9 The Squad

I dive forward and wrap my tentacles around Healer Maiden and Sira and instinctively activate harden skill into 100% mana depletion.

[-12 mana force used!]

[You are in the Zero Zone!(Regen of mana force 10 mins until mana is fully restored)]

My body took most of the impact during the fall downwards. My neuron bomb and the witcher's dark tornado spell had formed a larger carter under the ground in which we fell in. It looked like a 50ft drop! I could feel a strong gust of wind blow across my harden scales as I feel downward at a fast lighting speed. I felt like my life was flashing right before me. In my mind, I knew this fall was going to something out of this world- Ha. Why did I even save these girls? I don't even know who they are. I guess I still have a soul after all-

My harden body slammed hard against the second layer of the cave. A loud storm of"WHAM! SLAM! THUD!" sounds were heard. I blacked out for a brief moment.

…..

Drip…Drip…

Icy water droplets fell across my head, I slowly open my eyes and look around at what just happen. A radiant aura light was overlapping my harden tentacle shield body, it's pure whiteness blinded my eyes. Then I see it, below me was a glowing crystal clear emerald lake. The lake was so powerfully mana-enriched that it had created a mini aura-barrier around my harden spherical tentacle body. Even though my body had landed hard against the rocky ground below, the aura emitting from the lake had boosted my aura and shield, thus saving me from that dangerous fall.

"Get me outta here! I demand you at once! Tentacle beast!" Yells Sira in an angered tone. This girl getting is on my nerves.

I untangle my arms off from Sira and Healer Maiden, they both roll out in perfect condition aside from a few scratches on their faces.

Sira begins coughing out salvia, I was probably holding her too tight she wasn't as thick as Healer Maiden. Her slim body could easily snap in half like a twig if I held her to tight.

Healer Maiden was coughing as well, but it wasn't by my tough grip, she looked like she had smelt something bad.

"T-thank you for saving us tentacle monster! I told you this beast is on our side." Healer Maiden looked over at Sira and winked.

"That's a bunch of bullshit. It probably saved us to make itself look better, but in reality, that thing tried to kill both us! It used some sort of magic to explode the top layer of this cave to bits!" Sira ignorantly huffed as she stomped her feet.

"Really now? You were the one who used your flame tornado attack and almost burned all us into a crisp! Maybe I should've killed you." I said while pointing my tentacles at her.

"It wasn't my fault! It was yours! And you wanna kill me!? Well ya won't before I kill you!" Sira rips off her leather jacket arm sleeve and storms towards me with her one metal tiger claws.

"Garwwwargh!!!!!!!" A thunderous monstrous roar was heard behind me. It rattles the cave to its bones. Sira stopped dead on her tracks.

A simulated arrow appeared in front of my eye's.

>[X]<

[Warning! Predator Mode activated! Beast of high level near proximity!]

"Shit this is really bad, what is predator mode Althera?" I asked my system index.

"It is a mode that senses danger way beyond the one you're facing at this moment. You must be ready." Althera warns me.

I now see what Althera means, even though Sira is decently powerful there lies a beast in this lower layer that is levels ahead of this withcer. I can't imagine what it was, but by just hearing that roar alone made my spine shiver.

"Healer Maiden, what was that roar? Was it you tentacle beast?" Sira asked as her eyes scanned everywhere around the cave.

"No it wasn't me-" I said.

"I don't know what it is, but it sounds scary." Added in Healer Maiden as she shivered in fear.

"Then where did that roar come from?" Sira sniffed around.

I smack my tentacles together to gain both of the girl's attention, "Hey, I want you two to listen to me. There is a beast in this cave that is far stronger all three of us. We need to group together if we are going to have a chance to defeat it." I implored.

"Wait how do ya know that?" Sira glanced over at me with suspicion in her silver eyes.

"Trust me. Whatever beast made that sound in this cave layer is not on our side or friendly. We can't run away from it. Its either it hunt's us or we hunt it. So let's join forces to better our chances." I extended out one of my tentacles for a handshake.

"Bah! How can we trust you! You tried to kill both us!" Sira growled as she wailed around her hands.

"You attacked me first! And yet I still saved you both from the fall. You should be thanking me." I poked the withcer in the face.

