Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Jin regretted those first few seconds of simply staring in horror as her [Draconic Insight] informed her of what kind of monster they would be facing next.

It didn't seem to move too fast for Jin to keep up with its movements, but it wasn't until she saw one of the large tentacles hurtling towards them that she yelled, "Move back!" and triggered her [Leap] to avoid getting hit, gaining a few more moments to analyze the situation from above.

The tentacle apparently hadn't been aiming for her. Instead, it tried to wrap around Karam with his little glowing lantern over his shoulder and was no longer positioned in the center of their formation during their chat. She watched as the [Mana Barrier] around him delayed the grab, but it also shattered from the impact.

Alim reacted quickly enough, pulling Kar back and putting himself between the tentacle and healer. The tentacle continued the path and ran into Alim's barrier next, but then was thrown back from his [Reflective Shell] with a shimmer of golden light.

She also heard Hadia already incanting, "May the earth steady us," to give all of them the benefits of her [Steadfast Resolve] Boon at the same time.

Just as Jin reached the peak height of her jump and started to feel that odd sensation of weightlessness, she saw Liraz on the other side of the group, opposite Alim, holding her hands up as she incanted while a different tentacle charged through the air towards them.

"Have a dip, enjoy the stick!" Slime sprayed out to coat and slow down the prehensile limb, but it still managed to impact with Liraz and Hadia. Their own barriers flickered blue, and while they still ended up on the muddy ground, they didn't seem seriously injured.

The tentacle, on the other hand, seemed stuck to the shore where the slime had attached to, and Jin took the target, aiming her [Silent Spear] right where the large limb was free of sticky blue slime. Triggering her [Hollow Strike] to ignore any physical resistances and add Void damage with her next attack, she combo'd that into both [Vorpal Charge], for even more Void damage and boosted Strength and Agility, along with [Death From Above], which would warp her fall speed and add even more Void damage as well as the Dimension type. To finish off the combination of stacked effects, she used her [Piercing Thrust] to land the blow.

She rocketed through the space and wasn't surprised when her spear completely severed the tentacle from the Kraken. As the head of her spear landed back on the ground, partially burying itself in the soft peat, she quickly did the backflip she had gotten used to at this point and repositioned herself in a defensive stance.

The Kraken didn't roar exactly, but a low-pitched wail seemed to reverberate around them, as it angrily thrashed around from the lost limb, gaining her [Bleeding] Bane, and smacking itself in the face with its own tentacle.

She took the moment to glance back at how the others were doing. Luckily, while Rayyan had listened to her initial command and ran to position himself further from the water, she was glad to see he hadn't completely abandoned them. He was already casting his [Pearly Blessing] on each of them, starting with Karam and Liraz, who would benefit from the increased effectiveness of Water abilities.

Karam's [Refreshing Mist] was already permeating the area around them, healing and replenishing the stamina she just spent, and was helping Liraz and Hadia to their feet.

Alim had already moved between them and the shoreline, fully armored up with his hand outstretched towards the Kraken, and Jin noticed the glowing rune of his [Mark of the Aggressor] appear on the monster's rubbery-looking head.

"I can try attacking too, but with it being resistant to Corrosion damage, it won't be much help," Clover whispered in her mind.

"It might be better than nothing," Jin silently replied, while trying to count the number of remaining limbs as they thrashed about. "I'm pretty tapped out for the next minute aside from just [Leap] and [Hollow Strike]-[Piercing Thrust] spamming until I pass out from the stamina depletion." By the time she counted five remaining tentacles, they were already arcing down towards Alim, who had started channeling his [Mana Sear] just to make sure it attacked him by pissing it off with a blue plasma beam of pain.

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"Hadia with me! Li, do a drop!" Jin called out, already moving to position herself for intercepting a limb with her attacks.

"Already on it, Sky Girl!" Hadia yelled back, having moved to Alim's other side and raising her mace and hammer over her head.

As the group of tentacles descended in a slamming cascade, Jin managed to time imbuing her attack and using [Leap] at the last moment to give her more momentum to repel one of the limbs. At the same time, Hadia had combined her [Sunder Iron] with [Bone Breaker] to swing at another outer tentacle. Jin knew the effects from those would be minimal without any bones in said tentacle, but at least it was enough to knock it off course.

Unfortunately, that left three tentacles to slam down against Alim, who hadn't had enough time to recast his [Mana Barrier] on himself after renewing Karam's in the scramble to position themselves. This time, one of the heavy limbs shattered through the [Reflective Shell] in a shower of gold sparkles and collided with his raised shield, but the force was enough to drop him to a knee.

Surprisingly, the size of the monster worked to their advantage as the other two limbs missed the target completely, but the impact with the ground made everyone stumble from the aftershocks.

Everyone except Jin, who was stuck to a flailing limb currently impaled by her spear.

At that moment, she was exceedingly grateful for her [Nimble] Passive boosting both her Agility and Mind as she maneuvered herself to plant her feet on either side of her spear against the slimy bottom of the tentacle without getting motion sick. Once she was sure the sky was above her and the water below, she triggered another [Leap] to dislodge her weapon and gain distance again.

