Henry’s green scales rippled and shone as he activated his remaining defensive skills. Mana coursed through his body, reinforcing his flesh while his limbs trembled with nerves. His heart roared in his ears but thankfully, the Octominds made it easy to keep a level head. Still, he couldn’t shake off that oppressive feeling whenever he faced the Trickster’s malevolent yellow gaze.

  The situation was… tense. Scratch that. The situation was a methane-filled chamber and Henry was waiting for the spark that was going to light everything on fire. He’d been mentally preparing for this encounter for a while, and the presence of the stonefish was a worrying variable, but he still felt out of his depth. He was worried. Scared of the powerful specimen below him. The glowing eyes stared up at him, but Henry felt small. He felt looked down upon, and his stomach twisted. He—

  Henry paused, frowning inwardly as he pulled on his Octominds.

  Is it using something on me?

  Henry couldn’t tell, but with all of his might, he pushed his emotions away, and his Octominds helped. He didn’t remember being this afraid of the kraken and as he kept his gaze on it, he noticed the green light begin to collect again. The yellow stripes rippled ominously as the kraken aimed its second shot, full of hatred and vindication, while behind him the stonefish continued its relentless approach. Henry brought his crab-carrying arm close. His body was urging him to run, but he shoved the thought away.

  Why would he run? He wasn’t even injured yet. His mana, health, and his healing charges were full.

  Henry pushed down on the primal impulse and spoke to his companion. “[Ready, Maurice?]”

  The crab had an eye on the Trickster, the second on the Colossus, then both swivelled to look at Henry. “[I’m maybe ready for one of them. Not both.]”

  Henry swam further into the whale’s territory, creating some distance from the two C-Ranks and making sure the kraken stayed between himself and the stonefish. When the Trickster’s second shot flew at him, Henry ducked, then ignored the run-off as it filtered into his gills and was instantly neutralized.

  “[We’ll play it by ear,]” said Henry as he eyed his two opponents, though most of his attention was on the Trickster.

  Maurice stared at him for a beat, then threw both claws up. “[What does that even mean?! What’s an ear? Why are we playing? We said if you’re using those expressions, you have to explain them first!]”

  Henry would have found that funny at any other time, but he couldn’t look away from the Trickster. It launched itself up toward him, eyes glowing, and Henry tensed for an instant before triggering Shapeshifting Arm and creating a bone-spiked flail.

  “[Sorry. I’m stressed,]” said Maurice after a moment. A stream of bubbles flew from the crab’s mouth and Henry exhaled, eyes still on the oncoming enemy.

  Even his eyes wanted to look away. As if he were a child glaring at an adult, or a student caught by a teacher. He didn’t dare move. He–

  Henry decisively shoved the thought away as he gritted his beak. “[It’s using something to intimidate me. Tell me if I start acting weird…]”

  He was sure. It wasn’t that he was not afraid. Of course he was. This was a big fight and a lot was on the line. But whenever he felt the smallest bit of fear or worry, it instantly—and suspiciously—ignited and blew out of proportion, threatening to lock him in a state of mental paralysis, which was very much unlike him.

  God knows Henry had been terrified many times every since this adventure had started, but he rarely, if ever, actually froze up. He’d panic and do something stupid, sure. But trembling and staring fearfully at an opponent?

  Never.

  Maurice confirmed the order and continued shooting at the Trickster. Through the Trickster.

  It took Henry half-a second to understand what he was seeing. He activated his mana sight and pushed his telepathic sense outward, only to sense no presence ahead, and to see nothing but a sea of green mana.

  “[It’s an illusion, Maurice. Stop shooting.]”

  Henry waited, expecting to sense the kraken at any moment. The waters still felt heavy. He still felt watched and something within him wanted to flee, but he stomped down on it as he glared at his surroundings.

  It’s using sort of skill that’s making me fear it. What is it? Just a fear thing? Or an authority thing? Yeah… it feels like. It feels like it wants me to recognize it as a superior of some sort. To ask for forgiveness and beg.

  The more he thought about it, the more confident he was getting and now that he knew what he was looking for, he felt the call in the intimidation skill. The pressure trying to smother his will. To make him surrender.

  It’s probably what made it capable of commanding the other krakens…

  The stalks of algae rippled as he scanned them, but there was no trace of the Trickster. When he was about to look closer, he saw the green light shine to his right. Henry dove as the ray shot above him, barely missing, and came face to face with a swinging bone-bladed limb.

  The kraken was thrice as large as him. Easily. Its limbs were thin and long, though a couple were short and thick, like Henry’s, and one of them was coming at him with incredible speed.

  Henry raised an arm in defense, and the bladed arm impacted with tremendous strength. His scales shone brighter, rippling along with Trickster’s Resilience’s defensive film–and the bladed arm slid right off, leaving Henry’s arm unscathed. For the first time since this short bout had started, he picked up something new from the Trickster.

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  Surprise.

  Further away, the stonefish had stopped, though it kept both of its boulder-like eyes on them. Henry liked to think that it felt threatened by another C-Rank creature, which would work great for him. The fact that its progeny were peeking out and scrounging the new spot would give that theory some credit.

