Chapter 27: Killing It

"Hard right rudder! All ahead flank!" Captain Miller roared from behind the central tactical plot, gripping the overhead handrail as the deck pitched violently beneath his combat boots. "VLS supervisor, dump cells one through four! RUM-139 VL-ASROC on the target’s ascension vector! Ripple fire, now! Now! Now!"

"Hard right rudder, aye! Engines to flank!"

"VLS cells one through four armed! Firing VL-ASROC!"

Out on the foaming surface, the destroyer’s four gas turbines shrieked at maximum power, churning out over one hundred thousand shaft horsepower. The warship carved a brutal, foaming arc across the sea, violently clearing the waters directly above the ascending beast.

CLANK-CLANK-CLANK-CLANK!

The armored steel hatches of the forward Mk 41 Vertical Launch System popped open.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAR!

Four anti-submarine rockets erupted in a continuous, deafening pillar of flame and dense white smoke, screaming into the cloudless sky before their boosters detached at the apex. Small parachutes blossomed, stabilizing four Mk 54 lightweight acoustic homing torpedoes before they plunged nose-first into the churning blue water.

SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!

Activating their thermal batteries upon immersion, the four torpedoes spun up their contra-rotating screws and initiated high-speed active snake sweeps, homing straight in on the massive mana-signature rushing up from the depths.

Beneath the sea, the Kraken opened its titanic, maw-like beak, surrounded by dozens of newly regenerated appendages crackling with abyssal lightning, preparing to bite through the steel keel.

It never reached the surface.

THUUUUUUM—THUUUUUUM—THUUUUUUM—THUUUUUUM!

Four shaped-charge, high-explosive warheads detonated simultaneously against the monster’s underbelly at three hundred meters depth.

The underwater shockwave was so massive that the ocean’s surface bulged into a colossal dome of white froth. Hydrophones on the bridge shrieked with acoustic interference as thousands of pounds of high explosives shattered the Kraken’s vital organs, rupturing its mana core and blowing its regenerating mantle into raw organic pulp.

Seconds later, the shattered, dying remains of the colossal leviathan broke the foaming surface in a convulsive death roll.

"Target breached the surface, dead in the water!" the Tactical Action Officer yelled. "Captain, permission to saturate?!"

"Pour it on! Give it everything we’ve got!" Miller commanded. "Main battery, CIWS, light it up!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The 5-inch Mk 45 naval gun pumped twenty rounds per minute of high-explosive fragmentation shells into the dying monster at point-blank range. Simultaneously, both forward and aft 20mm Phalanx CIWS mounts spun up, tearing thousands of armor-piercing tungsten rounds through the creature’s massive eye and shredded beak in an unrelenting stream of red tracer fire.

The monster’s abyssal mana flickered, destabilized, and finally collapsed into total oblivion.

The massive corpse went limp, sinking like lead into the dark abyss as a vast oil slick of black ichor spread across the ocean.

A sudden, translucent golden notification flashed directly across John’s field of vision.

[Target Neutralized: Calamity-Class Abyssal Beast — Kraken]

[Experience Gained: +320,000 EXP]

[Level Up!]

[Host: John Smith has reached Level 59!]

[Soul Harvest: +850 Souls]

[System Points Awarded: +500,000 SP (Neutralization Bonus)]

[Host: John Smith

Level: 59

Cumulative Experience: 1,890,000 / 2,100,000

Troops:

Infantry: 500 / 2,000

Special Forces: 100 / 800

Non-Combat Personnel: 600 / 4,000

Military Hardware Limit Composition:

Land: 70 / 250

Air: 33 / 180

Navy: 10 / 80

Souls Available: 866

System Points: 500,500 SP

John dismissed the translucent blue notification banner with a single blink, stepping up to the central communications terminal with a razor-sharp gaze.

"TOC, establish direct link to Warship One," John commanded into the console. "Captain Miller, status report. Give me hull integrity, ammunition expenditure, and tactical assessment."

"Connecting Eagle Actual to Warship One bridge," the comms operator replied, keying the secure tactical frequency.

A sharp burst of static hissed through the overhead speakers before Captain Miller’s deep, steady voice filled the command center.

"Eagle Actual, this is Warship One Actual with post-engagement status," Miller reported, background klaxons quieting as the crew transitioned out of general quarters. "Hull integrity is at one hundred percent. Sonar dome and towed array suffered zero physical damage during the engagement. Zero casualties across all decks."

"Expenditure report?" John pressed.

"We expended forty-two rounds of five-inch high-explosive from the forward mount, roughly fifteen hundred rounds of twenty-millimeter tungsten from forward and aft CIWS, two RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles from canister launcher Alpha, two Mk 54 torpedoes from surface vessel tubes, and four RUM-139 VL-ASROC rockets from Mk 41 VLS cells one through four," Miller detailed cleanly. "All primary combat systems remain fully operational. AEGIS Baseline 10 radar is running nominal, sonar waterfall shows zero sub-surface contacts within thirty nautical miles, and we are holding standard perimeter speed at fifteen knots."

"Good work, Captain," John said, nodding approvingly. "Mark the coordinates of the kill zone, collect water samples of the ichor for bio-analysis, and resume your assigned patrol vector. Out."

"Understood, Eagle Actual. Warship One resuming patrol grid. Out."

The radio clicked off, leaving the command deck bathed in the calm hum of electronic servers and cooling vents.

Beside John at the briefing railing, Elenore was staring at the main holographic screen where the black, ink-stained patch of water was slowly dispersing across the digital map.

"It took... mere minutes," Elenore whispered, her melodic voice catching slightly in her throat as she slowly turned her amethyst eyes toward John. "An ancient beast spoken of in terror across centuries of seafaring history... destroyed as if it were nothing more than a stray beast."

She looked at him with an expression of quiet reverence, her silver bangs brushing against her porcelain cheeks.

"You wield no staves, chant no ancient verses, and summon no divine blessings, yet you can defeat monsters..."

John offered a faint, dry smirk, leaning casually against the railing.

"When you bring enough high explosives to a fight, ancient monsters don’t mean much," John replied smoothly. "It’s a surprise that your memories are coming back so long that you encounter something new."

Elenore looked down. "I don’t know, I still don’t know most of my memories, but I think it’s coming back piece by piece."

"That’s good to know," John smiled. "For now, let’s take a break. It has been an intense fight."