I made sure to hide the body behind myself as I approached them, no need to give them any forewarning.

Oh, how I wished I had something to eat.

Even though I had vowed not to eat another scavenger the horrid taste of their flesh was starting to be pushed out my mind by the zeal of hunger.

Perhaps the one I had eaten was off? I mean a few bites here and there wouldn’t hurt me, right?

If I tried different scavengers it would even help me get a better idea of their species viability as a food source.

The fact I had so many limbs that I needed to grow back was probably a big factor in my ravenous desire.

At least now I didn’t need to risk my appendages to deal with these bottom feeders.

As I neared them though another screech sounded out, probably from the same scavenger. And the formation shuffled around until it was a semi circle facing me instead of a full circle.

Did they know I wouldn’t fall for their trap? Was that why they had done this, or was it for some other reason?

Whatever the case it didn’t matter, they would still perish.

The injured scavengers had been helped to their feet and joined the flanks but they were unsteady on their feet. They weren’t threats, at least not major ones.

Even the uninjured and bigger scavengers seemed to be cowed by me as they fidgeted about.

This thought of mine changed when they started to hurl small swords at me.

It didn’t really hurt me but each impact was still quite annoying.

It felt like I was being insulted.

So, I took a few more tentative steps forward, until I was close enough to swing my own weapon.

I couldn’t figure out what these creature's body language was conveying or what their screeches meant.

But as they saw their friend's body being swung at them, I knew they were mortified.

Slamming it directly into their front meant that not only had I knocked over three scavengers but I had also prevented their flanks from moving in to easily protect them, as their bodies blocked the most straightforward paths.

I had overestimated how much strength I still had though, as the corpse slipped out of my tentacle’s grip.

And then, just as I was bathing in the euphoria of a well conducted plan and getting ready to bathe in their blood. They sprung a trap.

While I moved forward to take advantage of the opportunity the corpse attack gave me, the left and right flank charged around me, encircling me.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

It was a fast and deadly tactic. In just a few seconds I was surrounded on all fronts.

But it was a pre mediated plan, something they had come up with beforehand. Which meant that they hadn’t anticipated their centre rank's complete failure.

Uncaring of the wounds they inflicted on me, I began to twist and snap off the centre ranks appendages and hurl them at my attackers to give myself the space necessary to rip off more limbs.

The centre rank tried to push themselves up with their ridged and flimsy tentacles but I just slammed them back down again.

And even as great swaths of my flesh went sailing through the air, I didn’t relent on my assault.

Pushing them into the sand and sinking my tendrils into their skin to rip out their organs.

Delimbing and eviscerating was how I dealt with these pathetic scavengers.

Soon, the centre rank was completely annihilated and all that was left was the flanks.

With an audible snap, I whipped one of my tentacles into a scavenger, making them double over and collapse.

It was a surprisingly effective method of attack. So I decided to improve upon it by spinning around with my tendrils and tentacles outstretched.

I battered the slower scavengers and made them crash into the ground and forced the faster, less exhausted ones back with this attack.

Then, one of them stuck their sword up in the air and cleaved through half a dozen of my tendrils, which immediately put a stop to this offence I came up with.

The downed scavengers also quickly scampered back upwards before I could take advantage of their vulnerability.

They were even slower than before though, the odds of this battle now weighed heavily in my favour.

But then, almost all at once the scavengers threw away their swords and then they started to prostrate themselves before me.

Trembling like seaweed as they did so.

My orders were to only exterminate those with cloaks and swords.

But they may also have meant to kill any scavengers who had either a sword or cloak.

Well, better to err on the side of caution than to make a mistake.

So, slowly and carefully I made my way over to where the biggest bulk of the remaining scavengers prostrated.

And then, gently I began to wrap my tentacles around them. Well only three of them.

I didn’t have a lot of limbs left, maybe just a few dozen tendrils and a dozen tentacles. Most of which needed to be locomotive in nature lest I fall.

Then, I not so gently started to ram my tendrils into their topmost tentacle. They were deformed and hideous things that could hardly be called a limb.

Strangely enough, I’m pretty confident that they also contain the scavengers' eyes. Either that or there there were two weak orbs filled with pus attached to their top limbs.

In both cases, they were weak and vulnerable points for me to attack.

Now even if the scavengers regained their footing, they wouldn’t be much of a threat. The pain and possible blindness I had inflicted on them would ensure that.

I ran into an issue almost immediately as I started worming my tendrils further into their topmost tentacles though. There was a massive circle shaped stick that was lodged up there and it was incredibly hardy.

Whatever, I would just crush them then.

Drawing the screaming and blinded scavengers into my fatal embrace had the unfortunate side effect of rousing the other ones into action, but so what?

Half of them were the injured scavengers from the first pack and the other half were tired.

Granted I was also feeling very hungry and fatigued but the odds had been in my favour just a while ago and now soon were going to be even further in my favour once I got done dealing with these four scavengers closest to me.

Not a single one would be spared.