I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 140: Food situation, light (2)

The hump on the enemy's back represented a powerful and almost strained posture. But most importantly, it gave a hint of familiarity. Once one of these bastards got too close, its long and disordered horrific jaws helped remember even better.

"An anglerfish!" Timothy yelled out for the others to be alarmed, while for himself the young one had dashed to the right.

Seeing that its target had been completely missed, the enraged anglerfish continued charging forward and bashed its ugly teeth right on one of the lobsters who was crawling in, yet to understand what was going on.

A howl filled with pain and agony echoed from the same lobster, and the young hero wanted to help but figured that 48 marble shrimp are more than able to deal with a fish that was admittedly smaller than them.

So he lured in focus towards the other bright colourless lights that were raging up and down the cavern. It didn't take much effort to notice that another one of these fast-moving menaces was charging directly towards the little stingray.

Still unwilling to know what it was like to be bitten by one of these hump-backs, the boy slapped his fins harshly against the water that was floating underneath and managed to propel himself upwards with elegantly brutal speed. The hero's body strength being upgraded earlier, proved quite useful for such a case.

The anglerfish ended up following a straight path although the target had far been lost. Meanwhile Tim was putting in all of his speed to charge against another enemy, who was blankly pacing left and right at full speed.

Just in time he had managed to reach the target and latch on right on the hump. It inevitably made the enemy holler in pain, but the pace didn't slow down which led to the little sea pancake being dragged along with the momentum: stuck on the enemy's hump.

This was no new experience to the boy so he just put in a bit more effort to tighten those jaws and inflict a bite through and through. Which ended up being inevitably successful!

The sea-disk got detached from the enemy, even carrying a chunk of its flesh in his mouth. And after getting a grip of orientation, he glared at the enemy whom had just received the wound and noticed how it had stopped swimming.

Instead it was struggling to move, even if it was a foot from the starting point. As a pale attempt of fighting the pain enemy, this injured menace was violently shaking left and right which wasn't so effective. On the contrary it managed to push more blood out of its system, coating the surrounding area with it.

This one's fate is certain, but one particular fact was that its lightbulb was still working. And twisting left and right was an eyesore, but also provided light to a bigger area than usual. As a final result, the young hero managed to figure out what was causing those crawling noises in the very beginning.

Timmy was far away from the former spot, where he had heard these same noises for the first time, but the point was still valid. Underneath the dying fish were a large group of marble shrimp, it only required a brief inspection to figure out the species.

Typically these marine critters aren't so fulfilling as a meal, but there has to be around 5,000 of the same species although the area they covered was barely 5 meters!

If one wouldn't see this with their own eyes, it would seem unrealistic. Because so many shrimp fitting in under such a small area of space, it just didn't sound right! But one has to remember that each of these species were around 4 centimeters long. So what is logically seen as impossible was all the more possible.

"I don't think anyone will be hungry for a while." Timothy thought out and realised that there might be more than one group of these shrimp, especially since there was a hole right next to the pack which might lead to another section of the tavern.

But now was not the time to properly think about this. He gave a peek at the other side of the battle and noticed that the couple of anglerfish whom had tried to attack him before, weren't shining their lights brightly anymore.

It could only mean that the lobsters had managed to win the battle, it would be embarrassing if they didn't, considering that they were bigger in size and had superior numbers.

As he was about to turn around and face the couple of remaining hump-back anglerfish, a sharp pain managed to make itself evident right on the left fin.

[Health, -5 bars]

[Total health = 69/110]

"That's a lousy bite." He celebrated, being completely aware of whom had inflicted the damage.

But the enemy wasn't letting him go. It's jaws had managed to break the surface of the skin but this made the young hero think that those teeth were just for show. These vile teeth didn't even manage to bite through and through flesh.

Instead out of anger, the enemy was shaking left and right which in exchange managed to cause a few extra cuts.

[Health, -2 bars]

[Total health = 67/110]

Unwilling to wait and see that bar drop down any longer, even if it was a single point ~ so with a flinch, his barb perked upwards and to the left, managing to puncture half of the tail through the enemy. Finally, he unleashed all of the venom that this marvelous barb possessed.

Unwilling to let this go with just one sting, the young one pulled his tail out and then bashed it in again although it didn't contain any venom this time. This attack was repeated a few times before this foul beast finally decided to give in and released the hero's fin.

By now he had noticed a key fact. Although of the same species, these anglerfish were probably half the size of the mutated old hag who wanted their souls. It was difficult to miss this part, these enemies were just a foot long.

[You've killed 2 hump-back anglerfish. 40 system points have been given to you as a reward]

[Total system points = 130]

The system was always right when it came to this type of announcements, so it was only a good idea to focus on the only remaining enemy.

Turning to the left, he noticed the only light in this cavern, getting closer in horrific speed that for once managed to cause a chill down his spine.