But then, coming up the channel was the Coast Guard cutter. The Bofors rounds had bruised him but not done serious damage, exploding against the surprisingly tough outer skin. So he wasn’t terribly worried to see the white ship.

But the Coast Guard had learned. They had only a few armor-piercing shells on board, mostly to sink derelict ships that could not be salvaged. The first armor-piercing shell penetrated Vincent’s skin before exploding. It was sharply painful and left a crater. Chunks of Vincent’s body flew through the air, but even before they landed he felt their separate, dull, subservient intelligences awaken. His puppets! Each shell would make more.

On the other hand, Vincent was not at all sure what would happen if he, himself, the still-human part of him, was hit. He submerged, cool water flowing over him as if he was a submarine diving. His human form was the last part to go under. He’d already discovered that he did not need to breathe underwater, but something about it still made him nervous.

Monster, Chapter 27