When Shiraishi burst in, the robbers were carrying the money and trying to escape through the exit on the other side.
Meanwhile...
Suzuki Tomoko was floundering on the surface!
The direction the robbers were fleeing from was now filled with the voices of Kuroki and Kanzaki...
Shiraishi had no time to worry about whether the kidnappers could be caught. Saving people came first. He grabbed his shoulder and yanked off his restrictive shirt, then leaped straight into the water.
Although Shiraishi's [Swimming] was only Lv5, paired with his powerful physical abilities, it could perform at Lv5(+2). He immediately closed in on Suzuki Tomoko.
However...
An orca seemed to have been startled awake and swam over!
Orcas did not attack humans easily, but...
As the kidnappers fled, they kicked over a bucket of orca feed!
"Ah! Careful... Don't go over there... Feeding..."
The staff above shouted something, but Shiraishi had no time to care. He hurriedly swam over to Suzuki Tomoko.
Suzuki Tomoko actually knew how to swim, but she had panicked at first. Then... she had been terrified senseless by the approaching orca. After swallowing several mouthfuls of water, even knowing how to swim became the same as not knowing how.
Shiraishi and the orca approached Tomoko from front and back at the same time. Sensing the creature's genuine predatory instinct, Shiraishi immediately extended his left hand, pulling Suzuki Tomoko toward himself while driving his elbow into the orca's enormous jaws!
With something to brace herself against, Tomoko finally resurfaced and moved some distance away from the orca. When she instinctively looked back, she saw...
Shiraishi's left arm caught in the orca's jaws, crimson blood instantly spreading through the huge pool.
Yet Shiraishi did not retreat in the slightest. His gaze was resolute and his expression grave. He desperately tensed his left arm, refusing to let the muscles relax, while repeatedly driving his right elbow into the orca's head.
After two elbow strikes, when the orca's jaws loosened slightly...
Eight Extremes Hanging Chop!
Shiraishi slapped the orca on the head, producing a heavy thud.
The next moment, the orca seemed to have fainted, weakly releasing its jaws...
Shiraishi immediately wrapped an arm around Suzuki Tomoko, swiftly swam to the edge, and pushed her up.
After Tomoko clambered ashore in a bedraggled state, she quickly turned back and said, "That girl is in the water too... Cough, cough!"
"What?" Shiraishi hurriedly looked around, but there was nothing on the surface.
His heart tightening, Shiraishi immediately dove down and looked below... Sure enough, Ujihara Ayano had already sunk to the bottom!
Diving weights were tied to her feet. After being kicked down, she had kept sinking. At first, she had tried to untie them, but there had been no time. By now, she was oxygen-starved and too weak to move.
Seeing this, Shiraishi did not have time to think further. He twisted around and dove down again!
However...
It was clear that Shiraishi was swimming with only one arm, and... he was trailing a "line of blood" through the water.
As he swam down, Shiraishi heard waves of alarmed cries—the glass wall below was where the visitors watched from. When they saw a girl sinking, they had already begun crying out in shock.
And now, a "Little Giant" had followed her down, instantly making them wonder... whether this was some kind of special performance!
By the time Shiraishi reached Ayano, she was already in great pain and seemed about to inhale water. Shiraishi immediately found the weights on her feet—this was not a matter of strength. If he did not untie them, no amount of strength would let him swim back up.
But...
At this exact moment, Shiraishi could not exert strength with one of his arms—his left arm was not broken, but it was bleeding heavily, and the tendons and bones had definitely been injured. He could not use any strength...
With one hand, he simply could not untie it. Ayano's condition was clearly worsening!
Shiraishi could only give her a tenth of his breath first—with Shiraishi's lung capacity, one tenth was enough for her to take a huge breath.
Only then did Ayano calm down slightly...
The visitors outside saw that explosive scene and became even more convinced it might be a performance. Some people even took pictures. But... at that moment, amid the startled school of fish, a group of Bull Sharks was drawn over by Shiraishi's blood instead!
Although the Bull Sharks in the aquarium, like the earlier orca, were generally smaller than their species' normal size...
That orca just now, even at only three or four meters long, had still been a "giant beast" to humans. The school of Bull Sharks now gave no reason to doubt that they could tear these two people to pieces!
Shiraishi also heard sounds traveling through the water. Had the crowd outside become even more panicked?
After glancing around, Shiraishi understood why they were panicking...
Normally, if they were fed on time, Bull Sharks were not especially aggressive. Otherwise, they would not have been displayed alongside other fish in the underwater tunnel. But now they had not eaten, and Shiraishi had been bleeding continuously!
This was bad... But the Bull Sharks' bared teeth gave Shiraishi an idea. He directly bit down on the strap around Ayano's ankle. With it secured, he tore with his right hand and ripped the diving strap apart!
That was only because they were Shiraishi's own teeth...
If it had been anyone else's, their teeth would have broken first!
Then Shiraishi lightly held Ayano with his useless left arm and tried to swim upward, but...
The Bull Sharks had already gathered around them!
Because these Bull Sharks had been raised in captivity, they were generally smaller than their species' usual size. Shiraishi, meanwhile, was far larger than an ordinary human, so at first glance, any single shark looked smaller than him.
But...
Although Shiraishi knocked back several Bull Sharks in succession amid the visitors' screams, the school of sharks was already circling Shiraishi and Ayano.
Needless to say, Ayano was completely terrified...
Shiraishi was not in good condition either. First, there was the injury to his left arm. Second... Shiraishi discovered that underwater, even his Lv10 [Boxing] and [Fighting] were far less effective offensively!
With the orca just now, Shiraishi had used Hanging Chop above the water's surface. But now he was completely submerged, every movement restricted by the water's resistance...
This would not work!
Shiraishi realized this was not something brute strength could solve.
Even if he were Lv11, there was no reason to brawl with a school of sharks underwater—especially when the other side had "a school"!
Not to mention that although Shiraishi could hold his breath for a long time, he could not keep up intense activity forever.
At that critical moment, Shiraishi calmed down and determined that the sharks around him did not seem especially bold—after all, they had been raised in captivity!
So...
3000 points consumed, [Intimidation] upgraded to Lv8!
In an instant, Shiraishi's intimidating presence, enhanced by [Mental Power], reached Lv8(+2).
"Get lost!"
Bubbles escaped Shiraishi's mouth, yet he still shouted underwater.
An invisible wave swept through the water...
The surrounding Bull Sharks instantly scattered away like startled prey!
Ayano felt it even more directly. Frightened, she exhaled too, nearly choking on water again. Shiraishi could only give her another breath.
Then Shiraishi immediately held Ayano and swam up to the surface...
Before you continue