The next three hours became a rolling, underwater laboratory.
Bruce rapidly expanded his aquatic vocabulary. Gather turned sprawling schools into dense targets. Rise yanked sinking predators directly into Theron's arc. Still paralyzed mid-column hunters just long enough for Kael to execute them.
Kael's fire was a revelation. It cost him immense focus to ignite, but the water acted as a pressure cooker. Instead of dissipating, the heat clung to the target, boiling them alive in a sustained, localized pocket of steam. It was an expensive, terrifyingly lethal adaptation.
Theron's D-rank scythe proved devastating. The fluid dynamics didn't hinder the blade; they lubricated it. He dismantled an armored eel, sidestepped the needle-beak of a sword-beast, and carved through a bizarre, ribbon-shaped predator that writhed in fractal patterns. All three fell in single, brutal engagements.
