Thalion surged through the flooded corridors, his movents sleek and fluid. Twice he encountered groups of fishpeople, but they were dispatched with swift, brutal efficiency. His Aqualance struck like a harpoon of light, while Tsunami Breaker shattered their formation like a collapsing wave. They either never saw him coming or mistook him for a lesser aquatic beast, too insignificant to pose a threat. Their misjudgnt was fatal.
What fascinated Thalion more than the brief skirmishes was the strange behavior of his bloodline flas beneath the surface. That they could even exist underwater seed miraculous. The last ti he had assud this form, he had only verified that the flas worked, not what they truly did. At the ti, he had been preparing for a battle in a desert, making further underwater testing unlikely. Besides, water-based terrain was rare on the fifth stage. They had yet to discover a single river or ocean. That made this opportunity all the more precious.
A swirling wheel of blue fla spun ahead of him, casting ghostly light through the murky water. The fire wasn’t hot, nor cold, nor electrical. It seed to consu the ambient mana from the water itself, an eerie siphoning effect. Were he to stop feeding it his own power, the fla would vanish. It had no effect on him personally, at least not through the passive skill, and he had no clear idea of its purpose. That left only one logical course: experintation.
High above the remnants of a subrged village, Thalion hovered in the currents. The village was composed of crumbling stone structures that didn’t align with the palace’s more ornate design. Perhaps slave quarters, or an ancient settlent. Seaweed drifted lazily through broken windows, and collapsed rooftops offered perfect lairs for small aquatic beasts. He selected a ruined house overrun by crabs for his first test.
Rising above the structure, he ignited the water above the roof, since the building material itself resisted direct manipulation. The blue flas blood, nearly translucent, like flickering ghosts. Trapped inside, the crabs scrambled in disarray. Thalion watched with narrowed eyes. Their legs jittered, movent growing clumsy. So stumbled, others collapsed entirely. He gave them ti to regroup, to form a defensive circle, but a few seed downright intoxicated, their coordination lost.
Once they clustered together, he released a concentrated wave of fla into the room. What followed wasn’t what he expected. They didn’t cook, combust, or scream in pain. There was no kill notification. One by one, they simply passed out. Thalion descended and nudged one crab with the tip of his snout. It floated lazily, completely unresponsive.
Curious, Thalion thought, extinguishing the fla and leaving the crabs to their dazed slumber. This couldn’t be a sleeping spell. He needed more data. He swam two blocks over to another ruined ho, this one inhabited by a school of violet sunfish.
This ti, he altered his approach. He blocked the entrances with flickering walls of fla and waited. The fish darted around in panic, swimming in tight, frantic circles. But they didn’t need to be touched by the fla. The mont their eyes caught the swirling blue, they froze, then slowly sagged, unconscious, as though lulled by an invisible lullaby.
That settled it. Thalion wasn’t testing fire. He was wielding sothing more akin to hypnosis. The flas seed to carry a ntal weight. Visual contact alone was enough to overwhelm the lesser creatures. If he wanted real answers, he’d need a more intelligent subject. Maybe one of the fishpeople, assuming he didn’t kill them before they could talk. Fortunately, his title allowed him to detect lies, a boon that grew more powerful now that he had nearly worked off the experience penalty it imposed.
With testing over, Thalion accelerated, slicing through the water like a torpedo. The labyrinth ahead held no serious threats. No apex beasts, no enemy troops. The fishpeople probably clustered near the main pillar, leaving only scouts along the way. That anyone might assu the form of a beast to slip through this aquatic maze clearly hadn’t occurred to them.
He passed through several drowned cities, gliding silently past coral-covered ruins and overgrown plazas. He ignored most of the creatures lurking there, only pausing for those who looked like they might carry rare skills. So far, luck hadn’t favored him in that regard. His passive skill cloaked him well, and unless he ventured too close, he went unnoticed.
It was strange, seeing such massive cities buried beneath the waves. These catacombs must once have been part of Ankhet’s palace, or perhaps they had simply been swallowed over ti. Either way, the scale of it all was breathtaking. How vast is this place, Thalion wondered, truly awed. The systems of this world shattered every norm from before Integration. Everything here was monuntal.
He now swam between two colossal buildings that towered like underwater skyscrapers. Nature had claid them. Coral encrusted the walls, algae drifted in the currents, and tiny creatures made their hos in forgotten windows. The city no longer looked like a ruin, but an artificial reef, vibrant, alien, and beautiful in its decay.
The challenge lay in the city’s sprawling design. Countless exits branched from the main structure, narrow corridors etched into the walls like veins in ancient stone. Thalion had a rough idea of the right direction, guided by his title’s intuition, but sothing else had caught his attention. A group of fishpeople moved with clear purpose through the water, and he wanted to intercept them before continuing.
Thalion dove silently between towering coral-covered buildings, hoping to vanish into the shadows. The city was lit mostly from above, with pale blue light filtering down from the distant ceiling that arched far overhead. The fishpeople swam near that shimring canopy, hundreds of ters above the tallest structures. Their forms cast long silhouettes, and though he could see them, their voices did not carry through the dense water. Moving closer would be dangerous. Even with his stealth-enhancing skill, the risk of being exposed was too high.
Among them, Thalion spotted a female for the first ti. She looked similar in size to the males, but her appearance was more alien. Long, thick jellyfish-like tendrils extended from her back, drifting with eerie grace. The whole group was ard with harpoon-shaped spears and swam in unison with trained coordination. Two females and eight males moved in tight formation, descending steadily toward the deeper levels of the catacombs.
Thalion observed them with narrowed eyes, trying to deduce their goal. The most logical explanation was a powerful beast hidden deeper within the ruins. He found it strange how little they seed to care about the larger system event. Were they not worried about others arriving? Perhaps most of their forces were stationed near the central pillar, defending key points while smaller squads scouted. With the size of the labyrinth, it made sense to secure the vital paths rather than stretch themselves thin.
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Still, Thalion's interest grew. If this group was tracking a rare creature, then that creature might hold a valuable ability. One worth copying. With greed flickering in his expression, he began to follow the hunters from the shadows, always keeping a safe distance. Coral forests and ruined structures gave him plenty of cover. The deeper they swam, the darker the water beca, but Thalion moved like a phantom, unnoticed and silent.
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