The bolt shot out of the crossbow and made it nearly halfway to him by the time Henry realized what was happening. The start of the fight hadn’t been called. Not exactly. Attal raised his weapon and aimed, and so Henry readied himself.

  He just hadn’t expected the damn thing to tear through the air faster than a bullet.

  Henry barely had enough time to curse and throw himself to the side when the bolt detonated where he’d just been. A storm of purple electric bolts and wild magic filled his vision, burning his skin and temporarily blinding him for a moment before he managed to escape the worst of it.

  And that had been with him making full use of his processing abilities. Which meant if he wanted to dodge using his clone-swapping ability, he needed to have those channeled and ready to trigger. Then again, it wasn’t as if Attal was going to give a chance to recover.

  Somehow, even with the air still crackling above, Henry cursed again and urged his mana to move faster. Through the eyes of a high-located clone, he saw Attal tracking him casually with the crossbow, right as a new and brighter bolt appeared out of thin air.

  The bolt sprang out with a loud whistle, and Henry activated his teleport, switching places between himself and an underwater clone, leaving the poor clone that took his place to disintegrate in the blistering, bright fireball that exploded right above the surface.

  It hadn’t even been two seconds since the first bolt was shot but already, a third was being prepped and Henry—who had been considering pulling his materialized Octominds down with him—cursed once more and swapped with another clone far above. This time, though, he did more than just dodge. Four of his Octominds he sent at Attal, empowering them with a variety of conceptual essence to buy himself some breathing room while he pulled deep from Dancing Shadows’ essence to bolster his invisibility as the world blurred around him.

  Henry appeared fifty yards above Attal while four autonomous Octominds rushed the man. Below, a crystalline white bolt hit the water surface and in an instant, a two-hundred-yard circle was flash-frozen.

  Henry gulped. That would have entrapped him in an iceberg. He didn’t think it would have killed him, but it most certainly would have been a new experience.

  Below him, Attal was scanning the surroundings while fending off the onslaught of the Octominds by out-spacing them and deflecting what he couldn’t dodge with quickly summoned barriers. But while the physical attacks were reaching the man, the clone’s Toxic Rays were fizzling out before making an impact. As soon as the blast would get within ten yards or so, they’d lose consistency and dissolve into motes that trailed harmlessly in the A-rank’s wake.

  So Henry opted to stop wasting mana and get in there himself.

  Of course, he could have teleported to the other side of the island. He could swim deep and waste time. But he didn’t want to win like that. While it still would be a victory, it’d be a technicality. It wouldn’t feel as if he accomplished much. And he wasn’t going to get any better by plucking the low hanging fruits. Velistraine might still be beyond him, but he wasn’t going to evolve and grow stronger by taking the easy way out.

  Still, lasting three whole minutes might be tougher than he had expected. Which was why he didn’t intend on spending it all on dodging.

  While his four manifested Octominds continued their attacks, Henry—carefully—began shrinking himself. At the same time, he pooled all four remaining Octominds into single, potent one. As expected though, one of these preparations seemed to have caused a leak of some sort, so when Attal’s hand blurred and as his crossbow pointed up, Henry just teleported away and fed the explosion another of his clones.

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  But the Octominds gestalt was ready.

  Out of thin air, a large, humanoid shape blurred into existence, one that suspiciously looked like Henry’s assumed form and the only difference the two shared was that the gestalt wasn’t made out of blood and flesh. But thanks to the electric aura surrounding its form as it [Lightning Dashed] at Attal, that part was hard to tell.

  Henry would have rubbed his hands together and cackled as Attal cursed and summoned a barrier with a raised palm, grimacing as the gestalt slammed into the barrier with a loud crack that left spiderweb-like cracks on the arcane shield. Henry followed it up with another onslaught of his Octominds while the gestalt blinked to the side and attacked once more, seamlessly dodging a mundane-bolt while the remaining clones shot a few more Toxic Rays. Just to keep the distractions going while Henry—now the size of a shield—crept closer and when he was close enough, he moved on to step 2.

  The gestalt [Blinked] a short distance away and all four Octominds simultaneously activated a [Dispelling Pulse]. Attal’s small arcane shields flickered, but all of his attention was on the gestalt who’s whole body was glowing with an ominous red. A fraction of a second later, it shot forward, blasting toward the larger shield that Attal summoned. The A-rank could have easily brushed off the attack, but Henry had no intention of making it easy.

  The remaining Octominds lashed out all at once. One with Telekinesis to hinder the man, one reaching forward to electrocute him, one swung at his head, and one, using an auditory illusion, shrieked loudly enough to be heard all throughout the island.

  Of course the sound didn’t travel that far, but the violent flinch told Henry he’d been successful enough.

  Now gotta close the deal, he grinned inwardly as accelerated toward the A-rank, his magic coalescing right as the gestalt self-detonated in a desorienting blue fireball. From his Octominds, he didn’t sense any heat to the explosion, but it did enough arcane damage to completely obliterate two out of the four manifested Octominds, leaving him with only the Thaumaturgy and Predation-infused ones though considering the shape in which the two were in, Henry opted to dismiss them before they were forced into torpor as well.

  In any case, it was do or die. Because through the dissolving mist of whatever was left from his manifested Octominds and as Henry pushed his perception and cognition to their limit, he watched as Attal whirled as a baton appeared in his hand. But he wouldn’t be ready in time.

  Henry was already reaching out for him with a hug as he let his invisibility drop off, both with his small human hands and with the kraken arms while deep in his chest, and all across his skin, arcs of electricity danced.

  “Hello,” Henry grinned at the wide-eyed Attal. He had a powerful instance of Lightning Discharge prepped. One that was empowered with both Predation and Thaumaturgy which, to be fair, was most likely how the A-rank had detected him. Attal began pulling away, but it was too late. Already, one of Henry’s larger arms was around the man, and his human hand just caught his wrist.

  Now it was time to see whether his attack would hit hard enough to be considered a “good hit.”

  Henry’s eye flashed white as a bubble of electricity detonated out of him, engulfing Attal’s hand while dozens of blinding white arcs of lightning scoured their way up and down the man’s hand. Attal convulsed, the electricity wrenching a series of painful spasms for nearly five seconds until finally, Henry let him go and blinked away.

  Assessing his damage, Henry nodded, a little smile on his lips. That did some damage, alright.

  Attal’s shoulders, still twitching from the discharge he’d just eaten, were smoking. His eyes were wild and bloodshot, and his breath was more than a little labored, but just like Henry, he was smiling. Or at least, it looked like his pained rictus bordered on a smile. Slowly, he lowered his hand, and a second later, the crossbow disappeared, likely tucked away somewhere. In its stead, a little vial of glowing green liquid appeared, which he downed in one gulp before letting out a sigh-like groan.

  “I guess that’s your win, then,” Attal said, shaking his head as the vial disappeared and as he glanced down at the iceberg bobbing up and down the wave before he looked back up. “You’re a tricky bugger, aren’t you.”

  Henry grinned. “Thanks.”

  Letting out another sigh, Attal rolled his head left and right, then nodded. “Alright. Let’s head back and go see Velistraine. Time to see what brings you both here.”

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