Chapter 3 - What Lurks Beneath the Waves

Bubbles surged around Acephylus as he dived under the ocean waves. In spite of how much the saltwater burned his eyes, he opened them. He immediately saw the boulder plummeting toward the sea floor. He tried to grasp the rope before it could pull him down too quickly, but it slipped from his grasp. Thus, it stretched taut and jerked his body toward the sea floor out of his control.

Water pressure steadily increased, tightening his chest. A slight dizziness assaulted his brain. His ears popped multiple times. His surroundings darkened slightly due to the depth. He barely restrained himself from gasping.

Suddenly, a heavy clunk echoed in the water. His body descended another few meters, but then slowed to a stop and floated a little above the boulder itself. He shook his head in an attempt to combat the divers' sickness threatening to befuddle his senses and thoughts.

'Ugh. This body definitely hasn't been trained for diving. Even if my record for holding my breath was over eight minutes before, I don't know if I'll even last half that now, especially with how quickly I got pulled under. Now, the sharks… I'd rather take my chances of survival with sharks instead of armed humans since I might be able to get them to bite through the rope…'

Ignoring the mild heaviness affecting his brain, he spun around in the water searching for sharks. However, he immediately frowned.

'Where are they?'

He didn't see the sharks anywhere. Although on the smaller end for sharks, they were at least as big as an average person. So long as they remained nearby, he should be able to spot them even with reduced visibility. However, he saw nothing. Not even smaller fish amidst the gently oscillating coral growing on the stony sea floor beneath him swam around freely like before.

Hovering in the water for a few seconds, he removed his shoes and socks while pondering his options. Then, he twirled and swam toward the rocky sea floor to search for sharp rocks. Not even halfway there, he stopped upon noticing murky movement in the distance out of the corner of his vision.

Adrenaline spiking, he glared into the depths, wary of what he might see. Seconds later, he saw a dark shadow speeding directly toward him. His eyes subconsciously widened due to the massive breadth of the shadow. Although unsure of his judgment, it looked even bigger than some of the great whites he had seen during his past life. His gut told him to escape, but he couldn't do that now.

Out of desperation, he swam the last meter or so to the boulder and crouched atop its smooth surface. He floundered a little, but then grasped the rope in one hand. Then, he stared at the quickly encroaching shadow. Maw opened wide, a mostly black underwater beast darted toward him.

'Not yet… now,' Acephylus signaled to himself mentally.

Hoping he timed it right, he launched himself sideways off the rock and whipped the rope into the path of the beast's maw. The massive head that he barely registered as looking like a shark jerked toward him and snapped shut, but then sped past him.

Large teeth as big as Acephylus' head clipped his face, though he couldn't tell how deeply they cut into him due to adrenaline. Part of his arm and ribcage closest to the beast also stung. Blood sprouted into the water like small flowers. He ignored it. The huge triangular teeth left gashes behind, but, at the very least, he narrowly avoided being crushed between the beast's jaws. Almost like a substitute, the rope lodged itself between the large fish's teeth like a thick band of floss.

A dull snapping sound reached his ears, but the beast's body prevented him from seeing the source. Before he could think about it, the rope tied around his ankles yanked him forward against his will again. This time, he careened through the sea alongside the massive fish, occasionally flopping against its dark slimy skin. One smack hit him hard enough that he could not help gasping. He forced himself not to swallow the water that rushed into his mouth, but he lost a good chunk of the air stored in his lungs. His lungs started to burn as a result.

The huge shark-like beast thrashed while swimming wildly as though trying to get rid of him. Barely able to see due to the underwater froth, he could only vaguely tell that the rope had gotten stuck between its teeth on one side of its mouth. He assumed it had snapped on the opposite end since the boulder hadn't been whisked away along with them. Unfortunately, the rope tightened around his ankles more with each passing moment.

Struggling under the momentum and pressure, Acephylus clawed at the beast's skin for a handhold. Eventually, he grasped something slimy. The beast jerked around as though in pain, and the handhold slipped from his grasp.

