Into the depths

After losing its right arm, the abomination seemed to lose any and all sense of reason, not like it had much in the first place.

Swinging its one good arm around itself, Kai, who was in the midst of standing up, barely had time to bring his arms up to block the blow.

The feeling of the gorilla's heavy fist made Kai realise Wa'rak was not kidding about not underestimating the abomination's strength.

Feeling your bones reverberate after being hit by something that had the power of a speeding car was not a pleasant feeling, especially when Kai thought he heard a crack.

Reeling in pain from the powerful blow, Kai let out a hiss and made an attack of his own. Slashing at the gorilla's thick torso, Kai's claws dug in deep, causing it to let out a roar and another attack in retaliation.

The abomination punched Kai again, this time hitting the transformed boy square in the chest. Being sent flying backwards by the blow, Kai wheezed and caught a glimpse of Wa'rak, who was currently sneaking up behind the enraged abomination.

After skidding across the ground for a few meters, Kai gritted his teeth...

... fangs?

And pushed himself to his feet. Letting out a roar to draw the gorilla's attention so it remains unaware of the wolf sneaking up behind it, Kai charged at the abomination, the gorilla charging in return.

Just as the two powerhouses were about to collide, Wa'rak lunged and slashed at the back of the abomination's leg, successfully taking out a chunk of its heel.

Because of the sudden loss of balance, the gorilla stumbled and missed its attack on Kai, allowing the snarling figure to land a slash on the abomination's face. A moment later, the gorilla's body crashed into Kai's, sending both of them tumbling.

Quickly pushing himself away, Kai jumped to his feet and did some mental calculations. With only about thirty seconds left before he ran out of Mana, Kai and Wa'rak had to kill the abomination quick.

Quicker than Kai expected, the abomination rose to its feet, though it seemed blatantly obvious that its balance was off.

Throwing itself at Kai, the abomination threw a punch, which Kai managed to successfully dodge due to the loss of speed in the gorilla's body.

The punch collided with the tree behind Kai, causing the sturdy tree to reverberate, the sound of cracking erupting from the base.

Snarling as the gorilla missed its attack, Kai turned and pounced on the abomination's vulnerable back just as Wa'rak bit into the fleshy leg of the abomination, managing to sever it from the ankle completely.

Latching himself onto the broad back of the gorilla with his claws, Kai followed Wa'rak's lead and bit down into the neck of the abomination, his fangs sinking in deep.

Honestly, Kai couldn't taste anything in this new form, though his sense of smell more than made up for it, telling him what he was doing was absolutely revolting. However, Kai would take any advantage he could get and more than happily continue to bite the abomination.

Someone who wasn't happy though was the abomination. The gorilla threw its one good hand back in a frenzy, trying to pummel Kai off its back. Luckily, Kai's claws and fangs held strong, continuing to stay stuck in the beast until the very end.

Wa'rak, who had since moved on from attacking the legs of the abomination, moved forward to the gorilla's front. The wolf then promptly bit into the abomination's face, ripping out its third eye and the majority of its already ugly front.

The sight was one Kai was thankful he couldn't see as he was still biting into the back of the abomination's neck.

With just a few more moments to go before his transformation ran out, Kai sank his abomination flesh-stained fangs into the gorilla's neck one last time before the abomination finally grew still.

You have slain...

They had won.

Kai slumped backwards and fell off the abominations mauled back, his fingernails returning to normal as his body grew shorter.

Pain overwhelmed him and every part of his body ached. He was tired, sore and bleeding profusely. Looking down at his disfigured body, which was mostly covered by blood, was not a nice sight.

But in the end, they had won.

Honestly, he probably would have been extremely happy with the outcome of the fight if he didn't catch ripples appearing on the surface of the lake in the corner of his eye.

Panic arose in Kai's heart, whipping his head around to look at Wa'rak, whose face was covered in abomination gore. Quickly activating the telepathic link once more.

"We have to go! The waters moving."

Even though it looked like Wa'rak was going to agree with Kai, before he even had the chance to voice his thoughts a tentacle even larger than the gorilla's arms shot out from the surface of the lake.

Water, which followed the tentacle, drenched Kai as he watched in horror Wa'rak barely dodging the creepy appendage.

Wa'rak retaliated by slashing down on the tentacle, sadly, his claws did much less damage to the slimy limb when compared to the gorilla. Letting out a snarl, the wolf finally spoke through the telepathic connection.

"Go, I'll hold this off."

Feeling slightly touched by the arrogant wolf's selflessness, Kai was just about to praise the beast and thank him for his valiant effort. Sadly, the illusion was shattered by Wa'rak's next words, the wolf spoke as if he knew what Kai was thinking.

"No! Idiot, go get the Mana potions and return!"

Snapping back to reality, Kai turned his body as fast as he could and took off sprinting towards where he left the satchel. Pushing his body even further than it should have possibly been able to go gave Kai a rush of adrenaline.

Even though the situation was absolutely terrifying and that he could pass out at any moment from all the pain, the fact he could die at any given moment was exhilarating.

Kai's mind had been like a rollercoaster throughout his whole trip in the forest. Terrified, to excited, to terrified, to excited again. It was probably due to the effects of Nonchalance, but Kai was just happy he was excited at the current moment and not terrified.

As he ran, the figure of a slighter smaller wolf formed out of his shadow.

In every fight so far, Kai had always been fused with Umbra, meaning the wolf had no chance to fight. Since the situation called for it, it was time for Umbra to get her time in the spotlight.

Continuing to sprint to the satchel, the sounds of something hitting against something was all he could think about. It must have been the tentacles though, as every time the bang occurred the ground shook in response, nearly making Kai trip as well.

