Warlock Apprentice

Angor successfully shook off his pursuers, as well as the tentacles that tried to block him, and reached the octopus’ neck.

Even the monster’s neck was as wide as a soccer field. Angor spent some time without finding anything, so he could only keep cruising.

“Front, Angor! Head to its front!” Keely’s voice suddenly came.

Angor followed the clue and quickly saw something he needed—just below the central point of the monster’s two eyes, there was a transparent, bubble-like organ affixed to its face.

A Duon was enclosed inside the organ, eyes closed. Just like how Keely described, it had a fishtail but everything else looked like a human.

Angor didn’t know whether the Duon was dead, but he was glad he found it nevertheless.

He tried many times and failed to approach it as the octopus did its best to protect its weakness by sending more tentacles and sea monsters into his way.

This suggested that the Duon presence was something really important to the octopus, and it would do everything to prevent Angor from reaching that spot.

Angor believed that before his plan was fully exposed, he had to try to get his target as fast as possible. Otherwise, the octopus would only make his job impossible.

He began to climb higher while avoiding the attacks. Before getting to his true objective, he planned to make the octopus believe that his attention was elsewhere.

He sent a Voice Transmission to Keely, “Can you do something to slow it down? Twenty seconds!”

Keely remembered Angor saying something similar when dealing with the Lord of Tentacles. Is he going to use an illusion again?

But it wasn’t as easy this time. Unlike the Lord of Tentacles, this octopus had its full attention on them, which meant it would be difficult for Angor to cast his illusion as well as to keep it busy.

Keely was already doing as much as she could in distracting the octopus AND the other reptiles. It was almost impossible to give Angor 20 seconds free of any assault.

She hesitated for a moment. She then looked at their target, which was protected by the bubble-like object, and showed a determined look.

“I can use Blaze of Purgatory and drag that thing into a Duel of Souls. But whatever happens in there, I’ll lose mobility for a while. I’ll do it if you can make it and then take me and Luna away.”

“Duel of Souls? You sure that’ll work out?” Angor didn’t understand what that meant. It sounded like two people would fight using their souls and see who would be the boss.

“No, duh. I’ll lose without a doubt. But I can keep its spirit away from you for several seconds as long as I endure it longer.”

“What will happen to you if you lose the duel?”

“Don’t worry about that. I can use a ‘Blaze’ to pay the price for losing. The point is, someone must help me escape later.”

She meant to say “someone I trust” but decided not to.

Not being able to move in such a situation was undeniably fatal. Keely just decided to put her life in Angor’s hands.

Angor assumed that the “Blaze” she mentioned was something valuable, but it seemed that Keely was willing to pay the price.

“Alright. Whether I succeed or not, I’ll make sure you and Luna get away alive.”

“You must succeed! Don’t waste my effort!” Keely complained while grinning.

With the next plan settled, Angor kept cruising around the octopus and pretending that he wasn’t interested in the bubble on its face.

“Get ready!” Keely released another Inferno ember from her favorite lamp. The almost transparent ember blended in with the others and slowly approached the octopus.

“Five, four, three…” Keely let Angor hear her countdown.

When she said “one”, Angor quickly returned his soul to his body and unleashed the illusion nodes that he prepared beforehand.

The octopus was visibly slowing down. Its tentacles were still moving, but a lot clumsier compared to before, which allowed Angor to place the illusion nodes around its body freely.

He finished his illusion in less than ten seconds.

He was planning to use something to trick the monster’s mind, but since Keely did something to slow its movement, he simply used a mist to block its view so that the monster couldn’t chase after them that easily later.

With the area covered in mist, Angor rushed toward the bubble while glancing at Keely’s position. Keely was now bleeding from under her skin while Luna helped her dodged the now slower tentacle attacks by biting her skirt.

It seemed that Keely had completely lost consciousness, while the octopus could still move its body, which meant Keely was losing badly in her “Duel of Souls”.

Angor would not want to disappoint her. He moved as fast as he could and finally made it to the bubble.

When the octopus realized his plan, its giant eyes showed sanity as well as great rage.

Meanwhile, Keely vomited some blood before her body fully slumped.

Angor was startled by it, and he thought that the octopus already won. But in the next second, its eyes returned to being unfocused again. Luna then yelped at Angor anxiously; it probably meant to tell him to hurry up.

Angor took out an alchemy weapon and slashed at the bubble.

It didn’t work—not a scratch was left on the bubble.

He also sensed faint energy ripples coming from the octopus’ skin. It was probably some kind of defensive spell.

Quickly, he prepared a cantrip model in his mind space while praying that whatever the monster used wouldn’t work against energy attacks.

The octopus was slowly regaining its original speed, which meant that Keely was about to lose completely.

Soon enough, their “Duel of Souls” concluded with Keely screaming in pain while the octopus fully woke up.

A red ring with a strange symbol in its center suddenly appeared around the bubble before bright flames came lashing out.

“Field of Fire!!”

Pop!

The bubble was broken in the deadly heat, and the Duon inside tumbled out along with some thick, gluey fluid. Angor quickly grabbed the creature and chanted Spirit Mantra. Before a tentacle could catch him, he dashed away from the octopus like an arrow.

His next target was Keely. However, the octopus already read his mind and quickly unleashed another tentacle at Keely.

Angor believed he’d never reach Keely in time. He still moved while strengthening his speed as much as possible.

When he caught Keely, the tentacle was almost upon his face.

A glittering barrier suddenly appeared and blocked the attack. Keely activated Aster Barrier just in time.

Angor risked getting pummeled by the tentacle because he knew Keely still had the scroll, and it seemed his plan worked out just fine.

The barrier remained intact under the attack of that tentacle. Taking the chance, Angor dragged Keely’s body out of the mist illusion he left behind.

“Nice job!” Angor smiled at her.

She had blood all over her body, but it seemed she could still manage to smile back. Earlier, she feared that she would meet a terrible end if Angor came to her too late or didn’t come at all. But Angor stuck to his promise and acted as a wonderful teammate.

She only experienced such flawless teamwork when working with Luna before, and she liked it.

After getting out of the illusion, they both heard something roaring loudly behind them.

Torrents, earthquake, and visible sound waves came after them. Angor wasn’t afraid of them since he was escaping via a route he was familiar with at full speed. Combined with the mist illusion, which still covered the monster, the octopus wasn’t likely to catch up.

What he didn’t know was that the giant octopus began to turn redder due to its great rage. If he had seen what was going on back there, he’d immediately thought about the exact same thing that happened to the Lord of Tentacles.

The bright red color that indicated uncontrollable rage could help a monster gain strength in an abnormal way.

At the same time, someone suddenly spoke on the top floor of the machine tower in the outside world.

“Huh… Something evolved into another Lord of Tentacles?”