  Henry let the Trickster retreat and watched it fade into the clear waters. His heart was still roaring in his ears, but the nervousness had lessened now that he had an explanation for it. “[It’s going to be annoying to keep track of. Can you sense it?”]

  “[Only a bit. Not always. Wait…no. I can’t tell where it is.]”

  Henry scanned the waters around him and waited. Even with mana sight, he couldn’t pick up anything beyond a dozen yards away other than the ocean of green and the few quickly dissolving specks from Maurice’s bubbles. If the kraken was nearby, he couldn’t see it, but he could still feel its presence pushing down on him. “[We’ll deal with the Trickster first. I’m going to try and latch on to it.]”

  The ol’ faithful. He wasn’t super excited about it. Henry didn’t know what else this thing was capable of, but he didn’t want to keep doing this song and dance over and over again. Hit and run was the Trickster’s style, and Henry wanted none of it. And, most importantly, he knew it would try to run if they ever got it injured enough.

  Well, he didn’t know for sure, but it was a safe assumption.

  Henry assigned one of his Octominds to keep an eye on the stonefish just in time for the Trickster to appear again. This time, Henry tried to freeze it with Telekinesis–which made his stomach twist with jitters–and watched it fly through the purple hue.

  “[Illusion again,]” he called out, frustrated at the weird emotional responses his body was forcing on him. Henry felt his surroundings and cursed. He couldn’t feel it. This time, he wasn’t the only one.

  “[Henry. I can’t tell where it is. I could with its clones, but it’s not working…]”

  Henry could feel the crab’s dismay. Maurice was still, eyes closed, desperately trying to detect their target with no success. Henry looked away and spoke to the crab. “[Don’t worry. I just need to grab it. Once I do, we’ll start paying it back.]”

  Maybe.

  The Trickster could use Telekinesis and it hadn’t even done that yet. It could have immobilized him before shooting its toxic rays. And even though Henry and Maurice were used to fighting it through its puppets, the real thing was a whole rank higher, which might explain why they weren’t able to pick up on its mental signature.

  “[Could be its stealth ability. Maybe that’s what is allowing it to hide its mental sign–]”

  “[Behind!]” shouted Maurice. Henry swung around and raised his arms defensively, expecting another ray or another slash. Instead, a lance of barbed bone ran him through, fully piercing one of his arms and sinking a couple of inches into his stomach.

  The Trickster had twirled three limbs together and made them into a bone-tipped lance that it lined up over its head. It had rushed forward in a head-butting motion which gave it first blood.

  The kraken began wrapping its arms around Henry’s head, and its beak shone green.“[You. diE.]”

  It’s words were like a command that wrapped themselves around his throat. Henry glared at it and grit his teeth. Using his Octominds, he pushed back against the weird authority that was pressing down on him.

  “[Amplified Impact and Unimpeded Arms,]” sent Henry in response. The kraken imperceptibly paused, and Henry whipped his bone flail.

  The flail cut through the water effortlessly. His whole arm sank into the Trickster’s flesh as if it was made of foam, shoving it away and literally making the monster fold around his arm. One second, the kraken had been preparing to shoot Henry point-blank, the next its arms were flailing as one of its eyes was freely bleeding. It had popped like a rotted grape.

  Henry grouped two Octominds and gave them a single command: keep the weird mental pressure from the Trickster away and bring it to his attention if he needed to add more Octominds to the process.

  He wound up for another hit as the kraken quickly regenerated, glaring.

  Henry rushed it, aiming to hit again before grabbing it, but his attack flew through an illusion.

  “[Wh–When did it move?!]”

  He hadn’t looked away from it for even a second…

  Maurice spoke in his mind. “[It’s really good with its illusions. That looked like a good hit, though.]”

  Henry had a moment of doubt for a second about whether his hit had landed, but he knew he’d tagged it. He’d felt the impact. “[It’s not as tough as the Goliath. But it probably has more tricks up its sleeve.]”

  Maurice’s eyes slowly turned to Henry. He raised a claw, then dropped it and went back to scanning their surroundings. “[The stonefish is still watching. Also, it looks like it’s settling in. It’s literally turning everything around it to–left!]”

  This time, Henry put most of his arms up. It was another lance attack, and it did a lot of damage, but before Henry could retaliate blue-ish light shot across the bone limb and a surge of electricity rushed through Henry, arcing through his own limbs. Henry’s muscles tensed and even locked for a second, then the electric effect was over.

  His skin tingled and ached, and a couple of arms twitched from the residual electricity, but the pain was already fading.

  “[You okay, Maurice?]” asked Henry as he whacked the kraken across the head again. This time, familiar scales shone along its skin and his attack had a significantly reduced impact, but it still sent the kraken reeling.

  “[Ouch–I’m okay. I’m okay! What was that?]”

  Maurice had used his regenerative ability, Henry noticed. He himself hadn’t needed to, as the electricity barely did any damage, but it had affected Maurice enough for the crab to use healing. “[Maurice, if you get low on health or mana, let me know.]”

  “[I will. I promise.]”

  Henry looked down at the crab and at his still twitching limbs, then focused back on the Trickster, and with a flick of Telekinesis, confirmed that he was looking at an illusion.

  He scanned the surroundings, readying himself, while a pit of anger began brewing in stomach.

  This is going to be a long fight.