Reincarnated as a Land Shark???

Chapter 33: In the Shoes of the Enemy

Alright, April Fools day is over, so it's time to replace the April Fools chapter with the actual chapter. And I swear it's the real chapter this time.

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The Shark has to go.

Ever since I first hatched from my mother's egg, surrounded by my countless tiny siblings and left to forge my own path in the world, Nothing has dared to interfere with my webs. Down the mountains I climbed until I made my home here along the lakeshore, where foolish prey would draw near to drink their fill of pristine water and feast on the plentiful food to their hearts' content. In these woods I cast my webs, each a formidable trap or line of defense to keep those who would be my enemies in their place as my prey. For many years I have lived here, and for many, many years shall I remain.

Never before have I encountered a creature with the audacity to steal from me.

Not only did they steal my precious prey, my only source of nutrition, they even went so far as to steal the traps themselves! Not a day goes by without my precious, hard-weaved traps and walls disappearing as though they were never there. Not a day goes by in which the prey caught by my webs vanishes into the stomach of an intruder.

When it first appeared, I had thought the beast a passing nuisance. I know well of the Nanaue that lurk near the coast. When I was younger and more foolish I ventured down there only to be caught out at night and forced to leap from tree to tree as the vicious creatures tore down one after another for a chance to catch me in their ferocious maws. Seeing one of their kin so far from the ocean was indeed a surprise, but I had been under the impression that it would leave and find another section of shoreline to haunt once it ate its fill and hydrated itself.

Instead, this creature which I now know to be like no Nanaue that I've ever seen before, has taken up residence in the crystalline lake that once drew in so much prey. Now the animals and monsters recognize a new threat swimming in its waters, and stay away from the land it surfaces near.

Namely, they avoid my territory.

Once full of cautious passing life, on the lookout for my webs but still careless enough to be caught, my home has become barren. The monsters I hunted know of the Nanaue and follow the warnings of the Seers, and so followed them away from the land where their kin hunted. Well, all knew the seers but those tiny brainless slimes, that is, but since when have slimes ever known to do anything more than hop about blindly and hope to not get stepped on by a passing rabbit? All they seem to do nowadays is follow that damnable intruder around like it's some sort of deity despite its obvious dislike of them.

I once held tolerance for the creature, when I still had enough and it still showed caution in my domain. The only thing my benevolence achieved, however, was to embolden the creature, to make it think it can trample about my territory, established, defended, and hunted on untouched by rivals for years. It took food from my webs, stripped down every layer of defense I had. I attempted to draw a line in the sand, only to have that line stolen as well.

Perhaps it was somewhat like a cute pet when it first arrived, but it has become naught but a pestilence in its time here, pilfering and plaguing my home like nothing but an entire swarm of thousands of mangy diseased rodents could accomplish. Even setting out to fish for the beast ended in failure as it simply treated my hard-caught bait like a free meal, tugging on my line every time it wanted seconds as though I were its servant rather than its hunter!

It is unacceptable.

Unacceptable!

The hook failed to catch in its flesh. The line failed to stick to its fins when it tugged on it. The poisoned meat never found its way into the creature's jaws.