“Master Monarch!” Fly cried out.

Monarch…?

This?

Looking away from the beast, I glanced down at the woman I had just slaughtered for.

Renn’s feeble trembling told me she wasn’t up to task, but I couldn’t blame her. Her appearance told me all I needed to know. She hadn’t just been tossed down here by those freaks, but had been beaten rather harshly before they had done so.

Fly at least seemed generally unhurt.

Glancing to my left, to the only accessible exit of this large room… I hoped it at least led far enough away that they’d be safe. Judging by the stone that made up this room, it was clear we were no longer in the sewers of Lumen. This stone was older than Lumen. We were now in the sunken city.

That wasn’t a problem… as long as we stayed away from the toxic sections.

The problem was the large tentacle like appendage between us and the exit.

Running my eyes along the appendage, to the main body… I wondered what it was. It had snake-like appendages emerging from a large bulbous head, which seemed to act as its main body. Extruding from that head was countless little appendages alongside the two main large ones, all looking like little hairs. A huge jaw, with teeth to match its size, was obviously deformed. It was too crooked. Too lopsided. Yet although malformed it was still opening and closing… as if it was trying to talk. The giant jaw sat under dozens of black orb eyes, they were similar to ones found on insects, and nothing about the way the thing was growling and groaning told me it had any real semblance of identity.

It was but a beast. One that lived by instinct and nothing more.

But that didn’t make it any less of a threat.

“Vim…!” Renn cried out my name as the thing extended one of its tentacle appendages. The long and slender thing slithered towards us, sliding along the ground as if it was a snake. Renn stepped back, pushing herself even more up against me as she pulled Fly closer into herself.

The thing approached quickly, reaching us in the blink of an eye… but I knew it had not done so in haste. It reached over to the broken body of the woman who had tossed Fly down here, and wrapped around her. The thing picked the woman’s body up, and I noted that it did so… well…

Lazily.

The three of us watched as the long appendage curled inward and brought the woman to its body. I heard it crunch bone as the appendage squeezed the body a little before it opened its massive mouth even more, and then tossed the body in.

Renn shivered and Fly made an odd noise as the beast slowly closed its mouth and began to chew.

Interesting.

“Renn,” I gently squeezed Renn’s shoulder, to make sure I got her attention.

Her ears, which were drooping even though alert, startled and turned a little… but she didn’t turn her head as to look at me. She couldn’t take her eyes off the scene in front of us.

With a pat on her shoulder, I then pointed to our left. Towards the hallway. “There’s a hallway over there. Near its other… tentacle thing,” I said.

Renn finally turned away from the beast, and I noted the way she flinched when it bit down again and we heard something crunch and pop. The woman’s head, maybe.

“A hallway…” Renn whispered.

“Take Fly and go hurry down that hallway. Just run. If you can, get back to the surface, otherwise just get as far away as possible until it’s over,” I said.

“I… Vim…” Renn mumbled something as I watched the creature in front of us finish eating. Its massive body shifted, and I noted the way it turned a little to the left.

At first I thought maybe it had understood us, and was shifting as to try and stop anyone from leaving… but it didn’t take long for the truth of its purpose to show itself. Its other tentacle, the one that had been lying motionlessly between us and the hallway started to curl inward and move. I pulled Renn, and thus Fly, back a few steps as the tentacle moved towards the other body. The man with the thick lizard-like tail.

He was still alive, though unconscious. He didn’t make a sound or move as the tentacle coiled around his waist.

Was it eating them first because they weren’t moving, or because it knew they were dead? Why was it ignoring us?

Even if it was without reason and just a beast acting on instinct… You’d think it’d deal with us, those moving and making noise, before eating.

Most beasts didn’t eat when there were strangers nearby, thanks to the danger it brought.

Though maybe it didn’t feel as if we were anything dangerous. Thanks to its size alone it might not have ever felt in danger before.

Maybe it thought we were those who fed it. Or it was just saving us for last.

“Ugh…!” the lizard man groaned as he was dragged along the floor towards the creature’s main body.

“He’s still alive…!” Renn whispered in awe as she and Fly watched the scene.

Glancing around one last time as the beast lifted the man as to toss him into its mouth, I realized why neither I nor anyone in the Society had ever found out about this thing.

It was stuck in here.

There was another hallway behind it, but it was just like the one to our left. Small. Normal in size and height… meant for humans.

This creature was too big to fit into either of them, and there didn’t seem to be any other way out.

Had it been tossed in here when young, and thus small, or did it get stuck somehow? This large room had probably been a warehouse or something back before the city had been destroyed and submerged. It definitely came after the fall of the city, not before.

Did that mean these people have simply been feeding this creature all this time? For no reason?

If it was stuck in here then there had been no point in feeding it. Especially so if it was without reason. It would have just starved to death if they had let it be.

Wasted lives.

