Day????

Pain combined with a tug, it screamed at me suddenly through my sleep. I glanced at the source and was shocked. My right arm... is gone. All around me blood is spreading. This can't be real, right?

A fin breaks the water and then behind it two more.

They can only be dolphins. Surely I'm not surrounded by sharks.

The dark torpedo shape denies that hope. As it closes on me, dappled black markings on grey... tiger sharks. I'm only about half conscious now. Acceptance that my fate is about to be cut violently short is made easier by the fact I'm already bleeding out through my artery.

It still hurts. I'm pulled under water and tossed around as the head shakes, taking a chunk from my leg. How did it come to this? I'm drowning, bleeding to death and being eaten at the same time. This is too cruel. I hate deep water. I hate the ocean.

The uprooted palm tree I was clinging to is no longer in reach; they pulled me away from it.

I'm sinking into the dirty water, filled with debris from the tsunami. All around me I see fish nibbling chunks of me.

I see the sharks of many sizes and species as they flit through what is now theirs, seeking treasures within the scoured wreckage of the land.

Mercifully the blood-loss cuts off any further higher thought processes.

So this is death?

Day 1

I feel something. I feel alive, healthy. I feel something constricting. I'm trapped in a leathery cell. I twist and strain at the pale oval cage of organic material. Then it bursts and I'm free. I float where I am trying to understand.

Arms! I have two arms again! I bring them up and then see only despair. Long tentacles with a rounded sucker coated tip. Legs, I feel legs... I feel too many legs. Twisting I am able to view these too. Tentacles again? As I ponder what this strangeness meant a small form floated past a few body-lengths away.

A creature like a cute squid. Tiny and very young, pure white. It was not alone. There were as many as five thousand of us floating around a boulder. As I look at the distance a brightly colored fish comes into view. It is huge! A leviathan the size of a jet plane opens a proportionally tiny mouth and then sucks a few dozen of my siblings down it's maw.

I try to evade and all I am able to do is cutely flop away, like thousands of others. More fish are coming. A sardine the size of a car swims past, leading a herd the size of a building. They break away to the left, shearing through our heaviest concentration.

We're so helpless.

As I watch a few of the others suddenly flit away clumsily. Jets... of course.

I take a deep breath and squeeze it out through the vent above my face. In a burst of acceleration I'm fleeing. It is suicide to stay in these killing grounds. I'm faster than I thought, I'm already putting a fair amount of distance between us. No, wait... that is worse. Back there I had some cover as part of the group. Out here, being alone is not something desirable. As if to illustrate this fact a new creature appeared suddenly swooping down.

Passive Ability: Premonition learned~

I moved to avoid the strike and saw two tentacles sweep below me, grasping arms, like my own but larger. I noticed squid reaction speed was surprisingly high as I barely spun past a second strike. This guy was trying to eat me? Cannibal bastard! Damn it, I can't let that go.

I turned and charged the larger creature; he was easily three times my size. I skimmed past his 'legs', this jet was remarkably agile.

Jet Proficiency learned~

Bursting up in front of his face I tried to blind him. I felt a desire to shout 'solar flare!'.

Ability: Ink Cloud (lesser) learned~

A small puff of dark fluid concealed me as I drove down onto a left eye half the size of my body. My tentacles weren't effective as a weapon but somehow it felt right as I grabbed hold. Instinct?

In that moment I felt a muscular flinch internally. Strange sensations. I realized a moment later what had happened because now I could taste squid and sea-water. I had a beak.

Ability: Bite learned~

I let go and flicked back a short distance as my attacker writhed and clutched at his ruined eye with his arms. He flared vivid red as he twisted around sharply. He was looking for me?! Fine, come at me you damn bully!

My arms were now also bright red. Huh. We're both angry, eh. Well come on then. Attack me! I'm right here, you gigantic bastard!

One giant arm swept at me, however it was not even close. Oh, I'm sorry... no depth perception. How unfortunate.

I speared down onto the thin arm and sheared it off with a bite. It drifted away like a leaf after coiling back in agony. The other arm came; it was like a joke how weak this guy was now. I maneuvered to one side with the fins on my head and severed this arm too.

Ability: Enraged Strike learned~

The gigantic squid was now flushing purple as well. Blue blood swept around us as it leaked from the wounds of my enemy, adding a copper taste to the water. This bastard really didn't know when to give in; he charged at me using his own jet, grappling with his 'legs'. He had me around the head and we were now in a tug-of-war match over whether I was a meal. He was stronger. He cut off two of my legs with his own beak. The pain and anger at being eaten alive, again, pushed me to react.

