The next morning, the crew regrouped in the war room.
The holographic map displayed Leviathan Prison, the swarm of biomechanical sharks, and their planned stealth approach. The tension in the room was thick, but no one backed down.
Jeffrie stood at the head of the table, arms crossed. "We're surrounded. But we've got a way through."
Azul zoomed in on the deep trench path. "We drift through here, avoiding sonar detection. If we do this right, they won't even know we're coming."
Scarlett smirked. "And if we do it wrong?"
Ethan grinned. "Then we get eaten."
Ray sighed, shaking his head. "Comforting."
Trice cracked his knuckles. "Sounds fun."
Sophia exhaled. "Y'all are actually insane."
Jeffrie smirked, looking around the room. They were insane. But they were also the best damn team on the planet. And today?
They weren't going down.
Jeffrie exhaled. "Final checks. We move in one hour."
The room erupted into motion.
Jeffrie's Solo Rampage
The Kraken was silent as the crew slept.
Dim blue light flickered across the steel corridors, the hum of the ship's systems the only sound. Beyond the walls, the ocean stretched endlessly into darkness—except for the hundreds of biomechanical sharks patrolling Leviathan's perimeter, their glowing red eyes slicing through the abyss.
Jeffrie stood at the Kraken's external hatch, fully suited up.
His breathing was slow. Steady.
No hesitation.
He tapped his comm once. "Azul, cut external surveillance for the next twenty minutes."
Azul's tired voice crackled in his ear. "Wait, what? Why—"
He cut the line.
Then, he launched himself straight into the abyss.
⸻
The Attack Begins
The moment his boots touched the ocean floor, the sharks sensed him.
Their red eyes flickered. Their metal fins sliced through the water like blades.
Jeffrie rolled his shoulders.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see what you got."
The first three charged.
Jeffrie moved fast. Too fast.
The water warped around him as he twisted, with barely a ripple left in his wake. The first shark lunged—jaws unhinging, metal glinting under the deep-sea pressure.
Jeffrie didn't dodge.
He punched straight through its skull.
A crack echoed through the water as its head caved in, shards of synthetic plating and circuitry scattering like blood. The second shark snapped its razor-lined jaws at him—Jeffrie caught them mid-bite, fingers digging into reinforced steel.
For a split second, the shark struggled. Then, with a sharp twist, Jeffrie ripped its head clean off.
Something was wrong.
He shouldn't be this strong. Shouldn't be this fast.
But at this moment? He didn't care.
The third shark hesitated, its systems adapting. Then—it roared, summoning the others.
Jeffrie smirked. Now we're talking.
The ocean erupted into chaos
Jeffrie's fist tore through the first shark's skull, his grip crushing its mechanical core. Sparks and oil-like fluid burst into the water as its body convulsed, limbs twitching before it went still.
But there was no time to breathe.
The other two were already closing in—fast.
One aimed for his blind spot. Too late to dodge.
Boom!
The impact slammed into Jeffrie's ribs, sending him spiraling through the dark abyss. Pressure crushed against his chest as he flipped through the water. That one hurt.
His vision blurred for half a second before he gritted his teeth, forcing his body to correct its momentum. The second shark lunged, its metal jaws locking onto his left arm.
A sharp, burning pain shot through his bicep.
Jeffrie snarled.
His fingers clenched into a fist—then he drove a devastating punch straight into the shark's gills, caving in the plating. The mechanical beast recoiled, twitching violently before sinking into the depths.
But more were coming.
A lot more.
A massive explosion rocked the Kraken.
Scarlett's eyes snapped open. "What the—"
The alarms blared.
Ray stumbled into the hallway, half-dressed, shirt only buttoned halfway. "Yo! Who the hell is attacking us?!"
Naomi was already lacing up her boots. "More like what is attacking us?"
Camila checked her watch. "We weren't supposed to reach Leviathan yet."
Inside the command deck, Azul's fingers flew across the controls, hacking into the Kraken's external cameras.
The screen flickered—
Then—
The entire crew froze.
The Battle Intensifies
Outside, Jeffrie was fighting an entire biomechanical shark army alone.
Ezra let out a low whistle. "Yo… that's some horror movie shit."
Elliot's eyes widened. "How the hell is he not dead?!"
Luis exhaled. "This is not human."
Inside the battlefield, Jeffrie launched himself forward. Five sharks came at once, cutting through the dark waters like torpedoes.
He ducked the first, twisted past the second—
Too slow.
The third slammed into his gut, sending him crashing into the seabed.
The weight of the ocean squeezed his lungs like a vice.
Breathe, damn it.
Jeffrie gritted his teeth, forcing his legs to move. Too much time wasted. He pushed off the ocean floor, moving just in time to dodge the next attack.
A massive Alpha Shark, easily twice the size of the others, shot toward him like a missile.
Jeffrie narrowed his eyes.
At the last second, he flipped over it, planting a grenade directly on its dorsal fin.
