Lukey quickly used his stance and leapt backwards as he avoided the hulking monstrosity that dropped from above. He fell and rolled onto his side; Lukey couldn’t afford to sit and wait, so he quickly got up and made his way towards the place where the entrance used to be. He hugged the wall and silenced himself as he tried to make out the massive form of the newcomer.

  Eight gigantic legs held up a large circular body that hovered high above the guardian. The shell of the creature was jet black, with smooth armor that covered most of its body and legs. The newcomer towered over the guardian; the ruler of the labyrinth didn’t even reach the second segment of its leg. The arms were strange too, being long enough to reach the ground and ending in long extended claws. The main body was perfectly circular, almost alien in how it looked, especially the eyes.

  Lukey was behind it, but he could clearly see two eyestalks bent down to gaze at the guardian below. Both eyes glowed with a beaming red light that shone down on the ground below it. The deep red spotlight it created was focused on the guardian as the creature moved and raised its claws.

  One of its arms shot out with astonishing speed, opening its claw and scooping the guardian up in its grasp. The guardian was helpless as it was raised up to face level with the creature that caught it. Lukey took the lapse in activity to identify this new crustacean, and what he saw horrified him.

  [Abyssal Stalker Aquaclaw Lv. 80]

  AN ABYSSAL MONSTER!?! HERE!?!

  Lukey could only watch in silence as he struggled to understand how something this strong made it into this labyrinth.

  Where did this thing even come from?

  Lukey looked up. Where once there was a large structure on the ceiling composed of stone, now sat only an imprint. Lukey saw some mud drip down from the ceiling, then gazed down at the stalker and saw the patches of mud on its body. It seemed that the stalker camouflaged itself in mud and buried itself in the ceiling. Was it hibernating or lying in wait for a meal? The latter seemed to be the most likely answer considering what happened next.

  The stalker took its other claw, then proceeded to rip the guardian to pieces. First, it tore off each of the legs, leaving the guardian with only its body. Next, it firmly grasped the top and bottom of its shell and twisted the guardian until both halves separated from being torn apart. As that happened, Lukey felt a wave of energy enter his body.

  In that same moment, Lukey felt the wall of mud behind him start to go soft. The makeshift wall blocking the archway began dissolving, and the mud fell away as it pooled around Luke's feet. A hole opened up near the top and grew larger as more mud gave way to the exit.

  Looks like the guardian’s death triggered the exit opening.

  Lukey was glad he didn’t have to fight the stalker. He could just leave without it knowing he was ever here. He even had all his equipment with him, so nothing would be lost if he left right now. The unseen force would guide him out of the labyrinth, and he could just go home. It would be so easy to leave, so why didn’t he?

  The stalker began dining on the remains of the guardian as it held the torn bottom half up to its mouth. Lukey pulled his eyes away from the exit as he began to observe the stalker. He knew he didn’t have a chance against this thing. He knew he should just walk away. Yet, he felt this urge that he couldn’t leave something like this alone.

  To begin with, even if he returned and told Triton all about the stalker, chances are nothing would change. Triton was already busy with the tyrant, and this would just pile on more work for the old man to think about. Lukey had been observing Triton lately, and he seemed to be more tired each time he saw him.

  On top of being more busywork, there was no guarantee that Triton would rediscover this place when he entered the labyrinth. Labyrinths had a habit of changing their structure, so this place could be sealed up for a long time after Lukey left, and the stalker didn’t look like it would be leaving anytime soon.

  Lukey had to choose: run with his gains or face a monster of a monster.

  …

  Lukey hid himself behind the archway and peeked into the room to watch the stalker's movements. He wasn’t going to fight it…yet, but it couldn’t hurt to observe how it moved. Getting information about the enemy was standard practice for him, and more information wouldn’t hurt in this situation.

  The first thing of note was the stalker's size. Its head almost reached the ceiling with how large it was. The legs were what propped it up; they were spread out around the room as they kept the stalker's body raised to its full height. Its large body was probably made for walking around the floor of the ocean, which also explained the claws.

  The stalker’s claws were far larger in proportion to its body than he saw with other aquaclaws. They were long and wide, like large tongs; the stalker likely used them to pick up large things on the ocean floor or to scoop up the sand and search for bits of food on the ocean floor. Its arms were lightning fast too, though it was difficult to say if it was a hunter. Many creatures on the ocean floor were probably larger than it.

