章 2: Run! Run!
Unlike the big bad tiger shark that was bigger than the cave and had to force its way through by bashing against the walls, Sebastian was much smaller but the problem was that he could not swim.
Thud!
He felt like crying every time that he heard this from behind him. "Am I dying here? This is too early".
"I'm dying when I've not even started my conquest to dissect all beasts, what a sad ending that would be!"
He had all the tools to swim, the dorsal fin, the tail fin, they were all there. And he even felt like his instincts were now finetuned to be shark-like, he felt an urge from deep in his blood to swim.
Despite all these urges and advantages, the problem was his unfamiliarity with the new mode of movement and organs. Adaptation to new organs and body was not something that could be done in a day.
After living more than 25 years on earth as a human, suddenly being reborn as a shark and getting used to it was a herculean task that brought only tears to his eyes when he thought of it.
This only became more apparent when a predator was stalking closely behind him. "Is this what those deer on earth felt when being hunted by lions and cheetahs? What a pitiable existence".
They were there, but swinging the fins in the right way to propel himself forward proved to be another herculean task.
Swinging it wrongly, he saw himself somersaulting like a rocking chair with no arm. He was just like a clueless SpongeBob, moving left and right in weird angles that even left the predator confused.
At some point, the tiger shark even paused with a confused expression on its stripped face. Before coming to this world, Sebastian could not understand shark expressions, but he swore that he saw a confused look on its face.
Just like his second love, the tiger shark ignored the abnormality and continued forging forward closer to its prey.
One thing Sebastian noticed that brought him some much-needed relief was that the deeper inside the cave he swam, the narrower it became which meant that it became harder for the tiger shark to move also.
Despite this, the distance between them was closing at a speed that he did not like at all.
He tried all the swimming techniques that he knew as a human but nothing seemed to be working. He tried butterfly style, breaststroke, backstroke, front crawl, and even the backside dance but none of them worked.
"Noo…, I don't want to die!"
The tiger shark's head was now unimaginably close.
Snap!
The enormous teeth that were larger than what was expected of normal tiger sharks clapped together dangerously, making the water ripple outwards.
This was underwater, but drool seemed to flow out from the predator's wide mouth and quickly blended with the water as its snout raised up in the water surface like it was smelling the best delicacy ever.
Its jaws kept on snapping open and close hungrily as it intensified its efforts to bite hard at its prey. The nearby rocks slowly broke and gave way, allowing it to force its way deeper.
At this moment, Sebastian was already as tense and stiff as a shrimp.
Seeing death stare at him in the face, he became frenzied. His small shark body wriggled back and forth, trying every means just to take that important swim downwards. Then…
Crunch!
[You have been bitten on the tail by a tiger shark, you have received -6 damage with additional -1 damage from bleeding.]
[Your tail fin bones have been injured, movement speed impaired by 10%.]
Sebastian felt pain waves hit hard at his brain, forcing him to let out a soundless wail as his bitten tail quickly wriggled free and retaliated on instinct.
His originally harmless tail suddenly hardened and whipped upwards viciously like a sharp knife, cutting a shallow hole through the thick skin of the much bigger tiger shark.
[You have activated skill: Tail Fin attack.]
[You have cut your opponent with your tail fin, you dealt 0.2 damage.]
That was surprising, and the damage dealt was a little disheartening when compared to the damage dealt to him by the tiger shark but he could not complain. A beggar was not a chooser after all.
The tiger shark did not have much of a reaction to his attack, it tried to attack him again by aiming at his body this time but he was not such an easy target despite the huge difference in size.
He may not be familiar with swimming yet, but moving his body to dodge required much less complicated methods.
He timed the tiger shark and moved to the side every time that it tried to crunch down on his juicy flesh. As he dodged, he did not forget to retaliate with his tail every time, dealing little bits of damage.
Of course, he was bitten again as the tiger shark got more irritated.
As this tug of war continued, he was surprised as he suddenly saw the water below him ripple a bit. He looked closer, he thought he just saw something long like a rope but he was not sure.
Not willing to divide his attention, he turned back to focus on his weak against strong battle but what happened next scared the hell out of him.
Whoosh!
He was not able to react as something swooped past him with mind-blowing speed. As he could not react, so was the tiger sharp not able to react too.
In just a second, the tiger shark suddenly stiffened as the long intruder wrapped it up tightly in a firm hold. Before Sebastian could blink, the tiger shark shrank as it was squeezed tightly.
This was when he saw it clearly. "A Viper!"
The over 20m long black Viper sneak attacked the tiger shark before it could react. After squeezing it a bit, it quickly dipped its enormous head inside its coiled body and started swallowing the shark whole.
Its coiled body shook a bit from the inside like something was resisting against it, but with its body tightly pressed against the walls of the cave, it suppressed all the tremors with its elastic skin.
Seeing this, Sebastian almost fainted in shock, he was already dying from a tiger shark but now another.
He was not disgusted by the scene as his previous job was much more disgusting than this, he was rather horrified. Before, he looked down on such a scene from the superior perspective of a human.
Now, seeing it as an equal beast too, he feared for his life.
Squelch!
A disconcerting sound reverberated accompanied by a bubble in the water as the Viper's abdominal muscles contracted the prey while swallowing, Sebastian gulped from his position.
"This is my time to run".
He could only thank his God for being reborn as a young shark now, the Viper clearly left him because he was too small a prey to fill its bottomless stomach.
Ignoring the scene of carnage that was before him, he did what was expected of any sane young shark. He turned, ignored his unfamiliarity with swimming, and started trashing about downwards.
Even if it was just shaking his sharky body, it was something as the water current would carry him down.
He pumped himself. "You can do it! Sebastian, run! Run!"
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