Aquata Cove Chapter 85: We Fight To Protect
"MERRICK! MERRICK!" Comes a loud, frantic voice. They both turn to see a panicking sailfish merman racing their way.
"Halio?" Merrick said as he turns to him. Kaiken's eyes easily sees the intricate black symbol on his left arm as he comes.
`A Coshiton...?'
"MERRICK! Thank the Sea Mother you are here!" He said, panicking, "Razirah Ebba sensed your link, and she sent me to find you! We need you right now!"
"What has happened??" He asked.
"The Kenovani is under attack! The dark depths have opened up, and an endless school of Nalcious Eels have swarmed us! We traveled above a nest, Merrick! Us and another pod of Pisciens! It is a plague of them!"
"No!" Kaiken said before his tail kicks very hard.
"Lets go!" Merrick says as he follows suit, matching his speed, while Halio shoots below them, out-swimming them and leading the way.
"RAHHH! HAAHH!" Samudra whips around endlessly around the horde. Nalcious Eels, everywhere, all of them slipping, biting, tearing into the merfolk. Nalcious Eels, one of the most vile, gluttonous animals in the ocean. Their blood-red eyes look for any living creature they can find, and rip them to shreds, regardless of anything. Even infants are indiscriminant with full-fledge savagery. Their body has thin spikes on both the top and bottom of their thin bodies. Orange spots align on either side of the body, leading from their eyes, all the way down to the tips of their tails. Brishen points his spear as he, Penina, and their child are backed into a rock. "... Eaahhh! GHH!" Brishen stabs and cuts an eel down as it lunges at him, before whipping his tail and striking down another one. "Gather! Closely!" Razirah Ebba called, the Scouts and the few meryins coming together in a small cluster. "No! Do not gather yourselves!" Razirah Denizyr called out to them, seeing the Coshitons huddle together. "You make yourselves a larger target!" "Hurry, together!" Ebba says. The non-combatants look in terror as one of the infinite eels jets for them. A paluga mermaid shrieks as one of the eels opens its jaws, right before a Capricorn bleats aggressively as it tackles it from the side! "Ehh-ehh-ehh-ehh!" A second Capricorn circles the cluster of merfolk, with Ebba residing above them. Arnaav flinches and hides behind a sunfish merman as he squeals with fear, shaking as the endless monsters snapped their jaws at them, just barely kept at bay by the brave and surprisingly agile Capricorns. "Now." Ebba closes her eyes, and claps her hands together. She focuses her energy directly below her, the links of the scouts and infants gradually entering a type of phase where the bonds are both strong and non-existent, extinguishing the very perception of their own presence. "Fools..." Denizyr dismisses as he can only dodge and attempt to navigate through the horde. Missiles of ice energy shoot and sew in and through the water, driving the eels away as Umiato turns herself into an aurora storm. She pants as her eyes try to distinguish from the many merfolk to the eels that easily outnumber them, both pods. She turns around, and gasps as she sees a particularly large eel jet for her, letting out a defensive scream before a three-pointed lance pierces RIGHT into it! A dark blue blur then cycles like a rabid disk until it hits the eel, slicing clean through! "Kaiken!" Umiato says as her mate takes his trident back, "There are too many, we cannot-" "We must get the non-combatants away from here quickly! The hunters and I will hold them off while you and the others leave!" "Kaiken, there is no way!" Umiato exclaims, suddenly seeing several eels at once, "Look out!" "Hhh!" Kaiken whips around, before a loud, raspy roar calls out as a savage sea serpent mermaid grabs the attention of the eels. She rips into one with her jaws, before stabbing into another with her hand pointed into a blade-like appendage. Two eels bite into her long tail, but she merely twists and butchers into them as if they are mere sponges. "Lacerta!" Merrick says as he swims to her. The sub-intellegent mermaid turns to him, her needle-like teeth barred as she glares at him and recognizes him. "S-Son..." Umiato breathes. "Where are the others?? Arnaav, where is he?!" Merrick askes. Lacerta gives another illegible cry as she points to the invisible dome below Ebba, accompanied by the Capricorns. Merrick sees the face of the young otter among all of the chaos. "Right, please be careful!" Lacerta shrieks again before she lashes forth with feral fury. "Son, why are you here?!" Umiato asks him, "It is not safe! I thought you were on the land-" "Behind you!" Merrick grabs his mother, and ducks them down, before Kaiken bashes his sharp arm-fin into an incoming eel. "We'll have to fight them off! I'll try and call Guardian Leviathan at the first chance I get! If not, Triton Samudra or Adra Hecolt will call Guardian Kraken!" "Who are you talking about!?" Kaiken demanded as he battles the nearby eels. "The Coshiton Triton and his Son, Father!" Merrick answered, "They are here with us!" "Ghhh!" Kaiken looks around, spotting a several different species of merfolk along with his own pod members, all of them fighting. "Tell your comrades to gather the scouts! Yours too! The hunters are doing all they can just to stay alive!" "That will not work!" Merrick yelled as he whips around his father, striking at an eel, "There are too many we cannot outrun them! Tell Razirah Denizyr to focus his power solely on the non-combatants! NOW!" "What will THAT do?!" "Just do it!" "Rrrrgghhh" Kaiken says as he blocks another eel. "Denizyr!" Umiato calls out, spotting the large, thick grey merman, frantically trying to gather himself around the swarm of ravenous eels, "Look to the scouts and babies! Focus your attention on them! Hurry!" "Noita Umiato!" Denizyr calls out, panicking as he tries to make his way to him, "I-I-I-I cannot- There is- I- Help I- GAHH!" A huge eel suddenly digs its fangs into his tail, "AHHH!" "DENIZYR!!" Kaiken roars out as another eel launches at his throat! Denizyr screams out as third, and then a fourth eel digs into him, "DENIZZYYYRRR!" Kaiken looks in horror as a cluster of eels writhe around, as a red mist started to glow around them. Rinami the