I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 209: Collector

"Why are you eyeing me, man?" Snoopy asked after noticing that the other had locked eyes with the boy's body.

"Your powers seem amazing." The latter answered immediately, ultimately revealing what he was muttering until now.

For a few seconds, the little stingray was trying to figure out how a stranger would know about something like that. But a brief ray of contemplation after, he managed to remember that his entire body had changed and looked like a small metal fortress.

So the only thing he could answer was, "Well thank you."

Since such a small awkward chat was pushed out of the way, Timothy could now ask. "How many tribes have you destroyed so far?"

"Three I think." Snoopy answered and closed his eyes, feeling rather confident with that achievement.

"You killed all those sect-fishes alone? Fascinating!" Gerlach swooped in once more with a worthy praise.

"Easy for someone as skillful as I." The praised one answered, wanting to sound equally smart in terms of wordplay.

Although what the shrimp had just said, sounded like genuine bits of words, the old man had different views. He looked at this boy as if seeing a guinea pig, especially since such powers were related to the holy-tar in a rather direct way.

Of course the geezer did not want to harm any of these fish in the circle, but observing them was great in terms of learning more and more about the tar.

After thinking things through for a little while, Tim pitched. "Let's get to the hidden den, we will wait for the others there."

With that idea in mind, they swam towards the structure and squeezed through its long tunnel after being greeted by a dungeness crab. Since the place seemed intact, it was clear that these crabs proved to be excellent guards around here!

Once they got down there, what greeted them were tens of friendly faces who admired the little blue-dotted hero the most.

Snoopy had gotten a few weird glances, but once he began speaking, most inhabitants could recognize the boy and they stopped locking their eyes on his body, for the sake of respect. Rather interesting to see, that fish could have such a level of etiquette.

After being greeted by a few of these marine animals, Snoopy decided to crack open a topic that carried a grand level of importance, but was also rather sensitive to touch. It might wreck the comfort they gained here, but it had to be spoken of.

Although a bit hesitant, he introduced an idea. "I was thinking about revenge my wonderful brother, we need to kill some enemies that are in our far past by now."

His way of dialogue was a tad weird at the moment, but it was because the topic was heavy. Although he was like a swimming chunk of metal now, anxiety could still envelop the boy's mind so he began stammering at a limited extent.

The brother in question, was as clueless as ever, which was why he had to ask. "Which enemies? Harold and Drake are both dead, they got what was coming to them."

The metal-boy's face was twitching thanks to the prime reason of discomfort, but he still managed to answer. "I'm talking about the ones that killed our parents along with most of our siblings."

Timothy could not even pretend that he had a connection with his stingray parents. What he knew for sure, was that him and they were connected by blood, but that was about it. He didn't even remember them, so it was difficult to care about what he could not visualize.

But he did care about these few siblings he had, so it only sounded logical to make sure they could attain the marvelous feeling of revenge. Yet he didn't want to give too much pressure towards such an idea, so he wanted to brush the situation off lightly.

Therefore he questioned, "They were sharks right? Even Patty could spank them to death, as long as you remember where they have killed our family."

"I remember it." The latter answered and could finally give out a sigh of relief.

The conversation was where he wanted it to be, so the hero assured. "Okay then we will kill them soon. But for now, let's make sure that the sect doesn't kill the entire reef."

It was reasonable, and the silence that was shown by the same boy who pitched the idea of revenge, gave a hint of approval. Hunting sharks didn't seem like a big problem now, considering that each sibling was stronger than the other.

"About that, I saw something very weird this morning." A feminine tone sounded in the background.

After lending a pair of eyes towards the voice, they saw that it was Amie the needlefish. It felt a bit weird to look at this lady now since in a previous battle, the sea-disk had slaughtered a few fish of the same species but that emotion had to be suppressed right now.

Yet it became a tad transparent, that the comfort in this den could not be enjoyed for a long while. Such a thought was discouraging but he didn't plan to shy away from any task.

So a question was swiftly asked, "What did you see?"

"Uh... that's kinda hard to explain." Amie cited, and began feeling a bit of stress while searching for the right words.

Seeing that everyone was waiting for her to speak, she finally added. "I want to say that it was a fish, but fish aren't supposed to be so big and small at the same time. They aren't supposed to turn into sand."

All of their eyes bulged wide open in shock, but Gerlach unleashed the strongest reaction by muttering. "What would be the most grand way to react to this... uhhh, well shit."

Within a few seconds, a whole lot of emotions had circled around the hero's mind but after hearing out the geezer, a bit of the burden was blown off his shoulder.

And the crave for curiosity made him ask, "Do you know anything about this?"

"Oh dear, oh no." The shrimp cited while syncing towards a fair amount of panic.

"What what what?!" Timothy questioned as anxiety grew stronger.

"The sect is taking the next step to conquer this reef, they have sent out a collector!" He shouted but also noticed that most could not understand the severity of this advance.

So before anyone could ask any dumb and obvious questions, he instantly added. "A collector comes and harvests all souls that were given to the tar, and with them he creates stronger fish who would guard this territory!"

"Uh that sounds bad, can we kill it?" Such a question was asked right away, and it played great importance.

"You might have a chance to kill it." The geezer added, but wanted to brush away that thought for later.

Instead he focused on explaining, "The collector needs food to survive, but it can only eat anyone who had gained powers from the tar, not those who have given their souls to it!"

"Well shit." The blue-dotted hero spoke out under his breath.

Because from the clear looks of it, the most powerful enemy that this reef had seen, can only be taken down by him alone. When this problem was introduced, he felt confident that this enemy could be easily taken down with the aid of Snoopy; but now it was made clear that such backing was not an option.

"Dana had gone to check what it was." The needlefish added, and such a bit of information had managed to raise the discomfort levels through the den's ceiling.

Within a blink of an eye, the sea-pancake shouted. "What?! How could you let her go out there!"

"I can't control what that big girl does!" Amie replied for the sake of defending her own name.

"Shit shit shit shit shit!" The hero repeated countless times under his breath, and charged towards the exit.

Dana was one of the first stingrays he had met, who didn't show any form of hostility but gave out great vibes and loyalty instead of anything bad. It was somewhat understandable that he didn't want that lady dead.

Snoopy was about to follow him, but a woman's tone thundered before that could be done. "You heard what this shrimp said, the collector can eat you."

This lady was one of the diamond stingrays, very powerful and large in their own respected league; but what they shone more with, originated around loyalty.

Likewise, she nodded towards her couple other friends and stated. "We will help your brother, the rest of you stay here."

As they rushed out of the den as well, the mantis shrimp glanced at Osira who was swimming in circles out of stress, and wanted to put in attempts to calm her down.

That was why he cited, "Don't sweat it, your boyfriend is skilled."