The stone and root covered floor of the underwater forest came into view as Henry slowed his descent before shifting to a zig-zagging glide around the thick trunks until finally, after close to couple of minutes, he came out into the clear and open sea, at which point his massive eye swiveled to the multicolored shape right next to it.

  “[Maurice. Did you really need to sit there?]”

  “[Hmm?]”

  The movement of the eye seemed to once more test the crab’s curious tendencies, and his claw began inching closer to the yellow and black eye.

  “[Maurice.]”

  The claw froze. “[Yes?]”

  “[Get your claw away from my eye.]”

  The crab paused for a moment, then reluctantly lowered his arm. “[The voice in my head says to do it. It feels like I should at least try it. Just once?]”

  “[Those are called intrusive thoughts. We don’t listen to those.]”

  “[Why?]”

  “[Because they’re often weird and either will harm you or me.]”

  “[Are you sure?]”

  “[Sure of what?]”

  “[That these intrusive thoughts are bad?]”

  “[Pretty sure, yeah. And in the case of your claw poking my eye, then absolutely, yes. That’s bad.]”

  “[Hmm,]” said the crab as he kept staring at the giant eye. Henry could see the gears begin to slow once more, as if he was being hypnotized, and Henry decided it was safe to give another warning.

  “[You touch my eye and you’re swimming home. Or I’ll chuck you in the Maw.]”

  “[Okay! Okay, I won’t touch it. I promise.]”

  Henry glided along the seabed, and from above, he only saw the trail of sand part behind him as his camouflaged body flew along the rocks, corals and sands as he closed in on his destination. A few minutes later, he arrived at a cliff-like outcropping. Without hesitation, he dove past it into a deep, craggy valley that strongly reminded him of a submerged Grand Canyon and somehow, just like that national park, there was more stone than greenery. That, already, was somewhat alarming. After all, this stretch of the world was chock-full of nourishment and energies, and the fact that he could see no algae or rich coral life meant there was maybe something preventing it.

  Thalis is right over there, so it shouldn’t be too bad, Henry thought as he laid eyes on his target, just as Maurice turned and saw the monster appear out of the murky golden waters above them, parting a school of small blue fish as it did. A wave of nearly physical dread fell upon the two of them, and Henry channeled some mana into Trickster’s Fortitude just so he’d feel a bit safer.

  “[Henry, is that… what we’re killing?]”

  “[Yup.]”

  A pale specter came into view, gliding out of the murk. It had been roaming the canyon when Henry had found it thanks to his clones, its void-like eye taking in its surroundings with a cold, placid demeanor. Its pale white gills fluttered as water rushed out, and if Henry was to compare, he believed he was slightly larger than the creature. Though those jagged teeth would most likely tear a good chunk of him off if they managed to grab hold.

  [Otodus Giant Shark (B) - Lvl ??]

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  “[Are you sure we’re ready for this one?]”

  Maurice had begun channeling mana into his defensive skills as well, but there was no denying the spike of anxiety Henry could feel from him.

  Henry gazed up at the Otodus shark and considered his options on how he was going to lure it down. “[I’m pretty confident we can take it down. I’ll surely bleed for it, but I’ve got plenty of healing at my disposal. Now, it would be nice if I could find you a spot where there's no risk of you getting bitten off. Wanna sit on my arm?]”

  “[Okay…]”

  Henry plucked the crab with Telekinesis and deposited him near the tip of one his 60-foot-long arms, slowly wrapping his limb around the shell then around itself until there was a clump of flesh out of which two minuscule arms and a face were visible.

  Damn I’m huge, he thought, then he turned his attention to one of his idle Octominds. “Keep this arm safe from danger. Make sure Maurice is always facing the shark.”

  With that done, Henry turned his attention back to the crab. “[The arm should keep you always facing the shark. Just shoot it and I’ll handle the rest. Also, I think it has some sort of magical effect to scare other predators away. Or cause its prey to freeze up. The Maurice I know would be pretty excited by this. I think it’s just affecting you a bit more than me.]”

  The crab stared at him for a moment, then his eyes tilted back to stare at the shark as indignation began wafting out of his mind like smoke.

  “[…Let’s kill it.]”

  Not needing any further encouragement, Henry kept still and summoned the illusion of a flailing giant seal half an arm’s length away before he surrounded it with a cloud of blood.

  The shark suddenly veered closer, but it wasn’t committing to the dive just yet, and Henry cursed.

  I wish I could create illusory scents… But then again, I could do something else.

  Henry extended two arms close to the illusion, and with a flick of one arm, he cut deep into the second.

  Blue blood surged out of the wound, floating in and out of the fake red blood, and Henry glanced up.

  Gotcha.

  The shark’s pace picked up instantly. A corona of disturbed water began swirling around it as it dove toward the seal, and Henry tensed. He had to grab on to it and then dump everything he had in his arsenal all at once. Even though he believed he could win this fight, the longer it would take, the higher the odds of him walking away either severely injured or empty-handed. And if—

  Henry wrenched his arms away just as the shark crashed into the bedrock like a boulder thrown through a glass house, and out of the explosion of dust and rubble, a white, rocket-like shape zipped out and began maneuvering for another bull-rush.

  “[It’s so fast! Aaah it’s coming again. At us!]”

  Henry realized too late that the still bleeding arm was giving him away, even through his camouflage. But to be fair, he’d barely had time to react. He knew these things were quick, but not even in his wildest imagination had he expected them to move this fast.

  He was about to send a pulse of healing magic toward the wound, but stopped and instead, he pulled himself toward the bleeding limb while simultaneously triggering Partial Shapeshift on the bleeding arm. Using all of his Octominds, he fused the two arms together while shaping the bone construct he needed in the half-second he had available to him.

  The shark zipped forward again, blurring with terrifying speed, and Henry barely had time to finish up the shapeshift and to channel a pulse of Vitality into Trickster’s Fortitude when his bleeding limb got chomped on.

  The shark bit down and swam away for a moment before it was violently wrenched back. It didn’t manage to fully sever Henry’s arm, though its teeth were excruciatingly deep into the kraken’s flesh. If he hadn’t reinforced his body with an Aspect, he would have lost the limbs. But he didn’t, and instead, he was right in the middle of a tug-of-war match against the white shark.

  It thrashed, and Henry, with all five of his free arms gripping on to the rocks and boulders around him, felt like he might get torn in half. Blue blood bloomed out of the shark’s mouth and thankfully, it wasn’t actively trying to chomp off Henry’s arm. He believed it would have been capable of doing such if it had been focused on that.

  No. Instead, the shark was trying to get rid of the giant bone-hook lodged into the side of its face, but even though the kraken had the shark on a literal hook, he had to get a better hold of it. A classic Hug of Death was required to finish off this fight because, as things were right now, he wouldn’t be able to last long. The shark was close to severing the arms, and the amount of strength the creature was generating was mind-boggling, even though Henry was like 30% larger than it was.

  “[Careful, Maurice, we’re jumping on its back.]”

  With another group effort, Henry pulled on all seven of his Octominds and telekinetically froze the shark right as he propelled himself forward. At the same time, he flooded the shark’s mouth and every bit of flesh his bitten arms could reach with venoms. All of his venoms. But it wasn’t enough.

  The strain of holding the monster in place was hard enough as it was, even with seven of his Octominds, but then, the agitated waters around the shark surged, as if a literal storm had been summoned around it, and Telekinesis was instantly overloaded, sending both Henry and his subminds reeling as the backlash slammed into them. Next thing Henry knew, the hook-limb slacked, and right in front of his face was a jaw full of teeth.

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