At this time, Sage’s power was many times greater than in the past, and the fact that an Armorana’s scales could resist his strike was very impressive. It had to be remembered that Sage had the innately more powerful body of a Demonic Insect. On top of that he was also practicing Body Cultivation and making use of the Jade Mantle, a technique that basically used Qi to mimic the abilities of a Body Cultivator. By layering all three together, Sage’s offensive power was extremely high and it was no wonder that those other people chose to capture the Armorana.

On the other hand, there was also the fact that Sage was underwater and could only leverage a small portion of his strength, especially since he had made a wide cutting attack. The Violent Sun Body Instruction was full of knowledge about how to move in and manipulate fluids. It described how to move in the air and in the water, but Sage knew they were simply fluids of different densities and viscosities. Yet, even if he knew of the study of fluid dynamics, it didn’t mean he was an expert. He only knew that it was a linked discipline that the Violent Sun Body Instruction was very practically skilled in. It had many teachings on how to move without affecting the water and also how to affect it in the greatest manner. He chose to test out an inefficient attack on an Armorana to test its toughness. While underwater, the best attacks were actually short stabbing motions. The less the body had to move, the less it would be hindered by the water. Also, the long narrow shape and forward path meant it would experience the least resistance in motion. Spears and other piercing implements were the weapons of choice while under the water.

It was no wonder that Deep Shore was filled with various spears, lances, knives, and spearguns. Even a bow or crossbow would find its power reduced when its firing arms had to fight against extra water resistance. Of course, all of these considerations were mainly made for physical fighters. The vast majority of the different peoples here seemed to have all sorts of supernatural methods of combat. Just like that Dragon Sorcerer fellow, they had powers that let them skirt around the issues of fighting while under the water.

After killing one Armorana, Sage had something of a baseline for their performance and he moved on to attempting to capture them. If he could populate an isolated body of water on the Inner World, wouldn’t he have his own personal supply?

Hours later, in a secluded part of the Armorana Lagoon, Sage had caught up to a lone Armorana. A dozen dark fish appeared around him, each of them the same size as his own body. They swam forward rapidly and surrounded the Armorana. Their oil black hide made for a sharp contrast with the shiny silvery scales of the Armorana. They didn’t attack directly, merely swirling around the Armorana and then swarming towards it with biting jaws when it tried to escape the encirclement. Contrary to their dark flesh, these fish had bright blue-tinted metallic teeth.

Sage swam rapidly around the cornered Armorana, releasing silk into the water. He rapidly wove a cocoon around the horse-sized fish and once the sphere of webbing was about to be completed the twelve dark fish swam out at exactly the same time. Sage pulled on the many lines between his fingers and the cocoon tightened into a solid ball. With no way to escape, Sage brought the whole giant ball of webbing into his Inner World and sent the Armorana into one of many inland seas he’d established to deal with all his gains from Deep Shore. Members of the Lang Clan studied these sea creatures and directed Dragoons to breed them. Only when their numbers were immense were they then released into the open seas of the Inner World to increase the biodiversity.

The dozen dark fish followed behind him as he swam towards his next target, repeating the process to capture a few dozen Armorana over the next few days. They were a considerable challenge for rank fives, requiring them to work as a team, but for Sage it was more of a matter of keeping them from escaping. On the Inner World he was researching how to adapt his other techniques to use under the sea, but the easiest alteration turned out to be these black fish. After studying a bit of fish anatomy, Sage altered the shape of his Blacksilver Pawns into that of fish. They still had a skeleton of Blue Icesilver and flesh of Black Enhydros, but with the body shape of a fish. The dozen of them were just enough for him to corral an Armorana.

Along the way, he kept on the lookout for the so-called ‘Ghost’ Armorana. Each Armorana was quite territorial, so there were no large schools or packs of them. Instead, the Armorana were more like fish royalty or gangsters. Each of them were followed around by many weaker fish, flocking and following in their trail like an entourage or gang. These weaker fish tried to join in to help their masters, but they were much weaker and Sage dispatched them in just a few moments while the Blacksilver Fish kept the Armorana contained. After defeating and capturing so many Armorana, Sage noticed a pattern.

Everytime the Armorana was on the verge of defeat, they would always escape towards a specific direction. It wasn’t a sort of habit related to a compass direction because he fought them in different locations throughout the Lagoon and they weren’t all moving to the north, for example. In fact, he would not have noticed this strange quirk at all if it weren’t for the swarm of Blacksilver Fish keeping the Armorana so well contained. The Armorana would attempt to break out in any direction it could, but for some reason when they felt on the verge of defeat they would always move towards a certain location.

Once Sage noticed two of the Armorana moving in the same direction when they were cornered and these two were encountered in very similar areas. After catching a few more, he caught them also making a similar move and then he started to use the direction of their final escape attempt as a guide. The Armorana Lagoon was not small, spanning a hundred miles across and leaving plenty of room for these large fish to lord over their own small territories. At some point he found that the Armorana fled in the opposite direction. He found nothing in the intervening space so he moved perpendicular to that line and fought a few more Armorana. Moving under the sea was three dimensional so he had to repeat the process a few more times before he finally nailed down a smaller area of interest.

Since there seemed to be something interesting hidden away, he expected it would be on the seabed, but he was surprised when the Armorana led him to somewhere in the middle depths. There was nothing around for anything to be hidden behind or inside of so it was exceedingly unusual. After a few minutes he realized that it was far too quiet and empty. For a few thousand yards in every direction not a single fish or other form of sea life was present. Waiting there for a while he saw fish actively avoiding the space and he grew even more curious.

What exactly is going on over here?