[ OSAS: Stage 2 Ikuchi/Alusaru - Souls Between ]

Mudfish and Ram spent a rather decent amount of their time together, having met originally when they were young whelps the two spent many of their younger, more vulnerable years together. A small rayfin was always at risk in the depths and so having someone who’s eyes could watch your back as you watched theirs was definitely a help. Either way, the two were decently bonded by now and other than when hunting for food the two were almost always nearby. Mudfish was a nice rich brown colour with long feathered fins that gave her a bit of a jagged outline, meanwhile Ram was sleek and slender with silver and grey scales and dark black blotches creeping up two of his limbs.

Moving easily through the seemingly endless expanse of the depths the two would twist and dart past expansive coral reefs decorated in a dizzying array of different glowing plant life. Even some of the fish and other marine animals down here had bioluminescent properties to them! This far under the surface where the sun never really grazed the soft blueish glow of bioluminescence was really all the two relatively young rayfins knew. It reflected off their smooth scales as they pushed their way into a forest of sea plants. 

Long ribbon-like plants stretched up from the seafloor tangling and snagging at the two’s fins, especially Mudfish with her more ornate feathery fins. Thankfully both Mudfish and Ram were plenty strong enough to just push through it, though many other sea animals found within the dense underwater foliage were small and agile to dart and weave through the different plants instead. Each plant was tipped on its head with a mostly hollow bulb that gave off a gentle glow much like many other things down here. Small glowing spots lined the plant's stems flickering softly as leaves and stems were shoved aside overlapping each other.

Approaching the edge of the underwater forest Ram would notice something rather large flicker across the corner of his vision, snapping his head around the silver rayfin would let out a slight hum. Mudfish merely gave Ram a curious look before bopping him with a fin and twirling forwards in a playful manner, Ram would just shrug and follow after his companion. The two rayfins chased each other playfully as they continued through the now rather open ocean, there was a slight twinge of nerves at being completely exposed but the two were big enough now that they had some size and confidence to throw around.

What did catch the two rayfin’s gaze was another much larger rayfin swimming up ahead, or well actually it appeared to be just floating more so. Curious, Mudfish and Ram would both slowly approach the large rayfin, it has large fanned fins and bright pink scales with a shimmering fin down its back. Weird eel-like creatures floated around it giving off a subtle glow and seemingly translucent in the water, what was the most odd was the rayfin’s lack of a reaction. It merely floated along, its eyes appeared almost glazed over and there was a zombie like quality to it. 

Ram and Mudfish couldn’t help but give each other a few concerned glances as they stopped approaching the stranger, neither of them really wanted to get that much closer. Something definitely seemed wrong, while some older rayfins were definitely less energetic than the two youngsters, this odd zombie-like trance state that this particular individual was in seemed strange. Mudfish being the slightly more bold one would gently float forwards a bit closer to the stranger, her curiosity wearing down on her feelings of apprehension, however her approach was cut short by the sound of a cry from behind her.

It had come from Ram who had been hanging back when a ghostly white figure rushed him from the side, it was definitely an older rayfin with thin wispy fins and shimmering scales. The larger white rayfin would slam Ram into a nearby rock causing the younger rayfin to yelp leaving a trail of bubbles from his mouth as he tried to writhe under the larger rayfin’s form. The older rayfin’s size was imposing on the younger not quite full sized Ram who could just snap and struggle under it, teeth gnashed at thin delicate fins and shimmering scales as the silver rayfin did everything he could do to get the attacker away from him. Sadly the larger rayfin seemed unfazed, nearly sinking its teeth into Ram’s tail earning yet another yelp from him.

Noticing the commotion Mudfish was quick to whip around, the brown rayfin’s eyes widened seeing her companion pinned under a much larger rayfin who seemed oddly aggressive. Just as Mudfish went to lunge forwards to snap at the attacker the pink rayfin that the two had originally been watching rushed her forcing her to twist and duck away to avoid the many sharp teeth that snapped at her feathery fins. Mudfish was quick to contort herself to slam her thick tail into the pink rayfin, this earned her little more than a growl and teeth nicking at the jagged fins on her tail however. 

Both the younger rayfins were left flailing and lashing out at their attackers, though it was Mudfish who noticed something first. The rayfin attacking her had a weird type of growth of some sort attached to it, it glistened with a sickly glow of corrupt magic, not that Mudfish knew what corruption was. Either way she did see it as a weak point and was quick to duck under the pink rayfin’s next attack before twisting around and sinking her teeth into the odd growth. The older leviathan was quick to jerk away from her teeth leaving Mudfish tearing off some scales and exposing a weird humming glow of magic beneath them. Interestingly this seemed to cause her attacker to freeze as its body went stiff.

Seeing Ram still pinned under the other rayfin, Mudfish would lunge forwards and ram her head and small but sharp horns into the white leviathan. There was a soft yelp from Ram as the silver rayfin twisted out from under his attacker thanks to Mudfish’s distraction. Tag teaming the white rayfin Mudfish and Ram would snap at it from both sides raking their small sharp teeth across its scales. This didn’t do much to deter the shimmering rayfin however though, in fact it seemed unfazed by their nips and nicks. Mudfish did notice out of the corner of her eye that there was also a weird growth on this rayfin just like the pink one, noticing this the brown leviathan would frantically gesture towards the growth to Ram.

Ram, noticing Mudfish’s frantic waving of her fins would let his eyes follow her lead eventually landing on the weird growth the other young rayfin had spotted. Ram didn’t know what that was but he for sure knew Mudfish was gesturing towards it for a reason, Mudfish’s bared teeth did give the silver rayfin an idea of what she wanted however. Lunging forwards Ram would nip at the weird growth, teeth sunk into scales and there was a weird burning feeling on the leviathan’s tongue as a weird feeling of magic struck through him. Interestingly the white rayfin suddenly stopped and writhed at the bite, showing the first signs of pain or discomfort as it lashed out at him in an almost panicked sort of way. Ram would yank himself away from snapping jaws leaving a few droplets of blood where he had torn out the weird mass.

Much like with the pink rayfin the white one also suddenly stilled leaving Ram and Mudfish battered and confused. Were those growth’s causing the two older rayfin’s aggressions? Why had the pink one been so tranced up until suddenly lashing out after the white one had attacked? Whatever the answers were Mudfish and Ram weren’t finding them here, shaken and nervous the two youngsters would dart away from the scene hurriedly making their way back home. Hopefully whatever they had done would leave the two older rayfins docile long enough for them to disappear into the deep ocean, maybe they could find someone who knew what was going on as well…