"Gray..." Cindy’s voice was unsteady. "What do we do now? If that explosion didn’t work—"
’Everything has a limit,’ Gray cut in. ’Even that shield. I just need to hit it harder.’
The Mirage Squid circled slowly, its arms coiling behind it in loose spirals while the false images dissolved into the dark and the water around it went still, the creature finally taking the fight seriously.
’Cindy, how strong can your barriers be if I feed you mana directly?’
"You mean... deliberately drain your mana into the locket?"
’Yes. Can you use it to strengthen the barrier?’
"I... I think so," Cindy said carefully. "The locket can absorb your mana. If you allow it, I can store that energy and release it as a strengthened barrier. But the strain on you would be—"
’Do it.’
Hearing that, Cindy immediately began drawing on his mana.
[Mana Drain Requested — Allow?]
’Allow it.’
The drain came at once, his mana rushing out of him as the locket flared with silver-blue light bright enough to pierce the surrounding darkness.
The squid flinched as its instincts warned it of the danger.
’Now... trap it!’
"[PHYSICAL BARRIER — REINFORCED]"
Cindy’s voice rang through the water, and the light exploded outward. The barrier erupted, slamming into place around the squid with the force of a collapsing cave. The creature’s arms splayed against the glowing walls, its chromatophores flaring with panicked bursts of color.
Gray moved before it could recover.
’Now we finish this for real.’
He shot toward the barrier, flow state still crackling through his limbs. His bell scraped against the barrier’s outer surface as he positioned himself above the dome. Inside, the squid was already thrashing, its compressed water swirling uselessly in the confined space.
"Gray, now!" Cindy shouted.
He fired Cavitation Pulse into the barrier.
The superheated jet punched through the barrier’s surface and struck the squid’s flank. Cindy kept the dome intact, opening a tiny gap for the blast and sealing it immediately. The confined space began to heat.
The squid’s water shield tried to form, but there was no room, the steam and heat pressed in from all sides. Its illusions sparked and died.
Then Gray detonated Overcharge through the gap. Lightning flooded the dome, and the combination reached critical.
The barrier exploded outward.
The blast scattered the seafloor and sent Gray tumbling through the water. The shockwave cracked coral and flattened kelp for meters in every direction. For a moment, there was only white light and the roar of boiling water.
Gray steadied himself, scanning the debris cloud. His senses pushed through the chaos, searching for the squid’s electrical signature.
And found nothing.
’Where...’
The water shifted behind him.
He spun. A wall of compressed water slammed into his bell, sending him spiraling.
[-38 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 663 / 870]
The Mirage Squid emerged from the smoke. It was wounded, one arm hung limp and its chromatophores flickered erratically, but it was far from dead. Its remaining tentacles were already coiling, already weaving false images around its body.
It had escaped the explosion by compressing the water around itself into a narrow funnel and shooting upward through the gap in Cindy’s barrier just before the blast. A perfect escape using the one opening in the trap.
’It used my own attack to get out,’ Gray thought. ’Damn it, this thing is too smart.’
"Gray, I can’t trap it again!" Cindy’s voice was strained. "The locket’s energy is almost depleted. If I use another barrier, I won’t be able to help you for the rest of the fight!"
’Then don’t. We might need it later.’
The squid circled him now with slower movements, its body wounded but Gray’s own condition not much better after the explosion had drained him more than he wanted to admit.
"Then what’s the plan?" Cindy asked.
Gray kept his focus on the squid’s tentacles, watching the illusions waver and blur at the edges, their sharpness fading as the wounded arm continued to disrupt the nerve clusters beneath its skin.
’The nerve clusters at the base of each tentacle,’ he said. ’If I can sever the right ones, the illusions stop working.’
"That’s a small target," Cindy said. "Can you hit it?"
’Not from a distance. I need to get close.’
The squid darted at him, and Gray twisted away, but a second arm caught him from the left before he could fully escape, the serrated suckers finding the gaps in his armor and biting deep into his flesh.
[-32 HP]
[LACERATION — 4 damage over 5 seconds]
The squid didn’t give him time to breathe.
The water around him constricted, squeezing inward like a fist closing around a stone. His tentacles were pulled, stretched, wrenched in different directions by invisible currents. Every pulse of his bell fought against the pressure, but the water was no longer something he could move through, it had become a weapon and he was trapped inside it.
’What... is this...?’
The Mirage Squid hovered at the center of the turmoil, its body surging with shifting colors. Its arms twisted slowly, each one guiding a separate current.
Cindy’s voice cracked through his mind. "Gray! It’s using water to hold you in place! You have to break free!"
He fought to move, but the water had become a cage. It pressed inward from all sides, thick as stone, and every motion came slow and heavy, like swimming through hardening resin. His senses spun, direction lost, the weight of the sea closing around him until his own body felt foreign.
Another column of compressed water shot toward him, this time from directly above. It struck his bell like a falling mountain.
[-72 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 529 / 870]
The force drove him straight down. He struck the seabed with a muffled, grinding impact, and the sand burst upward like an explosion. The edges of his bell cracked, crystal shards drifting away into the cloud. His tentacles went numb, his body tingling with shock.
’Get up! GET UP!!’
He pushed off the seabed, but the water above him hardened. The squid was already forming another sphere of compressed water, this one massive, rotating like a whirlpool above its head.
