All Creatures Are Your Enemies (Part-3)

In a vast expanse of murky waters that had stagnated in place like water that was clogged in a drain, a tiny fish was swimming deftly as it was being chased by a school of fish.

It had all began 20 seconds after Prakash had dived into the water body. When he was maintaining a steady pace in his swimming, a pair of bird claws suddenly scratched his back, drawing a lot of blood in the process.

Prakash immediately dived deeper and continued swimming at a depth of 1 metre, occasionally swimming to the surface for a breath of fresh air. His injury that was supposed to be severe rapidly healed under the action of the water and within a couple dozen seconds, his back was as good as new.

But, his blood had been spilled, leaving a trail in the waters that pointed in the direction of his travel.

A lone fish was going about its job when it entered the water region that had a tinge of purple to it. Immediately, the eyes of the fish began to be dyed red while its pupils shone erratically as if it had taken drugs. Immediately, it sprinted through the waters towards the direction of the source as if it was guided by some uncanny command.

One fish, two fishes, three fishes; the process continued like a chain reaction until an entire school of fish were hot on his trails.

As the vigilant Prakash gazed at the school of fish that were rapidly gaining in on him, he immediately activated his transformation.

Purple smoke immediately gushed out of the pores of his skin and formed a cocoon over his body. An instant later, the cocoon shattered into pieces to reveal a fish that was 2 feet in length which began to nimbly swim through the waters.

His vision immediately improved as Prakash gazed at a distance that was many times greater than what his human eyes could see. His speed had multiplied by 10-15 times as the fish turned Prakash fixed a point of destination that was very far from his spot but also seemed to be the only location from where he could access some landmass that wasn't a small mound like the ones he swam across.

He never stopped to take a breather in the intermediate mounds because the moment he stopped, he would be surrounded by hundreds of fishes from all sides. Only a fate of death by teeth awaited him if he were to stop.

Even if he were to climb up a mound, he would be cutting off his paths of escape, leaving him to become a prey of the birds hovering above. One of the birds had already attacked him; he had only escaped that encounter due to the murky water providing too much resistance to its swooping motion than the bird had anticipated.

'Psss'

As he hurried through to his destination, his fish body suddenly dissolved into purple smoke which seeped into his body. Prakash hastily manifested his 'Record' and noted that the row belonging to 'Fish 8' had disappeared implying that he had used up all of its karma.

Prakash gazed at the dozen or so fishes that were just 5 feet away from him and immediately willed for another transformation to occur as purple smoke once again gushed out of his body which coagulated into a cocoon. What was shocking this time was that the amount of purple smoke gushing out of his body was twice that of his previous transformation, leading to the formation of a bigger cocoon.

As the cocoon shattered, a fish that was almost 4 feet long with sharp teeth rushed out and bit into one of the surrounding fishes. The fish that got bit was barely 10 centimetres in length and immediately died in a couple of seconds as the bigger fish carried it in its mouth and swam away.

After its death, Prakash found out to his surprise that the purple snake that emerged out from the body of the dead fish didn't enter his body but was dissipating in the waters.

'Psss'

His big fish body immediately dissolved into purple smoke which was swiftly absorbed back into his body.

"Damn it, these transformations hardly last for 10 seconds. These transformations with zero comprehension are practically a black hole," Prakash thought as he activated another transformation. He had already been surrounded by dozens of fish when his transformation wore out.

The purple snake that came out of the body of the dead fish suddenly seemed to have found a destination as it stopped dissipating and rushed towards Prakash. But just when it was about to enter into his body, it abruptly stopped in place when purple smoke gushed out of Prakash's body.

The amount of purple smoke that gushed out of his body this time was practically a trickle as Prakash transformed into a fish that was barely a centimetre long.

"Damn it," Prakash hurriedly deactivated this transformation and blacklisted it. He was practically asking to be devoured with such a tiny body.

The purple snake had almost fully dissipated when Prakash reverted to his human form. But this time, something about the body condition of Prakash made the purple snake turn away and choose to dissipate in the water.

