Chapter 36: Rematch
Gray drifted through the kelp forest with renewed purpose. The Chromis was dead, and the satisfaction still warmed his bell like a swallowed ember.
He pulsed toward the western edge, where the kelp thinned into open water.
He found the first school within minutes. Six Runners, their silver bodies flashing as they fed on a cloud of plankton near the kelp line. Gray approached from below, Hollow Cloak rendering him invisible, his eight tentacles reading their electrical fields with cold precision.
He selected the straggler — a smaller Runner at the edge of the school, its left fin slightly ragged. The same kind of weak target he’d exploited before.
Neurotoxic Drift deployed. Silent. Invisible. The venom settled over the Runner’s gills, and two seconds later, the damage ticks began.
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 10 DAMAGE]
[SILVER-FIN RUNNER — HP: 35 / 45]
The Runner jolted. The school scattered, silver bodies darting in six different directions. But the straggler was already dying. Gray pursued, forty-two SPD closing the gap effortlessly.
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 11 DAMAGE]
[SILVER-FIN RUNNER — HP: 24 / 45]
He wrapped a tentacle around its tail and deployed Overcharge. The electricity arced through its body.
[OVERCHARGE — 41 DAMAGE]
[SILVER-FIN RUNNER DEFEATED — 30 EXP]
No fragment.
He absorbed the corpse and turned toward the next school. Over the hours that followed, Gray hunted Runners with methodical intensity. He ambushed them at the kelp line. He chased them through open water. He cornered them against the volcanic slope and killed them one by one.
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
Nothing. The fragments refused to drop. His frustration mounted with each empty kill, his tentacles sparking with involuntary electricity.
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
A Spine-Fin Darter crossed his path, its spined fins catching the faint light. Gray killed it out of spite.
[Spine-Fin Darter Defeated — 22 EXP]
’Nothing. Of course. Why would the game give me what I want?’
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
[LEVEL UP!]
[You are now Level 12.]
[10 Stat Points available for distribution.]
[2 Skill Points available.]
The golden warmth of the level-up washed through him. He allocated five points to SPD and five to INT, pushing his speed and mental acuity higher.
[SPD: 42 → 47]
[INT: 40 → 45]
[MP: 320 → 370]
He didn’t pause to savor it. He was too annoyed.
More Runners died. The schools were learning to avoid him, their simple brains associating the western edge with death. He had to range further and further to find them.
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
[Silver-Fin Runner Defeated — 30 EXP]
Still no fragment.
He checked his status. EXP to Next Level: 31%. Hunger: 12%. Trait fragments: Reactive Agility still at 1/3.
’I need a change of pace before I lose my mind.’
He pulled up his trait list, scanning the incomplete entries. Pharyngeal Jaw Structure.
’If I can find another Dreadmaw, I can at least make progress on something new. And maybe the break will reset my luck.’
He turned away from the western edge, leaving the surviving Runners to their false sense of safety.
Gray drifted through the volcanic slope, his tentacles sweeping the water.
’Dreadmaw. Let’s see if you’re any less stingy than the Runners.’
He found the first Dreadmaw near a cluster of tide pools, its blade-like body circling a small Drill Snail with predatory patience. Its circular mouth gaped open, inner pharyngeal jaws already extending toward the snail’s operculum.
Gray didn’t bother with stealth. Neurotoxic Drift deployed directly on top of it. The Dreadmaw jolted as the venom seeped through its gills, its attack on the snail forgotten.
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 12 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 208 / 220]
It spun, small black eyes searching for the source of the pain. It found nothing. Overcharge answered its confusion — Gray’s tentacles wrapping around its blade-like body as forty-three damage arced through its flesh.
[OVERCHARGE — 43 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 165 / 220]
[STUN — 3 SECONDS]
The Dreadmaw seized. Its pharyngeal jaws retracted involuntarily, grinding against each other. Gray deployed Neurotoxic Drift again, layering venom over the stunned predator.
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 11 DAMAGE]
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 10 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 144 / 220]
The stun broke. The Dreadmaw thrashed, its lure flickering wildly. It tried to flee. Gray pursued, keeping it enveloped in venom, watching its health bar tick down with cold satisfaction.
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 12 DAMAGE]
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 9 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 123 / 220]
The Dreadmaw turned to fight. Its circular mouth lunged toward him, pharyngeal jaws extending with that grinding crunch. Gray let it come. The teeth grazed his bell margin.
[-15 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 330 / 345]
He wrapped his tentacles around its head and activated Overcharge point-blank.
[OVERCHARGE — 45 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 78 / 220]
[STUN — 3 SECONDS]
The Neurotoxic Drift finished it. Tick after tick, the venom eating through its HP bar until the Dreadmaw’s lure flickered one final time and went dark.
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW DEFEATED — 130 EXP]
However, the fragment didn’t drop.
Gray absorbed the corpse and moved on. He found the second Dreadmaw an hour later, feeding on the shattered remains of a Drill Snail. This one was larger — its blade-like body scarred from old battles, its lure pulsing with a sickly yellow glow. It sensed him just before the venom hit and lunged, its pharyngeal jaws catching his tentacle and tearing.
[-22 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 323 / 345]
He responded with Overcharge, point-blank, the electricity arcing through its open mouth and into its throat. The Dreadmaw convulsed, stunned, and Neurotoxic Drift did the rest.
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW DEFEATED — 130 EXP]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Pharyngeal Jaw Structure" (2/5)]
’One. I’ll take what I can get.’
