Making his way back to his Squad he didn't even have time to be depressed before his stomach started screaming in anger. 'How dare you not feed me? You have literally not eaten once your entire life! Am I a joke to you?'
He basically had no energy left, not just physically either as he had also almost completely depleted his reserves which made him extremely sleepy. Thankfully he had seen other young mantas around so as long as he followed them he would figure out how they fed themselves since they also shouldn't be strong enough to hunt alone.
After Looking around for a few minutes he found the young mantas which had formed small groups that would follow behind the adults that went hunting. When the older manta killed one of the crabs on the seafloor the younger ones would quickly swoop down and steal an adult's prey and fight amongst themselves. Strangely though the adult didn't seem to mind as they simply let it be and left to look for the next prey.
'hehehe, with my superior human brain why should I have to fight with these children for food?' He thought to himself as he flapped his little wings and flew through the water towards the borders of the manta territory.
As he reached the place where there were only a few adult mantas floating around he quickly started to look for his pre.. Err helper. There were many choices but he ultimately decided on a much older looking manta that moved slower than the rest. It's inky black color had faded, becoming an almost dark gray. It moved slowly through the water and suddenly stopped when it caught a large blue crab in its sights that was moving around the sand.
The little manta followed his sights and when it was sure he knew which one he was going for he quickly floated next to the big crab before the manta had even finished materializing its arrow. When the older manta finally attacked he jumped on the body before the arrow had even disappeared. The older manta was stunned for a second at the shamelessness before it gave up and started to look for another prey.
Copying the way he saw the other mantas eating he floated over the hole left behind by the arrow and placed the small lower mouth over it and sucked out its insides.
The first food the little manta had eaten in this world left him pleasantly surprised 'The texture is disgusting but it tastes amazing! If it was cooked and seasoned properly it could probably go for a few hundred dollars at a high end restaurant!'
When the crab had become just an empty shell he was shocked at the fact that he was not even half full. The adult crab was his size yet he was still hungry! He quickly turned around and sped towards where the older gray manta had left to.
After eating his fourth crab he decided to stop and start his magic practice, not because he wanted to but because the older manta raised his speed in some way to such a point that the little manta quickly lost track of him!
Going back to the safe middle part of the mantas he laid down on the sandy floor and started to train on how to better manipulate his mana. It was one of the very few things that could keep him occupied in this dark underwater world other than eating.
Everyday he would wake up and train constantly perfecting his arrow attacks and even making some original magic, not only that but he was also finally able to control the white mana that was in the center of his core.
After experimenting a bit he understood why his arrows did no damage. By only using the darkness elements his arrow would not be physical almost like an illusion and would disappear on contact however, if he used the dark elements as a catalyst and filled it with the white mana it would finally become a physical attack, and that's not the only thing it could do! The arrows that were filled with the white mana had a certain connection with him which he could use to control them at a certain distance and by filling his body with it he could feel himself becoming stronger and faster but what made him the most excited was that it was using this mana that the mantas could communicate with each other! They would send out small waves of it which the other could receive, it was only after covering himself with it that he started to hear them. Unfortunately their thoughts were extremely simple and slow. It was almost like transmitting your emotions but a bit more detailed though that did not lower his excitement whatsoever!
His days soon became a routine of constant eat, poop, train and sleep over and over and over. Though he could now communicate with his manta friends, their simple and slow way of thinking and speaking made him start to feel as if his own thoughts started to slow down as well It felt as if his mind was regressing back into a normal manta! He was honestly starting to become afraid to the point where he started to pray out loud to what ever gods that had brought him over. 'Please make something happen soon! my mind needs some stimulation or ill go dumb!'
After a few more days of torture, today something finally happened!
Coming back from his first solo hunt since his older helper the grandpa manta seemed to have been avoiding him for some reason. There was suddenly a loud sound coming from the corners of the manta territory. It quickly started to spread all around as every adult manta would repeat it as soon as they heard it. Though he had never heard them make such a sound before, it gave him an extremely bad feeling as he looked towards the place where the sound had first started. There he found a large fluorescent blue ball of light almost like a moon that was slowly getting bigger and bigger, squinting his eyes he found that this moon was actually made up of many tiny blue lights that were hanging on the forehead of hundred of long fishes with a large mouth full of extremely sharp teeth!!
Today…. We the mantas!.... got attacked!!