The little manta glided through the water accompanied by the little crab that was quietly resting on his back. It was only after what felt like a whole day did they finally notice some change in their surroundings.
Before they had realized it the golden sand underneath them had turned into a pale white color. This sand was much lighter and would scatter up into the water if the little manta swam too close. There were also some small plants and coral scattered here and there which were a welcome break from the endless desert-like seafloor.
As they moved deeper and deeper the plants started to become bigger and denser eventually reaching a point that made it seem like an underwater jungle. There were also many small shrimp and snail-like creatures moving about giving some life to his surroundings.
"Hey little crab should we stop for a bit? It's not that I'm tired or anything I just feel like it would be more comfortable for you to rest on the stationary floor than on top of me"
"It's OK, I'm comfortable here." A lazy response came from his back.
Cough cough "Umm you sure? Look at all the shrimp and small fish, you are probably getting a little hungry right?" The little manta asked, trying to ignore the burning muscles of his small wings.
"I'm fine" Replied the little crab once more.
'Little girl can you please let me off? I heard if you workout too hard when you are little you won't grow anymore. I don't want to stay this small!' Thought the little manta in tears.
Fortunately he didn't have to move too far before he noticed a huge structure in the distance. As he got closer he found it to be an extremely large tree that looked to be at least 1000 meters from the ground. Of course this was all an estimate since he had no idea how big he actually was compared to human beings, for all he knew he could be the size of an ant and the tree be the only normal sized thing here. It had large leaves as big as his own body which was also black in color but they had the shape of a fist.
"Look at how big that tree is! Little crab let's swim to the top of it so we can get a better idea of our surroundings." Though it was a bad excuse he decided to grab onto his only hope of being able to rest for a few minutes.
"Hmph" The little crap responded, he could clearly feel the disdain in her voice.
The little manta didn't know if he should laugh or cry 'We haven't even known each other for that long but why does it feel like we are an old married couple?'
He slowly made his way around the tree making sure there was no danger. Though there wasn't anything on the tree there were many small living things all around that threw away his worry. Finding that it was safe all around he quickly made his way to the top.
Even though he was swimming to the top of the tree and not climbing his small wings were almost ready to give up, he had to use his tail at the end to push himself to the top or he wouldn't have made it. Reaching one of the topmost branches he plopped down onto it and completely stopped moving.
The thick hard branch suddenly felt like the most comfortable bed he had ever laid his body on to the point that the little manta had to hold himself back to not let out a moan.
The little crab climbed off his back and left to explore the tree without even looking back.
'You could at least say thank you, you know!' He grumbled as he watched her walk away.
'Hmph. When I'm fully rested I'm going to leave all by myself, I won't take you even if you beg me!' The little manta entertained himself with the image of the little crab begging on her knees as his eyes slowly closed and he fell into a deep sleep without even noticing.
…..
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*poke poke*
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*poke poke*
...…..
...…
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*pinch*
"OWWW!!! The hell!???" The little manta quickly woke up as it felt a pinch on his side. As he opened his eyes he met the little earth crab looking flustered pointing its little pincer downwards..
"You know what that's it! I think I deserve a little respect around here! I've been carrying you around for hours yet when I finally g" He stopped as he noticed a small light where the little crab had pointed to. The little manta squinted its eyes as he tried to make out what it was. It was a bit smaller than him so he wasn't very worried. The small light hovered like a firefly around the tree branches until it stopped at one close by to rest, it was only then that he got a good view.
There was a long fish with a small light bulb like organ hanging on the front of his forehead. In its mouth there was a small bone that it was slowly grinding its sharp teeth on as it sat on the tree branch. Bone dust slowly floated down all the way onto the sea floor coming together with the white "sand"?
The little manta was instantly frozen in place not knowing what to do. The little crab poked at his side once more and pointed out into the distance. There the little manta saw another small light that was slowly getting bigger like a small blue moon.
Goosebumps appeared all over his inky black skin 'What are the chances?!!'
The small crab quickly climbed up onto his back and prompted him to hurry up. The little manta looked at the fish that was happily feasting on the bone and decided to quietly leave before he finished his meal.
Pushing down with his small wings he started to slowly float to the opposite direction as he prayed that he would not get noticed. He was only able to get a couple of feet away from the branch before he heard a loud scraping sound and he was abruptly pulled back. Looking behind him he found that he had unconsciously curled his tail around the branch while he was asleep!
