The harpoon struck true.
Straight into its eye.
That massive, golden globe.
The tip punched in with a wet pop, and the sack burst.
Poison. Boiled jellyfish venom. Crushed spine-root. Reef oil. A cocktail of death, flooding straight into the brain.
The Blade-Mouth didn't scream.
It howled.
The water around me vibrated like it wanted to split open. My ears popped. Blood spurted from my nose. My bones shook.
Then it moved.
The first thrash came from its tail. A hundred tons of muscle whipping the sea to a froth. My raft flipped instantly. Gone. Splinters and fire.
The second thrash was a turn. One huge fin arcing through the water like a god's blade.
It hit me full in the chest.
And I flew.
Air.
Sky.
Clouds.
Then water again.
And I broke.
Everything broke.
My ribs snapped inwards. My arm twisted in half. Legs bent like wet sticks. My skull cracked down the side. One eye burst.
But I was smiling.
Because even as I hit the water again. Hit hard.
I could see it.
The Blade-Mouth.
Spinning. Thrashing. Blind and mad.
It spun in circles, jaws clamping on nothing. Tail ripping trenches through the sea.
The poison was working.
It had never felt pain like that before.
It didn't know how to die.
But it was learning.
I sank.
Blood streaming. Limbs numb. Dying again.
Didn't care.
I watched it from below, drifting down with me.
My masterpiece.
My prize.
My kill.
It thrashed for hours. Or maybe minutes. Maybe days. Time was nothing out here.
Then, finally… it stopped.
Its jaw hung slack.
Its eye, the one not ruined, glazed.
And it sank too.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Following me into the dark.
The descent was slow.
Like sinking through dreams.
No sound. Just the deep press of water. No light, except the faint shimmer from my own eyes.
The gift I stole from the Razorfin.
Even in the dark, I saw the Blade-Mouth in all its glory.
Dead.
Mine.
My harpoon still jutted from its face.
And I laughed.
Bubbles of blood and spit danced from my mouth.
Victory.
A good kill.
The sea floor rose up to meet us like the palm of a god.
We crashed together.
The impact broke what was left of me.
I lay across its head like a forgotten thing.
A corpse on a corpse.
Then the scavengers came.
They were like nothing from the surface.
Long, spindly, wrong.
Worms with mouths like grinding wheels.
Crabs with too many legs and no eyes.
Jelly shapes that pulsed with glowing guts.
Things that shouldn't exist, but did.
They came to feed.
First on the Blade-Mouth.
Then on me.
Teeth scraped my skin.
Tongues licked at wounds.
One thing crawled into my open side, rooting around like a dog in a burrow.
Didn't matter.
I laughed again.
Because this was the truth of the world.
Eat.
Be eaten.
Kill.
Be killed.
Everything else was weakness.
Everything was meat.
I'd done it again.
Killed the king of the sea.
Took months. Took pain. Took death.
But I won.
I always won.
I was stronger. Smarter. Hungrier.
And I felt it, even as my life ebbed out into the black water…
Me. Growing.
Absorbing the strength of my kill.
Power thrummed under my skin, even as it was torn open.
I could feel it. Lungs expanding, even while water filled them.
My heart beating, even as it slowed.
I was evolving.
I thought about the jungle.
The Fat-Fuck.
The Ghostclaw.
The Razorfin.
And now, the Blade-Mouth.
Each one had taken something from me.
And each one had given more in return.
I grinned.
Blood leaking from my gums.
Who would it be next?
What beast?
What god?
I was fading.
Drifting.
The scavengers were feasting. Dozens of them now.
My skin pulled back.
My fingers stripped down to bone.
Then they stopped.
All of them.
Every mouth.
Every limb.
Still.
They didn't run.
They scattered.
Vanished into holes. Into cracks. Into ink and nothing.
Even the boldest, the hungriest, gone in an instant.
The sea turned quiet.
Wrong.
Heavy.
Like it was waiting.
Then I felt it.
A pulse.
A weight.
A hunger bigger than anything I'd known.
Something was coming.
Something huge.
Something old.
Not just a predator.
Not just a beast.
Something that ruled.
From the dark, I saw them.
Not one eye.
Not two.
A thousand.
Blazing.
All different.
Some red. Some gold. Some blue. Some like stars. Some like the sun.
Watching me.
Judging me.
Tasting my soul with their glare.
I didn't scream.
Didn't run.
Didn't pray.
I just grinned wider.
Teeth stained red.
Flesh stripped.
Bones cracked.
A god was coming.
And I was ready.
Let it come.
Let it hunt me.
Let it show me pain.
I'd learn.
I'd adapt.
I'd kill it too.
Because that was the law.
Kill or be killed.
Everything else was meat.