Chapter 111: Stay With Me
"[PHYSICAL BARRIER!]"
A silver-blue wall snapped into existence between the two squids, cutting them off from each other. The left one slammed into it, its arms splaying against the glowing surface. The right one recoiled, confused, its colors flickering wildly as it tried to locate the threat.
Gray was already on it.
He activated Abyssal Lance. His body shot toward the right squid before it could recover. The barbs punched through its mantle, driving it backward through the water.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[ABYSSAL LANCE — 158 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID (2) — HP: 342 / 500]
[STUN — 3 SECONDS]
The squid convulsed, its arms going rigid. Gray didn’t waste a moment. He wrapped four tentacles around its body and activated Grip Jaw, crushing its mantle while it was helpless.
[GRIP JAW — 42 DAMAGE]
[GRIP JAW — 44 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID (2) — HP: 256 / 500]
The stun broke. The squid thrashed, its arms lashing out, but Gray was already inside its guard, too close to hit with its water pressure attacks. It tried to form its water shield, but he fired Cavitation Pulse point-blank into its exposed flank before it could.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 116 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID (2) — HP: 140 / 500]
The creature shrieked, its body convulsing. Gray fired Overcharge directly into the wound before it could recover.
[OVERCHARGE — 154 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID (2) DEFEATED — 1100 EXP]
The squid went limp, its arms drifting lifelessly in the current. On the other side of Cindy’s barrier, the first squid was thrashing, its arms battering against the glowing wall in a desperate attempt to reach its companion.
Gray turned toward it, his serrated bell dripping with the remains of its kin.
He dismissed the barrier with a thought, and Cindy let it fade. The remaining squid burst through the space where the wall had been, its arms spread wide, its colors blazing with fury.
It came straight at him, arms lashing with wild, reckless abandon.
’It’s not thinking anymore,’ Gray observed. ’It’s just angry.’
He met the charge head-on. Abyssal Lance activated, and he shot forward, his crystalline barbs tearing through the squid’s outstretched arms. The creature shrieked as its limbs were severed, one by one, but it kept coming.
[ABYSSAL LANCE — 150 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID (1) — HP: 350 / 500]
[LIMB SEVERED — 2 ARMS LOST]
Gray twisted past its flailing remains and drove his serrated bell into its mantle. The edge carved deep, opening a wound that leaked pale fluid into the water.
[-24 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 998 / 1040]
[MIRAGE SQUID (1) — HP: 280 / 500]
The squid’s arms coiled around him, trying to crush his bell. But its grip was weak, its limbs already damaged. Gray fired Overcharge point-blank, and the lightning arced through its body, lighting it up from within.
[OVERCHARGE — 158 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID (1) — HP: 122 / 500]
[STUN — 5 SECONDS]
Gray drove his serrated bell toward the stunned squid’s mantle, ready to end it.
But the stun broke.
The squid’s body convulsed once, its chromatophores snapping back to vivid, furious life. Its arms uncoiled with violent speed, and Gray felt the water around him shift.
’What—’
It had developed resistance. The same stun that had frozen its kin for five full seconds barely held this one for two. And now it was awake, aware, and enraged.
The water compressed.
A crushing fist of pressure slammed into Gray from every direction. His armor groaned, his tentacles splayed outward, and for a moment he couldn’t move at all.
[-48 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 950 / 1040]
’Cindy!’
"[PHYSICAL BARRIER!]"
The silver-blue dome flared around him just as the second pressure wave hit. The barrier absorbed the brunt, but Gray felt it shudder, cracks spreading across its surface.
The squid shrieked, its arms coiling through the water, and the pressure intensified. It wasn’t just attacking anymore, it was crushing the space around him. The water grew thick, heavy, almost solid. Every breath of current felt like swimming through stone.
"It’s compressing the water!" Cindy’s voice was strained, her concentration bleeding through their link. "I can’t hold this!"
’Then don’t. Drop it and—’
Too late.
The barrier shattered.
The pressure wave hit Gray directly. It felt like being struck by a falling mountain, his bell compressing, his armor cracking, his vision flashing white. He tumbled through the water, spinning, disoriented, the taste of his own fluids filling his senses.
[-96 HP]
[CRITICAL HIT]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 854 / 1040]
’Fuck—!’
He caught himself against a rock, his bell ringing, his armor fractured in three places. The squid was already coiling for another attack, its arms weaving the water into another crushing sphere.
Gray, realizing his enemy was about to attack again, immediately shot forward faster than it could.
He didn’t wait for the next pressure wave. He didn’t give the squid time to aim. He shot forward, Flow State flaring, the current bending around him as he closed the distance in an instant.
The squid sensed him coming. Its arms snapped out, trying to catch him, but Gray slipped through the gap, his serrated bell carving across its mantle.
[BELL MARGIN SLASH — 42 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID (1) — HP: 80 / 500]
The creature recoiled, its colors flickering wildly. It tried to summon an illusion, a shifting pattern of light and false images, but Gray didn’t stop.
’Sit down.’
He fired Riptide Slash point-blank into its mantle.
[RIPTIDE SLASH — 96 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID (1) — HP: 0 / 500]
[MIRAGE SQUID DEFEATED — 1100 EXP]
The squid went limp. Its arms uncurled slowly, drifting in the current like dead vines. Its chromatophores faded to grey, and the water around it relaxed, the crushing pressure dissolving into nothing.
’That one... was annoying.’
[LEVEL UP!]
[You are now Level 37.]
[20 Stat Points available for distribution.]
[2 Skill Points available.]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Water Flow Mastery" (3/5)]
He absorbed the corpse slowly, his feeding surface working through the dense flesh. The taste was sharp and briny, but he barely noticed it.
’That squid was harder to kill than the last one,’ he muttered. ’It developed resistance to stun. Probably evolved it after watching its friends die.’
"Gray..." Cindy’s voice came, but it was thin and faint.
Gray paused mid-absorption, his tentacles going still.
’Cindy?’
"...Gray..."
Her voice was trembling and broken.
’What’s wrong? What’s happening?’
"I... I don’t know..." A sharp, choked gasp. "My soul... it feels like it’s burning... like something is tearing me apart from the inside..."
Gray felt the locket pulse against his bell, hot and erratic.
’Cindy! Talk to me! What do you feel?!’
"I... I feel like I’m being ripped... stretched..." Her voice cracked, dissolving into a whisper. "Gray... it hurts... it hurts so much..."
The locket flared again, brighter this time, the silver light flickering like a candle in a storm.
Gray’s tentacles curled around the chain, holding it steady.
’Cindy, stay with me. Stay with me!’
But her voice was fading.
And somewhere deep inside the locket, something was tearing.