I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 113: Arrogance

"Well, I did." Tim reminded, since such a fact seemed to be ignored by the masses here.

Irritation was evident in his tone throughout a highly pitched projected demand, "Since I survived, the hell am I supposed to do now? The deal was to just kill that fat warrior!"

"Uhhh... that was a part of the deal." The speaker tried to excuse, noticing himself as wrong but hella unwilling to accept it.

Unwilling to be tricked as he had grand-examples from the past of how much a simple trick can accelerate if it's allowed to build up ~ the words that escaped the young man's jaws after were, best said agitated.

He started it off with, "You know that's a really dumb thing to do right?"

At that portion Tim was almost quoting the speaker, mocking him actually. But didn't want to stop there either, so he continued. "You can't just trick anyone who comes down here, especially someone who can destroy you!"

Unwilling to let go of rage, dialogue became a bit more open since no other shrimp could speak the language. "I have no idea what shitty tradition this tribe has but this isn't fair. If I sense even the slightest danger, all of you will die!"

That portion was fairly exaggerated, both of them were aware although the speaker didn't bother to fight the idea. Instead he answered, "What you want to do is up to you. But now let me explain how this is going to play out."

Letting out a bubble of sigh, the sea pancake decided to give in. "You will tell me. But you will tell me everything, I don't want to encounter anything that you haven't told me about."

"Fair enough." The speaker answered and thought it through for a few seconds as he was leading the winner deeper towards the tunnel.

After a half minute, he explained. "See there are 37 tribes here but there is a king who makes the final decision for this whole community."

Not quite sure what the point here was, he questioned. "So?"

Willing to talk about it, especially with a fish who seemed to be capable, the white one continued. "You need to convince the king regarding why it is a good idea for a tribe to follow you."

Feeling that this can play out badly, the sea disk questioned with an awkward eye. "And if I can't?"

Heeding the threat from earlier, the speaker answered. "He will probably have you hunted or enslaved."

And this made the boy feel half depressed. Just earlier he thought that this decision won't have any bad results be it now or in the future. But somehow, he has gained high chances of offending a king whose command was valued by 37 tribes.

He couldn't help but internally cussing the speaker for keeping in so much information. If Timmy knew all of this, he could have backed out and searched for better places that can live in the reef. This tribe felt almost barbaric, the traditions sound crazy.

...

Timothy had really underestimated how big this community is. He had followed the speaker down the tunnel which took paths left and right, offered other ways to go even, and continued towards such a pace for nearly 100 meters.

Through such a swim, he had seen at least a couple thousand white-legged shrimp. This felt inevitably bizarre as he was used to the lack of life that the reef was cursed with.

This situation made the boy think just how life-filled and at the same time dangerous, would the reef be if it shared even half the pace of life that was found here.

Such thoughts were bashed away soon as the speaker announced, "We have reached the king's lair. Are you ready to meet him?"

Feeling the pressure of that very question, he took a few seconds before shortly answering. "Yes, sure."

Right after that answer, the white-legged communicator raised one of his limbs to gesture a few other of the same species, who seemingly were standing guard here.

About 10 shrimps lined up and began pushing a foot wide rock out of the way, whom was attached to the wall and acted as a blockade for a tunnel. Likely used to prevent most animals from getting in or out.

Swooping through it with little effort, they made it into a room that stretched 30 feet wide in a circular matter and a species bigger than anyone else in this entire community, was standing firm on a flat and clean-textured rock that stretched only a couple of feet long.

Surprisingly, the first words this species spoke of was a language that Tim could understand. "What have you done to be blessed with giving me a visit?"

From that first question it was clear how big and strong this species felt, arrogance was even evident in his tone. It only took a glance for Tim to realise that this was some species of shrimp.

What struck different however, was the species' skin and size. Half of this marine animal's skin was covered with red that behaved much like scarcely spread river branches ~ but the colour white still managed to cover more than half of his body. Bizarre no doubt but it has to be of the same species with everyone else here or at least a species very close to that.

His half meter size felt tad overwhelming so it took Tim a few seconds before he answered. "I have killed one of your toughest warriors."

Towards such an answer: everyone, even the speaker, broke into a heartfelt laughter.

He was confused before the King assured, "Trust me, you couldn't have killed any of my toughest warriors."

Looking around, he believed it. There were shrimp that were a bit bigger than the very lady he had just killed. These ones however, somehow appeared to be a bit more muscular.

So he didn't fight the idea since it would likely equal to battling all 16 of the shrimp in this room. Instead, he remained with the prime plan, his tone stood casual. "I have killed the toughest warrior in one of your tribes, therefore I demand to bring the same tribe back to the reef!"