Hinotori had done it.
When she said she was coming in with a distraction, she wasn’t joking. Yokino had known that she was quite… phenomenal, but sometimes the chicken always found a way to surprise her. Still, a kraken was beyond expectations. Hadn’t she simply gone over the top with it this time?
‘What? What? What? What in the hell is that?!’
Yokino found herself screaming internally at the sight. She had seen lots of things, but this was by far the most terrifying she had encountered. Goliath was probably on its level if not beneath it. No. She would have to make a correction about this statement. The most terrifying thing she had met was definitely not this. That title belonged to The Duchess the first time they met.
Still, seeing something this overwhelmingly massive, Yokino was not sure how to take it in. Maybe if she gathered all her army she could beat it, but still, she would encounter major losses which she was not interested in.
'Now's not the time to be surprised.'
Sunalla told her, while swimming ahead. Most of the fishmen had swam towards the kraken after being given the offer by the blind sharkman, meaning if they snuck in from behind, they wouldn’t be found out. Sunalla and Yokino of them were highly confident in their [Super Stealth] and [Undetectable Stealth] respectively. It wouldn’t be the first time they both had to sneak into a place.
‘Right.’
The Arachne was reminded of her purpose there. Even with her [Undetectable Stealth], which was the highest ever attained form of the [Stealth] skill tree known, given someone possessed the ability to sense life force at a very high level, she would be in trouble. Such an opponent was the blind shark fishman guarding the tower. Even if it was her, she still wasn’t sure given what she had heard about him in particular.
When they were a few feet within the castle’s walls, Sunalla proposed a plan.
‘I will distract him. You go in and free the princess.’
Yokino was already comfortable with the plan, given that it wouldn’t require her to physically fight anyone.
‘Feel free. I’m going in then.’
She swam upwards and delivered a telepathic message to the shark fishman. Yokino would have tried to read their conversation, but if she attempted to read the shark’s mind, he would immediately be alerted to her presence, which she couldn’t have.
Quickly, she snuck into the bottom area of the castle. She would have preferred to send in several blood clones to scout the area, but sharks had the abnormal ability to smell blood from quite the distance. She would need to go in by herself.
Several cries came from the outside while she searched and even a water spear broke down part of the castle’s walls, revealing Sunalla’s fight with the shark fishman. The storm spirit kept shooting lightning bolts at the shark, but he masterfully deflected them with his sword techniques, bending the water to his will and controlling its flow.
If they were being honest, he had the advantage here, given that the technique – Sea Wolf Technique – he was using was said to be the ultimate tool for combat in the seas. Said to be developed by the one of the first 3 fishmen created by the Sea Goddess, Narulai. A technique that focused entirely on adaptability and increasing offensive power with little to no care for defense. He was manipulating the lightning bolts she kept throwing at him with whirlpools and reflecting the attacks her way, while sending powerful waves that pushed her back.
Sunalla wasn’t a pushover though, managing to either avoid, block or neutralize the attacks coming her way. Amongst both of them, she was the only one whose attacks were landing, however it was clear as day that she was struggling in the fight. She wouldn’t be able to keep fighting him for much longer. Easiest method would be for her to attempt direct attacks on his soul, but doing that risked her being transformed into a devil.
Yokino sighed at the limits of spirits. Supposedly one of the strongest races in existence, but limited severely by the very thing that powered them.
‘Just become a devil and be done with it. Not that difficult, is it?’
She scoffed then continued with her search. After some hours of screams, she finally managed to find a room guarded by two fishmen. Both were eels, and for some reason, Yokino found it amusing. Quickly, she managed to sneak up between both of them and slice of their heads with her skill [Slash]. She kicked down the door and entered the room.
Sitting in the center was an incredibly large fishman. She possessed the upper body of a human unlike the other fishmen Yokino had seen all day. Her tail was a beautiful blend of gold, blue, pink and green, with films of cloth wrapped around it. Her sea blue hair swayed lifelessly as she cocked her head, boredom evident in her eyes the moment she saw Yokino.
‘Ugh, not a fan of the hot ones. Ah well.’
Yokino immediately thought to herself, upon noticing that the princess was quite blessed in the face department.
“Hello, my name is Yokino. Sunalla sent me here to find you.”
She said, trying her best not to mess up the Atlantean language. The princess’s gaze changed from fear to relief the moment she heard Sunalla’s name being mentioned.
“Susu? Where is she?”
The princess asked, her voice sounding like the strings of a harp being strummed by a master.
‘Ugh. Her voice is beautiful too! No!’
“She is fighting outside now. I need to get you to a safe spot.”
Yokino got in close to her then started a spell. The water in front of her kept spinning about with power, till a portal was formed. This portal would lead to a completely random location that was very far from where they were at the moment.
“Where does this lead to?”
“Atlantis.”
She lied without any emotion. The princess on the other hand was not convinced. While preparing the teleport gate, Yokino could feel movement in the water. Easily, she moved out of the way where the princess’s arm almost smacked her.
“What are you doing, your highness?”
Yokino asked, trying to keep her anger out of her tone.
“Are you certain you are with Susu?”
“Huh? Of course. If I wasn’t, why would I be here?”
