The first sign that something was wrong came with a low rumble.
Jonah frowned, lifting his head from the glass container.
"What was that?" one of the goons asked nervously, clutching his rifle tighter.
Before Jonah could answer, the entire dock shuddered violently.
KER-SPLOOSH!
Then a column of water exploded from the lake beneath them, shooting nearly thirty feet into the air.
Through the curtain of falling water, a monstrous figure burst forth, it was none other than the Krakken.
CRASH!
A massive tentacle slams down onto the dock with crushing force, with enough force to split the dock and shake the whole cannery.
The windows shattered, and people in the cannery scrambled in panic.
"IT'S THE Krakken!"
someone yelled, stating the obvious as chaos erupted.
Some goons fled the scene while some goons picked their guns up aiming at the krakken and began shooting.
The cylindrical container teeters precariously before rolling onto the planks.
"My eggs!" Jonah's scream was filled with greed and fury.
He ran forward trying to catch the eggs—then froze at the sight of another tentacle lashing out from the water, this one curling around one of his men, yanking him underwater so fast the man barely had time to scream.
Jonah hesitated before retreating toward his mech. The cockpit sealed around him as he leaped into the suit.
BOOM!
Another tentacle hammered the dock, this one sending another goon flying.
Inside the cannery, Ben and Gwen froze mid-step like statues listening to the sound of breaking wood and terrified screams.
Dust poured from the ceiling as another impact shook the building.
"That... wasn't part of Rio's plan, or was it?" Ben asked, whispering to Gwen.
"Let's save Grandpa first," Gwen replied, grabbing Ben's hand as she moved forward. "We'll find out what's happening later."
They crept forward, peeking past a rusted conveyor belt. Two guards stood in front of a metal door marked "Storage."
They held guns in their arms, but their attention was clearly divided between the commotion outside and their posts.
Another CRASH shook the building as part of the roof collapsed inward. Dust rained from above, showering them with debris. One guard cursed and ran. The other followed seconds later, abandoning their post.
"Now!"
They darted forward, stopping in front of the door, it was a heavy metal door covered in rust. Both Ben and Gwen needed to use their full strength to slowly push it inside.
With a Screech the door opened up, revealing Grandpa Max bound to a chair.
His clothes were dirty and his face was bruised, but his eyes sharpened the moment he saw the kids.
"Kids—!"
He wanted to call them but a roar from outside drowned his voice.
The Krakken's tentacles had begun tearing the cannery apart, one of its tentacles slid across the roof, instantly opening up the sky as Moonlight flooded the room.
Gwen snatched a knife from the discarded materials nearby, quickly removing Max's bondage.
Meanwhile, outside.
The wooden and steel column supporting the half of the cannery above the lake could not withstand the pressure of the Krakken's attack, as they started to fall apart.
With continuous CLICK CLANG CLUCK, the lake-facing section of the cannery began to sink in the lake's depth.
The doer of all this was currently engaged in a fight with a mech suit moving nimbly with the help of a cable attached to a crane.
Jonah, now inside his mech suit, used a cable connected to a crane to swing around the Krakken, constantly leading it away from the dock and its egg.
As everything was unfolding, below the surface, something moved.
Deep in the water, a white-scaled figure moved.
A faint bioluminescent lamp glowed from its forehead, casting eerie light through the depths.
Then, with a sudden swing of its fish tail, the figure launched itself upward, with its sleek, white shape, scaled skin, and gleaming shark-like teeth, it swam in the water like a torpedo, crossing 10s of meters in a blink of a eye reaching the Krakken.
"CRUNCH."
Taking advantage of Jonah's momentary distraction when he was locked with the Krakken, the white figure jumped up and snapped its large shark-like teeth around the crane's cable effectively stopping him from moving.
Jonah barely had time to react to what had happened before the Krakken twisted in his grip, its massive body trying to shake him off.
But Jonah knew with no cable to anchor him, he had only one option—hold on.
He locked the mech's arms around the krakken's neck like a man clinging to a rampaging bull.
He knew if he let go, without being able to move he was only a sitting metal pile for the Krakken to munch on.
The white figure after cutting the line landed in the water once again disappearing within it.
The Krakken and Jonah were still at it, slowly getting more and more away from the cannery, Jonah's hydraulic arms constantly hammering at the back of the Krakken while the Krakken thrashed around trying to get rid of him.
