Hunting Down A Kraken [Job//Private//Akeya]

Akeya's emerald eyes went up and down, up and down, as the dragoness read through the scroll detailing information about the strange creature that she was supposed to hunt down this time. A Kraken. One of the most infamous and most dangerous of creatures to ever have come from the depths of the ocean. It wasn't even like it had any unusual qualities or anything. It didn't warp time and space, it didn't have any particular magic, its body didn't have any strange properties that would leave attackers unsure what to think. It was just a really damn big monster which happened to be even bigger because it lived in the ocean and which would treat everything smaller than itself as prey. Considering its size, everything smaller than itself was basically everything, up to and including dragons. No, seriously. Dragons, those mighty and giant creatures that were known to have ruled the world in the past? Still small compared to the Kraken, even if most dragons could kill a Kraken just fine... unless the Kraken was in its element, which it usually was. Looked like a squid, ugly as sin, rather mindless, really big, and really, really aggressive and hostile.

And that was what the dragoness would have to get rid of somehow. And for a stupid reason as well: someone wanted to have a fishing contest. A fishing contest, in an area where the Kraken was known to occasionally show up if it was disturbed. And you disturbed the Kraken through activity, with as example, say, having a whole lot of people go onto the water at the same time and use whatever tricks they could think of to make as many fish rise to the surface so they could catch them and then brag to each other about having caught the biggest one.

Some people would suggest that rather than making mages fight the Kraken you simply took your contest somewhere else. Those people were laughed away as being stupid for thinking that humans could be chased off by the mere threat of an absolutely colossal monster from beyond the realms of mortal men, who could crush ships with but a single tentacle and use all those many, many tentacles it had left to crush everything else in the area as well. Humans wanted to have a fishing contest, so people like Akeya had to figure out a way to kill a mythological beast. It would make the dragoness annoyed if she wasn't more busy being exasperated at how determined people were to go through with their plans even when almost every sign made it clear that it was a bad idea.

Well, a job was a job, and at least Akeya's speciality was elimination, particularly elimination of very powerful threats which nevertheless were a bit too straightforward for the dragoness's more roundabout and tricky approach, so it should work in her favour. The Kraken was known for being one of the biggest and strongest of monsters to ever have been spotted, but one of the side effects of that was that, aside from that size and strength, it didn't really have that much going for it. It could live underwater, it had many arms, but other than that it was just a lot of raw strength in an even larger frame. While dangerous, easy to deal with once you figured out a way to just not get crushed by it, which was one of the first things that Akeya had gone through the trouble of figuring out when she began to prepare herself for dealing with the outside world.

Looking around Akeya noticed that there was a bit of a scene occurring at the water's edge. It wasn't where all the fishers were gathering for the competition, which drew her attention as she stepped closer. Her finned ears spread out a bit to increase her hearing range, which allowed her to understand that the man standing next to the rather small and pathetic boat was yelling at the woman renting the boat that the price was way too much. Given the appearance of the boat Akeya couldn't really disagree. That thing looked like it would sink nearly instantly if anything at all attacked it. Considering that they were talking about the kind of waters that could handle a Kraken living in them, that was basically a death sentence for anyone in the boat. Granted, Akeya wasn't planning to use any kind of boat, so it wasn't exactly her problem... Except that the yelling man was a mage, one of roughly her own level of strength. Maybe he would be able to help her out with catching that Kraken. Akeya was quite sure that if necessary she could deal with the monster herself, but some additional backup was always useful, since Akeya's focus was on efficiency and ensuring success on the mission, not grandstanding and making herself look good.

Refusing to work together was the mark of someone whose pride would be the death of them.

Akeya walked towards the man, not bothering to hide her draconic appearance as she instead spoke up when the man wasn't busy yelling.

"I don't think there are any other boats left for rent around here, so you'll probably have to do with this one. That is, if you're that insistent on entering the water." She tossed the scroll she was holding into her own shadow, where it disappeared without a trace. The dragoness then continued. "You're either here for the fishing contest, or like me you've heard about the Kraken and want to hunt it down. Either way, it might be a good idea to consider working together. With how dangerous a Kraken is it'd be better if there was one mage aware of the threat, and who would be able to help out once it showed up. And I'm pretty sure it'll show up. If you need some persuasion to cooperate, I'll pay for renting the boat so you don't have to worry about that."

