Henry kept his mind shielded as he began planning around the second B-rank while his clone kept engaging with the human. Maybe whatever was watching them wasn’t another human, but he really doubted that.

  More likely, the two B-ranks were a team, and while one of them agreed to be diplomatic and chat, the second was keeping an eye on them. Before turning his attention back up to the clone above, Henry gave Maurice another request. “[Try to feel if more of them show up. Let me know as soon as anything changes.]”

  Back above, Henry finally responded to the man’s surprise about him having detected the A-rank. “They are such a powerful existence that they’re hard to miss.” He hoped his words would be taken as praise, considering the note of devotion he thought he heard in the man’s voice. To keep things going while he planned his exit, he asked, “How did you find yourself under such protection?”

  Henry would be sweating buckets if he’d been back in his human body. But his many minds allowed him to stay balanced atop the tightrope he was trying to walk.

  The man glanced up at the trees and Henry followed his gaze. The kraken quickly realized that he couldn’t even see the blue sky from this angle. He believed he could make out the thick canopy far, far above, but it could be beyond more branches and leaves. The more he took in the details, the more dizzying the scale became, and at some point Henry realized that there was more than one settlement in this mysterious forest. They were all connected, of course, but that was the only way he could explain the small differences in styles and the distance between constructions.

  They’ve had a long time to expand through the trees. They’ve been here for a while.

  “Our guardian created this home for us centuries ago. A place where we can be safe and grow strong, away from our enemies; and thanks to his presence, even the sea kings don’t dare approach our home. He is beyond their challenges. Which leaves the sea lords and everything lesser, but we can deal with those by ourselves.”

  “Sea kings? Lords?”

  The man chuckled. “What you call A-ranks and B-ranks.” The man tilted his head. “How did you come to be, stranger? This is most troubling. I feel as if I’m talking to a fellow human. The awakened often have their own way of speaking and doing things, but you… are different.”

  Henry eyed the man for a moment. He seemed friendly. But that meant nothing.

  Deep below, his retreat route was clear. The B-rank hidden behind them was still watching, and now that he knew where to look, he could sense it.

  B-ranks are sea-lords, huh? That makes this guy one. And that makes the Draconic Turtle a sea-king.

  Henry pictured that shelled titan and its earth-shattering roar. The emerald-green ridges and its claws. The title certainly did fit, in the turtle’s case.

  Henry looked up at the man and answered his question. “I don’t know what to tell you. One moment I wasn’t… and then I was.”

  It wasn’t really a lie. But Henry wasn’t telling this man about his reincarnation. That knowledge was probably not a big deal when talking with sea dwelling dolphins, but with humans who could write down things and never forget them, he didn’t want to put a target on his back.

  “An apt way of describing consciousness,” said the man with a nod. Then, almost imperceptibly, the man’s features turned neutral. “What was your intent for entering our territory?”

  “Nothing but curiosity,” said Henry. “I wanted to see the sea king, then leave. I recently encountered one, and just its roar was enough to injure us. I felt I had to know more about them.”

  The man stared at him for a few moments, then nodded. “Alright. In this case, you are welcome to rest with us. Some of our priests and teachers would love to meet a being such as you.”

  Ah shit.

  It wasn’t said in the earlier friendlier tone, but Henry kept a relaxed tone and raised an arm. “Is this offer optional?”

  Stolen story; please report.

  The man gave him a tight smile, and adrenaline began coursing through the kraken’s body. “You found our home. We have to be sure of your integrity before we can risk you revealing it to outsiders.”

  Welp. That’s my cue.

  “Understandable,” said Henry through the clone. Far below, he sent a message to his companions. “[We’re running. Get in.]”

  “[I haven’t sensed anything else but that the one nearby. Don’t take too long!]” said Maurice right before he disappeared.

  Stormsong shot him a word right before he stored her as well. “[Bring me out if you need help. Good luck.]”

  From nearby, Henry saw the figure detach from a tree trunk she’d been melded to; far above, the man frowned for the first time.

  But there was no more time to exchange pleasantries. Still, Henry didn’t want to end things on too sour of a note. He really wanted to explore this settlement someday. Just not when he could be held against his will.

  “I will be discrete with this knowledge. But it’s time to say goodbye,” said Henry. Before he could hear what the man said in response, he dispelled the blood clone, and triggered Blink and Invisibility.

  Henry was swallowed in a tunnel of purple and blue for less than a second before he popped back out into the ocean atop one of his blood clones.

  Ugh. That was so expensive. And it’s barely a hundred feet.

  Henry activated Riptide Rush and zipped down his prepared route, then cursed when he saw the spear-wielding woman still after him.

  Shit. Why can everyone see through invisibility?!

  Sharp green eyes were trained on him while her brown hair trailed behind her. It was braided, and she held a spear almost identical to the one the man had. She had a nimbus of white and green around her feet, propelling her with alarming speed through the waters.

  [Human (B) - Lvl ?]

  Two question marks is below level fifty. One is under 25. But that’s still too much.

  Even if he could, Henry didn’t want to kill the humans. Not unless they started using lethal methods. So far, it seemed they were more intent on capturing him than killing him.

  Henry brought up one of his nearby blood clones to intercept. He was better off doing something with it, otherwise he’d end up losing them anyway in his mad rush toward the seabed. The clone appeared in his vision, and Henry swam past right as it created a cloud of disorienting ink. When the human got close to the clone, he detonated it.

  He had no hope it would be enough to stop the woman, but anything would help.

  The clone detonated in a flash of black and red, spreading the magical ink into a larger cloud while Henry risked a sharper angle away from the path he was following. He had an ink clone near it, but it wasn’t as vetted.

  The kraken dodged a C-rank crab as his two largest arms morphed. Hinge-joints formed along its length, and two large still-white teeth emerged out of Henry’s maw and took their places at the tips of arms.

  He held off on channeling mana into them and adapted his route, taking sharp turns around the thick tree trunks. Half a second later, the woman punched through the cloud of ink, an annoyed frown on her face. She held her spear ahead of her, and the bone-head shone green before the spear shot forward like a harpoon. In no time, the weapon closed in on him.

  Shit!

  Henry swerved around another trunk, but the harpoon swerved right after him. It cut through the water effortlessly as he watched it through a nearby clone, and it would pierce his skin within a couple of seconds if he did nothing about it.

  Henry pushed against it with Telekinesis, but it tore through the purple nimbus easily, as if the glowing head of the spear could tear through magic just as well as flesh. Right as it got within range, Henry whipped back with a mana-infused leviathan tooth and for good measure, he used Cavitational Impact to disturb the trajectory in case he missed. “Help me hit it,” he told his free Octominds. His many joints twitched and adjusted mid-swing, and the black leviathan tooth cracked into the green spear-head with a burst of mana that made Henry’s insides shudder.

  He lost the mana charge he had in the arm, but so did the woman’s spear, and finally the root and algae carpeted seabed came into view.

  Henry wasn’t running out of mana, as his smaller form reduced his use of the resource significantly, but he still dug into his Hoard Vitals’ reserves to bring him back up above sixty-percent mark. The human was back after him, spear in hand. The weapon began glowing once more when his scouting Octomind raised the alarm.

  The man he’d been speaking to had just destroyed an ink clone around fifty feet down with a casual spear thrust.

  Henry was being pincered.

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