The blood from my split lip billowed in the water like a crimson silk ribbon. It was a dinner invite for every nightmare in the Atlantic. I floated there, my lungs burning with the strange, cold fire of the seawater, watching the darkness. Then, the system’s voice vibrated through my teeth.[PREDATOR DETECTED: CARCHARODON CARCHARIAS. MAGNITUDE: APEX.]Suddenly, the black void wasn't black anymore. My vision shifted into a neon-grid of heat and light. I saw it—a massive, scarred Great White Shark. It was twenty feet of muscle and prehistoric hunger, circling me just outside the range of human sight. But I wasn't human anymore. I could see its neural pathways glowing like golden threads beneath its skin. I could see the pulse of its heart."You want a piece of me?" I growled. The bubbles that left my mouth carried the sound like a low-frequency hum. "Come and get it, you overgrown sardine."The shark didn't hesitate. It snapped its tail and charged. It was a blurred gray streak of death

The storm outside was a monster, screaming against the cliffs of the Thorne Estate, but it was nothing compared to the storm in my blood. I moved through the shadows of the terrace, my footsteps silent on the stone. My skin felt tight—denser and more powerful than it had ever been. My eyes hummed with a faint, silver bioluminescence that made the pouring rain look like falling diamonds.Inside the grand ballroom, the "Passing Ceremony" was in full swing. It was supposed to be a wake for me, but through the glass, it looked more like a coronation."To the future!" I heard a familiar, grating voice shout over the music.I stepped toward the French doors. Through the gold-leafed glass, I saw Cuthbert standing on a raised platform. He was holding a glass of vintage scotch, his face flushed with triumph. Beside him stood Elowen. She looked stunning in a black silk dress that cost more than a lifeboat. She didn't look like a grieving widow. She looked like a queen who had finally gotten rid

The fog over the Oakhaven docks was thick enough to swallow a man whole. I drifted just beneath the surface of the oily water, watching the Vane merchant fleet bobbing at anchor. They were loaded with the stolen wealth of the Thorne family. They wouldn't stay loaded for long."Did you see that?" a sailor hissed from the deck of the Vane Star. "A shadow. Just moved past the hull.""Shut up, Jenkins," another replied, though his voice was shaking. "The Sea-Wraith isn't real. It's just ghost stories to keep us from stealing the cargo.""Tell that to the crew of the Mercury," Jenkins whispered. "They found the ship drifting five miles out. Not a soul on board. Just wet footprints and the smell of the deep."I surged upward, my obsidian hand clamping onto the edge of the pier. I didn't make a sound. I was the myth they feared, and I was very real.[MISSION UPDATE: NEUTRALIZE VANE LOGISTICS. 0/3 SHIPS REMAINING.]I pulled myself onto the dock, my skin absorbing the moonlight. I found the fo

The stench of the city's underbelly was thick enough to gag a normal man, but my new lungs processed the rot without a flinch. I waded through the waist-deep filth of the primary filtration canal. Above me, the streets of Oakhaven hummed with life, unaware that a prehistoric nightmare was chewing through their foundation."System, give me a lock on that signal," I whispered. My voice echoed flatly against the moss-covered concrete.[LEVIATHAN-CLASS SIGNATURE DETECTED. 300 METERS AHEAD. TARGET IS EMITTING 50,000 VOLTS.]"Perfect. Just what I need to jumpstart my heart," I muttered.I shut my eyes. The darkness was total, but as I clicked my tongue, a pulse of silver light rippled out from my mind. [SONAR ACTIVE.] The world rebuilt itself in my head as a wireframe of echoes. I saw the rusted pipes, the crumbling brickwork, and the massive, pulsing coil of muscle waiting in the junction ahead."Osric? Do you hear me?"I tapped my earpiece. It was my broker, sounding like he was about to

The harbor didn't smell like salt anymore. It smelled like a slaughterhouse. I stood on the edge of the pier, watching the water turn a thick, sickly crimson. It wasn't algae. It was a biological awakening.[SYSTEM ALERT: RED TIDE PROTOCOL DETECTED. ANCIENT BIOMASS REANIMATING.]"Osric! Look at the water!" Marcus's voice crackled through my neural link, sounding like he was screaming from the bottom of a well. "The sensors are going off the charts! Something is coming out of the silt!""I see it, Marcus," I said. My voice was a low vibration that seemed to calm the churning water at my feet. "Tell the police to evacuate the shoreline. Now.""They won't listen to me! They think it's a chemical spill!""Then tell them it's a goddamn apocalypse!" I roared.The first one breached the surface ten yards away. It looked like a cross between a lobster and a nightmare, six feet of jagged exoskeleton and pale, milky eyes. It crawled onto the wooden planks, its claws snapping with the force of a