As Prakash reverted to his human form, he found out to his shock that his body once again began to turn a deep shade of blue. This time, the colour seemed to be even darker than his previous case. Moreover, a feeling of filth, hunger, and death began to slowly grip his heart and seemed to be spreading to the rest of his body.

"Surface; I have to get to the surface soon," Prakash flailed his limbs in order to break through the encirclement of fishes that had already blocked most of the light from the sun.

The murky waters had already filtered out most of the sunlight below a depth of a metre, to begin with, and as the fishes swam overhead, not even a single ray of sunlight managed to seep through.

After finishing their encirclement, numerous fishes began to swarm towards the tiny human who was at the centre of the encirclement. Prakash curled himself into a ball as he intently gazed at the charging fish that was the closest to him.

Prakash gritted his teeth as he thrust his hand forward, trying to take advantage of the momentum of the fish to impale it through its open mouth.

'Swish'

His hand sprung forward like an arrow and pierced into the mouth of the fish and tore through its soft tissues. The fish struggled to break free while its sharp teeth got lodged into the flesh on his arms.

"Gahhh," Air bubbles leaked out of the screaming Prakash as the sharp teeth of the fish even cracked his bones. He could also feel a faint amount of poison that had a mild toxicity gush through its teeth and rush into his bloodstream. A faint paralyzing feeling began to spread throughout his body and further reduced the speed of his reactions. His body was also not being regenerated by the surrounding water.

As his purple blood trickled into the mouth of the fish, the eyes of the fish began to increase in its erratic behaviour and also seemed to swell in response to the amount of his blood it had ingested. Its body also began to swell like a balloon while strange mutations began to form on its body as if it had cancer.

"Damn it!" Prakash willed to transform into a dog as purple smoke gushed out of his body and began to form a cocoon around him. In the same fashion that it had occurred previously, before the cocoon could successfully take shake, the purple smoke retreated back into his body; his transformation had failed.

The other fishes too had reached him by this point and tried to nibble him. Prakash held onto the body of the mutating fish as he used its body as a cover to shield himself from as many fishes as he could.

He punched and kicked at the surrounding fishes, especially aiming for their eyes in order to gain some room to manoeuvre. As he was desperately fighting for time, from the corner of his eyes, he saw a giant reptilian figure crash into the school of fish and feast of them.

With a sway of its long narrow snout, it shredded the bodies of numerous fishes before proceeding to gulp them all. What was surprising was the fact that all the fishes in the vicinity seemed to be focused on devouring Prakash and seemed as if they didn't care about their lives; their sense of self-preservation had long since vanished under the allure of the aroma that seemed to work like a radar even underwater.

For the Gharial, this was a literal feast that had been arranged before it, one that wouldn't try to escape. Even though something from deep within its body desired to eat that strange creature that was getting attacked by the other fishes, and this feeling was getting stronger as time passed by, the Gharial wanted to first chomp on as many fishes as it could to fill its belly.

As his body had been chewed on by the fish at numerous places, the eyes of Prakash had become dazed. First of all, he could no longer feel pain, secondly, a sense of filth, hunger, and death had almost enveloped his sense of self.

"If only there was a way to transform and get out of this way," Prakash wailed when purple smoke gushed out of his body in torrents and coagulated into a gigantic purple snake with a disgusting head. The head had the basic facial structure of a dog but its face was covered with numerous scales, rows upon rows of gills ran along its neck while its ears twisted into a long spiral.

The eyes of Prakash widened in surprise as he gazed at the scaly figure of the purple snake that had formed. Its facial structure looked somewhat similar to Shaggy but at the same time, it looked completely different.

"It looks like an ugly version of Shaggy," As this thought formed in his muddled head, the purple snake entered into the body of the fish that still had its mouth clamped over his arm.

The moment the purple snake entered into its body, the erratic eyes of the fish seemed to resist something foreign for a second before it seemed to have gotten conquered as its eyes turned black. A sick nauseating stench permeated from its body as the fish released its hold over Prakash's hand and rushed towards the surrounding fishes.