AM N. NOT.đđ»(ïżŁăŒïżŁ)..
The roaring Anomaly was the first to feel it. A subtle shift in the air. To them, it was no more than a faint tickle against their scaled skin. But the feeling spread.
The people felt it too.
The air thickened without warning. Breathing grew hard. It was like invisible hands wrapping around their throats, squeezing slow and deliberate.
Several civilians stumbled as they walked. Some dropped to their knees. Their fingers clawed at empty space, reaching for balance, support, anything solid in a world that suddenly felt far too heavy.
Thenâ
Heads turned. One by one. All toward the man in the Marine cap.
Even the three towering Anomalies stopped screaming at the sky. Their skull faces tilted down, fixing on the tiny figure that had become the source of this unnatural pressure.
Silence stretched onâ
Thenâ
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAP.
Violent crackling tore through the street. The sound was electric, splitting the air apart. An overwhelming force crashed down. Gravity spiked. It felt like the world itself was trying to crush everything into the asphalt.
"AurrgghâŠ!"
"ArrghâŠ!"
Teeth ground together. Veins bulged at their temples.
Civilians trembled, their vision blurring as consciousness slipped away. Panic blazed in their fading eyes. They didn't want to die. They fought to stay awake, to hold on just a little longer.
Then another force hit.
THUUUUUUUUD.
It slammed down like divine punishment. Black lightning streaked from above. Not white. Not blue. Black.
Jagged bolts ripped through the ruined street's centerâlike judgment from an angry sky. But the storm's epicenter wasn't the heavens.
It was him.
The lightning lashed outward, turning what was left of buildings to ash. Shattered structures and rubble became smoldering debris. The street cracked open, peeled apart, and blackened under the storm's rage.
One by oneâ
The civilians fell silent. Their bodies went limp. Consciousness was stolen away.
Only the monsters remained standing.
The towering Anomalies stared down at the man releasing the suffocating aura. Then they roared. A deafening blast.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAR.
The shockwave from their combined roar exploded outward. Cars flipped like toys. Light poles bent and snapped. Trees tore from their roots and flew through the air. Wind howled through the street.
"ZaaaaaaraaaaaaaaqaaaapaaaaaaakaaaaamaaaaraaaamâŠ!"
They shouted words no human could understand. But Maki heard them. Clear as day. He understood every sound.
He stopped twenty feet from the colossal figures. His head tilted slightly up. In a deep, steady voice, he replied:
"You're the kind of thing we fishermen hate the mostâŠ"
His tone was cold.
"Those who break the silence. Those who disturb the sea's sacred peace."
His red eyes narrowed.
"You dare to soil the air with that fucking skull of yours⊠right in front of me."
The atmosphere trembled around him.
"How disrespectful for a thing like you to exist. Our culture honors ocean and land equallyâwith spiritual reverence."
His voice grew deeper, thick with held-back fury.
"Your loud voice. Your desperate cry for freedom. That filthy melody of yoursâit's a sin. Disrespect to the sea. To the spirits that give us our harvest."
The air vibrated with tension.
"Even if this isn't the sea, your existence insults the one who made this world."
His gaze turned lethal.
"And that's what disgusts me most."
"You don't understand the craft."
"And I'll never acknowledge you exist."
His voice dropped to a dangerous quiet.
"Even if I die today, I'll silence that stupid face of yours."
"I'll fucking do it."
"You disrespectful skull."
Maki didn't realizeâhe was speaking their language. Same guttural sound. Same ancient rhythm. Like he'd known it his whole life.
The Anomalies stared down at the tiny being daring to challenge them. Rage flared. This insignificant creature was defying them directly below.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
All three roared in perfect, furious unison.
Maki's red eyes narrowed further.
"You really don't have fucking ears, do you?"
They roared againâviolent and enraged. What a disrespectful creature.
Maki spoke once more.
"Ilinniit aalisagaq toqungasoq nuannineruariga."
("I find a dead fish more pleasant than you.")
His voice was calm.
He cracked his neck side to side. Bones shifted with a sharp pop. He breathed out slow.
For the first timeâhis focus locked completely. Maximum concentration. The way he'd stand on a boat, listening to the sea breathe.
A fisherman's greatest weapon was never strength. It was his senses.
Touchâfeeling every tug on a line, reading hidden paths under dark water.
Sightâwatching birds circle, spotting ripples on the surface, guiding through shifting currents.
Hearingâcatching soft slurps and splashes in low light.
Smellâpicking up the faint slick of fish oil on saltwater.
And thenâthe sixth sense. Intuition.
The subconscious feel of pressure changes. Storms coming, felt deep in the bones. Wind shifts that change everything. The exact moment a tide turns.
All of it lived inside him.
The Anomalies loomed above, their fury growing. Their claws scraped hard against their own bodies. Metal screeched as scales ground together. Sparks danced across dark flesh.
Blood dripped faster from their skull facesâthick and red, like tears from empty sockets. Their long necks twisted and bent wrong, spiraling as if about to snap. Black scales grinding against each other shrieked like metal.
Their deer-like hooves hammered the street again and again.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Like enraged bulls ready to charge. All three moved as oneâlinked completely.
The carnivorous leaves on their heads snapped shut, jagged edges closing with a wet, final sound.
Maki knew. Things were about to get real. But he didn't hesitate.
He'd show this stupid alien what happens when you shout carelessly on a boatâwhen you ignore the sea's sacred silence.
He remembered that day with his father. The mistake. The consequence. The lesson burned into his soul. Something he'd sworn would never happen again.
!!ăœ(ïŸĐŽïŸăœ)(ïŸïŸĐŽïŸ)ïŸ!!
AM N. NOT.