Luckily for the squidctopus, the poison didn´t seem to take effect on her.
She assumed a few reasons for that, like that the body itself wasn´t poisonous, or the fish needed to create the poison in advance, or maybe the amount was so miniscule that it was immediately negated by the [Poison Resistance] she´d gained afterwards.
She didn´t know, and she wasn´t sure if she really wanted to find out. Actually... yes, of course she wanted to find out, this would be crucial information for later, but for now she was glad that nothing had happened.
With enough time her worries faded completely and in their stead a breeze of relaxation swept her mind. She wasn´t exactly sure where this sudden calm had come from, but had to admit she felt cozy because of it. This was also the first time since the ´body transformation´ that she felt fully sated, which was really nice, but also meant her next Life-Essence-feast would have to be put on hold for quite a while, which in turn sucked.
´This sucks...´ she said, because it sucked
Mari shook her head and lied herself on the sand, burrying herself a little and just drifted with her thoughts for a bit. The girl wondered if Life-Essence she absorbed would also influence her hunger from now on. The [Lance Shark] had some more meat than the [Deep Tuna] on it, yes, but was it that much more? Not really, and yet Mari felt like she ate three whole [Deep Tunas] in a row. She wasn´t sure what to think of that, maybe that it´s weird.
Well, theorizing was nice and fun, but only actual testing would lead her to a real answer eventually.
The girl tried to think of something else, but there didn´t seem to be anything that came to mind, so she got bored quickly and pushed herself off the ground
´Swimming around always gets me hungrier faster,´ she concluded and struck off to... somewhere.
-- -- --
About a day passed. Mari quickly noticed that the area she was currently at was some kind of [Lance Sharks] camp, because there were a ton of them. Now that she knew they were poisonous — or at least were connected to poison in some way or another — she didn´t think getting involved with a whole group of them would be the best idea she ever had. So she decided to lay low for the time being and observe their behavior.
And then another few days passed. Though it felt way shorter for her, she didn´t notice the time fly by because one she was immersed in her surveilance, and two she had no means of tracing time. There was no sun or watch the girl could use as indicator after all. Sucks, or maybe not, because she had quite a lot of fun watching what the [Lance Sharks] were up to. But more importantly, she felt hungrier than ever.
´Finally time for another meal~´ the girl said happily and unconsciously let her tentacles do their things behind her head again, this time they kind off rubbed against each another or something like that. A habit she wasn´t aware of, but which gave away a clear read on her emotions.
Back to topic, she now knew that [Lance Sharks] usually travelled in large groups, and that´s how they fought as well: Their fastest swimmers would engage with an enemy directly and distract it while the others waited for openings to strike with their needle-nose, then quickly retreat to a safe position again. Apparently, their nose was also the place they stored their poison in — or produced, the girl still didn´t quite know how it worked exactly. But with that approach, they were able to hunt even the big guys Mari was forced to avoid so far. Taking a quick glance at the giant´s Life-Essence, she gulped as she saw four digits.
But before the [Lance Sharks] engaged in battle, they first had to find one. And that´s where the prey that Mari had set her eyes onto came in: Scouts. The [Lance Sharks] had scouters which explored places in advance and reported back when they found something fitting for a hunt. Those scouts were fast, but also alone. If Mari could catch them off-guard, it would be easy game. Actually, now that the girl had thought about it, she is pretty sure that her last [Lance Shark] was a scout as well.
With the plan set and ready, she waited until a fish broke off from the group and moved out. Naturally, Mari put herself — and her [Skills] — into motion and followed quickly before she lost sight of it.
Not even a minute later the squidctopus was forced to realize that catching up would be more difficult than she hoped it would be, the fish´s [Fast Swimming] must be fairly high-Leveled. She cursed having activated [Camouflage] this early. She canceled the [Skill] to let the cooldown replenish faster, but now she had to wait a bit before being able to use it again. She quietly snuck behind the scout, extra careful in her movements to not be found, and for the time being just kept tailing.
-- -- --
´The [Skill] should be about ready now, ´ the girl thought, believing she´d done a fairly good job staying hidden even without it. Guess believing wasn´t the girl´s strong point though, because the [Lance Shark] released a high-pitched screech the moment she wanted to pat her own shoulder.
´What the-
Mari flinched, and the fish abruptly turned toward her, looking directly into her deep black eyes
´Fuck!´
This cought her off-guard badly. Mari panicked, she didn´t expect to be found out so suddenly. She´d heard that screech before, they used it to signal one another, meaning more of them would be on the way right about now.
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She didn´t have much time to think, so she dashed at her enemy to take it out before reinforcement could arrive. She was still a bit too far, so she sprayed some ink to hide herself in and activated [Camouflage]. Even as she left the black cloud, she saw the fish still focusing on it, not noticing she´d slipped out at the side. Perfect. She closed the distance as fast as she could — which was not fast in her hidden state — and shot at the [Lance Shark] as her [Camouflage] was canceled by the sudden move. She could feel the fish panic at her appearance out of nowhere, but it still managed to dodge aside, even if very closely so. Though even as her initial attack missed, the girl had somewhat of a plan B and threw her tentacles at it. Some of them the fish dodged again, but one connected, and that was enough. She pulled it in with a jerk and had more than enough time to fling the remainder of her limbs around it afterwards.
´Gotcha,´ she grinned, but before she could strengthen her grip, the [Lance Shark] released another of its screeches, reminding the girl that she had no time to rejoice. She immediately put her all into squeezing. The fish struggled weakly in her clutches, and it seemed that it would lose consciousness any minute now, but it just wouldn´t. The time-pressure mixed with the continuous output of all her strength seemed to have the girl in a bad mental spot.
