Dog Eat Dog

"Do I need to run? Do I sit still? Should I hide in my crater?" Jack asked himself, searching frantically for a solution.

There was silence. No movement and no sounds could be heard in the proximity. He was not being chased. He kept motionless for twenty minutes and carefully observed his surroundings to look for signs of an attack.

Then, he closed his eyes and started to calm his breath. He focused on the microcosmic orbit and circulated the Sym energy, which had a calming effect on him. He had circulated the energy continuously since he left his crater, but actively meditating had a stronger effect on the circulation.

He recalled exactly what he saw behind the stone. As soon as his head moved around the stone and his eyes looked forward, he saw two large black eyes staring right back at him. There was no mistaking it; they looked at him the second he popped up as if they had been fixated on his position right from the start. He did not get a clear look at it, but it looked grotesque, like a mix between a fish and an octopus. He recognized features of both animals, but it did not look like either of them.

An octopus and a fish are harmless, benign even, and they do not seem threatening when you look at them. This thing, Jack found it hard to explain, was terrifying. Its mere appearance looked like an existential threat to anything in its proximity. Jack felt overwhelmed by primal fear.

He spent the next hour meditating and circulating the Sym energy. It was the only thing that kept him sane. The more he circulated the energy, the more condensed it became and the stronger he felt. It felt like the energy had created an orbit around him that was constantly moving and constantly becoming stronger.

He intuitively knew that this energy was useful and that there was a point to strengthening it, but he had no clue what that point was. He was still naked and had blood and dirt all over his body. He was not feeling cold, but he felt a craving for food and shelter. In fact, he was very hungry.

Jack had made up his mind. He had waited long enough and was sure that this creature was not going to follow him or attack him at this spot, but it must have seen him, he was sure of that. "Maybe it was sleeping with its eyes open?" Jack wondered. "I have not seen it move at all and its eyes were fixated as soon as I saw them."

Whatever the case may be, he needed to know if this thing was a threat to him or not. Just returning to his crater was not an option anymore with such a creature lurking just a few meters away.

Jack needed to take a peek around the corner again. He was not looking forward to it, but that's what needed to happen. If that creature was hostile or overly aggressive, then it would have long chased after him. "Either it did not want to attack me or it couldn't. I need to know which one it is," Jack thought.

Carefully, Jack looked around the stone formation again to see if the monster was still there. When he looked at where he had seen the creature, his face became pale and his heart started racing.

The creature was gone.

The creature he saw was at least 2 meters high and looked like it had a weight of almost one ton, so how did it disappear? He was sitting motionless just a few meters away and heard nothing. Even worse, if the creatures could be this quiet and fast, would he be able to survive in this place? He could have been killed already, he thought, and a shudder went over him.

He looked around and his head jerked into every direction to find a clue as to where it went. He reminded himself of his mother who would frantically search for a spider that she had seen in the living room but that had suddenly disappeared under her careful watch.

His attention was drawn to a liquid that was building a trail on the ground. It started at the place where he had last seen it and led towards the neighboring craters. "Maybe it was injured?" he thought. "This would make sense, then it could not attack me. But it has enough energy to move its giant body so it might still be dangerous," Jack thought.

Jack carefully peeked over the edge of the crater and looked into the distance. Two craters in front of him, he could see the creature. It was followed by a long trail of blood that was appearing dark purple in color. It reminded him of a giant snail with a trail of slime behind it.

The creature seemed lifeless. He could not see its eyes since it had its back facing him. Jack picked up a stone and aimed at the creature's big octopus-like head, then he threw it. He hit the creature right on its head and it must be very hard since there was a loud sound as if he had hit a rock.

No movement. The creature did not react in the slightest. "Maybe its skin is so hard that it did not even notice," Jack thought. He threw another stone with the same result and decided to change his strategy. He did not want to approach a giant octopus monster while being naked; he had read too many manga to be so foolish.

He carefully walked around the creature in a wide circle and tried to approach it from the front to see if its eyes were reacting to him. As he was moving from crater to crater, he carefully observed the creature and also his surroundings in case another creature showed up. Now that he knew how quietly these giants could move, he raised his alertness to the maximum. He was also worried since there must be a creature even more terrifying than this one if it was hurt this badly.

