Eastiel's werelion body wasn't as fragile as a human's. His bones were denser, his muscles stronger and his organs sheathed in the resilient biology of a werebeast.
But in the first place, his body was not designed to handle underwater pressure and decompression. Lions didn't belong at the bottom of reservoirs, or in the cold, crushing depths where the weight of the water could collapse a suit and crush a ribcage and kill a man before he even realized he was dying.
So he still wore a suit. He still followed the normal procedures like any human diver. Because the alternative, trusting his beast body to handle pressures it was never meant to endure, was a gamble he was not willing to take.
Although he had not seemed out of it after reaching the surface just now, he actually couldn't tank this kind of compression-decompression cycle every day.
