As a horde of arrows descended on the bay below, Drake doubted many would find their targets. The kromians were diving back down into the water the moment they emerged from the sea gates hidden in the coral. Entering the water would blunt any momentum the arrows might have. Still, at least the barrages would keep their heads down.
Tiny blue-white forms were also swarming the barges. It looked like the people down below had a fight on their hands, but at least they’d been ready for it. His archers couldn’t shoot arrows at the barges without risking friendly fire, and Drake couldn’t drop a meteor kaboom on them for the same reason. The barges were on their own.
The first volley had just landed when another volley rose from the opposite cliff. Sky and her archers were opening fire as well. Meanwhile, even as they fought off kromians, all three barges were turning around... slowly. Even with their oarsmen obviously putting all they had into it, slowing an advancing barge and turning it a full 180 was not a fast maneuver.
Hopefully, the barrage Drake and Sky’s archers were dropping on the bay would buy them the time they needed. If not, the battle below was going to get a lot bloodier than anyone had anticipated. No one had expected the kromians to pour out of hidden sea gates. They weren’t even supposed to have that many sea gates.
The huge spray of water at the throat of the bay slacked off. That spray was obviously coming from elsewhere in the sea, not the bay itself. The pressure suggested it was deep down. Yet as the water slacked off, something else came through instead.
It was a huge yellow tower covered in suckers... no. Not a tower. A tentacle. The tentacle rose like a stalk of grass growing with impossible speed as water coursed off it and spray scattered. It rose at least as high as the water spout—ten stories or more—before slamming into the bay with enough force to send water flying in all directions.
Another massive tentacle popped out, rising and slamming down in the opposite direction, followed by another, and another. As Drake stared in horror and disbelief, he realized that the barges floating in the bay were now boned. The kromians had actually done it.
“Fuck me,” Drake whispered. “They just unleashed the kraken.”
Prince Varnath had lured three barges full of powerful people with rarities and two manor lords into the water, his chosen battleground, and trapped them beneath his giant monster and the chain nets. They’d never cut the chains in time, and a massive killer octopus had squeezed through a sea gate behind them. They’d all be crushed and eaten in short order.
The barges were only halfway turned around when the last of the monstrosity finished squeezing itself through the sea gate. It was a multi-eyed monster with a set of jaws the size of a sailing ship and tentacles—no, arms—that had to be at least two blocks long. Drake belatedly remembered that, because octopi had no bones, they could squeeze their bodies through openings that were many times smaller than their total mass. Apparently, krakens could too.
“We’re moving toward the bay to fight!” Sky shouted from the mirror. “Support us!”
“That’s a terrible idea!” Drake shouted back.
“Let me know if you have a better one!” Sky vanished from the mirror.
Drake tucked the mirror into his pouch and looked toward Sachi. “Archers! Make that that thing a pincushion!” At least, given its colossal size, it would be hard to miss.
“Can I chop it, lord?” Emily asked hopefully at his side. “I really want to chop that thing!”
Drake’s horror and shock momentarily vanished as a sudden, desperate hope filled him. “Does that thing have a soul? Do you see it?”
“It’s glowing like a sun! I can’t imagine how big a pop that soul will make when I chop it.” She stared at him with the most hopeful and demented gaze he could imagine. “Please, please, please can we go kill the giant octopus?”
Could Emily’s soul rend rarity really kill such a beast? It would be like an ant trying to kill a bear with a twig. A mortal weapon and even a magical weapon like Cresh’s Blood Woe would cause little more than a papercut to something this huge, but what if Emily cut its soul?
The kraken had already overtaken the last barge in line. It wrapped two huge tentacles around the barge even as arrows, spells, and swords tore uselessly at its many suckers. As the barge rose out of the water, a few people fell or dived into the water as the tentacles rolled in separate directions. The huge monster ground the barge in half.
Drake could barely hear the distant and terrified screams of everyone on board, but he didn’t miss the tiny figures thrashing as another tentacle rose. The huge jaws of the kraken opened below them, a black pit. Screaming, flailing bodies dropped into that tooth-filled maw.
