CalCroissant
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1.54
🕑 Added 2024-08-09 13:51:46 +0000 UTC1.54: The Trickster (Pt.3)
A bone-spiked arm cracked into Henry’s right side as he swung back with a flail that carried all of his empowerment but Krakenbane’s Wrath. He wanted to get a feel for the kraken’s new form first and, if possible, latch on to activate his mana stealing abilities.
The Trickster’s strike rocked him, but he weathered it. The spike sunk into his arms, though the power behind it lacked compared to the previous lance-attacks.
Henry exchanged a couple of hits back and forth with the giant monster, using an Ink Clone from time to time to gain some cover. After a handful of extra exchanges, he reached a conclusion: the kraken’s enlarged form was not stronger, nor was it more resilient. It had more reach, and it looked more monstrous–which was something that made Henry’s intestines twist into knots–but it wasn’t more powerful.
It was as if its smaller size hadn’t come with much penalty. Henry pelted it with some Molten Projectiles from a distance and rushed after them, hoping to distract enough to grab on to it. “I wonder if that’s an Alter Physique upgrade.”
The kraken covered its face with its arms to defend from the hot projectiles. When it realized Henry was upon it, it tried to create some distance, but Henry was ready. He grit his beak and used all of his Octominds to lock it in place with Telekinesis. The backlash slammed into his brains like a sledgehammer, but it was worth the pain.
Henry had a first arm on the trickster’s oversized flank and was reaching with a second when his arms spasmed and seized. Purple electricity arched upward and through his flesh; for a moment, Henry could swear he tasted ozone through his beak and arms. It lasted for a few seconds, and when it stopped Henry used ten healing charges. He watched his health climb back up as he worked to secure his grip on the Trickster.
“[sTop. STOP!]”
“[Nu-uh.]” Henry seized again as another jolt of electricity coursed through him. Mana began to trickle into his arms through Draining Touch, and when he regained control of his muscles, he had three arms grabbing onto the squirming kraken. It was hitting him with every weaponized arm it had, but his magical scales and other defensive abilities were enough to absorb most of the blows. The rest was easy enough to heal through, either with his subsumed Hoard Vitals or through Arcane Regeneration. Mana had been getting low for a bit, but now that he had his grippers on the kraken, Henry was practically inhaling its mana through Draining Bite.
The kraken screeched and zapped him again, but Henry was secure, tightly gripping it now with four arms. Two arms were barbed clubs, and a couple of Octominds along himself were working on making a harpoon-like barbed spike with a few simple joints along the arm to allow him to push and pull. “You can zap me all you want, you little shit. That’ll only give me the resistance faster.”
Scales of the Serpent and Draining Bite of the Arcane Kraken had been good calls. His mana was back to almost half, while his health was stable above 70%.
He could do this. He could outlast the kraken.
“[reLeAse mE!]”
Henry brought his articulated spike up and gazed at it, then gave the kraken a dark look. All the attacks and ambushes flashed in front of his eyes. Its glee when it toyed with them, when it electrocuted Maurice and forced him out of the fight. His anger resonated with the Skill.
“[Release you? Sure. I’m working on it.]”
Without waiting for a response, Henry triggered Krakenbane’s Wrath. A rush of strength surged through him, and for the first time, he felt genuine fear from the kraken.
With every arm he was using to hold on, Henry activated Razor Limb, and blood surged around him. The kraken screeched with rage, and it even made him flinch. He felt the call nudge something in his mind, and finally understood what was happening.
It was calling for help. This area might soon swarm with krakens.
Henry sunk his beak into its side and began pumping it full of tranquilizing and neurotoxic venoms. He tried to get a bead with his harpoon on the spot right above the kraken’s eyes, but he couldn’t line up because of the giant’s thrashing.
He switched for the flails instead, and Tentacle Whipped it square in its head. It roared again and zapped him hard enough that he lost his sight, forgetting where he was for a handful of seconds before he triggered a dozen more charges of hoarded health, then cracked it on the head one more time.
“Good thing Maurice’s safe.” The last electric shock had been more powerful than anything it had used so far, but his Constitution came through, as always.
Three or four more hits later–enough time for the venoms to take hold–the kraken was dazed enough for him to get a good angle with his bone-harpoon.
Henry activated Krakenbane’s Wrath again and felt the kraken’s dark rage and fear, then watched as the red-coated harpoon sunk between the kraken’s eyes like butter.
The kraken screeched again, but Henry didn’t let up. He pushed the harpoon deeper and bit down harder, injecting everything he had in his beak and in his suckers through Voracious Grip. And when his venom ran out, he reactivated Draining Bite.
Once it ran out of mana, it wouldn’t be able to heal back up.
