‘You and your group of mutated cult terrorists boarded my sub by unknown means, proceeded to kill your way through my crew, even the armed security officers on board and you expect me to hand you over the codes to the one remaining weapon we have against those aberrations who decided to kill our entire planet in rain and flood? No. I never committed treason against my state and I’ll not give your group control. If we have a nuclear offensive option, we have hope and the only reason-’ stopped the uniformed woman as she was dangling with both of her feet off the floor clutching at her neck.

Her black captain’s hat was knocked off by the movement as a heavy-set man with hardened grey skin wearing a large grey suit covering most of his body lifted her up with one webbed hand around her neck.

He opened his mouth revealing sharpened teeth before biting into his lips and letting dark blood roll down his mouth.

Bonnie had enjoyed the scenario at first, but then it had all simply gotten far too easy and boring after they had run out of interesting ways to kill the basic sailor NPCS. They were armed far too simply and reacted too slowly to be of any real threat. She’d allowed a few of them to hit a wide channel security alert and the captain had authorised access to the weapons locker on board to repel hostile boarders.

There was more of a challenge. Sailors armed with guns and more deadly weaponry. Same tactic though.

There had been both visible and non-visible changes on all of them after each member of the group had continued to kill sailors and other personnel aboard the nuclear submarine.

Bonnie was aware that her hair had become longer and finer, her skin had begun to develop a fine shine as small pink scales grew across her arms.

A smell of a mixture of fresh and salty water came into her mouth when she breathed and she mostly ignored the fact that her hair became wetter. The effects of the boosts from the blessed Ocean Gods, especially Grumera had forced her and her group into a pattern where killing the non-playable characters had become second nature.

They hadn’t wanted to kill each other though. Violence against the others in the formed group resulted in pain and halted movement, any form of physical violence with the intent to kill had stopped.

Killing never felt so good. I’m so happy the Drowned Ones chose me. So happy.

In a way, Bonnie knew that her group was too early for that, they needed to bond as together to first finish this mission, test their newly found and developed abilities on one of the demi-gods and complete their player-candidate status.

‘Darren, shut her up for a second. I doubt she wants any more of her crew to die and even as a boss her personal security guard posed a larger physical threat. No, she wants us to kill her. She’s got a dead woman’s switch attached to the triggering mechanism of the nuclear missiles on board. She dies and she gets to kill us all in nuclear fire beneath the waves. Aw, she heard me speak her secret. How sad for your ugly sea cow. On second thought Darren, you can loosen your grip on her throat her a little, I want to hear her talk and the rest of the NPCs make for boring conversation. We don’t need her, not real-’ said Bonnie,

A voice from behind Bonnie interrupted Bonnie as she was talking.

‘Bonnie…. I’ve finished flooding most of the rooms but it’s going to…. oh…’ began Direk.

Without turning her head, she raised a hand and gestured forward as the captain of the submarine was slammed into a glass cabinet behind her sending shards of glass and broken wood flying across the floor. Several photo frames and personal belongings fell down.

The sensation of pure pleasure and blessing from the Mermaid Goddess who favoured her began to dwindle and fade as her own anger flowed into her body.

‘Direk. Do you know what I like from members of my group? Obedience and effort. Take Darren here, he barely talks, then we found out that his entire tongue had been cut out. Yes, he was able to regrow it when Chuneus gave him a minor blessing on account of his strength but he stays shut up unless I ask him to speak. Blake, has Ciara returned with any hide-and-seek survivors of the subs crew yet?’ said Bonnie.

She was tempted to send an indirect message through their group sub-system to Darren to break a few limbs of the captain. A shame they didn’t have privacy though as the bed inside this room was the largest, she had seen on the entire submarine though.

Later Bonnie. As Grumera says, work hard, succeed and rewards will flow. Besides, Darren needs to be trained a little more.

The room itself held trapping of wealth but on a tasteful level, even a large table for dining with officers. Bonnie considered that given the fact that they were inside a designed scenario the Ocean God who had built this place was given a little leeway to make it more fantastical than normal. Or simply the submarines this planet had once built and used had worked out a different design method to incorporate more space.

From their time killing their way through the navel submarine scenario the sheer size and population had surprised her, despite never being on a military-ranked submarine back on her home planet of Terrus she had seen enough movies and read enough stories to know what the corridors and space should have been limited.

The benefits of rank and the foolishness of the former inhabitants of this world. Even the largest submarine was nothing before the true rulers of the waters of the world.

