Chapter 62: Wild Attack
Triton Samudra stares intently into the dark abyss. He signals once, and he can feel something large slowly coming towards them. The entire pod has halted as he tries to decide what this strangely approaching phenomena coming to them. Arnaav holds onto Merrick's hand as they waited for any update of this suspenseful foreboding.
"Samudra?" Vanora says, "Should we not hide?"
"..." Samudra signals again. The upcoming entity is... No longer large... It's several, "We need move. Now."
"Alright," Vanora turned to the pod, "Keno-"
"Now! We must flee!" Samudra commanded. The Capricorn herded the pod like a running flock of sheep as they turned and began to swim as fast as they could.
Behind them came several devilish screams and roars.
Arnaav yelps as his paws tightens on Merrick's hand as he was yanked harshly as they started to jet forth. Merrick whipped his head around, and sees a rushing Shachihoko wildly bucking for them.
A Shachihoko? That shouldn't be such a big threat. They're mostly related to the lions and tigers of the lands. Sure, they're wild animals, and if you're careless around them they can be a problem, but it's unheard of for them to even attack prey at this time of day. But this one looks enraged, overwhelmed, even. It roars out as its large, thick flippers kick into the water, its diamond-like fangs shredding the sea as it flaps its powerful, bleeding tail-
"Oh Sea Mother!!!" Deilan exclaimed as a huge set of razor sharp fangs dove for the Shachihoko, narrowly missing it by mere inches before the injured beast howls ahead. A giant began to swim closer, or perhaps it's three monsters? Three colossal, grotesque creatures hiss and grumble as some of their many eyes locate the Kenovani Pod.
'Just as Father said,' Nerissa thought, gasping, and quickly snatching up her baby brother from a hooking projectile -- a strange, rock-solid hook seeping with a dark mist of poison, 'I did not want to believe it... But as he said, the Capricorn cannot always protect us...' She looked fearfully onto the trio of humongous Scyllas growling and looking over them, like three menacing dragon-like freaks about to disembowel them. Adra Hecalt cries uncontrollably as he clung onto Nerissa's chest. "Hold tightly, Brother!" She said before she twirls and speeds away.
Scylla. One of the biggest dangers of the entire ocean -- considered to be one of the ocean's most malevolent creatures, almost as evil as the Nalcious Eels. Legend says that the Scyllas descend from a Holsien Noita who wanted to create a more suitable Guardian than the Kraken, so she warped and twisted an early animal before it could mature, and her magic destroyed the animal's stability, and it turned into a monster. Nature and breeding took its course, and now the Scylla is a part of the ocean's deepest, darkest secrets.
It has four muscular legs that can tuck onto its body to make it able to swim easily through the water like a shark, can produce poisonous barbs that is able to launch from its nostrils, and has ten eyes along either side of its body, for a very wide field of vision. When it tucks its four limbs into its body, it instead lets loose a small array sharp tendrils that propels and stirs in the water as it uses its tail to push and shoot through at high speeds, but only when its limbs are tucked away. Each tentacle has a half-arrow nail attached, looking almost identical to its head for the sake of confusion and intimidation when cornered, which contains the same venom as its projectile barbs.
The Shachihoko roars pitifully as it swims as fast as it can, but cries out as it can sense one of the large, cage-like claws about to descend upon it.
"RRAAAGGHH!!"
A sharp, three-pronged force raced through the air, and knocked the Scylla's claw back as it sank into it, inducing a resonating roar of pain as Samudra goes to his weapon to fend off the monster. He grunts as he gives a loud array of signals and screeches to the half tiger/fish he had just rescued, before he allowed the Shachihoko to escape with its life.
"GO! NOW!!" He commanded. The second Scylla blurrs around the first, and opened up its jaws. The crab merman turns and screams in terror as a pair of buzzsaws snap him up, and crushed his hand-made flippers as it drove him up in the water.
"KARKOS!" Syrinx yells as she stretched out her arm as the Scylla ate him, "NO!" She gasps as a third set of teeth began to swim for her! She screams out before a forced knocked the third Scylla off-course. Deilan and an octopus mermaid, along with several other random octopi began to whirl about in a strategic formation, as a black cloud of ink began to form around the Scyllas.
The Capricorns circled the pod as they began to leave while the others fought them off. Another Scylla roars as it shoots for them.
'We've lost Karkos,' Razirah Ebba thinks as one of her shells lose a link, 'At this rate, Triton Samudra must summon Guardian Kraken. If not, perhaps Merrick can call upon Guardian Leviathan!' Ebba gasps before she dives down, just dodging a poison missile. The Scylla's tail thrashes and strikes part of the pod, before they were scattered about. Mermen signaled for every direction for another Capricorn, or any other large animal that can fight. Mermaids whip and swim in many directions, trying to strike with their weapons and arrows just to keep themselves alive, while a few others try to swim for safety.
Arnaav screams before Merrick's arms tighten around him and flies in a loop. Merrick screeches as he lets his harpoon shoot through the water, and into the Scylla's throat, and saw a silver spear jut out of the beast's neck. The demon bellows in pain, but it does not relent.
'No time!' Merrick took a deep breath, about to call the Leviathan, before he yelped instead as a claw flew out at him and Arnaav. The otter merman screams before Merrick's arms tighten around him and flies in a loop. Merrick screeches as he lets his harpoon shoot through the water, and into the Scylla's throat, and saw a silver spear jut out of the beast's neck. The demon bellows in pain, but it does not relent, and now it surges for the two of them.
'No!' He whips around, and swims as fast as he can, easily sensing that the Scylla is now chasing him, 'I must protect Arnaav!' Merrick thought as he raced into a large trench, wincing as he can hear the Scylla roaring behind him, his keen intuition commanding him to ascend up, just before twin poison barbs could hit him.
'Dammit!' He thinks as he looks back, and sees his weapon glinting from the Scylla's neck, 'Not like my weapon can help anyway, if sending it into its mouth couldn't stop it, it looks like I can't kill it with just a well-thought strike.' Merrick huffs as he became a flash of blue and silver along this cold, dark trap.
He growls as his eyes looked side-to-side at the barren walls of rock 'It's too cramped for Guardian Leviathan to appear here. Even if I did call it, it can't help me if it can't reach me here, let alone battle the Scylla.' He snarls he holds tightly to Arnaav as he swims faster than ever before.
'I can outrun it for now, but at this rate, it's either going to catch me or strike me down with its poison barbs.' He winces as he feels Arnaav crying and holding tightly, 'There's no where to hide..." He thinks as he takes in his blurring surroundings, 'I think these are the Tower Trenches. It doesn't matter, there is no where for me to hide here, not without being spotted anyway.'
Merrick dives into a tight spot, and then jets up at the last moment so the Scylla becomes momentarily stuck. He turns, and frowns as the crazy beast writhes in rage, breaking the narrow rock way before he swims faster.
'Those rock fragments were too flimsy. Could I possibly...' Merrick glances at the bedrock and structure of the trenches, 'No. Those there thin enough for it to slow it down, but every where else is too hard to be knocked back with enough force to break and trap it.'
Merrick kicks his tail hard as he feels a force of water blow around him, just missing the Scylla's head. 'I'm running out of options here!'
~~~
