The reprieve was brief. The smaller, eel-like creatures—dozens of them now—were swarming, nipping at Adam's scales, trying to get into Ignis's eyes, tangling in Alice's shadows. They were a constant, irritating distraction, stopping the group from focusing their full power on the wounded but still immensely dangerous Kraken, which had now retreated deeper into the inky water, regenerating.

"We need a new plan, now!" Adam said, shaking off a cluster of eels. "It's using the environment and these minions perfectly. We can't fight it and them at the same time in its own domain."

«Agreed,» Lilith said, swiftly binding her wounds with a strand of her own silk. «My earlier idea stands, but it requires precision. I can attempt to bind it with my Umbral Silk. If I can anchor multiple strands to its main body, I can use the leverage of the rock formations to pull it at least partially out of the water. But to do that, the silk must latch on securely.»

Adam stared at the still-churning ink cloud. "Lilith, that thing is the size of a house. Your silk is strong, but binding it? That's like trying to tie down a mountain with thread."

«Not with single threads,» she countered, her many eyes gleaming. «With a net. A web. Woven in moments and anchored to the bedrock. But I cannot do it while fending off these... gnats.» She disdainfully flicked a pursuing eel away with a psychic pulse.

«It's worth a shot!» Ignis said, incinerating a knot of eels with a short burst of flame. «I'll roast anything that comes near you! Alice can keep 'em off you too!»

Alice gave a slow, regal nod. «We will create your window. But you must be swift. And, Adam...» She looked at him, her purple eyes serious. «The moment it is restrained, you must hit it with everything you have left.»

Adam took a deep, settling breath. His mana was recovering, thanks to Mana Core and Lunar Veil, but it wasn't full. He had one, maybe two major shots left.

"Take out the potion, Alice."

Alice retrieved a Mana Potion from her Void Locker, the vial appearing in the air beside his head. He snatched it with his teeth, crunched down, and felt the cool, energizing flood of magic rush through his depleted circuits. It wasn't a full recharge, but it was enough to take the edge off the deep fatigue.

«Alright,» he growled, the power steadying his voice. «We do it your way, Lilith. Let's trap this overgrown calamari.»

The plan swung into action. Adam became a whirlwind of violent distraction. He charged through the school of eels, ignoring their nips, and barreled straight into the ink cloud, unleashing a guttural roar and a sweeping Fire Breath across the water's surface. The flames boiled the ink away in patches and drew a chorus of furious clicks from the depths.

The Abyssal Kraken rose to the challenge, its multitude of eyes fixing on the serpent daring to invade its murky domain. Tentacles, both large and small, shot toward Adam, a forest of grasping, barbed limbs.

This was the moment. High above, anchored to sturdy stalactites, Lilith began her work. Her spinnerets became a blur. Instead of single strands, she wove a net—a masterwork of Umbral Silk, each intersection strengthened with psychic intent. The net was large, diaphanous, and as strong as forged shadow. With a precise psychic push, she sent it sailing down, aiming to drape over the Kraken's bulbous mantle as it was focused on Adam.

«It's working!» Ignis cheered, scorching eels that tried to climb the walls toward Lilith.

The net settled. Lilith's many eyes flared with concentration. «Now! Anchor points, secure! Adam, disengage!»

Adam immediately broke away, swimming backwards. Lilith pulled with all her might, the silken cables tightening. For a glorious second, it seemed to work—the Kraken's upward lunge was arrested, the net biting into its flesh.

Then, the unthinkable happened. The Kraken's body, a mass of gelatinous muscle and cartilage, simply... deflated. It contracted, its volume reducing drastically, its form becoming streamlined and slimy. The expertly woven net, designed to cinch around a solid form, suddenly had far too much slack. With a contemptuous, fluid shrug, the Abyssal Kraken slithered right through the gaps in the web and submerged once more, leaving Lilith holding a useless net of shadows.

A profound silence fell, broken only by the Kraken's mocking, watery gurgle.

«...It can alter its body mass and density,» Lilith stated, her psychic voice flat with a mixture of fury and humiliation. «A simple, biological counter I failed to anticipate. My apologies.»

Adam felt a spike of pure frustration. They were so close! But it wasn't a complete failure. The problem was the net needed to be unavoidable and inescapable. It needed an internal framework.