The hunt stretched on. Dreadmaws were solitary creatures, each one requiring a long search through the volcanic slope’s rocky terrain. The third killed him from ambush — it had been hiding in a crevice, its mottled scales blending perfectly with the stone. Its pharyngeal jaws caught his bell from behind before he even sensed it.
[-28 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 317 / 345]
He tore free, deployed Neurotoxic Drift, and killed it with methodical precision.
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW DEFEATED — 130 EXP]
No fragment dropped this time.
’Two more kills and nothing. At least the Runners dropped fragments eventually.’
The fourth Dreadmaw was smaller, younger. It tried to flee instead of fight, its blade-like body darting through the rocks with desperate speed. Gray ran it down. Neurotoxic Drift enveloped it, and Overcharge ended its flight.
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW DEFEATED — 110 EXP]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Pharyngeal Jaw Structure" (3/5)]
’Two down. Three to go.’
He checked his EXP bar. 67% toward Level 13. His tentacles ached from constant combat. The wounds from the third Dreadmaw’s ambush still throbbed where its jaws had torn his bell margin. But he was making progress. Slow, frustrating, grinding progress.
Then the fifth Dreadmaw appeared.
It was the largest yet — nearly three feet long, its mottled grey-green scales thick with scars. Its lure was missing, bitten off in some ancient battle, but its pharyngeal jaws looked strong enough to crush stone. It circled him with predatory intelligence, its small black eyes tracking his movements despite Hollow Cloak.
’You’ve fought things like me before.’
It lunged. Gray pulsed sideways, but the Dreadmaw anticipated his dodge — its blade-like body twisting mid-lunge to match his trajectory. The pharyngeal jaws caught his bell margin and clamped down with crushing force.
[-35 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 282 / 345]
Pain detonated through his body. He wrapped every tentacle around its head and activated Overcharge with everything he had.
[OVERCHARGE — 47 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 173 / 220]
[STUN — 3 SECONDS]
He held on. Neurotoxic Drift deployed. The venom sank into its gills as the stun held it frozen. Tick after tick, the damage climbing.
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 12 DAMAGE]
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 11 DAMAGE]
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 10 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 140 / 220]
The stun broke. The Dreadmaw thrashed, but Gray’s tentacles held firm. He’d learned from the first fight — you didn’t let go of a Dreadmaw until it was dead.
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 9 DAMAGE]
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 12 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 119 / 220]
The Dreadmaw’s pharyngeal jaws retracted, then extended again, trying to crush his bell. He tightened his grip around its throat, choking off the attack.
[OVERCHARGE — 46 DAMAGE]
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW — HP: 73 / 220]
[STUN — 3 SECONDS]
The Neurotoxic Drift finished what Overcharge started.
[CRUSHGAPE DREADMAW DEFEATED — 130 EXP]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Pharyngeal Jaw Structure" (4/5)]
[LEVEL UP!]
[You are now Level 13.]
[10 Stat Points available for distribution.]
[2 Skill Points available.]
Gray absorbed the massive corpse, his oral arms straining to process the dense, muscular flesh. The wounds on his bell throbbed, but the warmth of the level-up was already spreading through him.
’Level 13. And I know exactly what to do with these points.’
He pulled up his status screen. LUK: 5. The number sat there like a quiet mockery. The fragments dropped slightly more often. The kills felt slightly less futile. But "slightly" wasn’t enough. He was tired of the grind. Tired of killing the same creatures over and over, watching empty drop notifications stack up like a taunt.
’No more half-measures. If luck is the stat that controls fragment drops, I’m investing heavily.’
Ten points into LUK.
[LUK: 5 → 15]
The system chimed softly.
[LUK has reached 15. Drop rates moderately increased.]
’Let’s see if it pays off.’
He closed the status screen and turned his attention back to the volcanic slope. The Dreadmaw population was thinning — he’d killed five of them in the past few hours, and the survivors were learning to avoid him. But Pharyngeal Jaw Structure was one fragment from completion, and he was not leaving this slope without it.
A distant vibration caught his attention. Another Dreadmaw, somewhere to the north.
He turned toward it.
Then another vibration joined it. Moving fast, cutting through the water with desperate speed. It was fleeing from the Dreadmaw or toward it. He couldn’t tell.
Then the water around him shifted.
The temperature dropped. A cold current slithered through the volcanic rocks, carrying with it a vibration Gray hadn’t felt since his earliest hours in this ocean. A long, sinuous body moving through the water with predatory grace. Bony plates rattling. A sickly green phosphorescence flickering at the edge of his perception.
Gray’s tentacles went rigid.
’No. It can’t be.’
The kelp fronds ahead of him parted.
And the Nightmare Lamprey emerged from the gloom.
Its serpentine body was longer than he remembered — nearly eight feet now, the bony plates along its spine more jagged, the sickly green glow of its fins brighter and more intense. Its circular, jawless maw was ringed with row upon row of needle teeth that spiraled inward into that same black, bottomless throat. The scar Gray had given it during their first encounter was still visible — a dark burn mark across its flank where his first desperate Static Discharge had struck.
It had grown. Evolved. Just like him.
And its pale, lidless eyes were locked directly onto him.
[NIGHTMARE LAMPREY — ELDER VARIANT]
Level: 18
HP: 380 / 380
Threat Level: HIGH
« Analysis »
An evolved specimen of the Nightmare Lamprey lineage. This creature has survived multiple encounters with predators and prey alike, adapting and growing stronger with each battle. Its bony plates have thickened, its venomous spines have sharpened, and its lamprey-like maw now contains a secondary set of crushing plates behind the primary teeth.
WARNING: This creature has marked you as prey from a previous encounter. It has waited a long time for this rematch.