Corvus lay sprawled on the damp bathroom floor, bare skin slick with sweat. The ship convulsed violently, slamming his unconscious body against the door. He groaned, peeling his eyes open. Each ragged breath steamed in the frigid air.
What… happened? Thoughts swam, disjointed. He pushed himself up, swaying.
KRA-BOOM!
The explosion slammed him fully awake. He clutched his pounding head.
Attack. While I was out. Not good.
He wrenched the door open. Screams, clashing steel, and inhuman shrieks echoed from every direction. The deck above roared with chaos, but closer sounds—a sickening thud of flesh hitting wood—pulled him down the passageway.
He moved low and silent, a shadow on the balls of his feet.
Rounding a corner, he froze.
Chaos crystallized. A hulking, humanoid lizard blocked the passage, its scaled back to Corvus. Trapped between it and a massive armored crustacean stood Kiera, teeth bared. Nelly writhed on the floor nearby, struggling to rise. Behind the crab-thing, Mikel stood paralyzed, crossbow hanging limp, face drained of color. Kevin lay motionless against the far wall.
Kiera and Mikel spotted him. A flicker of desperate hope lit their eyes.
Reinforcements.
Corvus's stomach clenched. Me? Unkindled. Useless. His role was survival, not heroics. Dead men couldn't fulfill contracts.
He took a step back. Escape. Cesara will handle it.
The crustacean's massive claw descended towards Kiera. She kicked Nelly clear, raising her arms in a futile block. The impact hammered her down, knees buckling.
Her eyes locked with Corvus's retreating form. Defeat flooded her gaze.
Simultaneously, the lizard's muscular tail whipped around, coiling like a vise around Nelly's throat. The noblewoman gagged, eyes igniting with panicked power, but strength meant nothing against suffocation.
Corvus saw the sequence unfold in agonizing slow motion: Kiera crushed, Nelly strangled, then Mikel and Kevin slaughtered. The furnace in his chest roared, a physical ache of shame and self-loathing. Cockroach. Runner. Murderer.
Stars exploded behind his eyes. He swayed. The world seemed to fracture, slow… and then a single, searing point of light ignited deep within his right eye, vanishing instantly.
But he felt it. A shift. A key turning in a lock he hadn't known existed.
He stopped retreating. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. Fever burned through him, yet a savage grin split his sweat-slicked face.
Step.
He vanished.
THWACK-SHRIEK!
The twin cries of rending chitin and tearing flesh assaulted their ears. The lizard's tail hit the deck, severed clean. The crustacean's claw-arm hung useless, dripping blue ichor.
And behind them both, blades dripping gore, stood Corvus. His grin was feral, face flushed scarlet, sweat pouring off him like rain. He trembled, radiating heat.
Nelly gasped, clawing free of the severed tail. No time for relief. She scrambled back.
The advantage of surprise was gone. Kevin groaned, staggering upright, glaive clutched like a lifeline.
SHIIIIING! Corvus scraped his blades together, a shower of sparks flying. The vibration hummed up his arms. "Lizard's yours!" he barked, eyes fixed on the wounded crab. "This one's mine."
He flashed forward again, a streak of movement. One boot planted on the wall, he launched, a blade slicing through the crab's lure-head. It flopped wetly. The creature shrieked, pivoting, undeterred.
Corvus landed hard, momentum carrying him towards its remaining claws. He jammed one blade deep into the deck planking, using it as an anchor. Swung his body around. The second blade met a descending claw with a bone-jarring CLANG! The impact vibrated through his teeth.
But the crab had two other limbs. They scissored towards his exposed neck.
No time to dodge. No room.
Corvus dropped the blade blocking the claw. He dropped low. His forearm muscles corded, fingers rigid like talons. He lunged inside the creature's guard, plunging his extended hand into the narrow, fleshy gap beneath its armored mouth.
His fingers closed on something thick, wet, and pulsing—its tongue.
Biceps screamed. Tendons strained. With a guttural roar, Corvus wrenched.
RRIIIIIP!
The creature's agonized shriek died in a wet gurgle as a grotesque rope of muscle tore free. Before the sound faded, Corvus's fallen blade was in his other hand, thrusting deep into the gaping maw. He twisted.
The crab crashed down, shuddering, then still.
Behind him, the fight ended. Kiera pinned the thrashing lizard. Nelly's dagger found its throat in a swift, brutal strike.
Mikel stared, wide-eyed, at Corvus kneeling over the crab's corpse, chest heaving, steam rising from his skin. But Corvus didn't see him. His vision swam, filled not with the carnage, but with shimmering, impossible runes burning in the air before him:
[PATH OF ABYSSAL: CHANGE]
[PATH OF DIVINE BEAST: SERPENT]