A Path of Bone and Poison 101 The Inverted Tower 4

Yuri had once again reappeared by my side, but before I could even accost her for putting herself at risk she passed out at my feet. Anger began to well up in me as I saw that. Why could she not just follow the plan I had come up with? Yes, we were struggling, but we would have made it through, all of us. I sighed, but that was a classic Yuri move, she saw what she wanted to see, but was completely oblivious to everything else.

The locusts were in fact dead, but they were not the real enemy here. They were a threat, and very deadly, but they were not the only threat here. If one took the time to examine outside the ship, they would notice a large eye that was staring at us. It had held back its attacks, apprehensive of the large horde of locusts. What Yuri had failed to observe was that the locusts were the only thing that was keeping us alive.

When the last of the locusts died the secreature was ready to make its move. Large tentacles wrapped around the boat, slowly crushing it. The party was forced to scatter. Mentally I sent a command to the new girl, telling her to protect Yuri. Even as I gave the command, I could feel the jealousy rising inside of me. How dare this girl touch my woman. I have not been able to be intimate with her for over a month, and yet this girl decides she needs to touch her so inappropriately! How dare she think she can do that.

I sighed as I forced my anger down. The elf girl had only been doing what she had to. If she had not, she would not have been able to survive. In all honesty she was rather cute, and I would not mind her becoming a part of our family. The only issue was she could not touch my wife if I could not. She was my wife! I have the priority.

This was not the time for this, however. Yuri's rash actions had put all of us in a tight spot. The kraken we were about to face was undoubtedly the real challenge of this floor. Those locusts had likely just been an accidental interference, or perhaps a way to make the stage a little more difficult.

With the kraken's tentacles wrapped around the ship it began to lift itself out of the water. What could be seen of the creature was only the massive mouth on the bottom of its body. The rest of its body was high above us. I could only curse Yuri in my mind. If she had not went and wasted all her energy this would have been a rather simple fight. The move she had pulled before with the Arachne empress would have been perfect here. The open mouth of the giant squid would have made an ideal place for her to throw the grenades.

Without her this would be a much more difficult fight. I used my telepathy to send orders to Leisha and Sierra. Over the last month we had gotten used to moving as a squad. We had battled other groups repeatedly, usually we were on the losing end. The experience had drawn us together and allowed for us to trust each other much more than before.

My commands for the girls were simple. Sierra and I would focus fire on the Krakens main body, while Leisha would attack the tentacles that were wrapped around the ship. Her attacks would not do any lasting damage to the kraken. Even If it lost a tentacle it would be able to regrow it eventually. But hopefully her attacks could become a distraction. Enough of a distraction that we would be able to focus on the dealing the real damage to the kraken.

These two girls were much more reliable in this aspect than my wife was. She would always try to take the brunt of the force herself, and rarely relied on her team. This was her biggest flaw. Not only did she put herself at risk, but she put the party at risk as well. Worst yet she put the entire world at risk if the necromancer king was able to take over her body.

Sierra began the assault by firing a fireball straight into the Kraken's open mouth. It responded with a loud screech that sent us falling to our knees. A small amount of blood began to flow from my ears, and I knew immediately that my ear drums had been blown. The sudden loss of hearing effected our balance, and I knew our chances of victory had just plummeted. My accuracy would suffer as a result.

I struggled to get to my feet, but the rapid rocking of the boat, mixed with the loss of my hearing made getting to my knees an impossible task, let alone getting to my feet and firing. Our situation was rather bleak. When I looked around at the other members of the party, I could see that they were in an even worse state than I was. Blood poured from all of Sierra's orifices, she had not even tried to stand up.

Leisha was on her feet, she was in her transformed state. From her positioning I could tell that she was howling, but I was unable to hear a single sound. Mentally I sent out a message, asking them to hold on. Sierra responded slowly, even her mental voice sounded as if it was barely holding on.

The response I got from Leisha was not one that I had expected. Not one that I would ever want to hear again. It was a deep growling sound, as if she had lost herself to her most primal instincts. Her movements became a blur, but thankfully we were not her target. She moved like a feral beast as she jumped onto the nearest tentacle.

The plan I had carefully formulated seemed to have gone out the window as Leisha ran on all fours up the tentacle of the Kraken. She rushed towards the open mouth but was not sending herself to her own death. When she approached, she jumped past the mouth, hooking long claws into the slimy body of the beast. Like this she climbed the massive body of the Kraken, her claws leaving bloody wounds all over its body as she climbed further up the kraken's body.

Eventually she stopped, she had already approached her target. Before her was a massive eye. There she began her gruesome assault. A blood bath ensued, that ripped the eye from the beast. The creatures one massive eye had been removed, causing the creature to go blind. The creature's tentacles loosened from the body of the ship as it tried desperately to smack away the werewolf that was assaulting it. Its attacks were in vain as Leisha had taken the opportunity to climb into the now empty orifice.

The Kraken began to thrash in the water as it sank deeper into the ocean. Yet, I did not see any sign of Leisha coming up for air. All I did see was a massive amount of blood flowing to the surface. The blood was thick with organic matter from the beast.

A massive whirlpool appeared underneath us, and I could feel it pulling us in. Strangely enough, the whirlpool seemed to have no effect on the boat, as it only pulled to five us deeper into the ocean. I could feel the familiar pull of being in two places at once. I knew immediately that Leisha had somehow managed to defeat the kraken.

Chapter end