In front of them was a single, small kitten— which was a huge relief! Yaaro would often forget what he was doing and cross roads just to get the chance of petting one. So a kitten was a welcome sight! Everyone stared at the little kitten as it waddled towards Aurore.
From below, it tilted its little head and let out a meow.
Yaaro’s heart melted, and so did everyone else’s heart. Aurore was about to pet it, when Mikhael roughly pulled her back.
“Are you all insane? There’s no way this thing is normal!” Claire translated for him.
The kitten simply meowed and hugged Aurore’s feet.
Seeing its playful antics, everyone (with the exception of Mikhael) breathed a sigh of relief.
Aurore said something that Claire didn’t bother to translate and bent down to pet the kitten. With its beady eyes and small face it looked painfully cute.
And then a deathly scream howled through the cave. Blood spurted down to the ground in pulses and fell with a sickening splat while Aurore still screamed. And writhing in the mouth of that thing on the ground, was her arm from the elbow down.
Immediately a tentacle flew out and slammed the kitten, rocketing it to the wall— and crushing into it with a squelching thud.
As she lay hyperventilating on the ground, Claire cradled her on her lap while Hyphis held her arm below her body, repeatedly murmuring something as she stretched out her palms. And as she did, a light-green mist floated from it towards her hideous wound, slowly clotting her blood and easing her expression.
“#@! #@ ?” Hyphis asked her, to which Aurore nodded. It seemed the healing was working— if only to alleviate the pain.
And then there was that familiar whine again— making every single person turn their heads.
But this time it was louder— more cacophonous. It was like a wave of noise undulating in their ears, mixing until no single sound was distinguishable. And then it revealed itself— a horde of kittens rushing towards them like a flood, the sound of their meows like Death itself.
“Run!” Yaaro threw Aurore over his back and the group ran.
Occasionally, fireballs flew out behind them and onto the horde— but aside from a few roasted bodies, it made no difference to the advancing death. Yaaro’s legs were wrung dry and by carrying Aurore, they felt like iron weights.
They couldn’t run forever.
A black tentacle flew out from Yaaro like a tail and thrashed around the horde. In the billowing clouds of dust, it was hard to see if there was any effect. He dismissed the tentacle to a shower of sparks.
The dust settled. And the horde sprung forth.
Immediately the running began again. Hyphis threw up a wall of earth and divided the cavern in two. Immediately the cavern fell silent.
The team panted and heaved— sweat staining their faces and armor.
“What the… What the hell were those things?” Yaaro asked.
“He says” Claire paused to catch her breath, “He’s never seen something like that in the bestiary.”
Crack
Yaaro’s eyes were wide open in horror.
Crack…. Crack…
Thin cracks slowly ran along the wall. And Yaaro anxiously turned to Hyphis.
“Can you make another wall?” Yaaro asked.
And another wall was thrown up.
“Another!”
And another one was thrown up.
“Another!”
“I’m running low on mana!”
His heart skipped a beat. There was no way three walls were enough. No amount of walls was. If they could break through one wall, they could break through every wall.
From behind the walls, the dull sound of colliding and crashing rocks ricocheted through the cavern. Yaaro handed Aurore over to Claire and his mind began to spin for solutions. Status
Name: [Yaaro Ilay]
Titles: None
Level: 4
Skills: [Enhanced Speaking] [Mana Manipulation Lv6] [Tentacle Manifestation Lv2] [Temperature Control Lv1] [Pyrokinesis Lv1] [Mana Armaments Lv1] [Geass Breaker]
Stats: Mana-> 10,315,780 Strength-> 3 Speed-> 2 Stamina-> 3
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Now was the time to choose. He was faced with the golden panel:
[Choose skill variant:]
And both of them were described as follows
[Quantity: +1 Tentacle] [Quality: Tentacles become more dextrous]
Without thinking he chose [Quantity] and as soon as he did, he felt a subtle change in not his body, but his mind— as if he had been subtly locked onto a path. Was it the feeling of growing stronger?
Immediately, two thick black tentacles sprouted from his back. He had tried making an extra mana projection before, but controlling them was extremely distracting and taxing on his mind.
Now however, the two tentacles felt as natural as two arms.
They readied themselves above him like the stinger of a scorpion— preparing to lash down and crush the horde.
The dull sound of rocks tumbling sounded from behind— louder this time.
And soon there were cracks on the wall. Even more and even faster than before.
And then the wall shattered.
Bodies were crushed. Bodies were slammed. Bodies were splattered. With another tentacle, Yaaro wreaked havoc on the horde. Its unstoppable advance had visibly slowed down.
But it never stopped.
Slowly, the horde advanced.