While waiting for the man to reply to her offer Akeya looked at the strange thing that was accompanying the man. It looked like a batch of money which combined to take the shape of a small item. And it was floating about. How curious. Akeya wasn't a stranger to the more original uses of magic, but she had to wonder why one would create something like that. Wouldn't that just attract attention from the more unsavoury type of person, who would love to get their hands on a large amount of money regardless of whether it's enchanted or not? Fortunately in this situation they would be on the water and dealing with the kind of enemy which didn't really have anything with money, so it shouldn't actually be of any importance. As for what happened to the mage once the job was over... not exactly Akeya's concern, although if she saw the opportunity she might still comment on it just in case he had just overlooked the downsides of a floating stack of money.

In the short amount of time that it took for the half-dragon to wonder about the nature of the floating money the man turned around to her and replied, stating that he was also hunting the Kraken and had no reason to deny the offer for cooperation. Which was good, since if they were going after the same target it would actually have been detrimental if they didn't work together. If two hunters go after the same target with a competitive approach it would make it easier for the target to escape or, in this case, wreak havoc. And Akeya doubted they'd get paid if the kraken was allowed to go wild.

"Glad to hear it. The sooner we slay the beast and secure the safety of the people here the better." She then took the offered hand and shook it, her own hand covered in midnight blue scales just like a fair portion of her body. Her wings were still folded on her back and her tail was idly swishing behind her, but there was no way for her draconic nature to be overlooked. It was good that he didn't seem to be bothered by that either. Akeya liked it when people showed a dragonkin proper respect, but on the other hand working together with someone worked better if that person wasn't made fidgety by her being a half-dragon. "I'm Akeya Kuusai."

She watched the small interaction between Mark and his... companion, for lack of a better word, before commenting. "I have to admit I was curious why you would have a stack of money floating around you. Doesn't something as blatant as that attract a lot of thieves and thugs?" Well, at least that meant she quickly had the opportunity to point out the situation which was puzzling her. Beyond that the stack of money didn't really interest her, so she returned to the matter at hand, nodding in response to Mark's last statement.

"Correct. The Kraken will most likely wake up quickly once the fishing tournament starts, so we shouldn't waste any time. I'm assuming that you don't have a way to survive on the water without a boat, so you should finish your purchase before we get on the water." Akeya indicated herself with her tail. "I'm a Dragon Slayer, so I can't use the boat. Fortunately I've found ways to deal with the problems that creates, so I'll stay close to the boat." Akeya looked towards the water. "Considering you came here intending to hunt the Kraken I assume that your abilities function underwater and again sea creatures, but I still would like to ask what your magic exactly does so I know what to expect." Akeya didn't explain her own magic because she herself thought it fairly obvious. She had already stated to be a Dragon Slayer, and she had just now dropped a scroll into a shadow to store it away without a second thought. If that combined with her midnight blue scales wasn't enough of a hint she would be rather surprised.

Once Mark explained what his magic was about Akeya would nod and look towards the water again. "Right. I'll get into the water while you finish your business here." She pointed towards the boat with her tail before walking to the edge of the water. There she would rapidly begin to develop aquatic traits without a second word: along her back and her tail a long fin with spines formed, her fingers and toes became longer and were connected with a thin membrane. Her scales spread to cover her entire form and took on a more slimy quality. Overall her form also became more streamlined and smoother, with her wings withdrawing into her back until no sign was left of them. Her tail also became flatter and developed a large fin at the end to help with propulsion underwater. Once her transformation was done Akeya jumped into the water, her now aquatic adapted form allowing her to smoothly slide in without causing much of a splash.

After several seconds she would resurface, having swum a couple of circles underwater while scanning the depths for any sign of the Kraken. As a dragonkin of the shadow type her eyes allowed her to see even in the darkness, but it looked like the massive beast knew how to hide itself well. It would show itself eventually, of that she was certain, but if she could already spot where it was beforehand she could keep an eye on it and warn the people above much earlier about the threat. It looked like she would just have to stay alert instead. Once back at the surface she waited for her partner for the job to get on the water with his boat. Since he should be of great help against the Kraken it'd be better if she stuck close to him so when the fight commenced they'd be able to cooperate better.

