While the cat refuses to guide the crew to the kraken, Wyn climbs up to the hawkians, grabs their necks, and forces them to spew cyclones in the desired directions.

"Go on! Have some fun, Yu!" Wyn says.

Yu stands at the helm, hand pointing at the kraken. "To the kraken, we sail!" he declares.

"I thought I was the captain," Mira complains.

The cat furiously tries to untie the rope. By the time it finishes, the ship is already near the capsized vessel, its crew and the guide cat nowhere to be found. The black-and-white devon rex boards the ship. Sensing the inevitable, both he and the bunyip are reluctantly compelled to join the crew.

Noticing the new ship’s presence, the kraken vanishes back into the deep. Wyn summons cyclones, trying to force it to resurface. However, massive moss-gray tentacles emerge from beneath the ship – ten of them, surrounding the vessel on all sides.

"Are you, like, going to add this to your collection too?" Christine asks.

"Yeah, girl! If we survive!" Mira replies.

The tentacles begin to coil around the ship, attempting to drag it under. The hawkians flee in distress.

"We need to free the ship from the tentacles!" Wyn shouts.

"No! Yu and Annie, dive and attack the head below! It can’t reach you two with its tentacles up here," James commands.

"Hey! Listen to me, all of you! Attack the tentacles!" Wyn insists.

The crew hesitates, unsure of who to follow. Anish finally takes the lead, thrusting his javelin into one of the tentacles. The others quickly follow suit. Mira, Annie, and Dakarai focus on roasting the tentacles, but their combined efforts barely faze the creature. Rex, the name Wyn gave to the cat, removes the hook glove and darts from the front to the back of the ship at lightning speed, slashing the tentacles as he moves. The bunyip does its part, biting and scratching. Still, the thick appendages seem impenetrable. Even Wyn’s fully-charged cyclone dash only leaves a dent, unable to slice through the kraken’s flesh.

The ship suddenly tilts sharply, its bow plunging toward the sea as the kraken tightens its grip. For the first time, the crew gets a close look at the kraken's head as it emerges from the depths.

The head, resembling that of an octopus, features a large breathing mantle. Encircling it is a ring of dark green seaweed, creating the illusion of baldness. Its round, black eyes are connected by a strand of seaweed, giving the appearance of wearing spectacles. Below, its mouth opens wide. The creature shakes the ship, sending some of the crew clinging to the tentacles tumbling toward its gaping maw.

Anish, standing on a tentacle, catches them in mid-air. At Wyn’s command, Anish lifts the crew into the sky. Fusing with everyone except Rex and the bunyip, Wyn unleashes a massive cyclone at the kraken’s open mouth. The tentacles recoil, and the kraken dives back into the sea upon impact.

Back on the ship, the Ring Bearers approach.

“Looks like you’re having some difficulties. We’ll take it from here!” Gimli says.

Suddenly, a tentacle pokes at the front of Gimli’s ship from below. The force flips the ship once before it lands back in the water with a splash. The crew, along with the cat and the bunyip, are thrown into the air momentarily before crashing back onto the deck. Another tentacle strikes the back of the ship, lifting it again before slamming it down, followed quickly by another hit at the front, then the back once more. As the ship lurches from the repeated blows, two massive tentacles rise from the sea, coiling around the vessel and pulling it downward.

Just before the ship is dragged beneath the surface, Anish’s powerful wind gusts lift the Ring Bearers to safety. Wyn then blows Gimli and his crew away from the area with a cyclone. Fearing the same fate, Anish lifts the crew into the air, attempting to flee the battlefield using Wyn’s cyclone dash. But before Wyn can act, a tentacle wraps around Anthony’s legs. As Anish dodges other emerging tentacles, Wyn dashes toward Anthony, only to be knocked away by powerful ink streams from the suckers on another tentacle, sending him into the sea.

Underwater, the kraken looms before Wyn, though its gaze is fixed on the prey above. Yu and Annie follow Wyn into the sea, ready to try James’ suggestion. Just as Yu begins to maneuver toward the kraken’s head, Annie creates a current to pull him back to where she and Wyn are. She points out a large figure rapidly approaching the kraken. Sensing the danger, Wyn finds an opening and launches all three of them up to the surface. Moments later, the kraken is attacked, releasing Anthony and retracting its tentacles.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“That is the meghan-lodon!” Rex shouts.

The crew regroups in the air, with Anish catching Wyn, Yu, and Annie in midair.

“Should we flee now?” Dakarai asks, foaming at the mouth as he finishes the question.

“This could be our chance to snag the essence of whichever one loses!” Wyn says.

“I’m starting to see how you guys get so strong,” Annie remarks.

By this point, the ship has been swept away by the violent waves caused by the battle between the two massive creatures. The meghan-lodon, a formidable shark, has a massive head adorned with a flowing mane of seaweed that resembles hair, swaying gracefully with the currents. Its unique large caudal fin resembles a flowing gray skirt.

