"holy shit," Rick said whistling.
"I told ya I weren't shitting ya," Francois, the local fisherman, said.
This beast dwarfed the lion jelly. Medusozoa Leviathani. He had pictures, but they didn't do the creature justice. It looked like a bulge in the ocean sporting a colony of colorful plankton. The thing had to be at least a hundred feet across.
"And you say you're going in with it?" Francois laughed. "I wouldn't go near that even if I had a submarine."
Rick began suiting up while the crew took notes. Even while he pulled the diving suit on he couldn't take his eyes off the thing. The crew wondered aloud why it stayed surfaced so long. Then it hit him. Those spots across it were eyespots. It was watching them too.
"Watch it Rick! You want to stumble over the edge? We're not going in after you."
The spots along the thing were primitive, as with any jellyfish, but the sheer number of them put the things visual resolution well above even predatory hawks.
As Rick stepped into the water, the bell of the beast convulsed once, depressing and drawing water into the bowl to jet away. He barely got ahold of a tentacle before the jellyfish was moving. Water swirled around him and glassy tendrils like the branches of a weeping willow covered him.
Nearby the turbulent water from the jelly's actions could blast Rick off easily, and the waves of the tentacles brought him close each time the thing pulsed.
His thick gloves protected him while he took cuttings and placed them in sample pouches, marveling at the find. Where had this been?
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