The problem with chasing a hippopotamus is that they are surprisingly fast when they want to be, and they absolutely do not care about obstacles.
Titus didn't walk through the jungle; he bulldozed it. Vines snapped like sewing thread against his chest. Small trees were trampled into kindling under his massive, flat feet. He moved with the unstoppable momentum of a landslide, munching on his melon, completely ignoring the two teenagers jogging to keep up with him.
"Hey! Big Guy!" Kaira yelled, vaulting over a fallen log. "Slow down! We just want to talk!"
Titus didn't turn around. "No talking. Talking is noise. Noise scares the fish."
"You're a hippo!" Kaira argued, jogging alongside him. "You don't eat fish! You're a herbivore!"
Titus stopped. He turned slowly, the movement displacing the air around him. He looked down at Kaira with eyes that were weary, ancient, and incredibly dangerous.
"I eat," Titus rumbled, his voice like distant thunder, "whatever annoys me. And right now, you look very… nutritious."
Ren skid to a halt behind Kaira, panting. He held up his hands. "We don't want to annoy you, sir. We just… we noticed you handled those Raptors with ease. We're heading to the Sanctum. We need to cross the park."
Titus snorted, a spray of mist erupting from his nostrils. "The Sanctum. Suicide. The Lions hold the central plaza. The Gorillas hold the east gate. You two? You are snacks. Go home."
He turned back around and pushed through a wall of ten-foot-tall ferns, stepping out onto a muddy bank.
They had reached the River.
It was less a river and more a moving scar of black water cutting through the jungle. It was wide, sluggish, and smelled of decay and sulfur. The far bank was a hundred yards away, shrouded in mist.
Titus walked to the water's edge and sighed—a sound of pure, unadulterated happiness. He dropped his melon rind and prepared to step in.
"Wait!" Ren stepped forward. "We can't cross this. The current… and the things in the water…"
"Not my problem," Titus said, putting one massive foot into the mud.
"We can pay you!" Kaira blurted out.
Titus paused. He looked back. "Pay me? With what? Leaves? Rocks?"
Kaira reached into her pocket and pulled out the gold tooth she had taken from the Hyena leader on the bridge. She held it up. It glinted in the gloom.
"Gold," she said. "Real gold. And there's more where we're going."
Titus looked at the tooth. Then he looked at the river. Then he looked at Kaira.
He laughed. It was a deep, belly-shaking sound.
"Kid, look around. I live in a jungle. I sleep in mud. What am I going to do with gold? Buy a hat?"
He shook his head and took another step into the water.
"Go away. Before the locals get curious."
Ren was about to argue, but then he felt it.
The Aether in his blood spiked. The hairs on his arms stood up. His Axolotl senses, tuned to the water, screamed a warning.
Ripple.
The black surface of the river, which had been glass-smooth a second ago, was disturbed. Not by wind. By shapes.
Ren grabbed Kaira's shoulder and pulled her back. "Kaira. Look."
Kaira squinted. "Logs?"
"No," Ren whispered. "Eyes."
The water erupted.
It wasn't one creature. It was a dozen.
They burst from the riverbank with terrifying speed, launching themselves onto the mud. They were Crocodiles, but like everything else in Veridia, the Aether had twisted them.
They were humanoid, standing on thick, scaled legs, but they were hunched over, their spines ridged with armored plates. Their snouts were long, filled with jagged, yellow teeth. They wore scraps of fishing nets and rusted metal armor.
They held spears made of sharpened driftwood and jagged scrap metal.
"Well, well," a raspy voice hissed.
The leader of the pack stepped forward. He was massive, easily seven feet long from snout to tail tip, with a scar running diagonally across his left eye. He spun a heavy iron spear in his clawed hand.
"Titus," the Crocodile hissed. "You brought guests."
Titus didn't move. He stood knee-deep in the water, looking bored. "Not guests, Sobek. Pests. They followed me. You can have them."
Ren's blood ran cold. He's selling us out.
Sobek, the Crocodile leader, grinned. It was a horrifying expression that showed far too many teeth. He turned his slit-pupiled eyes toward Ren and Kaira.
"Did you hear that, boys?" Sobek rasped. " The River King gave us permission. Soft meat for dinner."
The pack hissed, a sound like steam escaping a pipe. They began to circle, their tails thrashing in the mud.
Kaira stepped in front of Ren, her fists igniting. The orange glow of her Mantis armor illuminated the dark bank.
"Ren," she said quietly. "There are twelve of them. Their scales are thick. I can crack them, but not all of them at once."
"I know," Ren said, his mind racing. "Back to the treeline. We need to bottleneck them."
"Leaving so soon?" Sobek laughed. He lunged.
He was fast for a cold-blooded creature. He thrust the spear at Kaira's chest.
Kaira parried, her armored forearm deflecting the iron tip with a spark. She countered with a jab.
"Impact!"
She punched Sobek in the chest.
THUD.
The air blast hit him, but Sobek didn't fly backward. His scales were like plate armor. He absorbed the blow, sliding back only a few feet. He grunted, rubbing his chest.
"Strong for a shrimp," Sobek sneered. "But not strong enough."
Two other Crocodiles rushed Ren.
Ren didn't have armor. He didn't have punches. He had pain.
He dodged the first spear, the wood whistling past his ear. He grabbed the shaft of the second spear.
"Bone Lock!"
He clamped his hand onto the wood, letting the splinters tear into his palm, his flesh fusing to the weapon. He yanked, pulling the surprised Crocodile off balance.
Ren kicked the Croc in the knee, hearing a satisfying pop, but the third Croc slammed his tail into Ren's stomach.
