"Ooh… it seems you're running low on energy, huh?"A cruel grin spread across the Orca's face, his teeth gleaming ivory-white against the suffocating dark of the sea. "I'm going to rip you both to shreds!"With a thunderous burst of kinetic energy, the Orca rocketed forward, his target locked upon the shark with the mangled pectoral fin. But at that precise instant, the two predators splitwith the precision of a practiced formation. One veered left; the other bolted right.
The Orca laughed—a sound of pure, exhilarated malice. Blood roared in his ears as he watched the prey flee before his might. "Pathetic."
He turned sharply to the right, a BOOM echoing through the water as he accelerated. His jaws opened wider, the darkness folding inward like the maw of death itself as he descended upon the injured shark. Just as his shadow engulfed the creature—
-—RAM!!!.
A violent impact slammed into the Orca's side. The shark that had fled left crashed into him like a living spear, teeth sinking deep into the blubber. Blood bloomed in a sudden, dark curtain. The Orca roared, the realization hitting him too late. It had never been a retreat. It was bait.
"You cowardly bastards!!" His scream twisted into a howl of agony as the injured shark suddenly surged forward as well—slamming, biting, and driving with a suicidal fervor. Together, they rammed the Orca straight into a jagged sea rock. CRASH!!! Stone fractured and coral shattered into a thousand jagged shards. The Orca burst free from the debris, blood flooding his vision and rage drowning all reason. He ignored the wounds tearing into his massive frame and lunged. SNAP!!! His jaws clamped down on the injured shark. The creature screamed as its side was ripped open, its flesh torn apart and its body hurled away like a broken doll into the current. But before the Orca could draw breath, a blur intervened. The second shark spun and smashed him into the rocks again, its jaws snapping viciously into the Orca's head.
"LET'S DIE TOGETHER!!"
The ragged, dying shark launched itself with the last of its flickering strength. CRUNCH!!! Its teeth crashed into the Orca's skull. An eye shattered. Blood erupted like a storm.
And then, a new presence stepped from the shadows of the abyss.
"This… is a great opportunity to strengthen myself." A cold, calculating grin formed in the darkness. El-Mond moved. At the speed of sound, his body became a streak of silver-white light. ROCKET RAM!!!
His jaws—refined, evolved, and lethal—slammed into the Orca's opposite side. CRUNCH!!! Bone caved and flesh collapsed under the pressure of his strike.
He accelerated again. One strike. He tore into the remaining shark's already-destroyed side, ending its life in a single, merciless bite.
The ocean fell silent. Blood drifted in lazy, dark ribbons. A mechanical chime echoed through the chambers of El-Mond's mind.
Ding! Congratulations to the Host. Body Evolution Complete. Rank Achieved: Earl-Class Apex White Shark.
El-Mond exhaled slowly, feeling the rush of new power settling into his marrow. "Mmm… I feel even stronger now." His eyes gleamed with a restrained, predatory hunger. "I feel as though I might be able to kill that Orca… if I fought it alone." He paused, the warrior's discipline of his past life curbing his rising pride. "No… I shouldn't get conceited. I am still very weak." His eyes narrowed, steel teeth glittering as he grinned. "It is time to start the hunt."
He turned, disappearing into the dark, crushing currents of the deep.
THREE MONTHS LATER — THE SOUTH SEA
The sea floor changed, the rugged terrain giving way to a colossal littoral cave that rose like a submerged kingdom, carved into ancient stone and glowing coral. Within the heart of this aquatic palace stood a throne of silver—ancient, cold and dominant.
Upon it sat a king.
He was a towering, chimeric figure—half man, half Orca. Muscles were coiled across his frame like iron cables; a single massive pectoral fin jutted from his back, and a powerful tail rested beneath the silver throne. Before him knelt another: an Orca warrior, similarly transformed into a half-human state.
"Your Majesty," the subordinate said, his voice low with reverence. "It has been reported that the last place Captain Rick was seen heading… was the northern part of the sea."
The king's eyes narrowed, burning with a cold, inner fire. "The former Great White territory?" His fist tightened. "What is he doing there?" His voice dropped, heavy with a lethal fury that vibrated through the cave walls. "Did we not slaughter every last Great White in that region?" The throne trembled as he slammed his fist down, the impact sending a shockwave through the silt. "Is he trying to find that thing again?!"
The palace architecture groaned, the very foundations of the submerged kingdom trembling beneath a fury that was less a sound and more a physical weight.
"Please calm your anger, Your Majesty," the Orca intoned, his posture a stiff, reverent curve. Though his voice remained as steady as the deep currents, a fine sheen of cold sweat traced the sharp line of his jaw. "I have already dispatched the Elite Squad to retrieve him."
A heavy, suffocating silence descended, thick enough to stifle the heart.
"Hmph… whatever."
With a lazy, dismissive wave of a hand that could crush a galley, the Orca King granted him leave. An invisible pressure rippled outward from the throne, a tidal force that compelled the subordinate to bow until his forehead nearly grazed the cold stone before he retreated from the hall. As the massive doors groaned shut, the subordinate's eyes narrowed into lethal slits, his teeth clenching with a sound like grinding tectonic plates. Three months. Three months to recover a single, simple core.
