Forrest's PoV

 

Forrest was watching Scarlet use the controls of the ship. Unfortunately he wasn't holding on to anything when the first burst of speed hit. A second later he found himself falling down to the blue ocean below. Thankfully there seemed to be enough speed to fling him far enough not to land on the island. Odd thought, but still true. Managing to keep his bow and quiver through the fall, he braced for impact.

Not long after that he found himself crashing into the ocean. He was fairly sure he broke a few bones. One of his Full Healing Potions managed to stay in his belt slot. Almost losing consciousness, he managed to chug it down.

Hopefully either Voss or Jim and Scarlet would find him and pick him up. Relaxing, Forrest began looking around. Shading his eyes he looked at a wake of water that seemed to be headed in his direction. Was it Voss? But he didn't see a ship at all. Just a lot of moving water that headed towards him in a "V" shape.

Minutes passed as the little waves got closer. Then he could finally see something under water. The brownish lump that had many shortened tentacles. And then he saw its eye. The one eye that was left after Forrest buried the other one in arrows.

Oh shit. The Kraken was back. Maybe they should have told Jim they didn't actually kill it?

***

Jim's PoV

 

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. Where the hell was Forrest? Scanning the ship for the fifth time, he still didn't see the man. Scarlet went below deck a minute ago and hadn't returned. Finding the hatch, he went down the stairs and bumped up his vision so he could see in the darkness. There had to be a lightswitch somewhere, this thing was the ultimate luxury liner for an elfen ruler.

Seeing a half sphere bump on the wall, he pressed it. Figures, the 'switch' was so high because that elf was a tall bastard. Jogging he began scanning the compartments. In passing he noticed the master cabin with the elve's journal. Going room by room he finally bumped into Scarlet who was coming back.

"He's not here. Shit, he's not here. Where is he?"

Jim said "I can't remember seeing him after the airship's speed jumped up. I think he might have fallen off really early."

"Oh god, do you think he fell on the island?"

Thinking, Jim realized he could answer that question. Pulling up his menu he looked over the party interface and saw Forrest. He was at full health. Thank goodness, he was okay.

"Forrest is fine, he's at full HP. That means he didn't hit the island. He must be very close to it in the water."

Scarlet looked relieved and said, "Well, let's find him. I'll drive."

Jim wanted to protest. He really didn't want her to drive. But he bit his tongue and followed her to the helm. Knowing what was coming Jim firmly gripped the railing. Two seconds later Scarlet full throttled the thing back to the island. Thankfully losing the sails seemed to slow the ship down a little, it was still going super fast though. Holding on for dear life, they made their way quickly back to the island.

Jim said while pointing towards the rightish "We came from that end of the island and headed for the Endless Storm. He would have hit the water just off the island in that direction."

He hated how forward the airship tilted when it was going fast. It wasn't like this in the video game, it just flew level with the sea and land. Jim vaguely remembered helicopters tilting forward when they moved. That must be it. Damn you physics! How dare you try to make the awesome airship so realistic!

Nearing the spot, Scarlet slowed down and Jim went over to the side to get a better vantage point.

After seeing movement in the water, he saw a large brown blotch. Bumping up his vision, it looked like some kind of sea monster. A really damaged sea monster. Five of the eight tentacles seemed to be shortened by half. Scanning the direction it was headed, Jim saw a speck of green in the water that reflected the sunlight.

A few adjustments to his vision again and he could see Forrest. Oh crap. He was about to get eaten! "Scarlet! Bit to the right! Sea monster is about to eat him! Hurry!"

The airship bucked forward and she yelled "Sea monster? What the hell do you mean sea monster?"

"Eight long tentacles. Well, three long ones, five short. Looks like a really big octopus or something."

"Kraken! It's that damn Kraken again!"

Confused, he asked "Again? What do you mean again? I thought you killed one?"

"We didn't kill it. How could we kill it? The damn thing ran away."

"Oh…"

 

***

Forrest's PoV

 

Seeing that he was screwed, Forrest got his trusty bow off his back. If he was going to get eaten, he was going to piss off the thing some more first. This was a friggin dumb way to die. Feeling the onset of fear, he tried to channel rage. Fear wasn't going to make the situation better and was a waste of time. Using the rage to battle the fear, he vowed to not die easily.

