Three long, writhing limbs were wrapped around me, constricting my waist and chest. More were shooting towards me from multiple directions, completely closing off any avenue of escape.
My legs and right arm were quickly grasped and held still. I could feel the limbs being twisted and pulled – testing the limits of my body.
Sand and small pieces of rock had been kicked up from the ocean floor when the tentacles had exploded from their hiding spot beneath the ground. As the limbs continued to thrash around me bubbles, ripples and small vibrations in the water would combine with the debris, essentially blinding my new ability to perceive the world through my Companion's sonar.
There was too much 'noise,' too many distractions for me to sort through. Everything was just static blending together. My new senses perceived the world as chaotic fragmented images that quickly overlapped and fused into a singular mess. It looked like an underwater blizzard that was whirling and howling like a hurricane.
I closed my eyes and breathed. My sight and other senses were useless, but I still had an almost perfect memory. I just had to calm down and visualize the terrain around me.
I could remember where I was in relation to the seafloor, and my ability to sense eldritch energy was enough to get a rough location for the closest of the tentacles. It was a quickly changing grouping of images that took prodigious amounts of concentration to hold in my mind.
I could feel my limbs being pulled tight, threatening to dislocate as ligaments and tendons were stretched beyond their natural limits. I ground my teeth together as I tried to stifle a scream. The pain was intense, only bearable due to the adrenaline racing through my veins and the system working through my skills to dampen the agony.
My own terror gave me strength, allowing me to ignore the damage to my body even as it worked to focus my mind – cutting out all distractions.
I had instinctively activated Arcane Shield as soon as the first tentacle had shot up from the sea floor. The spell held steady – my own mana being augmented by that of my Companion had greatly increased my survivability. The slight gap the spell created between myself and the tentacles was welcome but did nothing to lessen their grip as they snaked around my limbs and torso.
I knew the shield would not hold out forever no matter how much mana I had. I couldn't win a one-way battle of attrition. It was also useless in stopping the creature from stretching my limbs, even if the shield did save me from being crushed.
I would need a more offensive strategy if I was going to survive.
My body was in agony, but I forced myself to remain calm – I needed to wait for more tentacles to attach themselves to me. For a moment longer, I would have to continue to be bait.
I had created a visualized map of my immediate surroundings, the only thing I couldn't ascertain was the locations of the tentacles beyond those in my immediate vicinity. Anticipating their movement would have been even more difficult. Instead, I let more and more of the thick appendages grab me, immobilizing themselves as clearly as they bound me.
I had a plan, but the window of time it would buy me would be brief. Possibly only a fraction of a second. My body was almost completely entombed in thick slimy flesh. I would only need to wait for a moment more.
As the ball of flesh grew around me I became isolated from everything else, blocking out all noise except for the sound of my own breath and the pounding of my heart. I couldn't wait any longer.
My eyes opened, narrowing in concentration. I let out a long breath, before slowly filling my lungs once more. The ritual calmed me, allowed me to center my mind enough to visualize my intent. Commanding eldritch energy required a focused mind that was capable of holding onto a clear and unchanging image.
I used Eldritch Mimicry to copy the Arcane Shield spell, creating an additional barrier between the writhing ball of flesh and myself. It momentarily reduced the tension on my limbs, but the tentacles quickly readjusted their grip until the pressure on my joints was almost unbearable.
That is exactly what I wanted, the harder they squeezed the more likely my plan was to work. I poured as much energy as I could into the shell of eldritch energy around me, thickening and reinforcing it as much as possible.
The eldritch energy had grown thicker the deeper I had dived. It seemed to flow up from the sea floor like a dark crimson mist before it then spread out into the water like a cloud of sediments slowly being dissolved into the water. The marine life hiding beneath rocks or buried in sand absorbed this dark energy, allowing it to gradually change their form and nature.
I pulled on it, willed it to obey me. I consumed and guided the energy as it slowly formed a shell around me. When the energy of the shield became too dense to be strengthened further I bent it around itself to create layers of folded energy.
The swirling eldritch miasma in the surrounding water quickly thinned, consumed faster than it could be replenished. The energy flowing into my spell slowed until only a trickle remained. I took the final drops, squeezing all I could, before finally releasing my hold on it and grabbing onto the energy of the shield itself.
The eldritch energy within the shield reacted to my will, gladly calling out to be shaped. Its nature was chaos, ever changing and mutable. My nature was to command it.