The matter of the flying money really wasn't either Akeya's business nor her concern, so after Mark answered her initial answers about it she just left it alone and instead focused on the more important stuff. Like Mark's abilities. If he could also get around with a boat she somewhat wondered why he had gone through the trouble of getting agitated over the prices, but she supposed that everyone could forget something like that if they didn't actually spend a lot of time near or on the water. Pointing it out most likely would either embarrass or annoy him, so it was better not to draw attention to that subject either. So that left Mark's actual abilities. Which were... flashy, to say the least.

Akeya didn't have to look around to see that everyone in the vicinity was rather shocked when suddenly the very sunny weather turned cloudy and thunderous. She wondered if Mark really had that much raw magic power, whether he had a magic item or if there was another entity involved. Considering that his power came from the heavens and it was black, it could be that there was some kind of deity that granted Mark his power... which was the power of lightning. Which annoyed Akeya a great deal. Not that she had anything about lightning itself: it was fast, could be quite accurate and was effective against most living targets. It was more that he claimed that his abilities worked well underwater, but then he pulled black lightning Take-Over as his magic. He claimed that he had control over it, enough that he would be able to use it underwater without electrocuting everyone. Yet Akeya herself wasn't too sure about that, since lightning could also be very fickle. She'd try to stay a good distance away from the Kraken whenever Mark was about to unleash an attack.

Meanwhile, the problem of locating the Kraken was still present. Akeya's darkvision didn't really have a limit to its range: for her darkness simply wasn't a hindrance. So unless there were obstacles present or the water itself became too unruly for her to see clearly through it she could technically see all the way to the bottom of the ocean, which was a very long way down. It was a strange sensation, foreign yet familiar: it reminded her of being in the sky, so far above the ground, but at the same time it was still distinctly different. Up in the air you were a single piece moving in a great and vast expanse. Being submerged in the sea, protected against the cold and not being worried by the need to breathe or a limited sight range, and it felt as if one was part of a bigger whole, a giant existence which spanned more area than entire countries or continents. It was... a very unusual sensation, but Akeya still focused on her job.

No Kraken. It must be hiding somewhere. Akeya hadn't ever heard of the Kraken having anything like camouflage or invisibility or anything like that. It was big, it showed up from down below and it devoured anything it encountered. It wasn't supposed to be a stealth killer. The only kind of invisibility it had was that it would swim up from the depths where those in boats wouldn't be able to see anything until it was too late, but Akeya herself was in the water, and her vision was hindered by the darkness of the abyss. But still nothing. How could something that was supposed to be so big actually keep itself hidden? Baffling in its own way. Akeya searched some more, then resurfaced and looked at Mark. Her usual appearance could already be unnerving, but now Mark was basically looking at the face of a humanoid sea dragon.

"No sign of it yet. I doubt it'll stay hidden for much longer though." She looked around at the fishermen. All the other humans were now focused on the competition, each and every one of them trying their damned best to catch the biggest fish so they could brag about it later on. It looked like they were having fun, although Akeya wasn't really the type to care too much about that kind of thing. She found her enjoyment in studying. "With how big it is if it was already at the surface we would see it from miles away. I don't have anything to lure it out, although... it might become more aware of us if we help with catching the fish, since it should keep an eye on its environment. It most likely doesn't care about the smaller fish, but if we get the bigger fish out of the water it might come after us for stealing its food supplies." Something that big couldn't survive for long without eating.

With that Akeya began trying to catch fish as well as keep an eye out for the Kraken, swimming around underwater and keeping an eye out for anything living. Whenever she found a fish she'd stealthily swim towards it... which at first didn't work very often. Being stealthy underwater wasn't really the same as being stealthy on land. As for stealthy in the sky... that was mostly about flying where the target wasn't looking, and underwater creatures didn't depend too much on their eyes. There was also the fact that above water the other fishers were doing a fairly good job, decreasing the amount of fish Akeya could catch the more primal way.

Nevertheless she kept going, if she actually managed to catch any fish storing them inside her shadow, which didn't seem to have any trouble functioning underwater. After all, there were plenty of shadows underwater, and aside from that Akeya didn't dive too deep, so the sun above still resulted in a shadow below her. Now the question was, would the Kraken actually pay attention to all the fish being caught during the competition or had it decided to wait this one out?

