The man stood in front of what was now his new enemy, frozen in place.

From the sky's edge, he could see the air burning from a dark blue into a deep orange, the sun had begun its rise. He had a choice, either flee or fight until the breaking of dawn. The mollusk rumbled, again and again, menacingly drifting closer.

Dreadnautilus, a soulless construct stitched up from coagulated blood and the remains of deceased mollusk flesh and bone. Unlike the others, it's built with all the remaining mana in the pocket of blood, with the goal of protecting other pockets in a final stand of desperation.

He gripped harder onto the electric cannon and the thorn, charging toward the giant nautilus. Its eyes blared red and bolted at him, crashing down onto the mud. The entire cliff below him was hacked into several finely cut pieces and crumbled into the blood ocean below. He quickly dashed toward the greenery behind him and watched the entire ground disappear in front of his eyes. The nautilus rose from its crater, loose mud slipping off it, and bolted again. It aimed directly at the tree he was hugged behind, completely macerating through the trunk and above, the timber tumbling down. The man slowly backed down and down as the tides ripped the ground from his feet and dragged it into the blood.

He pointed the thorn at the mollusk and channeled all his mana into it. giant crimson roots sprouted out of the soil and grappled out of it. several other thorns circles around it and attempted to slash and impale the nautilus, but it barely made a cut into its shell. the thorns kept trying and trying, slowly becoming looser over time. The raging nautilus started to quake as red energy pulsed through the area. Suddenly, flaming bullets of blood gathering under its eyes and burned through all of the thorns like the wick of a bomb. The burning bullets flew at the man and singed into a red inferno once hitting the ground. One hit the side of his leg but was quickly put out after he buried his leg into the rotting leaves.

Ow...

From the ashes of the inferno began to rise and form, creating red squids that circled the nautilus and slowly shot at the man. He swung the cannon into his hands and aimed at the squids. The cannon sent out a huge cloud of lightning, liquefying two. One of the squids latched onto his arm, its beak digging into his flesh. The man immediately ripped the parasite off, throwing it down on the ground and turning it into goop. After that, the man quickly dispatched the rest with several swift shots. The nautilus blared its eyes again and began to rotate. It started to circle around him, faster and faster every second, to the point where the man couldn't even tell where it was. Trees around him were shredded into pieces as whirlwinds cleaved his skin apart. He quickly ducked down behind his arms, covering from the circling dust devils surrounding the man in a satanic eclipse.

Uhg...I can't see...where is that thing?!

The sound of the wind spinning quickly stopped. From his faded view, he couldn't find anything. Suddenly shock filled his mind. Vein across his body pulsed purple as immense pain beat down his back. Six gaping holes slit open from his back, rushing out giant translucent tentacles. They coiled up under his chest like before and shot the man into the air, efficiently evading the nautilus' strike. He fell from the air and tumbled to the end of the shattered cliff. The tentacles stiffened and dug into the earth, rapidly lunging backing at the mollusk. The sheer force caused the soil behind to wrap into a wall and the bones around his spine to snap.

Shit...

The tentacles barely paid any attention to him. Two of the tentacles coiled around the mollusk while the other four formed a drill under his body to attempt to shred its eyes into pieces, but the nautilus fired another array of flaming blood. The tentacles quickly dodged behind the nautilus, causing the man's skull to slam into the rock-hard shell, But the tentacles didn't care. The nautilus shot another array to flaming blood, this time in a full radius. The bullets easily segmented the tentacles, leaving a chance for the man to control himself.

Ren...focus on controlling your powers, don't let them grow so soon. You have to focus, focus...

Cuts began to emerge from his fingertips and the tentacles already began to crawl out. He immediately clenched his fists to block the way but quickly released them as the tentacles were begging to dig through his palm just to get out. The tentacles wrapped around the mollusk once again, soon pulling the man into the mass. He melded his feet so the wet mud and struggled to resist the sheer force of all that muscle. The nautilus raged on, spewing out flaming blood that burned through a few tentacles but was replaced by new not much after. He slowly slipped closer and closer, struggling with all force. The mud gave barely any grip on the ground.

Focus, Ren, focus. Focus on keeping everything in balance, keep everything in control.