purple mermaid feels a small impact inside herself as she watches the fellow mermaid fight to protect her, who also is hesitating from sudden feeling of isolation. "No..." Kaiken gazes with complete terror as more and more of his members "Hhh?!" Brishen suddenly feels... Different. Alone... He looks at his shell necklace, which up until now has been glowing and vibrating, before it stopped... "No, Denizyr!" He looks up, and spots almost a dozen eels digging into a dark red fog above them, "The pod... Where is the pod..." He asked, taking a moment to fight back two eels at once. He circled and whipped his tail to slash apart them, with his family shaking behind them. "I cannot... Feel anyone..." Brishen hushed, turning to his translucent mate, who is also looking at her fragment, and then looking at him with a clueless look, "Is this... Is this what Merrick felt?" "Brishen... What is going on?? Is the Razirah..." Penina asks with a dawning look of fear. "Fah... Father?" Brishen's daughter asked, "I feel alone..." "Denizyr... Has perished..." Brishen said as he backs up to his mate and child, "When the Razirah has perished, his ties to the entire pod is severed..." He said, looking up at the crimson frenzy, "He was always a stern one, but this..." His eyes glared with tearful anger. "DO NOT STOP!!" Kaiken roared as he started to race around, lashing and cutting down eel after eel, "WE ARE STILL TOGETHER! WE WILL SURVIVE THIS!!" He strikes and kills another eel as he commands his hunters, "KEEP FIGHTING!" Rinami screams as an eel opens its jaws, and grazed her back! "Adra Savarna, help!" She cried blindly. "They are panicking!" Kaiken said to himself, "They are losing focus, without Denizyr... They will..." "I... I do not know what to do." The fighting mermaid covering Rinami said, her core shaken completely as another Piscien comes to her aid, "Denizyr is gone... W-We are no longer connected... We are alone!" She hyperventilates as the blood-shot eyes of the monsters dive and swerve around her, "We will die!" She shrieked as an eel opens its jaws to her face! "NNHHH!" A hammer of a fist bashes into the eel, knocking it away from the three Piscien merfolk, seeing a mighty walrus merman with a garish black symbol on his back and one of his tusks broken off as he grabs and crush the eel after eel, "Crying in terror when things look scary... Are you legal merfolk really that complacent and pampered?" He growls. "HHH!" Rinami is suddenly grabbed and swept away. She can only see a cloud of black following her as yellow-pale flesh holder her, while a squid mermand propels himself with his tentacles. Deilan focuses on a single spot. "HNGH!" Brishen holds an eel at bay, his arms shaking as it bares down on him, before another eel crashes its teeth onto his spear, pushing him down, with only his own body between the eels and his family, "NNnnnnnooooo!" "Brishen!" Penina calls, too scared to move as the green merman fights with everything he's got. "I cannot..." He grunts, his arms burning like crazy as a third eel lunched at his weapon, "RNNHH!" "RHH!" A shiny, metal blade then pierces into one of the eels, before Merrick dives down, and whips his tail at another eel -- his fins are no where as sharp as a regular Navyn Tail because of his mother's genes, but he can force them back. Merrick jams his hand into the gills of an eel, making it cry out in rage, "Mindal! Now!" Brishen gasps as he looks, and sees a manta ray merman swoop in, and takes Penina holding the child in a fast glide. "Penina!" Brishen reached out. "FOCUS!" Merrick yelled as he drives the hook of his harpoon into another beast. He looks to the swarming horde, all of them, then to the trench where they are pouring out, like a bonfire on a forest, streaming up. `I... I came back to the ocean... To forget the land... I wanted to leave everything behind... Including my love...' Time slows around him as he gazes into the mass of death before him, `I... Still don't know what I want to do... If I want to die, this is as good an ending as any... Adam... I am sorry...' His eyes give a glimpses of tears as he closes them, taking a breath, and looking up, `I hope you can find another man to make you happy. You will not miss me, but I...' He huffs as he pushes down his emotions, `I will miss you, on the Shores of Light... Because I will not survive this... I love you... Adam...' Time moves faster again, before Merrick whips up, and darts around to let an eel crash its head into the reef rock, before stabbing it's head. He takes a sharp breath, and lets out a shrill roar at another eel coming at him, before jetting up at it, and piercing it with his harpoon! An orange Navyn merman holds two of the meryins as he tries to dodge the eels, looking wide-eyed as another eel aims for him, before a massive crab claw bashes into it, spotting a simplistic symbol on the crab mermaid's abdomen. Before he can say anything, the crab mermaid scuttles in front of him, as well as several different species of merfolk surrounds him, before spotting Rinami being delivered by a squid Holsien, and then seeing Penina coming from a flying manta ray. "Brishen!" Merrick yells. "Lets go!" He said as they both evade a pair of eels. Brishen flips his tail and guts into an eel, before Merrick incapacitates another one with his weapon, and kills it. Brishen clenches his jaws as he puts his whole arm down the throat of another eel, before making a blink-fast jerk motion, and his arm-fin cuts the eel from the inside! Brishen takes out a dagger made of a rock handle tied with a sharpened sea-carp scale. On instinct, Merrick lets fly his harpoon into an eel's head, and instantly kills it, before his hand grasps the scale dagger, and twirls through three eels to take his weapon back. "Merrick!" Brishen comes up beside him, and quickly wraps a rope of razor sharp thorns around Merrick's other arm, with a finely sharpened carp scale to cover over his arm. Over the years, Brishen has become extremely inventive with tools and weapons, really earning his title as the Theros Hunter. "You cannot survive on your movement alone." "I have for this long!" Merrick says as he spins, and rips into an eel with his arm of thorns. Umiato grits her teeth as