The water was still trembling when Kaen thrust his arm forward, signaling the formation to move. In an instant, the two squads shifted, tightening into a wedge formation built for underwater traversal.
While the students weren't as sharp as the Maritime Officers, they learned quickly and were able to get themselves into formation.
Kaen at the front, Serah mirroring him on the opposite side, students forming layered ranks behind them. The Market District's once-still plazas now churned with drifting debris, broken coral, and the fading afterglow of the distant violet explosion.
"Stay close," Kaen ordered, voice firm through the comms. "Visibility is dropping. No one falls behind."
The group surged westward, propelling themselves with mana-reinforced kicks and silent bursts from their Abyssal Descent stabilizers.
The deeper they went, the more the water pressed against them—thick, heavy, aware, an unseen weight that fought every movement like a hand dragging them downward.