The white figure–now revealed to have an upper body like a human with a fish face and lower body of a fish tail began circling them.
As the white-scaled figure became faster and faster a whirlpool began to form. Sucking in the nearby debris and wreckage on the lake as well as Jonah and the Krakken.
The white figure slowly controlling the whirlpool, by constantly swimming in circles around it, dragged the whirlpool towards the deeper parts of the lake, where the whirlpool became more and more massive.
Reaching a safe distance the white figure stopped operating the whirlpool leaving the Krakken and Jonah to duel.
The white figure didn't follow them.
Instead, it turned back toward the destroyed cannery and the drowning men.
"AAAHHHH"
"Save us, AAHHH"
Soon screams filled the air, as many of the goons who dropped into the lake because of the collapse of the cannery felt splitting pain in their limbs, soon the water surrounding them began turning red as broken limbs seemingly torn forcefully from the body began to surface.
Limbs were ripped away with grotesque cruelty, Some had their hands torn while some had their legs, and not a single person's body was left intact.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the carnage stopped.
No one died.
But no one escaped with their whole body, either.
The white figure watched from the depths as the people with their remaining limbs quickly grabbed onto something making their way toward shore, their blood staining the water behind them as they tried to get away from this deadly lake.
----
The silence after the screams was worse than the chaos.
Grandpa Max limped forward as Ben and Gwen supported him, taking him towards the RV from the back of the cannery.
Ben, not hearing any sound from behind, turned his head behind him asking "What happened? Why is it suddenly so quiet?"
Gwen yanked him back "That's not our problem, We need to get back to the bus."
Then within the silence, they made their way into the dense woods.
Behind Them.
A roar echoed across the lake. The Krakken had resurfaced a hundred yards out, its tentacles churning the water into a froth. Jonah's mech was nowhere to be seen.
As if summoned, the water beside the dock erupted.
SPLOOSH!
A familiar figure shot from the depths the same white figure who snapped Jonah's cable.
Under the moonlight, the figure's scales shone with a soft glow as his full appearance was revealed.
He was Ripjaws, Rio's aquatic alien form.
He was holding the very glass cylinder that contained the Krakken's egg.
As Rio stood on the shore surrounded by the destroyed cranny the lake's surface bulged. Something massive was rising.
The water parted like a curtain.
A massive figure easily five times the size of Ripjaws, appeared from the falling water curtain.
A jagged scar ran from her left eye down to gill slits that flared with each breath.
But her eyes were especially cold like they could freeze anything in place—black as the deep, with pupils that narrowed to knife-slits when they landed on Rio.
The creature's mouth opened, revealing rows of serrated teeth. When she spoke, the words came out garbled, half-growl but unmistakably clear to Rio:
Perhaps only he could understand her.
"Thief."
Rio's grip tightened on the container. "I was saving your eggs!"
A tentacle lashed out, smashing the remains of the dock.
"LIES!" Her roar shook the lake. "Like ALL surface-walkers!"
but Rio saw it, deep within those eyes was a flicker of hesitation.
Without a second delay, Rio moved.
With a twist of his claws, he popped the container open.
Rio gently picked them up.
Then, holding them in the Krakken's gaze, he extended his arms.
"Take them."
The lake went eerily still.
Slowly, so slowly, a tentacle uncoiled. The suckers brushed the eggs with delicacy only a mother would have before curling around them.
The Krakken cradled her eggs close to her body, seemingly relaxing a bit.
Rio turned around, showing his back to the krakken. "Go and hide, No more fighting."
Perhaps understanding the warning the Krakken gave Rio a final glare, before she with her eggs sank beneath the surface, her silhouette vanishing into the dark water.
Rio exhaled, his adrenaline and killing instinct faded as he made his way into the woods, after a flash of blue light and some time he appeared at the door of the RV reuniting with his family.
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Hey there! Thanks for reading my work! I hope this chapter is to your liking. Sorry if you expected more details. Also sorry if you felt it was still too much detail.
If these chapters are a mess of grammatical errors, please point it out and I will try to fix it.
I am currently not able to work on the book with the same care as I did before, as currently, I am suffering from a medical condition. I would like to ask for your pardon.
Thanks as always for your time, hope you have a fantastic day and please stay safe.