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Undersea Reincarnation - 2.15: One chance
🕑 Added 2024-10-02 13:54:03 +0000 UTCA/N: Happy Wednesday!
Hope you're are doing well. This is going to be another smaller week as I'm reaching the end of my bandwidth. The launch of the new story is close, and now I need to do some editing and prep and all that. We'll be back to a regular schedule very soon and I'm super thankful for your patience. Also I didn't want to cliff you all, so here's both chapter of the week!
Far above Henry, his last clone was on its way. It wasn’t far anymore. Barely a minute or two away, he thought, which was well and good, but he had no clue what he could do with it. It was a D-rank clone that would be vaporized as soon as Sundots looked in its general direction.
What was he supposed to do now?
The B-Rank dolphin continued clicking, roaming in a larger and larger area below him. Sundots was completely off-base, still, but Henry doubted his mimicking skill would last that long. He could feel the soft buzz that filled his body beginning to fade, something he was sure was linking him to the aspected mana. The skill itself would probably last indefinitely, as he was used to it, but the part that was allowing him to slip the dolphin’s detection was about to fade.
Calmly and slowly, Henry pulled more enhanced mana out of Shiftiness and Misdirection and blended them. Next, recalling the sensation he associated with Mimicking Arms, he willed the construct to suck in the prepared mixture.
Henry felt the mana trickle into the skill and prayed the process wasn’t noticeable. At the same time, he forced his panic down. There was something he knew deep down when he pulled the aspected mana.
He wouldn’t have another recharge.
He’d felt it, instinctively. A certain brightness—or clarity—became muted in Shiftiness and Misdirection. Like a fading candle. He was sure it would refresh with time, but it wouldn’t be fast enough for another boost to his stealth.
Henry needed something to distract and get rid of the dolphin.
But what?
“What are the options here? Fight or flight. A fight’s too risky. But I won’t be able to flee from him. No way. So I need a distraction.”
From the corner of his mind, through two of his Octominds, he could look down at the area his main body was in. Through the clones, he looked around as a new idea began taking form.
“It’ll have to survive… And I’ll have to be quick.”
Henry watched the dolphin below as he assigned two more Octominds to the clone. Hopefully, he’d find what he needed.
***
The buzzing Henry could feel through his body guttered out after approximately five minutes. A second later, Sundots’ head snapped up toward him.
Henry quietly detached from the giant algae stalk and readied himself. He loomed over the dolphin. Henry was easily three times its size, but while his own weight was spread out around his body and arms, the dolphin was compact. Concentrated in a much smaller and stronger form and, if that wasn’t enough, it had more than a hundred levels on him.
[Spotted Dolphin (B) - Lvl ??]
Henry set two Octominds on healing duty. Both were to watch his brain functions, and if they were at any time compromised, the Octominds would trigger the fast—and more expensive—surge of Arcane Regeneration, as well as ten healing charges.
“[You seemed a lot friendlier last time.]”
The dolphin slowly swam up and came to a stop around twenty feet away. His cold gaze was difficult to hold, and Henry struggled not to look away. The dolphin’s presence pushed at him, not as intensely as it had back in the dolphins’ home, but it was almost a physical thing. Henry couldn’t tell if this was a magical effect or not, as he could see no concepts in effect, but now wasn’t the time for such investigations.
A moment later, the Sundots’ voice reached his mind. “[Save us time and get Seasong out. I will not repeat myself, kraken.]”
While the dolphin spoke, Henry felt a spike of excitement followed by immediate dread. An uncomfortably close distance above, still near the borders of the Current, the clone found a B-rank creature. Unfortunately, the being was a familiar deathly-white shark. An Otodus Giant Shark.
Now, how was he supposed to bring it down without his clone dying instantly? In any case, he needed to buy some time.
“[Hello to you, too. How’s it going?]”
The dolphin did not respond. Instead, a green hue began surrounding Sundots like an aura.
Henry relented. Sort of. He still needed time.“[If anything happens to me, you’ll never see her again.]”
