Ultimate Level 1

Max sprinted across the water, passing the first island and reaching the place where the other rowboats were.

Tanila and Cordellia had moved to the opposite end of the island, where the Kraken had vanished underneath the water. Their presence had summoned it and the spells and arrows from the pair kept it engaged as he made it back to the entrance of the boss floor.

Rowing back to the island was harder than he imagined as the paddles felt like they would snap from the speed and strength so he ended up returning to the start, stacking two boats on top of each other, and carrying them as he ran back to the island.

As he neared the outer ring, the beast started to rise, tentacles lashing out from the water, yet Max dodged and ran, smiling as the boss’s head appeared over the water and it let out a roar that he believed meant it was upset.

***

“That is completely not fair,” Fowl stated as he watched Max set the two new boats down by the other three. “Running on water? What are you? Some kind of god?”

Ignoring Fowl’s joke, Max pointed at the four of them, each now holding an orb from a pedestal in their hands.

“Are you certain you can keep its attention?” Tanila asked. “That’s a big ask.”

“I’m going to piss it off, don’t you worry. Cordellia already shared with me the good stuff.”

“You only have fifty of those and they each cost three gold, so don’t waste them.”

“I’ll be fine. Between your lightning arrows and my arrows, I can cause it some pain. Now I’ll go and draw its attention. You four be safe. If the boss does leave me, I’ll be there to grab you in a moment.”

Everyone nodded once, putting their orb in a pouch and securing it on their hip.

Turning, Max took off, running toward the island he had summoned the first ship from.

“Twenty-seven seconds… You are pretty fast,” Max muttered as the boss started to come up from the water, surrounding his little island.

Tentacles stretched higher, easily a hundred feet or more and, like a clock, had him surrounded on all sides as the pair of eyes watched the man standing alone near the crystal pedestal.

Moving first, Max used one of the lightning arrows, sending it at the boss’s black eye, watching the beast turn and the arrow instead piercing the thick hide as it vanished inside its body.

It shrieked, tentacles coming as one at the island of sand, and Max moved as he unleashed two of his enchanted arrows that came from the bow.

[ Demonic Teleportation ]

The sound of all that mass striking the island was muffled and the sea was rolling when Max vanished from where it had struck, now on top of the water and skimming across the surface like a bug, sending arrows without pause at the boss’s back.

Each one seemed to have a different effect, some freezing, some burning, others bubbling and yet any damage done was quickly removed after about ten seconds.

He darted and weaved, avoiding the tentacle strikes as they slammed into and through the water, sending waves over ten and fifteen feet tall from the force.

He ran up to them, over them and appeared further away, always poking and prodding.

Time was his enemy. He couldn’t see his friends, but knew how long it should take for them to arrive at the small islands. Once that happened, he would have even less time to act.

A trio of attacks came close to hitting him as they boxed him in, yet an air wall gave him the ability to escape as he jumped onto it, leaping off it and onto one tentacle. His halberd was out, and he ran, digging the axe head into the flesh and opening up a long furrow of damage, like a farmer tilling the soil.

Only a few seconds of running on the flesh took place before the boss jerked it underwater, but he cut a wound over fifty feet long in that time. Two black eyes glared at him. Max was almost certain it was wishing some sort of magic would fire from its eyes.

As it pulled its tentacles under the water, the boss began to turn and Max ran around, sending a few more arrows until he realized what the boss was doing.

A whirlpool was forming as water was being sucked toward the boss, building up speed and force. More and more water in the area began to come toward the underwater vortex.

It was a powerful attack, no doubt dangerous to anyone in the water, in a boat, or even the ship the boss had destroyed earlier, yet with his gift from the merfolk king, it was like running up a hill of sand. Sure, it continually flowed downward, but Max’s speed and strength was greater than the pull of the water.

An agonizing minute passed as the water continued to swirl and an occasional tentacle rose from underneath, always avoided as Max’s sonar gave him enough warning, resulting in him inflicting pain upon the boss.

Finally, the fireball appeared in the sky and Max allowed himself a grin, ready to see if Tanila’s plan would work out as he hoped.

“See you in a couple!”

[ Haste ]

Max wished he could have gotten some read on the boss’s reaction to when he vanished. The moment his skill kicked in, he was out of the whirlpool and headed toward the first island, seeing four ships all appearing upon the water at the same time.

He slowed down just enough to grab Cordellia, putting her on his shoulder as she yelled, not really prepared for his arrival and their departure. Each of the other three found the same fate, quickly collected and then dumped on the main island at the shore as Max raced toward the four ships.

“Be ready!”

Max reached the first ship, jumping off the water and onto the far left one, turning and watching for the boss. It wasn’t visible yet, but knowing how long it took to reach him and where he had left it, he had a few moments.

Quickly, he lashed a rope around the explosive barrel he had taken from the earlier tower floor, making sure it wasn’t going to fall off if the ship was turned sideways. Right at the main point of the single mast, it waited. A trap of Tanila’s design.

He jumped and took off, setting up the same thing on the next ship and then the third one. With those three set, Max ran around the fourth and farthest ship to the right, hoping Tanila was right.

His sonar went off about ten seconds later, telling him she had been correct.

It appears that even with the ships in the water, this thing REALLY hates me.

Tentacles erupted from where he had been moving along and Max laughed, lost in how fun the moment suddenly felt.

He jumped onto the ship, grinning as the cannons fired.

There all around it, the boss surrounded the ship, tentacles wrapping around it, wood creaking and snapping from the death grip the Kraken had on the vessel.

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Max knew it wouldn’t hold much longer and moved to where the cannons were on the furthest side. With a quick tug, he pulled one free, cursing when it wouldn’t store as the other floor had and then jumped onto the water and ran at the closest ship which had turned, headed toward the boss.

Cannon balls flew from the three incoming ships while the one it was crushing only made the noise of wood being obliterated.

The sail was in the water, and sounds of crunching came as the boss ate whatever had to be inside the boat.

A quick glance revealed that again the boss was growing, ten or twenty more feet being added to its size.

Climbing aboard the closest ship, Max put the cannon he just ripped off next to the fire cask and watched.

Nothing happened like the other cannons had, no merging with the wood of the ship.

Cursing he tossed it aside and grabbed one of the two from storage, setting it near the cask. This time it joined with the ship, glimmering for a moment and growing slightly in size.

That’s interesting…

Smiling, he dashed to the front of the boat, hacking off an opening in the front, and dropped the second cannon, watching as it did the same.

Pointing it at the boss, he pulled the rope and felt a more powerful explosion take place when a larger cannonball shot out from its opening and penetrated its skin. A second passed, then the attack exploded from within, sending out chunks of rubbery flesh and causing the boss to roar.

Immediately the Kraken moved faster toward him and Max yanked on the cannon, upset when it didn’t come free.

“Goblin shite!”

Yanking on the rope as quickly as he could, it fired again, just six seconds after the first one, striking once more and inflicting another gaping hole in the behemoth headed toward him.

Tentacles reached toward the vessel as the other two cannons fired on their own, striking the beast.

“Here we go,” Max said as he began summoning a fireball and sent it upward into the air.

As the thick appendages wrapped around the ship, causing it to shudder and shake, Max ran up to one, punching it with his bare hand and ignoring how slimy the thing felt when his skin pierced the thick outer skin.

[ Weakness ]

[ Festering Touch ]

[ Demonic Magic ]

Convulsions came from the spot his hand was, and the tentacle yanked itself away from the ship and from Max. It let go of its grip on the ship for a moment, flailing its black appendages everywhere.

Rain began to suddenly fall as thunder and lightning came from the clouds Max hadn’t realized were quickly blowing in.

The ship! The first time it ate one the clouds had come!

Cursing, Max pulled his halberd out and began hacking at the boss when it finally started attacking once again.

Large chunks of flesh were sent into the water and onto the deck and when the boss pulled the ship up against its body, Max ran toward the furthest side, slashing at one more tentacle before jumping high into the air.

Turning, he summoned his bow and aimed at the barrel on the deck, watching as boards buckled and popped free, giving way to the power of the Kraken.

His arrow connected, igniting the barrel and when the liquid burst forth, flames spreading, some landed on the cannon next to it. Another second or two passed before it seemed to ignite and exploded, sending more of the liquid everywhere, igniting the ship, water and boss.

Landing on the water, Max ran to the island that was only a hundred yards away, standing on the shore near the boat they had left there and watched as the flames ravaged the boss.

The tentacles covered in the liquid went under the water, only to rise a few seconds later, still on fire, burning without care for either the sea or the rain.

Two orange glowing eyes, reflecting the fire underneath and around it, locked on Max as the ship sank, burning as it went down.

It didn’t stop to try to eat whatever may or may not have been on the ship. He didn’t know if it was burnt or destroyed from the explosion, but what he did know was that the boss never took those eyes off of him.

Firing a lighting arrow at the boss, Max watched as it struck, sending a wave of magic through its tentacle but this time, not healed as it had before.

Turning, Max ran for the third boat which was closing in, both front guns firing whenever it appeared they could.

***

“It’s coming!”

Max stood on the shore with the others, watching the pile of burnt flesh make its way toward them. Only about four tentacles seemed to work, most of them now missing seventy-five percent of their mass.

Three times the boss had been foolish, chasing Max, ensnaring the ship, enduring a fire that wouldn’t go out. All while being bombarded by the cannons, Max’s bow and his halberd anytime the creature got close.

On the third ship he had recast the same spells, unsure how long they may or might not last.

Tanila had told him everything relied upon the Festering Touch and that the other two were just icing on the cake.

Fowl stood before the others, slightly in the water, shield out, hammer ready while Max and Cordellia had their bows pulled back.

Tanila had summoned a ball of lightning so large it felt like he was watching a wagon float above her head.

In the water, twenty yards away, was the last barrel. Floating in the water, barely bobbing amidst the broken pieces of a boat that the others had made look like trash.

The boss came, one eye gone, the other having liquid that streamed from both sides. Huge chunks of flesh were missing from its face and the scarred, burnt areas didn’t regrow at all. Even the left side of the famous arrowed head was gone, leaving a jagged, torn area of flesh that made the boss look almost silly.

“Once it gets close, I’m getting out of the water!” Fowl shouted. “I don’t like being bait!”

As if drawn by a desire that it couldn’t avoid, the Kraken moved toward the dwarf, its movements jerky and not as smooth as it had been at the start of this fight.

“Fifty more yards!” Max announced. “Be ready, bait!”

“ I’ll bait your arse with my foot. ”

Sonar picked up the dwarf’s curse and Max grinned, ready to end this.

The rain was nothing more than a light sprinkle, and even the dark clouds couldn’t dampen what was about to happen.

“Now!”

Fowl began back peddling, getting out of the way as Tanila unleashed her spell at the boss.

Cordellia’s special arrow flew, empowered and enchanted with lightning, streaking toward the remaining eye of the beast.

Max ignored the boss, his arrow hitting the barrel, sending out a splash of liquid flames that covered the bottom half of the boss as it moved toward them.

The Kraken flailed, rolling in the shallow waters, flames covering its corpse as it burned. Loud, ear piercing shrieks and roars came until they halted and the mountain of flesh no longer moved.

[ Consume has Consumed Bonus Stats ]

[ 20 Strength Consumed ]

[ 20 Dexterity Consumed ]

[ 20 Constitution Consumed ]

[ Consume has Consumed a skill ]

[ Current Skill is Equal in Rank ]

[ Power Stored for Future Use ]

The influx of stats surprised Max, as he wasn’t sure how the system decided his attack had been the one to kill it.

Apparently the fire was what did it in…

No one said a word until the fire went out and the hulking, burnt corpse of the Kraken vanished into nothing.

“Holy dwarf nuts!” Cordellia exclaimed suddenly. “I’m almost level seventy!”

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