Chapter 32: Unheard Of

SMACK!

Shelton finally landed a blow with has massive pincers on the monologuing snake's head, whipping it back in force and causing the snacks head and body to both go slack.

Finally! I was starting to think that Shelton enjoyed missing every swing with his arms, but it seems like the snake actually had some decent dodging skills.

I finally unwrapped my tentacles from around the rodeo the snake gave me and wrapped them around it's neck, err, head, before I began moving them back and forth akin to a chainsaw with my barbs before I finally managed to separate the head from the body.

[You have killed Level 18 Sonri!]

'Sonri? Was that this guy's name?' I thought to myself as the head floating in from of me still looking defiant.

"Are you alright Oliver?" Shelton suddenly asked me as he poked the stump from where he had severed my tentacle.

I could clearly see that the big guy felt concerned about me and I'm not going to lie, it felt damned good knowing that I had a friend in this life who did.

"Yeah it'll grow back in no time. Thanks for cutting it off back there, otherwise the venom could have affected me more." I said gratefully towards him to which he raised his pincer and scratched his head abashed.

"Ha, no problem just try not to get bit again." He said.

"I don't wanna have to cut off another one of your limbs. It makes me feel bad."

The crab said before we heard distant yelling.

"Boss! BOSSSSSS!" We looked towards one another and then dragged the body of the now dead large python further into the coral, stuffing it behind a rock, so that they wouldn't be able to see it until they actually reached the rock.

Shelton also hid behind the rock ready to fight them when they turned the corner, whereas I planted myself a little before the rock so that I would be behind them.

I did keep one eye open though so that I could see them approach, and soon enough, 3 additional snakes turned the corner smelling the blood in the water.

"Boss! Wait for us! We wanna help as well!" The began rushing towards the other side of the coral passing Oliver and finally arrived next to the rock only to look on the other side and...

Clamp!

"AHHhh!" The afflicted snake screamed as Shelton's massive pincer encased the entirety of its midsection and crushed him right down the middle.

Bits of blood and guts were ejected from both the snakes mouth, and its new wound as, it twitched for a few seconds before coming to a rest.

Both of the other snakes looked on in horror as they spotted the crab and their now dead comrade but who looked akin to a can of busted biscuits.

SMASH!

[You have killed Level 16 Urano!]

[You have leveled up to level 15!]

[You can now evolve!]

<Would you like to open the Evolution Menu?>

<Yes/No>

Sweet! But not right now, no.

One of the two remaining snakes, collapsed as it's skull was caved in by a wandering tentacle leaving the final snake to look behind it and see a frightening dark grey octopus snaring at it while it dropped it's friend.

"Spar-" As the snake opened it's mouth to say something, like it's other friends, the last thing it saw was a crab staring at it despite facing the other direction.

As the snake's body slumped over, I looked at it in disgust.

It wasn't due to me not liking snakes or anything, no, rather it was because of the way that's it's head was now 'on' backwards due to the force of Shelton's blow that I was revolted of it.

I didn't think that a snake's head could really be like that, but huh, I guess it can.

"Nice Oliver!" Shelton said excitedly as he piled the corpses up dragging them back to the leaders corpse so that they could eat in peace.

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(Shelton POV)

I felt kind of bad about the food, especially because I don't think I did quite as much as Oliver did during the fight.

Particularly against the leader. I missed just about all of my attacks except for the final one, meaning that Oliver basically did everything before that.

When I asked him how he wanted to distribute the food, he looked at me funnily before saying that we can just split it halfway and each take half of the body like normal.

As I picked apart the snakes we killed I couldn't help but savor the taste and radiate with delight.

This wasn't my first time ever tasting snake, there were a few low leveled wild one's that we've hunted and had before, some of which I even had when I was still in the nursery, but there really is something different about it when the snake you're eating is a member of a rival tribe.

I thought that Oliver might've been a little bit apprehensive eating another intelligent creature, but surprisingly he seemed to be just as happy as I was with the meal.

In fact, now that I linger on it, this would probably be the first time Oliver;s ever eaten a snake right?

I look over and see him still happily munching away before he freezes up for a second only to resume eating again only slightly more apprehensively.

'Oh no. Maybe he really was nervous about eating another intelligent creature!' I raise my pincer to pat him on the back of his head only for him to open his mouth.

"Hey uhhhhh Shelton?" He asks me apprehensively.

'Is something the matter with him? Why is he so nervous?'

"What's wrong Oliver?" I say looking at our surroundings thinking that he may have spotted hidden reinforcements or maybe another predator that smelled the blood.

"What's the average time is takes to go from orange rank to yellow rank?" He says, surprising me completely as I have no idea why he would be asking this.

Before I respond however, a thought pops up in my head.

Could he have....? No, Hahahaha, there's literally no way. He's only been an orange rank for around 3 weeks, surely he couldn't have ranked up to yellow yet.

It's known that the higher rank a creature is the longer it takes for them to reach the next rank, and even for going from the red rank to orange rank process, that speed would be considered outlandish.

I contemplate for a second before telling him truthfully what my opinion is, still curious to why he would want to know it.

"It should take around at least 6 months on average I would say, although since we are in a flood, maybe it would only be half of that?"

He begins to fidget even more uncomfortably. One thing that I've manage to pick up from being around Oliver so long is that whenever he begins to curl and coil his tentacles around themselves, he's probably pretty damn anxious.

"What if I was to say that... I could maybe already be able to evolve?"

My mind blanks out for a second as I absorb what he said.

'He's really already on the verge of orange? That's impossible! Unless... is Oliver a tide candidate?'

I can't think of any other explanation for how he could have gone through the ranks this quickly. It should be known that he only evolved barely before me! And we've been hunting together basically the whole time!

'I could maybe believe it if it was from red rank to orange rank, but that wouldn't explain his strength...' I discard that theory almost immediately as I can't help but shudder as I imagine what a red ranking creature with the power of a yellow rank would eventually become like.

"Oliver..." I say slowly, "Are you a tide candidate?" He stares at me before laughing out loud.

"HAHAhaha! You should see your face!" He says amusedly as I realize that I've been tricked.

I laugh along with him as I reassure myself. 'Yeah, there's no way he would be ready to evolve already let alone be a tide candidate. Even if he was one, this would still be too fast...'

I'm confident that if he was, he would have bragged me to no end about how 'lucky I should consider myself to be, GRACED, with his presence' or something along those lines.

However amidst our chuckling Oliver drops a bomb on me yet again.

"Hahaha... No, seriously though. I'm ready to evolve again." He says earnestly still laughing.

'WHAT?!'

This... this is completely unheard of!