Gray hovered above the boiling sand field, his serrated bell cutting slow, predatory arcs through the churning water. The three Glimmerworms writhed below him, their segmented bodies still half-buried, their circular mouths gaping as they tasted the water for signs of prey.
They couldn’t sense him. The heat and debris were scattering their vibration detection, and his Hollow Cloak blurred what little remained.
’Cindy, don’t waste your barriers. I’ll handle this.’
"Okay but don’t get grabbed like last time."
The first worm launched itself out of the sand. Its pale body shot upward, mouth first, rows of inward-curving teeth spiraling toward his bell. Gray slid aside with a flick of his tentacles, and the worm’s momentum carried it past him into open water.
He fired Riptide Slash. The crescent blade caught it across the flank, splitting the segmented flesh.
[RIPTIDE SLASH — 84 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (1) — HP: 336 / 420]
SKREEEAA!
The shriek tore through the water, high and splintering. The worm’s segmented body lashed, sand churning in pale clouds as it scrambled to retreat.
Gray wasn’t about to let it.
His serrated bell margin carved along its side as he shot past, opening a second wound. The worm’s camouflage flickered uselessly in the open water.
[ABYSSAL LANCE — 108 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (1) — HP: 228 / 420]
But the other two were already moving. One came from the left, the other from below, their mouths gaping as they tried to catch him in a pincer.
Gray twisted between them, Flow State making every movement feel like the water itself was moving him. Their bodies collided with a wet, grinding crunch, and Gray detonated Overcharge in the space between them.
Lightning arced through both worms, locking their bodies rigid.
[OVERCHARGE — 92 DAMAGE]
[OVERCHARGE — 90 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (2) — HP: 328 / 420]
[GLIMMERWORM (3) — HP: 330 / 420]
[STUN — 5 SECONDS]
He wrapped his tentacles around the first worm’s head to hold it steady. Then he pressed his bell against its flesh and released Cavitation Pulse point-blank.
The blast tore through the creature’s body and out the other side.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 56 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (1) DEFEATED — 280 EXP]
The other two broke free of the stun just as the first worm’s corpse began to sink.
The second worm lunged high, forcing Gray to dodge left. He slipped past easily, but a flicker of warning ran through Predator’s Instinct.
The third worm was already there.
It had read the angle of Gray’s dodge and positioned itself exactly where he would land. As his bell tilted into the turn, the worm uncoiled with terrifying speed, its circular mouth snapping shut around his trailing tentacle.
Teeth like hooks sank deep.
CRUNCH!
The jaw locked, and the worm pulled, dragging Gray off balance as a thin cloud of translucent blood bloomed into the water.
[-22 HP]
[LACERATION — 4 damage over 6 seconds]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 848 / 870]
Gray wrapped his tentacle deeper into the worm’s mouth, letting the creature think it had him. Then he activated Grip Jaw.
The muscular appendages locked around the inside of its throat, and Gray pulled.
The worm’s head tore open from the inside.
[GRIP JAW — 32 DAMAGE]
[GRIP JAW — 30 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (3) — HP: 268 / 420]
The creature thrashed, its body coiling around Gray’s arm, but he was already inside its guard. He fired Riptide Slash directly into the wound, and the crescent blade split the worm from throat to midsection.
[RIPTIDE SLASH — 86 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (3) — HP: 182 / 420]
The second worm hit him from behind.
[-34 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 814 / 870]
He tumbled through the water, caught himself against a rock spire, and spun. The second worm was already retreating, its pale form sliding back toward the sand.
’Not this time.’
He activated Subterranean Ambush and dove into the seafloor after it.
The world compressed. The sand swallowed him whole, cold and dark and crushing. His serrated bell churned through the sediment, his tentacles pulling him deeper. The worm’s vibrations pulsed ahead of him, frantic and close.
He erupted from the sand directly beneath the creature.
The impact drove him up through its midsection, his crystalline barbs tearing through segment after segment. The worm’s body split open from below, and Gray burst through its back in a spray of pale fluid and shredded flesh.
[SUBTERRANEAN AMBUSH — 76 DAMAGE]
[BLEED — 14 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (2) — HP: 162 / 420]
[STUN — 2 SECONDS]
The worm seized, its segments locking rigid. Gray spun in the water, already charging Cavitation Pulse.
’You picked the wrong time to surface.’
The blast hit it in the head and erased it.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 58 DAMAGE]
[CRITICAL HIT — 3X DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (2) DEFEATED — 280 EXP]
He turned toward the last worm. It was still alive, still writhing in the water, its torn throat leaking pale fluid into the dark. Its circular mouth gaped, teeth grinding together as if it could still bite him from ten feet away.
Gray floated above it, his serrated bell dripping with the remains of its kin.
’Come on, then.’
The worm shot upward, teeth spiraling toward him.
Gray met it with Overcharge. The lightning arced into its open mouth, down its throat, into its core. The creature’s body lit up from within, every segment glowing blue-white for one frozen moment before the current spent itself.
[OVERCHARGE — 94 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (3) — HP: 88 / 420]
[STUN — 5 SECONDS]
He fired one last Riptide Slash, and the crescent blade took the creature’s head clean off.
