Henry’s head broke through the water surface, and he shivered when he felt the cold air touch his skin.

  Air. Finally.

  He couldn’t breathe it. But it felt good against his skin. The sun blinding him though? Not as much. Henry squinted around.

  I can’t see anything… is it the light? Why is… why…

  Henry dropped his arms. He turned around, breathless. Then he looked up.

  ...Holy shit.

  Far above, taking nearly a tenth of the sky, was a planet.

  He could not see continents. Just water and clouds. He could see parts that were darker than the rest, where the sunlight couldn’t reach.

  Henry strained to glean more details, but the serpentine golden light that connected this planet to the next made it difficult. Far, far away, beyond the horizon, he could see the wall of light that made up the luminescent bridge, surrounding him in every direction.

  His thoughts stuttered as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing.

  A solar system with two potentially inhabited planets. Maybe more. And the bridge of light connecting them.

  Henry realized at that moment that when the whales had told him he was trapped in the Great Current, they hadn’t meant a regular ocean current. Most likely, they had been talking about the current of golden light that connected two planets.

  No. Fucking. Way.

  Henry reeled for a few seconds more before he snapped himself out of his daze and dipped back underwater.

  He examined his surroundings for a few moments and checked his camouflage, then popped back out of the water and stared. His mind trembled.

  This is incredible.

  He peered at the horizons, and after a couple of minutes he could see a section where the wall of light seemed softer.

  That’s probably the direction Deepcaller and the others told me to go. The shortest path out.

  Henry slowly looked back up at the world above. He could only stare. He tried to Identify the celestial object, but the skill wouldn’t trigger.

  A few minutes later, after marking the direction he was supposed to travel to, he dove back underwater and followed the kelp plant back down.

  He kept surveying his surroundings as he tried to snap himself back into the present. Slowly, as he took stock of his current location and as he examined this part of the kelp forest, he realized something.

  I can’t stay here.

  First of all, visibility was awful. He would struggle to find targets or lure them. He would be at risk for ambush because there must be predators around, but so far, he only saw a few more Riptides. He didn’t trust Telepathic Sense that much yet; he was sure there were other things living around.

  Maybe this area was quiet for a reason. It reminded him of the spot he’d woken up in and why that place had been deserted so Henry swam back to his landmark, picked up the turtle shell and, after glancing in the direction he’d come from, moved on.

  The thought that something dangerous was living nearby was making his skin tingle, but he still couldn’t shake off the feeling of seeing the sea-covered planet above.

  Where even am I?

  Henry knew for a while he wasn’t in his world anymore, and for the last few weeks he’d seen plenty of proofs. But none felt as heavy as literal planet hanging above his head.

  I really am in another world.

  ***

  An hour or so later, the kelp forest grew a bit sparser, and his surroundings became much more lively.

  The sea floor became somewhat reefy again, with a lot of dark rocks and growing corals. Whenever there were some sandy bits, kelp stalks took root.

  Riptides were here as well; mostly F-ranks, but he saw a few E-ranks.

  Henry put down his turtle-home in a safe memorable spot, and as he made himself into a rock, something pinged near him. He looked at the shell, thinking a rock or something dislodged when he put it down, then saw a green and white banded quill sticking through an anemone-looking plant.

  By the time he realized he was under attack, pain flared in one of his arms.

  Ouch!

  Henry shot ink and swam down toward the rocks. At the same time, he ordered a clone to swim upwards.

  His arm was pulsing with pain, and a familiar burning sensation was making his limb throb.

  Venom. And goddamn that hurts.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He took a glance behind, and saw nothing. He kept his eyes peeled as he looked around, until he found a nice hiding spot under two dark rocks.

  He’d taken too long to camouflage, and it seemed that whatever had attacked him had noticed him before he’d finished disguising himself.

  Henry looked down at the quill. It was the same as the one that had hit the turtle-shell and slowly, gingerly, he tapped it and winced at the pain. The burning sensation was still crawling down his arm, and the pain was growing worse.

  Damn… I did say I wanted to work on venoms and poisons, but this is a bit soon. At least it barely got through the skin.

  He ended up disguising himself again, because that shouldn’t hurt, and kept an eye on the venom. At some point, the pain stopped growing, and the burning sensation didn’t quite manage to get through the last portion leading up to his body. When that happened, Henry relaxed. He was still in pain, though, but this might be a sign from the universe that he needed to work on his toxin resistance once more.

  Henry hadn’t been stung by venomous fish in his past life, but from what he heard about some of them, this was the sort of pain he imagined it would feel like. A stabbing, twisting pain. Like someone slowly turning an uncomfortably warm auger under his skin, but as much as he could feel the pain, his high Constitution was keeping it under control. It was creating a buffer between the pain and his mind.

