"Anya, here I go!"
Keita launched the ball as hard as he could. His serve was a flick of the wrist—efficient, precisely sending the ball whistling over the net. The sun glared off the surface, making it impossible to track.
Anya, however, didn't flinch. She let out a soft exhale, her body shifting into a low crouch. Sand sprayed as she moved, her footing silent and sure.
"Let me show you," she murmured, a playful glint in her eyes, "the power of a maid off duty!"
She sprang into the air, her movement a graceful arc. She received the ball, redirecting the momentum so perfectly that it didn't just return—it dove towards Keita's feet.
Keita dove, his face eating sand, his fingers just barely brushed the ball as he collapsed into the heap.
Not far away, Jin lay reclined on a lounge chair under an umbrella. The sunglasses slightly lowered on his face. A stack of books towered beside him, though he hadn't turned a page in an hour. Beside him sat Sofia, dressed in a one piece swimsuit with a floral design—a straw hat atop her small head. She had a scrapbook and crayons to keep her busy.
It was a good morning. The kind of morning that felt like a fragile, stolen peace. The group played in the ocean, looted the sand of any treasure they could find and made sandcastles.
Anya and Sofia started laughing when Keita was made into a human sandcastle shaped like a busty woman.
The sun peaked and it was now time for lunch. Anya brought out a basket full of sandwiches and refreshments. The group laid out towels before setting up lunch.
"Is there any booze?"
"Master Jin," Anya grunted before continuing, "You specifically should not be drinking."
"If I report this to the lady then—"
"Alright… no need for that," crossing his arms.
"You three enjoy your snacks," he walked off with a sandwich tucked in his shirt pocket.
"Your sandwiches are really good!"
"Oh, well thank you Lady Sofia," she smiled before looking at Keita.
"Unlike someone over there that's stuffing their face like someone's gonna steal his food."
Keita choked as they laughed at him.
From the shoreline, a crab crawled up to the group, claws waving in distress as it shuffled back and forth.
"Hey! What's that?" Sofia pointed to the creature emerging from the shore.
"Stay back!" Anya reaching over Sofia.
"It could be chased by something."
They waited… watching the crab rush towards them and suddenly pulling on Keita trousers.
"I think Mr. Crabby is trying to tell us something," Sofia poked Keita in the back.
"Let's follow it!"
"I don't think this is a good idea." Anya shook her head, "We should let Master Jin know about th–"
Keita had already run off with Sofia on his shoulder—following the crab along the shoreline.
"At least wait for me!"
The group followed the crab as it entered an opening in the rocks.
"This is… a cave?" Anya whispered in shock.
"It's so beautiful!" Sofia followed.
Lined with rocks of different colors all over, illuminating the dark cave as if it were a starry night.
Sofia slid off Keita's shoulders onto her feet. She further inspected one of the colorful rocks.
"Kieta look," she pointed.
"I can see my reflection,"
The group stood in front of the rock looking at their distorted reflections.
"Ouch!" Kieta yelped.
The crab picked Kieta as if to tell him to focus.
Further down into the cave, the glow gave way to a dense, damp shadow. The temperature dropped abruptly, and the sound of trickling water turned into a low churring rumble.
"There! Mr. Crabby friends." Sofia shouted.
Blocked by a wall of seaweed, a group of crabs were stuck in a part of the cave. They rushed over, the crab shedding a tear of joy at the sight of his fellows.
Swish.
"Where's that sound coming from?" Anya shuddered.
From the darkness around, a barrage of larger crustaceans emerged.
"We're being ambushed!" Anya's eyes widened, her hands instantly protecting Sofia.
Sofia clutched Anya's hand tightly.
Larger crustacean creatures poured out from the crevices, blocking the retreat of the group. A dark corrupted foreign energy emanating from them.
"Hey Keita… we have to get out of here," Anya continued, "how are we supposed to fight this!"
"I knew we shouldn't have followed this crab. We have no obligation to help!"
"We have to call Master Jin!"
Keita panicked, "I Know! Anya why don't you use your spells to get us out of here. You are a mage right?"
He hoped this to be true.
"What! I'm a normal maid Keita. I can only use basic white magic." Anya continued, "White magic is only useful for everyday stuff…" she paused, "...not for fighting crabs!"
"Crap… we are stuck," Keita thought to himself.
The encirclement became smaller and smaller as the creatures closed in on the bunch.
"We have to do something fast… but what are we supposed to do?" He asked himself, his eyes pacing back and forth.
"Are we gonna save Mr. Crabby's friends?" Sofia cowering behind Anya. "Are we going to leave them here?"
"Anya, can you create an opening and get Sofia out of here?"
"I know you think I can do everything, and I admire your praise for me… but Keita I can't do that." Anya muttered, her face twitching.
"Guys… I'm not feeling so wel–," Sofia slowly lost consciousness.
"Lady Sofia!"
"Sofia!" They shouted.
Anya caught Sofia before she hit the floor–placing her on her back.
"Crap, we need to get out of here fast," Keita thought. "Think Keita, think… what would Sota do in this situation." He continued.
"Know your enemy and use your environment to your advantage and you are guaranteed victory."
"I remember!" He shouted.
"Anya! Can you use light magic?... Even the smallest spark would do." His head whipped around.
"Yes, but why.?" She asked.
"Trust me on this. Crabs have super sensitive compound eyes and in such a dark cave," he continued, "if a bright spark suddenly fires… it would be equivalent to a flashbang."
"Okay, this better work," stretching out her hands Anya yelled, "[Create: Light]"
A spark of light erupted in her hand—bright light covering the insides of the cave, radiating off the shiny rocks, increasing its effectiveness.