  The more Lukey looked at it, the more he noticed flaws in the stalker's body. To begin with, the joints between the plates of the shell were largely unguarded; he could see places where the muscle was peeking out of the shell. Lukey had heard of animals that intentionally lost limbs to escape predators; perhaps this was one?

  There were other oddities too, like the weird shape of its body and the fact it was hiding on the ceiling rather than prowling the labyrinth like a proper scavenger. It was almost like this thing wasn’t made for hunting; it was almost like…

  Luke's eyes widened as everything snapped together in his mind.

  This isn’t some giant monster of the deep… This is an adolescent!

  If he considered that this thing was a child, then everything made sense. The reason its shell was so underdeveloped was because it hadn’t molted yet! The reason it had those claws was to catch small prey in its infantile stages! The reason it was hiding in the labyrinth was because it needed a safe place to feed while it reached adulthood!

  The only question left was how a baby stalker got onto the island, but that could wait. Suddenly, Lukey was a lot more confident in being able to handle this beast. It was certainly powerful, but it had yet to develop a properly powerful body that could wield that strength. It had so much potential, but it was stuck in a low-level labyrinth where it couldn’t grow.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  It was a bit like a person with a high level that didn’t have a weapon. Sure, in pure attributes they were strong, but without a weapon they only showed a fraction of their strength. A lancer without a spear is just someone who’s stronger than the people around him. Unless those attributes were completely overwhelming, the person without a weapon would be at a big disadvantage.

  There was one more advantage Lukey had, and that was due to how its eyes worked. He couldn’t be sure, but those glowing eyes didn’t look like they were made for scanning a wide area. The only thing they noticed was the guardian, and that was only after it was directly in their line of sight.

  If he was correct, the stalker was farsighted, and the red light was for seeing in the dark ocean floor. They weren’t made for a room like this that was already lit up. If the stalker were prowling the corridors of the labyrinth, things would be different, but in an open room like this, it would have a hard time locating anything.

  The only issue was how to reach its body, and Lukey could already feel a plan forming as he got his coil of rope and a stone tie.

  Lukey didn’t understand if it was good fortune or bad fortune that brought this creature in front of him.

  Regardless of the reason, he planned to seize this opportunity for himself.

  …

  Lukey stood below the stalker, looking up at the creature’s form from directly underneath its body.

  In his hands was one of his stone-tie traps, along with a long rope tied to the center of the tied-together trap. Lukey came up with this to climb up the stalker's body. Now, he just hoped it would work as intended.

  The stalker was still munching on the carcass of the guardian, chewing up the meat on the inside of the shell. Lukey wanted that shell, and he would be damned if the stalker destroyed such nice materials before he could use them.

  Lukey would have to be careful. The stalker seemed to be sensitive to sound, so he had to avoid making any large noises. He would also need to watch where he aimed with his rope; it probably couldn’t sense a small creature like Lukey if he touched its shell, so he would be sure to aim there.

  Lukey began swinging the stone-tie and took aim at the stalker’s left backmost leg. He sent up the stone-tie towards the joint that connected the leg to the body, and the trap flew up with the help of [Wild Trapper]. The stones spun around in a circle as it flew, propelling the trap forward.

  The stone-tie found its mark as the rope managed to hit the joint. After the rope, the stones started spinning around the leg, wrapping it up in a tight embrace. When it was finished, Lukey saw a tight wrapping around the shell that covered the stalker's leg.

  After tugging the attached rope a few times, Lukey began making his way up. He was careful not to swing the rope around too much as he began climbing up. One arm followed the other as he made his way up to the rope, keeping his knees crossed around the rope. It was times like this that he was grateful for his small stature and the extra strength afforded to him by his class.

  It took some effort, but he finally managed to make it to the joint.

  It was here that Lukey pulled out his weapon of choice, his knife. Lukey left his spear on the ground since it would be difficult to climb with it. No, what Lukey planned was to disassemble this creature piece by piece, starting with the legs that held it up.

