The nearest octopusman lashes out at me with a tentacle, trying to grab me, so I leap backward out of its reach.
These guys are gonna be so tasty!
I dodge to the side as a second octopusman reaches for me.
They look kinda weird. Theyâre not quite as human as the other -oids. They have two tentacles that are thicker than the other ones that they use kind of as legs, but they have six tentacles instead of arms, and in the middle of all the tentacles is a gaping beak. Its head is all squishy and jiggly with eyes on either side and two big nostrils with no mouth. Their skin looked exactly the same color and texture as the bark when they were on the trees, but now that theyâre away, theyâre turning a different color.
I jump around a bit more as more octopusmen peel themselves away from the trees and start attacking me. There are ten of them in total. Thatâs a lot. But itâs okay! Iâm strong now! These guys are nothing!
I wait for the nearest one to reach for me again, and this time, I only jump back enough to be out of its range, and as the tentacle flies past my face, I Slice at it!
â¦And I miss. So I wait for the next strike, and I Slice again! This time I hit!
â¦And it barely does anything. I mean, it cuts kinda deep into the tentacle, but it doesnât even cut all the way through. How are these guys so tough?
At that moment, I hear a faint noise from behind, and the sound of wind, then something slams into my rear end. Nothing breaks, but it does force my knees to bend, preventing me from jumping away as it starts wrapping around me. Itâs another octopusman, and this one was still in hiding. I hear another noise behind to the other side as a second hidden one emerges. There are actually twelve of them, not ten.
The tentacle keeps wrapping around me, so I twist my body around and Slice at it with a single claw. It doesnât quite make it all the way through, but it does seem to sever the muscle, and its grip loosens. A second Slice takes the tentacle all the way off, and I immediately grab it and put it in my Stomach before using Blink to get behind the one that was grabbing me.
My butt hurts. That hurt. I donât like this fight. Maybe thinking I could take on ten of them wasnât the smartest. But itâs okay! I just need to-
Cat-like Reflexes activate and I Blink again out of reach of another tentacle. Is it another octopusman? No, itâs one of the ones from before. It just snuck around and camouflaged itself against another tree while I wasnât paying attention.
This is dangerous. These guys arenât anywhere close to as weak as the other -oids, and there are so many of them! If it was just one or two, I could probably take them, but twelve? Not a chance. Time to run.
I ignore the throbbing pain in my backside as I sprint through the trees. Itâs not as easy to lose them as it was to lose the other -oids. Theyâre much faster, and theyâre using their upper tentacles to swing off of trees and things. Iâm still faster, but I almost have to run all the way to the edge of the island before their sounds start to fade far enough behind that Iâm sure Iâm out of their sight.
I slow down a bit to catch my breath, then start leaping from tree to tree along the edge of the island. After about five more minutes, the island goes quiet. It seems like theyâve given up the chase, but I havenât heard them enter the water. Theyâre probably either waiting somewhere for me to pass by, or theyâre being stealthy.
I donât like this. Theyâre strong, there are a lot of them, and I donât have anywhere to run or hide. They can all climb trees just as well as I can, if not better, theyâre strong enough that even after upgrading Scratch to Slice, I canât kill them easily, and worst of all, theyâre coordinated. They all came to the island at the exact same time while I was fighting the sharkmen. I think that means that the sharkmen were a decoy so they could set up an ambush. Thatâs way too smart. I donât like it at all.
Theyâre clearly targeting me. Thereâs no way there would be so many octopusmen here for any other reason. The eelmen were probably also hunting me. The fishmen seemed less coordinated, so they might have just been a scouting party or something to make sure the island was clear. Either way, itâs clear that they are actively trying to kill me, and that canât be good.
But, as smart as they are, Iâm smarter. I just need to figure out a way to get out of this. First though, some rest. My butt really hurts.
I glance back, and stare at my backside. Itâs bleeding. Why is it bleeding? It was a squishy tentacle, not a sword! Unlessâ¦
âBlergh!â
I wait a second to make sure that the noise didnât summon the octopusmen, then I look down at the severed tentacle. I poke at one of the suckers with my claw, and just as I thought, instead of squishing, I hit something hard, almost like a tooth. No wonder Iâm bleeding.
I look back at my wound and a sudden thought occurs to me. This is just like the injuries that Old Man Jenson had! It was probably one of these things that killed him! Thatâs one mystery solved. Iâm so smart.
I take a bite of octopusman. Itâs delicious. Every bit as good as I hoped it would be.
You know, now that I know that these tentacle have teeth or whatever these things are in them, I feel like my butt doesnât hurt as much as it should. Actually, it definitely hurts less than it should. And I feel like itâs getting even less over time. Hmmmâ¦
Oh, right! I have that one Trait that makes me heal faster when my Satiety is high! Haha, silly me. Well, thatâs nice. That means I wonât bleed out at least. I am getting really hungry though.
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I take another ten bites of octopusman.
Much better! Now, how do I get out of this mess? The night has only just begun, so I need to survive the whole night. Thereâs no way theyâll just stay put and hope I stumble onto them. Theyâll come for me again soon, and when they do, Iâll need to be ready.
So, how do I kill twelve coordinated octopusmen? I can at least damage them with Slice, even if I canât kill them easily. Can I just run around and do a war of attrition, slowly whittling them down? That would take forever and be super tedious, but do I have a better option? I feel like Ember wouldnât be very effective against them, so Slice and Bite are my only two real weapons.
