Henry added another Octomind to combat the effect the kraken was having on him as he partially parried another lancing attack. This time, he only had one of his arms injured, while his counterattack was fully stopped before even landing.

The kraken flitted back, and its eyes were the last thing he saw as it disappeared again into the bloodied waters.

Henry’s stomach tightened. He could feel the kraken’s smugness. Its confidence. There was not an ounce of worry or fear from it.

It was still playing with them, while Henry’s mana was slowly but surely dwindling. Maurice had already needed to heal twice from the electric discharges, which added to his worries. Henry could go on for a while still, but his confidence felt frail.

“Focus.” Henry added another Octomind to watch his mood and stop himself from spiraling further when it dawned on him; he was using half of his Octominds just to keep his head in the game. To not let the kraken’s intimidation bring him to his knees.

That irked him. A ball of frustration and anger was building up in his chest, but he didn’t let it take over. He wasn’t fighting alone.

“[Maurice, I can put you in my Maw at any moment. Make sure not to push yourself, alright?]”

“[I’m okay. I almost have it. I think…]” Maurice was quiet for a few seconds, laser-focused on trying to find the Trickster before it got the drop on them. Henry didn’t like seeing how easy it was for the Trickster to hurt the crab.

Maurice opened his eyes. [“It’s coming from the bottom. 3… 2…]”

Henry tensed up. He didn’t look down, but he readied his attack. Right on cue, the kraken came out of the clear waters like an arrow, only to be met with a full swing of bone-spike flail to the face.

The bone-lance cracked, and kraken blood surged around them.

“[Yes!] shouted Maurice in his ear, and Henry forced his arms forward to grab the kraken. When they were about to touch it, the Trickster spoke.

“[STOP.]”

The strident voice echoed through his mind, and to his horror, he felt his arms stutter, disobeying him just enough for the kraken to slip away and disappear.

Henry looked down at his arms, then at the empty waters around him as his heart roared in his ears. He knew it would have plenty of tricks, but that wasn’t one he’d expected.

“[I got it this time. I feel it. It’s moving. But it’s not attacking yet,]” said Maurice, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“[Okay. Good job,]” said Henry, looking down at his arm. He triggered Shapeshifting Arm and created a second, larger flail, then added barbed hooks to both of them. He wished he could imbue them with venom.

“It ordered me around. That… thing.”

It was toying with them.

Henry needed to immobilize for a second, then he would give it every bit of venom he had in store. He would tear to pieces.

A sharp pain lanced through his beak, and Henry tasted blood. He hadn’t realized how hard he’d been gritting his beak. He quickly healed it and readied himself for the next attack.

“Calm down.”

As he waited, Henry couldn’t stop the turmoil in his own mind. With every clash, the storm was only growing worse.

Why did it have power over him? Why was it making him feel like this? Would Maurice be okay? Should he force him to hide?

There was one more dark thought, creeping at the edges of his thoughts. He didn’t want to give a voice to it, though it kept gnawing at him. Instead, Henry focused on the anger. On the next attack. On the image of the kraken caught into the bone hooks so he could tear it apart with his beak.

Maurice called out the next attack, and Henry waited until the last moment to swing both flails.

The kraken flew between them, and the flails cracked against a telekinetic wall surrounding the monster. The bone lance, with nothing to stop its trajectory, stabbed through one arm and into Henry’s stomach. It didn’t get too deep thanks to his Scales and Trickster’s Resilience. Unfortunately, neither the scales nor the bubble nor Arcane Fortification could do much against the electric charge that exploded through him, burning his flesh and traveling the length of his body.

“[suBmiT. oR DIE]”

The kraken’s will pressed in on him from every angle. Insidiously whispering to him to lower his arms and beg. The thought floated in his mind for a moment, before the outrage within him caught fire and burned through the doubt.

Henry leaned back and shot two Molten Projectiles at the Trickster. It blocked the first, but the second caught it in the face and made its skin sizzle. “[Fuck you.]”

The kraken screeched in his mind as it disappeared again, and Henry turned his attention to Maurice.

Henry didn’t worry about his own damage too much. He was already healing and his Constitution allowed him to take devastating hits–though he won’t be able to do so forever–but he couldn’t say the same about Maurice. A soft green hue was coming out of the shell’s entrance, and Henry could see some discolored burn marks on Maurice’s carapace.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“[I’m okay. Don’t worry. I can heal this. I can help.]”

His voice was strained, and there was no hiding the genuine fear coming off the crab. There was a lot of determination and resolve–more than what Henry was feeling–but Maurice was taking a significant amount more damage than Henry.

“[How much mana do you still have?]”

Maurice looked up at him and rubbed his claws together. Reluctance, and to Henry’s surprise–as he wasn’t used to feeling such nuances from the ability–a sense of frustrated helplessness.

Henry spoke to reassure the crab. “[I just want to know that you can still heal yourself. Save your mana and tell me where you sense it’s coming. Keep healing yourself, and if your mana gets under 20%, promise you’ll let me know.]”

“[I’m at 45%,]” said the crab after a few quiet seconds.

“[Maurice.]”

Maurice drooped. “[I promise.]”

“[Thank you.]”

