The fight raged between the krakens and Henry. He had to dodge and whip his limbs just to keep the creatures away from him. His ranged attacks—the bubbles and the toxic ray—would have worked, but they were expensive, so Henry decided to hold-off on them for now. He didn’t know how long this fight would last, so he had to be frugal. Maybe once a couple of his enemies were down he could afford to use expensive stuff but for now, it was all going to be close-ranged.

  Henry dodged back and away from the ghostly limb and disappeared into a cloud of ink. Globes of molten rock followed, turning the ink orange as they flew through. One of them hit one of his arms, and Henry cursed.

  The projectile stuck to him and his skin sizzled. It was incredibly painful, but as soon as he swatted the hot material off, he saw that the burn was only skin-deep and a quick pulse of Regenerate healed it off. The superficial crater of charred flesh quickly re-knit itself, and the dead material floated away a few seconds later, revealing unblemished skin.

  Fuck that hurts.

  Henry flew out of the cloud of ink toward the closest clone and cut it down. It defended with an arm, and even though Henry fully cut through it, he was off target.

  Letting Dexterity fall behind is beginning to hurt. My aim’s alright, but it could be a lot better.

  The clone tried to flee, but Henry wasn’t letting it go. He needed to get rid of them, because whenever he tried to attack the other krakens, the clones would hamper him with Telekinesis. Telepathy wasn’t the only thing the clones had. He hoped it wasn’t him who’d given it both skills that one time it managed to bite him.

  Speaking of, he felt a wall of force close up around his body, but Henry quickly summoned more ink and broke through. Two Razor Arms whipped forward, both aiming above the clone’s eyes in quick succession.

  This time he hit his target, and the clone burst into ink.

  Henry panted, feeling at his mana, and grew a bit alarmed at how low it felt, but he didn’t stop.

  30 or 40% at best, he thought as he surged up toward the next clone. Slick Coat’s fine. And I still have Scale of the Serpent.

  Mana was lower than what he’d like, but he still had nearly fifty charges and to be fair, the Goliath fight had consumed most of it. It still sucked that he only managed to kill one clone so far, but thankfully, his main attacks weren’t costly and the more of these monsters he killed, the easier it would be to deal with the rest.

  So far, he’d been too busy dodging and evading their attempt at bogging him down to really deal damage, but sooner or later, the tables would turn.

  I just need to figure out how to use the bone-spike better.

  The bony limb was only useful to be pushed into an eye or a brain. Using it with Arm Whip was extremely underwhelming, unlike the flail.

  Speaking of…

  Henry whipped his flail-limb. The ball of spiked bone flew, cracking the clone right between the eyes. It dispersed into ink as well.

  One left, Henry thought, looking up at the remaining clone. The clone glared back at him, its skin rippling with ominous yellows and black from above, and its voice came through again. A scratchy and breathy thing out of nightmares. “[nOt…. From us. Thing. You. Die. ]”

  Henry suppressed a shiver. “[You’re getting better,]” he said as he swam up to approach the remaining clone and evaded the hail of molten rock. He glanced down to make sure every participant was accounted for, and his thoughts stuttered.

  The Arcane kraken was gone. In a panic, he summoned a cloud of ink around him. As it spread he watched the ink flow around a large familiar shape.

  The Arcane kraken. It was right next to him.

  The jellyfish-like monster shed its camouflage, and a wave of blue light swelled around it. It pushed away Henry’s cloud of ink, leaving both of them exposed.

  Henry pulled back his arm, ready to slash the monster right between the eyes when his limbs locked. He spared a glare upward at the clone and readied an Ink Jet, only for another wave of blue to spread out of the Arcane kraken. As it passed through his skin, he felt the skill slip his control, as if he’d tried to turn a doorknob with a freshly oiled hand right as the clone’s Telekinesis failed. And that wasn’t it.

  Slick Coat dispelled as well, but Arcane Fortification managed to stay on.

  What…

  Before he could try to use Ink Jet once more, his limbs were locked once more right as a translucent limb rushed toward him. Henry braced and readied a counter-attack. He wasn’t worried about the impact, but he expected something special out of the ghostly limb.

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  The limb wrapped around his stomach and as soon as it touched him, he felt cold tendrils sunk into his flesh, like feelers, and something began to seep out of him. It took him a second to realize what was happening. When he did, he struggled harder to free himself from the kraken’s grip and the clone’s Telekinesis.

  Mana thief. And how is the fucking clone maintaining Telekinesis?!

  Henry summoned a clone and sent it toward the yellow-striped kraken. When his clone obstructed him from the hostile clone, Telekinesis faded. Henry didn’t dare use his own Telekinesis because of the cost and backlash, but somehow, the clone was managing to be a massive nuisance with it without much effort.

