 54 to 87, earning himself 7 stats points to assign freely, and 3 each in Strength and Constitution, and 2 bonus Spirit points from the core itself.

  He tightened his grip on Maurice, pumping his arms faster and looked back. He couldn’t see the shapes from this angle, and for a moment he hoped he’d be able to lose them. That hope shattered when looked forward again.

  High above, two identical Trickster krakens shed their camouflage. Clones, he assumed. The malevolent eyes of the black, yellow-striped kraken peered at him. One clone swam down to intercept while the second kept watch.

  He wasn’t getting out of this without a fight. The clones–or whatever created them–were done playing.

  Henry activated Shapeshifting Arm on a second limb. The end of his arm bulged and calcified, a bony spike jutting out of it. It wasn’t as even or straight as he wanted, but it would do. With that done, Henry prepared to dump all of his free stat points into Constitution, then checked and made sure Slick Coat and Arcane Reinforcement were on.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  This would push him through the forty points threshold in Constitution. It was about to get painful. Still, he brought Maurice to his face. The crab was nervously clacking its pincers, half hidden in the multicolored shell.

  “[I think you should go into my Maw, Maurice.]”

  Maurice peered at Henry, then up at the two krakens, content to wait. Henry felt a mix of fear and frustration from the crab as the magic finished reinforcing his flesh. Maurice peered back at him. “[Why aren’t we running? We could just leave! Why have we stopped?]”

  Henry felt like Maurice knew why. Still, he nodded up toward the two krakens. “[I don’t think there’s anywhere we can run. It’ll just tire us out, then attack when we think we’re safe. I don’t think it ever stopped watching us. And now it decided it’s a good time to really try to kill me.”]

  To Henry it was clear; the clones had it out for him. Ever since he’d attacked it when it tried to take Maurice. Maybe there was more to it, but he couldn’t tell. Still, this thing was nursing a grudge, and it was smart enough to strategize and plan. If he were to survive, there was one thing left to do.

  Henry confirmed his stat point choice. Gritting his beak and shuddering as he flesh was wracked with pain, he looked down at Maurice, trembling as the magic burned its way into his skin. Into his muscles and nerves. “[So… The best way out… is through. No matter how long the… fight lasts, they won’t be able to kill me,]” Henry said, suppressing the doubt in his chest and hoping the crab wouldn’t pick up on it. “[So I’d like you to be safe.]”

  The pain was receding, and Henry sensed the crab’s frustration and fear slowly turned to worry as his limbs stopped spasming. “[You’ll be alone. And I can’t help if I’m not here.]”

  Henry’s heart twinged at that. He looked up to see the approaching krakens. One was a clone, which he dismissed to focus on the other two. The second had glowing blue lights dancing along its body. It was smaller in size than the clone, but not by much. The third was gray, with veins of glowing red along its skin. Like a rock with lava coursing through its veins.

  Henry tapped the crab on its shell. “[You’re out of mana. If you get hurt, you might not be able to heal yourself. Please, Maurice.]”

  Henry couldn't force him and didn’t want to. He’d had time to test Maw’s interactions with living beings, to really make sure it was safe, and he noticed that it was difficult to force something alive in if it were powerful enough. Maurice, as a D-rank being, wouldn’t go in if he didn’t want to.

  The crab looked down at its claws, and Henry braced when he felt the growing ball of frustration and shame building up in the crab, and then–

  The pincers dropped limply down in front of the crab. “[Okay.]”

  Henry felt horrible. Right before he placed Maurice in his Maw, he got a last message. “[If you’re really in danger, bring me out. And leave some cores to me. Promise.]”

  Henry chuckled. “[I promise I’ll leave you half.]”

  And with that, Maurice went into the Maw of the Trickster. The weight of the crab’s existence dropped like a bowling ball in Henry’s storage.

  Oof. That doesn’t feel great.

  Henry watched the krakens finally arrive as he wiggled, trying to get used to the odd weight he felt in his soul and took a quick glance at his stats.

  Strength: 26

  Constitution: 43

  Spirit: 26

  Perception: 20

  Dexterity: 15

  I can survive this. Look at all the points in Constitution. I might run out of mana, but when that happen, I can beat them up with a rock and outlive the bastards.

  He started with the gray kraken. It was around the same size as the clones, with lava-like veins of red coursing through its body. Its eyes blazed orange, and the water seemed to boil around it.

  Looks like I need to spend some time near the ants after this.

  [Juvenile Stoneskin Kraken (D) - Lvl ? ]

  The second was smaller. It was almost translucent, with an electric-blue dancing pattern across its skin. It had ten arms, two of which seemed to be made out of magic. Its eyes were a rainbow of color, and they shared the malice emanating from the clones.

  [Juvenile Arcane Kraken (D) - Lvl ?? ]

  And of course, the clones. At least, what he assumed they were. They all had the exact same readings.

  [Juvenile Trickster Kraken (D) - Lvl 4 ]

  “[Can’t fight your own battles huh? Had to go and bring help?]”

  The kraken’s arms twitched and then, a hoarse voice filled his ears.

  “[you… nOt… liKe… us. You… eNeMy. diE. …DiE.]”

  Henry was wide-eyed for a moment. It was sapient? It can talk?

  The shock lasted for a few seconds, sending cold waves of realization down his limb, but Henry shook his head and steeled his resolve. This hadn’t been expected, but it didn’t change much. The kraken was right. They were enemies. This thing was after his life and as much as he hated killing something intelligence, he’d hate dying even less.

  Survive and get stronger. I can worry about other stuff when my life’s not on the line.

  Henry started by attacking the one he expected to be the most annoying to deal with by whipping his bone-flail at the Arcane kraken. Its magic limbs swelled and interposed to stop his attack.

  As his bony extremity shattered through the blue limbs and smacked the kraken on the side of the stomach, Henry grimaced at the oddly cold sensation then grinned.

  That’s a nice skill you have there. Would be a shame if I took it.

  Jackietron201

  If you want to fuel me with a cup of coffee, there's . I use the new subscription model, so you will not get double billed on the first of the month.