Drake raised his voice. “Fuck it! Let’s go kill a kraken!” He made a circle up gesture. “Everyone, on me!” He jogged down toward the bay at the best pace he could manage in ferrocite, which felt slow. His armor clanked with each step and sapped his energy.
Lydia matched him easily. “Are you sure about this?”
“We can’t lose everyone in the bay. We have to give Emily a chance to chop that thing’s soul, and I might know a way to get its attention.”
He heard the sound of dozens of people in armor behind and around him, following his charge. His zarovians rushed past him in no time, led by Cresh. They formed a vanguard that would cut through any kromians that might attempt to stop them from reaching the bay below, if they showed up. They also roared like he’d expect a war party to roar. Good for them.
As Drake huffed down the hill, arrows continued to whistle overhead. They peppered the massive kraken and bounced off its scales like pebbles tossed at a tank. No mortal weapons were going to put a dent in this monstrosity. Only rarities could kill it.
Lighting crackled, and then a huge ball of electricity vaulted from the barge by the nets. Lord Proudglade had finally decided to use his shock spear rarity. The only reason Drake could imagine Lord Proudglade waiting this long was because he was knee deep in kromian boarders. Hopefully, this meant the people on the barges had finally fought them all off.
Drake cheered as the huge crackling mass of ball lightning rocketed across the bay. It slammed directly into the face of the massive thrashing kraken and dissipated harmlessly across it. The beast didn’t even flinch.
Drake’s heart sank as he realized why Prince Varnath had chosen this particular monster for his coup de grace. This massive yellow kraken was lightning-proof.
The two remaining barges were fully turned around now, though Drake could see a number of oars missing or broken. Fighting on the barges must have been more deadly than he’d believed. At least Lord Proudglade was still alive... which Drake supposed was good.
Another bolt of ball lightning arced outward from Lord Proudglade’s barge. It slammed into the face of the kraken and crackled across its wet and yellow skin harmlessly. The beast lurched forward. It would be on the last two barges in moments, and then they would need to take a vote on two new manor lords. Unless the kraken could become one.
Drake couldn’t wait any longer. He came to a halt, took a deep breath, and reached into his core like he’d practiced this morning after he absorbed Carl’s rarity... firestone. A feeling of raw power burst to life in his feet and rushed through his whole body. It rushed out through his fingertips as he rotated his palms like a practitioner doing Tai Chi.
“Carl!” he shouted. “Let’s hit that thing!”
The young man looked terrified by Drake’s order, but nonetheless began summoning his own ball of flaming rock. Time to see if the kraken was fireproof as well.
A rock crackled into being between Drake’s rotating palms, spinning with his motion, and then that rock caught fire. Drake spun the ball of flaming hot rock bigger and bigger between his palms, growing it with each spin.
It was the size of a baseball. A basketball. An exercise ball. It was already far larger than Carl’s rock, but this rarity was burnished. He appreciated the help.
“On my command, Carl, toss it!”
The ball of flaming molten rock was now as big as a washing machine. Drake focused on the huge kraken lurching toward the boats in the distance—all he had to do was focus—and pushed. Launching the flaming ball of rock was more mental than physical.
“Fire!” Drake bellowed.
A sound like a firework screaming through the sky echoed as his washing-machine-sized meteor of flaming rock hurtled up and into the air like a flaming boulder launched by a ballista, followed by Carl’s smaller, basketball-sized rock. Black smoke trailed behind the projectiles as they screamed across the bay. Drake dropped to one knee, caught his breath, and watched as first Carl’s smaller rock, and then his massive ball of fire, impacted the kraken’s side.
Huge explosions blossomed when their flaming meteor kabooms struck flesh. The beast thrashed as it hit. The sight of chunks of yellow flesh, gunk, and goo spiraling violently in all directions was a real morale booster for Drake and, he hoped, everyone else watching.
“That’s right, you fish fucker!” he shouted as he spun up another rock. “Come get—”
The beast roared with a sound that shook the whole bay. It violently thrashed its many arms, and Drake grinned as he realized his flaming rock hadn’t just hurt it. He’d also pissed it off. One large, baleful eye fixed upon him.
