Our sub lacked any external arms we could use to tow Aerion’s sub, and pushing it was out of the question. Philip was right. This was the only way.

  I groaned. The subs had something for this exact contingency. Their hatches could be mated, presumably for doing something similar to what we were about to attempt.

  The problem? For one, Aerion’s sub wasn’t just caught in a web of tentacles. It was also near the back of the whale’s stomach. I’d wondered why it was so hard to fly the sub before, until Richard pointed out a surge of water just past where Aerion was. It seemed we’d reached the end of the aquatic section of this whale’s innards. Anything past was likely dry, passing through a giant filter, and subs did not fare well in dry spaces. I couldn’t even be certain if there was breathable air on the other side.

  The effect was a current that was both strong and erratic, making any attempt to hover the sub a challenge. Oh, and Aerion’s sub’s hatch was bashed in and mangled.

  Which meant there was no chance in hell of forming a good seal. Problem was, we needed that seal to keep the air inside from rushing out. That air was the one thing keeping us alive, for a few reasons. Humans—and elves, presumably—needed air to breathe, but we could survive a couple of minutes without it. Not enough time to get to the surface, but at least we wouldn’t die immediately.

  Of course, nothing was ever that easy. Any air we did lose wouldn’t be replenished, with Aerion’s sub being the only other source of oxygen for miles.

  The pressure, however, took a bad situation and made it so much worse. If we lost our air and the water came rushing in? Well, we’d be pulped. Worse, any water that did rush in would slice like a high-powered laser. The pressure was just that unbelievable.

  There was one solution to this problem. And I hated it. I just didn’t have the time to whine about it.

  “Well, here goes nothing,” I said, maneuvering the sub upside down, so our hatch aligned with Aerion’s. Needless to say, that made navigating around the sub a royal pain in the ass, and to complete the inverted turn, I had to actually jump out of the seat to brace my feet against the roof of the thing, reaching up to manipulate the levers from below. The upside down, inverted levers.

  Yeah. Not the easiest thing I’d ever done. The erratic current did nothing to make things easier. By the third try, I started to lose hope. When the current foiled my sixth attempt, moving us so far away that I had to flip us right side up so I could fly it back in position, well, let’s just say that I’d never felt so much anxiety in my entire life.

  It was only when, on my tenth attempt when the metal docking collar extended and grabbed onto the hull of Aerion’s sub that I breathed easy. It was most definitely not a perfect seal, but it was at least strong enough to keep the subs together despite the current.

  We also had gravity working in our favor. We’d be upside-down in a sealed sub. So long as that remained the case, the air in our sub, being lighter than the water around it, had no way to escape. It’d have to escape down, through the docking collar.

  Problem was, the water pressure was so high, the surrounding water would compress the air in our sub, flooding it anyway.

  “How could you possibly know all of this?” Philip asked, looking thoroughly confused.

  The answer, dear Philip, is open-world underwater exploration and base-building sandbox video games.

  “I know this must look suspicious,” I said instead. “I promise I’ll explain everything in due time. For now, I just need you to trust me.”

  Richard nodded. “Greg’s got our back, Philip. I can vouch for him.”

  “That’s not… no, nevermind,” Philip said, shaking his head. “Now is not the time. Let’s go.”

  “Pump?” I asked.

  “Active!” Richard replied, flipping the lever to turn the thing on.

  Turned out the reason the pump had been plugged into the wall of the sub was for this exact purpose—it could pump water from the docking port to prevent that exact scenario. Barely.

  The thing strained and groaned against the pressure, and vibrated worryingly.

  “Alright, people, let’s move,” I shouted, grabbing the hatch handle and swivelling it open. “Chances are that thing’s gonna break any second.”

  With our feet strapped into Philip’s rope restraints, the three of us joined forces to turn it.

  Gravity worked in our favor, with the hatch falling open on its own to reveal a pool of water. Our pump was holding. For now.

  “Fuck, I am so gonna regret this,” I said, hyperventilating before diving into the pool.

  Despite bracing for the shock, I couldn’t have predicted how insanely uncomfortable the sensation was.

  Every instinct in my body wanted me to just stay standing there, shivering and unmoving, for as long as possible.

  If I wasn’t wearing my armor and my enchanted clothing, maybe I’d have given up. But some stat, somewhere, let me prevail. With agonizing difficulty, I forced my legs to just move.

  The first motion was the worst. Once I got moving, every subsequent motion became a bit easier as my muscles unseized. Again, I was pretty sure the only reason I didn’t immediately black out was thanks to my Vigor.

  Something shuddered behind me, and all of a sudden, I was being pushed back. Pushed up, towards my sub.

  Fuck!

  The pump had failed faster than I’d feared, and now I had about ten seconds before everyone died.

  Moving as fast as my muscles allowed, I put my hand near the biggest gap between Aerion’s sub and our docking collar and summoned what little lava I had left from my inventory.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The superheated rock spewed out like glue paste, steaming up the water nearby as it rapidly cooled into a watertight seal. It worked better than I could have hoped, and in just seconds, I’d plugged most of the gaps. Enough to make a difference, at least.

  Only then did I dare look back at our own sub, fearing the worst.

  Luckily, the worst hadn’t come to pass. My head broke above the surface, gasping for air, about a third of the way up.

  “What happened?” Richard asked, his face a mix of fear and relief.

  I gave him a thumbs up. “Should be fine for now. I figure all this water will dump into Aerion’s sub when I open it... assuming hers isn’t fully flooded. Needed some air. I’m going back down. Wish me luck.”

  “Good lu—”

  I dove before he finished. We might have averted our impending crisis, but Aerion certainly hadn’t.

  Bracing my feet against the sides of the docking collar, I spun the stuck wheel with all my strength, moving it a half turn at a time.