The member 'Akeya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

While Mark was testing his luck with his harpoon skills, cleverly making use of his magic to retrieve his sword after throwing it into the water, Akeya was having a bit more luck using her more... animalistic type of hunting. At first it seemed she wasn't doing a good enough job of staying hidden from the fish, not being too used to actually being stealthy underwater while tracking actual underwater creatures. She had infiltrated locations using her ability to remain underwater for extended periods of time before, but those places had always been inhabited by creatures which lived on dry land or at the very least above the water surface. The fishes were a lot trickier than that. However once she got the hang of it she began to actually catch things, after which it became a lot smoother and she caught several of those large mouthed bass,  storing them safely away in her shadow.

An advantage of her technique was that because she was underwater, and had eyes that could see without issues in dark and murky places, she could detect the bony carps and avoid them while staying focused on the much more worthwhile and tasty bass. Another advantage was her mobility: she could freely move in the same world as the prey she was hunting, so it was easier for her to position herself than the people who stayed above water. Smoothly swimming around all the bony carp the dragoness focused purely on the bass, although she was somewhat curious why there were so few fish types to be found around here. She wasn't an expert on nautical affairs, but she was pretty sure you usually could find quite a few types of fish in any large gathering of water. However so far she had only seen the carps, the bass and... those strange marlin. Akeya wasn't really sure why they would both have such a spear-like protrusion on the front of their head and teeth similar to a shark. Well, she was steering clear of those, since the bass should already be good enough to lure the kraken out and she didn't want to deal with something that might try to impale her. The kraken was already going to be enough of a pain on its own.

Unfortunately it looked like one of those marlin had noticed her, charging at her and forcing Akeya to evade by flapping her wings, acting like giant fins which threw her to the side. The dragoness narrowed her eyes as the fish turned for another go, preparing to teach it not to get too eager. Most of the other marlin had left her alone, although she had seen one get caught by Mark. This one in specific seemed to have a bone to pick with her. That or it was just really hungry. Regardless, Akeya wasn't going to be chased away by some fish with a long nose.

When the fish charged at her again Akeya raised one webbed hand towards it, from which a single spike of darkness shot out. The marlin didn't really have much in the way of dodging ability, so it couldn't do much but keep charging straight ahead even as the black spike shot into its mouth, piercing its insides (which weren't nearly as touch as its external layer). Akeya then turned into a shadow, letting the fish harmlessly go right through her before rematerializing and grabbing the marlin, putting it in her shadow as well. She had rather the thing had just left her alone, but if it was going to be so stupid as to attack her she might as well take care of it and then profit from it. Now, with that distraction gone, where was that kraken... She resurfaced to answer Mark after he asked her whether she had seen any sign of the kraken, shaking her head.

"Not yet. We'll have to keep watch until the contest ends, but it might have decided against showing itself..."

Akeya's voice trailed off as she frowned, a strange sensation coming to her. It felt like the water below her was colder than before. Given how water was very good at spreading out heat the only way that could have happened was if water from a much bigger depth had been pushed upwards. Looking down Akeya's frown deepened. The bottom of the sea was moving, pushing upwards and raising a giant cloud of mud. The dragoness's eyes widened as she realized what was happening. The kraken had been hiding itself underground, even further below than the waters themselves, and was now pushing itself up, the waves of cold water being a result of his upwards motions pushing the water out of the way.

"It's below us! Get the fishermen out of the water!" Akeya snapped this at Mark before she went back underwater, diving straight towards the absolutely humongous muddy mess that was developing far below her. She could breathe underwater, was good at dealing with the cold and was highly trained in avoiding being targeted, hit or injured. While Mark helped the fishermen out of the battle zone she would distract the giant beast, which was now already visible. Like a giant octopus, bigger than life itself, it rose from the depths, all the nautical lifeforms in the vicinity immediately swimming away from it as fast as they could, even as the first tentacles began to rise upwards towards the boats floating on the surface.

Akeya narrowed her eyes as she went straight for the fastest tentacle. With how big it was she didn't think injuring it was going to be easy. However she had to do something, otherwise it would start crushing boats. Latching onto the tip of the tentacle she stabbed the very tip with the tip of her own tail, then send a barrage of Shadow Dragon's Scales into it, the black bullets ripping through the tentacle's insides for several yards before the energy sustaining them gave out. The kraken in response to this let loose a sound like something really big and really heavy moaning, the water itself seemingly vibrating from the noise.