There was no need to run closer. He could hit it from here. He began spinning up another ball of flaming rock as Carl mirrored him. Emily and the rest of his forces, including Cresh, his zarovians, and a number of capital guards, charged onward to where the water of the bay met the land. They could engage the kraken on land if he could taunt it out of the water.
The huge beast had stopped advancing on the two remaining barges. For the first time since it had arrived in the bay, it seemed unsure of itself. A piercing whistle filled the bay, the same sort of whistle he’d heard before the kromians retreated from their first assault.
The kraken visibly responded to the whistle. It turned once more toward the barges, but Drake wasn’t about to allow it to finish off the other two barges... or Lord Proudglade and Lord Brightwater. His next meteor was already spinning beneath his palms. While he was tiring, he suspected he could launch a few more before he dropped.
He sent the meteor rocketing skyward with a shout. “Ka-boom!”
There was no need to shout that. It was a waste of energy. But damn, did it feel good.
His hurtling rock smashed directly into the kraken’s face. The explosion utterly disintegrated one eye and blasted flesh, goo, and pus out in all directions. Carl’s rock hit the same spot a moment later, blasting guts and blood.
All eight of the monster’s massive arms thrashed like it had been electrocuted, and then, it pivoted toward him. It surged toward the shore Emily, his zarovians, and the capital guards were approaching. It roared so loudly he felt like his eardrums popped.
More whistles sounded, barely audible over the ringing in Drake’s ears, but it seemed obvious the kraken was too maddened by pain and rage to listen to its master. It was also approaching far faster than Drake had expected, and it was, pretty much, the size of a ten-story hotel. Even if he ran, he’d never get away. He spun up another meteor kaboom.
“Hold!” he shouted at Carl. “Again!”
The kraken reached the shoreline and coursed over it like a dozen rolling waves. Its huge arms swept across the beach like massive sweepers, slamming into capital guards and even zarovians. Contact either flattened them or sent them flying. Drake prayed Emily had somehow managed to avoid those strikes, because otherwise, they were all getting eaten today.
Carl launched another flaming rock as Drake continued to grow his own. This one took the kraken directly in the face. While the explosion didn’t completely destroy its uninjured eyes, it was obvious when the smoke cleared that he’d blinded the massive beast. It surged forward as a demented water balloon with massive tentacles, whipped into a rage.
Lydia stepped in front of him, spirit knives drawn. She was impossibly tiny before the oncoming tsunami of kraken. Valentia stepped to his other size, followed by his zarovians.
None of them could stop this beast. It was going to sweep them all aside like an angry child swiping toys off a table, yet every last one of them had stepped up to defend Drake without a single order. At least, if they went out today, they’d all go together.
“Ka-boom!” Drake launched his final meteor and then dropped to one knee.
He didn’t have any more in him. Apparently, while he could toss out normal-sized meteors for days, the huge ones took a lot more out of him than he’d expected. However, his flaming rock hurtled directly into the kraken’s gaping maw. The explosion that followed sent its skin rippling from the inside out.
The kraken slowed and slewed sideways on its many tentacles, stunned by the explosion somewhere inside its gullet. Yet the stun didn’t last long. The beast blocked out the sun as it wriggled toward Drake, its tormentor. It loomed over him, jaws wide.
Where was Emily? Just when Drake was certain he was going to be snatched, dropped, and swallowed, the beast went stiff. It shrieked so loud it deafened him.
Every last arm that could still move shot out straight as the whole kraken quivered like a giant stack of Jello. Then... it collapsed. The once towering monster spread itself across the ground like a blimp-sized vat of pudding dumped out all at once. Its long arms thrashed one last time before they all slammed into the ground and went still.
From behind Drake, a distant chorus of cheers rose at the sight. He could barely hear them after the kraken’s dying shriek, but he grinned as Lydia crouched at his side. Her lips were moving, but he couldn’t hear a word she was saying. He didn’t have to. They’d survived.
And Emily was going to be insufferable now that she’d soul chopped a fucking kraken.