she guides a cold current around her, focusing her state of mind into an unfamiliar hostile sense in order to fight. She never likes to fight in danger, she has always chosen to be the shield for her pod. They are scattered right now, she is unable to make any kind of wall shell to safeguard the others. Her eyes look to the sandy bottom, and gasps lightly as she sees the non-fighters being gathered together. The Coshitons surround them, while the glowing Capricorns evade and drive away the eels. More of the young ones and the non-aggressive Pisciens were being herded into the circle of rogues as Ebba swims to the top of them. "With what little we have," She says, "We WILL protect you!" An eel attempts to tackle her, only to have a narwhal mermaid stab it with her own spiral tooth, which was broken off of her head a long time ago, and now is used as a saber. Arnaav looks up from the cage-like structure of his allies at the swarm, shaking with terror as he watches them all. "They are safe..." Umiato breathes, before gasping, and swimming up to evade an eel. "What must we do to end this??" She asks as shards of ice orbit her arms. She looks in grieving anger as the eels start to dart and wriggle at her, "EnnnNNAAHHH!" Her beautiful voice echoes as she spins and lets out a wave of freeze, instantly solidifying and shattering the eels, like a destructive pearl-like nebula. The wave of her power sweeps over a mermaid, dusting off of her safely, instead destroying another eel. An eel swoops in, and closes its jaws on a Navyn, along with another eel taking a bite into him! "No!" Roin says, reaching out, before narrowly dodging another eel, he swims faster up, before he is tackled by the jaws! "AHHH! NOOOO!" "ROIN!" Samudra yells out, but watches helplessly as the dolphin merman is eaten alive. His insides dive tragically as he watches his ally disappear in a mixture of blood and elongated bodies. Roin was always an obnoxious type who never regretted killing one of his own kind, but he still deserved a chance! Samudra growls lowly as an eel suddenly tackles onto one of his heavily plated arms. He glares darkly as he turns his trident to the chewing beast, and slays it in a single strike. "Hhemm... Eeeng!" Arnaav shakes as he looks up, quivering madly as he looks onto the onslaught. There's so much blood, both from the fighting merfolk, and the countless eels. Looking over the crab mermaid's shoulder, he gasps as he sees Merrick! He's fighting up there, beside an emerald green merman! "Merrick!" On one hand, seeing Merrick gives the otter confidence as he watches Merrick's skillful conduct, looping and striking like it's nothing. But on the other hand, he's up there! He could be killed! Trembling from head to paw, Arnaav takes his survival knife, and his dagger, and climbs up from the crab. "... Arnaav?" His little footpaws then pushed himself up from the safety of the others. "Arnaav NO!!" Ebba shouted after him. "Heehhh! Ahhheehhh!" Arnaav frantically makes his way through the eels, swiping occasionally around and on him, getting only eye-hits on the eels that come near him. He cries and pants loudly with fear and deafening shock as he swims faster and faster, the foul stench of blood everywhere around him and stinging his eyes. It's not long before that blue and pearl Triton turns around and looks at him, "Merrick!" "Arnaav!!" Merrick gasps as he whips around, and kills off a following eel, "What are you doing?! Go back!!" "You will be killed! Come with m-" He squeaks in terror as he ducks his furry head and puts his arms around Merrick, before Brishen cuts down another eel. "You are too young to be here!" Merrick gasps as he growls, putting his arm around the otter, and striking away from the on-coming eels. Arnaav scurries up, and screams as he sinks his knives into an eel, tearing into it like twin fangs. "He can fight! We will watch after him!" Brishen said. "Arnaav, damn it!" Merrick growls as they keep fighting. "We are getting nowhere!" Vanora says as her glowing yellow power form protective ribbons with cycling spikes of venom, "Why as Samudra not called the Guardian yet??" "He is trying, Mother!" Nerissa answers, watching her father from afar fight against a bunch of the eels gnawing unsuccessfully onto his mighty, rock-hard body, "But he cannot gather his focus enough to call ti! And Brother is still unconscious with the others!" "This is madness!" Vanora fights as she lashes out with an arm of long thorns, taking extreme care that no merfolk is scratched by the spikes of her light, "They are going tire all of us at this rate! HH! DAUGHTER!!" "WHA-" Nerissa turns, before they see a flash of white, and a huge block of ice incases an eel. Savarna pants with panic as she whips around and around, her hands shining with light as she instantaneously freezes each eel as it comes to her. "M-Mother! Where are you?? Mother!" She cries out, seeing nothing but the Nalcious eels circle around her. "Arctic Veil!" Vanora calls out, "Master your fear! Do not let it consume you!" Savarna is unable to hear her, breathing out constantly as she tries to stay alive. Brishen grunts as an eel bites his arm, and forces him backward! "Brishen!" Merrick calls out, darting around. "STOP! Look after the Amnien!" Brishen said as he takes out yet another short blade, and begins to fillet into the eel, "I will be fine!" He yells while being taken deep into the frenzy. Merrick whips around, and yells out as he then goes up, launching his harpoon at another monster about to eat Arnaav, before swoop, and tackling it down! Arnaav backflips through the water, stabbing into an eel with one knife, before piercing into its brain with the other blade. Yunmaj the angelfish merman echoes an invasive sound to drive the eels away from, him, flapping his tail as he looks around in horror. "AAAAHH!" He screams out as an eel bites his arm! "NNNN!" With one chomp, the eel bites his arm right off! "NOOOOO!" SNNN! A blink of a dark blur, and the eel is sliced clean through. Yunmaj looks, and sees a large Navyn Tail merman rolling in the water to a slow, before he kicks forward, and cuts deeply through another eel in between throwing his trident at another. "Do not stop moving!" He yells