In the nick of time, Daniel hit the hotkey to manifest his Heavenwalker boots. He leapt out of the way with a step, manifesting his blaster and shooting back at his attacker. Green laser bolts made small black marks in the creature’s long, slimy body, and the Xenos roared back at him, angered. The tendrils changed direction mid-air, trying to track Daniel, but they had limited movement. He dodged again, Domain allowing him to keep tabs on the creature’s ensnaring ability while aiming his blaster at its vulnerable eye. The Leviathan blinked in response, its eyelid a surprisingly powerful membrane that absorbed the damage of his blaster with only minor scorch wounds.

  In response, Daniel jumped closer, blasting away at the fiend with one hand and hitting the command to dismiss the Heavenly Armament with the other. Somewhere out in the darkness, the thrown weapon vanished into motes of white light. He’d be able to re-summon it soon, but for now, he contented himself with keeping the monster off balance with his blaster. Daniel closed the distance in a zigzagging pattern, deftly evading the Leviathan’s tendrils as he planted more painful-looking scorch marks on the beast’s defenses. However, just as the Heavenly Armament came online, the monster’s eye began to glow with an even brighter light.

  Before Daniel could react, it shot out a broad ring of crackling purple energy. His boots shone with a last-ditch attempt to step out of the way, but he was too close, and the attack covered too wide an area. Daniel felt his whole body grow numb as the ring struck him, limbs suddenly no longer obeying his commands. As the glowing purple tendrils finally wrapped around his body, Daniel cursed himself for his arrogance. He’d been closing the gap because his blaster did more damage at closer range. He should’ve stayed wary of the possibility that the Xenos possessed a second Psionic Capacity. Daniel regained control of his limbs quickly, but it was too little too late as the monster unhinged its jaws in front of him.

  Time slowed as Daniel gazed into that freakish pink maw, staring down impending death yet again. His mind raced as he tried to devise a solution, yet only one sprang to mind. He’d have to manifest the Makiel Protocol. Thank God that was something he could do with a mental command. Of course, doing it would blow his cover and prompt some nasty questions. Was it possible that he could do it with no one looking? Was there any other way out of this?

  As Daniel struggled internally and externally, he distantly heard a soft whirr that swiftly grew louder as it closed in on him at a rapid clip. He barely even had the time to register the noise before he saw precisely what was causing it through the ‘eyes’ of his Domain. His fear instantly switched to triumph.

  Arnold Martel, hammer glowing like a violet bonfire, spun like a top at a rapid clip as he smashed into the side of the Leviathan’s head. The detonation of force was so great that the Xenos’s glowing tendrils vanished into purple motes of light as it was sent flying through the water. Martel also floated away from the backlash, but as he did, his hammer began glowing again. He started to spin toward the stunned creature again, picking up rotational and movement speed as he flew. The Leviathan jerked its head around, aiming and firing off those tendril’s again, but it was too late. Martel changed direction mid-flight, the beams of energy passing over his head as he dipped low. Rising, Martel collided with the underside of the Xenos’s jaw, forcing its head violently upward.

  If Daniel couldn’t take advantage of that, he didn’t deserve to call himself a Pioneer. He summoned his crystal-tipped spear and leapt forward with the Heavenwalker boots. As it glowed with yellow light, Daniel’s spear pierced the beast’s throat with decisive force. Black blood fountained out in a dark tide, the Xenos shuddering briefly before growing still. Daniel withdrew his spear and turned to look at the others.

  Fortunately, the chaos seemed to be over as quickly as it’d started. After the first surprise attack, the Pioneers swiftly managed to repulse the gang of large Xenos. Daniel watched as several tails swam into the caves on the cliff wall, disappearing as quickly as they’d come. A quick headcount revealed some bad news, however. Four of their number were missing, snatched up and killed or carried off before anyone could react. It was a painful loss, but the Pioneers didn’t have time to grieve. They could only store away the large Xenos corpses, retrieve dropped or lost equipment, and move on. As he swam, Daniel took the time to check his Codex log, in case he ever ran into those things again: “Abductor Leviathan: One of the deadliest predators of the deep sea, the Abductor Leviathan relies on its powerful physique and Psionic Capacities to capture and kill its prey. Even the Luxamar plants struggle to hold down these physically powerful creatures, though they do prefer to hunt in silence and avoid those plants’ wrath. Despite their remarkable abilities, Abductor Leviathans rely on ambush and retreat if they find a target more challenging than expected. That said, they are social creatures and have been known to return with reinforcements. Abductor Leviathans have been known to reach up to Delta class.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Adult Abductor Leviathan spotted! A school of Abductor Leviathans spotted!

