SSS Gacha Master: I Can Only Gacha Bikini Warriors-Chapter 47. The Road Bites Back. And Octavia Shows Her True Form
"You see..." The man nodded slowly. "Two nights ago, there was an ambush on the road west of here."
"Three creatures—much larger than wolves—moved as if they were following orders." He paused to catch his breath, wincing in pain. "They didn’t just attack...!"
"They herded us and tried to position themselves between us and the road, as if they wanted to take us somewhere specific!"
"My wife got the kids out of the way, and I held the gap."
"Herding you," Lucian said. "I get what that sounds like..."
Lucian said honestly, "It sounds like exactly what I’m worried it is."
He looked at the man’s face, which showed the weathered patience of someone who had been scared for too long to show it in any obvious way. "When you say they tried to take you somewhere, which way did they go?" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦
"North. Up into the hills."
Lucian took five hundred gold coins out of his bag and put them in the man’s hand. "Here... for you and your family’s safety and needs."
"N-No, we can’t just take these!" The man began to argue. "Five hundred gold coins are too much for us to handle!"
"No, no, I insist," Lucian shook his head. "There’s a column of refugees on the main road, about two hours back toward the east fork."
"You need to find them, and those gold coins will help you stay fed until you reach a settlement."
The man’s expression softened as he absorbed Lucian’s words.
"But what if we can’t find them in time?" he asked, fear creeping into his voice.
Lucian placed a reassuring hand on the man’s shoulder, determined to instill hope. "Then you will use the coins to build a new life wherever you end up. Just promise me you’ll keep moving forward."
They departed shortly thereafter.
Lucian walked in silence for a while, thinking about what the father had said and how it fit with what the merchant had said, the emergency quest briefing, and the image of Corvus watching them through his crystal orb.
Planned attacks. Herding. Alive people.
He hadn’t said it out loud yet because he didn’t have enough information to make a full picture, but the pieces were in his head in a way that he didn’t like.
The forest part of the road came in the middle of the afternoon. The trade route went under a canopy of old trees that blocked the sky and made the light green and soft.
It was cooler and quieter, but the quiet wasn’t peaceful.
It looked like Marshal’s hand moved to her Dawn Reapers without her even thinking about it. Lucian experienced a similar instinct in his chest, sensing that something was amiss in a place where an unseen presence existed but had not spoken.
"Something’s wrong... and it’s too quiet," Marshal said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
"I feel it too." Lucian looked around at the bushes on both sides. "There’s... something in there."
He called it out before fully processing his thoughts. "Everyone! Prepare for our defensive formation."
"Octavia, take the center position. Marshal, you’re on the left, and Glacielle, you’ll handle the right flank and ranged attacks. I’ll position myself where I’m needed."
The call was clear, and the party jumped right into it with the coordination that four days of intense training had given them. The good thing was that they moved before he was done talking.
The comforting moment lasted only about three seconds before twenty-three corrupted dire wolves burst from the trees at full speed. They appeared unnatural, much like the creatures Corvus controlled, due to their excessive coordination and the way they moved in tight groups with a tactical spacing that no ordinary pack of wolves would possess.
Purple seal marks adorned their sides, glowing faintly in the green shadows cast by the trees.
Most likely Corvus’s scouts. Or the message from Corvus.
The wolves split up, attacking from three different angles simultaneously. Lucian observed the division and felt a chill settle into his mind.
"Octavia, draw center! Marshal, left pincer! Glacielle, collapse the right and push inward!"
The first group of wolves hit Octavia’s water barrier at full speed and bounced back, snarling. It rose up in a shimmering dome.
The whip was already moving, swinging in wide arcs that caught two wolves in mid-lunge and slammed them into the ground hard enough that they didn’t get up right away.
She was taking care of it. After that, the second wave hit the same barrier from two sides at the same time.
The barrier stayed up, but it bent. Lucian could tell that the water was getting rough and dark instead of clear. The impact pushed Octavia’s feet back, and her boots dug into the soft forest floor.
"There are too many of them," she said, and her voice was no longer teasing.
"I can hold them, but I can’t clear them fast enough at this angle." She sounded focused and tense.
Five wolves lined up to lunge at the same time, and Lucian opened his mouth to tell Marshal to cover.
He didn’t have time to say anything before he heard Octavia say, in a quiet voice that sounded like a decision was being made, "Forgive me, Master."
"I didn’t want you to see this yet."
The magic of the water grew stronger. It came from her, from her core, from somewhere deeper and older than her fighting skills, not just from her hands or her whip.
Bioluminescent light spread across her lower back in patterns that moved like a warning display from a deep-sea creature. And then six tentacles came out.
Lucian was shocked seeing it. ’HOLY SHIT!? DON’T TELL ME...!"
The tentacles were huge, about twelve feet long when fully extended, and the water was a deep blue-black color where no light naturally reaches. They moved in a coordinated way, with each one doing something different at the same time, demonstrating a level of complexity and strategy that suggested they were not just mindless appendages but rather part of a highly intelligent creature.
The tentacles moved with remarkable coordination: two wrapped around wolves, lifting them effortlessly; two others formed barriers to protect against incoming threats; one lashed out in a wide sweep, clearing the ground of obstacles; and another probed for position with such precision that it suggested a level of intelligence beyond mere instinct.
Lucian stopped for about half a second. ’A MILF with tentacles...! Don’t tell me she’s some kind of a human octopus thiren?!"
He started moving again because the wolves were still there and Glacielle needed the right flank to fall apart. "Ah shit! I need to focus on these issues first before I can comment on them!"
After that, there were thirty seconds of the most effective fighting he had seen since Marshal’s arrival. The tentacles worked like six more weapons, each one big, fast, and easy to control.
Three wolves were lifted and slammed into each other. The sound of the impact was so loud that it echoed off the trees.
Water magic flowed through the tentacles and made sharp edges at their tips. When those edges touched, they did so with authority.
The other wolves tried to run away, but they found that spreading out into an eight-point attack radius didn’t work, as the water magic created barriers that prevented their escape.
The last wolf fell to the ground, and the forest was quiet again.
Lucian put down his sword. Marshal was already going through the trees in a perfect circle, looking around the area.
Glacielle stood on the right flank with frost fans drawn. Ice crystals were still floating around her from the last freeze she’d used.
Octavia stood in the middle of the cleared ground, her tentacles still out, surrounded by the mess she had just made. They were dripping with water, and the light from the bioluminescence was getting dimmer.
She was breathing slowly and carefully, and she wasn’t looking at any of them.
The tentacles slowly pulled back into her lower back, leaving no sign that they had ever been there. She stood up straight while styling her hair back.
Then she turned her back on the party and looked at something in the trees that wasn’t there.
"I’m sorry you had to see that," she said. She spoke softly and clearly, without the warmth that she usually wore like a coat.
"I know... it’s... disturbing."