I’m glad now that I hadn’t taken the time to interrogate anyone up there, but at the same time I wish I had.

“Vim,” Renn said my name as the man was tossed into the things mouth.

The creature slowly closed its mouth, uncaring of the sound of the man’s screams that sounded like muffled moans as he was eaten.

“Renn!” Fly cried out with a hushed scream, and I glanced down to see her bury her face into Renn… as if to hide. To hide not just from the beast, but the sounds.

“Go Renn. I’ll find you when I’m done,” I said, and pushed her gently as to usher her away.

Now was the perfect time. It seemed to take a moment to eat, and now there was nothing between us and the hallway. The tentacle that had been lying between us was now curled up in front of the thing’s body.

“Vim…!” Renn sounded as if she wanted to argue… likely to tell me to come with her, but I didn’t give her the chance.

“Go. Something that big makes it difficult to protect anyone while fighting it,” I said firmly.

Her bruised and bloodied face scrunched up, and I had to look away from her. I didn’t like that appearance on her. It made me…

Renn stepped away, and pulled Fly alongside her. As she did I noticed the way she stumbled… and not just because Fly wasn’t being cooperative, thanks to the way she was clinging to her.

Broken legs, maybe.

Maybe her complaint had not been about me not going with her, but rather her trying to tell me she wasn’t up for the task of even running away.

No matter. She was leaving the area, even if slowly.

So…

As Renn and Fly left the room, I wondered if I should simply go with them.

After all, if it was stuck here… and without reason…

Well…

I could just return later, couldn’t I? Deal with it at another time, once I was sure everyone else was safe?

But that would enable those idiots to sacrifice others again in the meantime. I had killed quite a few up there, before jumping down here, but I had left just as many alive. I had worried over Fly and…

The creature shifted, and I immediately ran towards Renn and Fly. The tentacle that had been lying listlessly shot outward, towards the fumbling Renn. It moved so quickly that Renn and Fly didn’t even notice it until I was between them and the thing as it hit me.

Putting myself between the tentacle and Renn, I more so ran into the thing than it ran into me. I had barely made it in time.

Grabbing onto the tentacle as it started to wrap around me, I felt the slickness of moss… and beneath the moss even slimier scales.

Barely able to get a hold on the thing, I was forced backward as it pushed while wrapping itself around me.

It was about as thick as my waist, at least this section of the tentacle was, but it was heavy. Heavier than me by many fold… and not just because it was putting force into its attempt of grabbing me.

“Vim!” Renn cried out behind me, and I tightened my squeeze and grip even more. Getting a firm hold on the slimy thing, I felt the thick bones within it start to bend and shift from the pressure I was applying.

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The beast let out a growl, and the whole room started to vibrate from the noise.

Glancing over the tentacle that was in my arms, and trying to coil around me, I made sure the other large tentacle wasn’t going for Renn or Fly. This thing was strong enough to kill them instantly if it got them in its grip, let alone simply crushing them or…

Something sliced into my shoulder, causing me to shift my head away right as the tip of the tentacle slapped downward where my head would have been. It rolled along my shoulder and down my chest, and as it did I felt it cut into my skin.

The tip of the tentacle seemed to be covered in sharp barbs. The kind that not just pierced, but gouged and ripped. Like little hooks.

“Great,” I firmed my footing and squeezed the tentacle even more. Putting more strength into it than should be needed, I felt the tentacle twitch and start to pull back and away from me.

“Vim!” Renn shouted my name again, but this time from farther away. The sound put her more to my left… hopefully that meant she was in the hallway, or at least the entrance.

Ignoring her cry, I felt and heard a loud crunch from within my grasp… then the thing jolted, tugging away its tentacle with enough force to send me into the air alongside it.

I had just broken its main bone. And it hadn’t enjoyed that.

The thing was trying to get its tentacle away from me. It even started to unwrap; the barbed end of it was pulled off my chest and shoulder. I ignored the pain as much as I ignored the things attempts to escape me.

Squeezing even more, I pulled my feet up and put them against the tentacle. It put me in an odd position, especially since I was being lifted in the air towards the ceiling, but it let me put more force on the tentacle from a different focal point. The extra leverage, plus my squeezing and pulling from my arms, allowed me to not just crush the thing… but start to tear and rip it too.

The scales broke first, loudly ripping as if it was made of leather, and as I started to tear the tentacle apart the thing let loose a bellow of a roar. One no longer of just pain… but shock.

My ears rung with the roar of a frightened animal.

I smiled as I started to tear the tentacle in two, as the barbed point tried to attack me again. It slithered around to my back, between my shoulder blades. But it was too late. The thing started to give way, and I felt it start to tear. Beneath the slimy scales seemed to be meat similar to fish, based off the way it ripped and tore apart.

Then… right before I could completely separate the thing, I was slammed into the ground.

