Max had leapt off the railing without a second of hesitation, his mind and heart full of absolute conviction. Even as his body was suspended in the air, plummeting toward the churning white crests of the sea below, time seemed to slow down. As he looked into the vast waves, a flurry of thoughts raced through his mind, a rapid-fire review of the choices and failures that had led him to this exact moment. He had to justify this choice, not just to his companions, but to himself.
’When I died as Maximus, the leader of the White Tiger gang, I learned the most bitter lesson of all,’ Max thought, the wind whistling past his ears. ’I learned that no matter what the cost, no matter how much pride you have to swallow, you need to survive. A dead man isn’t able to do anything. A corpse cannot seek revenge, it cannot protect its people, and it certainly cannot rebuild an empire.’
It was this singular, driving thought that had taken root in his head from the moment he woke up in this new life. Every decision he had made since his rebirth was filtered through that one necessity: the need to survive. He had been given a second chance, a miracle that few ever received, and he refused to squander it on a "glorious" last stand that would only end in his blood being hosed off a deck.
The transition had been difficult. He was in a new body, and he had to constantly remind himself that he wasn’t the same powerful, physically dominant leader of the White Tiger group immediately. He didn’t have the years of conditioning or the feared reputation to shield him.
When he had first headed to school in this body, he remembered the blinding rage he felt whenever someone tried to disrespect him. He had wanted to beat everyone to a pulp the moment they looked at him the wrong way, but he had forced himself to hold back. He knew that acting out with the weak body he possessed at the time was a quick way for a person to die.
There had been situations back then that were beyond frustrating for Max, moments where his old ego flared up and he decided to act out anyway. He had allowed his emotions to dictate his actions, and that path had led to disaster. He had nearly experienced death again, and worse than that, others around him had died. Even in this new life, he had seen the cost of being unprepared.
The simple truth was that his current body, his new group, and the situation they were in were all things they simply weren’t ready for yet. That was why people had died in his past, and that was why he was refusing to let it happen here. Similar to those early days at school, they were facing a threat they couldn’t handle in a straight fight. To stay on that ship and fight with everything they had would have been foolish. It wouldn’t have been brave; it would have been a fast track to the grave.
Max had realized long ago that doing things in a foolish way would just mean he would die time and time again. Coming onto a ship that would go out to sea, especially with a gang like the Black Hounds that was already hostile, was essentially a death sentence. At least, it was if a person didn’t have some sort of plan in place.
Max crashed into the sea with the weight of all these thoughts. The impact was jarring, and the freezing, salt-heavy water immediately enveloped his whole body, stealing the air from his lungs. He felt his chest tightening from the cold shock, but he quickly fought against the sensation and pushed himself up toward the surface. Breaking the water, he gasped for air and immediately looked around for where Stephen and Darno were.
He spotted them a few meters away and began to swim over, but as he got closer, he realized something was terribly wrong.
"Ummm Max!" Darno shouted, his voice cracking with a note of panic Max had never heard before. "There’s a huge problem!"
Darno had let go of the unconscious Stephen to try and tread water, but the results were disastrous. Stephen was practically floating on his own, bobbing gently with the waves, while Darno was starting to sink like a stone.
There was a crucial variable that Max hadn’t predicted. The Vow they had taken had made Darno’s body superhuman, but the Vows and the specific physical effects they had on their bodies weren’t shared equally. The highly dense bones that had helped Darno dominate in his physical fights were now being used against him in the water. His body was simply too heavy, his bone density far exceeding that of a normal human.
Even though Darno was a naturally good swimmer and had never had issues in the water before, this was something he hadn’t even thought about for a second. He was trying his best to float, his arms churning the water into foam, but his own modified anatomy was working against him.
"Max!!!" Darno shouted one last time before his head dipped below the surface, the weight of his own strength dragging him down into the dark.
Back on the ship, the scene was just as chaotic. Darius stood at the railing, staring into the dark water in disbelief. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen.
"He really decided to jump in the sea? He would rather accept his death by the world than stay and fight for his life?" Darius commented, his voice carrying a mix of confusion and mockery. "Even if the chances were low, I expected him to at least try something. But not this. To just jump... that’s a shame. I wanted to see him broken."
Jett started to walk forward, and other Black Hound members, driven by a morbid curiosity, crowded the railing to see if they could spot the bodies in the wake. But the ship was moving fast, and they were already a significant distance away. In the pitch-black night, it should have been impossible to see anything.
When Jett looked out, however, he saw something that stopped him cold. He didn’t see drowning men. He saw a shape on the water, clear and unmistakable.
"Boss, come over here now!" Jett shouted, his voice urgent.
The other Black Hound members were already murmuring to each other, pointing at the dark shape in the distance. When Darius eventually reached the edge and looked out, he was genuinely surprised. He witnessed Max, drenched but very much alive, now standing firmly in the back of a high-powered speed boat.
The boat had appeared out of the darkness like a ghost. Stephen was already on board, sprawled on the deck. Finally, with the help of a specially designed floating device and Max’s own strength, they were able to pull the heavy Darno right onto the boat as well.
After everyone was safely on board and the engine began to roar, Max looked up toward the looming cruise ship. He found Darius’s silhouette against the lights and let a smile spread across his face. The speed boat wasn’t empty; it had a small, disciplined crew of around five people. They didn’t look like a typical boat crew; each was wearing specialized, tactical attire that looked almost military in nature.
Max wiped the saltwater from his eyes and raised his voice so it would carry over the wind.
"As I said to you, Darius, that will have been the last chance you had to get rid of me."
The speed boat turned sharply, its powerful engines cutting through the waves as it sped away into the night, leaving the Black Hounds behind.