Piraka - Sea serpent

It was Hahli who found part of the answer. Swimming ahead, her fins brushed against something floating up near the roof of the tunnel. She glanced up, saw a Zyglak, and instinctively aimed her Cordak blaster. But there was no need — the Zyglak was dead. So were all the others she ran across as she moved on, until the cord resembled a watery graveyard.

Hahli turned back to report to the others. Then something shot out of a side tunnel and slammed into her. At first, she thought the long, narrow form belonged to a sea snake of some kind. Then it wrapped around her and its face loomed out of the darkness… a horribly familiar face.

“Hakann!” she cried.

The crimson Piraka snarled and began to constrict, trying to squeeze the Toa to death. Hahli hurled herself at the tunnel wall, slamming her serpentine attacker against the stone. Stunned, Hakann loosened his grip and slipped away.

Hahli couldn’t believe her eyes as she looked at her old enemy. The Piraka’s body was gone. He was now just a long spine with a head attached, moving through the water like a hideous eel. Hakann closed in again, but Hahli slashed at him with her talons and drove him back.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

“We were racing to get the Mask of Life, and thanks to Vezok, wound up down in a pool of water,” Hakann hissed. “It… changed us… into freaks. We… slithered… down this cord before Axonn or the Voya Nui Matoran could stop us. And when these reptiles tried to get in our way…”

“You killed them,” Hahli finished.

***

Downfall, Chapter 1