'Argg! I'm so bad under pressure!'
He quickly looked towards where the fish had been sitting only to notice him staring straight at him.
'M-maybe he has bad eyes and can't see us if we don't move?' He thought as he and the little crab stood completely still hanging off the branch by his tail.
Unfortunately his hopes were instantly extinguished as he found that the fish dropped the bone and a devilish smile opened on his sharp toothed mouth.
The little manta could feel the bloodlust coming from the fish, he could also feel a judging look coming from his back
'I'm sorry alright!!'
He quickly untangled his long tail from the branch and got ready to fight. There was no way he could outrun him, he had already seen how fast they were. At least there is only one of them so he still might have a chance if he fights!
The little manta decided to make the first move and exploded out a small black cloud hiding himself in it.
The small fish quickly responded by shooting out a beam of light that quickly tore through the black cloud showing the little manta inside. Fortunately the smokescreen had already given him enough time to prepare his next attack. The small fish that had just gotten vision of the little manta in the middle of the cloud was surprised to find dozens of small arrows flying at him from all directions.
"Shadow Arrow Storm!!"
The small fish could ignore most of the attacks but he was distracted by the few that were aimed towards his vitals and had to dodge.
"Shadow manta clone jutsu!" Taking advantage of it the little manta quickly summoned over 100 small manta clones that looked exactly like him to fly off into different directions.
'Hehehe who said I had to fight to the death?" The small manta snickered as it started swimming towards the distance.
Once the bone fish was done defending it noticed all the illusions flying in different directions. However It was only confused for a split second before it looked towards the direction of the real little manta and with a smile it quickly chased after him.
The little manta was just starting to relax thinking he had escaped when he sensed danger once again. Turning around he found the bone fish quickly catching up to him looking at him like he was looking at an idiot.
'Wait, why??! How did he see through my illusions!?' The little manta was shocked that it was seen through so easily, that is until he felt a poke on the top of his head and remembered the little golden crab he was carrying.
'OK fine, I'm an idiot'
Seeing as there was no way to escape the little manta turned around to face the fish once more. The small black moon in his body was already less than half its size leaving him a bit nervous. The bright blue moon was quickly getting closer and he estimated that he had only about a minute to get rid of him and escape before it caught up!
'No wait, I still have one more thing I can try but I only have one shot!' The bone-like skin of the fish made him almost impenetrable to his attacks and the small eyes were too small and hard to hit and he could easily dodge if he attacked towards him. It was only when the fish made his attack did he have a chance!
The little manta started to slowly charge up the rest of most of his mana both white and black concentrating everything into one attack. The attack of the small fish was incredibly fast so he paid attention to the jaw waiting for any hints that he was about to attack.
The bone fish looked at the manta facing it that was carrying the small golden crab and laughed to itself at this strange sight. It had never seen such a strange combination, and what was even stranger is that this meal was delivered straight to his house! It would definitely properly enjoy this meal.
The jawline of the fish started to unhinge as he was about to attack.
'NOW!!'
"MANTAA!!! RAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!" The small manta released a thin laser-like attack from his tail that went straight towards the attacking bone fish. The attacks quickly met in midair and the laser went straight into the long stretched out fish mouth and destroyed his insides. The fishes attack froze right before it reached the small manta as it instantly died.
"I did it?! Did you see that little gold!? I killed the fish by myself! Haha-" The little manta stopped mid laugh as he felt a powerful fatigue hitting his body. He had used most of his mana and now he was paying the price.
Fighting back desire to lay down on the comfortable branch and sleep he turned around and was about to start fleeing before he felt the little crab poking him once again. It pointed towards the fish's corpse looking very excited.
The little manta turned back towards the moon that was moving towards him and noticing that it was still a good distance away he quickly flew next to the fish and wrapped his long tail around it before he started fleeing as fast as he could towards the opposite direction.
He turned around for a second only once he was at a safe distance away to be met with one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. In the middle of the dark underwater world there was an extremely large tree with small glistening lights completely covering it like a giant Christmas tree.
'I guess it's moments like this that make adventuring worth it' The little manta smiled to himself, he then turned around and plunged into the dark water along with the little crab