The Demon's Hunt: Escape 3

As the water prison started to fail, Zabuza gritted his teeth. He had no choice but to fight. With a burst of strength born from desperation, he broke the jutsu, sending a wave of water that knocked back the closest creatures.

*WHOOSH! SPLASH!*

A Deep One lunged at him, mouth wide open. He stepped inside its reach, driving the heel of his hand up into its chin hard enough to snap its head back.

*CRACK!*

"Not today!" he snarled.

As it fell, he grabbed its arm, using the dead body as a shield against attacks from its friends. The wet slap of claws against dead flesh filled the air.

He threw away the mangled body, only to find himself face-to-face with another one twice his size. It swung a massive, club-like arm at his head. He ducked under the blow, feeling the wind of its passing ruffle his hair.

*WHOOSH*

He hit back with a series of quick strikes to the creature's middle, each blow strong enough to burst internal organs.

*THUD! THUD! THUD!*

The monster stumbled back, green blood leaking from its mouth. Zabuza pressed his advantage, jumping up to drive his knee into its face. As it fell, he grabbed its head and twisted sharply, hearing the crack of its neck breaking.

*SNAP!*

But even as that threat fell, more took its place. His arms and legs felt like they were made of lead, each movement taking all his effort. A Deep One's claw found his shoulder, tearing a big gash. Another latched onto his leg, its teeth sinking deep into his calf.

"ARGH!" he roared in defiance. "You want a piece of me? Come and get it!"

He brought his elbow down on the skull of the one biting his leg, feeling bone give way under the blow. Spinning, he used the momentum to throw the creature still clinging to his shoulder into its advancing friends.

*CRUNCH! THUD!*

His eyes scanned the battlefield, looking for any advantage. There – a gap in the horde, a clear path to the water. If he could just reach it, maybe he could...

He didn't let himself finish the thought. Hope was a luxury he couldn't afford. But survival instinct took over. He charged, finding strength he didn't know he had.

His fists and feet lashed out as he ran, breaking bones and bursting organs. A Deep One leaped at him from the side. Without slowing down, Zabuza clothes-lined it, feeling its neck snap from the impact.

*CRACK!*

He was almost there. The waves hit the shore, promising escape. But as his foot touched the water, he felt something wrap around his ankle. Looking down, he saw a pale, almost see-through hand gripping him with inhuman strength.

"What the-" his eyes widened in shock.

More hands burst out of the sand, grabbing at his legs. The creatures he thought he'd left behind rushed forward, their empty eyes fixed on their prey.

He thrashed and struggled, his fists smashing into grabbing hands and twisted faces. But for every one he fought off, more took its place again. It was not stopping. He was pulled down, the weight of countless bodies pressing him into the sand.

The smell of rotting fish and alien flesh filled his nose, almost choking him. His arms were pinned to his sides, his legs trapped by the press of bodies. Still, he fought, snapping his head back to smash the nose of a Deep One that got too close to his face.

CRUNCH!

In those last moments, as the tide of monsters threatened to overwhelm him, Zabuza's mind raced. He thought of his plans, his dreams for Kiri. But those thoughts didn't last long.

The Demon of the Hidden Mist had no time for regrets or deep thinking.

With the last of his strength, Zabuza let out a final roar. "I AM ZABUZA MOMOCHI, THE DEMON OF THE HIDDEN MIST! YOU'LL REMEMBER THIS DAY!"

He thrashed wildly, feeling bones break and flesh tear under his assault.

*CRACK! SNAP! SQUELCH!*

He would not die quietly.

The monsters swarmed over him, a mass of gray-green flesh and glassy, bulging eyes. Zabuza disappeared beneath them, lost in a sea of twisted bodies and fishy stench.

Just then, a massive wave crashed onto the shore, bigger than any before. The water rushed around the mass, its roar drowning out their inhuman shrieks. For a moment, the beach was chaos.

*ROAR! SPLASH! GURGLE!*

As the wave pulled back, the beach was a mess of moving bodies and churning sand. Deep Ones got to their feet, shaking off the impact of the sudden flood. They started to regroup, their bulging eyes scanning the shore without really seeing.

The horde moved randomly, some shuffling back towards the sea, others stumbling up the beach.

In the confusion, they rose from the surf, looking just like the rest. They joined the stumbling crowd, blending in with the group. The creatures moved without any real purpose, their movements as strange as their looks.

---

High up in a twisted old tree, a spider watched everything. Its many eyes hadn't missed a single detail of the battle, from Zabuza's first stand to the final, chaotic moments.

The spider's gaze moved from one scene to another. It watched the huge creature still waiting in the water. The thing's house-sized eyes stayed fixed on the spot where Zabuza had last been seen.

Then the spider noticed something odd. One of the Deep Ones was walking away from the main group. 

Its movement was lost in the general chaos, just another creature in the mass of monsters. It walked along the shoreline, its movements more purposeful than the others.

It stumbled along the shoreline, following the push and pull of the waves.

In the sand near its feet, something shiny caught the light. Its webbed foot kicked the object as it passed, sending it sliding across the beach.

For a moment, the moonlight caught the edge of what looked like a broken piece of metal - maybe part of a blade - before it was lost again in the dark sand.

The creature paused, its bulbous eyes scanning the area. It bent down, clawed hands sifting through the sand as if searching for something.

Nearby, a group of Deep Ones turned their heads, empty eyes fixed on the strange behavior of their kin. One of them, larger than the others, approached the searching creature.

It leaned in close, its face mere inches from the other. For a moment, they stared at each other.

"Hrrk... not... right..." the larger one growled.

Suddenly, its head snapped towards the forest. Without another sound, it lumbered away from the shore.

The searching Deep One watched it go, then resumed its hunt through the sand. 

The spider noticed a fresh cut across its shoulder, still oozing a mix of red and green blood.

Then, its attention was pulled away by movement at the edge of the forest. There, barely visible in the darkness, stood a child no more than four years old.

His small hands were stretched out in front of him, little wisps of frost curling around his fingers. He was facing off against a lone creature that had wandered too far from its friends into the woods.

The spider's gaze flicked from the boy to the Deep Ones on the beach, then to the massive thing in the water.

The huge creature's eyes slowly turned towards the spider's perch. For a heartbeat that seemed to last forever, the spider found itself the focus of that alien gaze.

Suddenly, the spider twitched. Its legs moved jerkily, like it wasn't sure how to use them anymore. It scurried along the branch, its movements no longer smooth and purposeful, but erratic and confused.

It started to spin a web, unaware of the story it had briefly been part of.

The massive creature in the water blinked its house-sized eyes, as if confused. Where it had sensed something... other... a moment ago, now it saw only a normal spider, unremarkable and small.

With a slow movement, the behemoth began to sink back into the depths, disappearing beneath the dark waves without a sound.

As the last ripples faded from the surface, a strange silence fell over the beach. The Deep Ones continued their aimless wandering, their inhuman voices occasionally breaking the quiet with grunts and sloshing footsteps.