"Hmmm..." Bruce narrowed his eyes...

Bruce knew for certain: no crab could make these noises.

A different beast was approaching.

Slowly… very slowly… the bulging spot drifted toward the shore. The churning water grew darker, almost black, as if the shadow of something enormous was pushing through the depths. The surface cracked open in long lines as bubbles erupted along a widening radius.

The ocean split with a thunderous roar.

Water exploded outward.

A massive shape began to rise.

Long, thick appendages broke through the surface, writhing, twisting, lashing blindly at the air. Each tentacle was as thick as a tree trunk, covered in coarse, armored suckers that gleamed like polished stone. Seaweed clung to its limbs like torn banners. The stench of brine and decay wafted across the shore.

Slowly, the monstrous head followed.

Deep red eyes surfaced first, cold, ancient, unblinking. Then came the rest: a massive, shifting mound of flesh lined with layers of jagged beak-like plates grinding against one another, producing a horrible clicking sound that echoed across the coast.

"A… kraken?" Bruce muttered, frowning.

But even as he said it, he wasn't sure.

The creature didn't fully match the stories he knew, but it was undeniably powerful.

The sea trembled as the beast hauled more of its body into view, tentacles slapping against the sand with thundering force, sending sprays of water into the air.

Behind him, dozens of crippled crabs thrashed helplessly, completely ignored by the new arrival.

Bruce tightened his grip on his daggers.

"Great…" he muttered. "As if today wasn't already interesting enough."

The Kraken fixed its enormous red beady eyes on him, unblinking, wet, and unnaturally reflective.

It was disgusting to look at. Even the clicking sound it made, that sickening grind of shell and flesh, crawled under his skin.

Bruce knew instantly that this was the boss, the one responsible for commanding the now-disabled crabs.

Determined, he swiftly disabled the remaining bronze-shell crabs by severing their legs in rapid motions before darting toward the advancing Kraken.

But then,

SHRRIIIII!!!!

The Kraken let out a strange shrill cry.

A piercing, vibrating sound ripped through the air like a psychic spear. Bruce's heart jolted in his chest, his vision flashing white at the edges.

A system prompt erupted in front of him.

[ You've been affected by the Kraken's Soul Piercing Shriek ]

[ Slaughter the Kraken as fast as possible. You have 1 minute before your soul is destroyed… ]

Bruce's eyes widened. "Seriously…?" he muttered.

'Heal'

[You've healed and gained immunity to soul piercing shriek]

Gaining immunity to the attack, he didn't hesitate, since it had such troublesome skill there was no time to waste.

With insane speed, he appeared right beside the Kraken and slashed down hard, cutting off several tentacles in a blur of motion.

The Kraken reacted instantly. Despite its massive size, it moved with startling agility, other thick, slimy tentacles whipped toward him like living spears, each attack carrying monstrous force.

Bruce dodged, but then paused when he saw the severed tentacles.

They were regenerating.

Not slowly. Not painfully. Instantly. As if nothing had happened.

A fresh limb grew in seconds, glistening with seawater and slime.

"Tch… annoying," Bruce muttered.

He speculated quickly. From what he knew of sea-type mutants, their heart placement varied based on mutation. There was no guarantee the Kraken's heart was in its real-world counterpart's location.

And with this kind of regeneration, even a direct hit might be useless.

Attempting to inflict further damage, Bruce attacked relentlessly. He carved into the Kraken's body, lopped off tentacles, struck its head-like mound, sliced its armored suckers, but no matter the severity of the wounds, the creature healed every single injury in seconds.

Its flesh knitted together like molten wax cooling over a mold.

Frowning, Bruce realized the truth.

Disabling this thing was impossible. Its regeneration was too overpowered.

'It seems physical attacks won't work…'

His eyes narrowed.

Then his expression shifted, calm, decisive.

Bruce extended his palm toward the Kraken.

A wave of healing energy erupted out of his hand, pure, concentrated vitality force, but not used for healing this time. He directed the wave straight into the Kraken's body, targeting its vitality pathways directly.

'Vitality Collapse'

For a split second, the Kraken froze.

Then its entire body convulsed violently.

A sound like a balloon ripping apart echoed.

And then, the Kraken exploded.

Not just a burst. Not just a rupture. It detonated like a bomb.

Its entire body blew outward from the inside, unleashing a shockwave so violent it tore through the shoreline like a hurricane. Sand didn't just scatter, it erupted, whipped into the sky in a colossal plume that twisted into a swirling mushroom cloud. The force carved a temporary crater in the beach, sending cracks spiderwebbing through the damp sand as if the earth itself had been punched.

A thunderous blast ripped across the coast, louder than anything Bruce had heard in this trial, deep, booming, rolling for miles like cannon fire. The air compressed and then snapped outward, a deafening pressure wave that kicked Bruce's clothes, hair, and skin backward as though the explosion had personally struck him.

Flesh, water, and shattered tentacles that Bruce had once cut off blasted outward at devastating speed. Several of the Kraken's cut-off limbs were launched like missiles, slamming into the disabled crabs so hard their bronze shells dented inward from the impact.

The ocean reacted violently.

A dome of seawater shot upward the instant the Kraken's body burst, an enormous geyser rising tens of meters high, shimmering like liquid glass in the sunlight before raining down in ferocious sheets. The blast displaced so much water that the sea momentarily peeled back from the shore, exposing wet sand and trembling rocks before rushing forward again in a roaring surge.

Bruce stood calmly as the shockwave hit him head-on...

The ground trembled beneath him. The sky pulsed from the force. For a heartbeat, everything smelled of salt and burned flesh.

The mushroom cloud of sand and vapor expanded upward, drifting lazily before collapsing back into the beach with a soft, gritty rain.

Bruce lowered his hand and exhaled.

"That… was messy," he muttered, glancing at a Kraken tentacle draped comically over a rock like someone had tossed laundry there.

He casually wiped seawater, and maybe a little Kraken goo, from his cheek.

"For real… who designed this boss? It smells awful."

The last of the Kraken's remains splashed into the sea or settled limply across the wrecked shoreline. Smoke, actual smoke, rose from where its core had detonated, curling into the fading mushroom cloud. Even the ocean hesitated before reclaiming the drifting chunks, as if disgusted by what it had just witnessed.

Bruce stretched his arm lazily.

"Well… that's that."

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