The first warning was the shiver beneath their feet.
Tina had just finished checking one of the sensor pylons when the ground beneath the excavation site gave a low, thunderous groan. The workers froze. Dust trickled down the metal supports. A second tremor rolled through the cavern floor—stronger this time—rattling equipment and sending loose stones skittering into the darkness.
"Everyone brace!" Tina shouted.
The ground split open with a deafening crack. A jagged fissure tore through the center of the chamber, widening faster than anyone could react. Cold, black water exploded upward, knocking lights off their mounts and drenching the entire crew in a violent surge. The force slammed Tina and the workers backward, pinning them against the cavern wall as water continued to geyser upward, filling the excavation pit like a rising tide.
Rex staggered but didn't fall.
The water hammered against him, pushing him back step by step—but he dug his heels in, muscles flexing beneath his wetsuit, refusing to go down. The pressure was immense. It felt like the entire ocean was pushing into the cavern, trying to drown them all at once.
"MASKS! MASKS!" Tina shouted through her helmet comm.
Her team fumbled for their breathing rigs as the water rose to their chests—then their shoulders—then their jaws.
Rex grabbed at his neck, realizing with a spike of panic that he wasn't wearing a mask at all. He opened his mouth in shock as the water reached his face, instinctively sucking in a breath—
And water filled his lungs.
He choked. Convulsed. Reached again for his throat—
Then froze.
Because he wasn't drowning.
A sudden burning sensation flared across his abdomen. His wetsuit sizzled and split. Eight thin, glowing orange slits carved themselves open along each side of his ribs, slicing through neoprene as if it were tissue paper. The burning deepened, almost searing—and then—
The pain vanished.
And he inhaled.
The water felt like air.
Rex straightened slowly as the cavern fully submerged. The world around him sharpened. The murky depths cleared until everything looked illuminated by a faint blue glow—his glow, shining from behind his pupils.
He wasn't drowning.
He was breathing.
A massive shadow shifted below him.
Rex turned.
And the creature rose.
The water ballooned upward as something colossal pushed through the fissure—something covered in shimmering blue scales sharp enough to cut stone. Its body was long and fishlike but supported by four clawed limbs, each as long as a man. A gaping maw split its head, lined with rows of curved, predatory teeth. Tiny bio-luminescent veins glowing like lightning traced its skull.
The beast did not rush him.
It stared.
Almost… evaluating him.
Rex felt a chill that had nothing to do with the water. He didn't know why, but he had the sense the creature recognized something in him—something it didn't see in the others.
"Tina to Rex—MOVE!" her voice crackled through the water in his helmet speaker.
But Rex had no comm. He only saw her gestures—frantic, desperate.
She surged forward through the water, kicking off a fallen beam to reach him.
The creature moved faster.
A long, obsidian-black claw shot out from the murk and impaled Tina straight through the chest, lifting her off the ground in a burst of red that clouded the water like smoke.
Rex's mind blanked.
Then ignited.
The creature released Tina, letting her body drift downward.
Rex roared—though underwater, the sound burst from him as a deep, vibrating shockwave. He launched himself at the creature with a ferocity he didn't know he possessed. The beast slashed at him; he spun, barely avoiding teeth the size of knives, grabbing onto one of the forelimbs and driving his fist into the creature's scales.
The impact shattered several.
He felt bone beneath.
The creature shrieked and thrashed, spinning in the deep water, but Rex clung to its arm and struck again—harder this time—breaking through the scaled armor. The limb flailed violently, dragging Rex through the water like a rag doll before slamming him into the cavern floor.
Darkness flickered at the edge of his vision.
Then he saw Tina's blood drifting upward.
Saw her falling motionless toward the bottom.
Saw red.
With a roar that sent ripples spiraling, Rex launched himself upward. The beast lunged to meet him, maw opening wide—rows and rows of teeth reaching for him.
Rex didn't dodge.
He dove straight into the creature's mouth.
Teeth gouged at his sides, tearing his wetsuit as he forced his way past the snapping jaws and into the throat. The beast convulsed, bucking wildly, slamming itself into the rock walls in an attempt to dislodge him.
Rex clawed upward.
The flesh inside was dense, muscular, and slick. But his fingers found purchase. His glowing slits burned red with exertion. The creature thrashed harder, but Rex kept climbing—tearing his way through sinew, cartilage, and inner bone plates until he reached the skull cavity.
With a final, furious surge, he drove both hands into the pulsing inner core of the creature's brain—
And ripped.
The beast convulsed violently once—
Twice—
Then went still.
Its massive body sagged, drifting downward through the cloudy water.
Rex tore his way back out through the creature's torn skull, emerging into a cloud of glowing blue blood that swirled around him like dust. His eyes cut through the murk instantly—
Searching for Tina.
He kicked toward her sinking form, reaching out—