I ran to my car to pick up a tie and jacket as the MFBI had a bit of a dress code for location heads. The group of people sent to help was a mobile strike team called the Templars that responded to major threats like the kraken. The second a kraken appeared off the coast of a warded city it immediately sent an alert to them without needing my approval. Now I just had to hope none of the members have ever worked with the dearly departed agent Cole.

As I walked up to the group, I overheard a conversation between a group of templars off in the periphery separate from the main group.

“Can’t wait to finally meet the no name that took the job meant for Captain.” Agent A complained to the group.

“Yeah, I get what you mean. Any word on who it is?” Agent B asked.

“Some former investigator is all I know. The wuss has probably never even seen combat. Brogan’s back is gonna be aching carrying that dead weight.” Agent A responded.

“How about you all shut your mouth before I report your insubordination to the captain and get to work.” Agent C told the group before walking away from the group. I followed the man as he like me was headed towards the main group.

As I approached the group with Cassidy, I took in a short busty twenty something with raven hair and chocolate brown eyes, the infamous Agent Brogan. Well, infamous to me due to her being previously mentioned in conversation, most would say the infamous Agent Brogan was her father.

It was my first time meeting a Gaia’s Chosen, the main characters of life. They were destined for great things. Take Brogan for example she was meant to get my current job instead of Cole and fight the coming night. Or at least that’s my guess. Who can say about god’s will, certainly not the guy blind to it

“You’re the pencil pusher my father sent me to pull out of the fire?” The young woman asked while trailing her eyes from my head to toe.

“I earned my quote unquote pencil pushing and you’re more than welcome to take on a kraken without any help.” I replied trying to justify my potential later actions and physique. It was to my advantage that information tends to be compartmentalized and classified, as a result only the ones who truly stood out were broadly known. No one here had apparently worked with Cole before.

“Well at least you look like you can take care of yourself. Grab anything you need; we are heading out now.” Agent Brogan told me before leading her men away.

I followed them onto a boat they either had or somehow obtained. After Brogan, the other agents, and I got on the boat it left the harbor heading towards the horizon.

The next hour drifting around the sea with a group wearing tactical vests with runes stitched into them and carrying various armaments carved with similar runes was filled with awkward silence and boredom. Fortunately, our quarry came to us before that continued any longer.

The large blue squid’s tentacles rose from the sea causing water to pour over us and the boat. As we stood in its shadow, all the agents lifted their carved assault rifles, imbued them with orange chi energy, then fired upon the limb.

_

Dal’Fraquil AKA The kraken in front of me

“Not every enemy is meant to be confronted, some are to be redirected. And then there are those you run the f*ck away from. Quickly.”

Grade S

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

_

While they were doing that, I fired my revolver at the creature. This gun was not really anything special except for the essence bullets. I really needed a better weapon, especially now that I can actually use it with the increased bodily control granted by mana sleeve.

We quickly realized something was wrong when our ammunition did little more than give the kraken the equivalent of bug bites. This kraken was more powerful than anyone thought. In my defense though, I only saw traces from a distance which means that it’s a testament to The Mentalism Ring that I even knew it was a kraken.

We kept firing, but we were little more than insects to it. The problem was that one swats at flies that annoy them. As the blue tentacle swept over us, a wave of water followed due to its hydrokinesis. Everyone on the boat was dragged over the side of the boat by the wave.

Sensing what the kraken was about to do, I dove even deeper into the water. Those clever enough followed me or thought of the same. When the kraken clenched its tentacle, all the agents that did not dive turned into crimson splotches in the water. The boat was similarly crushed by the water.

Everyone surfaced and kept firing. Well, everyone except me as I had a problem. Quite the big one in fact. Cement Shoes made me an anchor in water, and I was in water, with Cement Shoes. Not my smartest moment, but in my defense, they did not do much due to their weak conceptual strength. They improved my footing, which I appreciated, but at the end of the day there is only so much you can expect from something I whipped up from mundane cement and a connection to the expression cement shoes.

All this to say I had to let go of my gun and scramble to untie my shoes. While I did not require air, I was currently a proverbial sitting duck before the kraken. When I eventually slipped out of my shoes and breached the surface I took in the current situation.

The MVP was Brogan whose rifle appeared to be firing lasers with how much Chi she was able to pack into bullets. Her shots were causing actual wounds, scratches really, but wounds all the same.

A few minutes of dodging the water crunches and tentacle slams later, we achieved victory.

There were several caveats to that though.

The first being that by “we” I meant the templars as I had lost my only weapon except a knife. What I left on the sea floor was no big deal fortunately. The artifacts were barely magical and would be unraveled into harmless base components by reality within days of being outside my presence. While I could protect my artifacts from this, I saw no need as this was a great anti-theft feature.

The second was that the meaning of victory changed during the course of the fight. We didn’t kill it obviously. The thing is that a bunch of mosquitos buzzing and biting with one even going for your eyes is enough to drive most off. The kraken finally just had enough and left. We were not even worthy of the kraken truly trying to kill us. That was victory for us.

Everyone started swimming back towards shore in hopes that the kraken was truly done swatting at flies, and they could report back what happened.

This kraken being so powerful and close to a city was odd as krakens of that level stay in the deep sea and rarely approach land let alone populated areas. As a result, something or someone drew it here and the MFBI needed to investigate what. That duty would be dropped on someone and by someone I meant the location head aka me.

Before following the flock to land, I took the kraken’s blood imbued with aquatic energy and talent floating in the water. I had plans for it later tonight when I got back to my apartment.

While swimming back to land though I turned in a different direction as I found a weak essence trail in the water. Seems like the kraken had a friend.

Current Equipment:

Head:

[The Black Wasp Jackal’s Face]

Earrings:

[]

Necklace:

[The Energy Baron’s Stomach]

Clothes:

[]

Rings:

[The Mentalism Ring]

[Succubus’ Kiss]

[Mena’s Book]

Bracelets:

[]

Shoes:

[]

Armaments:

[Sense Cane]

[Holy Straight Razor]

Storage:

[Various Essences]

[Chi Organ]

[Spirit Shards]

[Various Murder Weapons]

[Green Thumb]

[Glass Eye]