“Just a heads up, the last portion of the test may not be counted fully.” 

Someone from the group raised their voice in anger.

“So the hell we just went through doesn’t count for anything?!” 

“Dunno. But what I can tell ya is that not many other divers can stand face to face with a sea god, as you all did. Well, most of you weren’t standing, but you get the point. You’ve all got the will to survive; if that couldn’t break you, then nothing can, and that is the value of the test you’ve just gone through. You think the Dive Corp is stupid enough to let you all go? Fat chance. That experience alone is greatly valuable. Though if you do badly enough…” He trailed off. “Ahem. Either way, just try your best.”

Palla heard him speaking from the monitoring room above.

“As much as I hate it, he knows how to turn a bad situation into a positive.” 

The sound of rushing water began to fill the gym. Yvie took a quick step in the dark and felt the cold chill of the water on her foot. Others were splashing around, filling the gym with even louder sounds.

Splash!

“But yeah, we’re gonna keep it simple for your last physical. We’ll be testing your swimming ability. Swimming is the foundation of diving. Can’t swim? You drown. Too slow? You get eaten. Plain and simple.” He places a hand on his chin, too. “Hmm… I guess we’ll be testing your lung capacity, too. Once this room fills with water, it won’t be drained until the exam is over. So… Hold your breath!”

Gurgle!

The water pouring into the room became even more violent and rapid. The water was already reaching up to Dodge’s chest. A mechanical droning noise emanated from all around them as the ground began to shake. Some fell into the water with a splash. A few minutes later, the entire gym was full of water.

Whirrr

Lights came on in various spots on the ceiling and floor, brightening up the now submerged gym, revealing that it was entirely different from before. Rocky outcrops, seaweed, and other aquatic life were present as the gym was transformed into a miniature ocean. Throughout the water, highlighted, hovering rings began to trace a path around the gym. Yvie swam over the ring behind her and ran her arm through it, causing it to pass through smoothly. Dodge was the only one among them in a diver suit. Light reflected off the transparent membrane that covered his head. 

“Alright, everyone, line up at the black and white line here,” Dodge says from his suit. “In case you didn’t know, divers can communicate with one another using their suits’ auditory function. Unfortunately for you, yours doesn’t have that feature. So just hold your breath and listen. The goal of this course is to test your swimming and breathing capacity. So just give it all you’ve got. The more laps you can do, the better. By the way… You'd better move fast, because….” 

A large metallic creature darted past the group, its body gleaming as the light hit it. A large pair of beady eyes followed the movements of the group. Its fins were lined with spines and yet draped in the water majestically, like fluttering sheets between each of the spines. Lacking teeth entirely, the fish had a gaping mouth like a black hole, fixed to devour all before it. 

“Anyone who gets eaten by this fish will retire early. If you haven’t been working your ass off this far, you’re going home. With all that out of the way, let's get started. You all get a 30-second head start. Begin!” He shouts.

The examinees take off simultaneously, swimming with all their might. Yvie followed suit, slipping through the crowd like an octopus through a crevice. It wasn’t long before Yvie found herself in the middle of the pack. The swimmers, having to aim for the hovering rings, were relatively close together like an impromptu school of fish, albeit denser. The examinees were passing through rings of light on the outer edge of the gym. Rocky protrusions from the ceiling hung down close against the outer wall at varying distances around the room.

As the pack neared the next ring, Yvie noticed how close the rock pillar was to the wall and pushed ahead, only to be stopped by the slower swimmers ahead of her. In each direction she looked, some people had taken up the space needed to pass. In addition, the robotic fish—The Alpha Seeker—began operation. 

Its eyes lit up, body whirring in a mechanical frenzy, and it moved toward the swimmers. Its speed was still relatively slow, keeping a steady pace, but it closed in on a doggy-paddling swimmer and swallowed him up whole. It muscled him around its mouth before charging up around its throat. 

PEW!

It spits him out like a bullet, his body skidding through the water as he is shot to the center of the gym, his crumpled physique floating lifelessly on the water. From the floor in the gym, there were several panels in the floor that opened up, where a diver swam in and removed him through the same opening. 

While the Alpha Seeker was slowly building up speed, it didn’t matter to Luz at the front of the pack. His form was perfect, as if he had been an Olympic swimmer. He had about 30 seconds of distance from the person closest to him. He passed through the next ring before anyone else and kept his pace up. Tia was second to follow; while still a ways away from Luz, she kept her pace moderate and appeared to be conserving her stamina. 

The pack wasn’t far from her but was beginning to slow down as divers began realizing the gap between the rock face and the pillar was too close. This caused the swimmers to have to filter through to go through the ring. Grace managed to pull through the pack of swimmers after being jostled from within the crowd; she began picking up the pace after being freed from the tightly bound group. 

Coming around the bend of the protrusion, Yvie was forcibly shoved against the jagged rock, causing it to scrape against her back roughly, tearing some of her singlet and shaving off her skin. Other swimmers were growing more desperate as the Alpha Seeker’s speed increased even more, swallowing up several from the back of the pack. Yvie grit her teeth as her back continually scraped against the rock until she was finally freed. 

Wasting no time, she took a wide swing outward, avoiding the pack and other swimmers altogether and unleashing all her speed at once. Holding her arms out in front of her, she broke into a dolphin kick, using her entire body’s movement to unleash powerful kicks that jetted her forward.

Confident in her stamina, she maintained this speed and technique, using it to pass most of the crowd and slip in just before the next ring.

The Alpha Seeker’s speed increased once again, and with it, its eyes turned red. The seeker darted forward and began to annihilate the crowd in twos and threes. Divers were frequently coming out to drag the dregs of the examinees out. 

After passing the fifth ring, Grace could feel the looming aura of the seeker behind her. In a panic, she looked back, noticing that the crowd was nearly completely wiped out. The final stragglers of the group were frantically flailing in the water—an act that all but assured their demise. 

Regardless of her remaining stamina, she kicked it into high gear. Scrunching her face and rapidly rowing her arms, she swam ferociously. Passing others ahead of her as her lungs and muscles burned, and continuing to the 6th ring before her breath and her stamina left her, causing Grace to float lifelessly in the water as her vision faded.

Meanwhile, Yvie was moving forward with a single-minded determination. Left and right, she was passing others; the distance between her and Luz was shrinking. With each ring she passed through, she could see the distance cutting shorter and shorter, her heart beating through her ears as she sped. She passed by Tia and kept going even farther. Luz’s form became more and more visible as she kept her pace, inching ever closer, until she was at his heels. However, from her arms twitching to her thighs burning, her body was aflame from head to toe. Her limbs were steadily gaining weight, as if someone tied them down with increasingly heavy weights. 

Formerly moving with the grace of an angelfish, her movements were now rigid and stiff, her body unable to fully comply with her demands. Bubbles erupt from her mouth. She tries to scream as if to will herself forward, to push even a moment longer, but instead, she feels the intense weight of exhaustion collapse all at once. Her core loosens, and like a single card removed from a house of cards, everything falls apart. All of her muscles relax from the strain and pain, causing her to make an abrupt stop in the water. Yvie watches as Luz gets further from her; she releases a bit of air in a sigh of frustration. The bubbles float up from her face as she gently floats in the water, her hair softly dancing around her head as she is swallowed up at last by the seeker.