Insistent Assistant 26

Insistent Assistant

Chapter 26

-VB-

I screamed in anger at another one of Illaoi’s unexplained nearly-neglectful act, which only made low screeching garbles under the waves.

… what did she say about krakens?

I looked around and saw nothing but the abyss of the open ocean. I also noticed that the ships had not sailed past me despite the fact that it should have considering how fast they were supposed to be moving. Was Illaoi controlling waves or asking Nagakabouros to do it?

Then I felt a wave of water.

I turned around even as I tried to ship back up.

Nothing but the deep, dark, and quiet of the abyss.

I kicked a little harder to rea-.

I screamed again, this time in surprise, when I felt something big wrapping around my ankles. I looked, and my eyes widened as I stared at a pair of thick tentacles. Not glowing, ethereal tentacles Illaoi summoned to slap and smash people but real life octopus tentacles that was thicker than my torso!

Then it crawled out of the abyss. Six more tentacles rose up, dragging a body more bulbous than that of a squid, sleek like a shark, with horizontal slit eyes that screamed unnatural, and skin that changed color to suit its needs, one that was changing from the black darkness of the abyss to a more fleshy, pockmarked beige.

It was …

An octopus.

A giant octopus but a octopus nonetheless. I should be able to easily-.

I pulled but that did nothing.

I pulled again, making the water around me burst with pressure but it did nothing.

I looked at the octopus again.

Its eyes looked at me with amusement.

Oh.

That’s how it was, was it? Did this animal think that I was some fucking pre-?

Gurglgerle-!

I froze for a second as air bubbles burst out of my lips and stunned me with their rude interference between me and the octopus. I choked as I began to lose air.

And then I remembered Illaoi’s words.

Defeat the kraken.

Suddenly, I realized what this was about.

Illaoi was testing me. I needed to defeat the “kraken” and survive.

This time, I looked at it with pity. It was just another animal, but it was an animal that was being used by Illaoi as a training tool.

The octopus seemed to think that I was thinking derogatory things about him because it got mad (why else would anyone get mad after looking at my expression?).

The rest of its tentacles shot forward at me and -.

I parried them.

The water burst with explosions of pressure with each strike from the octopus and myself, and this time, I broke free with another kick with just a bit more effort this time. With a few kicks, I was back up and out of the water. I looked up, glared at Illaoi who was smirking down at me, and dove back down.

The octopus was much closer now, and its body was closer to me instead of its tentacles. Its wide eyes looked at me with surprise.

I smirked. It thought I was running away, did it?!

With a kick of my legs, I shot down toward but covered a distance much smaller than what I would have in the air. The octopus whirled around, trying to back away and out of my reach. Because it was in my reach.

I grabbed one of its tentacles and yanked it toward me.

It slapped and stabbed at me with its muscular fleshy rods, but they only ruined my good shirt and bounced off against my muscles.

I fight against Illaoi, fucker! I’d die if I can’t take a boneless tentacle’s hit!

It was also much weaker and smaller than any of Illaoi’s tentacle strikes. The octopus’s tentacles were only thick as my torso while the tentacles Illaoi summoned to slap the shit out of everyone were at least thrice as thick.

Compared to that?

This was a baby.

I grabbed and yanked.

I hurt the thing scream for the first thing, a screeching reverberation that pierced at my ear from one end to the other.

I tore into it, making sure I always had one hand grabbing the thing’s main body while my other hand ripped its tentacles away.

It tried and tried but slowly, but surely, it was left adrift without a single tentacle attached to its body, one of its eyes ruined, and its beak (octopuses have beaks) twitching to random signals while only thinly connected to the rest of the body by a narrow trail of gore. Its blood muddied the water around me, and I stared at it.

I scoffed, which only made air bubbles burst out from my nostrils.

With one final pull, I tore it apart and dragged the torn pieces of the octopus up with me.

When I surfaced, I grinned as I climbed aboard the ship.

“Who’s up for octopus tonight?!”

Illaoi looked affronted.