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POV Chrysa

The Shards, Day Seven

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Chrysa wandered the maze for seven dark and light cycles.

It was quite different from their previous habitat, and the way of survival has changed for the jellyfish. The time they spent wandering through the dense coral maze allowed their mind to gain a bit more sentient thought. A drastic change to what they once were, but in the grand scheme of things, not much. But they developed enough sense of themselves and their surroundings to build their sentience into that of a four-year-old human child.

Even their sight began to improve. From the previous shadows that they used to see their surroundings, shapes became more defined, and they could see further.

Everything that they gained helped them survive, and they needed it.

The sweet smell that drew them in drew other creatures in as well. The colder it got in the Earth's oceans, the less vibrant the colour of many organisms was. But in the Shards, despite the cold water, it was like staring at a packed tropical aquarium.

Filled with shrimp, krill, small and medium-sized species of fish, and crustaceans roamed the maze. They had a wonderful time eating its fill of deliciously yummy prey.

But Chrysa wasn't the only predator wandering within the maze.

As they wandered the dangerous maze, they encountered many creatures. From the seafloor to those living above the ocean waves, there were many similar and many very different creatures that the hunting jellyfish did not recognize.

The few developing instincts that it currently had helped it along its path. Giving it blaring warnings the few times that something perilous was around it. From a dark shadow with two webbed feet that deceptively floated at the top of the water, they set off their instincts like a blaring alarm to hide. Which Chrysa did, lucky to find a small crevice in the corals that allowed it to hide from the dangerous bird. To a tiny slug that slowly ate at the corals around it. It looked delicious, but when they decided to have a little taste, their instincts created a toxic taste in their mouth that immediately killed their hunger. That taste in their mouth told them that while the slug might look very delicious, they would most likely die a very horrible death if they took even a tiny nibble out of the slug.

It was dangerous here, Chrysa knew. But the scent was calling them forward.

Three days passed as they wandered the maze before approaching a small clearing. Hidden deep within the sand was a small grey crystal, the same width as its smallest tentacle. About three centimetres thick and who knows how long, from what they could see, it had small glowing scripts and images across its surfaces. It was nothing like they had ever seen.

Like a magnet, the grey crystal pulled at Chrysa. They propelled themselves towards the sea floor, but before they could reach the sandy floor, a small, hard thing crashed into them, attracted to this small clearing by the same thing that drew Chrysa in.

Crashing against the coral wall, Chrysa barely had enough time to even see what had crashed into them, before the creature came at them again.

Dodging the creature's open jaws at the last moment, it crashed into the coral. Small pieces of broken-off coral rained down on the creature and themselves as it tried to pry itself out of the coral walls.

The small moment of time that the creature was stuck gave Chrysa enough time to figure out what it was. And they knew it within seconds as soon as they saw the creature's body.

A predator.

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The natural jellyfish predator: a sea turtle.

It was a small sea turtle, smaller than the ones that the jellyfish had seen on Earth. It was only about fifty centimetres long, but the way it crashed into the coral showed that while the turtle was small, it was heavy and could get some speed when it wanted to.

But the turtle was still stuck, but the wiggling it did began to dislodge itself.

Chrysa knew that they needed to do something while it was still stuck, and they had the advantage.

Swimming as fast as they could to the turtle, they began to try to latch on and stab their stingers onto whatever part of the turtle they could touch. But the turtle's skin was too tough for their stingers to get through and inject its venom.

The turtle, feeling Chrysa try to latch onto its back flippers, struggled even harder to free itself.

As it wiggled out of the coral, the sharp shards of coral pierced through its skin. Small gashes appeared on the turtle's head and front flippers. Unluckily for the turtle, some of the coral in the wall was venomous, and the open wounds allowed for the quick-acting venoms of the coral to run through its bloodstream. The olive green skin around the wounds quickly turned red, like a deep blush. On the deepest cut, along its neck, the skin turned into a deep red, almost violet colour, with small fluid-filled sacs developing and growing.

The turtle shook itself in confusion and pain before it turned and looked at Chrysa, who had backed up after the turtle freed itself.