out, "Or the Nalcious will over take you!" Yunmaj cries in total shock, looking at the red wisps of what used to be his limb. "My arm! My aarrrmmm!" "Keep going!" Kaiken commanded before he snaps his body forth in another lightning-fast fell swoop. Of course, Navyn Tails are known as one the speed-based variety of merfolk, but their asset lays in the sharpness of their arms and tails. With a weapon to attack an enemy, they can race with a burst of speed, and use the fins on their arms and tailfins as a sort of blade to whip and cut into targets. Even in one spot, they can whip and whirl their lean bodies for several swift dices. Arnaav squeaks and growls with intense panic, partly regretting his decision to back Merrick up. His young mind laments dramatically as his body is getting tired, his adrenaline overtaking him as he tries to focus on the monsters that come at him alone. He whirls around, and jolts with shock as he sees a cocoon of circling eels around a young white mermaid, creating large blocks of ice, but doing very little to make any progress. "Merrick! Over there!" Arnaav calls out. Merrick turns, and gasps as he sees Savarna, trapped in the endless barrage of eels. "Sister!" "You have to help her!" Arnaav yells, whipping back, and retreating a couple of feet. Merrick pants as he looks about, and spots Jegola the octopus mermaid nearby. She releases her ink as she fights back. She spots Arnaav, and propels right over to protect him. "Merrick, GO!" Arnaav squealed, narrowly dodging another eel at his leg. "No..." Umiato utters as she looks upon her daughter. The eels have isolated her a fair distance from the pod, "She is panicking. She will exhaust herself!" Umiato takes an attempt to go to her, but these demons keep getting in her way. "Out of my SIGHT!" She lashes them with her shattering magic as she swims forward, but is still plagued by the horrific eels. "No, this cannot be! DAUGHTER!" She called out. "Hhh Hhh Hhh, ULLHH!" Savarna freezes another eel, only to have two take its place! She cries as she grows weak and terrified, overwhelmed completely by the sheer number. "Help me... Mother! Fatherrrr!" She cries, her power sparking feebly around her arms, the eels glaring down at her malevolently as they come closer. "EEEEEEERRRHHHHHYYYAA!" A shrill noise divided the cage of eels as a bright blue flash whips in there. Savarna gasps and huffs with hope as 5 eels are slain in one hit! "Broh-Brother!!" Merrick clenches his teeth as he bares his wrath on the eels, his weapon dancing to his body as he slashes with one of Brishen's dagger, gashes another with his spiked arm, and dispatching another beast with his spear. "Sister! Stay close!" `His eyes...' Savarna thought, seeing Merrick's aura flare and blaze with his energy, his eyes glimpsing his soul in full throttle as he battles away at the horde. `He is not dead...' She weeps, `He is not dead anymo-' "AEH!" She screams, before freezing another eel solid. "Sister, keep your energy small and wondering! Like Mother!" "Yes!" She said, allowing the ice power to become like a swarm of homing arrows, immobilizing each eel it strikes. She looks to Merrick, struggling with the weapons. She closes her eyes, and channels some of her power to Merrick. "What?" Merrick looks to his arms, his short fins on his forearms are extending into blades, as well as the edges of his tailfin. "Ennhh..." Savarna tries to focus both on the eels, and the aid to Merrick's body, as he now becomes even more versatile in his combat. This is proving harder than she thought. "Ennh! Gulhh!" Samudra grunts deeply as the many eels tackle and push onto his very hard shell, "It is no use... Gnnhhh!" He feels himself pinned to the sand by the multitude of eels trying to dig at his thick body, "I cannot call the Guardian... If Son does not wake up... Where is Merrick?? And the Triton of THIS pod, why has he not called their Guardian??" Arnaav slashes and spins, turning his head to check Merrick and his sister. It's not looking good -- Merrick is thinning out the numbers, while Savarna is freezing the others, but like with everyone else, the monsters just keep coming. "They are in trouble!" Arnaav pants as he pushes up on the body of an eel, and stabbed into another one, patting his thick tail up. CULLKK! "AAAAAEEEHHHHH!" Arnaav screams at the top of his lungs, a huge eel suddenly sinking its fangs right into his stomach! "HHH?!" Merrick looks with terror, seeing that little otter inside the eel's mouth, shaking him about, "ARNAAAAAAAAV!" Merrick jets forth, but his blocked by the eels. Another row of fangs bite onto his thorned arm, the eel irking and biting down. Merrick's sapphires lock down onto the eel on him. The reflection of those devil eyes flash several faces before his mind. Keith the homophobic guard. Static crashes inside his head as the eel bit harder, before it changed to Kaiser's images. Nigel sneers at him as the eel snarls at him. Then the judge who condemned Adam, and the two men who were pardoned and rewarded for their attempted murder! "RrrrrrRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Suddenly horns of ice shoots through the eel's eyes and gills, before Merrick turns into a blue twister, and turns the eel into ribbons! `Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!!!' Merrick ranted in his head, `FUCK THIS GODDAMN WORLD!!!' "AAAHHHHH!!" The ice on Merrick's tail and arm fins turn into curved swords as Merrick's rampage turns into a flurry of carnage. Savarna gasps as she sees Merrick's aura burst into white fire, his soul burning with absolute fury! All she can see is sheer destruction inside her brother, holding her staff as she descends slowly down, watching and whipping around as he pierces though their cloud of blood and monsters. `His anger...' Savarna thought with ear, `It's distorting my power... It's almost yanking it out of my body.' "Br... Brother..." Savarna said weakly. "DO. NOT. STOP!!!" Merrick shouted, his horrible rage striking fear into his little sister's heart. He looks so much like a demon... "AHHHH! HLLGGG!" Arnaav screams as his vision completely blurs in his delirium, shrieking nonstop as the eel opens its mouth, and plunges deeper! "AAAHAAAHHHHHHOOOOO!!" GLK! CRK! The