The battlefield was littered with the corpses of Glimmerworms. Their pale, segmented bodies floated in the murky water, still leaking thin trails of dark fluid into the sand below.
Gray hovered near the last surviving Glimmerworm, not far from where he had fought the Elder Glimmerworm. It was coiled near the seafloor and its circular mouth opening and closing weakly as if still trying to bite something that wasn’t there.
Gray dodged another desperate lunge. The worm twisted toward him, but its movements were sluggish now. He slipped past easily, his serrated bell margin catching its flank as he moved, drawing a long, shallow gash along its side.
’Just die already, you damn worm,’ he said coldly.
He fired Cavitation Pulse. The superheated blast shot through the water and struck the creature square in its open mouth. The glow inside its throat flared once, then exploded outward in a burst of steam and torn flesh.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 58 DAMAGE]
[GLIMMERWORM DEFEATED — 280 EXP]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Adaptive Camouflage" (5/5)]
[Trait Complete! Adaptive Camouflage will be available as an evolution option at Level 40.]
Then he drifted toward the nearest corpse and began to eat.
’Finally... this trait is complete too.’
Cindy’s voice came, soft but concerned.
"You’ve been hunting nonstop. Why don’t you rest for a while?"
Gray continued eating, then glanced at his status. The experience bar glowed in the corner of his vision.
[EXP: 83%]
He swallowed the last of the corpse and turned toward the open water.
’Later,’ he said. ’I still want to hunt one more monster.’
Cindy’s voice came quietly, a little tired.
"Hahh... I hope we don’t run into another terrifying monster."
’Yeah,’ Gray said. ’If we meet one, one of us will hide.’
He began swimming again, searching for his next target. Reflective Skin was still incomplete, and he was determined to finish it. Then, at the edge of his perception, he felt it — the familiar flicker of a Razorwing Ray.
But something was wrong.
The fish wasn’t swimming freely. It was caught, wrapped in the grip of a massive, shifting shape. Gray focused, and the system flickered to life.
[CHROMATIC MIRAGE SQUID — Level 33]
HP: 560 / 560
Threat Level: HIGH
« Analysis »
A large, highly aggressive cephalopod predator. Unlike the smaller Chromatic Krakenling, the Chromatic Mirage Squid actively toys with its prey, using its color-shifting arms to confuse and disorient before delivering the killing blow. Its tentacles are lined with serrated suckers that can tear flesh from bone.
Its skin is covered in specialized chromatophores that can create complex visual illusions. When threatened, it projects shifting patterns of light and false images around its body, making it nearly impossible to determine its true position.
Weakness: Its chromatophores rely on a series of nerve clusters located just beneath the skin at the base of each tentacle. Damaging or severing these clusters disrupts the squid’s illusions and causes intense disorientation. Additionally, the squid becomes overconfident when it believes its prey is confused — it can be baited into overextending its arms.
Cindy’s voice trembled slightly.
"That monster... it’s really creepy-looking..."
Gray began drifting closer, using the coral as cover.
’If you’re scared, you can close your eyes,’ he said.
"Who said I was scared?! I was just surprised by its appearance!"
Gray hid behind a coral spire and watched. The squid was playing with the Ray, tossing it from tentacle to tentacle like a toy. The Ray was still alive, its wings twitching weakly.
’It’s playing with its food,’ Gray said. ’That’s careless.’
He aimed carefully, his serrated bell tilting as he locked onto the Ray’s position.
’Let me help you end it.’
He fired Riptide Slash. The crescent blade shot through the water and struck the Ray cleanly, slicing through its body before the squid even realized what was happening.
[RAZORWING RAY DEFEATED — 380 EXP]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Reflective Skin" (5/5)]
[Trait Complete! Reflective Skin will be available as an evolution option at Level 40.]
’Hell yeah!!’ Gray thought.
But the Chromatic Mirage Squid had gone very still as the dead Ray drifted from its loosened grip.
Then its body exploded into a storm of color.
False images bloomed around it — copies of itself, shifting afterimages, swirling patterns of light that twisted through the water like living ribbons. The squid vanished inside the display, its true position lost in a kaleidoscope of illusions.
The water was full of false signals and phantom shapes that weren’t there and Gray’s electroreception flickered as his vibration detection blurred and every shadow in the water seemed to twist and shift around him.
It was already moving.
Gray’s tentacles snapped outward, every sense straining against the storm of false images. The Mirage Squid swam toward him, each one shifting through a dozen colors at once, their arms spreading wide as they closed in from every angle.
’Tch... which one is real?!’
"Gray, I’ll prepare a barrier!"
Light pulsed from the locket as Cindy began to form a silver-blue dome around them.
The first atttack came from the left, tentacles reaching. Gray twisted aside, his serrated bell slicing through the image as it passed. It felt like cutting through nothing at all.
’What the—’
The second came from above, its arms coiling toward his bell. He raised his tentacles to block, but the shape dissolved against his barbs like smoke.
’It’s just bait!’
The third came from behind, fast and low. Gray spun, already preparing Overcharge. But as the lightning arced outward, the image scattered into a burst of color.
All around him, the fake squids swirled and taunted. Some passed through him. Some hovered just out of reach. Some followed the water trails of the others, their movements so fluid and synchronized that even Predator’s Instinct couldn’t keep up.
Then the water itself moved.
The pressure hit him from below — a sudden, crushing force that slammed into Gray’s bell and drove him upward, pressing the barrier outward with a sound like cracking glass.
Cindy cried out. "Gray! That was a water pressure attack!"
The barrier barely held, the impact still ringing through Gray’s bell. He scanned the surrounding water, trying to find the source.
The false squids still twisted through the dark, their bodies shifting and dissolving in the water. But none of them moved to strike. They only swam, shifted, and filled the sea with noise and color.
Somewhere inside that storm of illusions, the real Mirage Squid was waiting.
’It’s using the illusions to hide while it attacks with pressure,’ Gray thought. ’I can’t find it if I keep chasing the fakes.’
"Gray, be careful!" Cindy called. "I can’t tell which one is real either!"
The pressure built again.
A second column erupted from the left this time, slamming into Gray’s side before he could dodge. The barrier flared, and thin cracks began spreading across its glowing surface.
’This is bad. I’m getting hit without even knowing where it comes from.’
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