A minute later, the first D-Rank kraken showed up. Then three more. Then six.
Henry kept his grip on the kraken, and with one of his arms, created a noose around the Trickster’s arms and pulled them both to the seafloor.
He wasn’t worried about D-Rank krakens, but just in case, some cover–and the seabed below him–would give him something to put his back to.
The first Stoneskin kraken spread its arms and showered him–and the Trickster–with burning hot ink. Henry laughed while the Trickster raged and screeched.
He had Inner Furnace. He had defensive abilities, he could heal, and he had a battery of mana he was plugged into.
They would not win a battle of attrition. He only had to keep an eye out on the stonefish, who seemed content to watch this little war go on, but other than that?
Henry’s weeks of suffering, of fighting for his life, and his relentless training were going to bear fruit.
Henry lay on his back, hearts still thrumming in his ears. Pain pulsed through his limbs, but he refused to let go. He didn’t know if he’d be able to track it if it disappeared again, even though it had run out of mana.
He was getting low himself. With only a fifth of his reserves, he didn’t want to risk losing his prey–or find something that could pose a threat to him.
Thankfully, whatever the Trickster had been using to control the other krakens seemed to consume at least some amount of mana. Now that it was out, the remaining krakens looked at their siblings’ burnt, electrified, and sliced corpses, and decided they’d rather be somewhere else.
So now it was only a sore, burnt and exhausted Henry, and a dying Trickster kraken who occasionally kicked up some sand from their tired struggle. The stonefish fingerlings–if they could even be called that–were taking turns stealthily creeping close to pick up some of the dead krakens in their mouth before darting away.
Henry would have liked to keep some of the meat, but at least he’d gotten most of the cores. He didn’t get all of them, as some had died to the Trickster’s crossfire. Unfortunately for them.
He breathed deep–and even that hurt–then glanced at his interface. There was a wall of notifications waiting for him, which he only saw a part of when he quickly bought Lightning Discharge to help him deal with the onslaught of the little army of krakens.
Henry was tightening his grip and stabbing another spike–the first had broken–into the kraken’s head when its voice reached him.
“[... thing… not… of us. Curse… you. …monster]”
Henry stilled for a second. Then continued. It wouldn’t be able to heal itself soon.
“[Maybe. Maybe I am,]” said Henry. “[The Bahamut whales are monsters as well. To some, I’m sure. Maurice’s a monster. I’m sure there’s a lot of friendly monsters out there. Whether they look like me or look like who I used to be. So I don’t mind being one. But if you come after me, or after my friends, or be hostile–as you have been–then I will be the monster you’re seeing.]”
Henry felt a weight lift off of his chest. The knot in his stomach untied itself. “[I still need time to accept this… but I’m alive. I have a friend. And I’m not going to die to the first jaw that comes my way. I look like a monster and it might get worse, but I’ll be okay.]”
He released his grip on the now lifeless kraken and pulled himself from under it before sitting on his arm and gazing down at his dead opponent.
A sense of deep sadness built up in his chest. “[I wish things had gone differently.]”
He didn’t think peace would have been an option. The kraken had immediately hated him as soon as it figured out he wasn’t a normal kraken. But he didn’t like… this. Having to kill something that could speak. The fight and challenge itself might have been fun, but the conclusion… less so.
“[A new kind of monster. Or maybe not so new. No, not new. I should have asked the whales if they’ve interacted with other intelligent life.]”
Something still resisted the name, but he couldn’t keep himself busy and keep running from it. He wasn’t Henry the Human anymore. He could use the appearance, appear human, maybe even shapeshift into one some day. But deep within, at least his body wasn’t that of a human anymore.
He had to accept it. Truly. And then he could move on.
Far behind, the stonefish rumbled, and began swimming toward him and the dead C-Rank kraken. Henry looked back at the greedy stonefish, then down at the Trickster. He wrapped a couple of arms around the Trickster and the giant octopus disappeared into his maw.
The stonefish roared, but Henry just swam up and away into the kelp forest.
He was done for the day.
A/N:
I hope you all enjoyed this release. I'll be back with three new chapters next week (and probably a new tier with a few more).
Thank you all for supporting me. I'm super grateful to you all, and after literally years of wanting to live off my creative work, I feel like I'm finally taking a step in the right direction (and actually getting close to my target).
Anyway, hope you all enjoy the weekend. If you want to chat about stuff, don't forget there's a discord!
cheers
Comments
Mr. Bigglesworth
I told you pitchforks would work!
calcroissant
Should have been, yes. Fixing it!
Touch
“Ae tried to get a bead with his harpoon on the spot right above the kraken’s eyes” He?
