Many fishes had actually died when they swallowed pieces of the puppet fish's bones that pierced through their organs in their hurry to devour them. The other surrounding fishes once again pounced upon the dead fishes which had swallowed the bones of the puppet fish, starting another round of massacre.
Prakash stared at the ongoing massacre as a chill crept upon his spine when he glanced at the shrunken version of Ugly Shaggy retreat from the turbulent waters and hover in the air beside him. He had glossed over this point because the Gharial he had converted into his puppet before had tough scales that wouldn't even get scratched from the bites of regular fishes like the ones before him.
Every creature that he converts using Ugly Shaggy would start to emit that mesmerizing aroma from their body which would practically spell doom for them if they didn't have a robust defence like the Gharial.
Numerous purple snakes emerged out from the body of the dead fishes as they hovered near them in place without any other movement and began to dissipate into the surroundings.
"So, the purple snakes that arise from the dead bodies not killed by me just dissipate into the surroundings." As Prakash inferred another piece of information, he saw Ugly Shaggy swoop towards the purple snakes and began to devour them.
The jaws of Ugly Shaggy placed under its face opened to reveal 3 rows of saw-like teeth that bit into the flesh of a purple snake and tore a large clump of its purple smoke. The attacked purple snake immediately retaliated with its own attacks that made use of its whip-like body to lash out on its attacker.
"Ugh," Prakash grunted in response as he could feel pain every time the purple snake lashed on Ugly Shaggy; it seemed the sense of pain was transmitted to him through their connection.
But the damage the purple snake lashed on Ugly Shaggy paled in comparison to the vicious bites of Ugly Shaggy that devoured major lumps of the purple snake after each bite. Moreover, its body was growing larger and more resilient after each bite while the purple snake was clearly getting weakened.
After a dozen seconds passed in such a manner, Ugly Shaggy had finished devouring the first purple snake and immediately engaged in battle with another purple snake that was peacefully dissipating nearby.
"I now have a major source of entertainment," To a guy who liked martial arts since childhood, such a battle felt refreshing to see. Moreover, he noticed a steady stream of Karma pour into his body through his connection with Shaggy which was a cause for celebration.
A couple of rows that had previously disappeared in the Karma Attribute displayed in his Record re-appeared once again. Numerous new rows had also been created that ranged from 'Fish 16' to 'Fish 20'.
"It seems that the names of each species in my Record are labelled based on my knowledge of them. Since I don't know the names of these fishes but have the knowledge that these creatures are a species of fish, the Record named them accordingly." Prakash noted as he gazed at Ugly Shaggy that had once again returned to his side.
Totalling all the Karma he had gained, Prakash found out that he had gained about 287 Karma which was a stark contrast to the amount he had used to convert the fish into his puppet. He had made a major loss through his previous action.
"Unless it's a creature that is big, strong, and tough, it's not efficient to convert them into my puppet." Prakash sat cross-legged as he willed for Ugly Shaggy to convert all the Karma of the numerous fishes he had obtained to Ant Karma.
Upon his mental input, Ugly Shaggy immediately turned transparent and entered into his body. It then scoured through his body until it came across a mass of purple smoke that was silently circulating in place. It then began to eat the circulating mass of purple smoke, digest them in its body, convert them into another mass of purple smoke, and finally eject them out through its tail.
Transforming into a fish wasn't of much use to him since he had the Gharial to transport him through the waters safely while he had a greater need for Ant Karma to scale up the walls and the staircase.
Time slowly passed as sweat rolled down the face of Prakash while his back had been completely drenched by it. As hundreds of bloodthirsty gazes were directed at his body for such a long time that his mental sanity was stretched to its limit, Prakash continued to wait for his conversion process to finish as he suppressed the urge to run away.
Prakash didn't look down for fear his legs might give out under him as he gazed at the progress of his Karma conversion.
Only 'Fish 15' blinked among all the rows of fishes displayed in his 'Record'; the others had already vanished when their respective Karma had been fully consumed. There was still plenty of Karma left of 'Fish 15' since he had gained a considerable sum of it when the Gharial went on a killing spree.