The impact hadn’t hurt that much, since it had slammed me down in haste. Its panic of movement had made it hit the ground with its own tentacle more than me, so most of the blow had been absorbed by itself.

It was that very impact that finished what I had started. Upon hitting the ground, not only did I fly off its tentacle… so did the part I had been tearing.

Rolling on the ground, I splashed through a large puddle and quickly skidded to a stop as I got to my feet.

Something hit the ground next to me right as I started to stand up, and I ducked as another tentacle swiped over my head.

The air swooshed above me with such force I felt my hair and clothes get pulled alongside it. Keeping myself firm, I crouched and took a deep breath as I took in the sight of not just one, but three new tentacles.

A large piece of the one I had just damaged laid a few dozen paces away, still moving. It was coiling and flopping around as if with a mind of its own… which made me reconsider this creature.

Maybe it was some kind of a beast of the sea.

The tentacle I had damaged was coiling into a ball before its massive body, implying I had hurt it enough to be wary. It held it close as one would a broken arm, afraid of anything touching it.

“Vim!”

I frowned and glanced at the source of my name. Renn and Fly were in the hallway, not far from the entrance. They weren’t clinging to each other anymore, and instead were waving at me.

“Get going already!” I shouted at them.

Nothing seemed to be wrong with them, other than obviously what had already happened to them… so they had simply been shouting at me over concern for myself.

Pointless worry.

For now at least…

Standing back up, I studied the three tentacles that were moving sporadically. One was lifted up, pushing against the wall behind the creature… as if it was trying to push itself away from the wall it was up against. The other two unharmed ones were on either side of it, parts of them were on the ground and the other parts lifted upward. One of them to my right, the one that had grabbed the antler woman’s body, was readied and poised upward… its pointed barbed tip hefted and readied to strike at me.

The large black orbs didn’t have eyelids, but yet all the same they looked as if they were glaring at me. It was focused entirely on me now, and its mouth was closed tightly. A few of the teeth even seemed to be moving from the pressure, as if they were loose and about to fall out.

“You act as if you’ve never felt pain before,” I said to the creature.

The tentacle to my left slammed the ground, as if in defiance.

Oh?

Maybe it did have some form of self.

Glancing away from my enemy, I felt a little relief at seeing an empty hallway.

Renn and Fly had left.

Good.

At least, hopefully it was good.

The beast roared at me, forcing my attention back to it.

It opened its jaw as it roared, and I narrowed my eyes… as I watched not just spittle and other gunk fly out of its mouth… but something green.

A weird looking haze flowed out of its mouth, rolling along its teeth and to the floor as it roared. Like a heavy fog, the green haze flowed out of its mouth and into the room.

Poison of some kind?

The creature started to shake its massive body, and more and more of the green haze began to flow out of it. It even gurgled a little, as if it was throwing the stuff up.

Taking a deep breath, I wondered how far that gunk could travel before diluting. If it was as potent as it looked, even if Renn and Fly go far enough away they could still be danger…

“Enough of that,” I said, deciding to stop it now. It didn’t make sense that it could release too much more of the stuff, since the creature itself was only so big, but I knew that sometimes these kinds of creatures didn’t follow the rules of the world.

Rushing forward, I ran through the puddle I had just rolled in earlier.

The creature quickly responded. It shot out the tentacle on my right, the one that had been poised to strike, and I jumped upward right before it would have pierced me.

Although it missed it didn’t let it deter it. It rolled the tentacle, sweeping it inward towards itself. I picked up my pace as I heard the tentacle scrape against the floor behind me. It was effectively trying to scoop me up.

Skidding a little, right before reaching the curled up tentacle that I had already damaged, I jumped upward and angled myself for the impact. Half a moment after jumping upward, the tentacle that had been curling behind me hit. Using it as footing I kicked off it and leapt even higher, soaring through the air towards the things head.

The beast shifted, arching upward as it seemed to watch me fly towards it. I noticed the tentacle that was against the wall behind it lower itself and angle around, as to attack me, but it was too slow. I landed on the things head, right below one of the largest eyeballs and a few feet above its mouth.

Upon landing on its head, dozens of little tentacles began wrapping themselves around my feet and legs. The clingy hair all had barbs, like the tip of its tentacles, which would have normally been quite a pain.

For me though it was useful, even if it hurt.

It seemed to calm down a little as I stood up and glanced around, expecting a heavy blow from one of its tentacles that wasn’t coming. The thing hesitated in slamming me with its tentacles, likely thanks to its confidence in the little barbed hairs.

“If you can speak I suggest doing it now,” I said to it.

Although the thing groaned a growl, it didn’t do so in a way that implied any kind of sentience. At least, not the kind that I could communicate with.

“Good. Didn’t want to reason with you anyway,” I said, and pulled a leg free from the barbs.

Stepping forward, up to the large eye, I didn’t hesitate as I stomped down onto it.

