The entire ceiling of the cafeteria was covered in a constantly moving mass of shadowy tendrils. The few glowing stones that shone their red light on the creature, barely managed to illuminate it, leaving most of it up to the imagination. What I did notice was, that not all of the tendrils were just black. Some had dark red splotches on them, which- ‘Oh, that’s blood,’ I realised.

  Every part of my body was telling me to run. I wasn’t one to judge based on appearance, but the circumstances told a pretty clear story. I was in danger. Even the demon seemed to be momentarily cowed by that thing's size. Each tendril was as thick as my thigh, and there were what seemed to be hundreds of them. They also had the strength to rip limbs off, as showcased by the unfortunate victims scattered around.

  The only thing keeping me from just running was the fact that it probably hadn’t noticed me yet. But I couldn’t be sure of that, since I had no idea how that creature sensed prey. Sight was unlikely since I couldn’t see any eyes. If it used hearing or smell, I would also be safe. The alarm and odor of the corpses were very noticeable. Maybe it could detect tremors, like the sandworm? A possibility. Either way, I wanted to be very far away from that thing before it noticed me.

  The exit on the left was closest to me, so I slowly inched my way towards it. I tried to avoid the corpses and the furniture while keeping an eye on the ceiling. That made my escape painfully slow, but that was preferable to death. My near-death experience in the mindscape was still vivid, and I didn’t want a repeat of it.

  Only one bench separated me from the exit when the creature noticed something. Its movement became rapid and I could almost feel the being’s agitation, as it somehow sensed an intruder. Suddenly tendrils started reaching towards the ground all across the room. My first instinct was to throw caution to the wind and run. But, to my horror, before I could even start to move, the exit was covered in a curtain of tendrils. The same was true for the other two exits, which were also blocked.

  My mind went into overdrive as the appendages started to sweep the room. To my left, there was a small section of the room, separated by a counter. Behind it was a closed door, barely visible in the dim lighting. That was a possible exit or at least a hiding spot. However, the way was being patrolled by several tendrils, which were searching for me.

  With time running out, I threw myself under a table and went still. The outside world turned blurry, leaving me to focus on myself and my erratic breathing. My breathing and my heartbeat turned into the only things that mattered. Closing my eyes didn’t help and I urged my body to calm down. Adam said something, but I couldn’t hear him. The physical world lost all meaning, leaving me alone with my racing thoughts. A harsh voice cut through the mess.

  ‘Get your act together! This isn’t any different from all the other times your life has been in danger. Why are you reacting like this?’

  That was a good question. This wasn’t that much riskier than my encounter with the sandworm. Or the bandit fight. Or Sarvad trying to take over. Or the Desert Vipers hunting me. Or Fili Ocul capturing me. Or the demon fight.

  Wow… I had been alive for only a couple of weeks and that much had happened already? That was insane. Were the lives of regular humans also this chaotic? The absurdity of it all started to set in. I was cowering under a table while a giant tentacle monster was hunting me. That couldn’t be considered normal. But despite the absurdity, I had to pull through. What would be the point of surviving all the insanity and then just dying? Maybe all of this was unfair. Hell, it definitely was unfair. But it was my reality and I needed to get my act together. This random monster wouldn’t be the end of me.

  What felt like an eternity passed, before the real world returned. The smell of blood, the sound of tendrils dragging across the ground, and the pain of clenching my fist too hard. I was still afraid, extremely so, but it didn’t consume my entire world.

  Now that I was more in control of myself, I tried to be as still and calm as possible. That became a lot more difficult when the monster decided to start searching beneath the furniture. A tendril slithered beneath the table and bumped into my side. It took a lot of willpower to not move, but somehow I managed to keep still. My only hope was that the creature would mistake me for a corpse and move on.

  A scenario which felt unlikely, but also represented my best option. If it didn’t work I would be in a lot of trouble. Considering that the table was nailed to the floor, limiting the creature’s angles of attack, I could maybe defend myself. And then maybe fight my way to one of the exits… In conclusion, my chances of surviving would be abysmal if it came to that.

  Sadly for me, the creature took an interest in my hiding spot. Suddenly more tendrils emerged and started inspecting me. When one of them touched my cheek, it was difficult not to hyperventilate. I had expected a slimy sensation, but the skin turned out to have a rough, leathery texture. Either way, it was unpleasant.