Spotting the brown bag lying under one of the gargantuan trees, Kai skidded to a halt as he snatched the bag up. As soon as he started to race back to where the battle was happening, he dug his hand into the satchel and pulled out one of the Mana potions.

Quickly undoing the lid, Kai popped the potion into his mouth as he continued to sprint, nearly choking multiple times as he does. Still, he managed to successfully finish the potion without losing anything, bringing his Mana back up to full.

The vibrations in the ground got worse as Kai got closer to the lakeside. It's only once the body of water was back in view he realised how dire the situation was.

All the traps that were set up before fighting the gorilla abomination were now set off from the vibrations in the ground. Countless smoke bombs, clouds of purple smoke and other various hazardous materials hovered around the lake.

About a dozen tentacles were swinging wildly, each originating from the lake. Wa'rak was successfully managing to dodge the relentless assault, but who knows how long the arrogant wolf could keep it up?

Umbra was also dodging the tentacles, but her situation was much more troublesome. Wa'rak was of a higher race and level, so just the fact Umbra was keeping up was incredible. Umbra managed to do her job by keeping all of the tentacles away from Wa'rak, giving the wolf some breathing room.

"You've done amazing, Umbra. Now, return."

Umbra's form disappeared as Kai's grew in size. Returning to the monstrous form of a Lycan, Kai snarled and charged towards the tentacled abomination which was now focusing on Wa'rak.

Successfully gripping onto one of the tentacles, Kai failed to account for how slippery they would be. Luckily, he had a perfectly good pair of fangs to help him grip onto it.

Readying himself for only a moment, Kai dug his fangs into the fleshy tentacle.

Sadly, not all was meant to go right for poor Kai. Since he was so focused on sticking onto the tentacle...

... There was nothing to keep him sticking to the ground.

The tentacle which Kai was clinging onto wrapped around his waist and pulled back towards the lake, leaving Kai dangling by his claws and teeth.

Inwardly panicking, Kai spotted Wa'rak still fighting against multiple of the tentacles, meaning Kai had to handle this predicament himself.

Freeing his jaw from the slimy tentacle, Kai clung on with all his strength as he took a deep breath just as the tentacle pulled him underwater.

Since it was a lake, the water wasn't salty, meaning Kai could manage to keep his eyes open. The cold water warped around his body, clinging to the hair which covered him.

Thankful that the Tunic of Remembrance, which was currently tightly hugging his monstrous body, offered minor cold resistance, Kai continued to hold his breath as the tentacle pulled him deeper and deeper.

Panic started to rise in Kai's chest. The water got darker and darker as he got pulled further down. The time limit on his transformation was about halfway through, but Kai didn't know if it would be enough to survive this.

The tentacle continued to drag Kai down deeper into the depths of the darkness, and Kai was now terrified. Thrashing and clawing against the tentacle to no avail, Kai started cursing his abnormally high luck stat as the final bits of oxygen stored in his mouth started to run out.

Even though he had at least another twenty seconds of stored breath left, he lost it all as gasped at what he saw in the depths of the lake.

Hidden in the darkness, the shadows seemed to wrap around something massive. The shadows then retracted slowly, the tension almost killing Kai quicker than the lack of oxygen.

A singular eye revealed itself in the depths of the lake, the eye much larger than anything Kai had hoped to see.

Inside the pupil was a glowing gibbous moon, the sight of the oversized eye brought undeniable dread to Kai's rapidly beating heart.

What... the hell! Why is it glowing!

Accidentally letting out all the oxygen he had left, Kai started to drown. He had never drowned before, and he now knew how lucky he was to not experience it.

The feeling of not being able to breathe was horrifying, his mouth was wide open but no oxygen came in, only streams of water.

I'm... I'm going to die!

Still thrashing in the confines of the tentacles, Kai had no way of escape. This was the end.

Panic overwhelmed him, every thought was of how he was going to die. The thought was-

Calming.

Nonchalance kicked in, the uncommon skill once more working miracles. Still, the fact he was about to die overwhelmed any sense of rationality the skill could have offered, but a split second was more than enough.

A singular idea popped into Kai's head, but if it would work or not he had no idea. Closing his eyes and trying not to drown himself anymore, Kai focused on his right arm and tried to focus on his soul.

Time was running out, both in the sense of his Mana and his breathing. His senses started growing dull, but there was still a few more seconds left before he passed out and died.

Finally, what he was trying to do succeeded. His claws, which were thick and sharp, started to shrink and elongate. Growing sharper and sharper by the millisecond, Kai swung his right arm downwards one more time. His muscles strained against the water as he slashed as hard as he could.

His plan worked.

Successfully severing the tentacle that was wrapped around him. Whatever the creature was in the depths of the lake howled, the water in the lake vibrating in response.

All the commotion meant all the adrenaline Kai had built up was washed away, literally.

The fact he was drowning rendered in his mind again, and so did the panic.

But with panic, came Nonchalance, and with Nonchalance came moments of clarity.

Kicking his much stronger Lycan legs, Kai made a mad attempt at swimming at the eye, kicking off the tentacle which he cut off for momentum.

Due to how close he was to the eye beforehand, the tentacled abomination had no time to react, only managing to close its eyelid halfway before Kai reached it.

Using his one much longer and sharper claw as a spearhead, Kai pushed himself into the eyeball of the monstrous beast. The cries and howls in the lake grew louder and louder, but Kai mentally blocked out all the noise as he started swinging his arms frantically, hoping to cut anything and everything inside the abomination's head.

It worked.

Feeling his claws dig into something soft and fleshy, Kai almost forgot he was drowning when a notification rang in his head.

You have slain evolved quarter moon abomination: Depths Dweller

Level 15 obtained