The green light intensified, and there was a dark amusement in the dolphin’s tone.“[I’ve killed my fair share of your kind. If she’s not in your storage skill, then it’s only a matter of time before I locate her. If she is, she’ll come right out once I turn your carcass to mush.]”
Henry began shapeshifting his arm to allow for the leviathan tooth—and barely had time to see the cylinder of green light that caught him in the stomach.
The projectile dug into his flesh as if it was made of rubber. He felt his organs being jostled while he was shoved through the water until the momentum of the projectile spent all of its energy. When it stopped, Henry looked for what had hit him and saw nothing.
Had that been water? Henry channeled some healing into the site. It hadn’t torn into his skin, but he could feel bruising both inside and out. Then he activated all of his defensive abilities while his clones tried unsuccessfully to lure the giant shark down.
The predator wasn’t very interested.
Another cylinder began shaping itself up on top of the dolphin, followed by two more.“[Huh. Tougher than expected. Interesting. Let’s see how these do.]”
The cylinders narrowed over the course of less than a second, then flashed forward once more. Henry immediately activated a pulse of Trickster’s Domain to dispel the skill as it closed in on him, then quickly pushed mana into Trickster’s Fortitude, reinforcing his flesh and defense as he raised his arms to tank the hit. Meanwhile another of his arms continued shape-shifting.
The green light surrounding the water lances weakened, but it wasn’t fully dispelled. Unfortunately, that didn’t weaken the water carried within them.
The three water projectiles punched through his reinforced flesh like bullets. Henry groaned as blue blood colored the surrounding water, but it wasn’t too bad.
Far above, the white shark stopped roaming and turned around. It seemed like it had detected the blood, but it wasn’t enough for it to plunge and track the source.
Still, that gave Henry an idea.
Henry pushed more mana into Arcane Regeneration, and his wounds knit themselves up. They hadn’t dug too deep into his flesh, thankfully, but he could see those water lances easily punching through his whole body if he’d had any less Toughness. His defensive abilities most certainly helped as well.
Two short clicks came out of the dolphin’s throat, then more green light surrounded him.“[Incredible. How are your defenses this high? Is it a skill?]”
“[Will you leave us me alone if I tell you?]”
Henry didn’t mind the chatter. He had to think of a way to get on the dolphin and tear into him. Sundots’ blood might be the key to draw the white shark down here.
“If I run at him, he might make it a point to keep his distance.”
He’d have to get on the dolphin instantly. In the blink of an eye.
More columns of green spread around the dolphin, all facing the kraken. These were even narrower than the last round, and Henry felt as if he was looking down the barrel of a mini-gun.
“Shit. I can’t tank this. Dispelling does nothing to the pressurized water, and if I’m blinking on him, I can’t miss. I’ll have one shot at this.”
Bubbles blew out of the dolphin’s blowhole, and it almost looked like Sundots snorted at him.“[Of course not. You’ll pay for wasting my time. And for taking Seasong. Plus, I’ve never had a kraken as tough as you. Can’t say I’m not curious.]”
Henry summoned two ink clones and readied a shot of Inkjet. In his arm, a leviathan tooth was set and ready for stabbing. “[It’s not like I kidnapped her. She wanted to leave. Who am I to say no?]”
“[Your opinions and excuses don’t matter.]”
The columns glowed brighter and shot out, but Henry had already disappeared in a cloud of ink. As the bullets of pressurized water cut through the distance toward where he’d been, Henry was already moving, diving, while two of his clones shot upward.
Henry’s eye peeked out of the ink, and as soon as he saw his target he triggered Blink.
Mana surged out of his stomach in a maelstrom of familiar and strange concepts, and Henry felt as if he’d just been sucked through an impossibly narrow and dark tunnel before the lights of the Current once more filled his sight. Henry had the chance to see a cloud of ink being riddled by deadly jets of pressurized water, and right below him, barely a couple of feet away, a large dolphin who was tilting its head to see what had appeared above him, eyes disbelieving.
Henry’s arms shot down, while all of his free Octominds clamped down on the dolphin with Telekinesis. Two green walls materialized around him as he put an arm on the dolphin. Henry’s vision twisted, then his whole body exploded with pain.
