Ocean Master

Huff! Huff!

Sergeant Barnes let in deep gasps for breath in the water, his eyes were red, and his lungs felt fried. If not because of his water-mutated gills, such violent gasps for breath would have long choked him.

His body was filled with injuries, his blood seeped out from every orifice of his body as the pain stimulated his brain in waves, making him feel slightly dizzy.

At the place where he stood, he could feel his brain oscillating like electromagnetic waves. The world felt like a spiraling giant wheel to him, everything was spinning and was upside down.

The previous battle battered him badly.

Despite his sorry state, this Sergeant was not worried about his body. His mind was completely preoccupied with the previous battle.

He arrived as a hero, but he was beaten black and blue like a thief. He couldn't even fulfill the reason why he entered the battlefield, rather he became a magnet that attracted more trouble to his subordinates.

The thrashing that he suffered under Sebastian's tyrannical might was still fresh in his mind. It was a humiliating eye-opener to him.

He survived only because of his life-preservation magic gadgets.

What made him even angrier was the fact that he had been sheltering this ticking time bomb disaster for over a month. 

After clarification from Doctor Statham, he never would have thought that the Megalodon actually had the unique skill that his whole race was hunting everywhere for.

He felt angry, but he also felt relieved. 

The fact alone that his Crimson Fleet was the one who found this Megalodon was a great contribution on their part that could propel them to higher heights in the nearest future.

Of the over 300 soldiers who came into the armory to intercept the predators, only a little more than 180 survived, and most survived with injuries.

The previous battle was a painful loss on their part.

The more he thought of this, the more pain he felt so he simply closed his eyes as he rested his tired body against one of the columns in the armory. His brain gradually calmed down as he did this.

When his eyes opened again, they were still red but much calmer now. 

With a much calmer demeanor, he dropped his hands before pulling out a magic gadget that seemed like a radio transmitter from his storage bag.

"Good day, this is the Atlantian Information Unit Headquarters".

"Good day, I am Staff Sergeant Barnes of the Crimson Fleet".

"Ok Staff Sergeant, how may I help you?"

"I found the race's target. I found the shark with the Water Transmutation unique skill, he's already a Megalodon".

"Wait…! What?" 

The voice on the other end of this transmission immediately perked up. The information that was just revealed was so important that she lost her cool for a moment, but as a professional, she quickly calmed down again.

"Tell me the details".

"It's this way…"

Staff Sergeant Barnes managed to summarize everything with as few words as possible to minimize time while also making the female on the other end understand the circumstances perfectly.

"Understood, Staff Sergeant".

"You have to hold that shark down even if you can't bring it down!"

"You mustn't let it escape!"

"Yes ma'am!" Barnes was calm, he already expected to hear this.

"Ok, reinforcements will be coming your way as soon as possible. Remember, you've done a considerable contribution to the race's development".

"Well-done soldier!"

"Thanks, ma'am".

Click!

As soon as the transmission ended, Staff Sergeant Barnes slumped down and rested his body against another pillar while he held his head with his hands. With this, the pressure for success just increased exponentially.

If he lost the Megalodon after all this, the repercussions in his career would be massive but despite this, he would never disobey his superior.

He still remembered the Captain's words clearly. 

"Remember, when you get any clue, no matter how inconsequential about the appearance and use of the Water Transmutation skill, don't inform us, inform headquarters immediately".

As soon as this word played in his head, his mind calmed down, he had already done the needful. Now, he was ready to give his best to stop this Megalodon.

He may be severely injured, but as the leader of this fleet, he had more than 10 ways to rapidly heal injuries that were more severe than this.

Once again, he took up the magic gadget that looked like a radio transmitter.

"Staff Sergeant, I'm awaiting your orders".

Hearing this confident female voice, Staff Sergeant Barnes smiled which alleviated the stress that was prominent on his face a bit. 

This was his assistant for this mission, Sergeant Ralia, and having known the severity of the situation, her playful side was gone and was now replaced by a sturdy mountain personality.

She was ready to do anything to hold this Megalodon now.

Staff Sergeant Barnes nodded his head before giving his orders. "Empty the Fleet Hospital, and make sure that the Doctors are tightly protected".

"Inform Engineer Macuck and his crew to personally go activate the Doomsday defense mechanisms".

"Then converge everyone at the Defense Domain". 

"Yes, Staff Sergeant!"

…

Boom! Boom!

Sebastian's magic shield flickered under the might of this explosive bombardment, the other predators in his crew also protected themselves as they got prepared to counterattack.

Another round of pressurized bombs was thrown by the Atlantian soldiers immediately after the first, not giving the predators any time to react.

This was what Sebastian and his crew faced after they barged into the Leaders Sleeping Quarters, they faced bombs!

After the bloody scenario that just happened in the Main Armory, where even Staff Sergeant Barnes almost died, the Atlantian soldiers finally had a reality check and their eyes were now open.

Their target was not a cute dog like they expected, it was a big fearsome Megalodon with teeth that could shred and bite the hell out of them.

After the Armory encounter, the President of the central control quarters who was watching everything improvised. Through his guidance in acknowledgment of the Staff Sergeant's orders, they adjusted their approach.

They no longer barged out bravely to duke it out with the predators, rather than doing that, they hid in the background and bombarded the beasts with bombs which they had an abundance of.

Highly pressurized bombs, gravity bombs, electric bombs, highly explosive bombs, time bombs, they used them all against the predators.

Faced against such a passive but dangerous offensive, Sebastian and his crew developed a headache. They could not abandon their escape to pursue and kill their enemies, but their enemies kept on injuring them.

The situation was suffocatingly frustrating to the predators but the originally volatile predators didn't make an impulsive move, this was because Sebastian didn't allow it.

Sebastian was intelligent, he could feel another plan in play. He knew that him revealing his unique skill would bring even more problems and variables, he felt no regret though, he was ready to face anything.

As they escaped, he already noticed that most people that were in this Leaders Sleeping Quarters were already evacuated.

This alone revealed a lot to him, a huge plan was being executed.

This was the reason why he forced his companions so they could keep moving forward at the fastest speed. The more time they spent, the more time the Atlantians had to prepare and mount a frightening offensive or defensive force.

This was something that they absolutely couldn't afford to see happen.

Like this, despite the constant damage from the bomb bombardments around them, they kept on swimming forward. 

The Leaders Sleeping Quarters comprised of a long corridor, and the leaders' rooms were spread in a cross along the long corridor. 

This way, Sebastian and his crew didn't have to pass the rooms to get to the next chamber, they just had to continue threading the long corridor before they got to the next sleeping quarters.

Amid the damage from the bombs and their occasional rapid counterattack, another 4 minutes passed and they got to the last part of the corridor.

The room closest to this part of the corridor was Doctor Josephine's room.

Clang!

While Sebastian swam along, a door that was hidden in the walls of the corridor suddenly opened. And out of this corridor came out Atlantians.

15 Atlantian soldiers, a group of civilians in white clothes and others in blue clothes, with the most eye-catching of them being the middle-aged Doctor Mrs. Josephine and the middle-aged Engineer Macuck. 

This group was the last group of evacuators from the Leaders Sleeping Quarters. They were delayed because the lead Doctor returned to get one of her most critical diagnosis gadgets, and now here they were. 

They were originally supposed to have returned and gone smoothly, but they failed to add in the variable of the predators' rapid advancement through the military base. The central control quarters tried to warn them but it was too late.

Every Atlantian in this group widened their eyes in shock and fear on seeing these predators, while Sebastian's eyes revealed an ominous glint.