"Useless fool," he thought, the bitterness like bile in his throat as he cast a venomous sideways glance at the closed sanctum. "You had better not ruin my plans…"
THE NORTHERN SEA
Four colossal shadows carved through the lightless depths, their bestial forms unmarred by the half-human refinement of the capital. Killing intent rolled off them in violent, visible waves, chilling the water in their wake.
One stood apart—a living monolith of muscle and prehistoric bone. At nearly forty-five feet in length, weighing over nineteen thousand pounds, his presence seemed to displace the very soul of the sea. "You all saw Commander Dunka's expression," the giant rumbled, the low-frequency vibration rattling the nearby reefs. "Split up. Scour the expanse. Find Rick, or find the core. If you fail… you know the darkness that awaits us". The Orcas stiffened, the specter of the King's judgment far more terrifying than any predator.
"Stay within communication range," the leader added, his tone dropping into a wary register. "This place… it feels wrong. As if the water itself is watching."
"Yes!" the others answered in a singular, telepathic pulse, fanning out into the crushing indigo of the abyss.
THE LITTORAL CAVE — 500 METERS DISTANT
The vibrations reached deep into the lightless sanctuary, singing against the stone. Within the gloom, two eyes snapped open—piercing, reptilian, and burning with a cold, azure luminescence.
"…Orcas?" El-Mond whispered, his voice a smooth, haunting echo. "Three of them this time?"
A slow, predatory curl touched his lips. "What business do they have in these forgotten reaches? Are they searching for the one I broke?" Curiosity, sharp and edged with the spirit of a warrior, sparked in his gaze. "How fascinating…". A grin spread across his features, revealing rows of steel-like razor teeth that caught no light. The black water peeled away as he glided forward, emerging from the cave's mouth. His body—massive, obsidian, and newly forged in the fires of evolution—was smaller than the giants he sensed, yet far more ominous. Deathly energy seeped from his scales like ink bleeding through parchment, warping the geometry of the surrounding sea.
TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER
"Report." The ringleader's voice boomed through the water, a command for fealty. "Any sign of Rick or the core?"
There was no response. Only the rhythmic, hollow pulse of the deep.
"I asked if you found anything!". Still, the silence persisted, heavy and suffocating. The giant's nostrils flared; the water had grown thin, as if the very life had been bled out of the current.
"WHO IS THERE?" he roared, his massive bulk spinning in a sudden, violent circle.
From the absolute darkness, a silhouette drifted forward with an elegance that mocked the Orca's sheer mass. "Interesting…" El-Mond said, his voice a calm blade in the dark. "Your senses are sharp. Perhaps my concealment is yet unrefined for a beast of your caliber."
The Orca's eyes burned with a primal, predatory heat. "…That stench of blood." He let out a heavy, vibrating sigh that stirred the silt. "My subordinates… they are dead, aren't they?". El-Mond began to circle him with the patient grace of a man-turned-god. "Don't worry. You shall join them momentarily—unless you provide the answers I seek." His voice dropped to a lethal, velvet whisper. "Why does your kind trespass here… and from what dark corner of the world do you hail?".
"I will use your blood," the Orca growled, his muscles bunching like iron cables, "to pacify the ghosts of my men."
El-Mond's grin only widened. "You are welcome to try."
The Orca vanished. BOOM. He reappeared beside El-Mond's head in a blur of violent motion, slamming into him with the force of a falling mountain. El-Mond's body was launched through the sea like a broken spear. He steadied himself mid-flight, his new scales groaning under the colossal impact. "…Fast," El-Mond muttered, his eyes sharpening into needle-points of blue fire. "Surprisingly fast. Had my frame not been tempered by the essence of the fallen… that would have shattered my skull."
The Orca appeared again, this time to his right, his speed seemingly multiplying with his rage. "Getting distracted, are we?". Another devastating blow. The water screamed as El-Mond was launched backward once more. Then, the Orca loomed above him, his face distorted by a singular thirst for slaughter.
"RUSHING WAVE: FORM ONE!"
The sea itself seemed to wring and twist in a localized vortex.
"EXECUTION!"
A chain-like wave wrapped around the Orca's tail, compressing into violent, shrieking spirals before detonating forward. The strike pierced the water, forming a shimmering vacuum wall as the energy tore straight through El-Mond's center. His body was driven downward with the relentless force of a fallen meteor.
CRASH.
The ocean floor exploded in a cataclysm of sand and ancient debris. Clouds of silt billowed outward from the impact crater, obscuring the world in a shroud of gray.
"Hmph. Pathetic." The Orca stared down with cold, aristocratic contempt. "So, he was only brave enough to ambush my underlings." He turned away, the weight of his duty calling him back. "The Commander will be waiting. I should—"
A voice rose from the settling dust of the depths. Cold. Sharp. Unmistakably alive.
"MY TURN."
TO BE CONTINUED…