Chapter 0142: Underwater Training

[How?] Laura asked Alex after he told her to attack the fish that was approaching them.

[Think.] He told her. He wanted her to come up with an idea by herself.

[Can you propel me to that fish?] She asked him quickly as she saw it getting closer and closer to them.

[Sure.] Alex nodded and before she realized it, Laura found herself being propelled at the fist that was approaching them. Her eyes widened as she struggled to keep her mouth closed. Though, as a battle-hardened 'weapon', she was able to adapt to the situation and quickly slashed the fish, allowing Alex to devour it.

[Can you imagine that that huge fish that was almost as large as you was a weak-ass carp before being mutated?] Alex said and Laura could only think to herself, 'This planet's fucked…'

[Pull me back…] She told him.

[What do you mean?] Alex played the fool, [Just swim back to me.]

Laura glared at him. She was more than fifteen meters away from him and it felt like miles to her, [I don't know how to swim asshole.]

[Well I guess you're stranded.] He shrugged and continued descending.

[Alex!] She screamed in his head so loudly that he flinched.

Without saying anything, he sent a tentacle to Laura and it wrapped around her ankle, pulling her down with twice their previous speed.

She widened her eyes and was about to scream, but something prevented her from opening her mouth, [Try not to fill yourself up with water. I would rather not go back up so quickly.] With his words, she was greeted by Alex's face. He was looking at her dryly.

[You're being mean to me~] She frowned and hugged him tightly like a koala, wrapping her arms and legs around his torso.

He didn't reply and instead kissed her, passing some more oxygen to her.

They both descended for almost half an hour before finally touching the floor. Laura didn't notice it, but Alex had brought the intervals that he passed air to her further apart slowly. From giving her air every minute, he'd been giving her air every three minutes.

As for not having enough oxygen, that wasn't a problem. With his bond to her blood, he could directly infuse her blood with oxygen, negating the need for breathing completely. He could completely negate her need for her lungs entirely if he really tried.

Due to the presence of water all around her, Laura didn't accurately notice the passage of time so she didn't notice the slowly increasing intervals.

[So, how was the experience?] Alex asked her as he took a seat on the sandy floor as if he wasn't even in the water and was still on a beach.

[Mesmerizing…] She told him as she looked around, enjoying the ocean sights, [If all the fishes we encountered weren't monsters that wanted to kill us, it would've been even better.]

[If you're annoyed by that, then you'll love what I have prepared for you…] Alex said to her as he turned his head in a direction.

[No…] She mumbled as she saw a literal horde of fish monsters charging in their direction.

[Yes. It's much more difficult to move underwater. Plus, you'll get used to fighting without being able to breathe.] Alex told her.

[How does that help me?] She almost snarled at him as she prepared herself for a fight, both her hand and foot claws extended out of her body.

[There is a technique called Breathless attacking when it comes to melee combat. The tiny moments that you take to breathe cause your rhythm to be disturbed.] Alex didn't explain further but Laura understood.

[Are you sure you actually like me?] She said with panic, [I'll die without air…]

[You think too little of me my lovely Laura. I'm perfectly prepared to keep you with me for eternity. You don't have to worry about anything but those abominations.] His words did little to calm Laura down.

[At least give me some armor…] She pleaded.

[Nope. You can heal from any sort of injury easily and I want some nice eye candy while watching you fight in that skimpy bikini.] He told her.

[The water is salty, Alex! It'll hurt like a bitch!] She almost shouted as she barely slashed at the first shark-like fish that approached her.

[Then try not to get hurt…] He said amusedly.

He was working on a multifaceted approach here. One, he wanted her to learn Breathless Attack, a technique he found when he was scouring through Asgardian data that Jane allowed him to access. Two, he wanted to discourage her mutually destructive combat style. If someone fought her with a weapon like the Murasama Blade that could negate her healing factor, it would be problematic for even him to heal her.

[Alex, I hate you!] She screamed as she bisected a fish while trying her best to dodge another's attack. That led to her losing ground and had her floating in the water. Even though Alex had made it so that she wouldn't start abruptly floating upward, she was stuck floating in the water for a few seconds.

With her mobility essentially destroyed, she ended up getting slashed by two of the abominations' fins. A third also came up to her and took a bite out of her arm before she stabbed its skull and killed it.

[Fuck you, Alex! I hate you!] She screamed again as she felt her urge to breathe overpowering her. The pain from the salty water entering her wounds wasn't helping her either.

As Laura healed herself, the surrounding abominations strangely weren't attacking her, as if waiting for her to get ready for the second wave.

In her current state, Laura didn't realize that and only felt that she got a moment of respite. She took that moment to look over at Alex with desperation. She wanted to breathe.

[After this wave.] He said and more abominations approached her.

As Laura barely got through them, the abominations stopped attacking her again. But she'd already lost control and her mouth opened, desperately gasping for air.

Unlike what she expected, she found Alex standing in front of her and his lips pressed against hers. She desperately sucked in the air from his mouth as he kissed her. As their tongues intertwined, Laura felt heat rising in her abdomen, [Can you send them away? I'm not very sane right now…] She asked him.

[Nope. We'll be living down here for the next few days. You have to get used to this experience.] Alex's words had Laura opening her eyes wide.

[Alex?!] She said with disbelief lacing her tone.

[Shh.] He pushed his tongue deeper, invading her throat, [You can trust that I will never let any harm come to you. Hell, who knows, you might even have your first time a few thousand meters underwater.]

[What?! We're that deep in?] Laura couldn't believe it, [We should've been crushed by the pressure by now…]

She could feel Alex scoffing through the kiss, [Please…]

She barely rolled her eyes as she continued desperately sucking air from the kiss. After realizing that they would be here for a while, Laura didn't act impatient.

Soon, Alex stopped kissing her and pulled away from her lips, [Continue.] He said as he pulled away from her and took a seat in his previous spot.

Before Laura had a chance to say anything to him, she was swamped by more marine abominations that made things extremely difficult for her. Alex wasn't worried about her being overwhelmed. After all, most of these fish were being controlled by him. He had a huge dome of chaos energy surrounding this area that would repel the stronger marine creatures and control the weaker ones.

Alex made each wave last longer than the previous one as Laura's limits were constantly pushed. After an hour of constant fighting, she was able to hold her breath for five minutes while in constant combat.

He constantly kept her overwhelmed, so she didn't realize that this kind of training would normally be extremely harmful to her. The only reason that this was sustainable was because Alex was constantly infusing oxygen and traces of EP into her blood, allowing her to have plenty of energy to keep herself sustained.

He wanted to overpower her breathing instinct so that she would have full control over her breathing since it wasn't really a necessary process anymore.

Alex made Laura fight sea monsters for the next five hours.

'She's done for now…' He realized as he saw her about to open her mouth after 12 minutes of not having breathed. It was lower than her previous 14 minutes.

He pulled her away from the fight and kissed her again, passing air to her through her mouth.

[We're done for now…] He told her and Laura's body went limp in his arms. She was way too tired and wanted to cuddle up with Alex to sleep.

[Can we watch a movie?] She asked.

[We're underwater for the next few days, Laura.] He told her.

[I hate you…] She said but still kept kissing him while sucking more and more air from his mouth.

***

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