What lies below

What lies below:
Connar arrived at Mercado de aguas oscuras a little after 9:00pm with Tuk stalking closely behind him. Yuuko had told him about the creature that had been seen in San Diego Bay and the approximate location of each sighting, the first few sightings had been by dock workers during the night shift, they claimed to have lost a cargo container full of Kobe beef to a “Shadow” in the water. The next notable one had been by a kappa and his “business” partner who had been unloading “cleaning supplies” from a ship from Columbia, they said that one of their dinghies was attacked something that they described as a shadow in the water. The most recent sighting though had been by a council envoy who said he saw one of the local mermaids pulled down into the bay by something about 6 meters long. These sightings had taken place at multiple places throughout the bay, in both deep and shallow water, but they had always taken place during the night. “It is probably feeding during the night, not uncommon among marine cryptids, but there shouldn’t be any that big in North America” Connar mumbled to himself as he made his way through the crowds of humans and cryptids.
            Connar had always considered Mercado de aguas oscuras to be a unique place among the hidden places of the world, in that it had not only had one of the most diverse cryptid populations of anywhere he had been but that population also acted the most “human”. And depending on who you were that was either a good thing or a bad thing, if you were an agent looking to get a hold of third age tech at the bottom of the pacific, but didn’t want to deal with the Phoenicians, this was a good thing. There were plenty of merpeople and Kappa willing to go places agents couldn’t, assuming you could pay of course. There were ghouls, chupacabra, and sasquatches, Oni from the 13th house and go betweens for each society, who would sell you the same tech at an inflated price, but most importantly, no one was going to ask why you wanted it and most of them didn’t really care either, as long as you paid and didn’t come back without more money. If you were a council envoy trying to keep dangerous artifacts out of the hands of the mundane population or a government looking to keep people from knowing the secret world existed this was bad thing. The sea brought everything to Mercado de aguas oscuras and it was close enough to the mundane world that unknowing thieves and wandering shoppers could get a hold of extremely powerful artifacts without knowing what they were and then less honorable elements of the secret world would get a hold of them.
            As Connar made his way to the docks he spotted a ghoul manning a stall that seemed to sell Mexican food. He eyed the waters behind the stalls, watching for any movement in the still black waters, nothing so far, only waves lapping at the edge of the docks. Walking up to the stall, he ordered a quesadilla and then turned to keep watching the water, the ghoul behind the counter grunted at the little chupacabra in the makeshift kitchen who began preparing the food, the ghoul then held out its claw for payment. Connar fished around in his coat for American money, and after putting back several 1 euro coins and a 10 euro note, he found a five dollar bill and placed it in the creatures out stretched claw. The ghouls long slender claws placed the bill in a metal box and then fished out a quarter that it dropped on the counter.
    “So what's the word on the street” Connar asked as he peered behind the counter. The ghoul growled a little before saying, “Not talk to stranger, that word on street,” Connar sighed before digging around in his coat for a 20 to put in the tip jar. The ghoul eyed the money suspiciously, “Lot of things happen here, need details.” “Herd about anything strange lately,” the ghoul pointed to a Kappa in a make america great again cap across the docks, “That strange, many things strange, entire country lose mind, if need other strange, go craigslist.” Connar looking annoyed, reached back into his coat and pulled out another 20, “This is the last bit of American money I have, last fucking thing I want to do is to go to a atm in this place at night. Now tell me about the thing, that's been bothering the mermaids.” The chupacabra wrapped the quesadilla in tinfoil and then slid it across the counter, the ghoul looked annoyed at Connar’s bluntness, “Pablo no see it directly, only hear second hand, thing in water not picky eat many things, kappa, mermaid, human, fish, only at night though. Few gang leader send people after it, none come back. Some say it Draugr, but Pablo no think it Draugr.” Connar examined his quesadilla as he listened, “Why's that?” “Draugr come in two sizes, man size and kaiju size, this thing bus size.” “Thanks for the information” Connar said as he turned to leave, “No say where heard it, Pablo have premium to maintain.”
Connar Sat down to finish his food, before pulling his phone out of his coat along with a circuit board with a metal ring through it. The ghoul hadn't told him much that he did not already know but he had revealed one important fact, gang leaders had sent agents after the creature in the bay and given that they lost cargo to this thing it was unlikely that they were unarmed and given where they were operating even less likely that they were carrying normal guns. He had built the anima detector for a mission in  the Carpathian fangs but it would be just as useful here, Connar connected the detector to his phone through a usb cable and then opened its app, a simple dashboard built for android that showed the strength of ambient anima in the area as green dots on the screen.
