Prakash tried to stop the conversion process but failed; he then tried many methods in failure without losing hope and finally gained success. There were already about 100 units of Ant Karma displayed in his 'Record' by the time he had managed to stop the conversion process.
On seeing that he still had plenty of Karma of 'Fish 15', Prakash tried to activate his Karmic Arts again and focused on converting the Karma of 'Fish 15' into the Karma of the Gharial.
Prakash felt as if the blood that was silently flowing in his bloodstream coagulated into a long serpentine figure which began to eat at the purple mist circulating within his body. The feeling was more on the instinctual side as he didn't have any mystical abilities to observe the inner workings of his body.
The serpentine figure swallowed large lumps of a certain structured purple smoke through its gaping mouth and left smaller lumps of purple smoke of a different structure along its wake.
Prakash immediately stopped the conversion process and tried to transform into a Gharial. He wanted to check the amount of its fearsome destructive prowess he could currently employ.
Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated to form a cocoon that wrapped around his body which immediately shattered to reveal a tiny reptilian creature from within.
The reptilian creature measured about 35 centimetres in length with a long snout, weighed about 90 grams, and had olive coloured scaly skin. The eyes of the reptilian creature blinked in surprise as it tried to move forward when it came to a shocking conclusion as it gazed at the four weak stumps that acted as its legs.
Even the legs of an adult Gharial were so weak that they couldn't even support its body weight not to mention that of a hatchling which Prakash had transformed into.
The body of the baby Gharial dissolved into purple smoke that was absorbed back into his body as Prakash made a mental note to not rely on the Gharial form on land. It was a question whether it could even prove useful in water with its small and frail body.
"I was a bit too hopeful after seeing its humongous and robust adult body. The babies of any creature are weak at birth after all." Prakash made another mental note to increase the comprehension of the Gharial's Karma. It was a conclusion he had arrived after some careful observation; the greater the comprehension of a creature's Karma, the more mature the transformation into said creature will be and moreover, would also decrease the amount of Karma consumed during the transformation.
"Alright; now onto the final part," Prakash gazed at the murky waters as he willed for Ugly Shaggy to appear. He tried different methods that ranged from play-acting like a dog to meditating in silence at the end of which purple smoke gushed out of his body and formed into Ugly Shaggy.
"It was so simple at the end," Prakash muttered with a sigh; at the end, all he had to do was mentally call upon Ugly Shaggy with the impromptu name he had bestowed it with and it immediately appeared before him.
Ugly Shaggy silently hovered in front of his face without exhibiting any lifelike actions like a dull piece of rubber. Prakash then proceeded to control its movements and felt that it was surprisingly easy to control it.
It was like the difference between driving a car as a driver seated within it and controlling it from afar with a joystick; his situation was the latter. All Prakash had to do was send a mental input to Ugly Shaggy to execute a certain task and it would perform the task on its own without any further inputs.
Prakash also found an interesting ability as he was learning more about Ugly Shaggy, it was that their senses could be shared. If Prakash closed his right eye, then through his left he would be able to see through the eyes of Ugly Shaggy, though the eyesight of Ugly Shaggy was even more horrible than his own.
On his will, Ugly Shaggy began to expand its serpentine body and proceeded to dive deep into the murky waters until it hovered in front of a huge reptilian creature that spanned 3 metres in length.
The reptilian creature currently had its eyes closed as it seemed to lay motionless at the very dark depths of the murky waters in order to conserve its energy. But, other than that, it didn't seem to take any other action. Without Ugly Shaggy to take the reins, the Gharial was currently in a vegetative state as its ego had long ago been devoured by it. Moreover, a faint stench began to permeate from around its body, a sign that its body began to decompose, albeit at a snail's pace.
"Is this what that Blue Transformation would result in me had Ugly Shaggy not transferred it to the Gharial in time?" Prakash let his thoughts wander about the incident where his body turned a deep shade of blue which made him unable to transform. He decided to label it the 'Blue Transformation' for his convenience.
