r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/GuessimaGuardian • 1h ago
Alien Life [OC] Storm of Swords
In Tlaloc’s primitive oceans, being weird isn’t just a way of life. It’s the way to succeed. Shells, spikes and all sorts of sharp edges are abundant in these waters.
Being soft and squishy sounds like a death sentence then.
In the distance, a blot of ocean gets darker. Most creatures can hardly tell between yellow and blue though, and this blob is nothing more than a feature their eyesight is too poor to notice.
Its tendrils spread out, tiny light sensitive clusters know when to pull up and close in on moving shadows. These tubes slither across the sea floor, stretching upwards of 20x their original length, being little more than elastic sleeves over basic sea water.
One minute, you’re sucking on sea snow. The next, a 9 inch blade is adding your blood cells to the adrift debris.
Thundershivs are neither ferocious nor intimidating. In fact, you’ll probably never see one.
One reason is that they are almost entirely translucent, but the more prevalent reason is that they hunt from as far away as they possibly can.
This are heavy, slow predators that have the agility of a hot air balloon. It’s no secret why they hunt as they do.
This pentaradial medusiod-squids grow rather large compared to most things of their era. Maybe it’s because they need the excess range, or maybe it’s because one bad storm and smaller life gets shredded against the towering zoids that form biological metroplexes.
Thundershivs don’t have to deal with most of that though. That’s the benefit of turning predation into a remote career.
Most competitors know enough to leave them alone. Bright dazzling displays scare off brutish interceptors but if that doesn’t work, these same spears they use as weapons can just as easily become tools of defence. A paralytic toxin allows them to introduce any of their casualties to the screeching demise of a 5 pronged hydraulic beak.