[RIPTIDE SLASH — 84 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM (3) DEFEATED — 280 EXP]
Three corpses drifted in the settling sand cloud, their camouflage finally useless, their circular mouths frozen open. Gray floated in the center of it all, his bell heaving with slow, heavy contractions.
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Adaptive Camouflage" (3/5)]
Gray absorbed the three corpses one by one, his feeding surface working through their dense, muscular flesh. The taste was faintly mineral, like the smell of wet stone after rain. It wasn’t as bad as the Psychic Angler, but it wasn’t good either.
Then the sand below him moved.
Gray’s tentacles snapped taut, and Predator’s Instinct screamed through his nerves. He pulsed upward, twisting away just as a fourth shape erupted from the seafloor.
It was bigger than the others. Its segmented body was gnarled with scars, and its circular mouth was ringed with teeth that had been broken and regrown so many times they now jutted at jagged, irregular angles.
’It waited,’ Gray thought. ’It let the others die so I’d drop my guard.’
The worm slammed forward. Gray dodged left, but the creature anticipated it. Its body coiled, and the lunge became a sweep. The muscular tail caught him across the bell with the force of a battering ram.
[-58 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 756 / 870]
The impact sent him tumbling toward the seafloor. The worm followed, its mouth gaping, ready to swallow him whole. He tried to twist, but his body was off-balance, still reeling.
’—Flow State!’
He activated the skill mid-tumble.
The water around him seemed to thicken and part at once. His bell caught the current, and his tentacles snapped into alignment. He twisted through the worm’s closing jaws with inches to spare, the creature’s teeth scraping against his serrated bell margin as he slipped past.
[FLOW STATE — ACTIVATED]
[Cooldown reduction: 15% | Evasion: +10%]
He fired Riptide Slash at point-blank range. The crescent blade sliced across the worm’s underside, opening a long, shallow wound.
[RIPTIDE SLASH — 86 DAMAGE]
[ELDER GLIMMERWORM — HP: 394 / 480]
GGRRRROOOO—!!
A deep, grinding howl tore from its circular maw, shaking the water around them. The elder worm thrashed, its scarred body whipping wildly, and Gray used the opening to slip backward.
’Cindy. This one’s different.’
"I noticed." Her voice was tight. "Gray, your Health is dropping fast, please be careful."
He checked and ahe was right. The Laceration from the smaller worm was still ticking, and the elder’s tail strike had cracked something in his bell margin.
’It hits like a Colossal Crab,’ he thought. ’And it’s smarter than the rest.’
The elder worm circled below him, its broken teeth clicking together in slow, grinding clicks.
Gray watched it back.
’Let’s fix the HP problem first.’
He absorbed the remaining two Glimmerworm corpses floating nearby, his feeding surface pulling in their biomass with quick, efficient pulses.
Then Gray shifted his stance, letting his tentacles fall loose and his bell hang at an angle.
The worm’s teeth chattered with building excitement. Then it struck.
Gray’s body flicked sideways, smooth as a current. Flow State bent the water around him, and he slipped past the worm’s charge, twisting his body so that his serrated bell margin dragged across the creature’s flank as it passed. The crystalline edge bit deep, opening a wound that ran the length of its body.
[FLOW STATE — EVASION BONUS]
[BELL MARGIN SLASH — 34 DAMAGE]
[ELDER GLIMMERWORM — HP: 360 / 480]
The worm screamed. It spun, tail whipping toward him, but Gray was already above it. He fired Cavitation Pulse into the wound he’d just opened. The blast tore through the torn flesh and into the creature’s core.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 58 DAMAGE]
[ELDER GLIMMERWORM — HP: 302 / 480]
The worm’s body convulsed. Its camouflage flickered, and for a moment, Gray saw something strange — a faint glow beneath its segmented plates, pulsing in rhythm with its struggle.
’Ah! There’s the glowing bit, Very generous of you to show me.’
Gray bent his body toward the worm and dove, the current wrapping around him like a second skin. The worm lashed out, but Flow State guided him between the strikes, through the gaps. His tentacles wrapped around the glowing segment, and he activated Grip Jaw.
[GRIP JAW — 30 DAMAGE]
[GRIP JAW — 28 DAMAGE]
[ELDER GLIMMERWORM — HP: 244 / 480]
The worm thrashed, trying to shake him off, but Gray held firm. He pressed his bell against the crack between two segments and released Overcharge at point-blank range. The lightning flooded the creature’s body, arcing through its nervous system from the inside.
[OVERCHARGE — 94 DAMAGE]
[ELDER GLIMMERWORM — HP: 150 / 480]
[STUN — 5 SECONDS]
The worm went rigid. Its mouth gaped wide, rows of teeth frozen mid-click. For one breathless moment, the only movement in the water was Gray pulling back, his body coiling with energy.
Then Riptide Slash flared to life. He aimed for the glowing segment.
’Goodbye.’
[RIPTIDE SLASH — 88 DAMAGE]
[ELDER GLIMMERWORM — HP: 62 / 480]
The crescent blade sliced through the weakened segment, and the glow beneath the plates flickered and died. The worm’s body went limp, its camouflage fading as it began to sink.
Gray finished it with one final Cavitation Pulse.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 60 DAMAGE]
[ELDER GLIMMERWORM DEFEATED — 340 EXP]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Adaptive Camouflage" (4/5)]
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