I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 118: Visitors

Although he feels weird about killing simple elderlies, he was no stranger to murder in this world - as the prime rule still stands, kill or be killed.

So with the bit of guilt put aside, his face synced into a smirk and approaching these shrimp for the sake of intimidation, was the second step. "Thing is, I'm not asking either of you what to do with my shrimp. I am the king!"

Sure he wasn't nearly connected with this community to consider them close to the heart, but a point had to be proven and it proved tad effective. The team of elderlies were slightly shaking in anger and couldn't stomach how such a simple and small being had become a king!

An old man from behind decided to point out a discomfort, yelling. "Your shrimp? You've been here for an hour!"

Unwilling to budge, the young hero shook his head mild abruptly and contradicted. "A title is a title and if your community is any worth being around, all of you will respect my decision!"

He easily sensed that everyone wanted to object this decision and the debate would be rather long as there were 37 elders here whom each could add a thought of their own, even if those thoughts compliment each other and can feel repetitive.

Unwilling to give them the opportunity, he indirectly laid down a challenge. "I understand that my title can be stolen with a battle. So if you think my authority is stupid then by all means, try to take my title away."

A few elders craved to indulge into battle although their tiny bones have far been rendered useless for such an intent. Some were healthier than the others, but regardless of the crave, in the end it all comes down to what they could actually do, which was nothing.

It was easy to understand who was the strongest warrior here, the king had died on this young man's fins and logically, there won't be any other shrimp strong enough to put up a battle.

So instead of fighting, the loudest elder began crawling out of the room and the others were short to follow. One by one they made it out while the last, whom carried longer antennas than most, stopped on his spot a bit before reaching the exit.

Turning around, it felt necessary for this old man to add a reminder of importance. "Our ex king was a pain in the ass but he knew how to keep our community safe. I'm sure you will do the complete opposite."

"Understand that if the trip to this reef of yours, anyhow equals to hundreds of deaths for our shrimp kind, our tribes will be obliged to hunt you down. I don't think you could handle 5,000 shrimp, your majesty." Afterwards the elderly man crawled right out and focused on managing the tribe that was making way towards the exit, over 100 meters away.

"I actually managed to pull it off." The sea pancake celebrated and brushed off every threat as unimportant. What could these shrimp do? Swim above sand and follow him around?

...

At first he didn't want to leave the lair. His health had dropped a bit through the recent battles so the opportunity to think it deeper had been granted.

Gaining health would be the best opportunity for the sake of increasing his own odds against whatever the future might contain. And quite frankly he was surrounded by species who could grant health.

But a couple of things stopped him from using the resources. First and foremost, it would tarnish his reputation that was already tarnished, if he was caught hunting and munching on any of the white-legged shrimp here.

Second and perhaps the least important, his stomach was still full of food and fitting in another shrimp would be rather difficult although these species were bland.

After a while longer he thought it the best idea to simply push forward and leave the roomy den he was rather fond of. Sure this massive home belonged to an asshole of a king but it was still nice. He could feel the instinctive side of the brain, favouring this room.

But still it was time to leave it, especially since the commotion out of the lair became far less active. It was transparent that they had followed the order.

Yet again a tone managed to captivate his ear holes, it was easy to determine what the next step should be as the interjector had stated. "This place really is empty. I wonder what could have made those dumb shrimp abandon it? This place is amazing."

In all ways, this itself didn't signify hostility but it demanded an awkward eye against whomever said it.

After taking a peek at the right, Timothy spotted a group of fish whom laid out familiar body forms. It only took a slight thought to remember that these were needlefish.

Their body form isn't so easy to mistake and once one of them saw the little hero, a rough male tone shouted out. "Looks like someone is living here after all."

"Doesn't look like a challenge, we can just kill him and claim this place as our own." At this point, it has been made transparent of how friendly this species was.

The cute little sea disk had met needlefish before but they weren't nearly as hostile. And from the looks of it, this pack counted 7 of them.

The biggest of the group charged straight forward and thanks to his advanced vision, Tim could see the very water avoiding friction and failing to hold the enemy back as it's slim body pierced through the salty waters.

Considering how firm the tip of its nose was remaining, it was easy to figure out what was close to being clashed as a weapon, in this conflict that had taken root swiftly and was accelerating into a battle.

The enemy was at least half a meter long which naturally meant that more strength would be brought to the table, once considering size.

Timmy had never fought a needlefish before, but if an idea had to be tried out against them, now was the best time to do so!