More and more clicks were filling the settlement, with larger dolphins zipping down the main thoroughfare while Stormsong nervously glanced toward what seemed to be the source of the ever-growing commotion before she turned to face Henry again and repeated her question. “[Do you want to keep hunting or not?]”

  After loitering outside their guest—well, hole in the wall, the dolphin had asked them to continue the hunt, and Henry quickly noticed that she was by herself, and considering her agitation and whatever was going on in the settlement, it seemed that she might have done something to attract everyone’s attention.

  Which happened to work perfectly well for what Henry had in mind.

  Henry quickly sent a message to Maurice as he reached over to pick him up. “[We’re leaving. Keep an eye out behind us. I don’t know if she’s planning something bad, but we could use the distraction to make ourselves scarce.]”

  Maurice clacked his pincers. “[Yes! Adventure!]”

  With that, Henry sent their response to the dolphin, who clicked in annoyance. “[Took you long enough. Follow me. Quickly.]”

  This time, Henry actually put some effort into his swimming speed. With a very light use of Riptide Rush coupled with propelling himself with his siphon along with his arm, he kept pace easily enough until they were at the exit, where a single dolphin was on watch.

  Now what, Henry wondered, but before he could think about how they were going to get past the sentry, the dolphin nudged Stormsong as she came by.

  “Hurry,” the guard dolphin said. “And good luck!”

  With a final nudge and mournful click, Stormsong slipped past and Henry followed while more clicks filled the cave behind them.

  “[It doesn’t look like she’s going out to hunt,]” said Maurice after a few mores seconds.

  “[Nope. She doesn’t. But that works for us.]”

  As they swam after the dolphin through the twisting tunnels, Henry kept his attention on their surroundings, frequently glancing behind, but at the same time, a thread of his thoughts, helped with his Octominds, was listing everything he needed to look into. He had notifications waiting for his attention, and he had some levels to work on. He also should actually eat soon. He had a few cuts of everything they’d hunted, and he was looking forward to whatever he could pick up from them. His Skill slots might be limited, but he had plenty of slots open in his Traits.

  As they neared the exit of the tunnel, Henry whispered to Maurice. “[Keep an eye out. Just in case.]”

  He didn’t expect the dolphin ahead to be leading them to an ambush–considering it looks like she was running away from her pod–but it wouldn’t hurt to be safe. As Henry followed, he pulled out one of the large fangs and began encasing it in bone. Minutes later, the trio surged out of the cave, but the dolphin didn’t stop just yet.

  Henry eyed the dolphin as he worked on his weaponized limb, watching her as she bobbed and weaved through the reef formations while occasionally swimming to the side to glance behind.

  Once Henry’s fanged arm was ready, he asked, “[Soo. Is there a spot in particular you’re taking us to? You know. For hunting?]”

  The golden barrier of the current stretched infinitely to his right, and for a moment Henry thought he could see some of its curvature, though he was probably imagining it. Still, he kept an eye on his surroundings. His blood clone was already out, trailing and watching for pursuers–dolphins or other–while Maurice and several Octominds were on high alert for movement.

  She glanced back, and Henry did absolutely not miss the furtive look she threw behind them “[We’re… uh… close,]” she said after a moment. Then she huffed, bubbles escaping from her head. “[Keep up!]”

  And with that, she beat her fluke and surged forward, and Henry followed.

  “[Does she think we’re dumb?]” asked Maurice after a few more seconds. “[It feels annoying. Is it normal that it feels annoying?]”

  “[Don’t worry about it. And yes, it’s a little annoying to be so obviously lied to but it’s always best to be underestimated. We’ll hang along for a bit and if things get weird, we’ll slip away. In any case, we’re kind of free already. She couldn’t hold us if we wanted to run and at this point, I’m kinda curious about what she’s up to.]”

  “[… Yeah me too. Where is she going? And why?]”

  “[No clue. But she’s clearly running away. I don’t know why, but that guard seems to have known about it. I guess we might eventually figure it out.]”

  The two followed the dolphin, keeping pace with a constant use of Riptide Rush while Stormsong kept glancing back behind them. She wasn’t using the sonar ability Moon had been using non-stop, likely so she didn’t gave her position away and after about ten minutes of constant swimming, Henry asked.

  “[So. You’re running away from home, right?]”

  The dolphin’s movement stuttered, but she refused to turn. “[N-no. We’re just hunting. That’s it.]”

  Henry stared at the dolphin. That might be the absolute worst and most unconvincing lie Henry had ever heard. Even Maurice could do better. Glancing down at the crab, Henry saw crab staring at him, just as disbelieving.

  A moment later, the dolphin slowed down, and after furtively glancing around, she spoke up, and it seemed she could send her words to both of them at once. Which was neat. Henry wondered if that’d be the next upgrade of Mind wever’s Tongue.

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  “[I’ll protect you. If you two come with me. I’ll help you level,]” Stormsong said, looking past Henry. “[We… can work together. You’re better off leaving anyway. You weren’t that safe with the pod.]”

  Well. Henry had assumed as much. Though he wouldn’t mind some clarifications.

  “[You mean us protecting you?]” challenged the crab, waving his claws about.

  The dolphin stared down at the crab, but before she could take on the crab’s taunt, Henry asked. “[What do you mean, we weren’t safe? And won’t your pod come after us–and you–if you leave with us?]”