Bonnie felt foolish when she hadn’t received an answer yet. Her control wasn’t entirely there yet, she had the authority, the back-up of becoming a partial chosen of one of the Ocean Gods of pure beauty but they still wouldn’t respond to her immediately.

Becoming the leader of her own group had led to a few more challenges than she had anticipated, one of her group Ciara had only wanted to destroy the engines and power supply as the submarine simply imploded underwater as it continued to fall.

The fact that the woman had already known the exact location and had the technical knowledge and clear experience to destroy both areas had made Bonnie look like an idiot when she’d received a direct message from Grumera telling her to believe in her own pride.

‘Blake. I asked you a question. Would you prefer a direct group system message or a spine through your arm? I told all of you, play nicely or I need to have a private talk with your internal organs?’ said Bonnie

A rough voice responded from a shorter man with long greying hair and a lean body who was sitting on the floor of the captain’s room in one of the corners admiring one of the trophies which had been smashed out of the cabinet before he opened his mouth and jaws further than any normal human could and gulped it down.

He had shown changes in his own way, his flesh had begun to become even more slender and tighter but was able to stretch and had lightened in appearance.

‘Fools speak when they have nothing to say. She isn’t here. I’m busy. Unless you want me to go and find her. I’d like a chance to help her if you want, Disciple of Grumera. Your beauty knows no limits Madam.’ Said Blake as he finished swallowing the trophy and patted his slim stomach.

‘I like your fake respect but when you do that it makes me sick. You’re ugly and not good enough for me. Not to mention you look like a junkie, an effective junkie granted but don’t take me for one of your con marks. Old man. Are we clear on that? Your ability disgusts me, do you want time to search through the room before we kill her? I like her hat but the rest of it means nothing to me. None of it does, only true divinity matters. Blake. Stand up, won’t you? Stand up and spit it out.’ said Bonnie.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Blake immediately rose to his feet as though he was a puppet whose strings had been pulled above his head and both of his hands clasped together and proceeded to pound his stomach as his jaw dislocated as he regurgitated the trophy onto the floor.

The shorter man’s long greying hair fell onto his face as intestinal juices from his stomach dropped onto the floor. He fell onto his knees and grabbed onto the sodden wet shiny trophy clutching it close to his chest.

‘Darren. Knock her unconscious for me.’ Said Bonnie with a smile as the large men hefted the captain above his head with one arm as his muscles bulged and slammed her head against the top of the wooden cabinet then stood still.

Whirling around and putting a finger on her lip, Bonnie reached into her spatial backpack and pulled out a flask which she took a deep swig from.

The taste was becoming boring compared to the sheer physical pleasure she gained from killing non-playable characters but the goddess Grumera who had chosen her had warned that directly killing the captain and destroying the ship was the assumed goal.

By gaining control of the nuclear weapons and targeting them against their own cities and countries there would be far better rewards. The blessings of Grumera were temporary at best and her own voice control granted as a proto-siren worked on her teammates under her authority as leader of the group Tidal Dawn but not on the non-playable non-human things.

Pheromones played a part of it as did a degree of oxytocin but the most receptive teammate of hers remained Darren. She’d been able to form a strong physical connection with him but mostly to the fact that he simply responded to a woman of authority giving him orders and directions.

None of the group members of the player-candidate group Tidal Dawn had shared anything of their pasts, Bonnie was aware that Direk had worked on massive shipping containers and had entered a storm and he had a family back home.

As for Blake, he had clearly been either a drug addict or someone with money who’d lost it and fallen into poverty. She knew his type. They imagined themselves as better than they were, highly educated certainly but fixated on greed.

Darren was a criminal, a violent type who’d had his anger simply beaten out of him. Either he’d been caught by a rival gang, or authorities but despite his obvious physical appearance he’d suffered some degree of trauma which had made him easier for her to control.

Ciara was the most dangerous of their group. She’d taken to killing the easiest out of all of them and was entirely comfortable both accepting Bonnie’s position as leader while at the same time ignoring her instructions through quickly developed pretences of being caught in combat. Bonnie had dated a few men in the military in her former life, none of them were good enough for her to take it seriously but they show her a little of their training and experience, likely out of an effort to impress her.

No. Ciara had a presence, when she was with them, she was simply utterly silent. When the moved she didn’t waste any energy and simply killed the most efficient way possible but in different ways.

Bonnie knew that she would need to guard against the odd woman in more ways than one. Grumera has promised her sufficient challenges to promote her development as a player-candidate and Bonnie considered

The fact that none of the armed security personnel had turned into watery remains had come as a mild surprise but she’d made Darren and Blake drag and throw the bodies into one of the damaged and emptied crew quarters.

