It is a calm and peaceful day.
The golden sand reflected the scintillating sunlight outwards, blinding those who might come. Giant waves crashed against the shore one after another, pushing small debris to the coast and white, puffy clouds scattered across the horizon.
Violent tremors of the seabed sent ripples across the sea surface as two behemoths dwelling in the sea fought each other.
Indeed, it is a relaxing day to go to the beach.
The sea creatures nearby have long fled - only those who were too slow were left behind. One of them, a starfish, clung to a rocky surface as it waited for the battle to finish. But unfortunately, it seemed that luck wanted to play tricks with it.
One of the sea monsters flicked its tail and accidentally slapped the rock out of the water. The starfish was flung along with it. Although its hard scales unexpectedly absorbed the impact without a trace of damage, its body wasn't built for the land, and it died from suffocation.
If anyone were at the scene, they would be shocked to find that the starfish started mutating after death. A flash of silver light was emitted from within its body, and with a new bursting vitality, it slammed its tail at the ground.
Though its original intention was just to get back into the water, its body bounced onto a bowl. One would wonder if someone was manipulating the whole situation but the starfish is currently ruled by instincts and so it starts to absorb the substances with its gills, trying to get oxygen.
After consuming the substances, its body started swelling as energy coursed through its body, deconstructing and reconstructing it according to a diagram that was imprinted inside the bowl. Breathing in through its pores, it took its first breath on land. It wants to lay face down like usual and wave its tail to push itself into the water but finds that what was natural before now seems uncomfortable. Blinking away the sand that got into its eyes, it pondered for the first time, how can it travel? It didn't take long as it figured out how to crawl like a human baby.
It started exploring the land in search of food since the behemoths hadn't decided on a winner yet. Because it is still unfamiliar with its limbs, it bumped into a pillar. Tilting its head up, it realized that it wasn't a pillar. It was one of the legs of a crab-like creature. The monster is around 36 feet tall and its armor appears to be extremely dense.
As soon as they met eyes, the starfish felt as if it was staring at an unbreakable wall. In a split second, instincts kicked in and it dived forward, sliding under the crab before scrabbling across the sandy beach. A leg lifted up, the tip glinting in the sun, and tried to pierce the starfish's body but the tilting movement created by how the starfish traveled helped the leg slide off its body, leaving a minor cut across its back. It frowned, unlike its scales, its new skin and bones can withstand blunt attacks but it can't resist something as sharp as the claws.
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The force lifted it up and it found itself wobbling on its two feet. Finding it being faster than crawling, it tried to adapt to the movements.
After 10 minutes of desperate and clumsy running, it found itself in a forest. The crab was still chasing it, mowing down trees in the process.
Taking in the scenery, it savored images that its new eyes brought. Without the crab, the forest would've been silent, except for occasional sounds from the insects or wind. Creatures seem to be lying dormant in the forest.
Accidentally touching a tree nearby, it flinched in astonishment as the tree turned into ashes. The cool breeze blew by and more trees started disintegrating. Taking a few steps back and lowering its head, the starfish noticed that there were two spots of shimmering red light on the dark floor.
As it ventured further, it felt something was poking it. Looking down, it found a black tendril. It was so dark that light seemed to be absorbed into it.
Although it traveled to many places in its lifetime and survived many life-and-death situations, the feeling that this tendril gave off was in a league of its own, making it back away subconsciously. Hearing the noise behind it, the starfish knew that the crab was right behind it.
After it drank the substances inside the bowl and morphed into a new form, it found its mind more and more clear. Something inside it swayed. Instantly tilting its head upwards, a deep fear finally struck it for the second time today as the starfish saw a huge shadow-like creature. It's fairly obvious why all the animals are not moving.
Its body is shaped like a giraffe, but its legs are extremely thin and sharp, measuring around to be 14 meters long. The neck is way too short for a giraffe, only around 1 meter.
Its head is oddly shaped like a hybrid between a species of bird and a dragon. What was even more weird was that most of its head was inside a white, dragon-like skull. A glowing red light adorned each side of the head for eyes.
The starfish could only watch helplessly as the creature continued to consume the trees. Its legs warped into spikes that had spikes on them, densely stabbed into the tree. The poor thing then became dust when the wind came by for a visit.
Shaking its head, the starfish decided to resign itself to fate. No memory contains any information that can help it in this situation.
Observing the dust left behind by the dead trees, it realized that although the tree crumbled to dust, a nascent sprout was already starting to poke out after a while. Using its new brain that is gradually developing and taking shape, the starfish thought - the creature seems to have no intention towards it. As long as it isn't provoked, nothing will happen. With that thought, the starfish slowly regained its courage and quietly crept toward the creatures. As expected, they disintegrated as soon as it touched them.
The commotion is getting nearer and with the last of the obstructing trees being crushed, the crab arrived at the scene. At first, the crab just thought of the starfish as an intruder so it casually attacked it once. But when it drew blood, its body was urging it, telling it that the starfish is a huge supplement. Which is why it is spending all its effort to catch the starfish.
When it saw the starfish was not trying to escape anymore, it snapped its claws with excitement. But then, it stopped in horror. Black shadows appeared on its body, squirming and feeling out every gap in its armor before piercing into it. Its lifeforce was rapidly being sucked away and before long, only a shell remained. The creature glanced at the starfish who shivered under its gaze before leaving without a trace, seemingly satisfied with its meal.
There is also a tiny cute tail behind its torso but ahem- we are not going to comment more on that.