I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 206: Godly tar

Timothy was still trying to catch up with the battle, and it was clear that the enemy was fast enough to use such stunning confusion to her utmost advantage. She had even gotten a bit more motivation to attack, and began swimming faster throughout that blink of an eye.

The hero was shaking his head to fight away the blur that came as an aftermath from that gruesome slap, but at the same time had his mouth slightly open. And that's when he felt something soft captivating the jaws jaws! Which forced the boy's mouth to open up a bit more.

In all ways, it hurt worse than hell considering that one's mouth was a body part that could produce irritating pain. It was even more confusing to think about how such pain: equaled to being dragged across the waters for a few meters.

[Health, -4 bars]

[Total health = 68/110]

Clearly something wasn't right, and he was yet to catch up on understanding what was going on. But when anything touched the sea-pancake's jaws, the prime instinct would be to counterattack it with a bite.

And that was what he did in an instant, and those level-3-jaws proved more than effective to deliver a bite that was strong enough to cause true damage. Although the whole situation was still confusing, he heard the system chip in with more notifications.

[Black ranchu goldfish killed. 2 system points have been given to you as a reward]

[This was a system given task, so you get an additional 2 points]

[Since this carcass is too powerful compared to anything of its kind, you get an additional 60 system points]

[Total system points = 120]

[This carcass is heavily contaminated, don't eat it!]

That was when he caught up with half of the situation. It became certain that such powerful attacks were landed by one little enemy. The reward seemed massive after considering that the actual task gave just a couple of points; but after a brief contemplation, it sounded somewhat logical.

After putting an attempt to shake away a bit of pain, he gave a peek towards Osira and was thankful that the lady floated in one piece.

He swam close to her and the geezer. The pain he was feeling, proved to be rather agitating. And since the boy had lost almost half of his health so far, it felt as if his entire body was hurting. As bits of pain here and there were building up to create mildly-severe agitation!

Regardless of such a dilemma, he still put in an attempt to communicate with these marine animals. "That was unexpected, are you two alive?"

It definitely was not a question he intended to ask, but concentration wasn't his trump card even while being good and healthy.

"We're alive, but we wouldn't have been if Osira didn't kill all of those fish in one go." Gerlach answered, his tone striking casual although it was a well intended praise.

She pushed that compliment aside and focused on something else, "Now I know why they're called gladiators."

Proving once more that he was well informed, the geezer explained. "Gladiators are used to assert dominance in new territories. A few of them could wipe out all of the opponents that this reef had, or used to have."

The black-grouper then instantly asked, "How do you know so much about the holy-tar sect?"

"I've been stalking them for the past three years." He answered with the greatest hint of causality one could find.

And then felt confident enough to add, "I know a lot about them, enough to filter out a few lies that the ranchu-leader told you. That manipulative prune!"

"Uh, so I won't explode?" That was the thought that bothered the good lady a lot so far, further references would be worshipped at this point.

And Gerlach grasped the criteria that was required to answer such a complicated and sensitive question.

Although his face curled with hesitancy, he was still able to answer. "Well yes you can explode, but there are a few ways to avoid it. That gladiator leader didn't say anything about these other ways."

"How come she hid the solutions?" The grouper asked and almost could answer her own question a few seconds after, but couldn't quite get to the point.

Becoming a bit tired of explaining things, with a brief sigh, the mantis shrimp answered. "She wanted your stingray boyfriend there, isn't it obvious?"

"He's not my boyfriend!" The latter shouted, wanting to smack the shrimp to the point of making him a portrait on the coral.

One would be offended by such wordplay. But even though he was the side topic between their conversation, Tim had barely heard what the deal was. Instead the young man was solely focused on finding food that would raise health, the pain was becoming more and more unbearable by the passing second.

Regardless of such behaviour, it allowed for the former conversation to continue. It was fair to say that anxiety was raising the more this old man spoke, because only more questions had erupted.

"How can I save myself?" This felt like a weird question.

She never had thought that life would lead to asking it. At the same time, it pushed her towards other thoughts of the past, towards a time when life was simpler.

As if almost avoiding the question, Gerlach crawled towards where the tar used to be and mumbled through a sentence that failed to make any sense. Upon figuring out that the girl did not understand him, the old man put a second attempt to explain.

Specifically, he recited. "What splashed your face was something that this sect recognizes as 'godly tar', it's rather important."

Afterwards he reached towards a little portion of it, that had broken out of the pool's boundaries and took a light sip of it. Such a scene was bizarre at least, but thankfully it didn't bring any aftermath whatsoever.

If one would have the opportunity to check, they would notice that any small hint of green-light on the old man's eyes had completely disappeared. Most definitely unique, but thankfully he was willing to continue the explanation after noticing that the grouper was still confused.