“[It’s catching up!]”

Henry didn’t look back, eyes set on the ledge he wanted to swim over. “[We’re almost there.]”

He wanted to be as far away from the den as possible, and where he was leading the kraken, the water wasn’t as deep. That might net them an advantage, especially considering the size of this thing.

“[Watch out!]”

Henry barely had the time to register Maurice’s warning when an arm swatted his whole body like a cat smacking a mouse. Unlike that scenario, though, he wasn’t too hurt. Just wildly disoriented. And shocked at the strength of the kraken.

Then the kraken pulled. Henry realized what was wrong in an instant, and whipped down with a bladed arm at the tentacle sticking to him. It was only the extremity, barely a few inches thick, but it felt as if he was trying to cut through corded leather.

“Getting through its head’s going to be tough.”

Henry straightened up and faced the kraken as it finished pulling itself over the ledge. The limb that caught him retreated, curving into some sort of foot under the kraken, along with five others. It began walking toward them and away from the cliff. The last two large–and to Henry’s alarm–bone plated limbs hung to its sides like arms.

In this sparsely populated area of the kelp reef, the water was barely forty feet deep, and the kraken, with its limbs curled under it, reached almost halfway to the surface.

“[Maurice… I think I’m moving you to my arm again. You’re too exposed for those things. Use your Skill on my arm as well, to be safe.]”

A wave of relief came off the crab, but it only lasted for a moment before the apprehensive eagerness was back to the forefront. The crab rubbed his pincers with nerves. “[Yeah, okay.]”

Henry quickly secured Maurice and, as if it knew they were in the middle of something, the Goliath screeched and surged toward them.

Henry spread his arms and let himself float higher. “[Keep an eye out for clones, Maurice.]”

A sheen of magic materialized over Henry’s skin as Trickster’s Resilience came to life. Mana sunk into his flesh and strengthened it.

The Goliath reached out with two arms in a wide sweep. As the noose tightened, the arms parted only ink.

Henry swam above the extended arms toward the kraken, limbs ready to grab on. “I get on its head, I win–”

A purple sheen of magic suddenly filled his vision, and he found himself locked in place.

Right over the edge of the cliff came out three clones, all glaring at him.

Maurice reacted quickly, activating his Domain, and imploded the head of the first one. Henry materialized a limb of mana that didn’t care for Telekinesis’ restriction, and the Arcane Arm cracked the second clone across the eyes, also bursting it into ink. With two clones down, Henry was able to brute-force through the restriction, making the last clone recoil from the backlash.

Henry shook his limbs free, right on time for the Goliath kraken to crack him across the stomach with one of its massive armored limbs.

The red-hued limb cut through the water as if it wasn’t even there. It sunk into him, never breaking through his skin, but it didn’t need to. A burning, sickening pain ran through Henry as his whole world turned upside down. Blood and bile were forced up his throat, and through the pain, Henry felt something burst inside him.

Through the pain and bewilderment, he saw another glowing, armored limb winding back.

Henry filled the space with ink and launched himself backward as he pumped mana into Arcane Regeneration. The magic burned within him, re-knitting his innards.

His sight cleared up. He hadn’t even noticed it had gotten dim. Henry kept swimming backward as he let himself heal and re-assess the situation. The kraken turned aside for a few seconds and stilled. Then it turned and focused back on Henry, and its plated arms lifted off the seabed.

“[I think there’s another clone around.]”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“[Not one. Two,]” corrected Maurice.

Henry eyed the kraken and for the first time in a while, he felt like maybe he bit off more than he could chew. That exchange had cost him nearly 10% of his mana reserves, and didn’t have much to show for it aside from two dead clones.

The Goliath kraken was unhurt aside from a severed extremity that was instantly healed, and there were two more clones around, ready to intervene at any time.

“[Maurice. Focus on the clones. I’m going to try and grab on to it. If it doesn’t work or we get too injured, we run. Make sure to keep your defenses high, okay?]”

“[What if you’re too hurt?]”

Henry exhaled, then rolled another loop around Maurice’s shell. The apprehension was still strong from the crab, and Henry wondered if it was affecting him or if it was the other way around. “[Then you run and hide. I’ll figure something out. Don’t put yourself in danger. Actually, do you want to go into my Maw for this?]”

