Using his scroll, Dove shined a light down into the murky darkness. Inky black darkness filling the water. While the water level was about two feet lower than the water on the other side, his light could only go down about twenty feet into the darkness. Not anywhere close enough to see what grimm lurked in the darkness. It stared at him, just out of view. He could feel it. "Y'all ready?"
Rot pulled out his machete and Go extended a quarterstaff from their sleeve. They nodded in tandem. The three braced themselves, weapons extended, waiting for the grimm to move. A massive white mask began arising from the darkness of below. A set of six eye sockets, each two feet wide. It rose to the surface and settled. The sockets were empty. No red eyes. Scratch that, there were a set of small beady eyes in one of the sockets. A smaller mask rested in the eye socket, connected to an octopus-like grimm. While it screamed at them with the hatred of a grudge long buried to the sands of time, it sounded more like a dog toy. The three of them stood on the ledge of the uncovered reservoir and looked down at this four-inch grimm. "Are you serious?
"Yes Rot, I believe it is serious. Please hold your laughter," snickered Go.
"Pence, can grimm shrink?" Asked Dove.
"It has been hypothesized that grimm can shrink and reduce in lethality when deprived of negative emotions for long durations of time. However, the time span it takes to do so takes much longer than the amount of time for it to be practical in laboratory or field testing."
"So, is that a yes?"
"With enough time, and a near to complete lack of negative emotions to feed on, grimm should shrink in size. At least in theory."
"And if it had been sitting in this cavern for a long time, it could shrink from that larger size, molt its shell armor, and become what it is now?" Dove asked, as the creature hissed at them again, attempting to intimidate them.
"Based on the stonework style, this reservoir was made almost 2000 years ago. The wall we unceremoniously destroyed was put into place more than 1500 years ago."
"So, this guy has been sitting behind this wall for 1500 years. And shrunk."
"Affirmative."
"Wow." It squealed again. "Gentlemen, ready. Aim. Fire." And then the three figures pointed and laughed. Much to the protest of the miniature. This continued for a good five minutes.
Eventually they stopped, and Rot asked, "So, who gets the honors?"
Dove recovered and held his chest. "I don't care about getting to kill a millennium old grimm. But I would like the plate that it's resting on. Grimm plates are super hard to find."
"Especially with how they dissolve upon death. First time I've seen a specimen of this size," admitted Go. "But I am fine with letting you kill it."
"What's the catch." Glanced Rot.
"May I ask to claim this part of the reservoir? Unless you'd like us to have to make another hole on your end?"
"No, I guess, that's fair. Mr. Templar gets his bone plate, you get access to this mess, and I get the honors. Fantastic." Rot picked up a brick.
"What are you doing with that."
"Going to use it to crush it."
"Really?"
The tentacled grimm jumped up onto the wall of the reservoir and began crawling its way up onto the pathway the three were standing on. As soon as it surmounted the corner of the walkway, Rot began slowly pressing down upon it with the brick. "Yeah. I mean, why not?"
"It just seems a little inhumane." The tiny grimm was screaming as it attempted in vain to prevent its demise.
"Really?" Rot put the extra little bit of force and made the once fearsome grimm a black stain on the stone. "Didn't mean to." He lifted the stone to see the grimm already evaporating. "That better?"
"Forget it. Congratulations, you have killed one of the oldest grimm known to man. How do you feel?"
"Pretty good. So, we good?"
"We haven't even made it to the Wall," deadpanned Dove as he fished out the plate from the water. "So, not yet."
"So, off to the Wall then?"
"Once we fill the holes in this mask, yeah. Might be able to use it as a boat." Dove began trying to use all sorts of different material to fill the massive eye sockets.
"Today a millennium old grimm, tomorrow, the Wall."
"Why does the Wall sound far more threatening?" Murmured Go.
"Because it totally is."