I pulled his legs in and bit them off, one by one as he did the same to me. I used my arms to pull me higher and away from the beak that had claimed five legs now. I had latched onto the injured eye with my arms and it distracted him enough to allow me to make him less than a squid. If he'd been human he'd be emasculated. Wait, we use tentacles for that so... he really was less than a 'man' now.

He squirmed and ejected ink and turned white in fear. Too late for remorse now. This is kill or be killed. I crawled up his face and entered his narrow vent. I was small and boneless so this was very easy. I crawled deeper into his body using my suckers as he pulsed trying to flee using his jet. I found what I wanted. Here they are. Gills. Heart. Surprisingly there were three hearts. So I ate all three.

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He shook a little before jerking to a standstill. He now just drifted in the current, so I evacuated before something got a two-for-one deal on squid. I flitted to the sea-floor and tried to blend in. My skin took on the color of sand and I pressed down, becoming a faint lump.

Blend learned~

I took a few hours to calm down, resting. I didn't really sleep. A weird set of thoughts had been following me for a while but now they were insistent.

Personal Achievement Unlocked: Killer of Killers!

Personal Achievement Unlocked: Giant Slayer!

Personal Achievement Unlocked: From the inside!

Epic Achievement Unlocked: Not Like Taking Candy From A Newborn Baby!

Due to your epic achievement you have surpassed all requirements for evolution and unlocked rare options with a special bonus.

Possible Paths:Fanged Squid (rare variant)Lesser Icicle Squid (unique variant)

What. The. Hell. Is. This. I knew it, I must be completely insane...

...

...

...

So this window thing doesn't seem to be going away. I have to make a choice? I don't have much to go on. Sure the fangs sound nice but I already have a beak. I wish I had more information on it so I could make a reasonable choice.

Fanged Squid:

A rare subspecies of giant squid with curved hooks in its tentacle suckers. Has great strength, vitality and the ability to shred opponents.

Epic Bonus: Vampiric Regeneration

Sure, it sounds great but what does 'lesser icicle squid' bring to the table?

Lesser Icicle Squid:

A never-before-seen sub-species of frost-blessed squid with the ability to project ice and cold from a touch. Also possesses an immunity to cold and some resistance to ice attacks. Heat attacks cause double damage.

Epic Bonus: Permafrost Sorcery.

I really wish I could sigh. I mean they're both so tempting... I mean giant squid (with claws that drinks blood) versus ice touch squid (with magic). Wait... the name says 'lesser'? Does that mean there is a 'greater'? There may be further evolutions available?!

Evolution: All living creatures have the capacity to evolve if they meet the requirements. From microbe to divinity.

Is this the help section? So... how long do my choices live?

Ordinary Squid (current form): One year.

Fanged Squid: Approximately ten years.

Lesser Icicle Squid: Indeterminate.

Indeterminate?

Answer: The lifespan is determined by average; there is no precedent for Lesser Icicle Squid.

So it could be longer? Shorter?

'…'

Doesn't answer rhetorical questions? Why am I getting all of this information, anyway?

Answer: Preferential treatment exists for all who perform epic feats.

So there are others?

'…'

What is the rate of evolution per species?

Answer: Rate varies.

Ordinary Squid (current form): one in ten billion.

Fanged Squid: One in two hundred thousand.

Lesser Icicle Squid: Indeterminate.

Will my choices change or improve if I wait to evolve?

Answer: Yes, however only in the event of successfully completing a highest tier action.

Highest Tier?

Options include:

* Slaying a demi-god.

* Bathing in the blood of a dragon you slew.

* Conquest of a major nation.

* Eating the heart of a legendary monster.

Huh... I can't see anyway I'll ever do those kind of things. At best I'll just be a morsel... No! Now I've got weird thoughts in my head! Why did I have to think about calamari?! I can almost taste myself! Have to remember to avoid bright lights at the surface and nets... I'm safer down here.

I need to be bigger and more dangerous. I need to evolve now before a passing fish...

Premonition activated.

A sea-horse is fluttering my way... no way an I being the meal of something so... cutesy and banana yellow. No, stop it with your monumental cuteness! You're as tall as a telephone pole. Evolve already dammit! I selected one of the evolutions at random and started jetting away. Which one did I pick? I don't have a clue!