  With every second that passed, I expected the appendages to tighten and rip me out from under the table. But this didn’t happen. Instead, after some time, the tendrils retreated. I almost let out a sigh of relief but stopped myself just in time. The monster may have lost interest in me, but I still wasn’t safe.

  Peaking out from under the table revealed that there were still several tendrils searching the area, but far less than before. The exits were still blocked, so I wasn’t leaving just yet, but the creature seemed far calmer. Retreating back under the table, I decided to wait a while before attempting my escape. My future was looking far brighter than it had a couple of seconds ago.

  My optimism was soon shattered. Suddenly, noises started coming from the exit to my right. It sounded like multiple people were rapidly approaching. The monster also took notice of this, shown by the tendrils retreating to the ceiling and the edges of the cafeteria. It was getting ready for an ambush.

  I glanced at the exit to my left. It was the closest one and currently not obstructed by tendrils. How likely was it that I could simply sprint out of the room? With the monster distracted, I’d wagered my chances to be pretty good.

  But that would mean letting others walk into the ambush. I couldn’t see them from my position but the footsteps were growing louder. These people probably worked for Fili Ocul, but did that mean that they deserved to die? Should I risk my life by warning them? I looked at the corpse of the young man I had looted.

  The decision was taken out of my hands when the footsteps stopped. I remained still and just listened. Maybe they had noticed that something was wrong and would just leave. That would be the best outcome. I could hear multiple people talking, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  Suddenly something round came flying through the doorway. Before I could react, one of the tendrils grabbed the object out of the air and crushed it. In the next moment, I was thrown to the ground by a wave of pressure and heat. After regaining my senses, I was greeted by a monster that had entered a frenzy. The tendrils were wildly flailing around, smashing anything that stood in their way. Pieces of furniture and body parts were being flung around and it was a miracle that I hadn’t been hit already.

  The reason for this freakout was pretty obvious. A big part of the creature was on fire. It tried to quench the blaze using its tentacles, but the fire behaved unnaturally, ‘sticking’ to anything that it touched. I quickly scrambled away from the heat, trying to avoid the appendages to the best of my abilities. For a brief moment, I thought about just running for the exit, but disregarded the idea immediately, since I didn’t crave death.

  Things turned from bad to worse when the humans showed up. Their entrance was heralded by a gout of fire that emerged from the same entrance where the fire orb had come from. Luckily, I wasn’t in the immediate vicinity, even though I could still feel the heat. The creature wasn’t so lucky, and several of its appendages started to burn, as the flames stuck to them.

  The five humans that walked through the entrance all wore dark, tight-fitting armour and helmets that obscured their faces. Two of them had large metal canisters strapped to their backs, which were connected to a separate device in their hand. It looked unwieldy, but that was balanced out by the fact that these machines were the source of the fire. A terrifying display of, what I assumed to be, magic.

  The other three luckily only had swords, but that didn’t make them any less terrifying. They moved faster than any other human I had ever seen while defending the two fire throwers, who were torching the monster. A tendril tried to wrap itself around one of their necks, but another fighter sliced it clean off.

  They had entered the room less than five seconds ago, and now almost half of the creature was on fire. It had abandoned most of the cafeteria, focusing all of its appendages on the attackers. However, despite the size of the being, the fight wasn’t going well for it. Fire seemed to be its weakness, and it tried to avoid the flames with minimal success. By now, almost the entire ceiling was covered in smoke, obscuring large parts of the beast.

  Not immediately running after the humans showed up, turned out to be a massive mistake. One of the swordfighters noticed me and hurriedly waved at me. They shouted something, but their voice was drowned out by the roaring of the flames. Then the human realised something. If I had to guess it was my demon arm, but I couldn’t be 100 percent sure.

  Either way, they said something to one of the fire throwers, who glanced in my direction. Then the fire machine was pointed at me and I started to run. The mad crackle of the flames grew closer and a blazing heat started to engulf my back. I knew that I wouldn’t make it to the exit. The flames were simply too fast. My eyes darted around and I made a split-second decision. The counter was closer and would provide cover. With the monster distracted, nothing was standing between me and it.

  Only a couple of steps separated me from it, but the heat was becoming unbearable. With a last desperate leap, I made it over the counter and landed roughly on my shoulder. For a couple of seconds, I just lay there, panting and sucking in the smoke-filled air. There was an aching pain in my shoulder and my back felt completely charred, but other than that I was fine. I even managed to ignore the human head, that had somehow managed to find its way behind the counter.

