I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 205: Water's fabric

Such a statement, had forced the couple of friends to bulge their eyes open thanks to the pure emotion of shock! And one of these friends was feeling immense guilt regarding the whole situation.

That one was Tim. It was he who had dragged Osira along to that cavern before, that was a sore fact: even though it was not him who had bathed the lady in the pool of blue-tar.

Regardless of those numerous but yet massive details, it was obvious that this entire dilemma could have been avoided if the former blacktipped-grouper didn't tag along.

Within an instant, he swooped in the conversation and shouted. "What do you mean she will explode? Fix her you buffalo-necked moron!"

That was when Gerlach's face curled with various emotions, the primary one being fear. He peeked at the gold-fishes and tried to build up a sentence that would hopefully dig them out of trouble, but he inevitably failed.

The same leader of these ranchu fish, separated from the group and calmly approached the stingray who was brave enough to run his mouth. Her observation became more and more detail-oriented by the passing second, and a hint of satisfaction had eventually spread across her face.

Afterwards she added, "Do you really want me to fix your friend?"

Feeling that his personal space was being invaded, his pupils expanded with the aid of rage, and he lightly swam a bit higher for the sake of attaining some space.

Then, he immediately answered the question. "Yes, and fix her quickly."

Straight out of the blue, the latter decided to explain. "Do you know why our sect demands so many souls, for us to progress?"

"Because you want to invade everything?" He answered, and it made a whole lot of sense.

But the leader wiggled her head from left to right, disagreeing and then verbally contradicted. "No. It's because those who have already given their souls to the holy-tar, can't reproduce."

Clueless at this point, he asked. "What does 'reproduce' mean?"

As that question was asked, both the grouper and the shrimp had let out a loud sigh of dissatisfaction. Even the older one had recognized that this boy wasn't bright at all.

"We can't make babies." The leader firmly stated, and continued. "That's why we force a lot of fish to give up their souls, and those fish will afterwards just live to repeat the same thing against others."

More clueless than ever, and feeling that this conversation had been going on for too long now, he asked. "Okay? But how does this fix my friend?"

"I have the ability to instantly fix your friend, but that gift can't be given to just anyone, it has to be earned." The leader specified, feeling that she was attaining a superior position.

And before anyone else could speak, she continued. "If you do an... unusual task for the sect, I will fix your friend."

Unwilling to work for the enemy in any means necessary, but seeing this opportunity as a quick solution, he asked. "And what could that nonsense be?"

"You are a blue spotted ribbon-tail ray, we don't have much of your kind in our armies and we can use the venom you produce, to increase our rates of dominance. Right now you are able to reproduce, so that can be a way for you to pay the sect." Her way of explanation, felt dictator like, heavy at least.

And she didn't shy away with the rest of the deal, "We have thirty women of your species, who are ready to carry your babies."

The idea of mating with so many women, didn't sound so bad, especially when it came to feeding his ego. But the thought of helping the enemy just didn't sit right in the young man's noggin.

Just before the sea-pancake was about to reply, a shout echoed behind them. "Now!"

Before it was possible to comprehend just what the hell was going on, the young boy saw a ball of faintly coloured black-light, rupturing through the salty waters and landing right against the group of black ranchu gold-fishes!

Since these enemies were standing so close to each other, it was easy to hit all of them ~ and the strike was so impactful, that those fish had been blasted right back in the structure that held the holy tar.

Along with that type of impact, they could see chunks falling off the ceiling and landing on the tar, splashing its contents around. And within a few moments, a few bits of the tar made their way out of the pool.

Now typically it wouldn't be so easy for a liquid to splash around while being underwater, but the tar is heavier and thicker.

That was how a foot-wide quantity of tar, made its way towards Osira and covered a great portion of her body. At this point she felt like her fate was the worst here. Because in recent situations, everything that was labelled as unholy, had somehow always managed to touch her.

It was nerve wracking at least, but the pain that came along with this contact, had gotten most of her attention.

Before the only enemy could comprehend what just happened, Timothy curled his tail forward and tried to stab the enemy through its fat neck!

But it proved as a pale attempt, because the same leader had swiftly moved out of the way, and struck the hero with a tail slap that proved to be tremendously powerful.

The slap was so strong, that the hero was tossed a handful of meters upwards. But thankfully, his durability was great enough to withstand such damage. The system assured it by chipping in with a few notifications.

[Health, -7 bars]

[Total health = 72/110]

Gerlach had seen that massive strike, and noticed that the only surviving enemy would put in a second attempt to slaughter the stingray. That gave the old man all the motivation needed, to finally contribute in this battle.

That was why he leaped forward, with speeds that forced the water to whistle. Simply because the way he pierced through the waters, was gravity defying.

In less than half a second, he reached the black-coloured enemy and pushed his arms forward with the aim of landing a blow!

But at a pace that was faster in comparison to anything that the mantis shrimp could achieve, the enemy launched upwards and aimed for the sea-disk.

Her speed was so fast, that the very fabric of water that was all around her, tore in two for the sake of allowing this goldfish to pass through it. If one had any capabilities to catch a proper glimpse of such speed, they wouldn't be able to believe it!

But that was not the main problem. Because whatever could come with this attack, could be death ensuring!