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The knights below had Grandpa Arlet in custody under Enoch's orders from above. He'd survived the fall, barely; a stroke of luck that felt more like a curse now. He had his arms wrenched behind his back while now spotting a broken leg is being made to kneel on the cold ravine ground. Ember was snarling a good distance ahead of him, fighting against the chains they'd thrown around his muzzle and limbs.
The Vulpimancer's sonic flaps were pressed flat against his head, his whole body straining against the metal restraints. A knight had his boot planted on Ember's neck, keeping him pinned, while two more struggled with the chains around his powerful legs. Every few seconds, the creature would manage to thrash, nearly throwing them off, and they'd tighten their grip, cursing and kicking at the beast that had cost them so much in just a week.
Uncomfortable with his position, the old wrecker used his good leg to shift his leg to sit on the ground. That sudden movement attracted attention to him. Anya stood over Grandpa Arlet with her laser gun pressed against his temple, though it was shaking from barely contained rage.
"Don't even try it," she hissed with a low and vicious voice. "You were very lucky to be alive. I wish that fall had killed you."
Grandpa Arlet said nothing. His eyes were fixed on the ravine wall above; on the figures he could just barely make out in the fading light. Enoch had the boy. Enoch was going to take the Omnitrix. After everything, after all these years, it was going to end like this.
"You deaf old man?" Anya's voice cracked, pressing the gun harder against his skull. "Or has old age impaired your hearing."
Still, Grandpa Arlet didn't answer. That was when a loud noise stopped everyone in their tracks. It erupted from the ravine's cliff top, a column of emerald energy was lighting up the canyon walls, that light faded as quickly as it had come, there was nothing but ringing silence and the afterimage burned into everyone's retinas at the moment. Then something splashed into the river, thirty meters downstream. But the glowing device on the thing gave away who it was.
"The boy!" someone shouted. "He fell—he's in the water!"
Anya's gun wavered, her attention torn between her prisoner and the river. Grandpa Arlet's eyes were still fixed on the spot where Eren had fallen.
So far there's only been ripples spreading outward, but nothing else showed sign of life aside from a flash of green then utter stillness.
"The changeling has turned again. Search the river!" the veteran knight bellowed, releasing his grip on Ember's chains and giving it to another knight. "Don't let him get away! He can't have gone far!"
Half the remaining knights broke formation, rushing toward the water's edge. They peered into the dark current with their laser guns raised and ready, scanning for any sign of the boy. The river was surprisingly deep here, leading outwards to the upper grounds ahead.
"I don't see anything—"
"He went under right here, I saw it—"
"Maybe he drowned. Maybe the fall killed him—"
"Did you miss the green light you idiot?! Check downstream! He could have been carried—"
A knight leaned out over the water, sweeping his gun back and forth, straining his eyes to find any movement. That was something rose from the water behind him.
It was fast, impossibly fast. A hand, pale and webbed and tipped with claws that gleamed wetly in the fading light, shot up and closed around the knight's face. The fingers covered nearly his whole face, muffling his scream before it could fully form. And then he was gone, dragged under the river surface with a splash that sent ripples racing across the river.
"KURT!"
Another knight rushed forward, his gun raised, his finger on the trigger. He peered into the water, trying to see past the churning surface, trying to find his comrade and what in King Fritz's name had just happened.
A hand closed around his ankle. He had time for one choked cry before he was yanked off his feet, his armored body slamming against the rocks, and then the water closed over his whole body.
"The hell?!"
"Over there!"
The other knights rushed to the scene but it was already too late. A body; unmistakably the first knight's, erupted from the water, his face frozen in an expression of terror as his body finally hit the bank with a wet crunch, spasming before going still, a crimson stain spreading beneath the knight.
The body had been cut in half.
The knights stood frozen at the water's edge, their laser guns trembling in their grip as their resolve wavered. The river surface was calm now to absolute stillness.
Or so it was.
"Where is it?" someone whispered. "Where did it—"
The sound of bubbles made them still. A slow, deliberate stream of bubbles were rising from the deepest part of the river. And beneath them, just visible in the dying light, was an otherworldly shape.
Pale, massive and waiting.