The kraken wraps its tentacles around the megalodon, but the prehistoric shark turns gelatinous to escape the deadly grip. It reforms and bites down on the kraken’s mantle, shaking it violently. The kraken releases black ink from its suckers, creating a cloud around both creatures. When the ink clears, the kraken has wrapped its tentacles around the megalodon again. Despite the kraken’s strong pulls, the shark’s jaws refuse to release the kraken’s mantle. Finally, with another powerful pull, the kraken manages to dislodge the shark from its mantle, but not without tearing away a chunk of it that remains clenched in the shark's jaws.

Dark ink spills from the open mantle as the kraken swiftly wraps its tentacles around the shark, which is preoccupied with devouring the chunk of mantle. With its mouth agape, the kraken begins to suck the megalodon in. As the shark shifts into its gelatinous form, it gets completely consumed by the creature. Just like that, the meghan-lodon ceases to exist.

“So, the mantle is its weak spot,” Wyn observes.

The kraken continues to spew black ink from its suckers despite its victory, waving them around underwater. Meanwhile, during the underwater battle, the crew manages to retrieve the ship. Once everyone is back onboard, they wait for the kraken’s next move, but it never comes. As the ink disperses, the water clears, revealing a sparkling sea below – the kraken has been defeated.

“I am crying tears of joy! I am earning so much essence, I can leave this floor!” Rex exclaims.

“Hold onto your paws, kitty. This is so much essence; I can’t let you take it all,” Wyn replies.

“What? That is not what we agreed upon!” Rex protests.

“I don’t give a shit. We’re not even guaranteed to get any rewards anyway. This whole thing is a scam.”

Rex jumps onto the bunyip, readying his claws. The whole crew reacts, assuming a defensive stance.

“Sure. Killing you and that yip thing will give us even more essence,” Wyn sneers.

“This amount of essence will get us so far here! We’re willing to fight you for it, Rex!” Annie declares.

“Now, now. Think about it; you’ll still get a lot of essence. Sharing is caring,” Mira adds with a fake smile.

Rex relents, knowing he can’t fight all ten of them at once. After all, his current essence count is measly at three thousand.

To collect the essence from underwater, the crew needs to activate their bands from below. Since Rex can’t suck in essence with his mouth, he must open his paw to absorb it while Anthony holds him to prevent him from sinking.

“Hot damn! That was a terrible experience!” Anish gasps for air.

“You’re heavy, cat,” Anthony remarks, also gasping for air.

“You non-water folks are so lame underwater,” Yu mocks.

“Say another word, and I’ll deep fry sushi whenever I get a chance,” James threatens.

“You’re worse than any creatures we’ve fought so far!”

Rex ties the bunyip to the ship and sighs repeatedly.

“One thousand and four hundred essence. The total is now two thousand, one hundred and fifty essence, including the slain creatures before the kraken, which I did not have time to announce,” Rex sighs again before continuing, “Meow, I really am so annoyed!”

“Hmmm? How did you get more essence than us?” Wyn asks.

“My absorption speed is slightly faster than yours. Well, I guess I should be content. After all, I still get over two thousand essence from this trip alone.”

“You sure damn should be, you ungrateful demon,” Mira retorts.

“Wait! Where’s the essence of the devoured souls? There should be more, right?” Wyn inquires.

“Likely, they all got away, or most of them did…,” Rex guesses.

Instead of returning to the same dock, Rex resummons the hawkians and delivers Wyn and team to a dock on the village island while the triplets and Dakarai remain on the ship. Rex asks Wyn’s team to wait for the clock to hit zero.

“Thank you, Wyn, for coming for me back there,” Anthony says.

“I couldn’t even get to you.”

“At least you tried, and without any hesitation too.”

“Glad you know I was joking when I said you three and the laundry pod guy were expendable.”

As the round ends, the bell on their ship rings. Rex leaps toward it and starts headbanging against it loudly twenty times. He then grabs the bell and gives it a very loud tap by hand once before finishing with five normal rings. No other ships respond. This means, Rex explains, that no other crews were able to generate more essence than theirs. As promised, Rex rewards each crew member with five hundred catnips by placing his paw on each of their bands for a few seconds until it vibrates. They bid farewell as Rex takes the temporary crew members back to the Bouncy Floating Isles where they wish to continue training.

“They were like support characters. They didn’t get to do much, haha,” Yu laughs.

“Like, not like we did much ourselves, Yu,” Christine responds.

The six raise a total of exactly six middle fingers at Gimli, who appears to be jumping and shouting slurs on the other side. He’s quite a loud fella, despite his size. As for James, regardless of how many times Wyn tries shooing him away, he insists on tagging along with the team. With that, the team heads for the village, hoping to meet these so-called “intelligent beings” Catati mentioned.