Chapter 646: Assassin vs Kraken

“Good luck to us,” Luke said, and jumped into the water.

Charlie went after him. Then Eleanor and Evangeline. The others stayed aboard. The moment they hit the water, they saw the enormous creature below the ship, coiling around it.

[Predator Mark activated]

Luke had done it. The bonuses from the skill were now coming online.

[Predator’s Mark (Rare)]: When you mark your prey, your focus locks onto them with unyielding precision. No matter where they run, as long as they remain within your hunting grounds, you will find them. If they slip beyond your perception and they’re bleeding, you can track them more easily, guided by instinct alone. All damage dealt to a marked target is increased, and you gain bonus experience for killing a marked enemy, especially if they are above your class level. Your predatory mark remains until the prey is eliminated or the effect expires.

“The level on that thing is...” Eleanor said.

[Juvenile Sunken Kraken - Lvl 135]

It’s as strong as the archangel from the tutorial.

They were underwater. Only Eleanor could still speak down there. Luke summoned his Spectral Beast. Charlie, Evangeline, and Eleanor grabbed onto it, and together they followed Luke straight toward the kraken attacking the ship. They looked up once at the moonlight above, then charged.

Charlie swam ahead, fist blazing, and slammed a devastating punch into the squid. Luke rushed in after her, carving into the kraken with his kukris. Evangeline fired shadow spikes from her mouth. Eleanor loosed arrows.

Luke kept cutting into the creature until it tore itself free from the ship and turned toward them. With a roar, the water around them shuddered, turning heavy, oppressive. Then it attacked. But Luke’s shark surged in first, slipping past the tentacles. The kraken spread wide, ready to seize it, its mouth opening.

Luke’s shark activated [Torpedo Charge], dodging the tentacles and shooting straight for the kraken’s mouth while dragging the net of barrels behind it. Luke was a little farther back, being pulled along by the thread connecting him to the shark. He threw a knife.

Bon appétit.

The kraken swallowed the shark, the nets, and the knife all at once.

[Shadow Mana Explosion activated]

The explosion hit from inside. The monster had swallowed the full load of flammable liquid, and now it was burning from within. The creature went into a frenzy and began to sink.

[Your Spectral Beast has been destroyed]

Luke swam upward with the others, and they broke the surface.

“Did it die?” Evangeline asked.

“It was level 135. Even with those liquid explosives prepared by a powerful alchemist, no. But it bought us time.”

“Then we get out of here,” Charlie said.

They started swimming for the ship. Bodies of Drowned were falling into the water all around them.

“We’re at the end of the challenge,” Eleanor said. “All that’s left are the ships.”

“We left them behind. We can’t risk going back,” Evangeline said.

Then, just as they started climbing onto the ship, something erupted from the water with a roar. The kraken.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Evangeline said.

Then it hit them. The kraken twisted, its tentacles smashing into them and throwing them back into the water. It dove again, but not toward the ship. Toward them. Luke could see it through [Predator’s Mark].

“Go. Get on the ship.”

“What about you?” Charlie asked.

“I swim faster than you do. I’ll stay behind and distract it.”

“What? Are you insane?” Eleanor snapped.

“I’m not letting you do that alone,” Charlie said.

“You’re not beating that thing by yourself. We go together,” Evangeline said.

“I don’t need to beat it. I just need to delay it and fool it,” Luke said. “I draw it away from the ship. I distract it. I buy us time.”

Eleanor grabbed his arm. “Then we hit it as hard as we can while we distract it.”

The kraken was almost on them.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Evangeline, you need to get back on the ship and help the others. My knives are coming down. They’ll help.”

White streaks were falling from the sky. Some hit the ships and exploded. They were the knives he had thrown upward before he jumped from the deck.

“Damn it. Don’t die,” she said, then climbed aboard.

Luke dove, with Charlie and Eleanor beside him. The kraken attacked, tentacles lashing down. Luke saw the damage now. It had swallowed the flammable liquid, and the wounds were still there. He pulled the creature’s attention onto himself. Eleanor fired a glowing arrow through the water.

Luke threw a knife.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

[Knife Storm activated]

Charlie charged her fist and surged in with another punch. The three of them fought the kraken together, combining their powers. One of its tentacles was ripped away. The plan was simple: focus everything on one tentacle at a time. For several long minutes they fought while sinking deeper, baiting the creature downward. Every time the monster attacked, they countered.

