For the next phase of their attack, Ryan and Mindy bombard the giant sea monster with energy blasts. The resulting steam cloud blocks most of their vision, but they don't stop. Ryan can use his Danger Sense and Locate skills to find it under the cloud, and Mindy follows his lead.

Only when a glob of water dozens of feet wide comes crashing into the pair do they stop. more globs of water are shot from below, but they teleport to dodge them. Even if they didn't the water wouldn't damage them very much. The biggest negative about the water is that energy blasts can't be shot from inside it.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Ryan says, noticing the giant sea monster circling below them.

"Yeah, let's let the steam go away," Mindy says, and the pair wait while dodging water blasts from the giant sea monster.

When most of the steam has cleared, they can see it briefly falling under the surface of the water, then floating back up and jetting water from its back. Jellyfish monsters have now completely covered the shore, and the spear monsters repeatedly jump into the air.

"Should we go down?" Mindy asks. Standing on the ground or floating slight above it might make the giant sea monster stand on its feet, opening its eyes to attack.

"Let's do it," Ryan says, and he flies to the roof of a beach house while Mindy teleports to one.

A few minutes after they land, the giant sea monster begins to approach on its two legs. Once its arms cannot be used to push the body any more, the giant sea monster jumps.

Ryan and Mindy use this chance to attack it with energy blasts. The first few blasts cause more steam to erupt off the giant sea monster's body, but eventually the force from the blasts are enough to give Ryan and Mindy a clear view.

Though Ryan and Mindy were targeting the vital points they identified the previous day, hitting the giant sea monster on its eyes was easier said than done. Apparently, the eyes were not in a fixed location and could move freely over the monster's entire body.

The giant sea monster comes crashing down onto the beach, shaking the house Ryan and Mindy are standing on till it collapses. Ryan flies a few feet into the air, and Mindy levitates. Like that, they attack the ground at the giant sea monster's feet, causing it to fall.

As it falls, Ryan and Mindy back up several hundred feet. The giant sea monster is several hundred feet in height, so Ryan and Mindy have to teleport back even further than that. Now, they stand in the middle of Willowood and watch as the giant sea monster's falling body crushes houses.

"Use energy beams and we might cut off those arms," Ryan says and uses an energy beam from each hand to strike down on the giant sea monster like a whip.

Mindy does the same, and attacks the monster's right side while Ryan attacks the left. The energy beams are a solid line of energy that does less damage than an energy blast, but can be used like a blade.

The giant sea monster takes several seconds to stand, during which Ryan and Mindy pummel it with the energy beams. Once back on its two feet, the giant sea monster jumps over Ryan and Mindy, far more horizontally than it ever has in the past.

Ryan and Mindy continue shooting their solid beams at the giant sea monster as it soars overhead. The mouth of the giant sea monster positions itself to facing Ryan and Mindy, and it lets loose a blob of unidentifiable mass.

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Mindy first tries to blow the blob apart by hitting it with an energy blast, but the attack does nothing except spread it out a little more. Ryan and Mindy teleport to the side, dodging the blob, and watch as it corrosively eats though the road's pavement. The blob stays together when it hits the ground, and very quickly has descended out of sight.

"Try not to get hit by that," Ryan says, thankful Mindy's energy blast didn't break the blob into many smaller splatters.

"Yeah," Mindy says, and shoots two energy blasts at the falling giant sea monster. "It doesn't seem like we're getting anywhere with that thing."

The sea monster stands near the center of Willowood after having jumped about a thousand feet. Its two eyes are unharmed, safely swirling around its body, and all the limbs are still attached.

"I got an idea," Ryan says and looks around. "Distract the thing for a minute. Try to keep it from moving."

Ryan teleports away where Mindy cannot see him, and she looks at the giant sea monster. 'How am I supposed to do that?' Mindy thinks while looking at the giant sea monster. She resumes hitting it with energy beams, but it's very clear they aren't doing any damage to it.

Ryan has teleported three miles into Canada, past Knapps Island, and now flies above a field. The giant sea monster is visible where he'd flying at, so targeting it from so far away will be possible.

First, Ryan waits. Half a minute go by while Ryan waits and watches Mindy's pointless assault on the giant sea monster. The sea monster jumps into the air, this time around also going more horizontal than vertical, and Ryan begins his attack.

He shoots an energy blast from each hand, but then teleports two hundred feet forward and shoots two more. After that, he teleports two hundred more feet and shoots two more. Ryan repeats this process thirty times before teleporting to Mindy.

"Let's get out of here," He says, grabbing on to her, and teleports a couple hundred feet higher.

"What'd you do?" Mindy asks, looking down.

"Just wait," Ryan replies, and they both wait.

Several seconds later, Ryan's energy blasts hit the giant sea monster, all at the same time. Four energy blasts might not have a large effect on the giant sea monster, but sixty?

The giant sea monster is blown back by the force of the blasts. Chucks of gray flesh erupt off the giant sea monster, showing that a major hit has been done to it.

"Yeah!" Mindy shouts, fists in the air. "Fuck you!"

"It might not be dead," Ryan states but doesn't break her mood.

"I know, but you can just do whatever you did, again," Mindy says.

Ryan watches the giant sea monster skips over the surface of the lake. After about a thousand feet, it floats at the surface of the water, heavily bleeding.

Ryan wants to celebrate, but cannot. He inwardly smirks at having possibly killed the beast that killed his parents, but he knows it will not bring them back.

The body of the giant sea monster spreads out like a pancake mix poured above a pan. The trail of destruction caused by Ryan's missed energy blasts and the force of the giant sea monster being pushed back are undeniable, but something is missing.

Ryan did not earn any credits for killing the giant sea monster. The jellyfish and spears awarded credits, both insignificant compared to the Fortune bonus, nothing came from the giant sea monster.

He had not killed it.

"It's still alive," Ryan says.

"What?" How's that..." Mindy says but stops when she sees a huge shadow approach from under the waves.

It's at least two miles wide and three times as long. From the front, two mandibles reach out and pull the giant sea monster underwater. Slowly, the shadow disappears.

> You have fought with an abyss challenger and survived. Though you did not kill it, you managed to inflict significant damage. You will not receive a prize, but you will live to see another day.

>

> Isn't the gift of life the greatest prize of all?

The two look at their system notifications, both slightly upset they failed to kill the giant sea monster.

"Dammit," Mindy swears. "What now?"

"Now?" Ryan asks, unsure of what he wants to do. "Where are your parents at?"

"Toronto. Your's?" Mindy replies and asks.

"That thing kill them on Grassy Island," Ryan replies.

"Damn, that sucks," Mindy says.

"I need to take care of a few things, then let's go make sure your parents are safe," Ryan says and looks away from the water.

"Alright, I'll follow you," Mindy says, and the two teleport away.