"Don't touch me!" She went to bite me with her razor-sharp teeth. I easily sling back my tentacle.

"That's enough! From both of you! No more fighting. Tenty is right, we should work together. I believe he can help us find my friends and defeat the beast he speaks of." Healer Maiden grabs her heart and starts to blush.

"Well at least someone has brains around here." I roll my eyes while I look at Sira in a spiteful way.

And What the fuck does 'Tenty' mean? Did Healer Maiden give me a nickname?

"What did you say!? I going to make a giant eyeball stew out of ya!" Sira punched her knuckles together.

"ROARRRRGH!" The unknown beast roars even louder than before.

"Good job on making so much noise to attract more beast. Can you keep your fat mouth shut already?" I said.

"Screw you! It's not my fault! And How are ya even talking to us!?" The female witcher kicks dirt and grass at my face

"Yeah, sure it's not when you are the one yelling like a madman. Short stuff. You have a short temper and a tiny body, but a big loud mouth." I cross my tentacles together in an anger and annoyed way.

"I am not short!" Sira lunged forward at me. I easily grab her by the ankles and lift her up towards my massive reptilian eye's.

"Put me down!" She's starts kicking away wildly.

Healer Maiden sighed and placed her hands on her face. "Sira if you don't join our squad, then I…I won't give you the reward for your quest." She shyly poked her fingers together.

"Grrr." Sira growls, "Fine, but if you dare betray us just once. You're dead."

"Oh so scary. You sure you can tall up your words? It sounds like a high order doesn't it?" I drop her down on her plump booty. "You just added your name into my kill list." She pulls out a dinky old notebook and jots down words with a feather ink pen.

Such a clueless girl, I may be a level 2 beast, but I am stacked with skills she couldn't even begin to imagine. Not only do I have skills I also have plenty of tricks. She would be dead before she even knows it.

"Alright, right now we make a truce." I wiggle out my tentacles to do a hand pledge to the girls. It was similar gesture like when you start a game of football when every player places their hands together and shout out a chant.

"Whatever." Sira places her hands on top of my tentacle with a growl. Healer Maiden happily places her hands into the squad shake. "We are squad tentacles," I said. "Pssh heck no, how about squad Raven?" Sira interjects. "I think Squad tentacle sounds perfect." Healer Maiden smile widely.

God bless HM's kindness, she is like an angel with a smile I must protect. We lift up our hands and the pact was made to work together in order to take down the powerful beast that lurked in this cave.

[ Ding!]

Witcher skin gained!

Defense + 4!

Nice the first time a handshake ever did anything. It was a perfect idea to gain Sira in my team, I now get her steel skin which will do me good in battle as it will boost my defensive abilities. With my attack, magic, and defense high I now need to focus on my other attributes. Seems like my karma is up, it was probably negative after I had those knocked out goblins and used them as test explosives for my neuron bomb skill, but now my karma s up since I saved these girls. Everything else seems to be normal. I wonder why Karma even exist RPG's? No matter, I am sure no amount of karma is going to help me against at a beast that is a higher level than Sira.

Me, Healer Maiden, and Sira all gathered around the edge of the emerald lake. I dip my tentacles inside the illuminating water and absorb all the mana to heal my body.

"What are ya doing?" Asked Sira as she made a portable fire with her scroll page. "I am absorbing the mana inside this lake to regain my HP and Mana back to normal levels. You should take a dip in."

"Ah…No thanks ya crazy monster." She turned away from me and her cheeks turned a deep red rose color.

"Why not? We all need to be in top condition when we fight." I insisted as I splashed water across her pale stuck up face.

Sira jumps up, "Cut it out!-" I wrap my tentacles around her loud mouth. "Dammit be quite. We don't want any beast hearing us. If we going to strike we have to be silent and swift. The young female witcher was cursing and mumbling under my tentacles as she chomped at them. Now I have a kitty cat in my team. How fantastic, I let go of her and crawl over to the fire. My stomach was rumbling like hell. With all the fighting I have forgotten how hungry I was. I was starving so much that eating these two girls right about now sounded like a delightful idea. I rub my non-existent tummy and sigh loudly.

"Groooweeel." My stomach started talking.