As a horde of arrows descended on the bay below, Drake doubted many would find their targets. The kromians were diving back down into the water the moment they emerged from the sea gates hidden in the coral. Entering the water would blunt any momentum the arrows might have. Still, at least the barrages would keep their heads down.
Tiny blue-white forms were also swarming the barges. It looked like the people down below had a fight on their hands, but at least they’d been ready for it. His archers couldn’t shoot arrows at the barges without risking friendly fire, and Drake couldn’t drop a meteor kaboom on them for the same reason. The barges were on their own.
The first volley had just landed when another volley rose from the opposite cliff. Sky and her archers were opening fire as well. Meanwhile, even as they fought off kromians, all three barges were turning around... slowly. Even with their oarsmen obviously putting all they had into it, slowing an advancing barge and turning it a full 180 was not a fast maneuver.
Hopefully, the barrage Drake and Sky’s archers were dropping on the bay would buy them the time they needed. If not, the battle below was going to get a lot bloodier than anyone had anticipated. No one had expected the kromians to pour out of hidden sea gates. They weren’t even supposed to have that many sea gates.
The huge spray of water at the throat of the bay slacked off. That spray was obviously coming from elsewhere in the sea, not the bay itself. The pressure suggested it was deep down. Yet as the water slacked off, something else came through instead.
It was a huge yellow tower covered in suckers... no. Not a tower. A tentacle. The tentacle rose like a stalk of grass growing with impossible speed as water coursed off it and spray scattered. It rose at least as high as the water spout—ten stories or more—before slamming into the bay with enough force to send water flying in all directions.
Another massive tentacle popped out, rising and slamming down in the opposite direction, followed by another, and another. As Drake stared in horror and disbelief, he realized that the barges floating in the bay were now boned. The kromians had actually done it.
“Fuck me,” Drake whispered. “They just unleashed the kraken.”
Prince Varnath had lured three barges full of powerful people with rarities and two manor lords into the water, his chosen battleground, and trapped them beneath his giant monster and the chain nets. They’d never cut the chains in time, and a massive killer octopus had squeezed through a sea gate behind them. They’d all be crushed and eaten in short order.
The barges were only halfway turned around when the last of the monstrosity finished squeezing itself through the sea gate. It was a multi-eyed monster with a set of jaws the size of a sailing ship and tentacles—no, arms—that had to be at least two blocks long. Drake belatedly remembered that, because octopi had no bones, they could squeeze their bodies through openings that were many times smaller than their total mass. Apparently, krakens could too.
“We’re moving toward the bay to fight!” Sky shouted from the mirror. “Support us!”
“That’s a terrible idea!” Drake shouted back.
“Let me know if you have a better one!” Sky vanished from the mirror.
Drake tucked the mirror into his pouch and looked toward Sachi. “Archers! Make that that thing a pincushion!” At least, given its colossal size, it would be hard to miss.
“Can I chop it, lord?” Emily asked hopefully at his side. “I really want to chop that thing!”
Drake’s horror and shock momentarily vanished as a sudden, desperate hope filled him. “Does that thing have a soul? Do you see it?”
“It’s glowing like a sun! I can’t imagine how big a pop that soul will make when I chop it.” She stared at him with the most hopeful and demented gaze he could imagine. “Please, please, please can we go kill the giant octopus?”
Could Emily’s soul rend rarity really kill such a beast? It would be like an ant trying to kill a bear with a twig. A mortal weapon and even a magical weapon like Cresh’s Blood Woe would cause little more than a papercut to something this huge, but what if Emily cut its soul?
The kraken had already overtaken the last barge in line. It wrapped two huge tentacles around the barge even as arrows, spells, and swords tore uselessly at its many suckers. As the barge rose out of the water, a few people fell or dived into the water as the tentacles rolled in separate directions. The huge monster ground the barge in half.
Drake could barely hear the distant and terrified screams of everyone on board, but he didn’t miss the tiny figures thrashing as another tentacle rose. The huge jaws of the kraken opened below them, a black pit. Screaming, flailing bodies dropped into that tooth-filled maw.
