Survivors of Alterna: Final Run

Chapter 29: His Better Half

There are times when Akikta fights; When he does, he does it to protect others, only engaging in conflict when he isn't given a choice. This was not one of those times.

He jumped in and immediately began brawling with a large group of salmonids. To the Splatoon's surprise, he was holding his own. Eight and Nakji thought to tag in and help, but that quickly changed when they witnessed just how brutal Akikta was being.

Whereas the Splatoon would kill their enemies by popping them with their ink, Akikta punched, kicked, grabbed, and occasionally bit the salmonids until they became deceased. He even started taking their frying pans and used them to bash their faces in. It soon became crystal clear that Akikta wasn't the one who needed help.

"Yeah! That's right! Kick their butts, Aki!" Frye cheered, pumping her fist in the air before slashing an approaching chum.

"Get 'em yo!" Pearl followed up, punting a smallfry into a cohock who was about to take a swing at her.

Frye and Pearl's attempts to hype Akikta up didn't reach his ears, but that didn't stop him from fighting harder.

Eventually, his assault grabbed the attention of the surrounding boss salmonids. They all swarmed Akikta, much to his delight. Somehow, they hadn't figured out ink was what strengthened him, and the boss salmonids dished out much more of it than the lessers.

The first to reach Akikta was a Scrapper, who barreled towards him in a speeding car. In response, he enveloped his right arm and both legs in black ink; Then, like Biggie had done in the past, caught the vehicle as it rammed into him.

Akikta slid back a good distance before digging his feet into the ground, leaving behind a rough trail as he forced the vehicle to stop. The Scrapper looked shocked.

It did something behind its barrier, and an engine revved, spurting an excessive amount of green ink from the exhaust pipes. This gave the vehicle more push, but not enough to make Akikta budge. It also showed Akikta where he could get more ink. He smirked and stretched his left hand, covering the hole of one exhaust pipe.

Each time the Scrapper revved its vehicle, more ink shot out, sending waves of a reinvigorating feeling through Akikta's body. In turn, his inky arms and legs bulked up. "Oh yeah, that's the stuff!"

After he got his fill, his left hand returned to its normal length. Then, Akikta kicked the Scrapper's vehicle with immense force, bending and shattering the front of it. The Scrapper flew backward, slamming into the bottom half of a Steelhead. The Steelhead would lose its balance and tumble onto a group of chum, crushing them.

Before Akikta could celebrate the collateral damage he caused, his surrounding area instantly got covered in a perfect circle with green ink, and he was smack dab in the center.

He looked up to see some kind of fish that looked like a dolphin wearing a gas mask. Despite this being his first time seeing that type of salmonid, he instinctively knew it was a Flipper Flopper... How?

He shook his head, pushing his question onto the back-burner for now.

The Flipper Flopper looked around the circle before dive bombing towards the middle. Akikta raised both hands and caught the salmonid by the mask, barely stopping its descent. His knees buckled at the Flipper Flopper's weight, proving to be significantly stronger than the Scrapper. Meanwhile, his legs gradually absorbed the ink beneath him, supplying him with the strength needed to push back with equal force.

The Flipper Flopper realized Akikta was overpowering it and tried to escape. He caught on to its attempts and squeezed down on the salmonid's mask to secure his hold over it. "You're not going anywhere!" Akikta roared, slowly starting to dent the metal on its mask. The Flipper Flopper thrashed about like a fish out of water, desperately trying to escape his grasp.