The two waited for the next charge. This time, Henry was going to try something else. He often refrained from using Domain as the ability cost a lot, but he needed to immobilize the kraken enough to land a few solid hits. Maybe shove a spike into its brains.

“I can’t grab onto it with Maurice on my arm. But he won’t be out here for long…”

This fight was a bit too dangerous for the crab, and Henry would much prefer to have the crab safely tucked in his Maw. On the flipside, Henry wouldn’t have a way to tell where the kraken was coming from. At least not until it was about to land its hits.

“[Behind in 3… 2… 1…]”

Henry sent a flail arm dead center, expecting another lance-attack. Instead, a bladed tentacle whipped horizontally and hit Henry directly above his right eye. Pain shot through the side of his face and he flinched, but his defenses were a lot better at dealing with slashes than the lance-attack, so he was fine. Only the impact was painful, making his flesh pulse with pain.

“[Submit.]”

Henry glared back at the kraken. It wound its arm back, yellow and red rippling against pitch-black skin. Its glare and presence weighed on him, and the blood raged in his veins. Louder. Hotter. Drowning the doubts and nerves.

Almost everything he’d encountered and killed so far had been mostly beasts. Dangerous and powerful beasts that–now that they couldn’t pose a threat to him–he was happy to coexist with. Henry would even look away from non-aggressive krakens, if those existed.

But not this one. Not this kraken.

Henry glared back and felt the bitter venom filling his beak.

He wasn’t letting this one live. Not with everything it has done.

This kraken would die today.

He felt something swell in his stomach and burn outward, shoving the nerves and oppressive aura of the kraken, and something changed. Something within his soul.

Henry didn’t deign to respond, and glanced at the notification he’d received. He triggered Domain and channeled Tranquilizing Bite through it. A glowing, purple beak materialized above the Trickster, dripping with a ghostly pink liquid, and clamped down on the kraken. The Trickster’s temporary scales had faded, leaving a tough but perfectly pierceable skin. Henry’s projected beak had no issue tearing through it and delivering their payload.

The kraken’s shriek died in its throat and its limbs grew lethargic before they stopped swaying. Henry shot forward as a corona of red light spread across his flesh and skin, filling his muscle with a cold strength that made them feel like corded metal. A red tint took over his vision. He worried for an instant that this thing might affect his mind, but all it did was make the limp kraken in front of him glow in his sight. It made it look more real, and everything else seemed to fall away.

Henry didn’t mind that. The Trickster began pulling itself together, the venom barely affecting it for a second or two, when Henry’s barbed flail landed.

It was like hitting a watermelon with a club. Just as messy, and just as satisfying.

It had moved a bit, or he’d have hit square between the eyes. Instead he got it just below, near the base of its arms. The blow tore into its flesh, and one of its arms fully severed from the empowered impact. The magic surrounding him and his limbs had made the impact explosive, somehow. He wasn’t sure yet what had happened. But he liked what he was seeing.

The kraken shot away with some Skill, and tried to pull itself together. Blue blood rushed out of its severed limb and torn flesh, while the red hue from Henry’s Skill seemed to stick to the injuries. Henry watched as the kraken tried to heal itself as always, but this time the healing didn’t seem as effective. It struggled to close the wounds, only managing to mend them once it overpowered Henry’s Skill.

Henry would have grinned wide if he could. The Skill ate close to 30% of his reserves, but that was a small price to pay. And once he gripped the kraken, he was going to use its mana to beat it up.

“[What is this? Ohhh it looks hurt! What Skill is this? Why didn’t you tell me?]”

Henry stole a quick glance at the notifications. “[It’s a Class Skill. I guess it makes sense considering the Class name, but it would have been nice to get this sooner.]”

Class Trait Unlocked: Sense Foe (Kraken)(D): Sense the presence of your foes.

Class Skill Unlocked: Krakenbane’s Wrath(D): Become the harbinger of doom for all krakens. When channeled, your attacks are empowered against krakens while their offensive abilities are weakened against you.

The kraken’s hostility pressed out at him, but it was as if he had a nice fire that wouldn’t let it near him or his thoughts. It couldn’t affect him anymore.

“[You… die.]”

Henry readied himself. “[Be ready, Maurice. I might….have to…]”

The words stalled in Henry’s mind as realized what was happening. The kraken was growing larger; with every second that passed, its limbs seemed to grow longer. Thicker. The eyes shone and purple lightning arched down its limbs.

“[I hate to say this. I really, really do. But I think I better hide. I’m… low on mana. And I don’t want to distract you.]”

Henry spared a glance, surprised at the crab’s decision and–surprisingly–proud.

“[We’ll do some serious training after this so next time you won’t have to retire early.]”

“[Promise?]”

“[I promise.]”

Henry activated Maw through his arm, and the crab disappeared. He felt his weight land somewhere within his being. The crab felt much lighter this time.

“I wonder why that is,” Henry thought as he turned to face the kraken. It loomed above, imposing. At least four or five times his size.

Henry smiled, reminded of his encounter with the serpent. He rose in the water, unwilling to let the kraken look down on him. His limbs stretched below and around him. His Octominds were ready, freed from having to push away the Trickster’s influence.

“[I’m going to enjoy this,]” sent Henry.

The kraken screeched back and surged forward, and Henry spread his arms to meet it.