I held my breath and lowered my posture.
A Worker Crant.
Work-Crant for short.
It had a peculiar appearance that was neither crab nor ant.
Its cephalothorax was covered in a thick crab shell, with a belly shell like a gourd-shaped rice cake joined on behind.
At a glance, it also looked like three crabs playing train in single file.
Of its five pairs of legs, the frontmost pair were thick, large pincers, and the remaining four pairs were for swimming or crawling sideways.
-<Worker Crant-Nauplius>
-A bizarre creature with the appearance of a crab and the habits of an ant.
It endures its present weak period, waiting for the day it evolves into a higher species.
-Combat Power: 1,034
-Traits: <Nest>, <Servant>, <Burrowing>, <Scissor Cut>, <Pincer Hammer>, <Crab-Foam Bullet>, <Ironclad Skin>
Looking at the Work-Crant, I thought.
'For an inferior species in the crab category, its Combat Power is considerable.'
I had thought my own body had grown quite big through hunt after hunt, but seeing that thing, I felt I still had a long way to go.
My body at present was, at a generous estimate, about the size of a medium-sized dog.
That thing before my eyes was a good 1.5 times bigger than even me.
'It looks so vicious that eating it is a bit much.'
Who was it that said, 'It took courage to eat a crab for the first time'?
Those words were exactly right.
With a crab that big, far from thinking it looked appetizing, I could only think it was scary.
What's more, its shell looked very thick too, and those spines jutting out here and there on its surface were painful just to look at.
'......Of course, I do have a means of defense, though.'
I wrapped my whole body in Ironclad Skin.
The trait that had once made the mimic's body like steel now hardened and strengthened mine.
'Here I go!'
I pounced on the crab with all my strength.
[Glurrk?]
The crab, startled, looked back at me.
I threw a chop right between that crab's eyes.
[Mongolian Chop!]
A move anyone who had watched a bit of wrestling in their day would know.
Two tentacles, hardened stiff, drove into the center between the crab's eyes.
With a showy sound of impact, its Combat Power was shaved away exponentially.
-<Worker Crant-Nauplius>
-Combat Power: 1,033 [-1]
-<Worker Crant-Nauplius>
-Combat Power: 1,031 [-2]
I could not help but doubt my eyes.
'What? 1 and 2......?'
The damage the crab had taken was slight enough to call it 0.
On the other hand.
...BRISTLE!
This crab of a bastard, perhaps feeling wronged over that little hit, flung both pincers up high.
CRU-NCH!
I hurriedly hardened my side.
The crab's pincer bit down hard on my side and squeezed.
-<Kraken 'Juvenile Form': Lantern Anglerfish Ghost Tentacle>
-The juvenile form of some cephalopod.
It has taken on a fair shape, but it is still weak and immature.
Trailing an eerie light from the tips of its tentacles, it swims the threshold of the abyss.
-Grade: ★ (1-Star)
-Combat Power: 3,020 [-1]
'It doesn't hurt me either, you bastard!'
My body, too, thanks to the mimic's 'Ironclad Skin' trait, had become hard enough to rival the crab.
'Take this!'
With my hardened tentacles I kept on pounding down on the crab's head.
And then.
WRIGGLE, WRIGGLE, WRIGGLE.......
The crab released the pincer that had bitten me and began to flee, crawling sideways.
'Hold it right there, you crab!'
I chased right on the crab's heels.
At times like this, having no attack technique is just too sad.
No matter how I banged away on its crab shell, the damage was a mere 1 or 2.
The crab's Combat Power was only 1/3 of mine, and yet I simply could not take it down.
Well, if I invested a long time I could take it down, but before that the crab would run far away.
'So with a fight between a defensive type and a defensive type, the problem isn't that it takes long; the fight itself just doesn't happen at all.'
I grabbed hold of the crab and tried hauling on it, grunting, but the crab stolidly ran on.
On top of that.
WHA-M!
It even seized the moment when I briefly released the 'Ironclad Skin' trait to drive a 'Scissor Cut' technique into my side.
'Urgh, this crab bastard.......'
Angry, I tried giving off light, but the crab, startled, shut its eyes, and from then on it simply moved along with its eyes closed.
'I can't let it get away like this.'
It was a big piece of prey with a Combat Power of 1,000, the first I had faced in a while.
On top of that, these things live in groups like ants, so if I let it get away like this, there was a chance it would bring its companions later.
'If even three of them gather, I lose. I have to beat it down while it's alone.'
I kept pounding on its crab shell with my tentacles, but even so the crab went on stoutly sidestepping.
'......Fine. If strikes don't work, I'll go with joint locks!'
I was no mere squid but a squid with a human brain.
With the spite and grit of a former Special Forces officer, I went at the crab.
'Make the impossible possible! Hiyaaaaaah!'
I wound my ten tentacles around one of its legs and twisted the joint at the end of the leg, the one farthest from its body.
CRRRACK!
Heel hook.
The part I was aiming for was the point that, in human terms, corresponds to the ankle and knee, a part that leaves you crippled for life once it snaps.
Unlike in my human days, I kept rotating my body at the same time as I twisted the crab's joint.
Do it this way at a jiu-jitsu tournament and you would be cursed out as a crazy bastard, but...... here it was nothing more than a struggle to survive.
Just as a crocodile bites into its prey's flesh and spins round and round, I gripped the end of the crab's joint and did a death roll.
In the end.
...CRRRACK!