Noting the mess that was the thing's left eye, he could clearly see the right eye of the Kraken for the first time. The thing fought like a child throwing a tantrum when it attacked the ship. It kept flailing its limbs at them while keeping its eyes closed.

After his first arrow hit the thing's eye, it angled its good eye away from the ship while it flailed half blindly towards him. But he wasn't on a ship this time with two monster wolves and one vixen protecting him. He would have to make his shots count.

Knocking his first arrow, he felt wind rustling around the fletching of his quarrel. Then he remembered his new green dragon scaled armor was enchanted with a wind element. Hoping the enchantment would understand his intent, he aimed the ridiculously long distance shot at the creature's right eye.

Then he loosed the arrow. The arrow seemed to spin even more vigorously as it sailed to the target. The Kraken weaved in and out of the water but he took that motion into account. The extra spinning seemed to stabilize the arrow even more, making the shot fly true. And it hit!

The creature let out a bellowing roar, then used one of its remaining tentacles to try to cover its eye. Knowing the creature blinded itself, he moved towards the creature's already dead eye. He knew one arrow in the eye was only going to piss it off, but if the thing was adamant on protecting its remaining eye, he would make him pay for that error.

Drawing another arrow he waited in the creature's blind spot. Damn he was so screwed, but he was going to try to take his pound of flesh from the creature. There was only one way this was going to end. He remembered tall tales of sailors surviving being eaten and trying to survive in a Kraken's belly. Those stories were bull.

Scarlet told him how a Kraken had been killed near Xalross. They killed the thing after a man had been swallowed whole. In only three hours he was a humanoid lump of flesh. In summary, he was screwed. The best he could do was play cat and mouse for a while.

Still with his arrow knocked he waited in silence as the creature swam past him. The thing seemed confused as it slowed down and started searching the water with all but one tentacle, which was guarding its remaining eye.

Patiently he waited. He would need to release the arrow before being seen. When the Kraken saw him, it would guard its eye and rush towards him. Forrest needed to read his motion and place the arrow the second the monster would still as it saw him.

Seeing the motion of the creature about to look towards him, he waited for the right moment and let the arrow fly. Score! Just as he predicted, once it saw him it would pause for a split second. And for that prediction a second arrow struck its eye.

The creature let out a screeching roar and swam towards him again. Trying the same trick, he went to the blind side again. But instead of rushing past him the creature splashed the water and went under. Crap, he was dead. Blindly he shot beneath him into the sea.

It didn't work. In horror he watched the brown color form underneath him in the water. Abandoning his bow he tried to swim away, but the thing grabbed him and squeezed with one of its remaining longer tentacles.

Forrest coughed blood. Pain. Hard to breathe. He tried to struggle, but his efforts were growing weaker and weaker. Leeched of energy and feeling battered and broken, he wondered why he wasn't dead yet.

Then he saw he was raised up facing the creature like a child playing with a doll. The thing stared at him with one remaining hateful eye that had two blood splotches in it. It squeezed harder and he heard bones snap. Damn, he couldn't feel his legs. And pain. A lot of pain.

Again, why wasn't he dead? Was the thing playing with him? Did he piss the thing off enough to warrent being tortured? Hell, he only took the one eye. The wolves and Scarlet gave it five stumpy limbs. Forrest guessed it didn't matter. He needed to provoke the thing into ending him.

He yelled at the thing, "Ha! A little human hurt you! Aww poor little thing!"

It squeezed harder. He was on the verge of passing out. Then he saw the damnedest thing. A man in black armor randomly hit the water like a box of rocks a good stones' throw away. What the, was that Jim?

***

 

Jim's PoV

 

Seeing the monster about to attack Forrest, he uttered words he never expected to say. "Scarlet, faster! It's going to kill him!"

"The hell do you think I'm doing? It's going as fast as it can. Do something you wanna be godling!"

What could he do? He could try to pull out the Dragon Killer Bow, the best bow in the game. But he had never shot an arrow in his life. Maybe, was there anything else? Wait, items! Forrest was still in his party, maybe he could equip him with better armor?

