Chapter 342: Dirty fish, and the ruins it called home.
It was fair to say that the team had simply dwelled quite deep in confusion.
Sure it wasn't a big surprise to find a statue here, since this entire place was an oddity of nature itself.
But this piece of stone featured a detailed form of a stingray!
The details were just beyond accurate. A fish couldn't have carved such a masterpiece, and even a human wouldn't stand a chance.
Timothy tried to figure out how this thing was made, but his focus was reaped by a slight movement.
Something wiggled on the corner of the hero's eyes, and it simply begged for attention.
It was no secret that this entire cavern lied in ruin. So obviously there was a lot of sand and dirt, which covered a massive portion of this structure.
A portion of that same bit of mud, jerked up from the ground!
Before the team could understand what happened, this same bit of dirt formed itself into a one-foot wide ball.
This ball seemed flawless and polished, but that was not the oddest part of the sight.
As that same floating bit of dirt, swiftly transformed itself into what seemed like the figure of a fish.
So undoubtedly this scene seemed extraordinary, even in comparison to what they've seen so far.
"I'm getting sick and tired of these weird ass fish," Timothy complained.
And then shouted, "Is this entire place magical? How can dirt turn into a fish!"
Although his expressionist points were crude, the young man made quite a bit of sense.
Every species that they have met here, doesn't share a relation with anything that the outside world offered.
Sure the team wanted to understand how all of this was possible, but everything just seemed too fictional.
This odd formation of dirt seemed to disregard the stingray's banter, as it simply chose to approach this confrontment differently.
It launched itself towards the sea-pancake, and changed in form through that process.
Just a moment ago, this darned thing seemed like a one-foot long, plain brown shaded fish.
But now its size had quadrupled, and it had transformed into a large mimicry of a toothless mouth!
Although Timmy wasn't nearly ready for a battle, he could easily figure out a way to get out of trouble.
All it took was a slap against the water with the aid of his fins. The boy propelled a meter upwards within the blink of an eye!
In exchange this enemy could only kiss some salty water for a second or two, before it picked another target!
Snoopy was the least aware in this situation, so he ended up clashing with this darned weird fish.
His first instinct was to charge towards the enemy. Such a reaction made sense, as his skin was literally made out of dependable metal ~ bold aggression seemed reasonable.
He wanted to pierce through this opponent, but met with a different fate instead!
This representation of a dirt-coated, four-foot wide mouth, swallowed the stingray whole!
Now it would be impossible for this stomachless creature to eat the boy, but the actual result was not less horrific!
Once this creature swallowed Snoopy whole, it leaped away from his body and left a solid aftermath.
In other words, the brave stingray's skin had been turned into stone!
And from the clear looks of it, he wasn't quite able to move either. So this situation has undoubtedly escalated away from their favour.
Timothy tried to figure out a way to attack this thing, but he didn't feel confident with the options he picked out.
Azelaq's scream had not worked against even a single creature, ever since they entered the massive tunnel in the beginning.
So such an attack wouldn't prove of use in this situation. That was why he had to rely on other ranged shots.
It clearly was a dumb idea to touch this darned enemy, so he tried to figure out a way around that aided survival.
He peeked towards the stone statue of his brother which had crashed against the ground, and a worry struck against his skin.
Timothy surely hoped that his brother was okay. But if a metal-coated fish couldn't break out from, what seemed to be a layer of rock? Then this situation could spiral far beyond their control!
So he locked eyes with this enemy again, and tried to figure out the best way to assert dominance against this ancient, psychopathic piece of dirt.
He slapped the waters a couple of times, and flung himself backwards just to buy himself a bit of space.
And then Timmy charged towards the enemy, once he noticed that it was heading his way as well.
Since the battle played out to his favour for a quick second, the hero smirked and felt ready to deliver his end of the bargain.
So after a bit of a clench, his body spiraled across the waters, which as always required a lot of muscle work.
His tail acted as a tool he could use for balance, as it was both long and could move around upon will.
That fact made the hero feel like a tiny plane, but at least he had balance through this horizontal spiral-charge!
The waters in front of him embraced a small spiral, and within a split second he managed to create a thin air tunnel.
The air trapped within this tunnel, reaped blue-particles out of its watery walls, in order to build up the key portion of this attack!
A light-blue mist erupted out of the thin, air-tunnel afterwards! But this time it was bigger than anything he had achieved before.
The mist spread like a shiny void, at about three-feet wide!
Unsurprisingly, the enemy ended up swallowing most of the mist; and in exchange allowed the hero to escape unscathed.
Timmy managed to fling himself out of the way, but felt happy that his attack was nothing less but a direct hit!
This illusion won't kill the enemy, but it aided the team since it gave them a few extra seconds to think.
As even magical-looking dirt shouldn't prove itself hazardous, if it twirled around in place like some drunkard.
Yet contrary to all expectations, this darned thing swam away from the mist for a second, and then changed its route.
There were no hints of disorientation in its fast-paced swim, and that fact was simply terrifying!
The hero felt as if he was stripped out of options at this point, and for once wanted to depend on his friend for help.
Dana seemed to have figured that wish out.
As under a mumble she assured, "I figured you out now, dirty fish."