Chapter 29: Chapter 24 – Crabs vs. Humans

Using Identify on the Crab earlier had told Resh that it was called River Crab but nothing more. So Resh had to use its instincts. The great thing was that the Crab wasn’t super fast like some of the fish Resh had seen. But it was crafty, shifting directions quickly and stealthily. Resh was still blended with the riverbed so the crab was just going by any movements Resh exhibited. Now that Resh was still again the crab was confused. Resh had long since mastered the art of staying perfectly still. The crab had been surprised since Resh snuck up on it. So once hit, it had quickly turned to identify its assailant while also quickly backing away from the active site. It scuttled off sideways.

 

Sneak gained Resh a bonus to damage per attack for the first 10 seconds of the fight. With the 30% bonus, Resh received it was able to take off nearly half of the crab's HP and the crab was moving more slowly because of it. Water Gun was still in cool down but Resh was able to lift its Slime Club and ready Crushing Jaws while it closed the distance with the wounded crab. The crab seeing its chance at escape cut off went on the offensive. In a moment it switched its trajectory to charge sidelong into Resh. The Water Slime had not fully anticipated this, expecting the crab to continue to run from a superior foe.

 

There is nothing quite as ferocious as a cornered animal. A lesson Resh had yet to learn properly. The crab jabbed its front claw deep into Resh’s body and the Water Slime trembled from the attack and subsequent pain. Resh was not out of the fight yet though, that attack had taken a good amount of HP from it but with Resh’s readied weapon it struck with a counter-attack and managed to cripple the crab even further leaving it with a sliver of its life remaining. Only then when the crab was on its last legs did the Sneak bonus run out. The crabs feeble attempts to free its claws from Resh’s body were what finally won Resh the fight, instead of digging deeper the crab's instincts told it to free the claws so that it could strike again but Resh’s body was the type that would not easier let go once it had a hold. While the struggling crab managed to inflict more damage to Resh with its claw buried deep it was ultimately not enough to stop the more powerful Water Slime that was also well adapted to the waters. Resh was able to hit it one final time using both Slime Club and Crushing Jaws and then the River Crab was finished.

 

You have killed 1 River Crab. You have gained 23 Exp!

 

Failed to Assimilate! You have gained 69g of Weight. Your new Weight is 378.00g and your Volume is 164.35cm³.

 

Resh rejoiced in its best and most strategic win yet! Resh couldn’t believe it had won with skill rather than attrition or luck. It was finally getting strong enough that it could start standing up for itself, thinking back to the Fanged Carp it amended, small creatures anyway. It was a start.

 

Resh kept going hunting along the bottom of the river, searching the bed for more small creatures. It found the Water Brevers as well but gave them a wide berth. Resh wasn’t ready for those and its instincts strongly advised against approaching them even with Sneak. This was one time Resh thought that its instincts were right.

 

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While Resh was continuing to moving over the river bed it kept its eyes trained upwards. That was when it noticed that there were two feet in the water. It recognised them from the dream that it had had recently either when it was dreaming during sleep or when it had evolved. It was all a little hazing in its mind. But it did recognise the shape, though these didn’t look exactly the same as the others. The ones in the dream were black with leather while these were a lighter brown and had five digits on the end that the black ones did not. This was interesting indeed and Resh wanted to get closer to investigate. It would need to move slowly as to not spook the feet.

 

Edging very slowly closer to the feet Resh continued with its Strong Camouflage and Strong Odour Alteration to completely hide its presence from these 2 feet that it had seen. Resh didn’t know how sensitive these feet were to movement and touch or how much they would be able to detect it. With eyes facing up but still focused on the feet. It was a few moments into the approach before Resh realised that these feet were not alone! Above the water level as Resh moved closer to the shore Resh could now see that these feet were attached to the largest thing that Resh had ever seen. Larger even than the Panther in some regards it was taller from what Resh could tell though the water did distort Resh’s vision so it wasn’t sure, while this thing was taller than the Panther it didn’t seem as solidly built. Seeing this being was different and Resh needed to get closer. Did that mean that even in its dream the feet were not creatures in their own right but required another creature to be attached to them to function properly? Resh had seen this with the insects, sometimes the Ants would gather to try to provide a stronger front. It never mattered in the end as their collective efforts had always still been small. This thing was huge though!

 

Resh could do nothing more than stare up and the mammoth beast before it. Then it came to itself and used Identify.

 

Human (Male)

 

Hmm, that was interesting normally it was just the name of the creature that came up, but this one had some additional information attached to it, what was Male? Resh didn’t worry about it too much but it was interesting. Again keeping its ears open to any unusual sounds other than the river water and eye trained up at this tall and extremely odd beast. Mouth closed so as not to attract any attention, it moved closer still. This human was not using its eyes to look directly into the water but instead into the distance to something else further away. Resh was not able to see what it was from its perspective. Resh decided this was the chance it was waiting for and slid over one of the feet and used its mouth to quickly bite down on the foot. It needed to know what these feet were made of and if it could get to some of these creatures then maybe the rest of this large creature would collapse as the ant piles had in the past. Unfortunately, Resh’s instincts had been completely useless in this regard and hadn’t told Resh of the danger that happened next.

 

Expecting the creature to slump into the water once the base was taken out Resh had not expected that with the briefest taste of blood it would suddenly and without warning be rushed up out of the water and flung straight into the air! Next thing Resh was falling start back towards the water’s surface flipping end over end not knowing which way was up or down. Before it made contact with the water it tried to manifest its wings and flapped them uselessly since its weight was too great but at least it was able to right itself and turn towards the threat before it fell back into the water and made its way to the river bed again. That brief flash while descending back to the water was enough for Resh to see the Human (Male) clearly for the first time.

 

Resh realised at that moment that the feet were not separate organisms from the rest of that beast. It was one thing, more like the Panther. Not like the stacking of Ants that it had seen before. The whole moved too well together. Resh had also seen that it was still deadly purely due to its size even if it seemed less dangerous than the Panther it had seen before. Resh would need to be careful around these Human (Male) things. Resh was berating itself for having jumped the gun on biting it. Resh would never have bitten the Panther under the same circumstance why did it bite this creature? Was it instincts again leading it to its death? Was it that Resh had seen feet before in its dream and felt the need to get closer when it couldn’t do that in its dream?

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