  Stormsong took her glare off of the snapping pincer of the multicoloured crab and a stream of bubbles shot out of her blowhole. “[ It means you’re only safe as long as you help and you agree with everything Sundots says. Otherwise you’re kicked out of the pod. In your case, I don’t know if they’ll bother. As for your rude, tiny, friend here, I heard more than one warrior staking their claim on his shell]” she said, voice dripping with contempt and barely suppressed rage. Then, as if she recalled her current position, she quickly added a tinge of urgency in her voice. “[Do you get it? So let’s go! They’ll catch up. They probably already know I left. They could be here any minute.]”

  Henry listened and shared a look with Maurice as something twisted in his stomach. He would have loved to feel vindicated about his suspicions, but he didn’t like how close to danger they’d had gotten. Then again, he had most likely made the right call playing along before he snuck out. Trying to escape a full pack might have been hard, on the first encounter, but he felt confident he would have been able to slip away from Moon on one of their outings.

  Still, it was good that they’d got their openings so fast. But he wasn’t letting himself be surprised anymore.

  “[We’ll go with you. But you need to drop the mind shield. We need to sense what you’re thinking to make sure you’re not messing with us,]” Henry told her before he quickly relayed what he’d said to Maurice.

  Stormsong stared at him, glanced furtively past him then bobbed her head. “[Yeah, okay fine. Now let’s go.]”

  Stormsong shot away and Henry followed as he spoke with Maurice. “[She knows the area. We’ll follow her, but she should be dropping her mind shield any moment. Keep an eye on her. If she thinks of turning on us or if anything weird comes up, let me know.]”

  Henry’s Telepathic Sense had come a long way since its early days, but it still was not as sensitive and discerning as Maurice’s.

  “[Okay but… is she going to travel with us? She’s not nice! She’s rude! But good thing we left, right? Unless she’s lying to us. Do you think she’s lying? Is this a scam? Do you think the others will chase after us? I think we can win. But not against Sundots. His name sounds pretty, though.]”

  Henry sighed. From time to time, Maurice would slip back into that rapid-fire mode where he’d just bombard Henry with questions without giving him a chance to answer any. Fortunately for both of them, Henry had now more than one mind to keep track of his scatter-brained friend.

  “[She seems to be running for her own reasons, and if she’s cool, it’s fine if she hangs around for a bit. Once we’re a bit further from the pod we’ll talk to her about politeness. We’ll set some ground rules. Maybe she is lying, but I’m not getting that impression. It just seems like she wants to leave. If she’s not lying, then she did help us escape, even if it was by chance, and we can travel together for a bit. If she is lying, and you might be able to sense that form her… Well, we were going to leave anyway, so no harm there. If we get chased, we can probably disappear easily enough. I think. And yes, Sundots’ name is pretty. He does seem to be an asshole.]”

  “[What’s that last part?]”

  Henry was quiet for a moment. “[We’ll talk about that some other time. We need to get to safety for now.]”

  With Riptide Rush speeding him up, Henry did his utmost to keep with up with the nimble dolphin but after a few seconds, he noticed the Maurice was oddly quiet. Glancing down, he found the crab looking up at him, frozen for a moment before he threw both claws up. “[You can keep up with me! I don’t have to slow myself down anymore!]”

  The large yellow eyes blinked before they focused back on the crab. This little gremlin. “[What do you mean slow? Me having to use Octominds to keep up with your little distracted ass doesn’t mean I’m slow.]”

  Maurice clacked a pincer. “[I’m not distracted! I can just think about a lot of things at once!]”

  Before Henry could respond, two of his Octominds blared a warning, which felt… very odd. It wasn’t pain or a sound, but like some sort of mental poke that broke through whatever had been occupying his thoughts, and Henry turned his attention toward the blood clone the two were piloting. One of the benefits of his new Octomind upgrade was that he didn’t need that many Octominds to pilot the clones. In fact, two of them were almost overkill, and the image they were sharing with him was crystal clear.

  Around a hundred yards behind Henry, a shark was smoothly and seamlessly swimming along the seabed. It was somewhat flat, with a pattern that made it hard to see if it wasn’t for its constant movement and shifting. Its flesh kept changing color, camouflaging the predator as it tracked its prey.

  Henry used Identify through his blood clone.

  [Carpet Shark (C) - Lvl ??]

  “[Carpet shark is following us,]” said Henry to both Maurice and Stormsong, who swam back and glanced behind them before moving forward again.

  “[It’s not worth it, ignore it.]”

  Henry looked at the shark through his clone and hesitated. This shark could have something compatible with his abilities. He should be able to take it down fast enough… but then again, they were supposed to be putting some distance between them and the dolphins.

  “[Are they common around here?]”

  Stormsong slowed and tilted her head at him for a moment. “[Why?]”

  No reason to lie here. “[It might have cool abilities I can copy.]”

  The dolphin stared at him for a few seconds, mouth open while bubbles slowly flowed up from her head before she closed her rostrum and shook herself up. “[Yeah, they’re common. Now hurry. We’re still too close.]”

  Henry exhaled and picked up the pace but, as the clone began overtaking the shark, an idea popped in his head.

  His clones could use Skills.

  Henry mentally smiled as he began shifting his Octominds around.

  A whole new world of possibilities.

  A quick telepathic check told him the shark was as dumb as a rock. So, taking control of the clone by shifting more Octominds toward the process, Henry’s clone dove toward the shark, limbs crackling with electricity.

  He had to be fast. The shark needed to be killed before the clone could slip out of his control range.

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