Poplar St. (OFFICIAL WATTPAD UPLOAD)

Cork In A Wine Bottle

"Man the catapults!" Ozhar cut him off, and the Piglins started to rush off, oinking and squealing to one another, drawing weapons. "Defend the bastion with your lives! And kill that mutt beast before it kills us all!"

"NO!" Tubbo shouted, throwing himself over Ranboo.

Unfortunately, Ranboo didn't seem to pleased by this, because he managed to rip his arms free from the chains and slam Tubbo against the floor, eyes burning red and his jaw unhinging like some kind of snake—only snakes didn't have razor-sharp teeth, and they didn't have sparkling wings, either.

Tubbo screamed as Ranboo leaned down to tear his throat out.

Techno yanked a bottle off his belt and hurled it at the floor next to Ranboo. It shattered, spraying liquid water all over Tubbo, and Ranboo's arms.

Ranboo shrieked and jerked backwards, his skin smoldering. His eyes flickered purple for a split second.

Without thinking, Quackity willed the water off the floor, making it curl into a shimmering arc that undulated around him like a serpent. The roaring in his ears returned, and new strength surged through his veins.

He'd forgotten, he realized as Techno drew his sword. He'd forgotten how intoxicating the feeling of water bending to his whims was.

"Kill it! Kill it!" Ozhar bellowed.

"No, we can't!" Techno snarled, his voice shaking. "Dad, leave the kid alone! I've seen this before; he doesn't know what he's doing!"

Ranboo roared and lunged.

Quackity's heart plummeted in terror, and he sent a mist of water into the kid's face.

Ranboo cried out, stumbling over his tail and clawing at his face. His eyes suddenly flickered back to their normal red and green, wide with pain and terror. "Tubbo what's—"

—His eyes turned purple again. Ranboo slumped to the floor, warbling fearfully in what sounded like Enderspeak.

"What the hell's wrong with him?" Quackity blurted, his heart hammering in his chest. "And what the actual fuck is going on here?"

His head was spinning. Something bad was happening, if the alarm bells had told them anything. The air felt strangely cold for some reason, and he'd just blood-bended again.

He'd just blood-bended again.

Quackity wanted to scream. He'd promised, he'd promised himself he'd never do it again after—

—there was a high-pitched shriek from outside the bastion, accompanied by an explosion that shook the banquet hall and rattled the chandeliers and sent dust raining from the ceiling. Everyone was gone except for him, Ranboo, Tubbo, Techno and Ozhar, and Ranboo was on his hands and knees, shaking his head like he had water in his ears.

"Hard to explain!" Techno shouted, the fear in his eyes quickly draining away, anger taking its place. "Pops, we need to get out on the walls!"

"Not the walls, my boy!" Ozhar snapped. "Bring them to the armory. The Chosen One will save us!"

Quackity yelped as Techno grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of the hall, muttering angrily.

"Where—" he started to demand, but they walked out into the hall, and the sight he saw through the crumbling window holes made his blood run cold.

There were dozens of creatures, identical to the one Techno had killed in the crimson forest, scrambling over the basalt spires by the base of the bastion's walls, screeching and snarling with their tails raised. The Piglins up on the walls were firing down at them with crossbows and catapults, but for every creature that fell from the spires into the lava, three more would take its place. Then Quackity realized exactly what purpose the creatures' scorpion-like tails served when he saw how they were firing spikes that looked almost like crossbow bolts at the Piglins.