'Now it's my turn.' Jett tightened his grip on the octopus's tentacle, twisting his body and hurling the creature away with every ounce of strength he had left. The water split with the force of the throw, sending the monster tumbling into the murky depths.
He didn't wait to see where it landed. His mind was already racing.
'Crap, ten minutes left before [Water Blessing] ends. If that runs out, I'm screwed.'
He kicked off the seabed, propelling himself upward through the cold water. His lungs burned, his body heavy from the pressure, but he didn't slow down. Each second mattered.
Not that he would actually drown if it ended but as he had back skills but their effects weren't as good and for some weird reason all the water buff skills he had weren't stackable.
Then, he felt it. A sudden shift in the water current. Something large was moving fast.
Jett turned his head, and his eyes widened. The octopus was rocketing toward him like a torpedo, its tentacles tucked close, its entire body slicing through the water with terrifying speed.
'You have got to be kidding me.'
He didn't know if it was rage or instinct driving the creature, but it was coming straight for him, ignoring everything else. Jett's had thought that the region below the field of glowing Lyk herbs was its territory. Leaving it shouldn't have triggered a frenzy but apparently it was just petty.
Before he could react, a tentacle shot forward, wrapping around his legs like a chain. The next instant, he was slammed downward. The shock hit him hard. He winced as the impact rattled his bones.
'This overgrown octo Karen really has it out for me,' he thought bitterly as he twisted free and narrowly dodged another swing.
The creature lunged again, but Jett moved faster this time, weaving through its tentacles with sharp bursts of movement. He was getting used to its rhythm, counting the seconds between each strike, waiting for an opening. Still, it was clear they were at a stalemate. He couldn't kill it, and he couldn't escape without it chasing him.
'I need it to lose sight of me,' he thought, scanning for a way to hide or bait it away.
But then the monster did something new as though it had read his mind. It stopped moving for a brief moment, its body trembling. The water around it began to shift color, darkening fast.
'What the...'
In seconds, a thick black substance gushed from its body, spreading through the water like smoke. Visibility vanished. The world around Jett turned pitch-black.
"You still had something up your sleeve?" Jett said, forcing a smirk though his voice was edged with tension.
He raised his guard, every sense on alert. He couldn't see the creature anymore, but he could feel it... somewhere in that darkness, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
[Tactical Mirage] had finally ended. The world blurred, then snapped back into a pitch-black void. Jett's vision was gone, his advantage had been taken away.
"Perfect timing," he muttered, teeth clenched.
He didn't hesitate.
[Bypass]
A ripple of light flickered around him as the cooldown ended. [Tactical Mirage] reactivated instantly, but the system's cold message hit a second later.
[Warning: Effect reduced by 30% due to forced override.]
If he had been using [Tactical Mirage] at 100% and the fight was at a stalemate then that meant that added with no visibility, he would be at a disadvantage. At least that's what the octopus thought.
'Thirty percent weaker. This skill would've been considered perfect if it didn't have a thirty percent reduction clause.'
'Gaining too many skill has started making me sound greedy.'
He steadied his breathing. He couldn't see the octopus, but he could feel it, moving in slow, calculated circles around him. It was waiting. Watching. Testing if he would flinch first.
'It knows I'm alert. That's fine. Let it think it has time.'
He needed one window, just one. His brain worked fast. He couldn't fight it blind, but he could confuse it.
[Shadow Cloak]
[Clone]
[Mini Teleportation]
Just then, in less than a heartbeat, three skills activated in sync. The clone replaced him in the exact same spot while his real self warped several meters away. [Shadow Cloak] wrapped him in darkness, erasing his mana presence.
From the octopus's perspective, Jett was still there, motionless in the ink cloud. The clone's faint mana signature made the illusion perfect.
He had the [Shadow Cloak] just in case the ink cloud covered a larger distance than his skill and also to erase his presence in case the cloud could help the the octopus sense his actual location. He wasn't taking any chances.
Seconds passed. The monster stayed fixated on the decoy, cautious but patient. It didn't sense the shift, not yet.