Drake raised his voice. “Fuck it! Let’s go kill a kraken!” He made a circle up gesture. “Everyone, on me!” He jogged down toward the bay at the best pace he could manage in ferrocite, which felt slow. His armor clanked with each step and sapped his energy.
Lydia matched him easily. “Are you sure about this?”
“We can’t lose everyone in the bay. We have to give Emily a chance to chop that thing’s soul, and I might know a way to get its attention.”
He heard the sound of dozens of people in armor behind and around him, following his charge. His zarovians rushed past him in no time, led by Cresh. They formed a vanguard that would cut through any kromians that might attempt to stop them from reaching the bay below, if they showed up. They also roared like he’d expect a war party to roar. Good for them.
As Drake huffed down the hill, arrows continued to whistle overhead. They peppered the massive kraken and bounced off its scales like pebbles tossed at a tank. No mortal weapons were going to put a dent in this monstrosity. Only rarities could kill it.
Lighting crackled, and then a huge ball of electricity vaulted from the barge by the nets. Lord Proudglade had finally decided to use his shock spear rarity. The only reason Drake could imagine Lord Proudglade waiting this long was because he was knee deep in kromian boarders. Hopefully, this meant the people on the barges had finally fought them all off.
Drake cheered as the huge crackling mass of ball lightning rocketed across the bay. It slammed directly into the face of the massive thrashing kraken and dissipated harmlessly across it. The beast didn’t even flinch.
Drake’s heart sank as he realized why Prince Varnath had chosen this particular monster for his coup de grace. This massive yellow kraken was lightning-proof.
The two remaining barges were fully turned around now, though Drake could see a number of oars missing or broken. Fighting on the barges must have been more deadly than he’d believed. At least Lord Proudglade was still alive... which Drake supposed was good.
Another bolt of ball lightning arced outward from Lord Proudglade’s barge. It slammed into the face of the kraken and crackled across its wet and yellow skin harmlessly. The beast lurched forward. It would be on the last two barges in moments, and then they would need to take a vote on two new manor lords. Unless the kraken could become one.
Drake couldn’t wait any longer. He came to a halt, took a deep breath, and reached into his core like he’d practiced this morning after he absorbed Carl’s rarity... firestone. A feeling of raw power burst to life in his feet and rushed through his whole body. It rushed out through his fingertips as he rotated his palms like a practitioner doing Tai Chi.
“Carl!” he shouted. “Let’s hit that thing!”
The young man looked terrified by Drake’s order, but nonetheless began summoning his own ball of flaming rock. Time to see if the kraken was fireproof as well.
A rock crackled into being between Drake’s rotating palms, spinning with his motion, and then that rock caught fire. Drake spun the ball of flaming hot rock bigger and bigger between his palms, growing it with each spin.
It was the size of a baseball. A basketball. An exercise ball. It was already far larger than Carl’s rock, but this rarity was burnished. He appreciated the help.
“On my command, Carl, toss it!”
The ball of flaming molten rock was now as big as a washing machine. Drake focused on the huge kraken lurching toward the boats in the distance—all he had to do was focus—and pushed. Launching the flaming ball of rock was more mental than physical.
“Fire!” Drake bellowed.
A sound like a firework screaming through the sky echoed as his washing-machine-sized meteor of flaming rock hurtled up and into the air like a flaming boulder launched by a ballista, followed by Carl’s smaller, basketball-sized rock. Black smoke trailed behind the projectiles as they screamed across the bay. Drake dropped to one knee, caught his breath, and watched as first Carl’s smaller rock, and then his massive ball of fire, impacted the kraken’s side.
Huge explosions blossomed when their flaming meteor kabooms struck flesh. The beast thrashed as it hit. The sight of chunks of yellow flesh, gunk, and goo spiraling violently in all directions was a real morale booster for Drake and, he hoped, everyone else watching.
“That’s right, you fish fucker!” he shouted as he spun up another rock. “Come get—”
The beast roared with a sound that shook the whole bay. It violently thrashed its many arms, and Drake grinned as he realized his flaming rock hadn’t just hurt it. He’d also pissed it off. One large, baleful eye fixed upon him.