  The thing groaned open, and with an effort that felt like it would pull my arms out of their sockets, I edged the damn thing open.

  Water rushed in immediately—a good sign. That meant there was still air inside Aerion’s sub.

  I just hoped she and Rogar remembered to take a breath before the rest of it poured in, filling her sub to the brim.

  Muttering an apology—I couldn’t imagine the terror Aerion and Rogar would’ve been feeling at that moment—I rushed in the moment their sub filled fully with water.

  The space wasn’t large, and I found Aerion, wide-eyed with fright, almost immediately.

  Her hair floated behind her like a ghostly veil, and when her half-blue half-green eyes found me, they got even wider, and an air bubble escaped from her lips, prompting her to clasp her mouth with both hands.

  I very nearly smiled.

  Then her face melted into something that was equal parts relief and sheer, unfiltered joy. Like she was crying tears of joy, despite being underwater. And despite the ridiculous danger of our situation, despite the fact that a million and one things could end us at any second, a singular thought went through my head at that moment.

  Goddamn, she’s so hot.

  Luckily, smarter human Greg had enough control to shove dumb monkey brain Greg off a cliff, because I managed to grab Aerion’s arm and yank her through the hatch. We were underwater, after all, with a limited oxygen reserve. While our Vigor boosted that time over a regular human, that didn’t make us fish.

  Aerion, to my surprise, resisted, pointing down.

  I looked down to find Rogar, floating with his eyes closed. He wasn’t moving.

  Shit.

  I pointed to Aerion’s chest, then up to our sub. She shook her head, but when I pointed to me, and then to Rogar, she got the hint.

  She hesitated for a second, then she drifted closer.

  I didn’t get it. Didn’t she need air? What was she doing? I started to mime the plan once again, but when Aerion closed to within a few inches, her floating silver hair making her look like some sort of sea nymph, I knew something was wrong. As though caught in a trance, I felt myself powerless to move.

  And then, suddenly, our lips touched, and Aerion grabbed my head, closing her eyes.

  My head went blank, and for the full span of five seconds, I had no thoughts. No panic or pounding heart, no shock or surprise. It just felt… nice. I didn't even try to resist. I didn't want to.

  All those other feelings came immediately after, when Aerion broke away and surged up, her boots smacking into my head on her way.

  Seriously, what the hell? Did that really just happen? Holy shit!

  My head was still on fire when I scooped up Rogar, pushing him above me into the docking collar.

  The moment he was, something yanked him up with incredible force, pushing him into our sub.

  I got the same treatment when I entered the docking collar. When Aerion’s delicate fingers closed around my armored hands, I didn’t resist. I let her pull me up into our sub.

  As I hoped, the water level was lower now, with the water barely penetrating the roof of our craft.

  “Rogar!” I shouted. “Get him some miracle water! And Richard, CPR!”

  “Hard to do much of anything with the sub upside down, Greg!” Richard called back. “Believe me, we’re trying.”

  I looked around the cramped sub. “Right.”

  “Aerion? A hand with the hatch?”

  Aerion nodded, and the moment we were fully inside, we worked together to slam the hatch shut and swivel it closed. A surprisingly easy task, considering it must have weighed well over a hundred pounds.

  I started to scramble over to the pilot’s seat, but Aerion had me beat. The genius elf had already flipped the lever to retract the docking collar, causing a horrible groaning, screeching sound.

  “That would be the lava I used to seal the collar to your sub,” I said, coughing up some water. “Ignore it. If it doesn’t come loose, just power away. Doesn’t matter if the thing rips off. Don’t need it now.”

  Aerion nodded and applied power to the sub. The screeching sound got louder and louder until we felt a jolt, and the sub broke free.

  Aerion pulled the lever to rotate the sub, but the thing barely budged.

  “What’s wrong?” Philip asked, tending to Rogar, who was now on the ceiling of the sub, his body draped over the closed hatch. Richard was administering CPR, applying pressure to his chest, while Philip tried to dribble miracle water down the man’s throat.

  “We’re overweight,” Aerion said. “This craft was never designed to carry five people.”

  “Will that be a problem?” Richard asked.

  “Let her worry about that,” I said. “You focus on Rogar.”

  “On it!”

  I dropped in beside him, relieving him of the task when he got tired. CPR was surprisingly harder than it looked, and usually ended up breaking the ribs of the patient.

  I was about thirty chest pumps in when Rogar jolted awake, sputtering up all the water that Philip had just poured down his throat. I suppose I should have seen that coming.

  “On his side!” I said. “Get him on his side. Aerion? Keep the sub inverted for now. Rogar really doesn’t need to be crashing into things right now.”

  Aerion looked over her shoulder, pulled her hair back around her ear, and flashed me a small smile before turning back to the sub controls.

  I froze up for longer than I’d like to admit.

  So. That was different.

  The three of us rolled Rogar over, where he belched up even more water before falling into a violent coughing fit.

  He muttered a bunch of words, none of which made any sense, but I thought I caught a ‘Dominion-damn’ and ‘curse water’ in there.

  “Well, if you’re well enough to talk, my professional medical opinion is that you’ll pull through,” I said, patting Rogar’s shoulder before sitting hard on my butt. The relief was palpable.

  “A bit early to relax, don’t you think?” Philip asked.

  I shook my head, smiling. “Sure, we’re in the literal belly of the beast, but hey! We’re all together now. We’re still alive.”

  “That’s not much,” Richard muttered.

  “It’s enough,” I said softly, looking around our sub. At Aerion at the helm. At us three, crowded around the recovering Rogar. I exhaled slowly.

  “I don’t know about you all, but I’ve had enough of this goddamned whale. Let’s end this thing.”

  Three pairs of eyes returned my stare, their expressions cold and bitter, and three heads nodded back.