He could try to equip Forrest with his epic black armor set! Starting with the chest piece, he clicked Forrest and then equipment. Then he scrolled down to Demonic Black Knight's Breastplate. Error. What? Why wasn't it working? He tried the pants. Error. Boots? What the, boots worked. Why couldn't he equip the chest plate and leggings?

Looking at the tentacle crushing him, maybe that had something to do with it. Was there not enough room to spawn in the equipment? Then he brushed his belt and felt a dagger. Almost forgetting about it, he found the dagger enchanted with Health Regeneration. Hey, that might be useful.

Quickly Jim tossed the dagger onto Forest with the party menu. It worked! Finding another one in his inventory, he also equipped that too. Out of ideas on what to equip next, he pulled out the Dragon Killer Bow.

Having the highest ranged weapon damage in the game and a 25% bonus damage on large creatures, if he could hit the damn thing, it would die.

Awkwardly trying to manipulate the bow, he easily drew the string back. Then he clumsily dropped the arrow. Crap. Pulling another, the same thing happened. Yeah, he sucked as an archer. Honestly he was a terrible swordsman too, but when you had overpowered strength and speed, you didn't really need finesse. Jim got rid of his soaked robe and equipped his black armor.

Grabbing a new Lost Great Sword of Valraduth, he realized he would need to do it the old fashioned way. Taking up his mighty weapon, he was about to do something really stupid. Doing some mental math on angle and speed, he counted down to zero in his head. Then he ran at full speed shouting his battlecry, "Leeeeroy, Jenkins!"

Then he jumped over the side of the airship. He did his best to time his jump towards the creature. As he fell through the air, he readied his strike lifting his weapon over his head. Then he seemed to get hit by a gust of wind and he was slightly off trajectory. Crap. There was no double jump. He was going to miss. No, no, no!

Jim hit the water like a ton of bricks. Briefly he saw the creature look at him. Then the thing put Forrest in its beak of a mouth. NO! Forrest slipped into the maw and the creature swallowed. Panicked, Jim brought up his party interface. What? He was alive?

Forrest's HP was 156 / 1,500. Only 156 health remaining! But then it ticked up. It went to 256 / 1,500. Then it went down to 148 / 1,500 HP. The health regeneration! It was working and he was alive! But he was still going to die. It wasn't enough. He needed to find health regeneration armor.

Damn what was it called? It was such a useless set of armor. The minor effect of healing was made redundant by the nonexistent armor value. Who cared about health regen when monsters were hitting you for double the damage? Dammit what was the name!

M something? Scrolling he looked for the health regeneration armor. Munchkin's Armor? No, Murderhobo's Armor? No, Mendicant's Armor? Yes! There it is! Equipping Forrest with the new armor, Jim checked Forrest's equipment status.

Still sinking in the water, Jim watched his party menu for Forrest's HP. Crap, 28 / 1,500 HP! Then 128 / 1,500 HP. How long would it take for the new equipment's effect to kick in? It was still only 100 HP per tick. Then it ticked down to 20 / 1,500 HP. Then back up to 120 / 1,500 HP. 12 / 1,500 HP. Was it too late? Then it went up to 172 / 1,500 HP!

He was going to make it! Yes! The damage ticks were doing 108 and he was regenerating 160! Now he just needed to kill the thing. Actually, he needed to figure out how to swim first. He was getting fairly deep.

Jim lost track of the creature while looking through his inventory, so it was something of a shock when a tentacle reached for him and started to squeeze. Oh, cool. He found a ride. The monster was moving at high speed towards the surface. Jim pushed down on his temptation for ripping this Kraken limb from limb.

Breaking the surface of the water, the thing held him up to one good eye. Wow the thing was ugly. Still keeping an eye on Forrest's HP in the corner of his vision, it started climbing higher and higher. Genius at work baby! Reluctant to kill his new ride, they eyed each other. If he killed it, would it float or sink? Then the thing seemed to try to squeeze Jim harder.

It wasn't doing anything. It was kind of amusing. Actually, was this thing sentient? It looked really pissed and two of the remaining longer tentacles wrapped around him. Jim was growing rather uncomfortable, but for a different reason.