There was no need to run closer. He could hit it from here. He began spinning up another ball of flaming rock as Carl mirrored him. Emily and the rest of his forces, including Cresh, his zarovians, and a number of capital guards, charged onward to where the water of the bay met the land. They could engage the kraken on land if he could taunt it out of the water.
The huge beast had stopped advancing on the two remaining barges. For the first time since it had arrived in the bay, it seemed unsure of itself. A piercing whistle filled the bay, the same sort of whistle he’d heard before the kromians retreated from their first assault.
The kraken visibly responded to the whistle. It turned once more toward the barges, but Drake wasn’t about to allow it to finish off the other two barges... or Lord Proudglade and Lord Brightwater. His next meteor was already spinning beneath his palms. While he was tiring, he suspected he could launch a few more before he dropped.
He sent the meteor rocketing skyward with a shout. “Ka-boom!”
There was no need to shout that. It was a waste of energy. But damn, did it feel good.
His hurtling rock smashed directly into the kraken’s face. The explosion utterly disintegrated one eye and blasted flesh, goo, and pus out in all directions. Carl’s rock hit the same spot a moment later, blasting guts and blood.
All eight of the monster’s massive arms thrashed like it had been electrocuted, and then, it pivoted toward him. It surged toward the shore Emily, his zarovians, and the capital guards were approaching. It roared so loudly he felt like his eardrums popped.
More whistles sounded, barely audible over the ringing in Drake’s ears, but it seemed obvious the kraken was too maddened by pain and rage to listen to its master. It was also approaching far faster than Drake had expected, and it was, pretty much, the size of a ten-story hotel. Even if he ran, he’d never get away. He spun up another meteor kaboom.
“Hold!” he shouted at Carl. “Again!”
The kraken reached the shoreline and coursed over it like a dozen rolling waves. Its huge arms swept across the beach like massive sweepers, slamming into capital guards and even zarovians. Contact either flattened them or sent them flying. Drake prayed Emily had somehow managed to avoid those strikes, because otherwise, they were all getting eaten today.
Carl launched another flaming rock as Drake continued to grow his own. This one took the kraken directly in the face. While the explosion didn’t completely destroy its uninjured eyes, it was obvious when the smoke cleared that he’d blinded the massive beast. It surged forward as a demented water balloon with massive tentacles, whipped into a rage.
Lydia stepped in front of him, spirit knives drawn. She was impossibly tiny before the oncoming tsunami of kraken. Valentia stepped to his other size, followed by his zarovians.
None of them could stop this beast. It was going to sweep them all aside like an angry child swiping toys off a table, yet every last one of them had stepped up to defend Drake without a single order. At least, if they went out today, they’d all go together.
“Ka-boom!” Drake launched his final meteor and then dropped to one knee.
He didn’t have any more in him. Apparently, while he could toss out normal-sized meteors for days, the huge ones took a lot more out of him than he’d expected. However, his flaming rock hurtled directly into the kraken’s gaping maw. The explosion that followed sent its skin rippling from the inside out.
The kraken slowed and slewed sideways on its many tentacles, stunned by the explosion somewhere inside its gullet. Yet the stun didn’t last long. The beast blocked out the sun as it wriggled toward Drake, its tormentor. It loomed over him, jaws wide.
Where was Emily? Just when Drake was certain he was going to be snatched, dropped, and swallowed, the beast went stiff. It shrieked so loud it deafened him.
Every last arm that could still move shot out straight as the whole kraken quivered like a giant stack of Jello. Then... it collapsed. The once towering monster spread itself across the ground like a blimp-sized vat of pudding dumped out all at once. Its long arms thrashed one last time before they all slammed into the ground and went still.
From behind Drake, a distant chorus of cheers rose at the sight. He could barely hear them after the kraken’s dying shriek, but he grinned as Lydia crouched at his side. Her lips were moving, but he couldn’t hear a word she was saying. He didn’t have to. They’d survived.
And Emily was going to be insufferable now that she’d soul chopped a fucking kraken.