Maurice’s answer was immediate, and his resolve smothered the fear for a moment. “[No. We win together or we lose together.]” Then after a short pause, the crab looked down at Henry. “[Who’s getting the Core, by the way?]”

Henry chuckled. “[Whoever gets the kill, I guess? I think it’ll still count for the achievements, though I wouldn’t say no to some levels and stats.”]

Maurice threw both pincers up. “[That just means you’re getting–]”

The kraken roared and threw itself forward. Henry disappeared into a cloud of ink, then brought Maurice closer. “[Alright, let’s focus. I’m going to do everything I can to latch on to its head. Things… might get rough.]”

Henry extended his awareness to the little minds in his limbs and readied himself.

The kraken rushed him again, and Henry pulled the focus of all but one of his limbs toward a single task: freeze the kraken for a second. Just enough for him to get into position. As for the remaining mini-brain, it should focus on keeping Maurice safe.

Henry had tested the Skill a bit while he’d been resting. With this command, he expected the limb to dodge or move around by itself, and constantly reposition to maximize the distance between itself and danger without Henry having to control it.

The kraken closed in. The red sheen surged out of the hardened tentacles and water seemed to phase through it for a moment. Before it could attack, Henry activated Telekinesis.

It was as if his consciousness was a hand, and he’d just grabbed a sea urchin with full strength.

The kraken came to a full stop, but everything in Henry’s head and limbs screamed with pain. His muscles and limbs–all but one–spasmed, their nerve centers overloaded by the sheer amount of pushback they were getting from the kraken.

Still, there was enough focus and clarity to power through.

Henry wrapped his arms around the Goliath kraken’s head, then activated his suckers while shoving mana into Regeneration. That helped alleviate the blinding migraine he was experiencing. By this point he’d already dropped Telekinesis and the kraken swung and missed, but Henry was slowly recovering. His senses and focus sharpened as the backlash from Telekinesis faded.

Being this close to the monster, the size difference was stark.

Henry opened his beak and used Bite. Right above the kraken’s eye. He struggled to get to the brain, but that wasn’t a deal breaker. Henry pumped in as much Sea Serpent venom as he could and prepared for phase two.

Mana was trickling into his arms through Draining Touch–but not from Maurice. Thankfully, the Trait wasn’t difficult to direct in its effect; even though it wasn’t the most efficient, it was better than nothing.

The kraken’s limb swung up and whacked Henry on the right side of his arms.

“Ouch. You dick.”

A quick check on Maurice told him the baby-sitting limb was doing fine keeping its passenger away from their enemy, and Henry noticed the crab was shooting bubbles at an empty spot above them.

The clones. Probably.

Henry didn’t let that distract him. Instead, he set the priorities for half of his Octominds: keep Arcane Regeneration going, no matter what happened.

This one he wasn’t really sure of. He’d tried testing it by having one of the Octominds assist him with maintaining his healing Skill, but it had felt like he was doing the task, though with minimal process. As if it was a long practiced habit. He didn’t know if the limbs would continue the task if Henry himself were unconscious. Like when sleeping. Or if he was knocked out. But he remembered how the previous D-Rank Goliath had healed through brain injuries, and Henry assumed that was either the benefit of a special Trait, or a function of the Octominds.

Henry leaned toward the latter. Octopuses had mini-brains in their arms, and if his own case was of any indication, krakens gained an improved form of these processing centers. In this scenario, Goliath krakens could continue healing even when their main brain was spiked.

Which brought him back to his current predicament. He could get knocked out, and he needed to constantly keep healing, no matter what happened.

Henry pumped more venom in and tried to dig deeper with his beak. The monster’s extraordinary healing kept up with his assault, re-knitting the kraken’s flesh as soon as Henry cut into it. With the arms he had around his target, he activated Razor and sliced through the Goliath’s flesh.

“[This might take a while, Maurice.]”

The crab had just swatted a clone from closing in on Henry. The copy exploded into a cloud of ink, and Maurice raised a pincer. “[We got this!]”

Henry focused on his task and continued digging with his beak. He was hopeful, but through his limbs he could vaguely sense the mana still left in the beast.

It didn’t feel like they’d even made a dent in the kraken’s monstrous reserves yet.