Salt spray drifted over the bow in thin sheets, and the wind slapped it back into the sea before it could settle. The swarm ahead kept its shape even as bodies started dropping. Every time one isopod collapsed, another slid into the gap without panic, without hesitation, as if the formation existed independent of individuals.
Grifftin moved across their backs like a man climbing stairs that wanted to bite him. Plates tore free under his hands with an ugly crunch, and each exposed seam became an invitation the ship's heavier shots could finally accept. A shell landed into one of his openings and the creature folded, legs splaying, foam swallowing it with a slow reluctance.
"Better," Maelara said, watching the pattern tighten. "That's better."
The hardening on the trailing bodies held Siren's focus now. The sheen was non-uniform, pulsing, arriving and departing in uneven patches, and the timing felt flawed in a way he couldn't quantify yet.
Mizzien stood near the outer rail, eyes darting between Grifftin's path and the distant center where the water churned in a way that didn't match the wind. He looked pleased and unnerved at once, as if the ship had become a dream that still contained teeth.
Another isopod rose higher than the rest, ridges bristling. Its mouth worked in a wet, proud motion, then it expelled something thick and stringy across its own shell like it was marking territory.
A sound of disgust left Maelara. "It did that on purpose."
Serenity's tone stayed even. "Laser."
Light pulsed out again, and the creature recoiled hard, head twisting away as the beam had blown off a layer of its dark eye. The sea around it erupted in frantic splashes as it slammed into its own kind. Two bodies collided, then separated, and the swarm repaired the gap again almost immediately.
From the bridge speakers, Harmony mumbled a failed attempt at an insult.
"Roy's mana draw remains slightly elevated," Tranquility announced. "Systems are stable, it has yet to exceed passive regeneration."
Maelara's attention flicked toward the enclosure. "How much extra are we pulling?"
"Roughly double for most functions," Tranquility replied. "Some less. Some more."
Harmony's sensors stayed on the sea. "Double becomes a problem when the dungeon run gets harder."
A heavier swell passed beneath the Nightshatter's hull, sending a low vibration through the deck plating.
On the forward screens, the water at the center of the swarm darkened, beginning a slow inward spiral. The surface rotated steadily, pulling toward its core.
Grifftin jumped again, landed heavily, and tore a strip of plating free with both hands. Blood splashed across his forearms and stayed there. He pushed off from the body beneath him, angling toward the next target.
A gap opened in the swarm ahead as one of the isopods sank beneath the surface and surged upward again into his path. His boots struck its shell, slid along damp chitin, then found traction. Momentum carried him forward into a stumbling skid. Recovering quickly, he launched himself back toward the Nightshatter.
His trajectory faltered midway. Another isopod rose unexpectedly, its shell scraping the soles of his boots and pulling his balance downward. The rail loomed higher, further away than intended.
Mizzien vaulted over the rail before anyone spoke. The deck groaned beneath his departure. He caught Grifftin by the collar and pulled him sharply toward the ship, correcting his path with swift force.
Grifftin twisted in midair and struck the outer railing, fingers tightening around the metal on impact. He exhaled sharply, a sound somewhere between annoyance and relief.
Landing smoothly on the deck, Mizzien straightened up and offered Grifftin a fleeting, joking glance. "Try to stay aboard," he quipped.
Grifftin stood upright, folded his arms with a deliberate motion, and slapped the rail once. He steadied his breathing, raised his chin, and stated, "Wasn't planning on leaving."
Siren watched the exchange for a heartbeat. His fingers flexed against the railing. A quick tremor ran through them, then stopped.
"Your turn," Maelara said to him, the words casual, the meaning not.
Siren's gaze stayed outward. "I-In a moment."
A set of tentacles broke the surface farther out, not the main body, just exploratory limbs, long and jointed, trailing water. Their movement had a slow curiosity to it, as if they were tasting the air with touch instead of scent.
Grifftin's grin returned. "Now it gets interesting."
