Stingray x Stingray battle!

Tim and the rest of the team eventually noticed that a couple of stingrays were missing. When someone was underground for more than five minutes, it was inevitable to notice their absence.

Tim got extremely paranoid in response, and guessed that those two stingrays (Bob and Knob) were either dead, or they had found the roots, and were hogging them! His paranoia was valid, as for example, he couldn’t really trust a couple of fish that he had met just moments ago, it wasn't logical.

With that said, he began exploring the area more thoroughly, and was amped with anxiety throughout the whole time. He stopped being stingy about mana for once, and charged his tail with both fire and thunder, all for safety's sake! He didn't want to get pounced on, but if someone attacked him, then they'd have to deal with a bit of a rash from his side.

The rest of the stingrays were on high alert too, but unfortunately, one of them ran into the main problem. A sudden, soul-shaking explosion hinted so!

The explosion was muffled by the waters, but its quake and little shockwave was still noticeable. Everyone closeby felt it, and now everyone was clearly in trouble, regardless of what the source of the explosion was!

Tim was just slightly relieved, however, he said. "Thank god that explosion didn't happen around my ass! I don’t wanna be deep fried, it's not a manly way to go! Or maybe it is? I don't care, they can call me a woman if they want, but I will do whatever it takes to survive!"

His feelings were in a bit of a twist, more than a pair of underwear would ever be, he was stressed. However, the main issue remained; Something exploded!

It only took a moment to locate the source, as it was hard to miss something so harsh. Tim spotted a gust of stirred, sand-dust, and figured that it was where the explosion came from. He was correct.

What scared him shitless afterwards, was that a stingray swam freely within the dust. Judging from its agile movements, that stingray was the culprit behind this explosion! Its confidence also suggested so.

Regardless of how it was the culprit, Tim did not want to approach it. He had handled tougher opponents before, yes, but this situation was different, as he could be in greater danger. Tim was almost sure that this confident stingray had found the mana roots, and went absolutely insane as a result!

That aside, it was difficult to predict just how powerful the stingray was right now, and it was also a dumb idea to experiment with this question. He didn’t want to fight.

Moments later, he heard Ortana's voice from behind him. She yelled out as much as a stingray could, and tried to guide Tim for the better. It was difficult to ignore her.

She yelled out, "Let's get out of here, Thomas… erg, Timeeth? Whatever your name was, let's fucking flee!"

"No shit, I'm right behind you." He muttered.

Afterwards, he took a sharp U-turn, and started swimming away. Speed was to his advantage, thankfully, as with the flaming fins ability alone, he could swim up to 6 km/h!

Tim outswam Ortana in mere seconds that way, because she didn’t have any speed-amping abilities. He did not want to look back after this point, but seconds later, he heard a couple of other explosions, which then forced him to decide between two options; He either had to turn back and preserve what was left of the group, or, he could use every point of mana to flee!

Survival suggested the latter, but within this pocket of seconds, he decided to pick the former. He had to help those few stingrays, because they couldn’t help themselves, as they were practically powerless! It was cruel to leave them behind.

Tim turned around, and faced the dangers head on. He didn’t want to be heroic, but instead, he depended on his abilities quite a lot right now, and knew that he could buy everyone some time.

However, as he turned around, a couple more explosions erupted, a few meters in front of him. That aggressive, power-amped stingray had not been shooting randomly, no! Rather, it had targeted and shot at everyone in its close sight!

With that said, most of the group of stingrays had been wiped out already, which meant that Tim had turned around to face the dangers, for nothing! The murderous stingray had tried to kill Ortana as well, but she was on the better side of luck. She swam through the aftermath of the recent explosions, and once she saw Timothy swimming the opposite direction, she couldn’t help but panic!

She yelled out, “Where the hell are you going, Terence?”

Ortana never really got his name right, but this was not the time to bicker about it. Once he assessed the situation properly, Timothy thought of yet another plan, right on the spot, which may help save both him and Ortana. He knew that this lady couldn’t swim fast enough, and judging from the explosive powers that the opponent was flashing, Tim wouldn’t be able to swim that far either.

With that considered, he headed directly towards the threat, and aimed to eliminate it. By doing so, he believed that he was also protecting the rest of the blistering mana sect, from a power-mad stingray! Every aspect of this situation forced him to be heroic about the threat at hand.

Tim maneuvered through the dust, in a way where he used it as a cover. He hid within the sand-dust for a while, until he got very close to the destructive stingray. He found the target’s blind spot, and aimed to use it, however, the said target suddenly turned around, and started shooting!

All of a sudden, he saw a water-resistant fireball heading towards him! Tim’s response was instant, he swam directly upwards, and just like that, he evaded the one-meter wide fireball! His evasion was effective, however, he did not want to wait around for another fireball to sizzle the waters, no.

Tim charged directly towards the target, and used two of his powers to speed up. His flaming fins ability helped him speed up, and his blood freezing ability did the same, but its icy attributes also helped bring some balance within the boiling water! Tim had a safe-ish little trip!

“I don’t care what level you are, you’re going down!” Tim muttered.

He reached the target in a blink, and despite how expensive it was, he decided to use many kinds of magic all together, in order to deal as much damage as he could!

Tim decided to use his rotter bite. He managed to bite the target right across the back, and since the target was only a bit bigger than him, the bite turned out to be effective, and expansive!

He also managed to freeze the target’s blood, throughout that short, split second. With both of these attacks combined, the target died off just moments later!

Then, the system announced. [You just spent 62 points of mana, just to win 20 system points in exchange… I have to agree that it was worth it, since you killed a power-amped stingray, but it was expensive.]

“Yup, I killed a stingray… one of my own kind. It's nothing to be proud of.” Tim muttered, he felt terrible about that.