A dark shadow moved through the water at incredible speeds to the point that the creature that he passed had thought they had seen a ghost. However even after moving for hours there was no white sand in sight let alone the giant tree
"Little crab I'm pretty sure we're lost…. Lets stop and ask for directions" The little manta said as he stopped moving
He concentrated his mana and shot it out from him in a wave almost like a sonar pulse. It moved out for a long distance before he finally found an old eel hiding in a large piece of coral a certain distance away. The manta flapped its wings and reached the opening of its hiding place almost instantly.
"Hey old eel! come out for me!" The manta shouted.
Hearing someone call out to it, the old eel that was waiting for prey was startled. It peeked outside of the small cave he had created in the coral and found a large inky black shadow with a small golden crab sitting comfortably on top of its head.
'Oh no, it's them! The black and gold calamity! Why are they here?!!' The old eel wanted to escape but was it possible to escape from them? Putting on his best ass kissing face he quickly moved out of the hole as to not let them wait another second.
"Oh if it isn't the great black and gold calamity! What good fortune it is for me to be able to lay my eyes on such great figures in my lifetime! If there is anything you need from the weak and old me I'll do my best to complete it!" The silly old eel said as he tried his best to not look them straight in the eyes. The golden crab could even be said to look beautiful but the black manta with its large and dull eyes together with that large gaping mouth that looked to lead directly into the nothingness made the old eel feel like he was being sucked into the abyss.
'Black and gold calamity? Is that what they are calling us?' He felt somewhat proud to have gotten such a cool nickname and he had started to get lost in his thoughts when he felt a gentle poke from his back that reminded him of why they were here.
"Err... oh right, so we just wanted to ask for some directions"
The old eel felt relieved when he heard that but still tried his best to help. Once he heard the description of the place from the big manta he was shocked. Why would they want to go to such a place? Everyone knows besides its beauty it's a complete death zone where even the sand had turned white from the powdered bone of their unfortunate victims! But who was he to question them? The old eel pointed them towards the direction and even gave them a detailed explanation of all the places around it.
Once they got what they needed the manta thanked the old eel and quickly left with the golden crab. Watching their backs the old eel was suddenly reminded of a scene that he saw a long time ago of a little manta fighting against a little crab.
"No way, how could those two be them?" Laughing to himself the old silly eel went back into his little cave to wait for the next expecting prey.
At the speed the manta could move it didn't even take half an hour for them to reach the big tree. Unfortunately it seemed like the fish were out hunting as there were no lights to be seen.
The manta sat down on one of the big branches like he did that day, though this time he sat on the lower ones that were much thicker since he couldn't fit his big body on the thick branches at the top like he used to.
The little crab hopped off onto the branch beside it and put her skull box full of sand to her side. As she set it down the branch lowered noticeably.
"Why are you even carrying that sand with you anyways?" The manta asked as he rubbed the place on his back that the skull had been sitting on with his tail.
"Special sand" Responded the golden crab.
"What do you mean special? You were the one that made me pick the sand for you and I specifically remember that it was just normal sand!" He said aggrieved, not only was he carrying the little crab but now had to carry sand as well! 'What am I a dump truck??!'
"I made it special" The sweet voice calmly responded.
The manta had noticed that even though he never collected anymore sand for her the skull box had been getting heavier and heavier. He had thought it was all in his head so he never mentioned it before but now that she said it herself maybe the sand really is special.
The duo quietly rested as they calmly waited for their old enemies to appear.
...….
In the distance a large school of fish moved through the water, each one carrying a small bone in their sharp jaws showing their hunt was successful.
They moved unimpeded as any living creature with an ounce of intelligence would run away as soon as they saw the light in the darkness. Individually their strength wasn't that big compared to other magical beasts but as a group they could proudly say that there weren't many creatures that could compete with them!
After a few hours of moving through the water after a long hunt they finally reached their den. A huge tree that stood unyielding in the currents under the water. They quickly moved towards it but right before they reached it a large cloud of darkness suddenly started spreading out from it. It quickly grew not only over the tree and the light fish but it only stopped after it completely covered the whole bone dust biome!
The fish were startled and quickly huddled together dropping their bones as they got into a formation. They had fought many creatures that had the element of darkness before but with their element of light that completely countered it why should they be afraid??
All the fish suddenly released a ray of light which came together becoming a large beam which cut through the darkness. They slowly changed directions allowing the beam to leave a large cut behind however they were shocked to find that the hole was instantly filled back up. After attacking for a few more seconds and noticing that their attack did not have much of an effect they stopped and looked around warily.