And then down at the small grey crystal.

The turtle's eyes changed then. It became hardened like it knew what it had to do.

With beaks wide, it charged at Chrysa, taking a large chunk of its bell.

Arrrrgh!!!! Wailed Chrysa as it desperately tried to get away from the beak. It wrapped its tentacles around the turtle's head and shell to pry it away from itself.

It gave Chrysa a chance. The attacking turtle's hard brown shell only had a few light scratches, but its head and front flippers were covered in shallow cuts. Especially the large cut on its neck, which was rapidly turning a sickly yellow and green that was spreading along its neck and head, with the site of the cuts becoming loose and stringy, almost like it was dissolving.

Chrysa was sentient enough to take advantage of the numerous wounds to plunge as much of their stingers as they could spare as it tried to pry the turtle as far away as it could, and plunged them into the wounds. They were lucky enough that the turtle only took some of its bell and didn't get any of its organs in the attack.

But the turtle's attack, no matter how damaging, gave Chrysa a chance to end the fight.

Typically, the venom of Chrysa's species wouldn't be able to take down this predator, but the turtle was weakened. The adrenaline that wracked through the turtle pushed the coral's venom through its bloodstream even faster. Rapidly causing damage, the influx of Chrysa's venom created even more stinging pain and breaking down the turtle's muscle cells, pushing the turtle over the edge.

The jellyfish's venom, on top of the fast-moving venom of the different corals, spread through the turtle incredibly fast. More and more of the cuts began to bubble, and the flesh dissolved around the wounds. The venoms overwhelmed the turtle's system, and with one last painful beat, the turtle's heart stopped beating.

Its weight yanked the turtle's body out of Chrysa's tentacles and arms, landing on the sandy ocean bottom with a soft thunk.

The pain that the jellyfish was in dulled as Chrysa as soon as the scent of crystal invaded its senses more heavily than before.

Unable to swim normally with the small chunk taken out of its bell, Chrysa relied on the movement of the current and its tentacles to help slowly direct it to the crystal.

Softly resting on the sand, it awkwardly dug around for the crystal. With grasping arms, it brought the crystal towards its mouth and ate it. The crystal had the effect. It targeted those with any amount of sentience and pulled them in through the sentient beings' main senses. Left by the System for those taken to the Shards, the crystals are one of the reasons that the Shards got their name.

Delicious, purred Chrysa as the object that pulled at them for days was finally consumed. Within seconds, the jellyfish felt something tingle throughout their body.

The tingling was a wave of mana. A wave that resulted in a blue screen with text that the jellyfish could read but not necessarily have the sentience to fully understand.

Congratulations!

You have consumed a skill shard.

You have gained the skill: Sprawl (Beginner).

The jellyfish looked at the blue screen before it dismissed it, not really understanding what the words were saying exactly, but it could read it.

Seconds after Chrysa dismissed the blue screen, another appeared. This time was different and had more of an important feeling to it.

Name: Chrysa

Species Type: Marine Invertebrate - Jellyfish

Species Skills:

* Venom Trigger (Beginner)

Skills:

* Temperature adapting (Beginner)

* Sprawl (Beginner)

After Chrysa consumed the grey crystal with glowing symbols etched on it, they felt no need to stay in the small clearing. But they were still in pain and wounded enough that it was not safe for them to leave the currently empty clearing.

Laying on the sand, the jellyfish sat in pain at what they had endured during its hunt for the crystal. As it lay there in pain, trying to figure out what to do, Chrysa felt some tingling around the wound, the same thing that they felt when they ate the crystal. It was not painful, but it was like something was touching it. It continued on for the next hour as the pain began to subside. Using its arms, the jellyfish felt a bump where the turtle took a chunk of its bell.

The sprawl (beginner) skill activated and seemed to pull and create skin around the wound, not like it healed it, but it just covered the wound.

Chrysa didn't really pay attention to the feeling; the only thing that mattered was if they could swim again.

Rising up off of the sandy floor, they began to swim around, testing their ability. Realizing they could swim without problems, they swam back into the maze of coral.