Barns sucks in a deep breath, clenches his core, and dives.
The water is cool, weightless, and starting to become utterly infuriating.
His lungs burn within seconds. Too soon. Again.
He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to focus.
'Think like a crab. Think like a crab.'
But Clancy's 'advice' is so vague it might as well have come from a fortune cookie.
Steel lungs, imagine air bubbles, harden insides - it sounds like good advice, but does any of it even make sense?
A bubble escapes from his lips, and just like that - his body betrays him. He kicks off the bottom of the pool and bursts to the surface, sucking in air like a man who just barely survived drowning.
Clancy clicks his claws excitedly from the poolside. "TWENTY-THREE SECONDS! RECORD BROKEN!"
Barns groans, running a hand through his sopping wet hair to push it out of his face. "Twenty-three seconds? That's it? I was over a minute last time!"
"RECORD FOR BIGGEST FAILURE!"