´Come on! Just die already!´ she screamed in her mind, furious, but then felt a strong impact and a painful sting flying into her side
´Agh!´ she was hurled through the water with a red trail following her. She held her bleeding side with her two arms. In the corner of her eye, she saw the two [Lance Sharks] that came as reinforcements, one of them had its nose tainted red.
´Shit,´ she cursed and grit her teeth. She looked at her injured side and focused her attention on it. The skin to the open wound´s side pushed over it and covered the hole, stopping the escape of fluid entirely. Muscular contraction to stop bleeding was one of octopuses natural traits.
Her gaze shifted to her enemies shortly after. They were circling around their injured comrade, too preoccupied to notice they gave the girl time to recover. The one she was choking seemed to have stopped moving with the arrival of its comrades, though Mari couldn´t tell if it just fainted or died, probably fainted though. Aside from it there were not two, but four more [Lance Sharks]. Aside from them, she didn´t see more coming. Why though? They always fought as a whole group from what she knew. No, she didn´t have the time to wonder about it now, nevertheless, she was thankful.
This would hopefully give her a chance of escape.
Her camouflage was still on cooldown, and she knew she was slower than the [Lance Sharks], but she still turned around and fled into the opposite direction of where she came from. She had hoped that they would lose interest in her. She was still small, compared to their usual prey at least, so she shouldn´t be of much value for them. Maybe they would be satisfied with only chasing her away, she believed. Again, believing wasn´t the girl´s strong point; One of them remained with the injured and the other three followed her.
´So you won´t stand that I hurt one of your group? Fucking vengeful bastards,´ Mari clicked her tongue — or she would have if her physique was able to do so — and dodged to the right, a sharp nose now sticking in the sand where she was just a moment ago. Not that she could rejoice about a successful evasion, as another attack hit her head on. She felt the sting again, and immediately closed the hole on her back so to not lose more time on her escape.
Mari fled and fled some more, but the fish just wouldn´t let up. Reading their attack patterns wasn't too difficult so she more or less was able to evade most of them, especially when she could block their vision with her ink when they were about to dash in. But most attacks is not all attacks; A few of the stingers still hit her, and by now she could slowly feel the poison accumulating, circulating through her body. Mari almost cried tears of joy as her [Camouflage] came off cooldown once more. One final time, she sprayed her largest cloud that colored the water dark using her remaining ink and activated the [Skill].
The fish were stunned when they suddenly lost their kill. Mari saw them still searching for her, at times coming dangerously close, but as the girl kept crawling forward they all turned around and left at one point, or to be more precise they left when they reached a certain place.
´Finally, I thought you bastards would never give up,´ Mari sighed relieved, though unfortunately there wasnt much time for her to relax.
---
Warning: Condition -- Poisoned (High)
Please take Antidote immediately to prevent further Decline
´Sure, give me the fucking antidote and I´ll take it no problem,´ she cursed at the window that made it sound so easy. Not knowing what to do, she just kept going
-- -- --
´Fuck, I feel... like shit,´ Mari panted ´I swear... I´ll kill all of you bastards... one day...´
The squidctopus felt herself getting weaker by the minute, her eyes blurring out on her, her tentacles refusing to do as she said. She has been going straight forward for the whole time, but there´s nothing to come across that could help her. After a while, the way forward turns into a pitch-black pit as far as the eye can see that leads who knows where.
´Ugh, I wanna die. No, wait... I really don´t though´
The girl feels a atrmor in the water looks up to see where it´s coming from. She almost feels like laughing.
´Seriously? What the fuck even is this?´
---
[Ancient Marauder Megalodon -- 126876 / 126876]
She looks at the pit right in front of her and quickly decides that no matter where it were to lead, it would be better than this and uses her last bit of strength to push herself into a fall. The descent continues for long, and even with her eyes that perfectly see without any light, she feels it´s still starting to become a dark that her vision can´t penetrate. Or maybe it´s just the poison? No matter, because before soon she´s reached the deepest part and bumps onto the ground.
´Ugh, this is getting tiring,´ she closes her eyes and spreads herself on the sand.
Sand?
Mari touches the ground with her tentacles, then remembers that they're of no use anymore in telling textures. She switches the task to her hand. This doesn´t feel like sand, or stone, or anything that she´d be happy to lie on
The girl turns to the floor and focuses on it
´Is that... blue?´
---
[Leviathan -- 2768 / 1917738]
´Today´s not my lucky day,´ the girl cries quietly, starting to quiver for her life. But her panic-attack momentarily subsides when she notices the low numbers to the left. Well, low in a relative sense, if compared to the ridiculousness that´s to the right.
Mari... just doesn´t have the strength left. She drops down to her back, panting heavily. Running out of her last stamina, the wounds that she kept closed spring open again and release the red fluid that is now tainted a weak green as well. But the girl sucks her self-pity up and defiantly grits her teeth.
´Ahh, AHH! no way I´ll take this as my end!´ she shouts and opens her mouth to bite down into the beast below
---
Extreme Warning: Difference in Power too high
Life-Essence Absorption is greatly Unadviced
´I don´t care! Just do it!´
---
Extreme Warning ignored
[Life-Essence Plunderer] has been Activated
Absorption of Life-Essence in progress...
Before the girl realizes what´s happening, she feels tremendous pain assault her, as if being torn apart from the inside. Her body continues to spasm for a few seconds, before she dies.