13 The great introduction!

The task was clear, Timmy somewhat understood what he needed to do, and motivation grew the more he thought about it.

So as he tried to squeeze through the exit to meet the real world, the first thing that greeted the boy's vision was a sardine who had entered the meter-long tunnel. It had sunk deep enough to block the path; but could also give the sea-pancake a kiss on the forehead.

"Are you lost little fella? Just move away so I can get out, then you can go down in my den here because it is rent free hehe." Tim crackled, obviously joking around but thankfully the fish wasn't answering back.

Within a few mumbles, he partially expressed. "I don't know your sardine language and you don't know mine either. That's okay, but you need to get out of my way you water kisser."

And then he charged with a bit of force through the tunnel, but slammed again the sardine a little bit too. The creature wasn't dead but a bit of dominance had been asserted with the aid of such force.

After finally making it through the tunnel, he spotted that the sardine cloud had utterly overwhelmed the area. Whatever they're looking for, it seemed weird and at this case rather annoying.

He couldn't exactly see anything, and swimming around randomly could most definitely get him lost. Not that the den he acquired was super fancy and such, but he had piled up a month's worth of emergency food down there.

He peeked at his den's entrance and began contemplating decisions a tad bit. It became a tad difficult to decide if he should wait the storm out, or sync into this cloud for the sake of opportunities.

While thinking it through, he saw that a few sardines slipped into his den. They will prove perfect as extra points soon enough, but there was one perspective that had taken root in his mindset and now it was blooming into a bigger size.

And in this case it managed to give out motivation, as he decided. "I have to get stronger, my enemies must die!"

The crave for revenge definitely spiked and overwhelmed a lot of emotions, but fear was still there. A grand emotion to say at least, because it was taking root in his consciousness like any other strong emotion.

Therefore he could somewhat reason, "What if I meet another barracuda?"

Yet again, emotions weren't exactly tamed; so before he could have made a proper decision, over-confidence came knocking in.

Which led towards a different idea, "Ha, I can kill another one! Those long-boys will give me a lot of points."

This was a tad delusional way of thinking, because moments ago he was scared to death due to fighting the same species, that he considered as nothing at the moment. But he was just fishing for ideas to embrace the seahorse-hunting task.

One thing that aided in terms of motivation, was spotting the sunlight that was unleashing its beams right on top of this fishy storm.

Its beams cascaded through the gaps that each group of sardine provided, when they swam even remotely away from each other. Beams shone a bit more in portions where these fishes weren't thicker in density.

He specifically focused on the sunlight because he wanted to swim towards it. Up there, everything seemed safer so he could observe the storm better. While at the same time, he could watch out for any potential predators. So in all ways, it sounded like a great plan.

So he managed to make it up there in a matter of minutes, and felt that the ocean's surface right here was rather beautiful.

But what became bizarre right now, was how his plan was being thrown to the trash. As a lot of these sardines were closing up on him at a rather uncomfortable pace. And after a moment, they were forgetting all senses of personal space, as they were touching the boy's belly.

The situation continued to become restricting, because these fish were getting so close that they didn't allow the young fellow to move by will.

And before he could think of a solution here, every bit of illumination around him, disappeared. But what was especially bizarre in such a situation, was how he did not yet lose consciousness.

That was when he began panicking, "What's going on?!"

Before he knew it, light had finally breached through the patch of sardines, and granted a much better vision right now.

He wasn't the best at observation, but everything around him seemed much more clear at the moment. And even more surprising, the first creature he managed to notice was... a human?

That and he could feel the sun's rays hitting his back, it felt rather nice but the situation didn't allow one to enjoy this.

Although in panic, he couldn't exactly think the dilemma thoroughly, therefore he asked. "People in Italy can walk on water?"

[You're in a fishing net] The system interrupted this rage of thoughts, a tad sarcastic in her own way.

[Try to get out of here before you suffocate, a timer will appear at the bottom-left edge of your vision]

[After this timer runs out, you will start losing health and can most likely die]

Of course as promised, a small timer which was red in colour, appeared and made the young one think. "Oh that's nice."

[2:00]

[1:59]

[1:58]

[1:57]

"Wait, are you saying I got caught in a net and can die?" Well thankfully he came back to reality and started putting every part of his little brain into use.

[Yes]

"Oh shit, oh no." Tim uttered, synced into panic.

He even began flapping his fins, along with the rest of his body around for the sake of struggling out of this nerve wracking situation.

The same human of which was working the net that the young boy was in, spotted what was unusual and thought. "I didn't know there were blue-dotted sardines."

Curious without a doubt, the young fisherman reached towards the weird-looking fish for the sake of observation.

[1:42]

The moment this human's hand touched the little boy's back, was when an instinctual reaction was unleashed from the stingray's side.

He swung that little tail with so much force, that a small sardine who was laying over the barb, was forced to fly up by half a foot.

Such force had allowed the blue-dotted boy to break his tail free; which in exchange, allowed enough movements to land a tremendous blow against the human's wrist.

"Porca puttana!" The young italian boy shouted, and jumped back.

While at the same time, he was flapping his arm around for the prime sake of shaking away some of the just-inflicted pain.

Timothy was attached to the young man for a moment, which equaled towards an unexpected result. He was tossed high in the air and about 7-feet away from the net, but he couldn't land on the water but bashed against the deck instead!

[Health, -10 bars]

[1:33]

Wildly pissed, the Italian man grabbed a spear and ran towards the stingray. He carried along that prime urge to kill and ignored the blood that was bursting out of his wrist.

Regardless of intent and motivation that rage would give, it did not guarantee balance. So the fisherman slipped and fell against the wooden deck, near the target he wanted to obliterate.

In that same second, the sea-pancake tried to attack the Italian boy but didn't manage to cause any damage. Since his barb bashed through the rubber boots of which fishermen usually wore.

Thanks to that instinctive split second, the stingray ended up flying a few feet up in the air and it wasn't because he got kicked or stepped on.

[1:30]

The momentum of which this enemy had built up before he crashed down, was enough to toss the sea-disk up in the air after they made contact against one another.

The sea-disk was latched against the rubber, which was the reason why he was dragged along by the momentum and then tossed upwards for the second time.

And this time, Timothy landed in the waters which was a great advantage in this situation. But he could still feel his tail hurting like hell, which was a first time feeling for sure in this new body.

[Health, -30 bars]

[Total health = 49/100 bars]

[Emergency tip]

[Immediately seek shelter or food that can raise your health!]