BOOM.
The ocean lit up, a wave of shock blasting through the water.
But he wasn't safe yet.
Another shark lunged from behind—too fast.
Teeth ripped into Jeffrie's shoulder.
His vision flashed white.
Pain exploded through his nerves.
Inside the Kraken, Azul's breath hitched. "He's hurt."
Sophia shook her head. "Shit—he's actually struggling."
Kai frowned. "Should we go out there?"
Zane crossed his arms. "Are you insane? We'd just slow him down."
Jeffrie snarled, grabbing the shark's jaw and forcing it open, ignoring the pain shredding through his muscles. One second. Two.
Then—
With a roar, he ripped its skull apart.
The beast twitched, then went still.
Five more left.
Jeffrie's breathing was sharp, ragged.
His body felt heavy. His blood mixed with the ocean. The darkness pressed in.
But he wasn't stopping.
The final Alpha Shark turned to escape.
Jeffrie saw red.
His muscles screamed in protest, but he didn't care.
He grabbed its tail and—
SLAM!
The ocean shook as he dragged the beast down and smashed it into the seabed.
Once.
Twice.
Crack.
The impact sent a shockwave through the trench. The water rippled.
The silence didn't last.
Beneath the shattered seabed, something shifted.
Then—a rumble.
Not from above.
From below.
Jeffrie barely had time to react before the ocean floor cracked open in a spiral of force.
From the abyssal dark, four monstrous shapes emerged—larger than the others, layered in reinforced bio-armor, their eyes glowing like submerged suns.
The Final Alphas.
Smarter. Meaner. Built to kill.
They circled him like predators who knew exactly what they were doing.
Jeffrie floated in the blood-dyed current, muscles screaming, vision narrowing—but his grip on his blade never loosened.
His mind was silent.
His body was wrecked.
His will?
Unbreakable.
He exhaled slowly, resetting his stance as the water pressure tightened around him like a vice.
"All right," he whispered.
"Round two."
The first Alpha lunged.
Jeffrie moved.
The first Alpha lunged.
Jeffrie ducked, spinning with a burst of energy, his blade slicing along its underbelly—but the armor barely cracked. The second one struck from behind. Jeffrie twisted mid-spin, catching the blow with his forearm guard—CRACK—and was launched backward into a coral ridge.
His back hit hard.
The ocean groaned with the force.
But he didn't stop.
Didn't even scream.
He pushed off the ridge, spiraling upward through the water just as the third Alpha charged like a torpedo.
He grabbed its dorsal fin mid-attack, twisted, flipped it over himself—and slammed it into the fourth one behind him.
Two down, briefly stunned.
But not done.
They regrouped instantly, moving like a coordinated unit.
Smarter than the others.
Adaptive.
Jeffrie's heart thundered. Blood streamed from a gash in his side, swirling in the current. His breathing mask flickered—oxygen low.
He blinked sweat and salt from his eyes, gripping his blade tighter.
"Come on," he growled.
They came.
All at once.
Claws, jaws, and sonic pulses launched from bio-core nodes in their bodies. Jeffrie dodged the first pulse, barely ducked the second—but the third hit.
BOOM.
The impact threw him back, armor plates cracking along his ribs.
His blade fell from his grip.
The fourth Alpha closed in.
Teeth bared.
Too fast.
Jeffrie's eyes widened—he couldn't reach the weapon in time.
So he reached for a chunk of broken armor from a fallen Alpha and jammed it into the creature's eye as it lunged.
It screamed—deep and muffled—but Jeffrie didn't stop there.
He climbed onto its head and started punching the control node embedded in its skull.
One. Two. Three—CRACK.
The bio-core exploded in a flash of blue light.
That was seven.
Jeffrie fell back, tumbling through the current. Two Alphas swam at him in perfect formation—fast, synchronized.
No hesitation.
He roared, blood leaking from his mouth, and threw himself straight at them.
A blur of fists, blades, and sheer will.
He dodged one.
Caught the second with a blade recovered mid-roll.
Drove it into the Alpha's mouth as it lunged.
BOOM.
Eight.
The second caught him mid-turn, jaws crushing into his side.
He screamed into the ocean.
Then twisted the emergency spike from his thigh sheath and jammed it upward through the beast's lower jaw.
FLASH. CRACK. COLLAPSE.
Nine.
Only one left.
The biggest.
It didn't charge.
It waited.
Still as a shadow. Quiet as death.
Jeffrie hovered midwater, bleeding from his mouth, ribs broken, oxygen tank cracked and failing. The last blade trembled in his grip, his arms sluggish and heavy.
This Alpha was no brute.
It was evolved—intelligent.
Predatory.
Jeffrie blinked blood from his eyes and muttered to himself, "You're not walking away from this…"
He pushed off with everything he had—charging, roaring through the depths.
The Alpha met him halfway.
At the last second, it vanished in a flicker of motion—adaptive camouflage, fast enough to blur into water itself.