  Not having the time to relax, I crawled towards the door. Trying my best to not expose myself, I grabbed the handle. Locked. Luckily, I had another way to get inside. The demon knew what I wanted to do and empowered my claw. Then the fire orb landed near me and everything went to hell.

  When I regained consciousness, my body felt like it had been swallowed by a sandworm. Everything hurt and all I could do was try my best to not blackout. Looking down at my body almost made me gag. My torso had been protected by the leather armour, which despite having turned mostly black, was somehow still intact. My demonic arm had also survived unscathed, which wasn’t surprising. It was a stark contrast to the rest of my body.

  My legs had been the closest to the explosion and had suffered the most. When I looked down at them, all I could make out was a combination of charred meat and blood. Staring at them made something inside of me disassociate. My emotions dulled and the dry heave that had been about to come out was suppressed. Survival was all that mattered.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Surveying my surroundings, it became clear that escaping through the door would be impossible. The ground and even the walls near it were covered in searing fire. This room was mostly made out of stone, which to my knowledge, wasn’t flammable. Although, I could be wrong about that since the fire certainly didn’t seem to care. Luckily, the counter was mostly fine, so I used it to pull myself up with my human arm, which, compared to my legs, was fine.

  Somehow my legs didn’t collapse from under me and I managed to take in the rest of the cafeteria. Nothing much had changed, except for more fire and smoke. The smell of charred meat hit me like a rock, but I couldn’t be sure if it came from the monster, the corpses, or my own legs. It didn’t really matter. The humans were still fighting the tentacle creature without any major problems, but one of them immediately noticed me. It was one of the swordfighters, who sliced off a tendril and then reached for something at their side. Only now did I notice the belt with several fire orbs still attached to it.

  As they pulled back to throw one of the orbs, a chuckle escaped my throat. It wasn’t a very happy sound, born out of desperation and a sense of absurdity. “Well,” I muttered, as the orb left the human’s hand. “Guess you’ll be getting a fight after all.” The roaring of the flames was drowned out by the eager howl of a wolf.

  The orb was soaring in a perfect arch towards me, but I stayed calm. With the state of my legs, escape would be impossible, so I didn’t even try. A swipe of my claw and reality before me was torn up. What remained was a patch of un-reality. When the orb reached it, I almost expected an explosion. Instead, the weapon disappeared without a trace.

  Not waiting around, I started hobbling towards the exit. The demon’s anger and disappointment were palpable, and a strong urge to rush towards the humans reared its head. The pain that shot through my body with every step, made it easy to ignore. “Stop that,” I hissed. “Do you want us to die?” The urge lessened, but I could almost hear the wolf’s grumbling.

  Of course, the humans didn’t give up that easily. While most of them didn’t have the time to bother with me, the swordfighter seemed to have a personal vendetta. Instead of letting me walk away peacefully and focusing on the bigger threat, they decided to throw another fire orb. Sadly they had learned from their previous mistake, and the orb was aimed at a spot in front of me.

  Not having the time to create un-reality at that spot, I decided to do something different. With a grunt, I flooded my claw with power and sliced open a rift the size of my body to shield me. The agony from my legs almost managed to distract me from the pain emanating from my arm. It felt like a blazing liquid had replaced my blood, burning me from the inside, but I endured. The amount of power I had just used had been immense, and I didn’t know if I had another such feat in me.

  The orb landed and exploded. Fire was launched in every direction, but it didn’t reach me. Even the sound of it was muted like a solid steel wall was separating me from the blast. But I wasn’t thinking about that as I stared at the plain of un-reality.

  The most basic description of it would be a white surface. In the past that would have been the end of my description, but standing so close to a massive hole in reality made me notice other details. It was hard to detect, but that whiteness wasn’t stationary. It seemed to constantly move around as if it were a liquid with a mind of its own. Then there were the small sparks of un-reality that randomly separated themselves from the mass and drifted to the ground. They were minuscule and disappeared before they even reached it, but I made sure to not let them touch me.

  As the heat from the blast subsided, I was about to continue hobbling away, when something caught my attention. The plane of un-reality had changed. Squinting, I finally noticed the difference. Its movement had turned more chaotic and rapid as if something was riling it up. At first, I wanted to dismiss it, since I had no time to waste, but a distant memory in the back of my mind stirred. I had seen something like this, shortly after being ‘born’. The demon in my mind growled.

