I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 175: Stalker (2)

Either Timmy was crazy or a light which had the same colour as fire, had emerged from the figure who appeared to be a white-legged shrimp. Whatever that light was, it didn't manage to land any damage against the fish with glowing eyes.

But in terms of asserting dominance, it worked like a charm because the latter instantly spoke out with a tone that was shaking lightly. "I'm sorry! I'm just the messenger in these parts, it is not me who calls all the shots."

The urge to interrupt this battle and kill both of them, itched more than ever now. But these enemies were singing like birds so it was stupid to interrupt, as more valuable information could be revealed.

Keeping his nerves under control paid off rather well, because that's when the shrimp uttered. "The king's interruption means that we need to change plans. It will be stupid to use that same pool now, because everyone knows how to find it so we could be caught in the act."

It was clear that the other fish had been scared into submission already, so the new plan could be deciphered further. "Go and tell your speaker that we need a new pool, this time we will pick a better place so no random bastard could interrupt us."

"Okay. Should I tell the speaker anything else?" The one with glowing eyes asked, unwilling to be in the presence of the other shrimp.

A tad calmer now, the shrimp answered. "That's all for now. All plans are paused because of our nosy king, we need another pool to continue doing what we have planned."

And that's where the conversation had met an end. The two who were making the deal, separated quicker than one could observe in this depth of darkness that the night provided. They weren't rushing through the waters but one wouldn't say that they were slow either.

While Timothy on the other hand, was debating what to do, which one to follow. Gazing at the fish with glowing eyes, it was noticeable that this particular enemy was already disappearing in the darkness.

But once giving a gaze at the shrimp, a few bits of fire-like light were surrounding the man. These lights blinked for a short second, but each time they did: the white-shrimp got too far away, this gave a hint that speed came along with whatever that light was.

Such circumstances made the situation become a bit more pressuring that it needed to be. The blue-dotted menace had struggle picking out which one to follow. But one thing he was sure of, this white-shrimp was definitely the president.

With that in mind, he instead began charging towards the other fish that claimed to be a messenger. A short burst of energy covered the first few meters, for the sake catching up. But afterwards he followed along with discreet carefulness, for the sake of not getting spotted.

But he wasn't too worried about that particular fact, as the fish he was following had sounded rather cowardice a bit earlier - not to mention stupid.

...

About half an hour later, he had managed to follow this weird fish across a massive patch of blue coral. This seemed familiar, as it has been seen before through the first travelling across the reef; when he was sent out to recruit other fish from the north side.

It felt nice to visit this portion once more, but following the enemy became a tad more difficult. Because it seemed to disappear a bit more through such a patch, giving a hint that its body colour could be darker. The only thing that helped keep track were the glowing-green eyes it had.

Eventually it disappeared almost without a trace. Which gave a great hint that it had reached whatever destination it had originally planned. The only problem was figuring it out where that place was.

Regardless of how he looked at the mass of coral in front of him, everything just appeared blue. It was a bit past midnight, so the lack of illumination made it difficult to filter out any tunnel or hole that was around here.

Tim approached the very spot where the enemy had disappeared. And that was where he began looking for any spot to follow down. Although it was difficult to see, he managed to find a couple of holes to try his luck on.

But it just resulted towards dead ends which at the same time helped but were also annoying. Dead ends made sure that the hidden holy-tar tribe wasn't here, but it also meant that he would need to put in even more effort to find them.

It was tremendously annoying, but once checking out the second hole he found, joy arose as signs of life appeared to be here. Generally, life was difficult to find in this reef because of the 6 month long feeding spree that the sharks had inflicted, so any sign of life here was a good lead.

He went in the hole, happy that the plan of eradication was progressing ~ but only met with a dead end, which managed to tremendously chew on his nerves. Unwilling to give up, he began swimming out of the hole but that's when a sharp pain struck the left fin.

[Health, -4 bars]

[Total health = 84/110]

With the aid of instinct, he instantly struck towards that side and felt that marvelous stinger, bashing against a bit of flesh. It was soft and portrayed a weak species, yet it didn't stop the little hero to unleash all venom against this one enemy.

[Dwarf moray-eel killed. 2 system points have been given to you as a reward]

[Since this is also a system given task, you get additional 2 points]

[Total system points = 139]

"This is pretty lucky." The little stingray celebrated, knowing that such a kill just made it a hunch easier to avoid getting his purchase options locked.

It felt like good progress, and the system tried to push luck even further by asking. [Your overall state of being is good enough to continue with task 16. Would you like to hear it out?]

Although it felt tempting, the best idea was to search for the hidden-tribe first, rather than to lose focus by trying out anything else.

So Tim answered, "Not now, remind me about it later."

And right after he recalled that the recent drops of health were worrying at least. So before aiming to get out of this hole, he queried. "What effects does this dwarf give?"

It felt nice to call someone a dwarf, although he wasn't sure just how small this eel was. Must be rather tiny considering that it gave just a couple of points. But now was not the time to tease a carcass, as he thoughtfully heard out the system.