I look over my Royal Status Window to see if thereâs anything Iâm missing, and I find myself lingering on Snatch of the Glutton. While I donât like the name, I feel like it should be useful. Do the octopusmen count as âedibleâ? Well, Iâm eating part of one right now, so surely they should. The real question is: will Snatch of the Glutton work on them, or will it be like Stomach of the Glutton where it wonât let me? If it does work, I could just teleport them to me, then kill them while theyâre separated from the rest of the group.
Well, I wonât know until I try it. And I will try it when they get close again. For now, though, my butt is feeling better, but I think the healing is making me really hungry, so Iâm gonna finish off this tentacle so I can keep healing.
It takes about fifteen minutes, but I eventually eat the entire severed tentacle, and by the end, my back is fully healed. Thereâs still blood on my fur, so Iâll have to give myself a bath later, but at least it doesnât hurt anymore. I havenât seen, heard, or smelled anything coming, so the octopusmen are still a wayâs out, which means that Iâve got some time. I should see if I can figure out how this Snatch works.
I use Food Sense to focus on some of the things around me. There are leaves all around, grass below, trees, dirt, a few insects, and some seashells that all register as edible. I focus my attention on the nearest insect, and try to use the skill, and it works! Iâm honestly surprised. I wonder ifâ¦
Nope. Canât put it into Stomach. So I can use Snatch on living creatures. Interesting. That seems overpowered. I mean, they are edible, but being able to just pull something to where my claws are waiting seems too strong. Maybe there are other limitations? I should-
Wait! Whatâs that?
Something new has entered the range of my Food Sense. Itâs coming from inland. Itâs an Octopoid! Wow, this skill seems overpowered too. I should have been using it when I was coming back from the sharkmenâ¦
Well, too late now. The octopusman is about fifty meters away, which seems to be the edge of Food Sense, and heâs moving very slowly. A short while later, two more appear behind him, and then a fourth appears way off on the other side. It looks like theyâre trying to pincer me. Smart. But not as smart as me!
Snatch!
The world spins as I feel a strong mental pressure, and then suddenly, everything is right again, and the octopusman is in front of me and falling down toward the ground. He lands with a squelch, and I shake the dizziness away before jumping down on him. He looks completely disoriented, but still manages to dodge to the side as I fall from above, Slicing at his head. My claw leaves a long cut across his chest instead of down his head.
He recovers quickly, and tries to lash out at me, but between my Cat-like Reflexes and my now-super-high finesse, I dodge easily. Even when he attacks with four tentacles at once, I can still get away. But I canât keep dodging, because I can sense the others from his group closing in quickly. Time to finish this.
I start a Slice, and then as Iâm halfway through, I Blink right in front of his head. As I Blink, I feel that same intense mental pressure, and it almost makes my attack falter, but with my paw already in motion, it still connects, cutting deep into his head.
It reacts quickly, trying to wrap me up, but I use my back paws to kick away, slipping between the closing tentacles. The others are only ten meters away, so I turn around and start another Slice before Blinking once again to right behind it. This time, my vision goes entirely black, and when I can see again, Iâm standing on top of the octopusmanâs corpse as the others burst through the treeline.
[ You have defeated Octopoid, lvl 5! Bonus experience for defeating an enemy above your level! ]
[ !@#$%^&*() House Cat, 1 â 3 ]
[ +32 Power, +44 Finesse, +40 Resilience, +28 Memory, +28 Willpower, +28 Sensitivity ]
Nice, levels! But hmmm, I probably shouldnât use Blink anymore.
I quickly store the octopusmanâs corpse in Stomach, which turns out to be a mistake. My vision goes dark again, and when I can see again, itâs only thanks to Cat-like Reflexes that I avoid getting grabbed. I spring to the side, avoiding one set of tentacles, then up onto a tree trunk to avoid the next set, and from there, I rocket myself further into the trees. Iâm heading straight toward the second group of octopusmen, but they havenât realized whatâs happening yet, so when I come flying by, bounding from tree to tree, they arenât prepared. Two of them react in time to reach up to grab at me midair, but theyâre too slow, and I sail past.
The chase is on again, but just like last time, I manage to get away and out of their range until I can camp out in another tree. Now, to figure out why Snatch, Blink, and Stomach made my head hurt.
[ Itâs because youâre out of mana ]
I am?
[ You used Blink a dozen times, and you teleported a human-sized creature against its will. Itâs a miracle youâre still conscious ]
I also teleported an ant.
[ Exactly. Donât use any more magical skills until your mana recovers. You could die. ]
Thatâs not good. How long will it take?
[ Probably about 8 hours ]
What? Thatâs way too long! How am I supposed to beat the octopusmen without Blink and Snatch?
[ I would recommend not trying. You can just keep running. They canât catch you. ]
Surely thereâs a better way to do it, right?
[ You could try to meditate to speed up the process, but I wouldnât expect you to be able to figure out how to do it before the end of the night. Not when youâre being hunted. ]
Watch me!
[ You canât even sense mana properly yet, let alone draw it in faster. Without a skill or trait to help you do it, it could take years. ]
Well then how do I get that skill or trait?
[ Traits are only possible to gain from Evolutions or Bloodline awakenings, and to learn a Skill, you need to either be taught by someone who has gotten the skill to Peak Proficiency, or you need to unlock it with your Evolution, Class, or Profession ]
So basically, youâre saying itâs impossible.
[ Yes. Unless by some miracle the System manages to finish- ]
[ Your Evolution has been stabilized! You may now view your Evolution in your Status Window and select a Class! ]
[ Oh, for f- ]