As it turned out, the merfolk were very sentient. Now that the boys had essentially declared war on the blue and red ones, all the different colors were either avoidant or a very aggressive stance was taken. The red and blue ones were hostile on sight. It was something they had to deal with. 4 boys had a lot less success than 6. Haroon and the bottom 2 members in the cohort were totally willing to spend all their time on the campaign against them until they killed them all. I did not want to waste my time. It was not needed. They fought until they needed to retreat, but they had nothing to show for it. Bringing back a corpse or a prisoner would be one thing. Using their energy beams was great, but they were too smart. They could dodge it by ducking under the water. Corey and Dolan had their focus split between fighting and exploration. Due to this, my projects were advancing and Haroon's campaign was stalling out significantly. "Come back to the river, David. Don't you want to fight those half fish creatures again?" Haroon asked me. I just sighed. "I will explore down stream." I said.
I took Corey with me just in case there were merfolk and they went hostile right away. Walking down stream from the red ones' hangout spot, we discovered there were 3 more tribes of merfolk. Their scales were yellow, green and violet. They all were aggressive, but none of them attacked. Corey wanted to fight, but I told him not too. He was upset that he was not able to battle these new ones. "We could be the first to kill these tribes off! Wouldn't it be a great feat if we could!? Please? Just a few minutes to test it." he begged. "I am here to explore. We don't even know what these ones can do yet?" I told him. He looked sour for the rest of the walk. The yellow ones had electrogenesis. They could create electricity. The water around them became electrified and I personally saw some hold up their hands as yellow energy sparked from their finger tips. Neither Corey nor I wanted to deal with that. Our suits were not suited for that. This was not our power armor. The others were using them. Even then, it was a risk. We did not want the short circuiting on us. We had to move on.
Just an hour later we encountered the green scaled merfolk. Their show of force was aerokinesis. They could control the air around them. Harsh winds emanated from a focal point in front of their group. I pointed it out to Corey when I realized it myself. He looked ready to fight this time. Wind scared him a lot less than electricity. "No. We still have more river to explore. As long as they are not attacking, we will move on." I said firmly. We walked an hour and a half before we got to what appeared to be a large lake. "I can see trees and things directly across from the mouth of the river." I said pointing to the very end of my vision. They were far off, but I could see land in practically a circular area too. That meant, there had to be a stream or continuation of the river elsewhere. Explaining this to Corey, he nodded. He then pointed over to several areas. All 7 colored tribes were here. There was also a golden tribe here as well. None of them seemed hostile or aggressive at all. Even the red and blue merfolk looked peaceful and friendly. I said "This looks like a social gathering hub."
