It was getting harder and harder to see much of anything as the swirls of sand filtered into his beak and bounced off of his eyes. Thankfully, unlike his previous life, the sand might as well have been absent as it didn’t bother his eyes at all though even with the Shadows spread out all around, it was difficult to see his opponent.

  Not that he needed to, considering he was riding upon the giant crab’s back. There was no way it could get rid of him. No matter how hard it bucked and slammed into any reef or crevices it could find.

  The rampaging A-rank kicked up so much sand and debris that it was as if Henry was riding in the midst of a sandstorm. It must have been somewhat impressive to see from the outside, but right now, he was too busy overseeing his Octominds and theorizing about how he could make Lightning Discharge stronger.

  Giving the Skill more mana just makes the output larger. But not stronger. It also makes it more difficult to control and handle. That’s not exactly what I want. I want the Lightning Discharge to be more intense, not to just have more of it. Like the lobster’s…

  That was the main difference he could think of between his own Lightning Discharge and the lobster’s. Of course, the whole shtick of that A-rank was lightning so it made sense that it’d beat him in both quantity and quality when it came to lightning. But that didn’t mean Henry couldn’t try to match. And why couldn’t he? After all, he just needed to upgrade and raise the quality of his own Skill. Once it was powerful enough, he should be able to match the intensity of the lobster’s offense, though it would have a different angle to it.

  Let’s try something else, he mused as he sensed more and more trembling out of the crab. Hell, he was pretty sure the crustacean’s fury was slowly turning to panic and fear. Especially considering the copious amounts of venoms coursing through its system. It wasn’t as susceptible to them as a being of Henry’s rank, but the sheer quantity of the stuff the kraken was pumping within it, accelerating his production with the mana he stole from the crab, was making the difference.

  Henry did spare it the painful venoms though. None of the lionfish’s stuff or that ass of a seahorse he’d fought with Maurice before the duel with Tevarius. He only focused on the tranquilizing and paralytic ones. And his own, of course, which was robbing it of its strength more and more as time went on.

  Ugh. Didn’t want to think of that prick, Henry cursed under his breath. He was glad the man would be shipped on another boat toward his exile. Thanks to the crew being too busy with finding the orbs.

  Focusing back on the instance of Lightning Discharge growing in his soul, he channeled more mana into it but this time before he allowed it to lash out at the crab, he spread his senses through the skill nexus, as if wrapping both of his hands around the crackling orb that just wanted to explode out of him and zap everything that move and then, he flexed, pressurizing the instance of the Skill as he visualized it growing smaller, condensing into a more powerful version of itself..

  It wasn’t as responsive as he hoped. In fact, it was even painful.

  Henry groaned in the back of his throat as something in his soul strained, as if he’d just strongly exerted a muscle he hadn’t worked in a while. Come to think of it, Henry didn’t think he’d tried condensing Skill instances in the past. He’d modified them, infused them with essences, tried to fuse them with other Skills, but he’d never just… overloaded one then tried to condense it, and while it was responding to his will and it was growing a little smaller, it was taking all of his attention to apply the pressure with his focus slipping.

  He felt that if he lost control, he might actually do damage to himself. And he wasn’t willing to confirm that intuition. So slowly, with the help of two of his Octominds, he pushed through the discomfort and minute by minute, the bowling ball-sized orb of crackling lightning grew smaller until by the time Henry couldn’t condense it any further, it was the size of a golf ball. Which he then finally freed from his grasp and let it burst down toward the crab.

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  It was as if a bolt of lightning had just been shot out of Henry’s beak. There was a flash of intense light that turned the sandstorm white for a second. From one of his Shadows’ point of view, it had been like looking up at a dark cloud that had suddenly flashed with blinding white light. The attack bore into the crab’s innards and stunned the A-rank for a second. Even Henry’s arms were twitching as the powerful attack managed to affect him as well.

  I guess I know what kind of technique I’ll be exploring next, he thought as painfully tensed his arms. Below him, the A-rank was swaying as the damage was proving to be too much. It wasn’t just the lightning, but everything Henry had been pouring into its shell for the last twenty minutes was taking its toll, and while Henry wasn’t A-rank yet… he wasn’t that far either.

  It was only a matter of time until the crab fell, and that time turned to be another ten minutes, at which point the notification finally rang in Henry’s mind.

  1x [Moss-Shell Ravager (A) - Level 4] core was collected.

  Oh. Poor dude. He’d just made A-rank, Henry thought as he detached himself from the crab’s back, and as the sand and debris finally began to set, he could see the scorch marks and burnt blood seeping out of two foot-wide hole he’d used to inject and burn the monster.

  Swimming forward, he came to a stop in front of the monster’s face and already, a few scavengers had begun hovering around the plane-sized carcass.

  I just killed my first A-rank.

  Henry’s mind flashed to the first A-rank he’d seen. That giant turtle and how utterly terrifying the experience had been. Back then, the weight of A-rank was nearly physical. Standing up to them was not even a consideration. And now, he just downed the first one. It was on the weaker side, sure, but this was just the first of them.

  Henry chuckled inwardly and eyed the massive creature as a nosy flat shark poked its head between its mandibles. He was considering detaching an arm or two to eat later, but then he paused.

  Wait… I could just stuff all of this in my Maw. I bet the shell would be worth something, he mused. Then letting out a slow breath, he pulled on his Octominds and focused.

  Summoning an instance of Maw right in front of the giant crab, Henry grit his beak as the strain from the earlier exercise made itself known, but within a few seconds, he managed to grab on to the giant crab and stuffed it in his storage without needing to enlarge himself to wrap his arms around it and with that done, he began shapeshifting once more to regain his human appearance.

  I’ll have to ask Velistraine about this condensing thing. I bet it has a name, he thought as he shrank his vital organs before he encased it all in a thick layer of bones before he started on the outside body and when he was done a few minutes later, he finally swapped with his clone and landed with a splash atop the deck.

  Henry stretched his arms above his head, eying the notification with a grin. He was about to consume it when a cough caught his attention.

  Turning around, Henry found both Maurice and Velistraine glaring at him, arms crossed.

  Henry blinked. “Hey… guys? What’s up?”

  Velistraine and Maurice shared a look, gave him a withering look, then turned with a huff and left in lockstep.

  Right… maybe I should have invited Maurice, Henry considered as he shook his head and chuckled. And Velistraine. If she’d agree to not intervene.

  “Oh well, I’ll do that the next time,” he mumbled as he consumed the core.

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