She was glad she had done that just in the nick of time, too, as a massive drop of slime appeared in the air above the Kraken's center. It almost felt like watching in slow motion as the large blob of blue fell a short way before pushing the whole monster back under the water for a brief moment, then burst across the surface, coating the murky swamp in brilliant blue slime.

When the Kraken arose again, Jin actually laughed aloud at the sight of it as she fell through the air. It looked more like a children's bath toy now, slowly squirming from the sticky substance. She was pretty sure the damage wasn't actually as much as she hoped for, considering its resistances, but it at least seemed fairly hindered.

Her laughter died the next moment as the monster protectively wrapped its tentacles around its large head and began to vigorously vibrate. A sickly swirl of neon green and pale purple smog began to ooze out from between the tentacles and was quickly rolling outward in all directions.

"Run away from it!" Jin yelled as she tried angling her fall more towards the shore. Her warning was unnecessary, though, as the others had already turned to sprint away from the obviously noxious gas attack.

She knew she wasn't going to make it all the way to the shore in her free fall, but she channeled a bit of her mana into her boots to land on the surface of the water. What she hadn't expected was for her knees to give out as she realized she couldn't feel her legs below them, and to fall forward into the water, no longer counting as "walking."

Now that she was paying attention to it, she could sense the Bane that had landed on her earlier from her contact with the slime coating the tentacle's underside. It was a creeping paralysis that was slowly working through her system from where she had touched. Unfortunately, it made swimming difficult as her legs became dead weight with each passing second.

She felt something grip her shoulder, trying to pull her towards the shore, and she spared a glance to see Clover furiously flapping their little wings under the water. Gratitude and something close to camaraderie filled her heart, and she paddled her arms harder, not wanting Clover to suffer with her.

Jin could feel her other abilities coming back off cooldown, but she wasn't sure she would make it to the shore before the encroaching fog engulfed her.

"Come on, minion!" Clover yelled at her over the splashing, still tugging her forward. "Also, you might want to consider fewer helpings at meal times!"

"Not the time to be calling me fat, you greedy snack-glutton!" Jin shouted back, all previous feelings of gratefulness quickly disintegrating.

Jin was proven correct about not making it to shore before the smog reached her. She wanted to vomit from the miasma of Corrosion and Death that slowly began to eat away at her with multiple Banes applying a variety of status effects. She felt a wave of fatigue, and her movements became even more sluggish as she kept trying to close those few feet to the shallows.

Once she could tell her feet were on the ground just below the water with her [See Without Sight] Perception, she triggered [Leap] one more time in a last-ditch effort to survive at least long enough to make sure the others escaped. Pain radiated up her legs, where she wasn't already numb, but she was glad that it had worked to launch her into the air above the fatal fog.

Clover merged with her again to keep from getting separated, and Jin frantically searched for her friends. It didn't help that one of the Banes that had been on her seemed to give her tunnel vision, but luckily, her Perception didn't care if her eyes didn't work. Unfortunately, it didn't help her see anything beyond the range of her Aura, but at least that meant the group was farther away.

She felt a sudden surge of healing power flow into her and realized Karam had triggered his [Beacon of Safety] Aura's effect to heal her while she was mid-air, which meant they were likely okay even if she couldn't sense them.

What Jin could sense was the Kraken slowly unfurling its tentacles instead of pumping out more of the miasma, and she decided her best chance for survival at the moment, especially while half numb, would be to try taking out the threat entirely.

Targeting directly at the center of its slimy blue face, she began stacking her buffs again. This time, however, she chose to try out the new ability that she had frankly been avoiding, thinking it might cause more collateral damage than she wanted with heralding in Ragnarok…

"Come, O' herald of the end. Feast, O' eater of worlds. Devour our enemy and fuel the dragon's rampage," she incanted for her [Maw of the Dragon], then activated [Death From Above] to send her streaking across the sky.

Jin watched in fascination as the head of her spear seemed to transform into the head of a huge black and green dragon with large fangs, which were put on display as it opened its maw wider than she would have thought physically possible.

Ribbons of void black power swirled from its mouth, spiraling around the spear's shaft, as her other abilities further empowered it. She almost felt like she was simply along for the ride, holding on to the back of an angry dragon as the weapon seemed to come alive.

Just as she was about to collide with the Kraken's face, the dragon's maw opened even wider, twisted sideways, and sank its fangs into the monster, her boosted momentum driving the teeth even deeper. As Níðhǫggr flexed its jaw and snapped its mouth shut to consume the Kraken, Jin could feel that low wail again before being abruptly cut off as its head was severed in half.

"Loot it, Jin! And use the essence!" Clover yelled out in her mind as they fell through the shower of blood and guts and whatever other organs were in a Kraken's head.

She managed to trigger it just as she landed back in the water and was quickly submerged again. Despite defeating the monster, her legs were still numb, and the Banes that had been stacked onto her from the miasma hadn't disappeared.

As she felt her body growing heavier, with the fatigue making her simply want to sleep, Jin realized she still had to worry about another enemy: drowning.