Then Charlie shattered the tip of another tentacle, and for the first time, the kraken recoiled.Luke pointed upward at them. They started swimming. Then he saw the red outline. A second later, something seized him and yanked him down. Luke was dragged into the depths, caught in the monster’s crushing grip as it pulled him toward a drowning death. He hacked at the tentacle holding him with his kukri.

[Demonic Predator Hands activated]

The kukri was wrapped in black power as he drove it into the tentacle and tore through it. The moment he broke free, he realized just how deep he was. Around him lay the ruins of a city long swallowed by the sea.

Then he saw it. A massive dark shape moving between the streets. The kraken.

Luke swam into a building while the monster tore through everything in the road outside. He darted through the ruined structures, watching the kraken glide across the drowned city floor, enraged. It was hunting him.

He tried to swim back toward the surface, but the creature came at him again. The enormous thing spread its tentacles wide, trying to wrap around him. Luke twisted between them, dodging, slashing, drawing blood. Every second, more tentacles came.

He wounded the one that caught him and was flung away. Luke shot between the buildings again, and the kraken came after him, smashing through walls, ceilings, anything in its path. He understood now. The kraken had no intention of letting him escape. For the creature, this had become personal.

Luke drew a throwing knife and began charging [Burst Throw]. The kraken was coming. And down there, alone in the deep, he had only one chance. The creature advanced through the street, crushing buildings as it came, making a show of it, trying to intimidate him. Then it drew close, opened its mouth, and roared straight at him. The message was clear.

Then it opened its jaws wider.

All or nothing. All or nothing.

Luke stayed there on purpose, completely exposed. No running. No dodging. No retreat. A duel. He gripped the throwing knife tight.

'Use me...' A voice echoed in his mind.

What?

'Use me.'

This time the voice came from his kukris.

If I apply Burst Throw to you, you could break.

'Use me... it has to be... me.'

Luke made his choice.

He slid the knife back into its holster and drew both kukris instead, pouring [Burst Throw] into them. He dodged the kraken’s next strike. The creature crushed a massive block of stone in one tentacle, grinding it to rubble. Luke slipped past it at the last second, holding both kukris as he swam hard.

The kraken turned, roared, showed its beak, and lunged in for a crushing embrace. Every direction was closing.

It’ll work. It’ll work.

The kukris kept absorbing more power. The kraken closed in.

It’ll work. It’ll work.

Then there was nowhere left. Luke was trapped. Every path was blocked, and the monster locked him in that crushing hold. The kraken roared. All that remained was for Luke to be swallowed. Grinding his teeth, he hurled both kukris with everything he had.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

They flew straight into the kraken, into the creature’s open mouth.

[Burst Throw activated]

The force erupted inside it. The kraken tore apart from within.

[You have slain the Juvenile Sunken Kraken - Lvl 135]

[An item has been added to your Inventory]

Your second class [Arcane Witch] has reached Level 86! (+12 Intelligence, +10 Wisdom, +7 Perception, +6 Willpower, +5 Agility, +3 Vitality, +2 Endurance, +10 Free Points.)

Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 92! (+10 Lethality, +7 Perception, +6 Agility, +6 Vitality, +6 Intelligence, +5 Endurance, +8 Free Points)

[You have reached Level 91! Half-Demon (Rank E)] (+2 bonus points to all attributes, +5 free points)

[Your title Myth Slayer is evolving...]

The kraken died. Relief hit him all at once.

There is no way that didn’t break my kukris.

Luke stretched out his hands, and the kukris tore free from inside the kraken, returning to him through magnetism. They were cracked, nearly shattered. [Burst Throw] had never been meant for ordinary weapons. But then the kukris began to drink in the blood coating them. The kraken’s blood.

[Your Spirit Tool has grown stronger]

[Your Spirit Tool has awakened the skill: Blood Repair]

Above Luke, he saw two figures descending. Charlie. And Eleanor.

***

“What were you three doing? Why did you take so long?” Evangeline asked. “I thought the plan was to distract the kraken and get back to the ship.”

“The kraken’s gone,” Luke said as he climbed onto the deck.

The sails were raised. The ship was already moving, leaving the cursed ships behind in its wake.

“That part was my fault. I took longer because I needed something.”

“What?” Evangeline asked.

“The kraken’s core.” He held it up. “I’m giving it to my Spectral Beast.”