eel suddenly stops moving, but instead is quivering. "Urrrrrggghhhh!!!" Sounds a deep voice while Arnaav squirms wildly as he oozes blood everywhere, gagging and crying as a pair of large hands pry the eel's jaws open. The eel wiggles violently as the hands forced its mouth open, a keen cracking sound being heard, "HHHHRRRHHH!" Kaiken forces those jaws to open, and then breaks the eel's jaw entirely in one harsh crackle. "Oh no! NO!" Brishen sees the floating otter twitching before the Triton, before he jets up, and takes him. "Stay with me! Stay with me, Amnien!" Kaiken looks with shock at the young otter, the poor thing gagging and choking on his own blood, his arm reaching and ragging beside him trying to point to the horde Merrick has. Kaiken gasped and slain the next few eels to come their way, shielding Brishen and Arnaav from several more, looking back at the suffering otter, and at the symbol on his chest. "That is..." That's the same little otter he bellowed at... All those years ago... A Coshiton so young, and he treated him like an evil deviant. And now here he is... He's still so small... "No! Stay with me! Hold on, please!" Brishen begged as Arnaav continues to jerk and gurgle. Brishen's eyes immediately spots a lionfish mermaid, and another one with a more bluish color and thick armored arms, both of them letting off light to fend off the eels. "THERE!" He jets forward to those mermaids, dipping and dodging the eels, Arnaav's blood leaving a trail, but is diluted with all the other blood, causing a few of the eels to start attacking each other. "HELP! I NEED HELP!" Brishen yells as he goes to the younger mermaid. Nerissa turns, and gasps in completely shock as she sees Arnaav twitching and writing in the green Navyn's arms, "Arnaav!!" "Please, save him!" Brishen pleaded, almost falling into tears with each heartbreaking gag the boy makes, "He is too young! Please!" "I have him!" Nerissa exclaims as both of her arms becomes consumed in light, and she takes Arnaav, and dives down. Arnaav gasps as his adrenaline keeps him awake through this ordeal. Merrick rips into one eel, then another, and then three more, shouting wildly as he mauls and disembowels the eels after that. Savarna looks with terror as she sees the ice and blue beast before her. She shakes in fear as Merrick races in circles, giving random strikes in every direction, wasting nothing in his movements, his eyes... The sapphires aren't there. His eyes hold nothing but primal rage. Her hand covers her mouth while her staff shakes in the other, her connection to the ice on his body becoming unstable. `Brother.' She wept, watching Merrick slaughter creature after creature, `This is not my Brother.' "I have had enough of this!" Umiato says as she gives one final whirl of her body, sending another twin waves of glittering diamond dust, freezing and instantly shattering any and all nearby eels. Her thumbs, index and pinky fingers meet while her middle and ring knuckles curl against each other. "This is MY will now." She said, her veil fins shimmer and glow like an aurora borealis, "I will not fight. No more. My soul will take the weak, and let them hurt no more!" She closes her eyes, and opens them up to show they are bursting with light. Orbs of light shoot and spiral away from her body, leaving trails of beautiful, curling lines that race and dance through the water like elegant surges of white lightning. Yunmaj pants as he struggles to swim, trying to reach Ebba and the others, terribly unbalanced due to his missing arm, swiping desperately to pull himself away, before an eel comes right beside him! "NAHHH!" ~Snnngghhh~ "AH!" Yunmaj flinches and squirms, suddenly finding himself surrounded in a sphere of graceful curls, solidifying into a thin crystal cage. Several eels attack Yunmaj's sphere, only having bits of their teeth breaking here and there. A dark blue Navyn Tail pants as she takes another mermaid by the hand, trying to keep their heads low from the bristling horde, a few rabid glares of red eyes, and a rush of orange dots, and they scream, before they are blind-sighted by a rush of cold light. The mermaids gasp as they find themselves encased by a sparkling ice cage. "Nnnhhh..." Samudra grunts. At least 20 eels are digging into his shell now. He clenches his eyes, feeling his own armored body about to break. "So... This is... Where... Hhh?!" He feels a very keen chill run under his body. The sheer cold slithers and race around his body, before he is blinded by a flash of light, and he suddenly feels so much lighter. He gasps as he looks up, seeing himself in a dome of elegant ice. "This ice... The style..." He says, putting his rock-like fingers to the beautiful spirals of the growing ice, "This is just like when Merrick..." His memories go way back to several years ago, when Merrick and Arnaav were trapped on the Sazae Graveyard, and all they found was a tower of ice sculpted in angelic curves. He turns around, and sees the Arctic Veil mermaid above the horde, lines and bursts of light coming from her body, "Is she his Mother, the Noita??" He asked in amazement. Umiato's light shines as more bolts of ice shoot from her, locating the most wounded first, encasing her members as well as the Coshitons in a protective sphere of ice. The orbs rush themselves through the fray, instantly tracking down those who have lost blood and energy. An eel flies up behind her, opening its fangs before it dives upon her. "Worthless..." She hissed. Just when the eel's teeth grazed her delicate, pearly flesh, it was immediately sent asunder by a protective cage of her own! "If we cannot slay them all... I will protect every single one of us!" Umiato says as another sphere of light flies to the group of non-combatants, and exploded into a magnificently carved dome of ornate crystal, while the Capricorns still circle around them. "I will hold them all in my light until these wretched monsters devour themselves..." Umiato said angrily as glowing, curving frost started to connect the spheres, like a large, white tree spiraling up to her, "I will protect us for an entire moon if that is what it takes!" Arnaav breathes and whimpers out loud as his arms secure around Nerissa as she