The Evolution System of the Drowned

Chapter 10: The First Surge

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 hydraulic press. Then another. Then a dozen.

"What are those things?" Cuthbert's voice came through the Glow-Spore I'd planted on Elowen. He sounded like he was hyperventilating. "Elowen, they're crawling up the sea wall! They're in the streets!"

"Shut up, Cuthbert!" Elowen hissed, though her own voice was brittle. "The Aethelgard contact said this would happen. They said the system would trigger a 'cleansing.' We just have to stay in the penthouse."

"A cleansing?" I whispered into the night, knowing the spore would relay my words. "You're letting monsters eat your citizens so you can hide in a glass tower? You really are a piece of work, Elowen."

"Who said that?" I heard her scream through the link. "Osric? Where are you?"

"I'm where the work gets done," I said.

I stepped off the pier. I didn't sink. The water beneath my feet thickened, supporting my weight as I walked across the harbor surface. I was the Warden-King, and the sea obeyed my intent.

[WARNING: DEFENSES CRUMBLING. SECTOR 7 OVERRUN.]

The city's sirens began to wail, a lonely sound against the wet slapping of thousands of prehistoric horrors climbing the docks. I saw a squad of police officers open fire at the entrance to the promenade. Their bullets sparked off the creatures' shells like they were hitting tank armor.

"Fall back!" I yelled at them, my voice carrying over the gunfire. "Your guns won't do anything but make them angry!"

"Who the hell are you?" a sergeant yelled, staring at me as I stood on the undulating red waves. "Is that a suit or... is that your skin?"

"Run!" I commanded, my silver eyes flashing.

A massive tentacle, thick as a redwood tree and covered in hooked suckers, erupted from the center of the harbor. It smashed into a warehouse, leveling the brick structure in a single blow. The officers didn't need to be told twice. They bolted.

"Marcus, get me a scan on that thing," I said, crouching as the water swirled around my ankles.

[IDENTIFICATION: THE FIRST GUARDIAN. SPECIES: ABYSSAL JUGGERNAUT. TIER: TRUE LEVIATHAN.]

"Osric, get out of there!" Marcus screamed. "That thing is the size of a battleship! You can't fight that alone!"

"I'm not alone," I said, feeling the Bio-Electric Discharge hum beneath my obsidian skin. "I've got the whole ocean behind me."

The water began to boil as the Juggernaut rose. It was a mountain of flesh and ancient spite, its head a cluster of glowing green eyes that fixed on me with murderous intent. This was the first True Guardian. The thing the system had been preparing me for.

"You're a long way from home, ugly," I said.

The beast roared, a sound that shattered every window within five blocks. It swung a massive, spiked limb at me. I leaped, the water exploding beneath my feet as I propelled myself fifty feet into the air. I landed on the creature's back, my claws sliding out to their full length.

"Let's see how you handle a Thorne," I growled.

I slammed my palms onto its wet, leathery hide and released everything. [BIO-ELECTRIC DISCHARGE: 100%.]

Lightning arched across the harbor, turning the red water into a blinding white strobe. The Juggernaut shrieked, its massive body convulsing as I pumped thousands of volts directly into its nervous system.

"What is that light?" Elowen's voice came through the spore, filled with a mix of awe and terror. "Cuthbert, look at the harbor! Someone is fighting it!"

"It's him," Cuthbert whimpered. "It's Osric. He's... he's glowing."

I didn't have time to enjoy their fear. The Juggernaut slammed itself against the sea wall, trying to crush me. I felt my ribs groan under the pressure, my obsidian scales cracking.

[WARNING: STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY AT 60%. CONSUME CORE TO FINISH THE TRIAL.]

"Working on it!" I gasped, digging my claws deeper until I felt something hard and pulsing.

I reached into the wound I'd carved and gripped a glowing, crimson sphere the size of a basketball. It was the creature's heart—the source of the Red Tide's power.

"Mine," I said.

I yanked. The sphere came free with a wet, sucking sound. The Juggernaut froze, its green eyes flickering out one by one. Its massive body began to dissolve, turning back into the very red mist that had summoned it.

I fell back into the water, clutching the core. The Red Tide began to recede, the monsters on the docks melting away into piles of stinking sludge. The city was safe. For now.

I pulled myself onto a floating piece of wreckage, gasping for air. My armor was cracked, my blood a shimmering silver where it leaked onto the wood.

[TRIAL COMPLETE. ESSENCE ACQUIRED. EVOLUTION PENDING.]

"Osric? You did it! The signatures are vanishing!" Marcus was cheering in my ear.

"It's not over," I said, looking at the glowing red core in my hands. "This was just the first one. They're testing me."

I looked up at the Vane Plaza. Elowen was standing on the balcony, her silhouette framed by the fires still burning in the city. Through the spore, I heard a new sound.

Footsteps. Heavy, metallic footsteps entering her room.

"The Warden survived the First Surge," a cold, unfamiliar voice said. It wasn't Cuthbert. It wasn't the Aethelgard contact. It sounded like something that had never used vocal cords before. "He is stronger than the records predicted. Initiate the 'Red Tide Rising' protocol. If he wants the city, let him rule a graveyard."

"Wait!" Elowen screamed. "You said we'd be safe! You said—"

There was a sound of glass shattering and a sudden, sharp silence.

"Elowen?" I whispered, my heart going cold. "System, locate the spore! Give me a visual!"

[SIGNAL LOST. THE SPORE HAS BEEN NEUTRALIZED BY AN EXTERNAL FREQUENCY.]

I looked at the top floor of the Vane Plaza. The lights weren't flickering anymore. They were turning a deep, sickly green.

"Cuthbert? Elowen?" I shouted into the empty air, but the link was dead.

I looked out at the horizon. A wall of fog was rolling in, taller than the skyscrapers. And inside the fog, I could hear the rhythmic thrumming of thousands of hearts. Not shark hearts. Not eel hearts.

Something else was coming. Something that didn't just want to eat the city. It wanted to replace it.

"Marcus," I said, my voice shaking with a mix of exhaustion and fury. "Get the vault ready. We're going to need every weapon my father hid."

"Why? What's happening?"

"The First Surge was just the bell," I said, my silver eyes narrowing as the green light from the tower reflected in the water. "The Red Tide isn't an accident. It's an invasion."

I dived back into the water, the crimson core tucked against my chest. I had to evolve again. I had to become faster. Leaner. More lethal. Because the people who murdered my father weren't the ones in charge anymore.

The deep was coming to the surface, and it didn't care about Thorne or Vane. It only cared about the pearl.