Chapter 45: Bulldozed (Part II)

It really may be sulfur in their area, cause lemme tell you this place almost stinks as much as my ink does.

I'm not trying to be rude to the snakes or anything, but like... seriously? This ocean has so many different biomes with all sorts of creatures and colors! And you choose the one which smells like sh*t?

No wonder all of these guys seem to have sticks up their a*s. Their house smells like a dump!

Ooooo, I guess since they're snakes that also makes what they eat taste bad?

I know that smell and taste are linked to one another for humans, but don't snakes smell with their tongue?

So they constantly smell rotten eggs AND taste it?

Yeah, no. Not to side with the enemy here, but I can understand why they would want to invade the Carak tribe's territory so much.

I still don't spot any underwater yellow skyscrapers, but the again, I have no idea what exactly "Yellow Spires" is in reference to.

Also the lower ranked creatures, mainly prey, are starting to get kind of scarce around here.

I know that I've gone into the Synok tribe's territory, but surely they haven't overhunted? This world is pretty advanced especially considering the fact that creatures other than humans have sentience here.

Speaking of humans... are there any humans in this world? I'm not entirely sure because based off one of the few helpful things my system has said to me, this world is mainly covered in water, and I know that humans aren't really a water based species... so maybe?

Maybe there are like mermaids or human fish hybrids here? I guess if we're talking in terms of evolution, then I should be looking around for some sort of underwater monkey creature, but I haven't spotted anything too whimsical like that yet, at least other than the whole sentient sea creatures part.

Anyway back to the point, there's not a lot of food around these parts...

With the powers of intelligence I would think that snakes would understand that overhunting in their territory could cause serious problems to the ecosystem, but maybe they haven't figured it out yet?

OH! Or maybe the weaker creatures are logical enough to not live in an area where everything smells like crap!

Yep yep! It's got to be one of those! I can't see any other reason unless they just need more food... but that wouldn't make sense because if the population of the Synok tribe is increasing because of the Flood, then their prey should also be having population booms.

I know that overall the flood makes predators stronger, but from what everyone has been saying it makes prey's have more offspring overall.

So shouldn't I be seeing more and more lower creatures around then? Or... is this the population of the prey after the flood?

That would be kind of sad... I can't even imagine how desolate this place would be if before the creature population blew up because of the Flood.

As I crawled along the sand at the bottom of the seafloor, I could feel myself gradually heading deeper and deeper into the water.

I'm not entirely to sure how far I am from the surface of the water, but if science is still relatively the same, and we are indeed on a planet, then I want to see what the sky looks like above.

I know that there's a sun as well cause, I mean, we have night and day cycle's here, so clearly there's got to be a sky and not some super bright light floating in the water above us.

I can see more and more tracks from what I imagine are snakes as well. Long curvy trails of disturbed sand slowly restoring itself to it's flat surface from the current of the water.

Wait! If I can see these trails, then shouldn't that mean that this is relatively recent?

I crawled closer to the marks on the sand and latch myself onto a nearby rock as I study them. These tracks look quite fresh actually, there are multiple trails here so I think it's probably a couple of snakes, but I don't think that they were all in the same group.

Some of the marks look quite noticeable and are still easily seen in the sand, but others are really faint, almost as if this was from much longer ago. I have no idea what direction the snakes are traveling based on these marks, but I'm able to conclude that they're either heading towards or away from Carak tribe territory.

A day maybe? I have no idea. As much as I like to play detective, I'm no expert in hunting or tracking. What I can tell though, is that I've probably come across some sort of route which the snakes frequent themselves around.

What does that mean exactly? I don't even have to go looking for them! Logically speaking, those snakes who went towards the crab's den would have to come back! At least if they live that is.

But these are the Synok tribe, so most of their hunting parties should probably be winning against the Carak tribe's parties, much to my disliking.

Whatever! Even if the most recent group which came through here was actually heading back to their great yellow towers, there's still a chance that another group will come by here! Or even better, they would have to back after hunting in our territory!

That's what I would call a double whammy! Be tired from fighting crabs all day and then BAM, needing to fight an octopus when you least expect it!

Looking around, I can see that the current place I'm at isn't exactly the best place for an ambush. There's mainly only sand around here with a couple of rocks littered about here and there.

Hell, that's the only reason I was able to spot the tracks here this easily, because this is such an open space.

That kind of makes me curious? Why would the snakes be crawling along the seafloor in the first place? I know that they can actually swim in the water...

Maybe they're like me? It's just more tiring to swim through the water, whereas traveling on the seafloor is less fatiguing?

Eh, doesn't matter, but I should find a better place to ambush them.

I follow the tracks back in the direction of the border between our two tribes. I'm not scared of fighting snakes in their territory but I'm not 100% sure about the environment further in, so I don't know if I'll just be wasting my time if it turns out to be disadvantageous.

Dragging myself along the sand I continue on my hunt, intent on finding a strategic setup for myself. Luckily, it looks like this path that the snakes took looks like it comes close to a nice amount of coral and underwater plants.

I decide to place myself atop a moss covered rock which is VERY close to the trail because the closer a snake is to one of my tentacles before I have to actually move it, the more deadly that first strike is gonna be.

And then... I wait....