The shadow expanded to the size of a freight truck as tentacles started to sprout from its sides. Nicki usually waited for the creatures to strike first, but since this one appeared to be a kraken, it would take a while for it to pull itself out of the abyss. This would give her an opportunity she couldn’t waste.

During previous encounters with kraken, Nicki had focused on severing the tentacles before attacking the main body. But once she did, she was met with a cluster of smaller tentacles surrounding the mouth and underbelly. While they weren’t as strong as the bigger ones, they quickly ensnared Nicki with their swifter mobility. This time, she had a trick that would skip the hassle and deal some heavy damage.

“Change pattern: Tempest Mistress.”

Bright green stripes streaked across Nicki’s swimsuit and became a zebra stripe pattern against the white fabric. At the same time, her hair began to rise and fall against the back of her head as if wind was blowing through it. Pointing the palm of her hand to the water at her feet, she summoned a whirlwind on the water and dropped her surfboard on top of it.

With both her hands, Nicki adjusted the wind to balance the board on top of it. The board floated in the air once she synced it to the whirlwind. When she climbed onto the board, the shift in weight caused it to drift to the side. She quickly balanced herself and thrust her arms to both sides of the board to project two cyclones from the palms of her hands. With the force of the cyclones she was able to balance the board beneath her.

Nicki stood up on the board and secured her footing before she repositioned her hands toward her feet. The cyclones integrated into the whirlwind under the board and it rose higher above the water. When she was sixty feet in the air she pulled the cyclones back to her sides, leaned forward and thrust her hands behind her back. She flew through the air behind the force of the cyclones.

When Nicki was almost above the kraken’s body, she leaned down on the board and aimed its sharpened point toward it as she thrust her hands together behind her back. The two cyclones merged into one and launched her forward like a bullet. But just as she prepared to break the water, she noticed two red eyes beneath the surface. Those weren’t the eyes of a kraken.

Nicki began to lean away, but whatever was under the water burst toward her. Threw the splash of water, she could see a huge set of jaws rising toward her. It was pure luck that she’d been able to dodge them by mere inches, but she was knocked off the board and fell into the sea. She quickly climbed out of the water and lifted herself back onto the board.

When Nicki turned back to the creature, she was met with its eyes towering over her. Its reptilian head stood on the end of a thick neck thirty feet above the water covered with rough stone-like scales. Its mouth was lined with crude jagged teeth that were all unsymetrical.

While Nicki stared down the creature, the tentacles around them began to rise from the water. She quickly noticed that each had a mouth at their ends similar to the head’s. Every one of them bared their fangs in a hissing motion before rushing toward her.