Ocean's Descent ||| Woosan (Ateez)

10

Wooyoung felt his strength fading the closer he got to shore. Time was running up on his immobilization spell and so the tiger shark would catch up to him. As long as something else didn't catch him first.

He did his best to keep an eye on his surroundings so that nothing surprised him as he started to use his arms to help pull him through the water.

The sea floor started to slope upwards and Wooyoung also started to pay attention to the surface. From what he could see, there were no humans in the immediate area.

This was his chance.

Wooyoung flicked his tail harder, wincing at the pain coming from the bite that had managed to pierce his scales.

When the water was shallow enough, Wooyoung did his best to call upon his magic once more so that he could transform. He made sure to envision a different outfit this time, remembering San's confusion when he had shown up wearing the same thing two days in a row.

This time was a pair of jean shorts and a white sleeveless shirt.

A scream erupted from his throat the moment Wooyoung broke the surface. He flailed his arms to help move his heavy body forward and immediately noticed he only had the use of one leg.

After a few more agonizing minutes, the merman was able to drag himself up on the beach without any further attacks. He took that as one positive, but his heart instantly sank when he took in the fact that the bottom half of his right leg had the very obvious half moon bite mark on both the top and the bottom.

Thankfully the shark hadn't had a chance to lock on hard enough to rip away a chunk of his fin, otherwise Wooyoung had no idea what shape he'd be in right now.

Several whimpers escaped him while he pulled himself further up on the beach using just his arms. He couldn't even wiggle his toes on his right leg...

"Bursting bubbles..." Wooyoung muttered. He bit his lip and slowly leaned forward and touched the bloody skin on his leg. There was no way this was going to heal, not with the amount of blood that was staining the sand below him.

It would be easy for him to heal himself... incredibly easy... but immobilizing the shark and transforming had already used so much magic, if he were to use more he risked wearing himself out to the point where he could put himself in danger. Or worse, it could start to drain his very life force.

But there was no way he was going to survive this wound either.

So Wooyoung took a deep breath and started to run his hands up and down his wounded leg. It stung, but once his hands started glowing blue, the magic instantly soothed the pain and he started to patch his delicate human skin back together.

The seconds ticked by, and as each one passed, he could feel his eyelids drooping a little bit more. Wooyoung did his best to keep them open so he could watch the progress. He didn't think he'd have enough energy to heal it entirely, but he needed to at least get the bleeding to stop.

It took several more minutes, but once all that was left was some scarring Wooyoung released the magic and collapsed back onto the sand.

Breathing was a struggle for him while he tried to regain control over his body.

Mingi was not going to be happy about this once he found out. If a tiger shark was hungry enough to attack him then their food source could be in trouble. They would have to send out some scouts to monitor their population and check on the other breeds around the area.

It was rare that a great white was seen around Aquatis, but it would be the only thing that could give the female tiger shark any competition.

Wooyoung groaned and let his left arm drape over his eyes to block out the sun. This isn't what he needed right now. If Aquatis was going to start having a shark issue then he could see one of two things happening. Either Mingi would start sending him out on patrols and expect updates, or he would keep Wooyoung contained to the palace walls with a guard detail to make sure he didn't wander off and get hurt since Mingi knew he was such a free spirit.