The creatures erupt in a chaotic, mechanical panic. For a split second they looked like a field of static statues, caught awkwardly with claws half-raised and legs suspended in the air. As the spark vanishes and the cave plunges back into darkness, the crabs burst into a frantic, sideways sprint. Moving solely on instinct. The blinded creatures plow directly into one another, stumbling over rocks, tumbling off low ledges, and violently ricocheting off the cave walls.
"Let's go! This is our only chance!" Kieta shouted.
Anya fled with Sofia securely on her back as the blinding flash opened up a temporary path through the chaos. But as Keita lunged forward to rip the thick wall of seaweed apart, freeing Mr. Crabby's trapped kin, the tide turned back with terrifying speed.
The glowing, dark corrupted energy emanating from the creatures flared violently. As their eyes adjusted from the sudden flash, they stopped scattering, locking onto Keita with a unified, sinister intent—moving as a single, hive-minded swarm.
Clack. Clack-clack.
With a wet crunch, the frontline crustaceans violently molted their outer carapaces, shedding their old shells in seconds to instantly harden a fresh, razor-sharp layer of armor. Before Keita could even blink, they whipped their massive claws back and fired their rigid exoskeletons straight at him like high velocity ballistic darts.
"Woah—!"
Keita twisted his torso, the first projectile grazed his body and sliced a deep line into the cave wall. They kept molting and firing, turning the dark corridor into a lethal barrage of flying shell-sharpnel.
He bolted towards the entrance, his legs burning. He barely dodged left, ducked under a projectile, and pushed his endurance to the absolute limit. Still, the narrow space caught up with him—a glancing blow clipped his shoulder, and another tore into his thigh, sending spikes of hot pain through his limbs.
"Urghh—!"
"It hurts. But I can't stop now"
Forcing his breathing into a steady rhythm, Keita stopped fighting the panic and let his conditioning take over. Months of Master Jin's brutal, bone-crushing training under the scorching sun began to click. His eyes began glowing for a moment and the chaotic blur of the incoming claws started to slow down around him. He could see the trajectory of each projectile.
"I can see them?"
"I—can see it!" He said to himself.
Dodging and weaving with focused precision, Keita broke through the cavern mouth, bursting out onto the sand with the crabs. Behind him, the cave entrance collapsed inward as the unified swarm retreated. But out on the open surf, the true terror awaited.
"We made it," he puffed.
The ocean churned into a violent froth. Water violently erupted into the air as the massive, bloated Kraken emerged from the waves, its glowing, hypnotic eyes looking directly onto them. Its colossal tentacles whipped through the air, generating a crushing pressure that whipped up sand and pushed the group back.
Keita stood frozen, his legs shaking. Against such a monstrosity of this scale, every ounce of his hard-earned attributes meant nothing. He was completely outmatched—faced to face with a true monster.
"I can't feel my body." His knees buckled. "Why won't you move!" He forced himself to move but he still couldn't.
The giant kraken raised a massive, shadow-casting tentacle high above him, preparing to crush him and the entire shoreline into paste.
Right as the despair settled in, a lazy, familiar voice sliced through the heavy, suffocating air.
"Honestly, kids. You take your eyes off them for five minutes, and they try to get swallowed by a glorified octopus."
He whipped his head around. Standing proudly, with Sofia in his arms and looking utterly irritated, was Master Jin.
Jin lowered his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose, casting a single, assessing glance at Keita's battered form and the incoming tentacle. A faint, frown touched his lips.
"Not bad, kid. Looks like all that running didn't go to waste. You actually manage to not trip over your own feet. But you're not ready yet for something of this caliber."
Sofia looked up at the Kraken and clutched Jin tightly.
"So this is the fodder responsible for making my little princess cry."
Before the Kraken could land its lethal strike, Jin lazily raised a single finger pointing directly at the colossal beast. A compact, hyper-dense sphere of howling wind pressure materialized at his fingertip, compressing ambient Ryu until the space around it warped.
Fwip.
He flicked his finger.
The compressed wind bullet crossed the distance instantly. There was a fraction of a second of absolute silence, followed by a deafening shockwave that blew the surf backward. A massive, clean hole blasted through the Kraken, instantly deleting more than half of its body into a cloud mist and evaporating seafoam.
A tentacle landed on the shore.
Jin lowered his hand, adjusting Sofia's hair.
"Looks like we're having giant squid for dinner."
"Master Jin, what was the attack you did just now!" visible shock on Keita's face as he tried to process what happened. "I could see the path of the crab bullets but you Master… I couldn't see anything."
"Don't worry about it kid." A smirk appeared on his face, "you won't be able to replicate this even if you trained for a hundred years."
"Papa is the strongest!" Sofia boasted.
"Yes my little princess, daddy is the strongest there is," he replied, dotting on his daughter.
Anya was especially happy.
"I'm glad that creepy, perverted creature is gone for good. It's a win for all women in the world."
"This calls for a feast!"
Later that evening, sitting around a crackling bonfire by the beach under the moonlight while Sofia rested safely, the group stared at a massive plate of sizzling, perfectly seasoned tentacle meat.
Mr. Crabby emerged from the shoreline once again, this time it came to reward Keita for his help.
It molted its shell revealing a pearl clutched in its small claws. Once it hardened, it gave Keita its pearl and wandered off into the sea.
"What is this?" He asked.
Jin answered, "It's called a Heart Bead, ingesting it improves your physique and senses. Those Pearl Crabs spend years maturing those beads and for one to give you so freely—it must hold you highly. Be thankful kid, that's a rare and priceless thing to come by."
"No wonder a Tier 2 Siren Squid wanted it so badly that it resorted to mind controlling Iron Claw Crabs."
Jin tossed a twig into the fire and glanced at Keita's state and grinned.
"I think it's time we start some real training, kid."
Keita nodded, looking forward to tomorrow.