"DEMON!" A knight screamed when he swore he saw a set of massive teeth widening. "SHOOT! SHOOT!!!"
Out of sheer fear the knights began shooting, all they cared is if it hit the water or not. The onslaught of blasts lasted for a long while till their guns were overheating.
"Di-Did we get it?" One whispered.
Laughter; the kind that made one's hair stand on edge; echoed around the vicinity. The knights backed away from the river, their guns rising higher in defense.
This was not what they had planned for.
The laughter still continued until it faded, leaving only the echo and the slow, deliberate drip of water from rocks above.
"You know," a deep gaggling voice called out, from the river and everywhere at the same time, "you all look absolutely ridiculous."
The knights exchanged glances. Confusion warred with terror on their faces.
One knight screamed and shot at his side when he saw a sign of pale slender movement, only for the sound of splashing water to be heard.
"Haha, eh that was a close one."
"The hell?!"
"The changeling is toying with us!"
"I wanna go back to the walls!"
"All that armor," the voice continued, drifting and circling around them, coming from the left, now the right, and now from beneath their feet. "All those weapons. All that talk of divine order and cosmic purpose." A laugh, soft and cold. "And here you are. Standing at the edge of a river. Afraid of a child."
Anya's grip on her gun tightened. Her eyes swept the water's surface, searching for any sign of movement. "Come out," she snarled. "Come out and face us!"
"Why would I do that?" The voice was closer now, almost playful. "You came to my home. You hunted me. You hurt my friends." The river surface rippled, though there was no sign of wind that could have disturbed the river. "Why should I play by your rules?"
"Because—" the veteran knight started.
"Because what?" The voice sharpened, the playfulness draining away. "Because your mission is righteous? Because your cause is just?"
A sound, somewhere between a growl and a laugh, echoed off the ravine walls. "You were killing children yesterday. Children. For a mission. For a cause. And now you want me to come out? To fight fair?"
The river began to churn.
"Let me show you what it feels like to be the hunted."
The water exploded.
Leviathan rose from the river like a nightmare given form. Nearly two meters of pale, glistening flesh, webbed claws armed with equal razor teeth, and eyes that burned with a cold, alien light. His maw opened, wide enough to swallow a man's head whole, and he roared; a sound that was part grinding stone and the abomination of a fish that it was.
The knights fired; but the young Piscciss Volann was already moving, his powerful feet already pushing him forward.
He chose his target without hesitation or mercy. A blonde knight with a mustache was the rather unfortunate target, what he will see would be his last. Leviathan closed the distance in a heartbeat, his claws catching the knight's arms before pinning them, and his jaws; those massive, terrible jaws; closed around the man's head.
The crunch was audible across the ravine.
The body fell. Leviathan turned with something in his mouth, which he spat aside like a dog discarding a toy. The helmeted head struck the ground and rolled, coming to rest at the veteran knight's feet.
"NO!" The veteran knight raised his gun, his face purple with rage, and fired.
Eren dodged the laser, already set his sights on another knight in front of him, his claws closed around the man's shoulders, before he spun him around, sending him flying into a third knight with enough force to send them both crashing to the ground.
A fourth knight charged, having lost all hope in using his laser gun to hit the monstrous man fish and raised his sword instead, his face a mask of desperate courage. Leviathan caught the blade with one hand though hissed a bit at the slight cut the blade's edge gave his palm. He yanked the weapon from the knight's grip, then connected his other fist to the man's chest plate.
The armor crumpled instantly. The knight flew backward and slammed into a tree with a crack that echoed through the canyon. He slid down the trunk with his dented armor, his limbs at angles that were not meant to be, and did not move again.
Leviathan straightened his still healing back, most of it healed but still emitting steam. His pale violet eyes were fixed on the knights who remained.
Five of them. Anya. The veteran. One young knight still raising his gun but trembling, and two others that were trying to hold down Ember's chains admist the chaos, there weren't doing such a good job at that as they saw most of their comrades taken down by the anomaly.
Leviathan smiled, it certainly was not a human smile. It was the smile of something that had been hunted all by fanatics and titans, that had been hurt, and that had decided, finally and completely, that it was done being prey.
"Alright then," Eren asked calmly. "Who's next?"
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