The Hollow God - 7 Here, for you!

“Hey little gold have you ever seen the sun before? When I could see the sun I used to take it for granted and i didn’t even know it, now that I’m in this darkness I’m really starting to miss it. Hey little gold what do you think of going up to the surface? I know mantas shouldn’t be able- oh thanks …able to breathe outside of the water but maybe I can because of “magic”?”

“I can just imagine us reaching the shore and feeling the warm light of the sun on my skin. Maybe we can even meet some humans there, I would love to talk to them! I wonder what language they speak in, not that it really matters since we don’t use words anyway and speak directly into their minds. Oh is the fish completely gone?” realizing that the little crab no longer fed him any of the meat the little manta asked in concern.

“One more, you can have” The sweet voice responded from up above him.

“Umm, yea i want it thanks” He felt it was a little strange the little crab was being nice enough to give him the last piece but that nice voice seemed to melt all his suspicion away.

A small pincer reached down, throwing something into the mantas open frontal mouth. He felt something was strange as soon as it touched the inside of his mouth, what she threw did not feel like a piece of meat at all!

“What did you give me?!” the little manta was afraid as he felt the small thing instantly melt and disappear into his insides before he could spit it back out. He could feel his body getting hotter and hotter

“Small core inside fish” she calmly responded.

“And is it ok to eat it??”

“….”

“Little gold are you using me to check for poison?!” The little manta was really mad. After being together for so long and carrying her all this time it felt like she didn’t appreciate him at all! Maybe he should leave her and move by himself, what was the point of taking her anyways?

“Are you okay?” A sweet voice came from his back sounding concerned.

Hearing that bell like voice he felt his anger quickly dissipate. The little manta stopped in the water and looked into his core to see if everything was fine after swallowing that thing. To his shock he found that his core had grown by at least 2/3rds!! That was an amazing effect! Even after constantly practicing his magic for months it has only grown by half its original size! ‘Could the thing I just ate be the light fish’s beast core??’

“I’m more than fine little gold! Eating the beast core made mine grow by so much!” the little manta finally responded after a few minutes.

“Your welcome” the little earth crab flatly responded.

The little manta was speechless! She wasn’t actually worried at all! But at least it did benefit him a lot and his anger had already completely dissipated so whatever. The little manta sighed and started flapping his little flippers once again.

‘At least I now have a direction if I want to go to the surface and meet humans. I first need to become stronger and to do that I need to fight! No more escaping! only by killing my opponent will i be able to grow stronger!’ feeling pumped up he started moving faster as he started to actively look for enemies.

After a couple of hours he noticed a little problem. The sea is too large! How long would it take for him to meet a powerful creature that could have a beast core? Would it take days? Months? Maybe he would starve bef- ‘Oh! there is one right there!’

Waddling through the darkness was a purple oval shaped fish with spikes covering most of its body, it seemed completely unafraid as it moved alone through the water. Once it noticed it was being watched he turned towards them and immediately started charging. The little manta also found that it was quickly becoming bigger however, even though the spikes looked very sharp and dangerous, he was too slow!

“Hehe little fatty do you really think you can hit me before I turn you into a beehive? Little gold watch me beat him” dozens of arrows started materializing all around him as he got ready to kill the fatty in one attack. As he was about to release it he felt his body being pulled abruptly disrupting his concentration, the arrows quickly disintegrated back into the water.

The little manta felt a strong pull and couldn’t control his body as he was pulled towards the spiky fatty that was charging towards him! ‘He can control the water!! How is that fair!?’

The little crab could not adapt to the sudden change in movement and slipped off the mantas back!

“AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The little manta heard a desperate scream and looked back to find that little gold had fallen off.

“We are underwater, you aren’t even sinking that fast, why are you screaming?!” he felt a little annoyed that he got distracted at such a dangerous time.

“……”

The little manta tried to control his body but it was as if he was fighting against the whole ocean! He couldn’t do anything at all! His body spiraled quickly towards the big spiky ball that was charging right at him.

Not being able to use any magic and losing control of his body he had already half given up ‘i wonder if ill get a third continue if i die again?’ closing both pairs of eyes he awaited his inevitable demise.

*BAM* he finally felt the powerful impact that pushed the water out of his body. Strangely though he felt no pain other than that.

‘Why does it feel soft?’ Opening his eyes the little manta was confused to find he was stuck to a ball made out of sand.

“Quick, attack!!” it was only after he heard that voice did he look down to find the little crab holding up both his pincers shakily.

Realizing the situation the little manta took advantage of his stable footing to infuse mana into its tail making it harder and quickly stabbed it through the sand ball. A not very pleasant sound was made as the ball started to slowly deflate and sink all the way to the sandy floor.

“HAHAHA! I’m still alive!! Little gold you saved me!” looking down to find his savior he noticed she was already moving towards the carcass of the purple blow fish. Seeing her indifferent attitude he felt a little embarrassed but she also suddenly looked a lot more pleasing to the eye even though she was a crab.

“Wait little gold, don’t eat it, I’m not sure but I think his meat is poisonous” He quickly warned seeing as she had already cut into the body and was holding a small piece of meat with her little pincers.

The small crab stared at the meat in its hand for some time looking as if it was making a hard decision, eventually she extended out her small pincer holding the piece of meat towards the little manta.

“Here, For you” she innocently said

“I don’t want it!!! Sighs. we will find something else to eat later, leave the meat there and take the beast core with us” He was a little frustrated but seeing as she had saved her life he decided to let it go.

The little manta decided to give the core to the little crab this time, the other one had strengthened him by a lot and seeing how helpful the little crab could be in fights it was good for her to get stronger as well.

‘I have very strong attacks but I’m weak in defense, little gold however had practically no attack power but is great at defense! We are the perfect team!’ After resting for some time and waiting for their mana reserves to become full they started moving once again.

Using their strategy of splinting up the roles no one was their rival underwater, at least none that were alone. They would look for and kill any of the beasts they could take and with the little mantas abilities they could easily escape the ones they couldn’t handle.

For a long period of time there was a strange duo of a manta and crab that threw the underwater world into chaos. As long as any living creature saw a small yellow glimmer in the distance they would instantly run away as fast as possible.

…….

“Hey little gold isn’t it strange that we haven’t run into any creatures for such a long time?” A now much larger manta asked as it moved through the deserted underwater.

“Hmm” a light response came from a golden crab sitting on its back, though it wasn’t much bigger than before the golden color on its shell was dazzling, it almost looked to be shining. The strangest thing however was a large skull of some kind of creature sitting beside her, it was upside down and being used as a container to carry what looked to be ordinary golden sand from the sea floor.

The Large manta suddenly stopped for a second before changing his direction underwater and heading a certain way at a fast speed.

“Why did we turn around?” the charming voice asked in confusion.

“Hehehe little gold do you remember why we left our home that day? Today I’m going to teach you a very interesting quote! Revenge is a dish best served cold!!!” the huge manta flapped his large wings and sped towards the place where everything started.