Henry woke up from his nap with a mild headache and took in the cave ahead of him.

Maurice was staring at a pile of discarded claws and bone-shells. Unmoving. It had been two days since Stormsong’s breakthrough with mana condensing, and Maurice was still working on his nerves centers. Whenever he believed he had it, Henry would make a bone-shell for him, but so far the auxiliary minds' skill refused to transfer. It was getting to the crab.

Stormsong was lying on her stomach, right on the cave floor. She was practicing one of her many mana manipulation routines—which she’d taught Henry and Maurice. A somewhat even circle of mana was rotating around her left fin. It slowed down over a few seconds, then began rotating in the other direction.

As for Henry, he finally managed to get the technique to create the mana-blob stuff working, and even unlocked an upgrade to Mana Nexus for it. But it was messy, it cost him a lot of mana, and it was a challenge to work with.

The mana itself was raw. Pouring his will and intent into it was… a whole other matter that he wasn’t sure how he should tackle. Though thankfully, he could always recreate more mana-matter to practice on.

It was a great success for only a couple of days of work, but one problem was clear to him as he took in the miserable state of the cave; they were all bored out of their minds.

“[We have to take a break.]”

***

Henry couldn’t believe his eyes as a large squid began tracking his lure-clone. “[We got one. Holy crap. We finally got one to leave the shoal by itself.]”

They were finally about to grab one of these things. Henry had confirmed they weren’t sapient a couple of days ago by using one of his blood clones, so he was looking forward to this.

Maurice clacked both claws in anticipation, but Stormsong wasn’t as excited.

“[It’s a bit strong. No?]”

Henry eyed the identification message. It showed two question marks, and considering its size compared to some other specimens, it should be pretty close to level 50. Powerful, sure. But all three of them were C-rank now. “[It might be a bit intense. We should dump everything at it quickly. I’ll immobilize it by its shell so you guys can hit it. Maurice will aim his implosion between its eyes, and you… Can you do stuff aside from hitting fast?]”

“[I can harry and distract it. It shouldn’t be able to catch me. I know that’s not exactly what you’re looking for… But I’m usually better at longer fights. Not ambushes. Are you sure you’ll be able to stop it?]”

No. Henry was not sure, considering what they’ve observed from the nautiloids. Through their fight with the cachalots, he knew the squids could propel themselves fast to stab with their top shell. A lot faster than they should be able to move, which meant that it must be skill-based and so could be further boosted with a concept. That was the only explanation for why they could shoot like rockets onto their targets.

It also reminded Henry of the Trickster Kraken’s attack. When it had created a bone-lance with its arms to stab into him.

“[It might be able to empower a movement ability with concepts, which would make it hard to immobilize. But I should still be able to lock it down with my Octominds, and if that’s not enough, I’m full on Arcana and Fury as well. I’ll have some Fury-aspected mana ready just in case it overpowers my Telekinesis; if that’s not needed, then I might use it to kill it faster.]”

The squid was now barely a dozen yards away. Henry made his clones swim past their hidden spot in disarray, which only made the squid rush after it faster.

“[Now!]”

A purple haze instantly materialized around the black and white ringed shell, and the squid came to a full stop. Panicking, it beat its tentacles and pushed water with its siphon, but it didn’t move an inch.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The powerful resistance slammed against Henry’s telekinetic grip, and he was ready to empower his ability at any moment, but for now he just reached out and gripped one of the squid’s tentacles. Mini-implosions began sending tremors up the shell, caving in the squid’s tough flesh.

Henry used Voracious Grip to inject a cocktail of venoms into the squid at the same time as he sent a pulse of electricity into it. The larger monster seized up and stopped pushing against his grip while its smooth skin began mottling and showing burn marks. Blue blood clouded the waters around them as Maurice’s implosions slowly dug into the squid’s head, while Stormsong had her skills active and waited to intercept the squid if it broke out of Henry’s grip.

As Lightning Discharge coursed through the cephalopod, Henry quickly checked through his weakened connection to his clones and refreshed their orders to warn him in case anything began moving toward them. Especially the shoal of squids.

There were only four blood clones, all barely managed by two pooled Octominds. For his remaining Octominds, two were on emergency heal and escape, and four were helping him lock down the squid. Unfortunately, the fear and alarm of the monster was turning to rage, and Henry began seeing the wisps of mana and concepts flake off its flesh and shell.

The shell lit up, and the squid surged backward, tearing through Henry’s telekinesis as if it were made of cobwebs. The kraken groaned inwardly at the pain that pierced into his head, and instantly channeled some healing to reduce the backlash’s effect while he prepared himself for yet another Telekinesis grip. This time, it was going to be empowered.

The squid barely had a half a second of freedom before the dolphin drove its rostrum into the tough shell and brought the monster back down to the seabed. The monster squirted ink to hide itself, but it was too large and the seas were too bright, bathed in the golden light of the Current as they were. Henry clamped his concept-empowered Telekinesis around the shell once more and the squid flailed its tentacles, but it couldn’t move an inch.

Unfortunately, the damage was done. The shoal had noticed them, and the trio were now on a timer as they continued their onslaught on the large squid.

Henry quickly fashioned a bone-spike on a hinge joint. Thanks to the upgraded Partial Shapeshift, coupled with the forms being memorized, it barely took a second. He lined the spike right under where the shell started, and shoved it through the squid’s tough flesh. Iron-tasting blood surged around his arm while Henry spoke to the others.

“[Squids are coming. They’ll be here within the minute.]”

Five seconds later, the squid stilled. Even though Henry had been using his conceptual mana to empower his Telekinesis, his head was pounding with pain. A couple more seconds and he believed he’d start seeing double, or he would have had to release his grip.

Henry ignored the pain and quickly stored the carcass. He picked up the crab and began swimming toward their home. Two blood clones moved to distract and intercept the shoal. The crab chattered as they quickly crossed the distance separating them from safety, though his eyes stalks were still watching behind them while Stormsong used clicks to scout their surroundings.

Maurice was in a good mood, though. “[We got it! I’m curious what I’m going to get from the shell. I bet it’s tasty, too.]”

Henry was nearing the cave. He crested over a reef and went down. He began twisting himself to dive into their home when he saw a splash of color for an instant, right before a claw slammed into his face, tearing part of his eye out and sending him reeling back out of the cave.

“[Henry!]”

A pulse of regeneration knitted the deep wound in the side of his face, and he saw the culprit staring back at him, claws raised for another hit.

[Deepflare Mantis Shrimp (C) - Lvl ???]

[Phantomclaw Mantis Shrimp (C) - Lvl ??]

The one who hit him was the higher-level specimen. Its exoskeleton was a bright blue that occasionally flared with painfully bright lights, while the second had its claws braced for attack as well, with two more manifested claws that reminded Henry of Arcane Arm.

They had squatters. And the squids were on their heels.

“[Let’s go. Stormsong, we need to move. Do you mind?]”

The dolphin bobbed her head and approached him. Henry stored her in his Maw and swam away from their temporary home. Two of his blood clones were watching the squids on his heels, and the damn things were closing in on him.

“[They’re getting close. I need to store you too, Maurice. I might have to use my concepts to hide, and I don’t think it would work on you.]”

“[…Yeah. That’s fair. Be careful, okay?]”

Henry tapped the crab on his head. “[I’ll be fine. See you in a minute, buddy.]”