Tension pulled Logan's scales taut, etching the powerful muscles beneath into stark relief. His eyes, fixed on the Hermitaur, narrowed. The distance was perfect. He exploded from the brush.
His powerful hind legs launched him like a bolt. Cold moonlight glinted on his new scales. His tail, venom sacs primed, whipped forward in a blur aimed directly at the crab's stalked eye.
The Hermitaur reacted with uncanny speed. Its massive left claw—the shield—snapped up to block.
CLACK-SHINK!
The spike met the thick chitin with a sound like a hammer striking stone, jarringly loud in the silent night, scattering birds from nearby trees.
Damn, that's solid!
A jolt of pain shot up Logan's tail. He leapt backward just as the crab's right pincer—the cutter—scythed through the air where he'd been. The tip scraped along his spine, leaving three white score marks on his scales and a stinging reminder of its sharpness.
He switched tactics, using his superior speed. He began circling, a dark blur staying in the crab's blind spot, its side and rear. He darted in, claws slashing at the softer, membranous joints of its back legs.
The crab's body plan made turning a slow, lumbering affair. Soon, two of its rear leg joints were torn open, oozing a pale, blue-tinged hemolymph that stood out vividly against the green grass.
Whether crabs felt pain was debatable, but its reaction was clear. A rapid, furious click-clack-click erupted from its mandibles. Thick, viscous foam began to bubble and spew from its mouthparts, spreading rapidly across the ground.
In moments, the area was covered in a foamy white carpet, like a giant's overturned bathtub.
Logan caught a whiff of a strange, cloying scent. Dizziness washed over him. His limbs felt heavy, disconnected. A powerful, irresistible urge to simply lie down and sleep clouded his mind.
Sleep bubbles!
He recognized the danger and scrambled backward, shaking his head violently. It took several seconds for the fog to clear.
That delay was all the Hermitaur needed. Despite its injured legs, it scuttled away with surprising speed, making a beeline for the stream. It plunged into the water with a heavy splash, vanishing beneath the surface, leaving only widening ripples.
Logan watched the water settle. The hunt had failed. But he didn't despair. He'd lure it out again. The crab had tasted easy food; it would return. It was basic conditioning—kick a chicken while feeding it, and it would still come back for the grain.
The failure had a simple cause: his own inadequacy. The Hermitaur's armor was simply too hard, a perfect counter to his primary weapon.
But the failed attempt had also given him the solution.
If physical attacks won't work, then it's time for magic. System, invest!
He spent his stockpiled Evolution Points. Two went into Enhanced Toxin Resistance.
The familiar warmth spread through his bloodstream, triggering the production of a specialized enzyme. This acidic compound would rapidly break down foreign toxins in his blood, allowing his fortified kidneys to filter them out.
The remaining five points were funneled into a new system beneath his skin: Electrocyte Organs.
In the aquatic world, what was the most formidable creature of a given size? Not the crocodile, not the giant serpent. It was the electric eel.
With a discharge of up to 800 volts, nothing in its weight class could withstand it. Victims seized up and drowned, paralyzed.
The transformative energy gathered beneath his dermis. Thousands of paper-thin, specialized muscle plates began to form, stacked like batteries and separated by connective tissue. A dedicated nerve fiber ran through them, connecting them in series.
Each plate, or electrocyte, held a tiny charge of its own—about 100 milliamps. Individually, they were insignificant. But stacked in their thousands, they could generate a formidable cumulative voltage.
As both evolutions progressed simultaneously, a ravenous hunger gripped him. His body was consuming nutrients at a ferocious rate. His orange-yellow eyes seemed to gleam with a predatory green light as he scanned the ground.
His gaze landed on the bait—the Pteryx liver, now dirtied but intact.
Still there. A quick rinse, and it's dinner. Can't let it go to waste.
The liver was a mere appetizer. To fuel the drastic changes within, he needed more. He turned back toward the Pteryx cliffs. They were reliable, familiar prey.
For three days, a cycle of intense hunger, hunting, gorging, and exhausted sleep consumed him. His body, now over two meters long, worked ceaselessly through the nights.
Finally, the internal restructuring was complete. He returned to the stream, tossing the usual scraps into the water.
The scent of blood summoned the usual school of small fish. Weeks of feeding had made them bold. They swarmed the offering, unaware of the tail now slipping silently into their midst.
A faint tingle originated at the crown of Logan's head. It rippled down his body like a wave, passing over each stacked electrocyte. With each layer, the charge was amplified, focused, until it reached the tip of his tail.
An invisible force pulsed through the water.
The fish froze mid-swim. Their bodies went rigid, twitching uncontrollably before floating belly-up to the surface.
Renewable energy fishing. Efficient.
He waded in, scooping up his stunned catch. After a quick meal, the heads and entrails went back into the stream—sustaining the lure, maintaining the ecosystem of his trap.
Time flowed on, its passage marked only by the sun and moon, cycles of little concern to a creature focused solely on preparation.
To ensure success, and to let the spooked Hermitaur regain its false sense of security, Logan didn't rush. He merely continued the daily ritual of distant feeding.
Each new Evolution Point he earned was poured back into his Electrocyte Organs. The specialized muscle plates multiplied and thickened, their neural connections spreading like roots. They began to extend beyond the deep dermal layer, weaving into the very structure of his scales. Fine nerve endings branched into the keratin, granting his armor a new, eerie sensitivity—a capacity to feel the brush of air, the subtle shift in humidity.
He was no longer just building a weapon. He was rewiring his entire sensory interface.
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