    Connar tossed the last bit of the quesadilla to Tuk before walking down to the end of the dock and just as he had hoped, the screen became greener the further down the dock he moved. When he reached the end of the dock, he could estimate the point at which the field was strongest, it was about 1km out into the bay, “going to have hard time finding a boat to rent at this hour,” Connar muttered to himself, “Guess there is no other choice but to walk,” pointing his palms at the water he summoned an anima charge and shot it into the water. Bubbles shot from the water first quickly then slowly as an iceberg floated to the surface, “Tuk, stick to the shadows and keep an eye out for trouble,” the wolf vanished into the shadows underneath a table, ready to pounce from his pocket dimension should he be needed. Connar then jumped down from the docks and onto his ice berg, land with a thud that shot up his back. He groaned as he stood up right, “Yuuko is right, I am getting too old for this.” Pulling out the phone and the detector, Connar scanned the bays horizon and created another iceberg, as he began making  a path out to the middle of the bay.
    After what seemed like hours Connar eventually found the spot where the anima field was strongest. The distant lights of the city and the moon overhead made it easy to see around him, but the water was still unsettlingly black, normally when the moon was in the sky you could at least see a meter or two under water but tonight it was difficult to see anything, even the star seemed to vanish in the inky depths. More unsettling than the lack of clarity in the water though was the lack of sound, the current was unusually still and he hadn't heard any thing in the waves yet, nothing was investigating the artificial iceberg but perhaps the worst sign of all of was the lack of harbor seals in the area. Connar was far enough out in the bay that they should have been passing right by him to get to the open ocean and no seal would ever pass up the chance to investigate a new platform. Connar check the sensor one more time to make sure he was in the right spot, the screen of his phone was bright green and no matter where he pointed the sensor the screen remained the same. “This is the spot” Connar said to himself, adjusting a few parameters on the dashboard he calibrated the sensor for greater detail and less range, the large green spot split into 3 smaller spots one of which was near the edge of the iceberg. “This must be one of the missing agents, best get a look at the damage,” Connar said to himself as he pointed his palms at the edge of the iceberg and shot another anima bolt into the sea. He was able to trace its path about 4 or 5 meters down before the bright orange light disappeared into the blackness. 5 minutes past and nothing happened, no bubbles from rapidly forming ice, no trail of evaporating water, or gurgling as a frozen corpse floated to the surface. Connar shot another charge into the depths, another 5 minutes past and still nothing, he then shot a less powerful charge down into the water and as expected, an iceberg formed and floated to the surface. “Must need more power” Connar thought to himself as he summoned a larger charge and shot it into the sea.
    As Connar watched this charge sink down into the depths he saw something obscure the orange light before it reappeared. The charge then seemed to move suddenly to the right and then disappear, it was at this pointed that he noticed his iceberg was moving further out to sea, the current seemed to have mysteriously returned, though it was taking him in the opposite direction, he then noticed that his iceberg was either growing smaller by the second or was being pulled down at an alarming rate. He shot another anima charge into the water and jumped off just in time to see the iceberg he had been standing on pulled down into the bay. The surface of the new iceberg was flooded momentarily as the force of Connar jumping on it forced it down into the water, the bobbing motion of the unstable platform caused him to lose his footing for only second, as he turned around and saw a wave rushing towards him. The force of the oncoming water was enough to knock Connar to the edge of the iceberg, he then felt the toe of his boot slip as he fell into the water. Scrambling to climb back onto the ice, he felt something wrap itself around his chest and pull him under the water, he then felt a sharp pain shooting through his chest, something was burying itself in his skin. Without thinking he channeled a anima charge through his torso, that froze and shattered whatever was holding him, he struggled back to the surface as fast as his wet coat would allow, when he reached the surface, he created another platform and quickly raised a barrier to protect against any more rogue waves. Gasping for air, he drew one of his pistols.
    Connar cautiously looked over the barrier of ice into the water, he could see disturbances in the water in all directions, before he could determine whether it was one creature in the water or a swarm, the ice behind him shattered as a yellow tentacle shot through the barrier and wrapped itself around the iceberg and pulled it down into the depths. Connar was able to leap into the air seconds before he lost the iceberg and created a smaller less stable platform to land on. Not waiting for the creature to come after him, Connar created another iceberg and leaped over, as he turned towards the docks. “As long as I am out here I am at its mercy, I need to get into the shallows” Connar thought to himself as he began leaping back to the shore. Before he could make it to the next platform though another long yellow tentacle shot up into the air and wrapped itself around his neck, again pain shot through his body. “What fuck is this thing covered in!?” he thought to himself as he drew sword and cut himself free, creating another platform he continued towards the docks adding unused platforms to his path to keep the creature below from anticipating his movement. Whatever it was, it was quick, he would create an iceberg only to have it pulled down before he could jump to it. The creature's tentacles seemed to have trouble supporting themselves out of the water, they moved less like the tentacles of those infected with zero point pathogen and more like those of an octopus or sea anemone, they would flop out of the water break through whatever was in their path and then slither back into the water before dragging the platform down with it.