Serenity's voice reached him through the comm, controlled and sharp. "Keep ripping. Don't stop!"
"C-can't Maelara have a turn?" Grifftin asked as he nervously looked down at the churning water.
"She is on guard duty, we need her as a last line of defense."
He laughed once, a tight, uneven sound pressed thin between his teeth, then stepped back for room to run. His eyes traced the distance, measuring, reassessing, as if the space might shift beneath him. A breath pulled sharply through his chest. Then he bolted forward, boots hammering the deck as he launched himself from the rail, straight toward the next isopod shell.
Below him the water churned, restless and violent. Foam twisted across dark shapes rising beneath the surface. Grifftin kept his gaze locked firmly ahead, unwilling to look down even for an instant. Hands reached out, fingers spread wide, straining desperately for seams in the approaching armor. His breath caught, chest seizing as the distance closed. Gravity and momentum pressed him forward, leaving no room for error.
He landed hard, boots skidding and catching on rough chitin. His knees flexed sharply, absorbing the brutal shock that rattled through his bones. Fingers dug immediately into gaps in the plating, clinging tight, breath escaping him in a rushed burst of relief. He was already tearing at the shell, forcing his focus back to the task, away from the restless, waiting sea below.
The hardening intensified on the trailing isopods. Something like a skin formed over their plates, and the ship's smaller enhanced fire began to glance off more often. The heavier shots still bit, but each bite took longer.
A hiss of annoyance left Presidroid Polk from somewhere off to the side of the bridge, as if the battle itself had inconvenienced him personally.
Mizzien kept watching the hardening with a different kind of focus. "Can we break through in an easier way?" he asked, and the question came out softly, almost to himself.
Grifftin ripped free another plate and the ship's next shot landed into the exposed seam with a wet, final sound. The creature collapsed and the foam swallowed it.
"Keep rippin', big man!" Maelara yelled.
A second wave rose behind the first, far more bodies than the map had suggested. The spacing tightened until the water between them filled with moving shell and dark mass. The swarm carried depth now, layers stacked beneath the surface, and the first group read as the opening line of the attack. Serenity's displays shifted in response, numbers updating across the screens as the main marker brightened and began to pulse.
A tone changed in her voice that didn't happen often. "More are coming up."
Maelara leaned closer to the screen. "That's a... lot more."
The sea at the center of the spiral bulged again. Water lifted over water, a broad heave that kept rising until the middle of the swarm looked ready to stand upright under its own weight. The distortion refused to stay local. It spread outward, rolling through the packed mass in every direction until the ocean itself seemed to gain height across a vast circle. What pushed beneath it carried scale the eye could not settle on at once, it was as if a mountain were trying to stand. Sections of it announced themselves in pieces, a pressure ridge here, a dark rise there, a sweep of displaced water farther out, all of it belonging to the same advancing body.
Grifftin landed on another isopod, ripped a plate free, then stopped with one hand buried in the seam and his head turned toward the distant center. The grin dropped out of his face. "That's not one of these scrublings."
Siren had already gone still. His hand closed over the rail, fingers set so hard the tendons stood out through the skin. "No."
Mizzien leaned forward a fraction, eyes fixed on the swelling center. His grip tightened until the rail gave a faint metallic complaint under his hand.
Serenity switched her comm to Roy. "Captain."
The reply came through wind and movement. "Talk to me."
Her sonar revised the contact again. The marker widened. Revised again. Widened again. The clean central mass broke apart into overlapping returns that stretched far beyond the first estimate, then merged back into a single shape so large the display had to rescale around it. The final outline sprawled through the center of the swarm and kept going, a body with reach in every direction, nearly a mile across no matter where the eye tried to measure it.
"It's bigger than before," Serenity said. Her voice stayed level by force. "Much bigger. Closing speed is increasing. We do not clear this swarm before it reaches engagement range."
For half a second the channel held nothing but wind. Then Roy came back sharp enough to cut through the static. "Patch me into the brig. Perhaps 'purity beyond purity' would enjoy some yard time."