"Are you hungry? Here have this." Healer Maiden un-zipped her satchel handbag and pulled out a squared shaped dry-looking bread bar. All eight of my tentacles instantly snatched the bread up and sucked it in my suction cups. Each tentacle fought each for a piece until they realized it wasn't meat. They quickly spit out the hard bread bar across Healer Maidens face. She just cluelessly smirked with her goregous face full of mushy bread and slim juices.

"Ew, that's just gross." Sira gagged as she sat down and pulled out beef jerky. My tentacles smacked her hands, "Och! What was that for?!"

"Sorry I am just hungry. Is there anything wrong with that.Bitcher." I snarled.

I wasn't controlling my tentacles they were moving on their own as they snatched away Sira's beef jerky. My tentacles hit and attacked each other again just to get a bit of the beef jerky, they sucked in everything inside of Sira's bag. "Hey! That is mine ya fiend!" She angrily points at me, her sharp feline teeth stick out of her pink lips.

"Why do you talk like that?" I asked. Holy shit this beefy jerky taste amazing. It tastes almost like a burger fused together with smoked bacon.

"What r ya talking about?" Sira replied. "It's supposed to be what are you talking about without r or ya. You sound like a bootleg Scottish women." I implore as I place my tentacles over the sparking flames.

"Excuse me? What in the frogsbutt is Scottish? And how are you able to talk?" Sira's crossed her arms and huffed.

"I believe Tenty is using an enchanting spell to talk to us. I know I can hear him because I can read beast tongue. " Said Healer maiden with a cheerful facial expression.

"How do you it's an HE?" Sira glared over to me.

"Trust me you don't want to know the question to that answer," I thought to myself without the girls hearing me. If they saw my big member than I am sure they would run the fuck away from me.

"Tenty is a male because his voice is deep and human-like, close to a male's voice." Healer Maiden pointed out with one finger raised up in the air.

"I still don't trust this monster, he might be controlling our minds. Are you a beast born?" Sira held on to her blood scroll just in case as she madly glances at me with her button nose wrinkled.

"I don't know what a beast born even is." I place my tentacles over the fire to warm myself up.

"It is a beast who thinks, acts, and talks like a human. They are the rarest and most powerful beast that lurks in all of Zareth. There used to many of them at one point, they would roam around the Great Dark Wall of Zareth's outskirts forests, but they all mysteriously vanished. The knowledge and mana force of the beast born was valued beyond any riches of Zareth has to offer." Sira's moon silver eye glints up with a sense of pride in describing Renzen's story of the Beast Born.

"I may act like a human, but I assure I am no beast born and why are they called that?" I wonder if I was really a beast born. If I was then I am in some deep shit, every human would hunt me down including these two girls in front of me.

"The difference between a beast and a beast born. Is that a beast is spawned and a beast born is born through unnatural and magical ways. I guess you are not a beast born because I don't see any skull marking or ancient glyphs on your body or eyeball. But you are one weird beast." Sira stretched her long legs and twisted her slender waist.

Fuck, am I really a beast born? I was reborn as this tentacle beast so maybe I am? I believe I still have my human mind and maybe my soul. But luckily I don't have a mark anywhere around my body, I didn't see any kind of skull marking inside of my pupils either when I saw my reflection at the waterfall. So it's safe to say that I am not a beast born. I do find it intriguing that there was beast born's who once roamed the land of this new one. Does that mean humans from my world where reborn into the world of Zareth before I was? Or even at the same time, I was reborn? Godam this is fucking with my mind!

"Um, Tenty do you have a name?" Kindly asked Healer Maiden as twirled her long blonde hair.

"Can you stop calling me that and I don't know damn name." I snarled out as I was thinking more about my situation. I was pissed that I coudnt figure out the truth of why I was reborn.

"I am Sorry. How rude of me-" Her one violet colored eye's were filled with sorrow.

I felt bad for my mean actions and said, "I once had a name. I just can't remember it." I turn away from her and look up into the ceiling of the cave.