  With one arm straddling the leg, Lukey took his knife in his other hand and began carving at the exposed muscle in the joint. To his amazement, the muscle was surprisingly soft, probably due to the stalker being only an infant. The knife practically slid in as he began slicing up the muscle fibers. It was, however, incredibly thick, and it took a lot of time to disconnect the entire joint.

  The stalker immediately knew something was up. First it dropped the piece of corpse it held between its claws. Then, it began to search around as its eyes feverishly started turning in all directions. Lukey could see the two lights as they darted around the room, projected from the stalker's gaze.

  The stalker began shuffling its legs as it started to turn its massive body. Lukey was pulled along for the ride as he continued to cling to the leg. As he held on, he worked even faster on the leg, furiously carving deeper cuts into the leg.

  One final slash cut away the last strands of muscle in the leg, making the limb topple over. Lukey quickly jumped as it fell, grabbing the rope as his trap loosened itself from the movement. He hit the ground in a roll and quickly got to his feet as he assessed the damage.

  At this point, the stalker was scrambling to see what tore off its leg. Unfortunately, it was almost as large as the room he was in, so it couldn’t do much more than turn around in place.

  The stalker seemed to know something was beneath it, as its eyestalks started looking down and scanning the ground below it. Lukey scrambled to stay behind the stalker, avoiding its gaze as it started turning in place. Unfortunately, each of the stalker’s legs was enormous and made it hard to move around as they pounded the dirt to maneuver its flat body. Lukey was stuck dodging the red glare and the legs as he looked for his next target.

  This time Lukey decided to aim for a leg on the center right side of the stalker's body. Once more he started up the trap as he began spinning the stone-tie in the air around his side. The stalker was still moving, but Lukey had a clear shot of the joint as he sent his trap hurtling through the air.

  The stone-tie just barely managed to latch onto the leg before it moved again. This time, however, the stalker seemed to take notice, because it began to do something unexpected. First, it shifted its body around to get its front side low and its back side high. Then, with surprising flexibility, it took one claw and extended it towards the tied-up leg.

  Lukey thought the stalker was impressive, but what he saw next fascinated him. The stalker focused its red gaze solely on the binding on the leg, then it grabbed the binding with shocking precision. He saw the claw wiggle a little, which was presumably the stalker loosening the binding from its body.

  It knows it has something on it and is working to remove the obstruction!

  This was a behavior he didn’t see in the aquaclaws he had seen up until this point. Whenever he used the stone ties, the broodmothers were rendered helpless. They only tried to struggle out of their bindings, not even trying to remove them. Yet here the stalker was loosening the rope with amazing precision.

  It wouldn’t take long to remove the rope, so Lukey had to act now. He ran over to the archway and grabbed his spear, then ran back to make his move.

  Lukey ran to the front of the stalker, opting to take his chance while the giant was distracted. From there, he saw the eyes of the stalker as they bent below its body to gaze underneath. The front of the shell was lowered, so Lukey could reach many of its front parts from here. One limb in particular stood out to him as he formed a plan in his head.

  The fisherman moved around to the joint of the claw that was currently tearing away the stalker’s restraint. The joint muscles were fully exposed as the stalker stretched its arm out to reach the back of its body. Lukey quickly readied his spear and took a deep breath.

  If he messed up, there was a very good chance he could be caught. He had to strike, rip out his spear, and run. No room for waiting, no room for mistakes. He needed to run as far back from the head as he could once this was done, and hopefully he would be alright.

  With a plan in place, Lukey reeled his arm back.

  After a few moments, he struck with all the power he could into the gap in the stalker's shell.

  The reaction was immediate; both eyes spun around and looked at the one who had dared to strike at its flesh. The stalker reeled its other claw back and thrust it out with lightning quickness.

  Fortunately, Lukey had already ripped his spear out and jumped away from the strike. He was already starting to regret messing with this beast as its massive claw snapped mere inches away from his body. That claw alone could kill him in one blow, and he needed to avoid it at all costs.

  Lukey scrambled away from the claw as he ran to the back of the stalker. Meanwhile, the abyssal creature kept its gaze locked on Lukey the entire time, tracking each of his movements as he wove around the stalker’s legs.

  The fisherman had lost his element of surprise but managed to take out a claw and a leg.

  Whether he ended up victorious or dead, it all depended on these next steps.