Morphling

After two days of practice and surveying the region, the little jelly is finally ready to enact its plan. With mastery over the horned beast’s genetic data, it can enhance its muscles and bone density in certain parts of its body. It found that enhancing its body overall was inefficient in terms of energy consumption, so it only enhanced the parts that would benefit it in the upcoming battle.

The horns were heavy and hard to maneuver, so it removed them entirely despite being in the body of a male hoofed beast. It can pull them out anytime, so it kept them in reserve in case it needed it.

The plan was to lure a pack of the intelligent black furred beasts into a small rocky basin that was further away from the lake. The challenge was to outrun the pack but not run too fast that they couldn’t keep up. This is a valid concern due to the bodily enhancements the jelly can do. It needed to make them think they had a chance at catching it while maintaining a safe distance.

It chose the rocky basin because it found that during the early morning, it became shrouded in mist. It wasn’t sure what caused this, but the mist would serve as the perfect cover as it would allow it to pick off the pack one by one. There were also many large rocks that littered the area so it would be able to use them to disorient the beasts and limit their attacks by running around them.

With this, the plan was set. All it needed to do was wait until morning then find the pack of this region. The beasts were territorial and the jelly found that a large pack of at least twenty black furred beasts dominated this area. If successful, the harvest will be plenty.

***

Morning of a new day, several wolves were playing on a rocky hill that was close to their den. The alpha of the pack, a large grey wolf with many scars, looked on peacefully as it rested on a rock. It was a time of rest since their bounty the other day was great.

Some panicked moose mindlessly ran into the waiting jaws of their pack. For some reason, they lacked a horned one that could protect their herd. The alpha thought it was suspicious at first, but it detected nothing that came after them, so it thought that they may be simply startled and were unlucky.

Regardless, it was a blessing. The amount of meat was enough for the pack to last the next few days.

Things were going normally until their peace was disturbed by the scent of an intruder. By the smell of it, it was another moose. The strangeness of it was there was only one scent and it seemed to be coming closer despite their mark all over the region. Was it a young one separated from its herd?

With a bark, the pack became alert as they readied themselves at their alpha’s call. If this intruder was simply another moose, then they would treat it as another fortunate meal.

The intruder soon made its appearance. It was an unusually large hornless one. By this point, as soon as one of its kind spotted any of the pack, they would usually run. However, this one eerily stood in place. It didn’t move and stood still as a tree, almost as if it was waiting for something. Was it paralyzed by fear? None of the ones they’ve hunted in the past were ever paralyzed by fear.

They weren’t sure what was wrong with it, so the alpha chose not to recklessly charge at it.

Time passed and the alpha was getting more confused and frustrated. It barked an order and two wolves at the front cautiously moved towards the creature's sides.

This caused a reaction as the moose suddenly turned and ran. The two started to chase, but another call from the alpha halted their tracks. The wolves looked towards the alpha in confusion, but it barked the finality of its order. That moose was too weird. Its instincts were telling it that they should leave it alone – that it was dangerous. It found it hard to believe this was the case, but it wasn’t the alpha simply by luck and many times its instincts served their pack well.

Just as it was readying them to leave, it sensed that the intruder returned. It turned quickly and saw that the strange creature was back. Whatever this thing was, it was not prey.

It was about to order their pack to leave, but one of the reckless young ones charged at it. Seeing which of the young ones it was, it panicked and called for it to stop. But it was too late.

Just as the young wolf pounced at the creature, it turned with incredible sharpness and threw a kick. A kick, which landed squarely onto the young wolf’s neck. A terrible snap was heard and the young wolf’s body crumpled over as it flew across the dirt. There it laid unmoving.

All the wolves knew it. The young wolf, the alpha’s own pup, was dead.

***

When the jelly found the pack, it tried to approach them thinking they would immediately start chasing it. When the entire pack noticed it, they instead stopped and cautiously kept their distance as ordered by the largest of them, the grey one.

Seeing this, the jelly was once again in awe of their intelligence. It decided to keep still in order to appear harmless, but unfortunately it wasn’t aware that when it chose to keep still, it’s body completely remained unnaturally still like a statue.

Normally, even standing in place, an animal would still show the faintest of movement such as breathing; let alone a prey creature standing in front of its natural predators and simply not reacting. The little jelly completely overlooked this fact since it simply didn’t possess the regular functions of most creatures and lacked the awareness of a creature that existed as prey.

Not realizing it simply looked sinister, it was confused since the situation ended up turning into a staring contest. Just as it thought it should probably do something, their leader barked and two of the black beasts started moving closer.

Relieved that they finally took the bait, it made a sudden turn and bolted. After studying these beasts for a time, it knew that once it ran, the rest would simply give chase. Things seemed to be progressing until it heard another bark and the two that chased it simply stopped and returned.

This was a predicament it never expected. What was it supposed to do now? These beasts were simply too cautious.

As it was thinking of an alternative plan while subconsciously going back towards the pack, one of the black beasts suddenly ran at it.

This completely took it by surprise and its body moved on reflex to defend itself. Turning and throwing a powerful hind kick towards the beast, it managed to land a direct hit at its neck to avoid its snapping jaws. With the force of the blow, the beast got thrown back several meters rolling through the earth until it crumpled over.

It held back as much as it could, but since it was a reflexive action with an enhanced leg, it couldn’t stave off most of the momentum nor could it alter its course. It could only hope that attack didn’t kill the beast as killing one now would simply be a waste.

Looking at the unmoving body, it gradually grew nervous and concerned. Slowly turning to face the rest of the pack, its suspicions were confirmed.

The alpha, its hackles raised, glared at it with enraged eyes. With a fearsome howl, the alpha unleashed the fury of the pack. It would hunt the jelly down to the ends of this world.

***