The sphere launched.
A dome of crushing pressure exploded outward, catching Gray before he could escape. The force slammed through him, compressing his bell and pinning his tentacles to his sides. The sea held him there, motionless and trapped, and for one terrifying second, his body refused to move.
[-94 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 435 / 870]
He tumbled through the churning water, rag-dolled by the shockwave. His serrated bell edge dug into the sand as he crashed, leaving a long furrow behind him. The Mirage Squid drifted toward him, calm, methodical, its arms weaving the next pressure wave without hurry.
’This thing’s trying to crush me like a shell.’
The water around him constricted, the pressure climbing steadily. It crushed inward from every angle, relentless and slow. His bell creaked under the strain. Cracks spread through his armor, thin lines splintering across the crystalline surface.
[-10 HP]
[-12 HP]
[-14 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 399 / 870]
The pain made it hard to think, but Gray forced himself. The pressure shifted with his movements. The more he fought, the heavier it got. The squid had turned his fear into a weapon.
’No... no, no, no. I’m giving it exactly what it wants.’
His tentacles trembled with the urge to struggle. Everything in him begged to move. But if he kept fighting, the water would keep crushing.
’Then I stop resisting.’
He stopped struggling, forcing his body to soften, to yield. The pressure still squeezed, but his bell no longer pushed against it. He let the water cradle him, let the current pull him under like dead weight. The crushing force hesitated, then relaxed, just enough.
The squid stopped, its movements faltering. It turned slightly, as if trying to make sense of the limp weight in its grip.
That was the opening.
Gray activated Subterranean Ambush and shot downward. His bell pierced the loosened current and drove into the seafloor. The water pressed after him, but it couldn’t catch what had already vanished into the sand.
Then the seafloor exploded beneath the Mirage Squid.
Gray erupted from the sand, his serrated bell driving upward through the squid’s skirt of arms. The creature shrieked, its chromatophores flashing white-hot with shock. Gray’s tentacles latched onto the wounded nerve cluster from before and squeezed.
[SUBTERRANEAN AMBUSH — 78 DAMAGE]
[CHROMATIC MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 482 / 560]
[GRIP JAW — 30 DAMAGE]
[GRIP JAW — 32 DAMAGE]
[CHROMATIC MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 420 / 560]
The squid thrashed. Its arms whipped toward him, serrated suckers ripping at his already-cracked armor. He took the hits and kept squeezing. The nerve cluster pulsed under his grip, hot and swollen.
"It’s working!" Cindy cried. "The illusions are collapsing!"
But the squid still had teeth.
The water around it snapped inward at the space between them. The sudden implosion tore Gray off the squid’s body and crushed him back against the seabed. The impact was instant and disorienting. His vision flashed white.
[-68 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 331 / 870]
Gray fought to rise, but the sea had turned solid above him. The squid loomed, its body rippling with rage. Its arms wove through the water, and the pressure closed in again, slow and unrelenting, crushing him against the seafloor until his armor shrieked.
[-20 HP]
[-22 HP]
[-24 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 265 / 870]
His HP bar was melting and his vision dimmed at the edges.
’Cindy... I need you.’
"What?! I can’t— I don’t have enough energy for a full barrier!"
’Not a shield, a lens.’
"...A what?"
’Put a barrier around me, but keep it narrow and curved. I’ll use it to aim the next shot.’
Without another word, Cindy did what Gray asked.
"[PHYSICAL BARRIER — COMPRESSED]"
A narrow dome of silver-blue light shimmered into place around Gray’s body, pressing back the crushing water just enough for him to move.
Gray fired Cavitation Pulse upward.
The superheated blast struck the inside of the curved barrier and ricocheted, spiraling upward like a spear of boiling water and light. The barrier shattered from the inside, channeling every fragment of energy into the squid’s exposed underside.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 68 DAMAGE]
[CHROMATIC MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 352 / 560]
[CRITICAL HIT]
The squid’s cry splintered through the sea. Its arms lashed out, its body coiling in agony as bursts of color exploded across its skin. The crushing force around Gray vanished.
He surged upward and grabbed the wounded nerve cluster again.
’Now we end it.’
[GRIP JAW — 34 DAMAGE]
[GRIP JAW — 30 DAMAGE]
[CHROMATIC MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 288 / 560]
[RIPTIDE SLASH — 90 DAMAGE]
[CHROMATIC MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 198 / 560]
The squid’s movements became frantic, uncoordinated. Its water control sputtered and failed. Its arms lashed blindly, but Gray was already inside its guard, pressing close, feeling its heartbeat through his tentacles.
He fired Overcharge directly into its core.
[OVERCHARGE — 98 DAMAGE]
[CHROMATIC MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 100 / 560]
[STUN — 5 SECONDS]
He aimed one last Riptide Slash at the nerve cluster.
’This is for crushing me like an egg.’
[RIPTIDE SLASH — 92 DAMAGE]
[CHROMATIC MIRAGE SQUID DEFEATED — 1420 EXP]
The squid’s body went still. It drifted slowly toward the seabed, its arms trailing like dead ropes. Gray hovered above it, breathing hard, his body shaking with exhaustion.
[LEVEL UP!]
[You are now Level 32.]
[20 Stat Points available for distribution.]
[2 Skill Points available.]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Water Flow Mastery" (1/5)]
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter