Henry dove low, making his skin pitch black as he sent a clone above the green ray. The serpent shot its ray at the clone, and Henry summoned two more clones. He sent one circling to the right, one to the center, then he circled left around the serpent.

  He was ready to trigger Bahamut Whale’s Resilience, but held off on it. He assumed it wouldn’t stay on for long, and he had to make the most out of the single charge.

  The monster looked at everything approaching it, then it did something Henry hadn’t seen so far.

  What’s this now?

  The serpent shut its jaw. The green light intensified for a moment, then it spat down a ball of green light in front of it.

  A wide green detonation rocked the middle clone, shoving Henry away. His skin burned as the wave of green magic washed over him while, on the other side, the second clone dissolved as well.

  His eyes burned. He held his breath but knew some of the stuff had gone in.

  Henry’s insides seized for a moment. His muscles wanted to stay locked, but it thankfully didn’t last. Toxin Resistance and his Constitution were working overtime.

  He used the same formation again, but stayed further away from the clones. Henry glided toward the serpent, watching it as it prepared the same attack while he activated five charges of Hoard Vitals to replenish some of his health and mana. The charges spread through his body, alleviating the cold grip that threatened to lock up his muscles.

  The Ink Clones were costly to use, but this fight might have already been lost without that skill. He couldn’t have approached the serpent otherwise.

  The serpent took the bait and aimed at the two clones–then its eye flicked left, right before it spat the poison bomb at the clones.

  Henry dove, dodging the tail that whipped toward him.

  Smart bastard. But I got you.

  Henry spread his arms and pushed himself forward with his siphon. His limbs hit the throat of the serpent and the suckers activated. He spread his grip around the throat as he gingerly tried to not get his arms impaled with its back spine.

  The serpent whipped back, trying to dislodge him. Henry tightened his grip, and with two arms he’d left free, he whipped the throat above him with Razor Arms.

  One bladed arm skidded, another lodged into the serpent’s scale. Henry cursed as the world turned upside down. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy.

  He eyed the tight scales under him. They were only a bite away, but the thought made his hearts beat faster.

  Too soon.

  He didn’t want to use Bite. What had happened to the Whipcrack shark was still fresh in his memory, and he didn’t want to push his resistances to the point where they would be overwhelmed. He couldn’t risk getting the creature’s blood in his mouth.

  Not yet.

  Henry readied another strike as the serpent continued thrashing, and he began whipping with both bladed arms, again and again.

  The serpent roared. Henry continued, barely making a dent through the scales at first, but with every impact, he could feel them give a bit more. Scour lines were multiplying with every slash, and Henry knew he would soon see blood.

  The serpent stopped thrashing, then slowly unrolled upward, lifting its head. Henry looked up–without stopping his attacks–and saw the green light shine through the long fangs. The green hue grew brighter. Then the reptile tilted its head back and to the side, and poison spilled from between its fangs like molten metal.

  The blobs of luminescent green oil rolled down the serpent’s neck, heavier than the water surrounding them, some adhering to its skin, while others free-fell toward Henry.

  Henry activated his Slick Coat once more and triggered the charge for Resilience of the Bahamut Whale.

  His skin grew taught and hardened, taking a familiar gray shade, and even his hits seemed to dig through the scale faster. Henry slashed at the throat. The scale finally broke, exposing pink, green-veined flesh. The serpent flailed and roared, moving Henry away from the free-falling poison, but he knew he wasn’t out of danger just yet.

  Henry saw a blob of toxins roll along the serpent’s scale toward his face. He pulled together the dregs of mana he had left to push it away with Telekinesis, but all it accomplished was spreading the venom thinner

  Henry squeezed the muscles around his eyes shut and held his breath, tilting his face as far as he could from the serpent's neck without detaching himself. He couldn’t let the liquid get to his mouth. He began tasting blood from his bladed arms, so he continued digging.

  I can’t…stop…now.

  The concentrated poison touched some of his arms first. Slick Coat held for less than a second before it disintegrated, and the liquid felt cold as it coated its way down his skin. A moment later, the cold faded, and so did any other sensation from that limb. Then the spasms began.

  Henry continued to hack into the serpent’s throat, tasting its blood on his bladed arms and feeling them growing numb from being exposed to the poisonous blood. He began feeling light headed. His limbs were growing heavy, so Henry used used five charges of Hoard Vitals, pushing back against the numbing and muscle-locking toxin, and replenishing some of his spent mana.

  The green liquid fell over the right side of his face. His eyelid spasmed and opened enough for the toxin to get through. It didn’t burn, but the light immediately distorted, and a second later, he could only see a muted gray from that eye. Feeling the toxin reach his other eye, he squinted as hard as he could, hoping to minimize its effects, and thankfully, the serpent couldn’t endure the pain any longer.

  It whipped its head away, shaking off most of the toxic substance from Henry. Some residue still clung to him, but at least he wasn’t completely covered anymore.

  Henry tasted more blood around his bladed arms. His limbs began to tire and spasm. His skin burned, but he persisted in cutting through the serpent’s now-softened skin. The scales no longer blocked him.

  He needed to breathe. He couldn’t tell how long he’d been hacking at the serpent’s neck, and he was surprised at how long he could hold his breath. Probably because of his Constitution. But the timer was ticking and holding on to a flailing 40-foot monster was taxing him.

  The water surrounding him was probably unsafe. Henry kept slicing with two razors. Blood was flowing, but the serpent was still writhing.

  His head felt full of cotton. He felt like he was floating.

  Henry activated five more charge of stored health. Blood gushed harder, telling him an artery had just been cut. He could not taste it anymore. All of his limbs felt… foreign. And it was about to get worse.

  Henry couldn’t hold his breath anymore, and he began losing sensation form his limbs. Actually, he’d already lost some, he felt. Especially those he’d used to attach himself to the serpent. They might be around, as he was still attached to the creature, but he couldn’t feel much.

  The serpent spat more poison rays at the sky and ocean floor in its panic as its blood gushed out. Henry kept his gills shut until his brain forced them open against his will, and the poisoned blood rushed into his gills.

  His innards flared with pain, and his awareness swam. He couldn’t see anything, one eye was shut, another saw only gray, but the world began tilting and turning. Sounds echoed. Even his muscles relaxed.

  Henry activated all remaining charges of Hoard Vitals. However many he had left, and two of his arms responded to his orders. He hoped the others were still securing him to the creature’s neck.

  The serpent was moving less. Henry’s limbs were leaden as he swung them at the bleed gash in the serpent’s neck. They weren’t getting a lot of resistance anymore, but to be fair, he couldn’t feel them that well, anyway.

  He kept cutting. Again. And again. And again.

  In Henry’s dread-filled daze and single-minded focus, something broke through. Henry continued slicing and vaguely tried to understand what it was saying.

  1x [Juvenile Sea Serpent (D) - Lvl 12 ] core was collected.

  Henry slowed his two functional arms. He tried to feel for the others, to relax them and detach from the creature, but they refused to obey him. Everything was oddly muted around him. He felt sleepy. He felt sick.

  Not nauseous and tired sick, but more of a bad dream, can’t even feel, see, or control your body kind of sick.

  The kind of sick where you forgot who you are or what you were even doing.

  Not a… good… sign.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Henry’s thoughts slurred. Alarm nudged him, but he wasn’t panicking like he should. There wasn’t much to be done, but one option seemed viable.

  Henry consumed the core.

  As the world danced, as he floated and tumbled slowly in a quiet, dark space, he hoped what he’d done would work. If it didn’t, would he get his body back?

  Would he die for good?

  Seconds ticked by as he tried Henry tried to find a ledge to grip on to. Tremors shook his body, and a new wave of pain entered his limbs. It felt oddly therapeutic. It was as if the pain was shaking the tension loose and burning the venom away as it sunk into him. Reminding him of the limbs he’d stopped feeling a while ago.

  Strength entered his body and Henry felt his mind wake from its toxin empowered stupor. A bunch of notifications floated up his interfaces, but he couldn’t focus on them as pain continued flaring all over his body. Bile rose up his throat, and he felt himself vomit. With every second, more fortitude and vitality entered his flesh, and it made him feel worse. More poison was entering his gills, but it wasn’t as bad anymore. Probably because it got diluted.

  Then Henry’s un-poisoned eye cracked open, and he inhaled.

  Ouch. Crap. Shit.

  Henry breathed out, struggling to keep his eye open. It was swollen for some reason, but he managed to glimpse his surroundings. The other eye still saw only gray.

  He was lying on the seabed, still attached to the dead serpent. The water was tinted red, and wisps of blood still flowed out of the monster’s butchered throat. He couldn’t see it very well from this angle, but he could see shredded flesh floating out of the injury.

  Henry tried to pull his arms away from its back and from under its body. The top ones came back, while from the three trapped under its body only one came out.

  When he tried to pull the others, he felt pain.

  They’re stuck in the spines, aren’t they…

  Henry sighed and looked up. The cloud of blood was clearing out.

  He survived. He… won.

  Huh, he thought as he eyed the blurry monster next to him. Next, Henry pulled his notifications and his jaw dropped.

  Stalking Threat (E) - Level 7 achieved!

  …

  Stalking Threat (E) - Level 53 achieved!

  9x Stat points awarded.

  5x Strength Stat points awarded.

  5x Constitution Stat points awarded.

  3x class skill slots added.

  3x class trait slots awarded.

  Gambling worked I guess. Strength passed 20. And I… also passed 30 in Constitution? When? Oh…

  Juvenile Sea Serpent Core (D) contained significant Constitution stats.

  2x Constitution Stat points awarded.

  Juvenile Sea Serpent Core (D) contained significant Spirit stats.

  2x Spirit Stat points awarded.

  Juvenile Sea Serpent Core (D) contained significant Strength stats.

  1x Strength Stat points awarded.

  Holy crap… That’s so much stats. Where am I at right now?

  Strength: 23

  Constitution: 30

  Spirit: 21

  Perception: 16

  Dexterity: 13

  Unassigned: 9

  Dear god. And I haven’t even assigned the points yet.

  Henry was feeling much better. He still absolutely needed a nap and some rest, but he was regaining control over his limbs, so he decided it was time to free himself from under the serpent. Already, his blinded eye began seeing vague shapes and colours.

  With his improved strength, Henry pulled. Hard. He grimaced at the pain as the spine tore into his limb, then the spine broke.

  A few moments later, his arms—or what remained of them—were out from under the serpent. The end of them were gray and numb, but it was nothing he couldn’t heal once he got some rest.

  I haven’t gotten through everything. There are still notifications. Let’s see…

  Magic Mimic: Toxic Ray (F) was copied temporarily

  Magic Mimic: Superior owned traits analyzed

  Trait Evolution Unlocked: Toxin Resistance (D)

  Trait Evolution Unlocked: Venom Production (E)

  Mimicking Arms (E): Level 8 -> Level 10

  Inkjet (E): Level 2 -> Level 5

  Arm Whip (F): Level 4 -> Level 10

  Razor Arm (E): Level 7 -> Level 10

  Hoard Vitals (E): Level 4 -> Level 6

  Slick Coat (F): Level 3 -> Level 5

  Telepathic Message (F): Level 1 -> Level 2

  Bite: Bite of the Sea Serpent charge acquired

  Inkjet: Poisoned Ink (Sea Serpent) charge acquired

  Mimicking Arms: Scales of the Serpent charge acquired.

  Venom Production (E): Spasmodic of the Sea Serpent acquired.

  That had been dangerous. More than he’d expected. But the gambit paid off extremely well.

  Magic Mimic has more functions than what is described in the skill. And Mimicking Arms got to 10. Along with Arm Whip. And I might get a chance to test all of this.

  Calls had begun echoing louder around him, but Henry wasn’t worried. The seals had been barely able to injure him before the massive boost he’d just got, so even though his health and mana were low, he didn’t expect them to be able to do much.

  While he waited for the seals to get there, he triggered Arm Whip’s upgrade.

  Upgrade Arm Whip (F): Pick the focus of the skill upgrade

  Added weight Or Increased speed

  Henry took the weight upgrade. He waited for the skill to finish leveling up as he floated up and watched the seals come out of the green-gray horizon. With every second, the sight of his blinded eye was getting better. He looked down at the torn throat of the serpent and decided he would harvest a few parts of it to work on his toxin resistance. Later. And to see if there were any other skills or traits he could get out of it.

  Though to be fair, he’d probably ingested everything he could or needed to through the blood he’d bathed in and as the whales had told him before, it could be that the various skills the creature had displayed were a single, well developed cornerstone skill.

  It’s probably that one… Toxic Ray. Its upgrades are probably responsible for the crazy stuff the serpent had been able to do.

  The seals surrounded him as he reflected on the battle he’d just taken part of. Henry looked down at two of his arms. They didn’t seem to be healing. Both of them were pale and black. Unresponsive.

  They’d been impaled on the serpent’s spine for a bit.

  Henry lifted both, then sliced them with a third arm, cutting through the dead flesh like a scythe through dry wheat. With that done, he looked up at the seals as they bared their teeth at him.

  “[Leave.]”

  Henry sent it to the largest seal. What he assumed to be their leader.

  The seal twitched at the noise. Then it attacked, and Henry whipped it with a blade-less arm in the face. His large arm impacted the 14-foot seal with a crack that burst its protective bubble and completely killed its momentum.

  The seal laid limp for a few seconds. Then it woke up, startled. The mammals stared at him. Henry stared back.

  The octopus raised two arms and glowered at the seals. He looked at the one just slapped and spoke again. “[One more time. Leave.]”

  The leader made a throaty call, and all the seals attacked.

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