Akeya had to rely on Mark taking care of the fishermen who were still on the water while she tried to keep the Kraken from crushing them all. She wasn't sure if she envied Mark or was grateful for that, because she could see the issue with both tasks. Taking care of the fishermen was something which required some charisma and social skills, and while Akeya wasn't exactly a dork or anything her cold demeanour meant that for the most part she didn't so much convince people to cooperate as she just threatened them. While that might work, it tended to have some repercussions if she did that with people who were on the right side of the law.

The issue of dealing with the Kraken, of course, was that it was one of the largest creatures to ever have existed in this world and that its strength wasn't anything to scoff at either. Akeya could avoid getting smashed herself quite easily, but she really hoped that Mark managed to get everyone back onto the shore before the Kraken got to smashing the ships, because she didn't think that her attempts at destroying a single one of those humongous tentacles would be very effective when it had half a dozen other tentacles to do the work. Killing this thing was going to be a spectacular pain in the ass, given its sheer size and the fact that it was probably extremely resilient towards most forms of attacks through sheer age and power. And then there was the fact that it was underwater... fire wouldn't work here (unless it was a lot stronger than usual, and neither Akeya nor Mark was that kind of fire mage), electricity would hit both enemies and allies (unless you had a lot of control over it, and Akeya wasn't sure if Mark's control was that precise), and despite what people might believe freezing large bodies of water actually wasn't easy. One of the reasons why the ocean tended to have a constant temperature throughout the year was because it was very good at distributing differences in temperature throughout a large area. A water mage might have an edge here, although the shadow dragoness had some difficulties with the idea that the best way to deal with one of the most infamous of sea monsters was to throw a water mage at it.

Well, anyway, they'd have to figure out a way because it was either that or letting the Kraken crush all the ships and hoping it wouldn't lash out at the coastline as well. Why it would wake up after having been dormant for so long she couldn't care to guess, but if it didn't go to sleep after destroying the boats the world had just become a lot more of a dangerous place, especially for those whose livelihood depended on the waters.

Akeya swam away from the tentacle through which she had just rammed a barrage of penetrating shadow bullets. While it definitely looked hurt the tentacle had been big enough that she didn't think the damage was great enough for that tentacle to no longer be a threat. As if to prove her doubts correct the Kraken then lashed out with that very same tentacle, smashing it into Akeya to get rid of the pest that had damaged one of its many limbs so quickly after it had shown itself. The dragoness was ripped apart into numerous tendrils of darkness, which reconvened and reformed into a physical body a couple of yards away, the dragoness now looking somewhat annoyed. Attacking the tentacles wasn't going to get her anywhere, so Akeya dove towards the main body, deeper and deeper as the waters around her got darker and colder, and below her the grand beast of the seas became bigger and bigger in her eyes as she approached its nucleus rather quickly with her aquatic form. Akeya wasn't one to be easily intimidated, but she had to admit that something this big had a certain gravitas to it that you couldn't deny just by being hard to impress. Even if you refused to be afraid you still had to acknowledge that a creature this big could destroy entire towns by itself, unhindered by the resistance of the common folk, the only people able to oppose it being the elite and the extraordinarily talented.

Of course, Akeya considered herself elite and extraordinarily talented, so she was going to try anyway.

Feeling a lot of magic get discharged up above she glanced up to see black lightning crackle around one of the tentacles, which became limb as a response. That made Akeya frown, since she was pretty sure that creatures like these (octopuses, squid, more of those tentacular boneless things) didn't have the same kind of nervous system as mammals. Was a Kraken supposed to be vulnerable to paralysis through electrocution? That tentacle did look like it was no longer capable of moving normally... But maybe better not to put too much trust into that and keep heading for the main body. If she could kill its brain the entire beast should still fall apart, since size and strength didn't make one immune to the results of having your brain get ripped apart.

Unfortunately that meant that Akeya had to go inside the beast, and the only entrance she knew of that an octopus-like creature was supposed to possess was its mouth. Which was located underneath the damn beast, so she had to swim even deeper... at least the Kraken was more focused on attacking everything up above, and wasn't paying too much attention to the dragoness as she swum about. It had originally struck at her because she was up there attacking one of its tentacles, but now that she was swimming downwards she was probably not seen as anything more than some strange fish. With some luck she'd be able to get inside the beast without it noticing until she could locate the brain and destroy it.