The Non-Human Society

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Eight - Vim - A Hazy Barb

      "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.