  Henry immediately wrapped his arm around the ghostly limb and activated Razor Arm. The the blade dissolved within a second, but that was enough for it to dig deep into the ghostly limb.

  The kraken’s limb flailed as a second ghostly limb approached Henry, but he was already using every last bit of strength to free himself. To make matters worse, the third kraken was approaching and the space between its arms was glowing dangerously hot, as if it had a miniature sun hidden down there.

  Henry wanted none of it.

  All of his arms flew at the Arcane kraken. Some sharpened with Razor Arm, some only using Arm Whip to stun and hurt, and finally, the flail, which was doing the most damage as there was nothing to cancel. It was transformed flesh, not a skill.

  The hail of attacks was finally too much, and the kraken loosened its arm to defend its face and eyes. Henry had burst one of its eyes and cut it open all over, but this monster could heal as well.

  Intensely blue light surged around the ruined organ and cuts. When it faded, the multi-coloured eye was back.

  Henry was free, but the ordeal had been costly so he popped ten of his Hoard Vitals charges and his mana welled back up within his chest. Then, he sent another distracting clone upward and followed suit. He wanted to finish off the Arcane kraken, but the lava-wielding one was on his heels and at any time he could get ensnared by Telekinesis again, so the hostile clone had to go first.

  In the next monent, Henry realized something and cursed himself before turning back and rushing the Arcane kraken.

  Shit. Killing the Trickster’s clone’s useless. More could come at any moment. There might be even more around, hidden and waiting.

  The Stoneskin kraken spread its arms and a half-foot wide cylinder of molten rock flew toward Henry, who ducked and veered right. The flow followed him, and Henry had an idea.

  Before the Arcane kraken could move out of the way, Henry froze it. Compared to his previous experiences, he didn’t get a headache. Instead, he felt the skill be absorbed. Eaten from within.

  Dissolved.

  Fine exchange by me.

  Henry continued his path upward and then veered down at the last moment. The attack of the Stoneskin followed, only to meet the Arcane kraken’s frozen form.

  Henry popped some more charges. That last maneuver with Telekinesis had burnt almost everything he had left.

  The Stoneskin kraken cut off its flow. Its mouth was dimmer, but so was the ruined form of the Arcane kraken. It wasn’t dead, but its flesh was ruined. Its internal organs floated, some squirming, some burnt to a crisp. The blue hue surrounding it faded. The ghostly limbs were gone, but two new ones were slowly forming. Its eyes were dimming.

  Up above, the clone was rushing toward them.

  Henry looked up at it. “[One down.]”

  “[STOP!]”

  Henry whipped a Razor Arm point blank, right above the Arcane kraken’s eyes, and prayed this wouldn’t be a Goliath kraken do-over. Blue blood flowed, and the kraken’s limbs jerked while its translucent skin suddenly grew white and cloudy.

  1x [Juvenile Arcane Kraken (D) - Lvl 47] core was collected.

  Henry couldn’t bask in his victory. Two molten projectiles hit him in the stomach and he screamed inwardly. He was about to swim down when Telekinesis locked his movement, and more burning hot projectiles sunk into his flesh like he was made of butter.

  He summoned an Ink Cloud and Telekinesis failed, after which Henry dove down. He gingerly picked the hardened–but still hot–pieces of rock out of his flesh and resisted activating Regenerate. It hurt like hell, and the rocks had gotten deep, but he didn’t feel like it was lethal.

  He needed the mana elsewhere.

  Fuck. FUCK, Henry cursed as he circled around, evading the projectiles of the Stoneskin kraken. He was too low on mana, and Slick Coat wasn’t holding up well against the Stoneskin. As for Arcane Fortification, it would would fail soon if he didn’t expend some more Hoard Vitals charges, and then he guessed the projectiles would start doing a lot more damage.

  Reluctantly, he activated ten more charges before rushing the Stoneskin kraken again. The monster, seeing him coming, spread its arms and spat out a hail of molten rock that forced Henry to veer around. When he felt the familiar magic try to ensnare him again, he hid in a cloud of Ink.

  You’re close enough, let’s put my theory to the test.

  Henry suddenly swam up at the clone and whipped his bone flail. The clone blocked it with Telekinesis, but not the second arm that cut through where its brain was supposed to be.

  The clone dissolved into ink, and Henry didn’t wait; he immediately turned his attention back to the Stoneskin kraken. Henry circled closer and closer, and he was about to test his attack against this specimen when his limbs locked again.

  The hail of projectiles didn’t stop. Henry had half a second to see yet another clone above them shed its invisibility before he was drowned in a world of scalding pain right as his bone-flail whipped forward.

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