In the absolute darkness of the Deep, Steve's arms, swollen to inhuman proportions, suddenly tensed. His deep-blue skin looked as though it would be burst apart by the surging power within at any moment.
Those were no ordinary muscle lines. They were jagged ridges like ancient mountain ranges thrust upward by colliding tectonic plates. The twisted blood vessels beneath his skin were no longer mere veins, but dark-blue Dragons, seething with fury and drawing upon lava-like energy as they Pulsated madly beneath his taut flesh.
The motion of his arms had long transcended the concept of "paddling." This was a brutal challenge against black ice frozen solid for ten thousand years, against a sea of Mercury as dense as steel!
His enormous palms, each comparable in area to a small skiff, sliced fiercely into the viscous seawater under heavy pressure with a terrifying efficiency that defied all common sense of fluid mechanics.
Not "rowing," but "tearing"!
With a muffled roar powerful enough to shatter internal organs—one that spread through the water as a tangible shockwave—his strength forcibly "pushed apart" and "peeled away" ten thousand tons of seawater!
A brief, horrifying vacuum zone instantly formed behind his palm, only to be filled by an even more violent backflow, creating a visible vortex cavity far wider than his height.
The seawater blasted backward like an air cannon under extreme compression, and the resulting recoil drove the colossal mass ahead forward.
This was only the beginning!
His movements were so fast that they surpassed the limit of human vision, leaving blurred afterimages even in the water's immense resistance.
Ten consecutive strokes in a single second! Every one was an all-out explosion of strength, every one repeating that devastating motion of "tearing open a sea of steel."
Bang!
With the first strike, a vortex