[Water Bless]
[Higher Water Affinity.
Reduced water damage inflicted on user by 30%.
+10% increase on water-based attacks.
Freely breathe underwater for one hour.]
[Cooldown: 10 minutes]
Jett plunged deeper into the dark water. Five minutes passed, and the descent grew harder. The water thickened like it resisted him. The deeper he went, the heavier the pressure pressed against his body. Visibility dropped until everything around him turned murky and gray.
'Ugh… how deep do I have to go?' Jett grumbled through the bubbles. 'The old guy must've found that Lyk herb by luck.'
He pushed forward, muscles straining against the drag of the current. Then, faintly, a glow appeared below him.
'Finally.' His eyes narrowed as he swam faster. But as the light grew stronger, a strange tension prickled through his body. His instincts screamed that something was off.
'I've been swimming for almost fifteen minutes but haven't seen any signs of life,' he thought, glancing around. 'Or is it just my imagination from the lack of visibility? Maybe it's just the effects of the poison'
When he reached the glowing area, he saw the source. The entire seabed was covered in Lyk herbs, each one glowing faintly like purple fireflies clinging to the sand. It looked peaceful, almost inviting.
'Just to be safe.' Jett extended his hand slowly.
[Tactical Mirage]
His vision sharpened instantly. Every ripple, every particle in the water became clear. His breathing steadied. Then he froze, 'What's this mad killing intent? Like if I don't get out now I'll die?'
Something massive shifted in the darkness to his left.
He turned his head slowly. His heart skipped a beat.
'What The Fu...!' Jett screamed inside his mind, eyes widening as the shadow's size registered. It was enormous, stretching across his entire line of sight, and it was moving straight toward him.
A monstrous octopus loomed beside him, its massive body the size of a trailer, each tentacle thicker than a tree trunk. Its single, bulbous eye gleamed faintly through the murky water, focused directly on him.
'It's headed right for me!' Jett panicked. He reached for his sword out of instinct, but a message flashed before him.
[Weapons are Prohibited due to the effect of the Lyk Water.]
[Offensive Skills are Prohibited due to the effect of the Lyk Water.]
'Just kill me already, why don't you. What kind of bullshit restriction is that? And why didn't you pop up when I died in you freaking asshole.' Jett cursed as the first tentacle whipped toward him.
He twisted away, barely dodging, only to be caught off guard by another that followed immediately after. It slammed into him hard, driving him straight into the sea floor.
A burst of bubbles escaped his mouth as pain exploded across his ribs. The force rattled his bones.
He gritted his teeth. "Damn it… that hurts!"
Out of pure rage, he started chanting.
{Hell Fir...}
He stopped mid-cast. His eyes caught the purple glowing Lyk herbs scattered around him. Each one pulsed faintly, releasing a poisonous shimmer that spread through the water.
'Crap,' he thought sharply. 'It was baiting me. If I use fire magic here, I'll set off the poison and kill myself. With that I can access that's somehow immune to the poisonous effects.'
He clenched his fists. The octopus circled, its shadow swallowing the light from the herbs.
'Tch. I need to use water magic… but I'm not too good at it.'
Fire was his specialty. It came naturally to him, wild and destructive. Water, on the other hand, was about control and flow, something he had never mastered. His mind flashed back to his last class on magic control.
"You must feel the mana, not force it," his instructor's voice echoed faintly in his head. "Control your mind to control your mana."
'I need precise magic control,' Jett reminded himself. But knowing what to do and actually doing it were two different things.
The octopus turned again, tentacles curling and tightening. He didn't have time to hesitate. If he failed now, he wouldn't even have a body left to regret it.
The octopus lunged again, its eight massive tentacles flailing in all directions like battering rams. The water around Jett churned violently. He stretched both hands forward, focusing on the flow of mana in his palms.
'Control the current, focus…'
He willed the water to gather and spin, forming a drill-shaped point before him. For a moment, it started to take shape, but his mana output spiked too sharply. The unstable current exploded in front of his face, blasting him backward in a swirl of bubbles.
"Eeuk…" he groaned, clutching his head. The explosion disoriented him. Before he could recover, a tentacle slammed into the spot he had just been, shaking the seabed. He barely twisted aside in time. Another came down immediately, then another. The monster wasn't letting up.
He kept dodging, each movement slower than the last as fatigue built up. Every failed spell wasted mana, and the pressure of the deep water made movement even harder. He was running out of time.
'Damn it, I can't keep this up.'
He darted upward, letting the tentacles crash into the seabed again. The impact sent a cloud of sand and Lyk spores swirling through the water. The brief cover gave him a chance to circle behind the beast.
'If magic won't work, I'll do it my way.'
He clenched his fists.
[Physical Buff]
His body pulsed with light as mana surged through his muscles. He slammed his fist into the creature's back, the shockwave rippling through the water. But it was useless. The impact spread evenly across the octopus's thick, elastic hide. It didn't even flinch.
"What the hell…?" Jett muttered under his breath.
The monster spun. Once. Twice. Three times. The violent rotation sent waves blasting through the water. Jett's body twisted helplessly in the current until one of the tentacles smacked him hard in the side. He gritted his teeth and reacted on instinct, wrapping his arms tight around the tentacle before it could fling him away.
His aura flared weakly around him, forming a thin barrier that shimmered against the crushing pressure. The tentacle thrashed, but this time it couldn't shake him off completely.
'Now it's my turn,' Jett thought with a feral grin, tightening his grip as the octopus tried to yank him loose.
The monster pulled. He pulled harder. The water vibrated from the force of their struggle. Jett's muscles strained as his aura flickered, but his eyes burned with determination but there was still one issue, he was running out of time at this point.
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You think he'll win?
(((;ꏿ_ꏿ;)))