Keep...everything...in control. Keep...everything in control...

The tentacles began to soften and retracted back into his reach. Veins pulsed from his body and gathered into his hands, slowly pumping into the tentacles as they slithered around. The nautilus watched in confusion before charging up at the man once again. He immediately lashed out the blue serpents and stormed straight into the impending doom. The nautilus shot out another array of blood, which he swiftly dodged through by sliding under its shell. The tentacles corralled the mollusk in a blue web and then bashed the net back down into the blood lake, sending colossal waves that engulfed the falls. The man jumped directly down into the blood and swam through the murky red, searching for the nautilus.

orange burning beams of light cast down into the surface rim, giving tiny tints of brightness that illuminated the black abyss of gore under him. The man could barely breathe with the little oxygen in the red lake, only allowing him to take tiny gulps for air when abruptly a swarm of crimson squids discharged toward him. He quickly sprouted out the tentacles out and severed all of them into halves in a matter of seconds. The nautilus came back charging right at him, its shell crashing into his chest, scalping off part of his cloak and the skin under.

It can't see me from the back, but I can't strike it there either. The best spot is its eyes, but that makes me vulnerable to the flaming bullets...

The man attempted to attack the nautilus' eyes, sending out blue beams to impale it from there, but barely landed a single scratch as it moved with much faster speeds while in the liquid. The nautilus began its circling move once more, so fast with an ignorant glance, you could suspect there were multiple. He couldn't at all differentiate where the mollusk was, frantically switching views from up to down to back to front. He was quickly pummeled from several places. The man's broken body was sent crashing into the lake walls, creating a dent a foot deep. Several bones across his ribs and arms snapped apart.

augh...that hurt...

The man snapped back up, the red glowing eyes slowly approaching him. Sending out the tentacles from his fingers, he started to swim toward the nautilus. The man shot out another set of them from the back, boosting his speed by immense numbers. He crossed his arms against his shoulders, ready for another slash. The tentacles behind began to spin rapidly, propelling him even quicker. Right when he was directly feet away, the man uncrossed his arms with all his strength.

Instead of chopping the mollusk into fine pieces, the tentacles had wrapped around its head and shell, the suckers sticking onto it without letting anything go. The nautilus struggled fiercely but the more it quaked the tighter they choked. More and more tentacles began to pierce out his fingers, joining in on the trap and adding more pressure to what was now a huge sphere of blue. The nautilus began to rage, shaking and throwing out flaming blood with insanity, but to no avail. All the tentacles began to tighten without his control, slowly crushing into themselves harder and harder, quickly draining away his energy. He refrained and put them back in place, but without loosening the sphere.

nnhg...c'mon...c'mon...

The sphere began to turn unstable, losing more tentacles as the nautilus cried out more blood in a crazed rage. The man anchored the sphere down below, struggling to keep it in shape. He arched his arms to his back and swung the sphere up and above the surface with every fiber of muscle in his body. Purple lightning sparked over his forearms as the entire sphere containing the nautilus was sent crashing into the cliff, creating a crater from where it landed and completely demolishing the rock and trees upon it. The sphere nearly flattened on the immense impact of the strike, blood gushing out the crevices. The man retracted all of the tentacles back into his fingertips and stared at the broken corpse of the dreadnautilus, as hundreds of pieces of debris rolled into the blood ocean. Dozens of blood orbs floated magically up from the deceased mollusk, and its carcass began to melt into blood seemingly.

Finally over...isn't it?

The man climbed up into the crater; completely drenched in red. he opened the bag and stuffed all the orbs inside. The sun finally rose to a point where it could easily be seen. The blood all began to fade back into regular water, along with the blood covering his skin. Once again, the lake shined a crystal blue, paired along with the orange sunlight from the distance.

Ren...you did very well. I didn't expect you could defeat it, but you did. This was a huge step for your skills with the dark arts...

The man collect the last orbs from the sky and slowly stepped back under the jungle canopy.


Weapon: The tentacles (not an item just magic), Abyss Shocker, Blood Thorn

Tools: Magic mirror, Spell Tome

Armor: (no armor)

Accessories: Eidolist cape (CalVan)

Health: 48/100