The carapace at the soft joint broke, and one of the crab's legs came right out.
-<Worker Crant-Nauplius>
-Combat Power: 935 [-98]
Its Combat Power was slashed sharply.
'All right! Now the next leg, just like this......!'
I went straight into an armbar.
At that moment.
THUNK!
My expectation missed the mark.
The crab leg I had grabbed this time only stretched out taut and did not bend.
SQUEEEEZE......
This leg was a pincer.
It was a leg especially thick and hard, even among its legs.
'Urrrgh! Why is this one so hard?'
I had the armbar on, but it would not bend.
The crab was lifting its pincer, trying to pry me off.
'Bend already, please!'
I twisted my tentacles with all my strength.
But the crab's pincer only stretched out flat in a straight line and showed no sign at all of bending.
All the while, the crab went on sidestepping its way out of my territory.
I grew anxious.
If this thing reached the zone where its nest was and joined up with its companions, I would have no choice but to flee.
And then I would have to abandon the hideout I had taken such trouble to build and leave.
'No! When I've only just managed to get a home of my own, something that seemed impossible my whole life!'
I quickly moved over to the leg next to it.
If I broke every leg other than the pincers, I could at least slow its movement speed.
But the crab was not just going to take it either.
Whenever I went for a slender leg, it pressed all its legs against its belly and curled its body up like a rock.
And in that state it stretched out only its thick pincers to resist, so there was nothing I could do.
'Damn it! If only I had even one attack trait!'
This crab was the first wall I had met since being reincarnated as a kraken.
'What do I do? How do I take it down?'
While I was agonizing, the crab had crawled off that far again.
Once it got past the big rock up ahead, this crab's companions would be swarming.
'No. I have to kill that thing here.'
I gritted my teeth.
SPUUURT! SPLAT!
First I spouted sticky ink and covered the crab in it.
Wrapped in ink that clung like instant glue, it floundered.
Thanks to that, its movement speed seemed to have slowed a little.
SWISH!
I stretched out my tentacles once more and put an armbar on its pincer.
SQUEEEEEZE......
The crab resisted with its pincer stretched straight out.
As I had confirmed earlier, with my strength as it was, I could not break the thick carapace of this crab's pincer.
......But.
'The answer is in the joint after all!'
I looked down at the pincer I had in the armbar.
In the middle of the crab's pincer, stretched out straight in a line, I could see the white, thin carapace of the joint.
I stretched out one tentacle and stabbed hard at that spot.
Deadly Poison Stinger.
The only attack trait I had, gained from taking down the Hell Urchin.
With this Deadly Poison Stinger, in truth, it is the deadly poison that is strong, not the physical attack power of the stinger itself.
So rather than for attack, it can only be used to defend against a natural enemy's assault, but...... right now it could not be helped.
...STAB! SNAP!
The poison stinger snapped.
But I had ten tentacles, which meant ten poison stingers too.
...STAB! SNAP!
I quickly stabbed the joint of the crab's pincer with another tentacle.
But this poison stinger, too, snapped miserably.
'I'll do it until it works.'
I had to aim at exactly the same spot.
If I stabbed a different spot from the one I had just stabbed, only the same result would come out.
...STAB! SNAP!
I had stabbed exactly the same spot three times.
Sure enough, as I kept stabbing the tiny mark left by the first stab, I could feel the poison stinger going in little by little.
...STAB! SNAP!
The fourth poison stinger.
...STAB! SNAP!
The fifth.
...STAB! SNAP!
Six.
...STAB! SNAP! ...STAB! SNAP! ...STAB! SNAP!
Seven, eight, nine.
Before I knew it, a dot distinct enough to be seen with the naked eye had formed on the joint of the crab's pincer.
It was the result of nine poison stingers driven into exactly the same spot.
I raised the last, the tenth poison stinger.
'I still have one shot left.'
The tenth poison stinger, driven down with all my strength.
It made a slightly different sound.
CRU-NCH!
I pierced it!
My poison stinger pierced the thin carapace of the joint and lodged itself in.
SQUIRT— SQUIRT— SQUIRT—
Deadly poison was injected into the crab's body.
It had no trait related to poison resistance, so it could only take the full effect of the deadly poison.
[Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble......]
The crab began to spew foam.
While I was at it, I tried the armbar once more.
'There's a hole in the joint now, so who knows this time!'
I twisted its right pincer with all my strength.
Then it felt different from before.
CRACK— CRAAAACK—
From the small hole my poison stinger had made, thread-thin cracks began to form.
Once a crack forms, it never goes away.
It only keeps growing.
In the end.
CRRRACK!
I succeeded in tearing the crab's pincer from its body.
This was a cool, refreshing Ambasa (Armbar Death).
FLAIL, FLAIL—
The crab swung its one remaining pincer to resist, but, perhaps because of the deadly poison spreading through its body, its movements grew slower and slower.
I swung the pincer I had torn from the crab and brought it down on its crab shell.
'Back in Maritime Scout Team training, I chewed up bastards like you raw, is what I'm saying!'
Do not take the Republic of Korea Special Forces lightly!
I drove the pointed spike of the crab's pincer, the part corresponding to the thumb, straight down.
Before long.
WHA-M!
The crab's pincer pierced the crab's own back shell and lodged itself in.
How does it feel to meet death by your own right arm?
'......Boss. Go in peace.'
Gazing at the crab's body as it slowly collapsed, I observed a moment of silence.
And.
'Now it's mealtime.'
Today is a crab party.