Angry at the seemingly stupid question, Yokino responded as such.
“Ke.”
The princess’s entire attitude changed. Looking into her eyes, Yokino could see nothing but pure hostility and danger. A cold sweat formed on her neck even though she was under water.
‘T-That’s not princess-like.’
The princess stretched her hands to grab Yokino again, but this time the wall of the tower came crushing down, with Sunalla being smacked into Yokino. The princess looked shocked for a moment, but upon recognising Sunalla, she perked up.
“Susu!”
“Princess! Get into the portal! Now!”
Sunalla ordered, clearly not in the mood for pleasantries. The princess nodded her head and swam right through it.
“Tch. To think you managed to get the kraken here as a distraction. Atlantean scum are as desperate as ever, daring to even bring that “thing’s” wrath upon us all.”
He scoffed, as if the entire situation was very amusing. With a single wave of his blade, the whole building started to collapse.
“Since the princess is already gone, I won’t waste my time with you lot. She’s not worth the trouble anymore.”
He then sheathed his blade and left. Yokino gave Sunalla a hand.
“What’s his deal?”
“It’s something he said when we were fighting.”
“Hmm? What?”
“Something about my father… I’ll explain more once we’re a bit safe.”
Sunalla explained, swimming right through the portal. Yokino observed her surroundings, shrugged then also entered the portal, closing it up behind her.
_________________
This was wild. It was basically a leveling up buffet! And best of all was the number of souls I was getting to consume. Maybe I was growing voracious, but I even managed to find a named soul, given me a 10% permanent boost in stats. If eating whole souls equaled this, that meant eating lots of humans would make me super strong!
Wait… that was a weird thought just now. Oh well, it wasn’t a serious thought or anything.
Anyway, we had beaten so many fishmen and I managed to level up twice, making me currently level 72! I unlocked a new skill as well. [Shadow Gaze].
While we were having our fun with this “distraction”, a lone shark fishman approached us. He was the guy from earlier who told everyone to come after us with some sort of promise, however, now that he had come, no one was moving towards us. At first, they were like flies flying towards an electric lamp, but now they seemed to be too scared to move.
‘Your accomplices already retrieved the princess, flee now.’
He ordered.
‘Eh? Yokino did? But, why didn’t they tell me anything?’
‘Ain’t that obvious? He’s lying!’
‘Tch, a simple trick like that won’t get me!’
<<He is not lying. The presence that could be felt from the tower has disappeared, likely Sunalla and Yokino teleporting them away.>>
‘Eh? In that case, we can leave?’
‘Relax and think! Do you honestly think he’s going to let us leave unharmed?’
‘No, no! But he can’t even harm us in the first place.’
‘Yes! Meaning, he’s asking us to leave, but he doesn’t want to lose face in front of the others.’
‘Eh? Trying to keep up a brave face? Let’s break it!’
‘What? For what reason? We can just leave now.’
‘No, no. Think about it. If we break him, we can eat them all or at the very least, absorb them into our Familia.’
‘U-Um, why are you always thinking about that?’
‘Cause it’s my job to always think about strength.’
Kira responded as such. I felt somewhere that it would be best to just leave them alone, but if we went by logic alone, that meant we could destroy all of these guys. I eventually came to the conclusion that Kira was probably right.
Upon finally deciding, I felt a cold chill run down my spine. When I looked, the fishman was grinning madly. He put his hand on his sword.
‘I see you’ve made your choice? Very well then! I’m not like the Atlanteans, but I guess letting you know the one to kill you will be a favour.’
He said something scary all of a sudden. I didn’t know why, but all of a sudden it felt like he could actually beat me, even though his stats weren’t relatively close to the kraken’s.
‘Name’s Bastien, Scourge of The Deep!’
Unconsciously, I licked my lips when I heard his name. There was something fundamentally wrong with that, but I didn’t care.
‘Wave at our new friend.’
I ordered the kraken.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
SKILLS
[Tori acquired the skill [Shadow Gaze]]
[The skill [Stealth] evolved into [Super Stealth]]
[The skill level of [Feelers] raised to [Feelers Level 4]]
[The skill level of [Slime Body] raised to [Slime Body Level 7]]
[The skill level of [Soul Guard]] raised to [Soul Guard Level 6]]
[The skill level of [Super Thought Process] raised to [Super Thought Process Level 3]]
[The skill level of [Remorse] raised to [Remorse Level 2]]
[The skill [Low Cold Resistance] evolved into [Mid Cold Resistance Level 3]]
[The skill [Pressure Resistance] evolved into [Pressure Resistance Level 5]]
[The skill [Multiple Minds] raised to [Multiple Minds level 5]]
SKILL FUSIONS
[Auto Regeneration] + [Chimera Quick Regeneration] = [Quick Auto Regeneration]
[Horn Protrusion] + [Goat Horns] + [Illusory Horn] = [Illusory Horns]
[Fire Force] + [Lightning Armor] = [Overload Armor]
FAMILIA
[The servant Tsuna evolved into a Darth Wight]
[Hinotori added [Baby Kraken] into the familia]
[Your familia has grown by a tiny bit]
[Your familia has received 3000 experience points]
<A/N: Please leave a comment or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
