I went outside my cave. I looked left and right and saw a silver fish with a blue stripe, a bit bigger than the orange fish I just killed.but not by a lot. I slowly crept up to it. I crept along the ocean floor and closed the distance between us. Since I had no other way to measure I used myself. I am size 1 so my length is 1. The official unit I came up with is Size 1 Octosquid or S1O for short. The current distance between me and my target is about 2,5 S1O.

I crept closer until I was about 1,5 S1O away. I prepared for the ambush. I waited until the fish looked in a different direction. I attacked the fish and fully missed, the fish swam away from me. I needed a new target.

The next target was the same as the first one I got. The orange white striped one. I closed the distance once again to about 1,5 S1O and got ready to attack. This time I chose to come even closer when it was not looking at me. I got to about 1 S1O away before the fish just left to search for food elsewhere.

The next fish also fled from me.

The two after that just left the area I tried hunting them in.

Five hunts after that also failed.

I had gotten frustrated and decided to change my tactic. The next fish had a red top side and a green underside, it was about an eighth S1O, or just an eighth of me. I would chase it and hunt it down that way. I slowly crept up to it and when it fled I sprung into action. I used my siphons¹those pumps octopuses use to move around at max power to try and catch up to the fish.

We moved up and swam over a part of the coral reef. After the fish got a bit of a distance it dove back down. The distance kept on getting bigger every passing moment. It dove between the corals. I chose to stay a bit above them, I knew enough from corals that I knew they could all have deadly poison. Left, right, right, straight, left, right, right.

‘That fish is blue, so the wrong color but who cares?’

Left, right, left.

‘Where are all the fishes?’

I was outmatched, the fish was faster and smart enough to shake me off.

I swam to an overhang and just hung from it, trying to get some blood to my brain. I had a bit of cover but it also was out in the open so I could flee myself if it was needed.

I went in my thoughts over all the hunts I had so far. I had an intelligence advantage, I just needed to use it.

‘The first hunt was a trap for that fish. The ones after that I tried to sneak close and ambush them. That failed, the last hunt I could not catch up to the fish at all.’

‘In conclusion, I need to set up traps and lay in wait until I can get a fish within ambush range. This overhang is actually good for that. I will just wait here and see what happens.’

I waited quite a bit and sorted out some thoughts I needed to have sorted out before.

‘What do I still remember from octopus and squid biology that I might be able to use? The first would be that they would eat animals that like to hide in shells. The second would be that some can spit out ink to confuse opponents. Third, this one should have come at number one, camouflage. Octopuses can change the color of their skin. I do not know any of the technical terms of their biology.²I, the auteur, will use them in order to not confuse people too much with fictive terms they will need to keep remembering. Chalk it up to the story transcription process. That is very little, why did I never research octopus biology? Wait, I remember one more thing, that they can move through any hole as long as they can fit their beak through it.’

A brown fish that was about my size slowly approached my hiding spot. Without me noticing for too long.

‘Two of the points I do remember about octopuses and squids are things I can not use. Mainly the camouflage and the ink spitting.’

The big brown fish crept ever closer. By this time I was able to distinguish the fish from the seafloor. It clearly was trying to ambush me like I had done with the other fishes.

‘That color skin is much better usable for camouflage. Wait, I now have the chance to set up a counter ambush. I think if I start to nibble on the eyes I will get the kill.’

I slowly moved my body so I could take on the brown fish. I calmly waited until it came close enough that it would attempt the ambush.

It came speeding at me in full power. I was surprised by the speed it used but quickly changed my mind to fight mode. It aimed for the tentacle I left hanging below the rest of me. When it was close to biting down on the tentacle I sped forth to get my tentacles around its head. I made a mistake, one of my tentacles is in its mouth.

I positioned my beak to one of the brown fish eyes, the right one and I started biting down on it. The fish began squirming in my gasp. I used one of my other tentacles to also poke into the eye at the other side. The fish opened its mouth in pain. I quickly got that tentacle out of its mouth, it was quite wounded and bloody.

‘Blue blood?’

The brown fish was bleeding red blood from its eye socket. I slowly began to cut parts of the fish and began eating it. The fish smacked me into the seafloor and a few rocks. The collisions are no problem, it trying to make blue blooded art was however a problem.

‘I need some help quickly, system you have any idea’s?’

    You got DNA for teeth

    This DNA can be used on tentacles to add teeth (57 BM per tentacle)

‘Please give all the tentacles those teeth’

I felt something burst out of my skin at the last quarter of my tentacles. It was those teeth. Without a bit of time wasted I stabbed the teeth into the fish. It cried out in even more pain and anguish. I used the teeth to cut it apart even more and used one tentacle to put the meat in my mouth.

‘Can I do nothing more than death by a thousand cuts? Think what would you do if you tried to kill a different animal. Think. Think. Cut its throat? That is not useful, a fish has no lungs to drown in. Lungs? A fish has gills. All the blood must flow through that.’

I moved one of my tentacles into my vision and guided it to one of the gills I could see. I placed my teeth on it and ripped it apart. The fish still gave a few death throws but those quickly lost in power. I kept on ripping apart the fish and eating it.

At some point it died and I could eat more easily. I ripped off the meat from the bones.

I ate with my full focus. I had four tentacles and I was using them all to devour this meal.

CosmicDragon

I am quite happy with how this chapter turned out. I might redo the previous chapters to make a bit better clear when the MC Stuward is thinking.