Once Jack had made his way in front of the creature, he could see that its eyes were closed and its head was hanging forward. "If it was trying to play dead in order to kill me, it would have done so earlier and not attempted to flee here," Jack thought to himself. He took another stone and hit its head. No movement. Then he repeated this process ten more times. No reaction. Then he meditated and circulated Sym energy for another 20 minutes and threw another 5 stones. No reaction.

Jack had promised himself to be as careful as possible in this place. He owed a lot to his parents and he wanted to see them again. If he was reckless now, he could lose that opportunity.

He slowly moved back behind the creature to be outside of its vision in case it was still alive. Then he carefully approached it. One of its tentacles was spread out and spanned at least three meters long. And it seemed to have at least 20 such tentacles. "What an insane creature," he thought.

He kicked one of the tentacles at its utmost tip to make sure that it could not reach him if the creature was still alive. No reaction.

He paused for a moment. Then he picked up a sharp stone and tried to cut the tentacle to see if it was just pretending. "Am I being too careful?" Jack wondered to himself, "No, you only live once so I better be as careful as possible."

Jack stood there over the tentacle in silence. Then his stomach started growling.

He looked around to see if he could find a sharp stone. One stone was shaped like an axe and he grabbed it and hit the tentacle with all he had. He looked at the result and, to his shock, it did not even make a dent. "Their skin is incredibly hard," he mumbled.

He looked around for a moment to see if any other creatures were approaching, but there was nothing to be seen. He walked around the creature in a large circle, still not fully trusting its dead body and expecting it to attack him at any moment. Now that he could take a closer look at its appearance, its head had the appearance of an octopus but with eyes that were larger, facing forward like those of a predator and were entirely black. Its mouth looked like that of a piranha but it was larger in proportion to its head with teeth being black and extremely sharp, appearing more like thick razor blades than teeth. Its body was roughly spherical, also very imperfect, with tentacles emerging into every direction from its spherical body and also springing out of its head in random directions. This creature had no regard for symmetry; it seemed like a rushed design that followed the motto 'more is better.'

Jack could not understand why this creature was supposed to be fast since it looked like it would not be able to move rapidly. It seemed awkward with its round shape and many tentacles. He inspected the creature more and was gradually moving closer toward it. The creature's tentacles were not normal tentacles. Some contained hands, feet, and even hooves as far as Jack could make out. "Maybe there is a method to the madness," he wondered.

It seemed like the tentacles were not only designed for grabbing and manipulating objects but for mobility. "Does it use Sym energy in some way?" Jack wondered. He went back to the back of the creature to the extended tentacle that he had failed to cut with his stone axe. "Sym energy, hm..." Jack started pondering. "The assistant said that people can use abilities by using the power of Sym energy so maybe I can use it to cut the tentacle." Jack postulated. Jack had been hungry for a while now and he instinctively felt that his body craved fat and protein to rebuild his muscles and nervous system. And he had the perfect dish spread out in front of him. "There has to be a way," he thought.

He started experimenting. He circulated the Sym energy and then tried to consciously let it flow into the tentacle. Nothing happened. He then tried to rub his hands together and let the Sym energy flow in between his hands in the hopes of creating a fire. Nothing happened. He sighed and tried to shoot balls of Sym energy into the tentacle while slapping the tentacle with his palms. Nothing happened.

Jack sat down. He looked around to make sure his surroundings were still safe. He thought for a moment. "The assistant said that people have individual abilities, so what is mine?" he wondered. "Is there anything I can do now that I could not do before?"

He sat there thinking and circulating his energy out of habit. "This is stupid. Maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way," he thought. He stood up and focused on leading as much Sym energy as possible into his right leg and foot. He then stood over the tentacle, his right foot hovering above it and stomped on it with all his power. In the most ridiculous fashion, the tentacle was loudly crushed and flesh splashed in every direction including Jack's face. He looked down in surprise and saw that the power of his stomp had decimated the tentacle and created a foot-sized crater in the stone below. In shock, he looked at the octopus head. No reaction. He slowly looked around to see if anything approached them after hearing them. Nothing.

Still scared that something might show up, he stayed vigilant and kept looking at his environment with his peripheral vision. Slowly he crouched down, grabbed a piece of meat and put it into his mouth. "Smoked sashimi," he thought, "I hope I don't need to cook this."