His eyes landed on the treasure horde Alice had secured earlier. An idea, beautiful in its brutal simplicity, formed.

"Forget it. New plan. My turn," Adam said, his voice cutting through the disappointment. "Lilith, I need your strongest silk. Not a net. Long, unbreakable lines. Alice, give me the swords. The big ones."

«The swords? What are you planning to do, give it a fencing lesson?» Alice asked, bewildered but already summoning the greatsword and the twin frost daggers from her locker.

«Adam, even if you stab it, it will simply shrink and let the blades pass through its flesh,» Lilith cautioned, even as she began producing thick, cord-like strands of Umbral Silk.

"Not if the blades aren't just in it," Adam said, a dangerous grin spreading across his serpentine features. "Just watch. And keep those eels off me."

What happened next was so unorthodox it left his companions momentarily stunned. Adam took the greatsword in his jaws, gripping the crossguard. He then used the dexterous tip of his tail to wrap around the hilts of the two frost daggers. To each weapon, Lilith attached one of her super-strong silk lines, the other ends anchored to the most massive rock pillars she could find on the shore.

«What... what is he doing?» Ignis whispered, utterly confused.

«I believe,» Lilith murmured, a spark of understanding in her eyes, «our serpent is not trying to kill it with the blades. He is using them as... harpoons. And the lines as... a leash.»

«Exactly,» Adam grunted around the sword in his mouth, his mental voice clear. «Cover me!»

He dove. The Kraken, seeing the serpent return with what looked like a ridiculous mouthful of metal, reacted with predictable aggression. It fired a devastating Hydraulic Pulse, a concentrated jet of water that could crush stone. Adam twisted in the water, the Abyssal Glide making him unnaturally agile, and the pulse grazed his side, tearing scales but missing vitals. Tentacles lashed out like whips. He weaved between them, his movements a desperate, high-stakes dance.

«ALICE! IGNIS! NOW!» he roared mentally.

«Void Bind!» Shadowy chains erupted, tangling three of the largest tentacles for a crucial two seconds.

«Solar Wind!» Ignis screamed, bathing the Kraken's main cluster of eyes in searing heat, causing it to recoil and shield its face.

That was the opening. Adam shot forward like a torpedo. He aimed for an anchor.

THUNK! The greatsword, driven by all the strength in his neck, plunged deep into the Kraken's rubbery mantle, just off-center from its beak.

SHINK! SHINK!The two frost daggers in his tail stabbed deep into the thick base of two major tentacles.

The Kraken shrieked, a sound of outrage and pain. Immediately, it tried its trick again, its body beginning to shudder and condense to slip free.

But it couldn't. The blades weren't just stuck in it, they were hooked inside it, their edges caught in dense muscle and cartilage. And as the Kraken tried to shrink, the lines of Umbral Silk attached to the weapons went taut. The more it shrank, the more the embedded blades were pulled in different, opposing directions, tearing at its flesh from the inside. It was caught in a cruel, self-inflicted paradox. It could not escape without ripping itself apart.

"This," Adam hissed, releasing the sword hilt and darting back to the surface, "is called the fine art of fishing."

He broke through the water, took a mighty breath, and beat his majestic, feathered wings with all his might. He flew upward, not away, but straight up, pulling on the silk line he had kept wrapped around his own tail, the main line attached to the greatsword.

On the shore, Lilith, seeing his move, anchored her own lines with all her strength, adding her pull to his.

The Abyssal Kraken, the Many-Armed Darkness, the master of the deep lake, gave one final, titanic struggle. But it was no use. The unbreakable lines, the cleverly anchored blades, and legendary strength of an Eclipse Dragon Serpent in flight proved irresistible.

With a sound like a mountain of wet leather being torn from the bedrock, the monstrous cephalopod was ripped from its aquatic domain. It erupted from the violet water in a geyser of spray and ichor, a tangled, shrieking mass of tentacles and beaks, hoisted into the air and dragged unceremoniously onto the rocky shore.

Adam landed with a ground-shaking thud beside his prize, panting, triumphant. He looked at the flopping, helpless Dungeon Lord, then at his stunned companions.

"Now," he rumbled, mana gathering in his maw for the final, point-blank Stormrend. "Let's see how it likes fighting on our turf."

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