["The rat kid thinks you should be paying attention to Mr. Octopus. I don't think he's here to give us the results of the next football match."]
["Hehehe, that sense of humor of yours. Let's see how long it lasts on a corpse."]
The annoying man aims his pistol at me. I can't die here. Louise will kill me if I die here.
I have so much to live for, like the glorious day I can spoil the ending of One Piece... The rat kid will enjoy it, as only the rat kid can imagine. It will be orgasmic, the rat kid concludes.
["Don't even think you'll be leaving us,"] – said the police girl, stepping between the union-leader-looking guy and me.
["Hehehe, little girl, don't do anything stupid."]
["Yeah, listen to him."]
[[[DON'T AGREE WITH HIM!]]]
The rat kid is unfairly yelled at for giving his humble opinion.
The rat kid is just trying to be logical here. What good does it do to stand in front of a bullet?
"Grrr."
"Griii."
On the other hand, the damn cat is pushing harder now that I'm not paying attention to it.
Its claws scrape the wet pavement. What's with this toxicity? Can't the rat kid have any friends?
["Think about it. If you kill him, that monster will be free to continue slaughtering your group."]
["Heh, I was careful before because I thought the monster was the kid's companion. If I kill him, the creature will leave him and attack us? It seems more interested in dancing on his corpse."]
The union-guy rejects the police girl's idea and then throws me a murderous smile as he grips his weapon tighter.
["VIXENS, ON THE GROUND, NOW!"]
I shout as my instincts warn me of danger.
[[[HUH?]]]
The girls make stupid noises, but they still follow my orders. At least they've learned to be obedient after everything that's happened.
A second after the girls and—for some reason—the union-guy hit the ground following my instructions…
"FLASHHHHHHHH"
A tentacle thicker than a truck swept across the bridge. It wiped out rusted cars, railings, and even part of the asphalt. The salty blast of air was so brutal that the concrete vibrated under my ass.
[[[KYAAAAAAAAA]]]
The girls scream as they cover their heads against the wet ground.
"GRAAAAAAA"
The super-developed cat is dragged along with the minivan that was hit. Its paw was still stuck in the twisted chassis.
["We're going, we're going, we're going."]
I hurry towards the police girl and the rest. We have to leave.
["Astrad, WATCH OUT!"]
Another girl's warning arrives along with a bad feeling. When I turn, the damn union-guy is already aiming at me.
BANG-BANG.
I jump to the side at the same time he fires, but my landing position isn't good. I can't dodge again.
FLASHHHH.
But just when I was screwed, suddenly, a burst of flame lunged at the union-guy.
["AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"]
He screamed in pain as the fire enveloped him.
When I turn, wondering who has a fucking flamethrower and why they didn't use it sooner…
[[…]]
There was the shitty cat, with a stream of fire crackling around it, and the face of someone who can't believe what they just did.
["Th-the cat shoots fire?"]
NYA?
The police girl asks, stunned, but the cat seems to have the same question.
["Questions later, later."]
The rat kid has no time to process this matter. We need to get out of here.
["YOU DAMN BRAT, I'M GOING TO KIIIIIILL YOU!"]
As I ran with the girls, the gang leader curses as he finishes putting out the fire.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Almost at the same time, the super-developed cat emerged from the pile of overturned cars with more drive than ever.
["Being this desired can be suffocating."]
[[[[THIS IS NOT THE TIME!]]]]
NYAAA
I ignore the complainers and turn around, aiming my harpoon gun at the union-guy.
The rat kid will get rid of at least one nuisance.
["Oh my God!"]
["NOOOOOOOOO!"]
["RUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!"]
But before I could do anything, a dark mass of water emerged from the side of the bridge along with more tentacles.
["HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!"]
I shouted as ridiculous amounts of water crashed down on us like a giant wave.
But the current was too strong, and we ended up being swept away along with everything else.
["What the fuck… cough cough."]
When the current subsided, I looked again at the side of the bridge.
Then I realized that what happened before wasn't water "rising" from the sea, but the deformed fetus product of the cross between an octopus and a nightmare. So ridiculously large that it dragged tons of liquid as if a dam had been inverted.
It was the perfect example of dying a virgin because of your appearance.
Octopuses are supposed to have viscous, flexible skin, but this thing looked like a cracked rock with twelve tentacles and reefs growing all over its body.
More importantly: this bridge was like fifteen stories above the sea. Why the hell do you still look so big?
["Astrad, that…"]
The police girl calls me with a tense voice. When I turn, she and the others are already looking at me with resigned fear.
This is why I told you to get the fuck out, damn it.
................
JOURNAL ENTRY NO: 999
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Architeuthis aenigma primordialis
REGIONAL ALIASES:
Norse Mythology: The Kraken
Sailor Folklore: The Great Hugger / The Ship Eater
NICKNAME (ASTRAD): The Squid with a God Complex
📊 THREAT ASSESSMENT
CLASSIFICATION: VENATOR / TERRITORIALIS
Its conduct, according to myths, is that of a territorial guardian of the deepest abyssal trenches. Its nature, however, is that of a hunter on a scale that defies imagination. It doesn't hunt fish; it hunts fleets. It is not a simple predator; it is a localized extinction event and the reason why old maps had drawings of monsters on the edges.
