I'm a Stingray?

Curiosity grew rapidly across the entire group. And it was fair to say that most of the team members shared a similar thought.

But Timothy was the most unapologetically shameless one to bring it up.

He peeked at the old man and asked, "Can you still attack anyone though? You know, with your signature speedy move?"

"That, I do not know." Gerlach was swift to admit.

And then he casually spoke out, "But we can figure that out rather easily, don't you think?"

Since she grew a bit nervous, Osira decided to state. "I'm not letting you get on my back. It was annoying before but now you could probably kill me!"

"Don't worry about that, I feel that my legs are capable on their own to follow along with this little test trial. But thank you for making things clear." The old man lightly teased.

And afterwards he turned away from the group, and narrowed his vision towards some blank portion of water.

To try out his signature move, the geezer had to swiftly slap his legs against the water, all at the same time!

In exchange this created an effect that pushed the two-foot long shrimp, straight forward with the aid of grand speed!

He travelled over a distance of fifteen meters, in almost a whole second!

Truly powerful, and he didn't even have to lay over a chunk of sand in order to achieve such results; he could only guess how powerful his jump would be, if it was done so.

As for now, the transformed mantis shrimp felt sure, that he had become more dangerous than ever.

He felt sure that any target would be obliterated if he crashed against it! And considering what this tunnel greeted them with so far, such a powerful leap would definitely prove useful!

Afterwards he leaped towards the group with that same speed, but of course he didn't want to harm them in the process ~ so he managed to slow down quite smoothly.

"Wow! You're like a shrimpy torpedo now!" Timothy shamelessly complimented.

"I have no idea what a torpedo is, but I'll assume it's something powerful. That would be the most agreeable thought, I almost feel like a god!" The geezer chattered.

The team were mostly used to his expansive expressions, so neither of them really minded it.

Instead one of them encouraged, "You are very strong now, it should help us leave this place alive."

Of course that fine individual was Dana, she never truly struggled to clap for someone else's progress.

But Gerlach unsurprisingly had other thoughts in mind, "I don't plan to get out of here before we figure out what made this hole, fine girl."

And afterwards he pointed out, "It would be exaggerated to flee right now! I can handle any enemy that crosses our ever beloved journey."

"I don't love this journey so far," Timothy pointed out.

"Hey guys sorry I'm late," Snoopy's tone illuminated a few meters away.

Afterwards he questioned, "Did I miss... wow! You're huge!"

Of course his attention was dotted towards the geezer. This sight would pique the curiosity of strangers and allies alike.

"Yes you missed a lot but that's not important," Gerlach swiftly brushed the topic off.

As for the stingray that joined them just now, well a moment before they met with that monstrosity of a gravel-fish, this young man was sent to check on the great-white shark.

They just wanted to feel safer, and such thoughts encouraged the procedure, of assuring that they weren't being followed.

Now that Snoopy had rejoined the team, the journey down this perplexing hole should be even safer.

But of course this whole recent fight had forced other topics to open. And this time Osira felt that she should be a bit more social.

At least enough to theorize, "Maybe another fish like that can make me stronger as well. I mean, both of our powers come from similar tar-pools anyway."

"No no no," The oldest surprisingly disagreed.

But then he rained a bit of sense across this objection, "I likely just have gotten a bit lucky, but you're a completely different species."

"So?" The younger questioned, as she couldn't exactly catch up.

Quite effortlessly Gerlach described, "So what helped me, could kill you. It's favorable if we play it safe, until we figure out more regarding this tar-infested madness."

Even though the whole team hated to admit it, this old fart made a rather firm point. So only a few nods were necessary for all of them to be on neutral terms.

And with the grand plan considered, the team continued their journey towards the deeper portions of this tunnel.

Just a bit earlier on, they had been taught that this place was not to be underestimated, the dangers really proved radiant.

So necessarily the whole team was on their highest senses. They wanted to be ready just in case another foul enemy crossed their path.

But once they dwelled a couple hundred meters under the sea-ground, they ran across quite a different scene.

Unsurprisingly most of them expected to battle yet another fish, but the scene in their disposal was utterly different in comparison!

They've met with an eye-catching crystal... Now on its own that shouldn't be exactly amazing, as they've seen a bunch of crystals in this tunnel so far.

But as mentioned a little earlier, this particular crystal was special; and necessarily more important.

Dana was the first to notice this unnatural piece of shining stone, and of course she decided to barge towards it for that very reason!

This crystal was another body-part of that green worm they've met in the close past!

She could practically smell the gem, and it was no surprise considering just how much such a stone was linked to her own body!

However, the prime reason why she dramatically rushed this time was because this crystal was huge!

Well not as huge in comparison to what they've seen in this tunnel so far, but the crystal was still huge.

It was block shaped, as if someone had put in specific effort to carve it in such a matter. As for dimensions, it stretched around half a meter on each side!

This is why Dana was so excited. She had attained powers from such green crystals before, but they were nothing but tiny shards.

And yet this shiny stone here was a few hundred times larger in comparison, and she was eager to figure out what the result would be!