    After zig zagging across the bay for what seemed like hours Connar finally came with in sight of the docks. Not stopping to think, Connar began freezing a path to the docks, running across it as fast as he could, he could hear the ice breaking behind him as he reached the concrete pillar, not looking beneath or behind him he shot an anima charge through his feet and lifted himself off the ice sheet and onto the docks, landing with a thud on the wooden planks he could hear the ice cracking and sinking beneath him. Pulling himself up, he was relieved to have a solid structure underneath him again, he turned back to the water to see if the creature was still there but all he saw was the shattered remains of the ice path that had carried him to the docks. But then he noticed that something was obscuring the street light behind him, he turned around just in time to see several yellow tentacles slithering up the side of the dock and wrapping themselves around the street light, turning his attention toward the end of the dock he could see hundreds of the same yellow tentacles wrapping themselves around the now creaking dock. The wooden planks snapped as the end of the dock, fell into the water and a hulking yellow mass of slime pulled itself on to the land, hundreds of flailing tentacles reaching in all directions. Clinging to the part of the dock still attached to the shore, Connar drew his pistol and fired several shots into the creature, ever shot hit and every shot was absorbed by the viscous yellow blob. Holstering his pistol, he drew his sword and began cutting tentacles away from the dock, for everyone he cut away two seemed to reemerge and wrap themselves around more of the dock, eventually he made the mistake of stepping on one, which quickly wrapped itself around his foot and began pulling him down towards the yellow mass. The closer Connar came, the more of it seem to shift back into the sea, as the creatures mass shifted back into the sea, it seemed to become rounder and take more of a concrete shape, eventually Connar could make out what looked like a human skull wrapped in the yellow mucus with two white orbs floating in its eye sockets that seemed to roll back into place as the fleshy yellow slime formed muscles and tore itself open to create a grotesquely detailed human face, that burst into a high pitched laughter, as a red tongue tipped with a black stinger shot out of its mouth and began trying to drive itself into Connar's leg.
    He managed to parry the creature's tongue before cutting his foot free, only to have several more tentacles grab him by his other leg. It was only when he tried to pull himself further up the dock, did he realize that he was losing sensation in his leg, “...shit, venom!” suddenly the pain he had felt whenever the creature touched him made sense, the creature's skin must had been like a jellyfishes, covered in millions of microscopic barbs. Connar was clinging to the dock by one hand swinging himself back and forth trying to dodge the creature's tongue, while pulling himself up with only half his strength. That is when he noticed that several of the dock lights had gone out and created a shadow, above him, looking down at the creature, he decied on a corse of action, “I am only going to get one shot at this so I better make it count.”Letting go of the plank, Connar brought his fingers to his mouth and whistled as the tentacles pulled him down.
    As he fell, Tuk lunged from the shadows down towards the creatures snapping mouth. The wolf let out a yelp as he land on the fleshy yellow mass, before biting the creatures tongue and attempting to pull it up onto the land. The creature was distracted for only a second but it was enough time for Connar to reposition himself as he fell, before the creature's tentacles could intercept him, he had pointed his sword at the creature's “face” and drove it through the skull lurking beneath the yellow flesh. The creature let out an ear piercing screech as it thrashed about in an attempt to remove the sword from its forehead, Connar twisted his sword and cut upward, pulling what looked like a enormous human skull from the yellow mass and flinging it up onto the docks. The rest of the mass stopped moving and seemed to slowly slip back into the water, a gelatinous yellow mass floating in the bay like a dead whale. An arc of anima crackled up Connar's leg as feeling began to return to his legs, sheathing his sword he began to climb up the dock to where his grizzly prize had landed. Tuk, who had fallen into the bay with the bulk of the creatures carcase, swam back to the shattered dock before climbing out and shaking himself dry. Taking his phone from his pocket, he began photographing the skull, its eyes and jaw still twitching as it rested on the dock. “Never been happier to pay more for the waterproof model” he thought to himself, before calling Yuuko, “yeah, it's me, I got it.”
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