"HAHAHAHA! Little bonefish did you ever think that this day would come? That the creatures that you thought were once your prey would one day be coming back to get revenge??" A powerful voice sounded out leaving all the fish startled as they looked towards the direction it was coming from.
The darkness in that spot suddenly receded exposing a large black manta quietly floating beside their home tree and beside him there was a golden crab on one of its branches also starring hatefully at them.
"Who are you! Who do you think you are? What do you want?!! Get off our tree!" all the fish suddenly started yelling all at once.
"Wait… do you guys not recognize us? You attacked us and our family when we were younger! We barely escaped with our lives!" The manta shouted back however…..
"Who are you! Who do you think you are? What do you want?!! Get off our tree!" all the fish started shouting once again. They were low level magic beasts and barely had any intelligence, how would they even remember a specific hunt from such a long time ago?
Noticing that he wasn't getting anywhere by talking he decided to just wipe them out. Honestly he didn't have much hate for him as all of the mantas he liked had survived, he was only doing this so the little crab could have some closure before they left this place. They had become too strong and this underwater world was too small for them so they had to leave eventually.
Hundreds of Small mantas suddenly started sprouting from the big mantas body moving quickly towards the bone fish. The fish realized that the talking was over and quickly got into a ball defensive formation. As the small mantas got closer the fish started to attack as they shot out their jaws which took a quick bite leaving behind small holes on the small clones.
The small mantas completely ignored the attack as they moved to encircle the bone fish. The damage they received while doing so would heal back almost instantly. After a few seconds they had completely surrounded the fish making a perfect globe surrounding the ball of light.
Over time after all the fighting the manta's ability to manipulate mana had gone up to an extreme degree and by constantly making use of many different attacks at once his ability to multitask made him a complete monster!
As all the clones got into place they aimed their tail at the center where all the bone fish were accumulated and after charging up for a few seconds they attacked together! The little mantas weren't just mere illusions any longer! By creating small pseudo cores in each one with its own mana he could also control them to cast magic!!
"Manta Ray!!! Squad Series!!!"
Each of the hundreds of small manta rays suddenly released a laser like attack from their tails toward the poor bone fish in the center. The powerful attack disintegrated anything they touched, easily cutting through their hard bone like armor. Under overwhelming power the poor fish couldn't even fight back as the ball of light became smaller and smaller until it completely disappeared from this world.
'Hmm..... that might have been a bit of an overkill' He remembered how hard the armored fish was and thought it would take some time to breach their defenses but they were obliterated!
As he looked towards the little crab he found that she had stopped mid attack. The golden crab had her pincers lifted as a stream of sand was slowly moving out of the skull. Seeing as all the fish had been killed before she was even able to do anything she turned her back towards the manta and started to ignore him.
"Eerr … I thought they would have been a bit stronger" The manta said in embarrassment.
"Hmph" The little golden crab did not turn around as she continued to sulk.
"Okay okay! I'm sorry, I might have gone a little overboard but it's because we became so strong!" He said feeling wronged. 'I was only trying to take out part of them, how was I supposed to know they were so weak!?'
However his apologies seemed to have no effect as he was still being completely ignored.
The big manta felt depressed but from the corner of his eyes he saw something which made him excited. He quickly flew out to the place where he had massacred the bone fish.
"Hey little gold~~! Look what I~~ found~~~!" A voice suddenly came from behind the little crab a few seconds later.
"Hmph!" Though she felt extremely curious, she was still mad at him so she did not give in and continued to ignore him.
"Hehehe I guess I'll have to keep all these all to myself then '' A long tail came out from behind her showing the shiny yellow stone that was sitting on its tip.
He had fought many different creatures and even though each one could take different kinds of damage, the core however is always the same hardness! Although they are always situated in the heart, the heart itself isn't always at the center of the chest! He had lost count on how many times he fought extremely hard and long battles only to find out later that he had destroyed the enemies core! After learning this lesson, unless there is no other way he always controls his damage to be just below how much a core can take.
Seeing the shiny beast core in front of her, with quick movements she grabbed the stone and stuffed it into her mouth followed by her face becoming one of pure bliss.
'Hehe I've only heard of this before but I guess it's really true, how can a girl stay mad when she has tasty food!'
They quickly finished eating all of the cores and though they were tasty, such a low level core didn't have much effect on them anymore other than slightly clearing up their fatigue. That was the main reason why they had decided this would be the last stop underwater. For them to become stronger they had to move to a bigger place!
Getting onto the mantas back with her skull jar full of sand, the little golden crab quickly made herself comfortable.
"Next stop! The surface!!" He said as he started swimming towards the sky.