Gray drifted along the edge of a deep trench, his tentacles trailing through the cold water as he scanned the darkness below. The pale glow of distant sea plants flickered faintly against the volcanic rock, and his senses swept over every contour of the seafloor.
He glanced at his status.
[EXP: 78%]
’Just a little more,’ he murmured.
"Are we going back to the shelter?" Cindy asked.
’No,’ Gray replied, already pulsing deeper into the dark. ’We’re going to keep hunting.’
He swam along the rocky wall, passing several cave mouths that yawned open like hungry throats. Each one exhaled a faint current, cold and slow. The dark inside was so thick that even his senses couldn’t fully map the shapes within.
Then he saw a serpent glided out from behind a ridge of black stone, its body long and whip-thin, moving with a liquid ease that made the water bend around it. Fins/wings extended from its flanks, broad and translucent, rippling in waves that propelled it forward with startling speed. Its tail was a blade, curved and jagged, glinting like polished bone.
Its scales shimmered faintly, dark blue-black with stripes of deep violet that pulsed with faint bioluminescence. It was beautiful in the way a drawn knife was beautiful.
[SYNTHWING SERPENT — Level 32]
HP: 520 / 520
Threat Level: HIGH
« Analysis »
A swift and aggressive predator of the lower Abyssal Veil. The Synthwing Serpent hunts by sight, vibration, and heat — its entire body is a sensory organ, designed to track prey through even the murkiest water. Its wing-like fins allow for sudden bursts of speed and sharp mid-water turns.
Behavior: Territorial. Once it locks onto a target, it rarely abandons the chase. It strikes with surgical precision, using its bladed tail to cripple before finishing with its jaws.
Weakness: Its sensory organs are located along the lateral ridges of its body. A strong enough electrical discharge can temporarily overload them, leaving the serpent disoriented for a short time.
Cindy’s voice tightened.
"Gray... that monster is dangerous. We should run."
Gray didn’t answer. He was already watching the serpent’s movements, reading the way it glided through the water with that terrible, fluid grace.
The Synthwing Serpent had just finished swallowing its prey. Its jaws were still working as the last of the meal disappeared down its throat. Then its head turned.
Its gaze snapped toward Gray, twin orbs of pale silver light cutting through the black water.
’Too late for that,’ Gray said quietly, his tentacles spreading into a defensive fan. ’I think it can see us.’
The serpent’s fins rippled once, and it began to move.
Gray drifted back, his tentacles twitching with alert energy as the Synthwing Serpent glided closer.
’Cindy, get ready to raise your shield.’
"I... can only do it two more times, Gray. The locket’s energy is still recovering."
’Are you serious?’
"I’m serious. That’s why I told you we should go back," Cindy said, her voice carrying a bite of frustration. "But no — you wanted to keep hunting."
The Synthwing Serpent’s fins flicked once, then it surged forward.
Gray pulsed sideways, but the serpent moved faster than he’d expected. Its tail snapped through the water in a vicious arc behind him. The strike left a thin, bright line in the dark.
Then the line moved.
’What—’
A crescent of displaced water shot after him like an underwater blade. It curved through the water with unnatural speed, locking onto his trajectory as if the serpent had thrown a piece of its own shadow.
He twisted hard, but the slash caught his bell.
[-42 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 660 / 730]
The impact spun him through the water, his crystalline armor shrieking as the edge found the softer gap beneath his margin.
’It threw its attack,’ Gray thought, catching himself against the current. ’No — the tail’s blade can cut at a distance. A ranged slash.’
Cindy’s voice rose with alarm. "Gray! Are you okay?!"
’Still alive.’ His tentacles were already spreading, scanning the water. ’But that’s not a normal tail, It doesn’t need to reach us. Its blade cuts the water itself.’
The Synthwing Serpent was already circling for another pass, its pale eyes fixed on him. Gray watched the water, the way the fins rippled and the tail shifted before each strike. He tried to read the rhythm but the serpent gave him nothing.
Gray dodged again, but the second slash still caught him — a sharp, thin line of pain across his side. Then a third, this one clipping his tentacle as he twisted away.
[-34 HP]
[-28 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 598 / 730]
’Every time I move, it anticipates me,’ Gray thought, his bell tightening. ’It’s not aiming where I am — it’s aiming where I’ll be.’
The Synthwing Serpent didn’t slow. It glided through the water in tight arcs, each pass sharper than the last, its bladed tail already drawing another crescent of displaced water.
’EMP Shroud!’
He activated the skill and vanished from every electromagnetic sense the serpent might possess.
But the Synthwing Serpent remained locked on him, its pale eyes following his every move as if the EMP had done nothing at all.
It turned straight toward him, as if he were still fully visible.
’Tch! Its heat detection...’
He dove behind a stone pillar, flattening himself against the rock. The serpent followed without pause, its body winding through the coral maze like a thread through a needle, closing in with every flick of its fins.
’It can feel my body heat through the rock,’ Gray realized. ’I can’t hide. I can’t run and I can’t block those slashes forever.’
Another blade of water sliced toward him. He pulsed upward, but the edge caught his bell again.
[-38 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 560 / 730]
The serpent kept coming, its fins rippling with deadly grace. Gray dodged left, then right, but every strike was sharper, closer. His movements grew tighter, his breathing heavier, and the tail’s edge began to graze him more often.
[HP: 447 / 730]
Cindy’s voice broke through the chaos.
"Gray, hold on — [PHYSICAL BARRIER]!"
A shimmering wall of silver-blue light flared into being between Gray and the serpent. The next slash shattered against it, the water blade dispersing against the barrier’s surface.
But the barrier was already flickering. Cindy’s voice was strained, trembling with effort.
"I can’t hold this for long! You need to think of something!"
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