Ren folded, gasping, as he was launched into the mud.
"Ren!" Kaira shouted, distracted.
Sobek used the opening. He swung his heavy tail, catching Kaira in the side of the head. She went down, hitting the mud hard.
Ren scrambled up, coughing mud. The Crocodiles were closing in. They were surrounded.
Titus was still standing in the river, watching. He hadn't moved. He was just watching, his small ears twitching.
Ren looked at the giant. A surge of anger—hotter than the Aether—flooded his chest.
"YOU!" Ren screamed, pointing a muddy finger at Titus. "You're the King of the River? You're a coward! You let scavengers run your territory?"
Titus blinked.
Ren didn't stop. He was fueled by adrenaline and stupidity.
"You're big, you're strong, and you just stand there? Look at them!" Ren gestured to the Crocodiles. "They're not respecting you, Titus! They're laughing at you! They think you're old! They think you're soft!"
Sobek froze. He looked at Ren, then at Titus.
"Shut up, meat," Sobek hissed nervously.
But Ren ignored him. He looked straight at the Hippo.
"Are you the King?" Ren yelled, his voice cracking. "Or are you just another piece of drift wood?"
Silence descended on the riverbank. Even the insects stopped buzzing.
Titus slowly turned his head. He looked at Sobek.
"Sobek," Titus rumbled. His voice was lower now. Dangerous.
Sobek swallowed visibly. "Titus… the boy is crazy. We're just… cleaning up the trash."
"He said," Titus continued, stepping out of the water, "that you are laughing at me."
The ground shook as Titus took a step onto the mud.
"We respect the pact!" Sobek stammered, backing away. "The water is yours! The mud is ours!"
"The mud is wet," Titus stated. "Therefore, the mud is mine."
He took another step.
"And these two noisy, annoying, small things…" Titus pointed a massive finger at Ren and Kaira. "They are annoying me. Which means they are my problem. Not yours."
Sobek snarled, realizing diplomacy was over. "Take him! He's just one fat cow!"
The Crocodiles charged. All twelve of them. They rushed the giant with spears and claws.
It was a massacre. But not for Titus.
Titus didn't use martial arts. He didn't use magic. He used mass.
The first Crocodile stabbed a spear at Titus's belly. The iron tip bounced off the thick, rubbery hide without leaving a scratch.
Titus looked at the spear. Then he backhanded the Crocodile.
CRACK.
The sound was like a tree snapping in a hurricane. The Crocodile was launched thirty feet into the air, spinning like a ragdoll, before splashing into the middle of the river.
Two more Crocs jumped on Titus's back, trying to bite his neck.
Titus shrugged. A literal shrug. The force of his trapezius muscles bunching up dislodged them, sending them tumbling into the mud.
Titus grabbed one Crocodile by the tail. He swung him like a baseball bat, slamming him into two others.
CRUNCH. THUD. SPLASH.
Sobek, seeing his pack being dismantled like LEGOs, roared and charged Titus himself. He opened his massive jaws, aiming for Titus's leg.
Titus looked down. He opened his mouth.
A Hippo's mouth can open 150 degrees. It is a cavern of ivory and muscle.
Titus clamped his jaws onto Sobek's armored torso.
CRUNCH.
It wasn't a nip. It was hydraulic pressure. The sound of Sobek's "impenetrable" scale armor shattering echoed through the jungle.
Titus lifted the seven-foot Crocodile leader into the air and tossed him aside like a chewed toy.
Sobek hit a tree, groaned once, and didn't get up.
The remaining three Crocodiles looked at their fallen leader. They looked at the pile of broken bodies in the mud. They looked at Titus, who was casually picking a piece of scale out of his teeth.
They dropped their spears and ran. They didn't run into the jungle; they dove into the river and swam for their lives, disappearing into the depths.
Titus stood alone in the center of the carnage. He huffed, a cloud of steam rising from his nostrils.
He turned to Ren.
Ren was sitting in the mud, holding his healing arm. Kaira was standing up, her jaw open.
Titus walked over to Ren. He loomed over the boy, casting a shadow that blocked out the moon.
"Driftwood," Titus repeated Ren's insult.
Ren gulped. "I… I was motivating you."
Titus stared at him. The silence stretched for an agonizing ten seconds. Ren prepared to be eaten.
Then, Titus snorted. The corners of his massive mouth twitched.
"You have a loud mouth, Scribe," Titus grunted. "And zero survival instinct. I respect that."
He reached down with one massive hand. Ren flinched, but Titus grabbed him by the back of his tunic and hauled him to his feet like a kitten.
"You're right," Titus said, looking at the fleeing ripples in the water. "The neighborhood is going to hell. Too much noise. Too many gangs."
He dropped Ren back onto his feet.
"I'm going to the Sanctum," Titus announced.
Kaira blinked. "You are? You're joining us?"
"No," Titus corrected. "I am walking to the Sanctum to tell the Lions to shut up. If you happen to be walking behind me… well, the jungle is a free place."
He turned back to the river.
"But if you fall behind," Titus warned, stepping into the dark water, "I'm not stopping. And if you wake me up when I'm napping, I will sit on you."
Ren smiled, wiping the mud from his face. He looked at Kaira. Kaira was grinning ear to ear.
"He likes us," Kaira whispered.
"He tolerates us," Ren corrected.
"Same thing."
Titus began to wade across the river. The water, which had been terrifying moments ago, now seemed like a highway. The Crocodiles lurking below parted ways, terrified of the King.
"Coming?" Titus rumbled without looking back.
Ren and Kaira didn't hesitate. They splashed into the water, following the wake of the Titan.