It was with Stormsong’s dire warning in mind that the trio began working on luring in their first squid.

While they waited under an isolated outcropping of rocks and coral, Henry used one of his blood clones as bait. Using Mimicking Arms, he gave its skin an almost glossy look and began flashing vibrant colors in a pattern. It barely took a handful of minutes for a couple of squids to detach from their group and hover closer, but that wasn’t the plan. Henry made his clone duck under cover and blend with the white and gold sand until the squids lost interest.

“[There were only two,]” grumbled Maurice after a few seconds. The crab fidgeted for a second, peering at the shoal of squid in the distance, and clacked his pincers.“[Are you sure I can’t work on my Clawminds while we wait?]”

Henry moved his clones to another angle and turned back the lure-pattern once the squids were far enough away.“[Do I really need to answer that? And two’s too many. We want only one of them. So we can kill it fast before it alerts the others. Or before the rest of them notice. With two of them, it’ll take us a lot longer to put both of them down, and then we might have the whole shoal after us.]”

The dolphin blew a thin stream of bubbles, but otherwise stood still under Henry’s camouflage. The bubbles tickled, but Henry didn’t twitch while Stormsong spoke in their minds.“[We still don’t know what they can do. Aside from the shell stabbing. We have to be careful. At least until we know more about their capabilities and their limitations.]”

The crab deflated. “[Yeah… You’re right.]”

Henry could empathize. He wanted to be back in the cave as well, working on his many little research projects. Before they’d gone out on this little hunt, he’d managed to slightly modify [Rupturing Bite of the Sea Drake] so it could be applied by a bone spike instead of a bite. A tiny, small change that literally took him thirty minutes and his whole mana reserve to imbue his desire and will into the structure.

The key was in the magical substance surrounding the concept shard. Henry had thrown his mana and focus all over it until enough of his intent seeped through. The odd connective tissue was what dictated what an abilities’ concept should do, but even though he succeeded in his attempt, he realized how primitive it had been.

He had basically brute-forced the ability, which wouldn’t fly if he wanted to modify an actual class skill, much less try to create something with any complexity. And he didn’t even have a chance to study an actual skill construct yet.

Lots to do. So much to do.

Henry grinned. Being in such a dangerous area was stressful, but these different new leads he could explore and study were keeping him busy enough for the stress to not get to him.

The lure-clone continued its hypnotizing flashing. A trio of squids began making their way to his lure, making the kraken curse and promptly hide the clone once more.

“[These things are really cautious… It’s annoying.]”

The more he observed the squids, the clearer it was becoming. The shelled cephalopods really didn’t venture away from the shoal by themselves, which, even though it was a detriment to Henry’s plans, made total sense considering the environment they were in.

A buddy-system deep undersea.

Henry’s musings were cut off as he noticed the dolphin’s head snapping to the side all of a sudden.

She held herself still, then her voice reached his mind. “[Something’s coming. Clicks. Beyond the squids.]”

Dolphins?

Henry peered beyond the shoal of squids and waited. A second later, he heard them. Soft clicks in an accelerating pattern. And clearly, he wasn’t the only one who could hear them.

The squids closed ranks and began swimming toward them, to Henry’s alarm. “[Back to the cave. Quick.]”

Whatever was coming toward them, he didn’t want to be caught in the middle of it.

Stormsong seemed to hesitate for a second, then her eye swiveled to Henry.“[I’m too large to hide. Store me.]”

Henry reached over and wrapped his large arm around her, and the dolphin popped into his Maw. He began reaching over to the brightly colored crab, but Maurice clacked a pincer at him.

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“[I want to see!]”

“[Of course you do,]” sighed Henry. He wrapped his second arm around the crab and shot out across the seabed toward their home-cave. It was a bit further to the side, and closer to the cliff wall, so hopefully whatever was coming after the squid would keep away from them.

Using the sight of one of his sentry-clones, Henry finally saw the source of the clicks come out of the gold-hued fog. A primal shiver ran through him.

Even he was probably not safe from these newcomers.

[Crimson Cachalot (B) - Lvl ?]

A massive, blood-red sperm whale-looking being slowly cut through the water toward the shoal of squids. Its head had a more aerodynamic shape, coming to a sharper, narrower point compared to the rectangular shape of its Earthly counterpart. The head was proportionally smaller as well, but considering this world had magic and skills, he doubted that its echolocation would be any weaker.

Two more appeared shortly after, coming through from the sides to encircle their prey. Henry triggered Riptide Rush to get to the cave faster, and he was halfway there when the first whale clicked.

It was like thunderclap went off above his head. It felt like the sound reached through his skin, flesh, and directly punched his brains.

Henry’s movement flagged for a second before he recovered and continued toward the cave. Blood seeped out of his eyes and beak, while his closest blood clone was instantly obliterated. From a further clone, he could see the squids flag as well from the sonic attack.

If that was even an attack.

One of the reasons swimming with sperm whales was not recommended—aside from the fact that wildlife shouldn’t be bothered—was that their echolocation could literally kill a diver if they got too close. By vibrating their innards to death.

Henry dove and slipped into their home-cave and used one of his larger arms to plug the exit, putting Maurice down before he pulled out Stormsong.

“[That hurts,]” said the crab as he rubbed his head.

Stormsong tensed as she came back out, until she realized they were in the cave. She stilled, head tilted to the side.“[What… I hear them. What were they?]”

“[Crimson Cachalots. They might be sapient, but I’ll be honest with you. I don’t want to get close and check. Not even with a blood clone.]”

They looked scary. What if he tipped them off to his presence with a blood clone? What if kraken was their favorite meal?

Henry shuddered. Nope. Not worth checking.

Stormsong peered out of the cave, joining both Maurice and Henry as they watched the giants hunt.“[I haven’t heard of them… But they’re intelligent. I can hear them. They’re giving each other directions. They… Shit. They noticed you—]”

Henry’s blood ran cold as he watched the cloud of blue blood and broken shells grow with every seconds.

“[–But they’re more interested in the squids.]”

A wave of relief washed over the kraken, but he still glanced at the dolphin. “[How are you hearing them? I could understand your people’s clicks—when you used it to talk, I mean. Why am I not getting anything here?]”

The dolphin wiggled her fins in a shrug. “[It’s a very low sound. Not all dolphins can produce it, but most of us can hear it. You might not be able to hear it.]”

Well. Fair enough.

The B-rank squids were able to finally chase the cachalots away, scoring a few mighty—and incredibly fast—stabs using their shells, but not before the whales had eaten their fill.

At least half of the shoal had been consumed by the three giants and, as Henry watched them swim back away into the distance, he wondered.

Would they come back?

In any case, with fewer individuals in the shoal, hunting the squids might get easier. Though maybe they should wait for a few hours before heading back out again.

Just in case.

“[Let’s take a break. Make sure they’re far and gone before we head back out.]”

Maurice continued to stare out into the world outside, then the eye stalk turned to Henry. “[Do you think we can pick up some of the shells later?]”

“[Yup. We might even find some meat. If scavengers don’t clean it up, that is.]”

Stormsong stared at them for a moment before she swam deeper into the cave and came to a rest on a sandy stretch. “[Your ability to copy skills is cheating. Lucky bastards.]”

Maurice smugly wiggled his arms, while Henry stared back for a moment as an idea began to take form. Out of his storage, he pulled the blood concept shard and stared at it for a second.

What if I could crystallize something out of Hunger or Shiftiness?

He looked up at Stormsong. “[Do you know how to make the congealed mana stuff around skills? If you can help me crack that, I might have a solution for you.]”