The Silent Dagger shuddered.
Kael stumbled as the deck tilted sharply, throwing barrels rolling and pirates grabbing for rigging. The Leviathan's massive tail hammered the sea again, sending a wave of glowing water over the ship's bow.
Seraya didn't flinch.She stood at the front, blade blazing with blue fire, a silhouette of calm in a storm of chaos.
"Lines ready!" the copper-goggled pirate—Lioren—shouted."Turbines overheating—very bad—extremely bad—violently bad!"
"Good," Seraya said. "That means it's working."
Kael's jaw dropped. What kind of people were these?
A pirate shoved a spear into his hands."Hold this!"
Kael blinked. "What am I supposed to do with—"
A tentacle the size of a tree slammed onto the deck beside him.
"—OH."
The tentacle writhed, covered in glowing veins of blue. The Leviathan wasn't just large—it was ancient. Its skin shimmered like shifting crystal, and every strike shook the entire ship.
Kael froze as the tentacle rose again, ready to crush him.
The Deep whisper surged inside him.
Move.
Kael leapt sideways just as the tentacle smashed into the planks he'd been standing on. The impact splintered the wood, spraying shards everywhere.
A pirate yelled, "Hey, kid! Either stab it or run!"
Kael didn't feel like he had a choice.
He drove the spear forward—more out of desperation than skill—and it sank only an inch into the creature's hide. The Leviathan roared, lifting its head high enough to cast a shadow over the entire deck.
Seraya's voice cut through the chaos.
"Kael! Look at me!"
He turned.Her eyes burned like suns.
"Fear is a wave," she said. "If you let it hit you, it drowns you. If you ride it—"
She sprinted straight up the Leviathan's tentacle as if gravity didn't apply.
"—it becomes your weapon."
Kael's breath caught as she vaulted from the tentacle onto the beast's skull. Her sword flared brighter, blue flames tracing along the Leviathan's crystalline scales. She drove her blade deep into the glowing lines.
The beast shrieked. Waves exploded outward.
Lioren screamed from the upper rigging, "THE HEART IS DESTABILIZING! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
Seraya called back, "Not before we kill it!"
Pirates laughed in pure madness.
Kael felt his chest tighten.He had to do something. Anything.
The Leviathan's tentacle slid toward him again, slower this time, wounded. Kael ducked, rolled, and stabbed once more—deeper than before. The creature recoiled, glowing veins pulsing brighter.
A voice came from behind him.
"You're improving."
Kael spun. The soot-covered girl from earlier stood with a sling loaded with explosive stones.
"What's your name?" Kael shouted.
"Rhea!" she yelled back. "And now is a very good time to run!"
She flung a glowing stone at the tentacle. It exploded in a burst of white smoke, forcing the creature to pull back. Kael stared, stunned.
"Are you trying to kill it or blind it?"
"Both!"
Kael didn't have time to argue. The deck shook again, and the Leviathan's massive head dipped low, golden eyes locking on him.
Kael froze.
The Deep whisper turned sharp.
Jump.
Kael didn't question it. He dove just as the Leviathan's jaws snapped shut where he had stood an instant earlier. The shockwave hurled him across the deck and slammed him into a coil of ropes.
His vision blurred.
When it cleared, he saw Seraya standing atop the beast, sword raised skyward, glowing with enough energy to light the whole coastline.
"Lioren!" she shouted. "Now!"
Lioren slammed a lever down on a strange metallic cylinder connected to the harpoon winches.
Every chain on the ship flashed red.
Seraya plunged her sword into the Leviathan's skull.
The Silent Dagger erupted in thunder.Electricity surged down the chains.The Leviathan convulsed.
A shockwave exploded outward—wind, light, and boiling water spraying the entire deck.
Kael shielded his eyes.
When the light faded… the Leviathan lay still.
Dead.
The sea around them glowed faintly with its dissipating energy.
Pirates cheered. Some collapsed onto the deck. Others hugged each other. A few immediately started arguing about who stabbed it first.
Seraya leapt down from the beast and landed a few feet from Kael. She wiped sweat from her brow, looking annoyingly calm for someone who had just killed a monster the size of an island.
"You survived," she said.
Kael nodded, chest heaving. "Barely."
"That's the only way anyone survives their first Bloodstorm."
She offered him a hand. He hesitated, then took it. She pulled him to his feet with surprising ease.
"You listened to the Deep," she said quietly, studying him. "You moved when it moved. You stepped where it stepped. You reacted before death reached you."
Kael felt cold.
"How do you know that?"
Seraya's expression darkened—not with anger, but with realization.
"Because I've only seen one other person do the same."
Kael swallowed."Who?"
Seraya looked toward the horizon, where the moon broke through the clouds like a blade.
"My first captain," she said.
Kael waited.
The wind howled softly.
"He died," she added. "And the sea swallowed him whole."
Kael's skin prickled.
Seraya turned back to him, eyes fierce."You're going to tell me exactly what you hear when the Deep speaks to you."
Kael hesitated.
Come, the Deep whispered.
"I… think I hear its voice," he whispered.
The ship suddenly shifted. A pirate shouted from the crow's nest:
"CAPTAIN! WE HAVE COMPANY!"
Seraya snapped her head up.A silhouette of a warship appeared through the mist—smaller than the Dagger, armored, flying the black-and-gold sigil of the Empire.
Seraya's jaw tightened.
"Bloodstorm's over," she said."Now the real night begins."