‘Direk. Do you know why I’ve never used my siren’s call on you? Don’t give me that look. You and me are the same. We’ve been chosen by the Ocean Gods. Both of us deserve a higher chance to become demi-gods, of course everyone in the group will get an opportunity but nobody else but us has been directly selected. Saying that, you can stop standing there communicating with your god through the Ocean Gateway System messages and talk to me. No threats, not to you. Did you make sure to seal the doors behind you when the water flowed?’ said Bonnie.

Direk hesitated for a moment before speaking. He was aware that since arriving on this strange planet, he had begun to change. His own ocean god Dreris had protected him from the bio-feedback of killing the beings which he had called constructs not of his hand. The fact that those on him team displayed such open sensations of physical pleasure of killing constructs partially disgusted him but he tried his best to look uncomfortable when he received a personal message direct from his own god blocking the effects.

‘All doorways and passages were entirely sealed before the initial flooding began. There remain areas that still need to be flooded Bonnie. Is she the last one, the key to finishing this stage? I don’t think violence or coercion will work on her though. I have the waters of death, healing and persuasion at my disposal. Would you prefer she gives us the truth that way or shall we simply kill and render the entire sub inoperable. I’m certain that the electronics and other aspects of this place are entirely fake. The amount of sheer physical damage we’ve done to the structure of this place had done nothing. The lighting remains on, we can still breath air and no warnings have sounded out. I appreciate your leadership, Bonnie; someone has to make the hard choices. My god knows I can’t easily, but I’m trying. This is hard. Harder than I thought it would be.’

Direk knew that the player-candidates were all beginning to change in appearance. One key example was Blake and Darren, on the large figure his skin was beginning to toughen and his body style was slowly beginning to resemble a shark figure. Nothing overly strange but mostly his skin and muscles were shifting beneath his skin. Blake on the other hand had changed rapidly. Despite his appearance which included the ability to dislocate his own jaw and stuff surprisingly large items into his mouth before gulping them down he had been reasonably amiable to Direk.

Out of all of the members of Tidal Dawn, Ciara has shown the least changes but during the mission she had kept to herself and the shadows and Direk was thankful that she kept her distance.

Despite the moral and spiritual support from his own Ocean God Dresis they scared him. He’d needed to kill several constructs but at least he tried to make it peaceful, the ever-flowing waters from his hands had both a calming and killing effect.

Direk wanted to ignore Blake, he didn’t even want the man to talk to him. There was something about him which rubbed him the wrong way.

Bonnie didn’t respond to his words. Nor did Blake or Darren and Ciara was still out there in the unflooded parts of the massive submarine hunting down survivor constructs who had stayed hidden during their group’s violent excursion to the captain’s quarters.

[Player Candidate Designate: Direk.

-An identified Ocean God Dreris has sent you a message.

My chosen one. They are receiving an update from the Ocean Gateway System. There is a being who is…highly dangerous. Even to us gods. While they are distracted use the blessed waters of life and death to drown the captain and bring her into my grasp. I will have her supply the codes without unnecessary violence. Your end to this stage is soon I promise. You must take care Direk. Remember your purpose, your family. Quickly, before the one called Ciara grows bored with her hidden prey. Believe me, the captain will thank you for it. So will the god who built this place. He grows annoyed already and this is his place of power. Drown her Direk, drown her and set her free.]

The unconscious woman lay on the floor, sprawled down amongst the wreckage of the wooden cabinet which Darren had smashed her into. He, Bonnie and Blake remained occupied, unmoving and eyes wide open as they processed their own privately send messages.

His palms began to be moist as water formed on them as Direk moved forward to drown the one construct who was articulate and aware enough to hold a decent conversation from what he heard.

As he placed one hand behind her head and another over her mouth and nose he began to cry mixing in his own salty tears with the water as it flowed into the body of the captain and swiftly drowned her.

Direk had never wanted to be a killer, but Dreris had promised that he’d be able to leave this hellscape and return to his family once more.

I’ve changed as well. I don’t know which scared me more. The fact that I’ve never seen a reflection of myself or the fact that I have and don’t remember it. I’m sorry.

[Player-Candidate Group Tidal Form.

Main Mission Complete: Secure nuclear launch and command codes from surviving Commanding Officer.

Secondary Mission in Progress: Disable the Nuclear Submarine.

Tertiary Mission: Kill all threats aboard the submarine neatly complete.

The Ocean Gods blessings be upon you all. Remember, the Drowned Gods reward the faithful and punish the heretics. Bless you Direk. Bless you.]A