Chapter 49: Steel Mind

The creature was unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life. Not that I knew much about rift monsters. After all, my journey as a hunter had only just begun.

It was some kind of octopus mixed with something humanoid. It walked on two legs, and its face was covered in tentacles. Its skin was a slimy shade of gray.

The strangest part was that it had human-like hands with fully formed fingers. A weird mix between man and octopus.

Mary deactivated the ink wrapped around Ethan’s body, the stuff holding him in place, and rushed over to our side. Maison came running too.

We were all gathered on one side, in front of the cabin, while the creature came walking toward us through the forest, taking the same path we’d used just moments earlier.

"Well, well," the octopus said, its voice raspy and honestly kind of unsettling. "I finally found you. You really thought you could get away after what you did?"

The octopus was staring straight at Maison. He was the one who had entered the rift up at North Fork Viewpoint.

"I didn’t mean to do that," Maison replied. "I can give back what I took, and we can forget this whole thing happened. Right?"

"Forget it? You’ve gotta be kidding me."

I was completely lost. I had no idea what Maison had even stolen from that thing.

But what impressed me most was its intelligence. The octopus spoke our language perfectly, and it had managed to take control of those cops’ minds.

There was no way it was a low-rank beast. Could it actually be A-Rank?

If it was, we were screwed. None of us stood a chance against that thing.

Mary seemed a little scared. I noticed it when I glanced to the side, catching the expression on her face.

The creature scared her, and that wasn’t a good sign.

That was when the octopus shifted its gaze to me. Our eyes met, and for a moment, it was like we could understand each other somehow.

"Another creature here?" the octopus said. "So now you’re working with the humans, huh?"

Tom and Ethan realized it was talking to me. The two of them frowned, confused.

How the hell was that octopus sensing the bloodline inside my body? Kaelis was supposed to have blocked the lineage for a few days with the seal. So how?

We had something else to focus on at the moment, so nobody asked about it.

The octopus acted before we could do anything. It formed a few hand seals, and runes appeared in the air.

Some kind of leech came out of its body, sliding down its arms, dropping to the ground, and growing bigger. It was a pretty disturbing scene to witness.

These leeches were huge, and they even had little legs, plus a gaping mouth full of sharp teeth.

Somehow, the octopus had managed to summon those creatures. Every rift monster had its own quirks, and this one was no different.

"Can you guys fight?" Mary asked. "If so, get ready. This monster is quite strong, but if we work together, we’ll have a better chance of surviving."

She was acting like the leader. I didn’t say anything, of course. No need to fight about that considering the situation we were in.

I looked at Tom and Ethan, and with just one look we already knew what to do. Each of us had an idea of what the others could do, so we were already thinking about how to take on that creature.

The first thing to do in a situation like that was to observe the enemy and try to figure out exactly how their powers worked.

From what I knew so far, this octopus could control minds and summon leeches. Obviously that wasn’t all it could do.

I summoned my cube, getting ready for battle. It floated in front of me.

Before I could change its form and try to attack the octopus, Tom, who was standing really close to me, turned and used his ability to attack me! He sent a wind blade my way, just like back when we trained together.

"What!?" I shouted.

Luckily, my cube was already right in front of me, so I managed to quickly move it to my side and absorb Tom’s attack, storing that wind blade inside my pocket dimension.

Ethan, who was next to Tom, put a hand to his head, as if a strong pain was messing with him.

"The creature is trying to control our minds," Ethan said. "I can resist it, but apparently Tom couldn’t. We have to do something."

I knew exactly what to do. I ran toward Tom as fast as I could, and with almost inhuman agility, I slid around his side and got behind his back, locking his head in a chokehold.

Tom tried to elbow me in the stomach and pull my arm off his neck, but he couldn’t. The difference in strength between our bodies was huge. He was no match for me.

In that situation, he tried to use his ability to hurt me again, but this time I was even faster. The cube changed shape, turning into cuffs that locked Tom’s hands, leaving him unable to control his powers properly.

While I was dealing with him, the octopus went after Maison, who was completely in shock, wanting to get out of there. He wasn’t strong enough to face that creature.

Mary was the one who stepped between the octopus and Maison, shielding him. She used her power, creating black ink and forming some kind of humanoid creature, tall and skinny, the exact same creature that had "kidnapped" Maison that night.

The creature charged at the leeches and attacked them with its claws, cutting them in half. Black blood splattered everywhere, and in no time the ink creature had killed several leeches.

The octopus didn’t look worried at all. It formed more hand seals and launched a ball of water that slammed into the ink creature, destroying it on the spot.

And then the octopus kept running toward Mary. Its movements were fast, which left me pretty shocked.

"My bad, Tom," I said once I noticed he had passed out from my chokehold.

I didn’t like having to do that to him, but it was necessary in that situation.

Ethan, since his power was related to illusions, something more mental, managed to resist the creature’s mind control.

I needed to help Mary, so I quickly ran toward the octopus.

It looked at me and said, "Stay out of this. I’ll take control of you and use you to fight your friends."

At that moment, I felt the creature trying to enter my mind. That was the worst mistake of its life.

Inside my mind, the octopus and I were staring each other down. But behind me was a massive serpent, so huge that the octopus looked like an ant next to it. That was my bloodline helping me against the mind control.

Not only that, but the octopus froze and stopped moving entirely, as if it had been petrified with fear.

Nobody understood what had just happened.

Not about to waste the opportunity, I turned the cube into a sword and attacked the octopus.