The newly born amoebas tore one another to pieces and gobbled the pieces up.
Among the newly born lay the corpses of those who had perished in the fight for survival.
It was the best and strongest who won.
And they were terrifying.
Firstly, they were about twice the size of ordinary amoebas and, secondly, they were far more active and aggressive.
Their movements were rapid, their pseudopodia much longer than normal, and it would be no exaggeration to say that they used them like an octopus's tentacles.
On the second evening the Professor, pale and haggard, his only sustenance the thick cigarettes he rolled himself, studied the new generation of amoebas.
And on the third day he turned to the primary source, i.e., the red ray.