  Class: High-Grade Epsilon: Individual Threat Assessment: High-Moderate: Group Threat Assessment: High.”

  Daniel caught the ‘eye’ (visor?) of several of his other squad mates, before radioing the whole group a message through the comms in their helmets: “Anyone read the entry on Abductor Leviathans?”

  There was a pause, then a few noises of agreement. Allen Praxis, a Caucasian man with wavy brown hair and icy blue eyes, was the first to comment on the entry’s implication: “Yeah, let’s just hope those guys don’t come back with any of their Delta class buddies. Just in case, we should take another route home.”

  As the others voiced their agreement, their target began to come into focus.

  It was a massive length of black steel; the horizontal remains of a ship’s body. Its rear, which would have likely held both the engines and the ship’s bridge, looked to have been obliterated. Only a large hole, filled with broken and heat-twisted metal, remained on that side, while the other side was comparatively more intact. The ship was surrounded by more Luxamar plants, some of which were so tall that they reached higher than the ship itself. A wide swath of open water surrounded this grotto, the rocky basin wall giving way and revealing a gargantuan underwater chamber that ran underneath the ocean floor above. Everywhere he looked, Daniel could see more large tunnels connected to the chamber’s walls and flowing off into the distance.

  The ship had fallen into the ocean’s death trap.

  …

  Emily and her Albori ‘friends’ reached the floating debris as night began to fall. Some of the others wanted to stop and rest, but the good Lieutenant was adamant that they continue onward. Their descent was largely uneventful, though the initial sight of the Luxamar forest earned some oohs and aahs before the CO brought them back on track. Things got more interesting as they began swimming into the basin. Emily spotted a dark cloud floating near the caverns on the rock wall, highlighted in blue by her helmet: “Sir, do you see that?”

  “Yes, I see the cloud of blood, Sergeant Sillica. Likely the remains of an ocean predator’s recent hunt.”

  “…Shouldn’t we stay away from it?”

  It was a good policy to stay away from chum in the ocean. Especially when there could still be predators nearby. The Lieutenant gave an annoyed sigh, but he had the sense to wordlessly change course and take a detour well around the location. Even with that, the ship’s mangled corpse came into sight after a short period of time. Emily felt a sinking feeling in her gut as she saw it and looked around. The rusting steel of their own ship seemed like both a record of the Republic’s past failures and an omen of its future problems. A corpse rotting slowly in the dark, filled with enough skeletons and secrets to make a graveyard blush.

  Her eyes narrowed as they approached the ship’s open rear, exchanging her Oceanglide for her blaster. The others did the same. Their CO barked a new order: “Charon, use the short-range scouter.”

  Emily winced a little at this decision, though she understood it. Charon’s scouting tech would give them good information on the targets it scanned for. Its only weaknesses were that its scan tended to alert more sensitive targets, while also being relatively short in range. All eyes were now on Charon Albori, the Lieutenant’s narrow-eyed second cousin, as his Codex began to shine with green light.

  …

  Hars’Nocrot arrived at the place that’d been marked out for It by Gru’Kothor, staring down at the water and the debris below it with a reflexive disdain. It deposited the Thralls, allowing them to fall into the water and watching as the Thrall Commanders swooped down and took charge of the group. The quartet led the others on a dive, while Hars declined to follow. This task was beneath It. It instead chose to lounge in mid-air, content to allow Its underlings to handle this matter.

  No sooner had it gotten comfortable, however, than it felt the brush of a scan from further below. Suddenly standing up straight, It reached into Its dimensional storage and fished out a scouting bead. It crushed the small green ball, instantly giving It a mental map of all enemies nearby. Below, It saw that several humans had already beaten It to this place. That was no matter, however, as they were weaker and less numerous than Its minions. Hars was more irritated to learn that numerous other enemies were scurrying toward Its position from elsewhere. There were enough of them that they would force It to get some exercise.

  Hars settled back into Its leisurely posture, Its new plan now clear. It would stay and wait for the other humans to make their appearance. Leave the others to the Thralls.

  The situation was still perfectly within Its six-fingered grasp.