  I don’t think it’s barbed… so I could just pull it out. But better give my traits some exercice.

  Henry winced. It hurt. But his body seemed to be fighting off the venom well enough but a few days ago, this could have easily ruined his day. If he’d gotten hit by such an attack when he’d still been in F-rank?

  It would have been ugly.

  Henry suffered through the burning pain and tried to keep himself calm. He slowed his breathing, and with his eyes open, he tried to relax. He wasn’t in danger. Plus, he had plenty of charges in Hoard Vitals.

  Henry watched the outside world above. Sharks and various shoals of fish swam around. At some point a blue crab walked by, then continued on.

  Accelerated Recovery kicked in after a couple of minutes, and the pain of the venom slowly but surely was pushed back enough for him to stop be able to move the limb without gritting his beak from the pain.

  Then the shooter swam by. Or one of its kind.

  [Lionfish (E) - Lvl 9]

  Henry followed it with his eyes as it kept swimming. It stopped and shot at a grouper who suddenly changed directions. The lionfish swam after it, and Henry smiled inwardly.

  Oh buddy. You’re gonna pay for that. And you’re going to help with my toxin resistances. Congratulations, you guys are the new Riptides. A bit more dangerous than them, though.

  It was interesting how this one was just ‘Lionfish’. No odd appellation or variants.

  Henry blinked.

  This is a whole other world. With a second planet. So why are these species so close to Earth’s?

  So far, everything aside from the serpent shared the features and names of species he knew from Earth. There were variations, like the Riptides or the Bahamut Whales or even his own species. How come they were so similar?

  Is this a parallel universe thing? And if so, are these lionfish also invasive?

  It was uncanny. But if there was anyone who could answer this, it’d have to be the System. But he doubted it’d give him a clear answer.

  Henry paused for a moment. I should give him a name. Or ask him, he thought.

  Thirty minutes or so later, he pulled out the spine and waited for wound to close up and for the fire to extinguish from his nerve-endings. He looked outside, then exhaled.

  He was ready to get some hunting done.

  Henry swam out slowly, disguised as a rock, and headed back to his turtle-home. On the way, he kept an eye out for predators and for more lionfish. And the spiky fish were not difficult to find.

  They seemed to infest these areas. Whenever a shark or anything large enough swam by, lionfish would come out of the woodwork, spines blazing, shooting venomous darts at everything that moved.

  Henry made sure his shell was still safe, then found his first victim.

  I shouldn’t touch it. So Telekinesis, then… hmm. It’s very spiky.

  He examined the lionfish as it traced the reef above him. Similar to the species he knew from earth, it had spines along all of its fins. It also had extra spikes under its stomach and under its mouth which looked like a beard. Its dorsal spines extended forward to include all of its length, with the first spine popping right above its eyes.

  Damn. Okay. I need to immobilize it and aim for the side of the face. Or gills. Though… will Telekinesis stop its darts if it starts shooting? And is it shooting the ones on its body or are they being created by the skill?

  Well. It’s not as if the venom was going to kill him.

  Henry swam up toward the lionfish after checking nothing was creeping around. As soon as the fish’s eyes swivelled toward him, he activated Telekinesis.

  He immediately felt the feedback of the lionfish fighting to free itself.

  [Lionfish (E) - Lvl 13]

  Henry grit his teeth and learned that the darts were being blocked by Telekinesis; he could feel each one of them pinging against his skill and slowly empowering the headache that was building up.

  He activated the Razor and worked his arm around the spikes.

  The upgrade to make Razor Arm rigid would have been useful here.

  He cut its gills on one side, and as he was cutting the next one the lionfish began shaking violently, even through Telekinesis.

  Henry instantly stopped as soon as he felt the strain against Telekinesis and swam away, eyes still on the lionfish. He grimaced from the migraine, and he readied an Inkjet to shoot and run. But right before he released Telekinesis, the lionfish broke through it.

  Henry barely managed to see the blood and guts as the trapped creature violently detonated into a cloud of green blood and a storm of keratin shrapnel. A blinding flash of pain slammed into his mind, punctuated by four envenomed spikes.

  Henry's vision swam. His arms and body spasmed from the burning pain of the venom. One of the spines had gone through his stomach.

  It took him a moment to regain control of his limbs and quickly, he began burning through his charges of Hoard Vitals.

  Safety. Get… to safety.

  He struggled to swim. Even his breathing was ragged. A single spike of lionfish had not been to bad, but four of them, one of which had hit his stomach, was proving much nastier than he’d expected.

  Henry slowly made his way home. He already felt feverish. In pain. And his mind reeled.

  An exploding venomous grenade hadn’t been on his list of possible outcomes.

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