  Suddenly, I remembered. With a curse I quickly scrambled backwards, almost tripping in the process. Something was coming through the tear.

  The first thing that emerged were two thin, segmented legs, the same colour as the un-reality that had birthed them, which were tipped with spikes. They slammed into the ground, piercing the stone and anchoring them. Then the creature used this foothold to pull the rest of its body out of un-reality.

  I was no stranger to strange beings, but the creature that had just entered reality made me rethink my definition of strange. Its main body was humanoid, but instead of arms and legs, it had four chitinous appendages. These were almost twice as long as the main body, meaning that the humanoid portion was suspended at the same height as my head. Speaking of heads, the creature’s head was smooth, lacking any details that would have let it resemble a human. Well, except for the giant, lipless mouth that encompassed most of where the hair usually was.

  Luckily, the creature emerged on the other side of the tear, away from me. However, this was very unlucky for the humans, who were in full view(?) of the white monstrosity. Before anyone could react it let out an unholy screech and started rapidly skittering towards the group.

  To their credit, they didn’t panic, staying in formation, as one of the fire throwers pointed their weapon at it. A gout of flames engulfed the creature, but instead of sticking to it, the flames simply slipped off. Not deterred, the un-reality monster continued charging, using its long legs to cover the distance in seconds.

  Without any more time, the humans quickly tried to get out of its way. Most of them managed to leap away in the last second, but one of the fire throwers was too slow and got thrown to the ground in front of the creature. Before any of them could get back up, the monster reared back, screeched, and skewered the flame thrower through the chest with one of its legs.

  Their muffled screams drowned out the sound of the fire, as the creature retreated to a corner, with its victim. The other humans quickly got up to save their comrade, but were besieged by tendrils before they could follow. While the monster on the ceiling had been severely injured, it still had the energy to take advantage of this opportunity. I saw one of the swordfighters get slammed into a wall by a tendril, probably breaking a couple of ribs, before I turned around and continued hobbling towards the exit. My brain had become numb to the insanity and bloodshed, with the only remaining thought being to get out of this mess.

  A crunching sound coming from the un-reality monster enflamed my morbid curiosity. I continued moving, but briefly glanced in its direction, a decision I immediately regretted. The monster had lifted the human, who was still skewered by its leg, into the air and was attempting to consume them. A process which, under normal circumstances, would probably take some time. After all, while the monster’s mouth was the size of a human head, it was trying to eat an entire human. However, that didn’t stop it from trying to shove the entire human down its gullet. And somehow it was working.

  I watched, horrified, as the flailing victim was compressed and sucked into the beast. The screams of pain were soon replaced by the crunching of bones, which were themselves soon replaced by silence. No trace of the fire thrower remained, who, together with his equipment, had been entirely consumed. The spectacle ended in less than 10 seconds, which had been more than enough time to break me from my numbness. Then, before I had the chance to process everything, the monster chose me as its next victim. With a screech, it charged at me.

  Time seemed to slow down as the monstrosity approached. I knew, that running had stopped being an option, as soon as it had targeted me. That realisation brought a certain comfort with it, that staved off the horror. The cocktail of uncertainty and confusion that had been brewing inside my mind for a long time temporarily resided, leaving behind the urge to survive. For once, the demon and I were in agreement. While my arm was still burning from the previous use, I knew that I needed to endure the pain for another round.

  As the monster approached, I stopped myself from acting too early. The timing needed to be perfect.

  Three

  Two

  One

  Now

  Only a couple of steps separated me from the charging monster when I made my move. With a scream I swung my claw vertically in front of me, activating the power at the apex of my swing. If any observer had seen this interaction, they would have said that I missed, my attack passing harmlessly through the air separating us. They would be wrong.

  The creature continued its charge, either not seeing the thin line of un-reality I had created or ignoring it. That turned out to be its downfall. As I tried to be as still as possible, while my arm was burning and my legs were close to collapsing, the creature touched the line with its head. What transpired next was very similar to what would have occurred if it had rushed into a thin, razor-sharp blade. First, its head was split in two. Then the entire body followed, as it couldn’t stop its momentum.

  One of the halves hit me in the shoulder and, despite being surprisingly light, it made me fall backwards. When I hit the ground, the air was pushed out of my lungs, leaving me gasping and disoriented. Knowing, that my life was still in danger, I pushed myself up, trying to ignore the pain emanating throughout my entire body and the smoke filling my lungs.

