Quoted By:
>79
The mines began beeping frantically, and you quickly created a network of webbing that wrapped around your arms and held you firmly in place. At the same time, a web of cracks spread across the front window, allowing small trickles of water to leak through and puddle on the floor.
You took a deep breath, held it, and when the mines lit up for the last time, you closed your eyes and braced for impact.
Only a few moments later, a deafening explosion filled your ears, and a wall of rushing water filled the room, quickly drowning out the sound as your head was fully submerged.
Despite their newly reinforced tensile strength, each and every one of your webs snapped, almost all at once, sending you hurtling into the back of the sub. Or, at least, what was left of it.
The submersible was currently folding in on itself, expanding and contracting rapidly as it and you both were slammed by the equivalent of a rolling wave of solid concrete. The initial impact left you dazed and more than a little disoriented. Your vision flashed, and then grew hazy as scattering of black dots crept in from your peripheral. You wanted to pass out, but your each and every instinct screamed for you to start moving.
And so, you did. With dogged determination, and more than a little determination, you swam out through the opening where the front window used to be and clambered out onto the top of the submersible. Your spider sense prickled at the edges of your perception, warning you about the lurking leviathans whose shadowy figures you could only barely glimpse in this low-light environment. Your imagination filled in the blanks for whatever you couldn’t clearly see.
For a while, the sound of water flowing around your limbs, and the distant explosions from the Atlas facility were the only things that you focused on. Every now and again, you’d hear and feel something sweeping past you. A flash of scales, a fluttering of fins, and then…dead silence. It was more than a little unnerving, but all you could do was swim up and hope for the best.
Just like Mark said, your ability to activate your flame cloak while down here was severely hampered. You couldn’t do more than slightly heat up the water around you, and even that took more energy and effort than you cared to spare at this very moment.
In reality, you were more worried about whether you’d get the bends for swimming up to the surface too quickly. Did your enhanced durability do anything to help you avoid such an anticlimactic fate, or did you have to follow the rules like everyone else? You didn’t feel like finding out. Better take it slow, just in ca-
Your thoughts cut off abruptly as you realized that the searchlights on your mask were reflecting something back at you. A stretch of pale, white milky flesh the size of a subway train blocked your path, coiling up and around where you swam. You saw no eyes, or any indication of a face. Just a mouth full of large, sharp teeth meant for tearing!
(Cont.)