The eye popped as my foot delved into it, spewing black blood and other gunk all over… and suddenly the thing was no longer calm.

I felt the great deep breath the thing took, and my whole body reverberated as it released it. A great roar so loud it deafened, causing a loud ringing in my ears as I pulled my foot free of the squished eyeball.

The little tentacle hairs all around me were flailing wildly, some even started coiling around each other so strongly that blood was being drawn from the hooked barbs.

Pulling my other leg free, I stepped over to another eyeball. One that I noticed actually had a layer of glossy wetness upon it.

It was crying.

Stepping down onto this eye as well, I flinched as the beast quaked violently. Thanks to the eye being squishy it gave no support, so I was basically standing on one leg. And one leg, even one being grabbed and held onto by the little tentacle hairs, wasn’t enough to keep my stance as the beast began to violently thrash around.

Falling to my side, I hurriedly pushed myself back up and onto my feet. Before I could, a few of the hairs snagged my shoulder and arm.

Although back on my feet, I still stumbled. The beast was shaking wildly, to the point that I begun to feel the swirl of air and tug of gravity as it…

Another roar bellowed out, and suddenly I was sent flying.

The tentacle that hit me only connected for a brief moment. I was sent flying away at such a speed it had no time to wrap around me. I counted the few seconds in the air, and reached five before hitting a wall.

A brief moment of the world going dark, then after I felt the tug of gravity again as I fell down. I wasn’t able to count a single second more before I hit the ground, coming to a stop in a puddle of water and broken stone.

Slowly getting up, I brushed broken stone and dirt off my face. Taking a deep breath, I coughed out a pained groan as I stared at the beast across the room from me.

It had sent me into the wall way over here…

Looking up, I flinched at a weird pain in my neck as I found the place I had impacted. Near the ceiling, right above where I was kneeling was a freshly made hole in the stone. Bits and pieces were still clattering off and out of the hole, landing in the puddle I was in with loud clumps.

The beast slammed a tentacle down and roared at me. Then it slammed another, and then did it again.

I had pissed it off.

“You’re pissed off? Please,” I groaned as I slowly got to my feet.

Rolling my shoulder, I felt the seep of blood drenching my shirt. My shoulder and back must be really shredded. I felt as if I was taking a shower, almost, what with all the blood flowing down my back.

The beast made an odd gurgle sound as it started spewing up even more of the green haze. I sighed at the sight of the miasma forming around its whole body.

What would it do? It was definitely a poison of some kind, but what effect will it have on me? Will it hurt? Make me delirious? Sick?

Or will it do nothing at all, like so many other things?

At least it seemed to settle lower to the ground. None of the green haze seemed to go over the things mouth. Though that didn’t mean there wasn’t some of the poison higher than that, but it was not as concentrated…

Though…

Remembering the moment of me being on its head, stomping on its eyes, I realized how big the damn thing was.

That haze was taller than me. It was at least two stories tall, maybe even more…

Could I kill this thing before I succumbed to that stuff? It wasn’t like I could just open a window here either, so the longer this went on…

Stepping to my right, I barely dodged in time as the chunk of stone flew past.

Although I had dodged the initial stone toss, I was too close to the wall behind me. Large chunks of stone splattered from the impact, and some of them hit me from behind. I stepped away from the wall, nearly stumbling as my head rung like a bell.

“Shit,” I flinched as the world went blurry for a moment. Focusing as much as I could, I hurriedly leapt to the left as another large chunk of stone flew past.

Dodging the second attack succeeded and I was now far enough away from the wall that I didn’t have to worry over ricocheting debris… but thanks to the earlier blows I was unsteady on my feet. I didn’t land gracefully… or really at all. Falling to the ground, I rolled over broken stone pieces as I tried to hurriedly get back on my feet.

Coughing as I clambered back to my feet, I wondered if maybe I was already being damaged by that green haze it was puking out. Usually I’d not be so bothered, even with such damage to my head and…

“Really…?” I shivered at the feeling beneath my feet.

So I hadn’t fallen just because of my ringing head.

The world began to shake, and not just because the beast was slamming the ground with its tentacles. It was breaking the stone, to gather ammunition as to throw at me, but this shaking was from more than just that.

I groaned as the floor started to shift. Large sections of stone started to rise upward, as if from pressure. Like an earthquake releasing pent up steam, the ground began to break and open… and more tentacles started to appear.

Very quickly the room got crowded, as more than a dozen tentacles… each bigger than the last sprouted from the ground.

“For a flower, you’re quite an ugly thing,” I grunted as I realized exactly what it was, and that I had made the right choice in sending Renn and Fly away.

At least, hopefully they were far enough away… since this thing seemed to have its roots spread all throughout this place.

Standing up, I took what was probably my last clean breath I’d get during this fight… and then charged forward.