Shaking his head to let this train of thought fall to the back of his head, Prakash willed for Ugly Shaggy to once again settle within the head of the Gharial.
Ugly Shaggy slithered through the murky waters and seeped into the head of the Gharial without resistance as after a while, the scaly eyes of the Gharial shot open.
"Success!" Prakash shouted aloud in joy as he felt a connection establish with the Gharial once again. This meant that he could always re-establish his connection with it barring any surprises.
Prakash recalled Ugly Shaggy back and let it hover beside him as he began to walk towards the hole in the wall of concrete that led inside the shopping mall.
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10 minutes passed without accidents as a tiny figure stood within the hole in the concrete wall and gazed into the interior of the shopping mall as his eyes transformed into that of a dog's.
The floor was mostly submerged underwater as numerous long shelves peaked out through the waters and stood with broken racks. Heaps of plastic cups, tin cans, and other packaged food floated on the waters to such an extent that most of the water surface had been covered by them. Only at a few places could he spot the water body peaking out in protest.
10 metres to his right was the emergency stairs that lead a flight of stairs to both upwards and downwards. Only when he gazed at the board affixed on the wall next to the flight of stairs did Prakash come to realise that the submerged floor he was currently gazing at was the first floor of the shopping mall.
The ground floor and the subsequent basements were fully filled with water, implying no human could have survived there. It was also strange that he hadn't seen the silhouette of his fellow humans till now.
It was a holiday when disaster struck their bodies that turned them small which also meant that the shopping malls were supposed to be overcrowded to their limits, a usual occurrence in their city.
"Maybe the survivors went upstairs?" Prakash thought about the possibility of such an occurrence. It was honestly a 50-50 chance that the humans on this floor could have moved up. Without being able to transform, it was neigh impossible to traverse up the stairs with their tiny bodies that had zero physical advantages while under the possible assault of many insects at the very least.
"Considering the dense aroma that has saturated the air here, I wouldn't be surprised if this place hasn't been swarmed to the death by insects." This was the only reason Prakash risked to venture into this shopping mall. The aroma that wafted out of their bodies had practically saturated the air here but he couldn't sight any insect hovering about in the area. This meant that the humans here had grasped knowledge about their ability to transform and had strong people in their midst that could fight against a swarm of insects.
If there had only been a thin source of aroma in this region, Prakash could have tracked the source through his newly developed senses but when the air was practically saturated by it, he could only blindly scour through the entire shopping mall.
Purple smoke seeped through the pores on his skin and coagulated around the regions of his palm and the soles of his feet which transformed into rows and rows of hair-like projections that also began to secrete some viscous fluid.
Prakash began to descend the wall when he noticed ripples form on the peaceful water surface that had been covered with numerous items. A fish head popped out from the water surface as it gazed at his direction with bloodshot eyes. Immediately, numerous items that floated on the water surface were pushed aside as fish heads of all shapes and sizes began to pop out of the water surface one by one and gazed at his direction with bloodthirsty gazes.
"Ugh," Goosebumps appeared on his skin as fear gripped his heart. He no longer had the intention to descend down as Prakash scaled up the walls until he once again stood within the hole in the wall.
"Ugly Shaggy, time for you to shine," Upon his call, Ugly Shaggy that was hovering beside him shot towards one of the fish nearest to his location and seeped into its head.
The fish whose head had been invaded by the foreign entity flailed in the waters as a couple surrounding cans of food had been sent flying by its trashing. Soon, its trashing came to a halt as Prakash felt a connection establish between him and the fish.
Prakash noted through his 'Record' that he had lost nearly 400 units of Karma of 'Fish 15' in order to convert this fish into his puppet.
The moment the fish got converted into his puppet, a faint aroma that was similar to his began to waft out of its body which made all the surrounding fishes send their bloodthirsty gazes at it.
"Shit," Prakash couldn't help but curse aloud as he saw the fish that became his puppet get pounced upon by the other fishes and devoured in a matter of seconds until not even a drop of its blood that had spilled into the waters remained.