DANGER LEVEL: RED (5 stars)
5 Red stars. The maximum rating for a beatable threat, although the term "beatable" here is a heavy joke. It is theorized that its body is so massive and its biology so anomalous that conventional weapons, even torpedoes, would be like needles. Its danger is not only physical (crushing a ship), but also psychic—an echo of the cosmic madness that inspired Lovecraft.
AGGRESSIVENESS LEVEL: REACTIVE
The legends are consistent: the Kraken does not seek out ships to destroy them. It sleeps. And like any being that sleeps, it hates to be woken up. Its aggressiveness is a reaction to disturbances in its domain: the noise of sonars, underwater explosions, or the simple bad luck of passing right over its sleeping eye. It's not malice; it's the worst bad mood in the history of the planet.
🧬 COMBAT FILE (TL;DR)
TYPE: Aberration / Beast
AFFINITY: Water / Physical (Colossal) / Psychic (Abyssal Whispers)
🎯 PRIMARY WEAKNESSES:
Unknown. It is speculated that an underwater nuclear detonation might disturb it, but the idea is as stupid as trying to put out a fire with gasoline.
📌 KEY STRENGTHS (Reported):
Geological-scale size and strength, Tentacles capable of generating vortexes, Perfect abyssal camouflage, Passive psychic aura (causes paranoia and auditory hallucinations within a radius of kilometers).
📚 ORIGINS AND COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY
The Myth of the Kraken: It is the source of all legends of giant squids. The tales of Norse sailors about an island that moved and sank ships with its "arms" are considered by cryptozoologists to be the most reliable sighting of an adult specimen.
Lovecraftian Connection (Astrad's Theory): It's likely that H.P. Lovecraft didn't just write random fiction. His "Cthulhu" may have been the result of deep research, and the "cults" to it were perhaps people who were driven mad after being exposed to the kraken's psychic attack. It's not a god, but its mind is so vast that, to us, the difference is irrelevant.
Speculative Biology: It could be a relict species from the pre-dinosaur era, a cephalopod that never stopped growing. Its longevity would be in the millennia, spending most of its time in a state of hibernation on the seabed.
📝 DETAILED ANALYSIS
PHYSICAL AND SENSORY DESCRIPTION:
Based on engravings and accounts, it is described as a cephalopod of a size that rivals a small underwater mountain. Its body is bulbous, with a rocky texture from millennia of sedimentation. Its eyes, the size of buses, are described as portals to a cold and empty intelligence. Its tentacles, long enough to emerge from the depths and reach the surface, are covered in suckers capable of tearing the hull off a battleship. The main sensory sign of its proximity is not visual, but auditory and psychic: a low-frequency hum that resonates in the hulls of ships and, more disturbingly, unintelligible whispers that seem to spring directly into the minds of the crew.
BEHAVIOR AND ECOLOGY:
It is an ambush predator on a massive scale. It is theorized to spend 99% of its life in a state of lethargy on the ocean floor. When awakened, its behavior is purely defensive and territorial. It considers the sea surface above it as the "ceiling" of its cave. Anything that disturbs it (ships, submarines) is treated as a threat and eliminated with overwhelming efficiency. It is not believed to "eat" ships in the traditional sense, but rather destroys them before returning to its slumber.
☣️ PROTOCOLS
RECOMMENDED ENCOUNTER PROTOCOL:
DO:
AVOID KNOWN ABYSSAL TRENCH ZONES.
Use charted shipping lanes.
If psychic or sonic anomalies are detected, change course immediately.
DON'T:
Sail through unexplored waters.
Use active sonar aggressively in deep waters.
Assume that an "underwater mountain" on the map is actually a mountain.
FIELD REPORT (Fragment from the diary of Captain Arne D. Lauridsen, of the Danish freighter "Poseidon's Folly," 1952):
"…the crew is on the verge of mutiny. They've been hearing 'whale songs' for three days, but there are no whales in these waters. The sonar shows a mass beneath us the size of the Isle of Man. It can't be. It's an equipment error. But the whispers... I hear them too now. They speak of drowned cities. Of... of the wrong stars. The compass has stopped working. Something just scraped against the hull. The sound... the sound was like a stone cathedral being dragged across the seabed."
🎤 ASTRAD'S NOTES (THE ONLY SHIT THAT MATTERS):
This is where the geeks fight. Is it the Kraken or is it Cthulhu? The answer, as always, is that they're all idiots. It's bad news, and that's all that matters.
A beast that takes naps. And that is capable of inducing collective madness if you're exposed to it long enough. It's the height of arrogance: a critter so colossal that its passive biological functions are the basis for our deepest nightmares.
So no, it's not a priest of the Outer Gods. It's a fucking animal. The biggest, oldest, and most dangerous animal on the planet, yes, but an animal. And that, honestly, is much more terrifying. A god can be appeased. To an animal you've just woken up from its thousand-year nap... what the fuck are you going to say?
......…..