'Good. The shadow field stretches further my skill but a gamer always plans ahead.' Jett grinned with a hint of pride.
Five seconds. Jett teleported again.
Then another five.
He kept repeating the process, step by step, warping silently through the water. His movements were invisible, each teleport placing him closer to the edge of the dark zone.
He was now too far now to maintain the clone so it disappeared but now the octopus couldn't sense him. So after a few seconds of disarray, it retreated to its domain. Finally, he could get out without worry moving freely
He had been cautious the moment he realised the octopus tried to follow him. He couldn't risk it following him back to the boat before he figured out how to beat it. That was a big NO.
It didn't take long to reach the surface, his vision fading at the edges. The water broke around him as he shot out like a missile.
[Flight]
[Gale]
[Aquatic Breath]
Wind gathered under him, pushing him high above the still ocean before he dropped onto the boat with a heavy thud. The others flinched at the sudden impact, their faces pale as they stared at him in silence.
Jett laid flat on the deck, arms spread, chest heaving like he had sprinted for miles. The sky was tinted orange, the sun dipping below the horizon. For a long moment, he said nothing. The only sound was his labored breathing.
"Are you okay?" The woman's voice broke the silence. Her child was asleep now, wrapped in the warm cloth Jett had given her earlier. She knelt beside him, her tone soft but worried.
"Yeah…" Jett replied between breaths, a weak grin forming. His hand rose slowly, showing a small bundle of glowing herbs. "Everything's going according to plan."
The faint shimmer of the Lyk herbs reflected in his tired eyes. He had snatched them during the chaos when the octopus slammed him down. The risk had paid off, though his back burned with pain where the creature's attack had hit.
The woman's expression changed the moment she saw the blood on his shirt. "You're injured."
"Oh, I guess I am." Jett smiled.
She crouched closer and gently pressed his shoulder down. "Hold still," she said in a firm, motherly tone, tearing a strip from her own sleeve to clean the wound.
Jett chuckled faintly. "Guess I owe you one."
"Guess you do," she replied without looking up, her hands steady as she worked.
He stared up at the fading sky. For the first time since the trial began, the tension in his chest eased. The pain was still there, but so was relief.
"you're surprisingly good at this, your mana control is flawless." Jett praised her thinking it has to be something difficult.
"What this? Anyone can do it. Its not that hard." She replied.
"Oh really? You mind telling me how you control your mana." Jett asked curiously.
" Sure." She placed her palms on his shoulders and suddenly shoved him back into the sea. The splash startled him.
"What are you doing?" Jett shouted, wiping his face.
"Hold still and lay flat," she said, calm but firm. "Try floating on the water. Can you do that?"
"Yeah, obviously," he replied, confused but cooperative.
"Good. Now feel the water. The way it presses against you. The way it lifts you." Her tone softened as her hands skimmed across the surface. "That rhythm, that gentle bounce, is what mana feels like when it moves freely."
The sea around them began to ripple and bubble. Her mana pulsed in sync with the tide.
"Now," she said quietly, "replicate that inside you. Don't force it. Stop trying to circulate mana into your core, you do that what you have no need to utilize it. Let it sway. Push and pull. Agitate it, like the water under your back."
Jett frowned. "How is letting it rampage inside me supposed to make it easier to control?"
"Trust me," she said. "You'll feel it soon. Match your flow to the sea."
He took a slow breath, closing his eyes. The rhythm of the waves seeped into him. His mana started to move differently, not in tight loops, but in smooth, flowing pulses. It rolled and receded, each wave aligning with his heartbeat.
Then something shifted. He felt the mana moving without his command. It responded on its own, pulsing in harmony with the water around him.
'Wait... what's happening? I'm not even directing it.' His eyes opened slightly. The sea shimmered faintly beneath him. 'It's like... it knows what I want.'
The realization hit him like a quiet shock. For the first time, his mana wasn't just obeying him it was cooperating and acting on its own.
'is this even possible?'
*
*
*
So he finally did it.