I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 258: Numb

Before he could fully comprehend this rather new sound, the situation developed to a strongly unfavourable position. It reached to the point where he wasn't allowed to think anymore, as hostility was dripping from above.

He had to rely on other things instead, like pure instinct. It was this perk that had made him swiftly swim forwards, for the sake of avoiding whatever trouble was trying to poke its ugly head.

Thanks to the burst of energy, he had reached the very end of the tunnel; and smashed against its dirty wall a little bit, but thankfully that did not cause him any health loss.

The situation had developed for the worst in a matter of seconds, even though he was yet to understand how it happened.

Confusion regardless, the situation was still dire because most of the ceiling of this tunnel had fallen down! It had enveloped the little structure with dirt and rocks alike, but there was something else to it.

Timothy was pretty much stuck! His instinct had helped the hero get away from death itself, but it didn't help him to completely evade trouble.

All he could see in all directions was dirt. Thankfully neither portion of this chaos was directly crushing him, but he couldn't move around much either.

There were just a few small pockets of space, and that was why he could move a little bit. But that space was limited, all he could move were those dependable fins.

However, after coughing up a bit of dirt, he had a few seconds to comprehend this situation.

And the main question smashed against every wall of his consciousness, it was reverberating like a broken bell; Why did this happen?

The tunnel seemed stable before, even though it was unusually placed. There weren't any drastic movements that would force a tunnel to collapse, so how could this happen?

It was difficult to understand the root of this dilemma, but after a moment he managed to catch up.

Earlier on, Tim wasn't given much time to observe the whole tunnel, but there was one detail that he managed to recall just now ~ there were not any patches of silver in this tunnel, prior to the collapse!

So that helped achieve a firm definition of what could have happened. There wasn't a plot against the hero, there wasn't anything weird behind the collapse; just raw bad luck. This was the one thing he could make the most sense of.

After such particular thoughts could be put behind, another one began blooming at a faster pace. And it was yet another grand question he had to ask himself: how to get out of here?!

A tricky thing to figure out, that was for sure. But unfortunately, he wasn't given any time to think it over right now, because another dilemma came knocking.

In the midst of darkness that this collapse forced upon his eyes, a bright light began to shine, but that wasn't necessarily for the better.

It took a few blinks to push away the burn that this light caused to his eyes, but right now the hero wished that he was blind.

Because a thin and elongated creature was invading his personal space. After looking at the silvery features, it was easy to determine that this was one of those weird worms!

And before he could have done anything in particular, even if it was something minimalistic like moving a fin; the unfavourable happened.

Although a lot more sloppy in comparison to how fast they were before, this worm beamed towards Tim and entered his body! It didn't give the slightest damn if he approved it or not, but the topic of consent was not the most terrifying part of this sour fate.

He could feel that the worm was doing something weird inside his body, but the little stingray could not quite figure out what exactly this worm was doing.

Before the hero could understand even a tenth of what was going on here, another anxiety spiking situation revealed itself.

The very dirt walls around him, began shattering in all directions. And within a second, he could see light breaking in from several directions!

That and, his back began enduring pain as countless bits of dirt and rock were crashing against his spine. But thankfully it wasn't anything too extreme to handle.

[Health, -7 bars]

[Total health = 104/121]

After pushing through the dirt for the sake of escaping this madness, he noticed that this collapse had taken many other fish as a victim. Some weren't as tough as he was, it was noticeable because a few bodies didn't show the slightest sign of movement!

And as he gazed towards the ceiling of the cavern, it was easy to notice that trouble wasn't limited to what he had just experienced.

Because, another portion of the ceiling was falling down and it managed to cover a fourth of this whole cavern!

That and, it had taken tens of fish as a victim. The chances of surviving such a collapse were rather low, for fish who couldn't get bodily durability upgrades.

However! Since such a ruckus had struck the entire structure, it was easy to predict that higher-ups will storm the area just a few moments later.

And the last thing he wanted to do right now, was to face every important enemy that this place had to offer. His entire body felt numb, so chances were that he couldn't even face one of the enemies right now.

So the only idea that appealed him was to get the hell out of here, and hide. He would only emerge when he felt ready to face these grand enemies.

But there was one simple and yet horribly complicated problem, he could not move!

It was as if a curtain had surrounded his brain, which carried textiles that were impossible to break through!

In other words, all of his senses felt incredibly numb and it felt impossible to break out of such aftermath! And worse yet, a group of large eels were flocking the scene right now!