tries to take him to a safe point within this battle, unable to immediately find the protective circle of her allies, all the while panting as her vision blurs. Finally, the Coshiton Adra finds a rock that is away from the school of ravenous eels, where she places him down, panting loudly, "You... You are safe... Hhh... Hhh..." Having using so much offensive power, AND a huge surge of healing took a major toll on her overall. "Hhh!! A-Adra Neri-Nerissa!" Arnaav coughs violently, trying to hold his arm out, "Look out!" "Hhh?!" Nerissa looks, and barely has enough time to hold her plated forearms up with a small shield of yellow and bronze spikes before an eel descended upon her! "Noooo!" Arnaav squeals as he holds his little arm towards her, before clutching onto the rock, and coughing horribly. "Ghh! Hhhh... Hhhh..." Kaiken pants, looking at the everrising tide of eels coming from the depths, as if infinity truly is their current number. They just keep coming! They won't stop! And all of them have a ravenous hunger that can never be sated. He looked deep inside himself, his throat growling weakly, before he too chocked a little. "I... I do not have the strength..." He muttered weakly, `I have been fighting and signaling for too long... I do not have the strength to call the Guardian...' He kicks his tail up, and strikes down several eels at once, whipping his tail, and cutting down deep into another one. "Son..." He said under his breath, now choosing evasive tactics to conserve what energy he has left, to last as long as he can, `It is up to you... Hurry and call the Guardian..." "RAHHH! HAAHH! GHHH!" Merrick's berserk rage continues to blaze inside him as he tears through one eel after another, not able to stop as much as they seem to dwindle in numbers. Savarna hyperventilates as channeling her power to Merrick's limbs AND fending off the incoming eels prove to be too much. "HhhHHhHHHHHhhhhHH, g-aahhh!" Suddenly her link to Merrick breaks, and suddenly, the jagged and smoothly pointed ice blades on Merrick's tail and arms shatter into shards. "What?!" He looks upon himself, before swiping his harpoon to fend off several eels away. "I am sorry Brother, I am sorry!" Savarna says in complete hysteria, "I cannot go on! I-I-I-I-" "Sister!" Merrick whips himself over to her, and stabs into an eel before it can touch her. Merrick looks up to the storm of monsters, holding his weapon at the ready, before cycling around her, his mind spinning several miles a minute, and unable to focus on anything else. "Nhnnn!" Umiato flinches as her brain feels a sudden strain pushed into her brain, and pulls inside of her body, "No... No! I must hold them!" The elegant ice cages waver as the branches of her power weaken as the eels bite and chomp on her solid magic, "It is too much! I cannot..." She closes her eyes as she tries to focus. "Hhh?!" Noita Vanora sees the blinking ice around her, her eyes following up to their source, and perceives a struggling white mermaid above the entire horde. "She needs help." She said, before whirling around, and dipping down. The lionfish mermaid swims forth, and finds a strong, solid block of frost. With a glowing hand, Vanora slammed down upon it! She grunts and winces and screams for a brief moment, as does Umiato, who feels a very strange shock buzz madly inside her! In a flash of a moment, glowing yellow and black spikes of light shoot from every bit of the outside ice! The sharp protrusions sting and stun many of the eels, before Vanora's hand is thrown right off of the ice, and the spikes disappear. "Nnnhhh! Come now..." Umiato winces as the orbs get significantly slower, reaching one member after another, connecting to each other, and holding up against the force of those jaws, "There are too many..." She clutches onto her head as she pushes the very task to the front of her forehead. The gnawing and chomping of the eels is like a separate headache that hits into her mind, hammering, ripping, tackling her psyche as she tries to hold them back. "Hh?!" Several exhausted hunters look with fear as bits of ice break from their crystalline cage as the eels gnaw and group against them, "No! Noita Umiato, please hold on!" Vanora pants harshly as her sharp missiles grow fewer and weak, one of them being crunched into dust by an adult Nalcious. She grunts as she channels her energy into her many long spines in a last-resort effort just to keep them off of her back. Nerissa is backed into a collection of rocks, holding up her own net-like wall of poisonous spines to shield herself from the bashing creatures. Merrick shouts as he fights back at the eels, the attacks getting less frequent, but the number still climbing and him and his sister. "This... This is not going to end..." He said. For the moment the eels stop attacking them, instead completely blocking his light of sight in another cocoon of cycling eels, all of them leering at him with malicious gluttony, like a flock of carnivorous vultures gloating over the battle's outcome. `Here I am... Once again...' Merrick thought, time slowing down again, `I don't know why I cam back to the ocean... As Father said, maybe to run away? I just wanted to forget what happened. I wanted to leave behind those memories... I suppose I did want to die...' Savarna cries behind Merrick as she buries her face into his back. `And now, now that I am facing the end of this life, now all I want is to hold out longer, so that I may find some other answer, how or what should I do... Maybe even go back to the land, and see if Adam can remember me if I come see him everyday... Maybe he'll remember me again...?' Merrick bows his head, his weapon pointing downward. `But now... I will never have that chance... I knew I was never going to survive this battle... So why am I so let down?' Merrick feels a sloth despair pull inside him, `I guess I hoped in the back of my mind that I would somehow make it out of this...' Merrick looks back up to the approaching wall of eels. `It's as Father said. I failed as a Triton, I abandoned the man I love, and I cannot even make any true difference in protecting the ones I hold dear... I gave into the darkness, and this is my penalty. Even when I allowed my anger to turn