Then—WHAM.
The Alpha slammed into Jeffrie from above, jaws closing over his side.
Armor cracked. Blood exploded into the water like ink.
Jeffrie screamed, body folding in pain, blade knocked from his hand.
The Alpha tossed him like a ragdoll, and he hit the trench wall with enough force to crater the stone.
Vision dimmed.
His heart pounded.
He felt it—the edge.
This was it.
But then—
Something inside him shifted.
The water around him slowed… like time itself hesitated.
The abyss stirred.
Not from rage.
From will.
Not just in the sea.
In him.
A dark current coiled from within his chest and burst outward, surrounding him in a spiral of cold pressure and glowing blue-black sigils.
The water answered him.
Abyssal power—his—awakened fully.
His eyes snapped open, glowing with that ancient, unnatural light.
The blood in the water stopped drifting.
It started pulling back.
Toward him.
The Alpha turned, reacting to the sudden shift in pressure.
Too late.
Jeffrie moved.
Fast.
He shot through the water like a lance, fist-first, no blade in hand—just pure abyssal force.
The ocean obeyed him now.
Currents surged with his movement, forming a spear of compressed pressure around his arm.
He punched into the Alpha's jaw—shattering it.
The beast reeled, screeching, disoriented.
Jeffrie spun behind it, hand glowing dark blue.
The water split.
He reached toward its exposed core—and the abyss itself moved with him.
Chains of water and darkness wrapped around the Alpha's throat, binding it mid-spin.
He pulled.
And pulled.
And ripped the core from its chest with his bare hands.
BOOOOOOM.
The Alpha exploded in a swirl of water, pressure, and black light—vaporizing into a storm of mist and broken armor.
Silence followed.
Jeffrie floated in the aftermath, panting, chest glowing faintly.
The abyss receded slowly—content.
Exhausted, Jeffrie drifted, the water now still around him.
He whispered hoarsely, "...Didn't know I had that in me."
And then, finally…
He blacked out.
Jeffrie floated in the middle of the wreckage, his breaths slow, uneven.
Inside the Kraken, the crew stared at the screen.
Dante shook his head. "…That was the most insane shit I've ever seen."
Sergei exhaled. "I've fought monsters before. But that? That was something else."
Toby muttered, "He should be dead."
Adrian crossed his arms. "But he's not."
Ethan leaned back, laughing. "This man different."
Trice grinned. "Cuzzo just ended an entire ecosystem."
Nyah let out a low whistle. "I don't know if I should be scared or turned on."
Isabella smirked. "Why not both?"
Scarlett's emerald eyes flickered, lips curling. "That was… hot."
The camera feed showed only mist, blood, and drifting bio-shark debris. No sound. No movement.
Then—
A flicker.
Jeffrie stirred.
Floating upright now, head low, body limp but alive.
Lily gasped. "He's conscious!"
Scarlett leaned forward. "Zoom in!"
The Kraken's external sensors locked on as Jeffrie's eyes opened—no glow, no aura. Just the usual exhaustion. His chest rose and fell in rough, shallow breaths, but he was moving.
Trice tapped the glass. "There he go…"
Jeffrie looked around slowly, as if coming out of a dream.
His voice crackled through the comms—rough, but clear.
"Did we win?"
Laughter burst out from multiple channels at once.
"Hell yeah, we won!" Ray's voice came through, cheering.
Jeffrie gave a tired half-smile, blinking through salt and blood. "Good… I wasn't planning on round three."
Ethan's voice chimed in again. "You better not. Kraken's on the way. Gonna scoop your dramatic ass up in style."
Inside the control deck, Azul scanned the footage playback, frowning. "Wait… that final moment. The core ruptured—but we didn't see how."
Sophia narrowed her eyes. "He had no blade. No gear. No oxygen."
Camila leaned against the console, thoughtful. "Then how did he win?"
Jeffrie didn't answer.
Because he didn't remember.
Not all of it.
Just a flash of black water.
A pulse of something ancient.
And power he hadn't meant to use.
For now, he said nothing.
Just drifted in the wake of what he'd done… surrounded by silence.
And the wreckage of monsters.
Azul didn't say anything.
She just stared at the screen, fingers tightening around the console.
Jeffrie…
She'd seen him fight before.
She knew he was strong.
But this?
This wasn't just strength.
This was something else.
Something impossible.
And it terrified her.
The Kraken's external cameras zoomed in as Jeffrie slowly turned toward them, his gaze meeting the lens directly.
He grinned.
Inside, Ray leaned forward, shaking his head.
"This dude… is a damn problem."
Scarlett smirked. "And he's ours."
Azul's heart pounded.
Something was changing.
Something they weren't ready for.
And deep down—she knew.
This was only the beginning
After the Battle – The Calm Before the Infiltration
Azul exhaled, shaking her head. "You are actually impossible."
Lily sighed, arms crossed. "And somehow, he's ours."
The Kraken's hatch hissed open.