He could have sworn he saw a Japanese anime that started like this. Not wanting to become a victim of that fetish, Jim pushed outward and broke the creature's grip. Then to both of their surprise, an airship was headed directly towards them. Oh crap, Scarlet was trying to ram them!

But the Kraken wanted none of it and swam down in the water. Jim held on to one of the tentacles with a good grip. Fearing repeats of the breaking rigging, he tried not to use too much strength. It would suck if he popped the thing off and had to learn how to swim.

Slowly he climbed up the creature's limb until he made it to the head. Then he pulled out his sword and did what he should have done the first time. Cutting the things head off in one chop, he firmly held on to the dying body.

Jim hoped the god RNG could give him one more good dice roll. C'mon, be a floater! As it spasmed and oozed, the body slowly began floating to the surface. Floater! Victory!

***

 

Scarlet's PoV

 

Barely pulling up from the dive bomb at the Kraken, she circled around. How the hell can someone as strong as Jim not be able to swim? It was the most ridiculous thing she ever heard of.

Watching that idiot sink instead of swimming over to that bastard monster pissed her off. If the world really did end because he drowned, it was not her fault. Can't swim, jumped into the water in heavy armor, then sunk like a rock. Moron.

Scarlet was worried because she didn't see Forrest. She did the only thing she could think of. She tried to ram the thing. It was only at the last second that she saw Jim captured in its tentacle. Did he get to Forrest in time? It was hard to navigate the ship and keep a close eye on the creature. Did Jim save him? Not knowing terrified her.

Circling the craft around, she saw the damndest thing. Two men were sitting in a pool of black blood. On the carcass of the creature, she recognized the man in the weird white colored robes. Forrest! He was alive!

Pulling up and putting the craft into hover, she looked over the side of the ship. It was really him!

Jim had a beaming smile and said "Lookie what I found! Were you missing something?"

Scarlet was incredibly grateful, but like hell she was going to say that. "Really, what kind of idiot can't swim and then jumps into water in full armor? And Forrest! Really? You got lost on your own and found a pet? The least you could have done was take care of him!"

Forrest who was looking relatively well said, "You told me that you couldn't survive in a Kraken's belly. I thought it was bull, so I wanted to give it a try. Poor little Kraky didn't agree with the experience."

Not amused in the slightest, Scarlet said "What the hell are you talking about? People die in minutes in a Kraken's belly. I've told you this."

Gloating Forrest said "Look at the cut in the thing's belly. Where do you think I was? Seems you city people are a bit on the weak side."

Finally looking at the decapitated creature she said in disbelief "But that's not possible. How?"

Jim butt in and said "Because I'm a genius baby! Yahoo! Now that was a damn adventure! Super boss didn't have crap on this!"

Idiot. But at least she wasn't scared of him anymore. With a happy skip in her heart, she lowered the rope down to catch the two.

***

 

Jim's PoV

 

After picking up the pups from Voss' ship and donating a few items to pay for his help, Jim left his body secured to a pole in the cargo bay of the airship. He still had a huge smile on his face.

That was so damn cool! He had almost despaired that there was no adventure to be had after defeating the super boss. Even if it did start from a screw up in using the airship, he ended up saving the ship and saving Forrest's life! Scarlet saved his life too!

And it was friggin hard! It wasn't served to him on a silver platter. Even knowing it was slightly irresponsible, feeling the dopamine rush of a real adventure gave him high spirits for the first time in a while. It was like the good ol' days when he was a kid home alone and having an adventure in Final Fantastic 3.

Jim thought he would never be able to capture that feeling again. Irresponsible as it may have been, he wouldn't have changed it for the world.

***

 

Necromancer Dominic's PoV

 

Finally making it past the creature in the caves at King's End, Dominic found himself in front of an unmarked grave. An unmarked grave that had his Death Sense showing the power in this corpse was off the charts. Feeling the still angry spirit linger, he began casting his spell to raise the creature. Not as a mindless zombie, but as a revenant.

Hours later, the ritual was finished. Reunited with its spirit, the monster slowly got to its feet.

"What is your name, creature?"

"Zed. I think my name… is Zed"