me into a monster, I am still no longer able to fight anymore...' The eels sneer at the two merfolk, the sobbing of the mermaid whetting their appetite, while the silence of the merman satisfies their lure to circle closer. `Adam...' For a moment, Merrick remembers a few days ago, when he held Adam's hand. That man looked right into Merrick's eyes and... He smiled. He smiled right at him, and held his hand tighter. Merrick's mouth gave a small smile itself as his eyes gave a slip of glittering mist. "Adam. I love you." "Brother..." Savarna cried, "I am scared..." "Sister..." Merrick turned and held her in his arms, one hand still holding his harpoon, and the other scratched slightly from Brishen's invention. "I am sorry..." "Brother... Brother...!" Savarna clutches onto him as she sobs freely, terrified beyond belief, feeling the eels press further on them. "Hnnnhh!" Umiato's crystal cages break in bigger chunks, unable to keep them together. She's used up to much of her power destroying the eels to keep up this many protective spheres. Her eyes open, and gasps lightly as she sees the auras of her children far to the right. She reaches her hand out, and let out several weak orbs down to them. Kaiken looks, seeing his wife pushing more of her power to a cluster of eels circling each other, before his eyes catch a glimpse of Merrick and Savarna, "No...!" He swims forward, before both of his arms were bit into by a pair of jaws, "Nooo!" He kicks his tail harshly, pushing through very slowly. His stomach sinks as he realizes he will never make it in time. Umiato's eyes flow with tears as the orbs grow more and more faint, seeing the life forces of the Adras. She can make out Merrick's form hugging Savarna, and herself holding onto him in turn. "My children..." Umiato says weakly, blinking, and for that moment, sees a small merman, holding a very short trident, with his little arms holding a tiny mermaid, crying into him, before she blinks, and sees them as they are, "My babies..." Arnaav looks with terror as he looks at the massive horde, "No..." The mighty fish Triton who once cursed him, and then pried him free of the eel's mouth is now fighting with sheer force just to move, "No..." The eels are beginning to overwhelm Razirah Ebba and the other merfolk hiding there, the scouts and the meryins cowering in fear as Capricorns are unable to deter them any longer. "No..." Vanora is turning to avoid the incoming tackles, one by one. "No..." Merrick can no longer be seen, or his sister. The trench keeps flaring with more eels. "No..." Umiato breaks, and her ice formations break apart completely, unable to hold them any longer. Arnaav's eyes dilate as something huge pushes in his gut. His throat closes as his head reflexes down, before his spine erects, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" His high-pitched voice echoes loudly into the ocean, crying out a very young roar that shakes every living thing. DNNNNNNN "NOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Arnaav cries out, his insides going on fire as he strains himself, unable to control anything, really. "WhhhhhLLLLLLLLLL!" A low, loud whine sounds from the vast depths. "What!" Kaiken looks as the teeth suddenly release his arms. The Nalcious eels are now in a whole different frenzy as the young voice keeps a thorough call. His eyes see a huge mass rotating in the distance, before also noting the water as well as bits and pieces and carnage are moving deliberately away. "One of the Guardians! Which one?!" He looked around, signaling to locate the sources of the call, before he locked onto the young otter boy. "Him! He is a Triton?!" "NOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Arnaav calls again, before doubling over onto the rock, coughing and hacking violently. His insides are still in agony. "WHHHLLLLLLLLL! UUUUUUUUMMMMMMGGGGGG!" Comes another mighty song from the deep. The eels swim all around, now no longer interested in the merfolk as a great gravitational pull was instilled into the area. Umiato undulates weakly, moaning until Nerissa races beside her. Tucking one of Umiato's arms over her head, the two mermaids swim lower to the others. "Guardian Charybdis...!" Vanora said as she looks into the developing vortex. "I... I still have power left!" She looks to the trench were the eels are spawning. She growls melodiously as every single fin on her body flares up. Swimming over to the gap of eels, Vanora's spines now begins to shoot shining yellow bullets all around her. The shots race and scatter, her pin-point accuracy spotting every single eel in sight, even those trying to escape. The bullets of poison pierce into their targets, quickly paralyzing the eels before falling to the rising current of the whirlpool. "Brother!" Savarna shouted. Merrick gasped as he looks up from her shoulder, and sees a large, whale-like creature spinning in the far distance, at the end of a growing whirlpool. He also notices all of the eels being drawn in, helplessly struggling in the spiraling drain. "This is not good." Merrick said. "We are too close!" He then holds her tighter, and starts to kick his tail as hard as he can! Kaiken stabs the stand with his trident, looking over his shoulder, feeling his own muscle-heavy body being pulled. "Why is it trying to swallow us?!" He pondered aloud. He spots Arnaav on the high rock, clutching for dear life. "Grrrggghhh! He has not tempered his command! HUNTERS!!" He called out, "Collect the others! Hurry to the Coshitons!!" With that, he leaves his trident firmly mounted and immobile, before whipping like a bolt. The faster of the hunters race and dart about to gather who ever is left. Even with the distance put between them and Charybdis, they are still needing to swim constantly to not be sucked in. Samudra grunts as he tries to push himself up, his body still wracked with pain, feeling himself drift backwards, until Brishen tucks one of his arms over his head, as does a few other Navyns until they are able to carry the heavy turtle Triton. Umiato closes her eyes as she gathers her remaining energy, "Hnnhhh... Annhh!" Her light shines as she casts a large, sparkling coral branch of ice! Her graceful power reaches and twirls