The octopus wasn’t as cruel as Tim had imagined. This thing stopped charging at him all of a sudden, for example, which was a really confusing course of action. Then, the octopus just stared at him!

Tim stared back of course, and then he asked about what was on his mind. “What the hell do you need fifteen arms for, man? You could kill me with like, four of them if you tried hard enough.”

This was not the greatest time to ask such a question. Come to think of it, it never was a good idea to converse with an enemy, when both sides were so close to battling! Yet he did ask questions, quite shamelessly too. Even the bubonic shifter was confused by Tim’s questions, as he appeared overconfident while he spoke! Scared folks weren’t supposed to ask casual questions, it was just the natural order of things.

With that considered, the shifter was enthralled, and felt really motivated to converse. This was a unique encounter without a doubt.

It said, “I have twelve arms, guy, not fifteen. Also, I am a woman, don’t call me ‘man’ ~ It’s inappropriate, and also disrespectful!”

“How the hell would I know what’s between your tentacles?” He argued, efficiently. “I can barely tell what other stingrays are, not to mention squiddy guys like you. I didn’t have the slightest clue what you were, especially since you shapeshift and shit.”

Tim made a compelling argument. One might even mistake him for a genius, even, but that was not the case. He missed a couple of grand details, and since the shifter was detail-oriented, she ended up getting really annoyed. She was pissed.

“I’m not a squid, I’m an octopus!” She yelled.

After that point, she seemed to be getting ready for battle, she wasn’t as curious anymore. They conversed enough, more than they should have, too, and with that aside, the events that were to follow were inevitable and really painful! In fact, things could play out in two ways only; Tim could either be the victor, or the victim!

Throughout most of the meet and greet, Tim felt like the victim, and was sure that he was going to end up as the victim, regardless of how he countered the shifter with tactical battle plans at first. He had felt helpless!

However, throughout that conversation he had with the shifter, he had bought himself both more time, and a solid opportunity as well. This opportunity could help him reign victorious!

Tim picked out a way to attack, and had a good plan in mind. He targeted the other’s big head, and figured that it was the best, and most vulnerable spot to strike the enemy at!

To buy himself a couple more seconds of time, he casually said. “I’m sorry for getting confused about what you are, miss octopus, it won’t happen again...”

Just like that, Tim bought himself more time, quite successfully. The fact that he was casual about his apology, was very off putting. The other was confused, and Tim then used this confusion to launch a virtually unavoidable attack! He unleashed several fireballs, from the very tip of the barb on the end of his tail. The fireballs were ruthless, and effective!

They were effective, for two very simple reasons. The shifter had been too close to him up until a moment ago, and also, unlike a thunderbolt, fireballs were much harder to avoid. Tim overwhelmed the shifter in less than a second, and afterwards, he continued to shoot balls of fire, for about five whole seconds!

Throughout this time bracket, he had shot forty fireballs, and had hit the target’s humongous head, about thirty times. Tim had been quick, and one may even consider him a fully automatic stingray, as he was quite the shooter, with an impeccably fast
firing-rate!

With all of that considered, there was no denying the fact that he reigned victorious! Be it by luck or skill alone, he still won! The shifter’s noggin was both blown into bits and burned into a crisp.

A second later, the system had something to say, so she added. [Your fighting method was really interesting, Timothy. You harassed, confused, irritated and killed the shifter, all in under a single minute. Your method was admirable, but it still cost you a full 200 points of mana. Be cautious with how you spend your mana, because you only have a bit over 2,500 mana points left in you, and although that sounds like plenty right now, that doesn’t mean that your points are infinite. Caution is key!]

The advice she gave was solid, however, Timothy’s eyesight was still coated by the wall of fire that burned in front of him, so he barely heard what the system said. His attention was engulfed by the fire, and he wasn’t the best multitasker either, which was why he had ignored the system almost completely.

It took him a minute to figure out that he reigned victorious, as he hadn’t been so attentive. However, when he realized that he had killed the other, he felt happy, and a bit sad too!

The bubonic shifter had sounded like an intelligent lady, she didn’t deserve to die the way she did, however, it was also a fact that she forced his hand, or fins. If he hadn’t killed the shifter, then the shifter would’ve killed him, so it really was an eat or get eaten situation! Since he was really hungry too, he’d rather do the eating instead of the other way around.

While the wall of fire diminished in front of him, he saw the shifter’s blown up head. It was graphic, but the scene managed to relieve him a little bit.

He mumbled, “Well, she’s dead, really dead. At least I didn’t get shot with a nostril dot or something… I won, and I didn’t get infected with the plague either, so maybe the murder of smart fish isn’t that bad…?”

Tim didn’t remember if he was supposed to eat the shifter, as it had bubonic in its name. He didn’t remember if the system specifically mentioned this part or not, but regardless of that fact, he decided to take the risk. If he didn’t eat anything immediately, he may die anyway, and with that considered, he started chewing on the shifter’s torched head.

“Mmm… fried squid!” He celebrated, and continued to chow on the shifter.

Then, the system came along with another announcement, she said. [Congratulations Timothy! Aside from the point-oriented awards, you also won over a fraction of the shifter’s abilities!]