And slowly, the group backed up.
This dance of death continued, but the frenzy of those things never abated. In fact they became more intense— increasing their speed and sprinting across instead of waddling. Although he crushed and slammed— two tentacles were not enough.
Fireballs and shards of rock slammed into the horde. Roasting. Crushing. And eviscerating those things.
But it wasn’t enough.
All their attacks had barely made a dent in the horde— and what’s worse, a few of them even scurried past their feet.
That was when Yaaro stopped attacking. With his tentacles silently hovering above the horde, he gazed at the trickle of kittens rushing past his feet.
Not a single one attacked him.
Chills ran down his spine and his hair stood on end.
“Guys…” A murmur escaped from him— but it was lost in the din of the battle.
“Guys!” He shouted, “Stop attacking!”
Aurore looked down at the trickle of kittens running past their legs, and her face turned pale in realization.
“Yaaro? What happened?” Claire asked— and everyone stopped attacking just as he had requested, although they were still very wary of the kittens passing between their legs. Every small brush against the skin on their feet shot tingles through their spines.
By this time the horde was passing through them as if they were rocks standing in a river.
Yaaro paled and simply looked down. Following his gaze, they all looked at the murderous things streaming between their legs. And everyone was confused.
Claire simply looked down in disgust and mumbled, “Why aren’t these things attacking us?”
“Claire.” Yaaro said, his face pale, “They were never attacking us.”
“Then?”
“They were running away.”
And as if to answer his question, a deep rumble and a low roar spread throughout the cavern— setting everyone’s hair on end.
The ground trembled. And the thousands of frantic legs beneath them scurried faster. Again there was a low roar— the bass nudging each cell of their bodies.
Boom…
The sound grew louder.
Boom…
The sound grew even more violent.
From the darkness a form took shape.
Amidst the light of the glowing crystals on the wall— a towering red wolf lumbered from the shadows. Blood dripped from its mouth as it dove its slender head into the horde and snapped up a few kittens in its maw.
And then there were no more kittens. The last of the horde had escaped the beast. Its golden eyes slowly turned to the group and eerily, almost like a human, it smiled, and broke into a mad gallop.
Yaaro was the first to react.
Both his tentacles flew and coiled around its back legs, intending to trip it. But it was as good as using paper to stop a bullet— the beast simply galloped as if the tentacles didn’t exist.
There was a shower of sparks, and the tentacles reappeared by Yaaro’s side. His friends were pushed to the side, and he launched himself into the air just as the beast opened its maw to greet him.
By a hair’s margin, he missed the top of its head, and tumbled onto its back. Two bolts of crackling blue light materialized by the beast’s head and it turned its body around to face Yaaro.
In the dim light of the cave, its dark red coat almost blended into the shadows and its glowing golden eyes stood out from the darkness like two miniature suns. The two tentacles sprung out from his back, facing the prowling beast. He activated his mana armaments skill but—
[Error: Skill Mana Armaments cannot be used with the skill Tentacle Manifestation]
“Wha—??”
Fire, ice and rock pelted the beast’s body, but it paid them no mind. It ignored the sword slicing its legs and the mace hurling against it— because it had no effect. It ignored the searing heat of fire on its face— because it had no effect.
It ignored every single attack they threw at it. Widely, the beast grinned at Yaaro as the bolts of ice twirled in the air, growing thicker and thicker.
Was it over?
… No! It was not! Not until he got home.
Yaaro grit his teeth and conjured a ball of fire a metre away from his hand. The beast watched with an amused curiosity as the dull orange fire slowly turned blue. The fire blazed brighter as Yaaro grit his teeth and then—
It tore through the air like a rocket and landed right on the beast’s face. Upon touching its face, the fireball simply evaporated— like all their other spells had.
[Skill: Pyrokinesis is now Lvl 2!]
[Choose skill variant:]
And then a single bolt of blue shot towards Yaaro.
Was there really nothing else he could do? He dismissed his tentacles and the shower of sparks upon its dismissal was slow to bloom. The world had slowed down. It was just like that moment in the train— before he’d even come to this world. As suddenly as he’d arrived, he was going to leave this world.
He summoned a shield of mana around him, but it was too slow to appear.
Never mind that, would it even stand?
No.
It didn’t.
In that slowed down world, Yaaro watched as the bolt of ice slowly cracked, and then shattered the mana shield.
And then a slow, sharp pain radiated from his chest.
The bolt crushed his chest.
Pierced through his heart— rupturing it completely.
And then shot out his back.
The air tickled his insides as it flowed through the gaping wound in his chest. With eyes wide open, Yaaro Ilay slumped to the floor in disbelief—
And then died.