Prakash patiently waited until he saw the row pertaining to 'Fish 15' disappear from his 'Record' as he gazed at the Karma of Ant that had now become quite considerable.
"I have a total of 462 seconds worth of partial transformation of an Ant." Prakash silently calculated in his head as it took 10 Ant Karma per second to maintain his partial transformation of an Ant, unlike his partial transformation of a dog that barely consumed a unit of Dog Karma for every 15 seconds on average.
"Karma Comprehension," Its value rose by a few levels in his heart as Prakash gazed at the distance between him and the staircase to his right, there were about 10 metres between the two.
Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated around the regions of his palms and the soles on his feet which transformed into hair-like projections that secreted some kind of viscous fluid.
Prakash placed his left hand on the wall and felt it get firmly attached to the wall. He then proceeded to place his left sole on the wall followed by his right palm and right sole. Like a gecko, Prakash expertly crawled along the wall while trying his best to disregard the murderous stares that followed his back.
Two minutes later, a figure was panting atop the edge of a handrail as his swollen limbs were healing at a snails' pace. Prakash once again began to experience a sense of thirst as he saw his swollen limbs heal themselves. It seemed that the water stored within his body was being expended to kick-start this healing process.
Prakash stared at his palms where most of the skin had been peeled off; this was a major disadvantage with partial transformations. Even though he could climb the walls by activating the Ant Karma for a partial transformation, his body experienced major strain due to it executing manoeuvres that originally weren't meant for his body to achieve.
As a result, the skin on his palms began to peel off due to bearing the weight of his entire body as he climbed the walls. When he was at the end of his destination, Prakash almost lost his grip on the walls as the skin on his left palm had completely come off. He barely managed to reach his destination above the handrail with a partially useable right palm and two slippery soles.
Prakash was hit with an intense sense of thirst by the time his body had managed to completely heal itself. Disregarding his thirst, for now, Prakash began to walk along the handrails to reach the second floor of the shopping mall.
There were bound to be water bottles and other sources of water on the second floor. He had spotted a couple of water bottles floating on the water but didn't dare to go near it in fear of the fishes jumping out of the water to have a bite on his delicious irresistible self.
The journey upward was anticlimactic as Prakash didn't encounter any other hindrances and finally managed to reach the second floor.
It was a sea of mess; shattered glass pieces that were scattered everywhere, numerous clothes that almost covered the footpath, food items that began to rot, and various expensive items that had once been showcased in their full glory lay in a broken mess along one edge of the footpath.
Most of his surroundings were dark due to an absence of sunlight as Prakash scoured through his surroundings with his eyes that had been transformed into that of a dog's. There were traces of sunlight that leaked in through the broken glass roof at the centre of the shopping mall which was mostly focused along the ground surface at the centre.
The shopping mall had been built with the shops forming the outer most layer followed by the footpath for people to traverse on and enter/exit each shop of their choice and finally, an open area in the centre from which one can gaze upon all the floors of the shopping mall.
Prakash walked to the edge of the footpath adjacent to the open area and activated his Ant Karma to climb up a short wall of glass that was used as a safety measure in shopping malls to prevent people from falling over the edges.
From the top of the glass wall, Prakash once again transformed his eyes into that of a dog's to gaze at the floors above. The shopping mall was comprised of 5 floors where the fifth floor was fully lit by the blazing sunlight while the subsequent downward floors became progressively darker.
"What the…" His mouth gaped at shock when he saw insects that numbered in the thousands were trapped in a series of spider webs that ran along one edge of the shopping mall from the third floor all the way to the fifth floor.
What was further surprising was the fact that all the trapped insects lay motionless, seemingly dead. There also seemed to be insects that had just died as purple snakes emerged out of their bodies and travelled towards a certain spot on the fourth floor before disappearing.
Purple smoke gushed out of his orifices and coagulated at the top of his head and formed into a set of dog ears. With his enhanced hearing, Prakash picked up faint cheers and laughter coming from the second floor.
While he was racking his brains about how to reach the fourth floor in the most efficient manner without exhausting his Ant Karma, Prakash saw dozens of humanoid figures rush into the series of spider webs with expert manoeuvre and carefully pick out the dead insect carcasses which they brought back to their base.