itself, reaching out and wide, just when several merfolk gave in to exhaustion, and landed right into the crystal structure. "Son?? Daughter??" Umiato called out to the others, her eyes sifting through the many auras, "I cannot see them!" She turns around, and gasps as she sees them. Merrick growls and grunts as his tail starts to burn with fatigue, flapping his fins as hard as he can, but is fighting a losing battle. Savarna holds on to him as she too kicks her tail hard, both of them moving backward as the many eels, both dead and alive, spiral down the vortex. Finally, the blood and the creatures are clearing away. "No!" Umiato then kicks her tail fast. "Umiato!!" Kaiken called after her. The white frost magic connects Umiato's body with the diamond net pulls her down a little. She reaches out her hand, and sends an orb of light towards the two of them. "Get the rest, Kaiken!" Umiato called back, indicated the last few merfolk remaining, trying to fight the current. Kaiken growls as he then jets forth towards a straggling seahorse mermaid. "No... No!" Merrick swims as hard as he can, holding his sister close as they fight the barrage of the current. "Brother! Look!" Savarna yells. Merrick looks, and immediately spots his mother, coming for them, reaching out for them. Merrick immediately swerves to the side to align with Umiato's approach. "Sister!" Merrick shouted. Savarna stretched out her arm, and sends her own trail of icy power towards the Noita. `I am too far...' Umiato lamented, her eyes seeping with white mist, `I... I will not reach them...' Kaiken tucks the last merman into the crystal coral, and looks up. Kaiken snarls as Arnaav remains on that upper rock, still doing nothing. Kaiken kicks his tail, and whips at high speeds to the baby otter, his fins cutting through the water as he shoots like a dark blue arrow, jolting sideways, right before taking to the rock. "Ahghghghghghg!" Arnaav sobs uncontrollably, hold his little arms onto the rock, and pushing his face to the surface. He just wants it all to stop, he's so scared, and he still feels sick. Suddenly, Kaiken's strong arms land onto the rock, "Call it off! NOW!" "Ahghghghgh! Ghaallhhh!" "Stop crying, Amnien! You summoned, but you did not guide the Guardian, and now it will swallow us all if you do nothing!" "I-I do not know what to doooo!" Arnaav cried out, "Make it all stop! Just make it stop!" "I CANNOT!" Kaiken braced himself as another sweep comes over him, as the whirlpool gets stronger, "Guardian Charybdis will obey no one else! You must tell it to stop!" "I cannot! I do not know how!" Arnaav sobbed, "My body is hurting so much!" "You have to! Did you Father teach you nothing?!" Kaiken shouted. The otter cried as he struggles, his eyes clenching as he holds on, "Without a guide, a Guardian will keep fighting for an entire moon! If you do nothing, we all will perish!" "Wha-What do I dooo?!" Arnaav asked desperately, "AEEEHHH!" He screams as he looses his footing, flying off, but not before Kaiken grabs his leg, and pulls him back down. "You must call out to it! Roar as loud as it can! It must hear you!!" Kaiken gasps as he can see Merrick and Savarna, barely inches from the depths of the whirlpool, "CALL IT OFF NOW!" Kaiken holds Arnaav in place. The poor otter pants and cries as he looks to the spinning mass, hyperventilating as doubts and fear claw at his head. "DO NOT QUESTION ITS OBEDIENCE!" Kaiken yelled, the noise everywhere getting louder, "IT WILL DO AS YOU COMMAND!!" Arnaav coughs, gagging with emotion, before he looks at the massive creature and the spiraling wall of water. "Haahh... AHhhhkkkkhh! STOOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHH!!" His voice releases a young howl, echoing once again across the immediate sea. "WIIIILLLLHHHHHH!" Charybdis whines right back out. -KWUUUNG- A loud, and forceful shockwave erupts from the whirlpool! Kaiken gasps as he looks to see Umiato's ice coral shatter into pieces, and everyone forced forward, with the initial whirlpool having been eased down by a lot, but still with so much force remaining. Charybdis, an enormous, dark purple whale titan, bigger than a Blue Whale, slows its spin, its four huge flippers twirling with its body as it closes its colossal mouth. Water propels its revesred spinning from its 70 blowholes all around its body as it gains speed again, expelling a different current to undo its previous vortex. -KWUUUNG- Another shockwave sounds from inside Charybdis, striking the vast area with a sound assault to further stun the water from any further movement. "AAaaauuuuuullllllllll..." It sounded deeply as its calm eyes look up, as if waiting for further instructions. Arnaav's gagging and coughing breaks what silence there is, his throat sore beyond belief, as well as his insides feeling horribly sick, as he is still recovering. "Amnien." Kaiken said softly, "Amnien..." He puts a hand onto Arnaav's shoulder as he jerks and chokes, before a mermaid swims up to them, another Amnien, but larger with shells all around her body. Ebba picks up Arnaav, giving Kaiken an estranged look. Arnaav tucks his arms around her before she turns, and swims down. "Umiato." Kaiken jets up, and dives down, looking at the scattered merfolk, "Umiato?!" He calls out. "UMIATO!!" He whips around, his keen eyes searching desperately for his wife, son and daughter. He bolts at high speed, looking all around, signaling erratically. "UMI-" He stops, finally finding her, in view in front of Charybdis. Umiato cries constantly, her face tucked between two other faces, and her arms holding very tightly to Merrick and Savarna, her veils and tail swaying as she holds them tight. Merrick huffs as he holds his mother, as does Savarna, trying in vain not to cry too. "I almost lost you again," Umiato wept as she holds her children, "I almost lost you both again..." She sobs as she hugs them tighter. Kaiken comes up to them, and looks sadly onto the three of them. He's already felt a great loss a few times... To feel the possibility of it all over again... "Sea Mother bless us..." He puts his hands onto Savarna and Merrick, his insides quivering as he comes closer, bowing his head onto Umiato's, his strong arms moving onto his two children.