  The first thing I checked was the status of the un-reality monster. Luckily for me, the two halves splayed out on either side of me told a very convincing story. There was a part of me that feared that it was still alive, but that fear was alleviated when the body started to dissipate. What I noticed before it completely disappeared, was that the creature lacked any internal organs, instead being completely composed of a white material. The question of what had happened to the remains of the victim it had eaten crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as un-reality weirdness. And with that, the monster which had caused so much fear in the brief time it had been in this reality was gone.

  A loud thud, which shook the entire room, disrupted my thoughts. The burnt remains of the tentacle creature had fallen from the ceiling, crushing several pieces of furniture in the process. Now the mass of tentacles was lying motionless in the middle of the cafeteria, with only the occasional twitching showing that it was clinging to life.

  I stared at the thing’s body and shook my head in exhaustion. With both monsters dead, all the energy left my body, leaving me to deal with the exhaustion and pain. Almost in passing did I notice, that the alarm had stopped at some point during the fighting.

  Not wanting to stay in the smoke/corpse filled room any longer, I started hobbling towards the exit once again. I could feel a sense of superiority coming from the demon, but I couldn’t share the sentiment. So much senseless death had occurred in this room and for what?

  The sound of coughing interrupted my musing. From behind the corpse of the tentacle monster rose one of the humans. Their armour was covered in ash and blood, but considering the situation, they seemed relatively fine. However, something seemed to have damaged their helmet, as they were frantically trying to take it off. Finally, they managed to undue the mechanism keeping it attached, and ripped it from their head. Beneath was a bald, older-looking man, who was gasping for air.

  I debated simply walking away, but that decision was taken from me when he spotted me. He immediately dropped the helmet and grabbed a sword lying on the ground, which he pointed at me. I raised my hands, trying to appear nonthreatening. “Hey, there is no need to fight. I have nothing against you and would love it if we could just go our separate ways.”

  My offer didn’t seem to appeal to the human, as he didn’t lower his sword. “Who are you?” He called out, sounding angrier than the situation warranted.

  “My name is Vindict and I am just trying to find my way out of here,” I responded. Maybe this situation could be resolved peacefully. “What is your name?”

  “You don’t belong here,” he stated, rudely ignoring my question. “Are you a spy? Did you cause this?” The human shouted, taking a step forward.

  In response, I took a step backward, still trying to appear harmless, while preparing for a fight. “No to both of those questions. I understand that you are angry since you probably knew the people who died, but let us not needlessly fight. Don’t you think enough blood has been spilled already?” My words sounded reasonable to me, but they seemed to only make the human angrier.

  He took a step forward. Then his eyes rolled into the back of his skull and he collapsed. Probably because of the plank that had been smashed over his head.

  I stared at the person behind him, before the pain in my legs finally reached me, and I collapsed. The person cursed and quickly helped me get up, by throwing my arm around their shoulder. Together we hobbled towards the exit, and for a moment, I expected another interruption. Only when we were finally out of the room did I manage a grin, despite the pain.

  “Hey Pecta, nice to see you,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “Sorry, that I didn’t come back for you after escaping from the hideout. Some unfortunate circumstances kept me from returning.” My companion let out an amused chuckle. We stopped at a bend and Pecta helped me lower myself to the ground.

  “No apology necessary,” he answered. “From what I just saw you had very good reasons for not returning.” That was putting it lightly. He knelt down beside me and started inspecting my legs. Looking at them made me slightly nauseous, even if I knew that they would heal. Instead of dwelling on them, I finally took a good look at Pecta.

  “Wow, you’re wearing a different outfit. It suits you.” The clothes looked a lot more fancy than the stuff he usually wore, even if they were covered in ash and dust. He smiled but stayed focused on the task. From somewhere he produced a roll of cloth and started bandaging my legs. I almost screamed when he touched the charred flesh but managed to grit my teeth together.

  “I only saw the end of that confrontation, but considering the state of that room, you also don’t look that bad,” he complimented me.

  I laughed at that, well aware of the fact that I probably looked like a burned piece of food. Despite that, I appreciated his words. Trying my best to ignore the pain I leaned back and closed my eyes. I knew that the danger was far from gone, but for a moment I enjoyed a bit of peace.