The Little Merman

Chapter Thirty-Two: "Rough Waves"

Nathan groggily awoke to the sensation of someone tapping his face lightly. The sound of Ursel laughing, jerking him awake faster. Mark exhaled in relief, before telling Nathan in a rush. "Get the trident! I'll help Sean!" Nathan glanced around, trying to process everything at once. Despite not knowing where he was or what was going on, he pieced enough to gather that something had gone horribly wrong. Mark started to swim toward the surface, drawing Nathan's attention to Riptide. Nathan's heart stopped when he saw Sean struggling in Riptide's jaws. He rose off the sandy floor, torn between helping Sean and doing what Mark had asked of him. Sean managed to get out of Riptide's jaws, heading for the surface. Riptide thrashed away like he was hurting, before turning back around to head for Sean. That's when Nathan heard Ursel almost purr out. "That's right. Stay right there..." The trident began to spark, and Nathan darted through the water to slam into Ursel. Grabbing the trident, Nathan used his momentum to push the trident off course.

Above them, Riptide surged forward with jaws open to attack Sean. Only to take a hard punch from Mark's fist to one of his eyes. Riptide jerked to snap his jaws at Mark, before getting struck by the trident's bolt of power and disintegrating into ash that drifted through the water. Mark yelped, looking down at them with wide eyes. Nathan tugged and tried to wrestle the trident from Ursel, but Ursel was way to strong. Yanking him around like a doll, Ursel yelled at him angrily. "Let go, you little brat!" When Nathan refused to give up, one of Ursel's tentacles sprang up to wrap around his throat. Nathan gasped as the suction cups latched to his skin and the tentacle began to constrict. Nathan held onto the trident for as long as he could before he felt the strength drain from him. Once his fingers slipped off, Ursel's tentacle loosened enough to slam him down against the sandy floor. Pinning him there. Ursel then pointed the trident back up at Sean, yelling out for Nathan to hear. "Time to tie up lose ends!"

Nathan thrashed but couldn't fight the inhuman strength of Ursel's tentacles. Mark rushed toward Sean, trying to coax him to get up to the surface. The trident sparked again as it charged for another attack, but Lorelei rushed in to grab Ursel around the neck, trying to suffocate him. Dropping the trident, Ursel clawed at her arms, until his tentacles rushed in to grab her. They grabbed her tail and throat, pulling and squeezing her until she let go. Once she was off, Ursel backhanded her across the face so hard that blood trickled from her nose as she fell unconscious. Snatching up the trident, Ursel growled out to Nathan. "Like mother like son..." Swatting Nathan with the end of the trident across the face, Nathan became dazed. Thinking he was unconscious, Ursel released Nathan and began to swim toward Sean quickly. Sean burst through the surface, coughing as a merman he didn't recognize helped shove him into the little boat. Climbing into it, Sean quickly snatched another harpoon as the Merman told him frantically. "LOOK OUT!"

The Merman tried to swim away as the water turned a bright yellow beneath the boat. Sean raised his harpoon to strike whatever came up. When the water surged beneath the boat as a beam blasted the small boat apart. Sean screamed as the blast knocked him clear into the air. Crashing back down into the icy cold water, he breeched the surface just in time to see the rising wave where his boat had been. Standing menacingly on the wave was the octopus creature. The creature laughed heartily, hefting the trident like he was getting ready to throw it at Sean. Sean gasped, searching for his own harpoon but he had lost it in the blast. Looking back up, he winced as he waited to see if he could dodge it, until Nathan flew out of the water from behind the creature. Nathan slammed into Ursel, wrapping his arms around his neck. The unexpected hit knocked the trident from Ursel's hands. Ursel's hands tried to snatch the trident but missed because of Nathan's shifting weight. Ursel's tentacles shot out to try and snatch it as it fell, but they came up short.

Sean reached out to try grabbing the trident, but the rough waves pushed him too far from it. The trident pierced into the water, sinking quickly to the depths. Mark quickly dived for it; swimming as hard as his uncooperative tail could handle. Nathan clung to Ursel as best he could, while the wave they were on fell beneath them. Crashing down over the surface, Ursel rolled and thrashed to try shaking him off. Prying his arms off with his tentacles, Ursel hung him out by his wrists before hitting him hard across the face and chest with a large tentacle. The blow knocked all the air from Nathan's body and set him to slam into the side of the jagged reef before falling limply into the water. Sean couldn't breathe as he watched Nathan limply slid into the water. The octopus creature panted, yelling out at Nathan. "That's the end of that! HA!" Taking a deep breath, Sean ducked under the water to try and rescue Nathan. He could see his blurry shape sinking to the depths, but he just couldn't swim fast enough to reach him. Plus, he worried that even if he did, that he wouldn't have enough air to get back up to the surface.