“What is that?” Eliza breathed.
“It’s kraken us like an egg.”
I took a few steps backward, steadying myself at the massive table, gratefully bolted to the floor. This was one of the most difficult boss fights in Zenith Online, and even with the entire crew combined, I wasn’t entirely sure we’d be able to survive, much less win in a fight.
Ani and Ranch sat hunched against the table, their claws digging into the fine wood as they growled at the creature.
[A kraken has appeared! Survive the oncoming assault!]
“We can’t do anything stuck in here,” Sinbad said, crossing the tilted floor past us and toward the door. Eliza followed on his heels, Cove and I lagging behind once again as we struggled to find footing.
The ship creaked and groaned under the pressure, and muffled shouts and thuds echoed from all around as the crew readied for battle. I eyed the walls skeptically, worried the entire ship was going to be crushed into tiny pieces in mere minutes. Sinbad and Eliza pulled ahead, vanishing down the hallway.
Cove stopped in his tracks, frustrated. “That’s it,” he said.
[Cove Doyle has used teleport. Would you like to follow?]
[Cost: 25 ability points]
I declined, unwilling to needlessly waste ability points when I could make my way by foot, if a bit slower. Cove could afford the costs.
The ship lurched and tilted a few more times, groaning louder with each pressing minute. Explosions sounded out, rocking the ship with the force. Thuds followed, and a deafening screech pierced the air.
The ship slowly evened out, and I sprinted down the hallway and up the stairs, my hands hovering above the railings just in case. The door lay up ahead, and I shouldered my way through it and onto the chaotic deck outside. The sun hung low above the sky, turning the ocean a deep, foreboding red.
A giant, dark blue tentacle stuck to the dome above, the glass cracking beneath its force. I ducked back into the hallway as it shattered, glittering like dust as it scattered to the floor. Cries of pain echoed around as unlucky crew members were struck by the falling glass, some falling to the floor, dead.
Fire lifted up from multiple places on the deck the deck, slamming with great force onto the tentacle surrounding the ship. It whipped up and slammed back down, crushing the metal that with each blow.
It stuck once more, and I heard a torrential downpour of water drip down into the ocean. The airship gave one massive shudder, and the setting sun was completely eclipsed by a giant blue head and eye that lifted over the deck, water draining from its in a waterfall.
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I ran out from where I’d been hidden, casting explosion and aiming it at the kracken’s weak spot, it’s the eye. Other bursts of fire shot out from the deck, some combining with mine into a massive meteor while others rained down, close behind. The kraken close its heavy eyelid, rearing back and crying out as the fire struck, then blinked it open. Its eye swirled around, catching everyone on the deck in its gaze before it landed on Cove, standing tall with Sinbad and Eliza on the other end of the deck, directly beneath it.
He cast the more advanced fire spell, a fiery arrow, at the beast’s eye, hitting him with a force as great as the combined efforts that had struck moments before. Tentacles slid in through the broken glass, winding around the deck, aiming, I noticed, for those who’d done the most damage. Cove, Eliza, and Sinbad easily cleared the tentacles sent in their direction, leaping up high above as they swept where they had been standing.
I jumped back as one whipped past me, curling around a crewmember a few feet away to toss them into the air. He wasn’t the only one caught. Other crew members were knocked back, falling off the edge of the ship or smacking into walls and metal with sickening cracks. Those who could sent fire back in its direction, dispersing against the eyelid that slammed shut.
I waited, my hands already in the position they’d need to be to cast explosion once more. As soon as the eye twitched, I released the spell, sending it flying at the now-open eye while hope burned in my chest. The beast blinked just as my spell hit, letting loose an angry roar.
With a squelch, the eye opened and moved around again, reflecting my horrified and disgusted face back at me. I steeled myself, staring the kraken straight in the eye as I sent another explosion its way, watching carefully as the fire spells shone like embers of hope against the black pupils. The eye slammed shut once more.
Even as the ship heaved again while the kraken writhed, I sprinted across the deck toward Sinbad and Cove, somehow finding balance just as I needed it. Unwilling and unable to slow myself down, I slammed into the railing between them breathlessly.
The ship rocked as the cannons were shot off once more. I peered over the edge of the ship at the sound, watching and noting as the cannonballs tore straight through the flesh of the creature, obliterating an entire tentacle. Red smoke exploded and reformed, another tentacle rapidly growing as though we were facing a hydra instead.
Sinbad drew my attention back to the deck. “This is the second time it's regrown a limb,” he said, pale-faced with fear. His hands trembled where the adrenaline pulsed through his veins.
Eliza drew her sword from her scabbard, leaping above our heads to land on the twisted metal that had once supported the glass ceiling. She swung it, and a white beam of light expelled from the end of the sword, slicing into the kraken. The cut healed within seconds. She swung again, and again, each deep cut healing quicker than she could build from. Finally, she jumped back down amidst the rain of fire from the crew members below.
Cove cast fire shot once more, cursing as it bounced off the eyelid, whittling away at the kraken’s health too slowly for comfort. He cursed at the bad timing. “Our fire spells have been practically useless. It keeps blinking!”
While Zenith Online certainly wasn’t the best game, it wasn’t completely unreasonable. There had to be a way for us to escape or defeat it. We just had to find it, fast.