"Yes, I did once have a name… But as I see it…It never mattered anyway." I gaze at my tentacles with disgust. I wish I could tell me about what happened to me. About how I died by some freak accident and was reborn into this terrifying beast. To me, these girls were the closest things I ever had to friends. The ones back in my home world cast me aside once they figured out that I was blind. Humans are so fucked up. But right now these ones weren't that afraid of me, it's ironic and sad how people see you more of a monster when you are blind than when you're an actual monster. As I dig inside my mind to search my name, I only remember one letter and one sentence.

--- "Z it is the time my apprentice ." Dr. Oaken's voice echoes throughout my mindscape. I space out.

"How about we give you a name tentacle monster?" Healer Maiden suggest. I shake out of my mini-flashback.

"Perfect, now you are giving it a name. You know that means?" Sira implies as she takes a nibble from Healer Maidens dense bread bar.

"Why shouldn't I give Tenty a name?" Pouts the maiden.

"When you name an animal it becomes your pet." The witcher smacks the rock-solid bread bar against the edge of the lake. It barely breaks.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to degrade you Mr. tentacle monster-"

"My name is Zed from now on." I coldly stare at them.

"Oh hooray. Now that we got that outta tha way why don't we form a plan to kill the powerful beast in this dungeon layer? I am going to see if I can contact the original squad that came with us inside this dungeon." Sira clicks on her orb ear communicator device, which reminded of a Bluetooth headset.

She twisted the orb around trying to find a signal, "Crapsticks everything sounds all fuzzy, I can get a good reading." She taps at the orb in frustration of it not working.

"We have to go up higher. Maybe you get a better frequency reading." I suggest as I scuttle over to the lake, I could hear a flowing waterfall in the distances.

If we follow the sound of the stream, then we make our way upwards. I finally know that Healer Maiden and Sira have a full squad. If I use them I will be able to get the answers I needed. Right now I do feel a little pissed. I would have to rush my time in developing my powers. There's no way I will be meeting with these girl's squad who don't understand the predicament I am. They would think that Healer Maiden and Sira are fucking psycho 's for be-friending a tentacle monster.

"Do you have a plan Zed?" says Healer Maiden as she prepares for battle.

"Hey, Sira can I see that scroll you use to summon the dark tornado?" I demanded her as I wiggle my tentacles up and down.

"Woah slow down their buddy. You are diffidently not getting this scroll." She held tightly to it.

"Trust me. I have a plan that will help us destroy the beast in a matter of seconds." I edge her on by moving the tentacles closer.

"Ya plan better work." She snarls in a sassy tone.

"They always do. What kind of scroll is this?" I said as I opened it up and read its contents.

"It's a blood scroll. Ya drop in a specific amount of your own blood into the scroll to activate the glyphs and symbols inside the parchment paper to summon a magical spell." She moves around her arms giving out an improvised demonstration.

"Good this is exactly what I need. How do you learn how to use this scroll?" I ask.

"Haha, ya got to be kidding me. A beast can't learn a witcher spell. And besides ya have to go into witcher academy to learn how to use that scroll as I did." Said Sira with pride as she points at her chest with a confident smirk.

"You never said you went to school-" Healer Maiden almost irrupts.

"Shhhh. Shut up." Sira said as she put her index fingers on her lips. She looked she was hiding something from me.

"Well if I get out this cave I think I will pay that Witcher Academy a visit." I rub my tentacles together in joy thinking about all the magic I will learn in that academy I can probably even get my human body back, let's just hope I keep this wonderful vision.

"Hey, Althera bring up my predator mode real quick. I want to pinpoint where the high-level beast is located.

[Predator Mode on for 5 seconds only. Enemy location is 1 mile ahead in the northwest direction.]

Alright so we just have to follow l the stream current of the cave lake and we will be able to find what we are looking for. Well mostly me. It's about time I use all of my skills and gain some levels. We head out now.

"Okay listen up closely. We will first find your friends Healer Maiden then after that we can escape this dangerous dungeon. Hurry and follow me I can pick up your friend's scents once you hand over a piece of clothing or hair from them. Anything will do for a scent." I instructed both girls.

"How about this?" Healer Maiden pulls out a girly hair headband. "This will do." I use my absorb skill to suck in the loose strands of hair. I now smelled a faint scent of roses and honey coming from the north. "Let's get moving," I say as I sprint -crawl ahead into the unknown darkness of the dungeon cavern. Finally, I get to use all of my powers.