The shield expanded outwards as it changed into long thin needles of black and crimson energy. The spikes pierced flesh and drew forth streams of blood, black and thick as oil. A high-pitched screech rang out, muffled by the ball of tightening flesh that was slowly constricting around me.
Rather than loosen their grip the thick limbs instead squeezed harder. I didn't release the spikes, instead driving them deeper into exposed flesh. I twisted the spikes, once more changing them – this time into spiral blades like the head of a drill but as large as fire hydrants. I could feel the tentacles begin to weaken as more and more of their flesh was ripped away – slowly drifting down onto the seabed below.
The creature would not relent, and new tentacles continued to appear around me as others were severed or retreated. They squeezed and pulled with relentless determination. I once more pulled the energy into a shell around me as I curled my body into a ball, trying to take up as little room as possible. I visualized the shell growing, pushing the shield as far out from myself as I could.
This created a bubble of space around me large enough that I was able to thrust my arm straight down without touching anything. I reached out with the six long 'wings' created by my Companion, using them to anchor myself to the wall of flesh surrounding me.
I released the spell made from eldritch energy, calling every ounce of energy into my open palm. The energy condensed into a dense sphere of flowing mist, black and burning with sparkling crimson embers.
I thrust out my hand forming within it a curved blade as thick as my wrist and longer than I was tall. The blade cut through countless tentacles before emerging on the other side of the sphere.
I spun. Pushing outward using the anchored limbs of my companion for leverage, I struck out around myself in a perfect circle. The 'wings' on my back pushed as I twisted my body, twirling me around in violent and deadly dance.
A mist of dark black blood filled the water, dyeing everything around it as if a cloud of ink had been poured into the turbulent waters.
I could feel the eldritch energy flow out of the blood and seep from the slowly dying limbs. The energy flowed into me, and I could feel a fire in my chest that was slowly converting and filtering the energy – changing it into something else.
The mist was slowly beginning to clear, and I knew that I had to act fast. I dove downwards as quickly as possible, kicking my legs with all my strength even as my Companion pumped its tentacles to propel me through the water. I performed a perfect flip turn right as I struck the bottom, using the extra limbs for a greater boost– it was a maneuver that would have made my old high school swim coach proud, if he hadn't been too busy screaming in terror.
As the mist cleared I had already covered half of the distance to the fleeing creature. Behind me several tentacles were attacking a vaguely humanoid simulacrum I had left as a decoy. A few tentacles had launched towards me as well, but their momentary hesitation combined with my speed caused them to strike short.
My prey was just ahead, and nothing would come between it and me. I began to spin like a perfectly thrown football as the squid-like appendages of my Companion rotated, propelling me forward even faster.
As the creature grew closer I took in its enormous size. It was roughly ovaloid and had countless tentacles growing from every inch of its surface, save for the two far ends which were flat and rounded.
Most of the tentacles clung loosely to the sea floor, with only a few retaining the strength to strike at me as I grew closer. Even these were beginning to slow – missing me by wider and wider margins.
I could sense thick rivers of blood and eldritch energy flowing from the creature and diffusing into the waters around it. Wide chunks and deep channels had been carved out of its flesh and a deep crater had been tunneled into one of the creature's sides.
I didn't hesitate – I drew forth as much energy as I could, even pulling as much as I dared from my Companion. I recreated a harpoon that matched those I used during the battle on the surface of the river. It grew larger as more energy was poured into it, soon extending to nearly three times my height.
My speed increased as I recklessly sped towards the creature, gripping the harpoon in both hands and extending it forward like a lance. I struck flesh. My arms exploded in pain and my left wrist snapped – but my aim was true. The harpoon sank into the crater in the creature's side, digging deep into the exposed flesh.
Every tentacle came to life in an instant. Each widely flailing as they cracked stone and flesh – some even colliding with each other with deafening cracks.
I cradled my injured arm, releasing the gigantic harpoon. I once more launched myself through the water, this time upwards and with as much speed as I could manage.
For a moment a deathly silence covered the world, only to be broken by a deep and sorrowful wail. I could feel every bone in my body vibrate, eliciting a scream of my own as my wrist exploded in pain.
As I lost concentration the harpoon I had lodged in the side of the creature faded away, removing the only obstacle holding back a thick deluge of blood that quickly drowned out everything in a sea of black mist.
As I watched the final moments of the creature my anger and thirst for blood subsided, leaving behind only a great sadness. I felt a kinship with the creature for a moment, and I mourned its passing.
I watched as its movements slowed and its many limbs grew torpid. In the final moments before its death I sat in quiet witness – the only courtesy I could extend.