While worried he would run out of air and drown, the large shark slowed down a little before swimming in a semicircle. The slower speed finally allowed Acephylus to notice that the shark had swum into shallower waters. Unfortunately, he doubted he could reach the surface before the shark could nab him.

While brainstorming possible paths of survival, he clambered for the handhold he had grasped previously while he had the chance. Upon finding it, he realized it was the creature's gills, which seemed almost as tall as a human child. To his surprise, the shark only shivered slightly in response unlike before. He took advantage of the opportunity and clambered forward to its foremost gills by using them like a sideways ladder. Acephylus looked up toward the creature's head and trembled upon seeing a huge and eerily human-like green iris and massive black pupil glancing back at him. Then, it swiveled forward as though ignoring his presence. Rather than react to the human grabbing its gills, the shark sped off at a speed double, or even triple, that of its previous swimming speed.

The sudden acceleration caught Acephylus off guard. He almost lost his grip, but dug an elbow into the shark's gills to stabilize himself. To an extent, the velocity pressed him against the beast as well.

Since there wasn't as much froth as before, Acephylus couldn't help widening his eyes upon glancing down at the seafloor. He could only see a somewhat colorful blur. The current forced him to angle his gaze toward the back of the shark, though.

Unsure about the change in the shark's behavior, he craned his neck to look at as much of the surroundings as possible despite the powerful current. After a few seconds of looking around, his eyes widened, and his heart skipped a beat.

Behind the shark, a massive shadow that dwarfed even the shark itself undulated through the sea in chase. In Acephylus' distorted vision, it looked like some sort of long and skinny whale.

At first, the shark tried to swim deeper into the depths of the ocean, which started to crush Acephylus' lungs. It felt like they were being pulverized under a compactor that had been set on fire. His mind nearly gave up the ghost due to dizziness and pain. He stubbornly clung to both the shark and his consciousness like a baby to its mother. However, moments later, he vaguely noticed the shark ascending toward the surface.

Confused, he hazily looked around. He quickly found the reason. The massive sea beast chasing the shark swam around and cut off its descent, forcing it into shallower waters. Unfortunately, moments later, the murky shadow swam beyond the other side of the shark, which filled his heart with unease.

By the time the shark glided into waters it could barely swim vertically in, Acephylus noticed black spots at the edges of his vision. His lungs burned so bad that he thought they might actually have been set ablaze. He glanced upward at the ocean surface only a few meters away and wondered if he still had the strength to make a last ditch effort to swim toward it. Before he could make the attempt, however, something slammed against the shark from its opposite flank. Even Acephylus felt the impact to the point that he felt like he just got hit by a car with only the shark in between. His organs jostled, and the last of his breath escaped his lungs in a final pained gasp. Water rushed in to replace it. Some water forced its way into his throat before he could clench his teeth and stop the flow.

Amidst all this, the impact flung the shark upward and broke the water's surface. Midair, Acephylus finally lost his grip and plummeted toward the sea. At least, his hazy mind thought that would happen. Instead, his back slammed into a muddy shore. Water still lapped at his legs, though.

Groaning in pain, he ignored the pain throughout his entire body and turned his head. The huge shark, which was mostly black, flopped onto the dirt, crushing several mangrove-like trees in the process. A massive jaw full of dagger-like teeth crushed its side, spewing blood everywhere.

Upon seeing the owner of the jaw, Acephylus stared with unbelieving eyes.

What he initially thought to be a whale-like creature threatened his understanding of the world. The monstrous creature had a muscular neck longer than and almost as wide as a school bus. The neck was covered in flappy scaled skin of a color similar to seaweed, albeit of a darker shade of green. It had a thick whale-like abdomen covered in similar scaled skin to its neck as well as four large flipper-like appendages attached to its torso that ended in sharp claws similar to that of a predatory bird. Its hind quarters consisted of a massive tail as long as its neck. Spiny fins on its head, back, and tail gave it a fearsome appearance.

'Is that… a plesiosaur?!' Acephylus thought, eyes wide as saucers even while gasping for breath.