TTT Vol. 2 pt. 5

I was on my way back to the inn, enjoying the sun shining down on my tentacles and the occasional breeze that pushed through all the trees, when I heard something in the forest of the road. It was the sound of beasts fighting. Or rather, the sound of a beast being killed as it cried out for help.

Normally, I wouldn’t be too concerned. It was only natural for beasts to hunt one another.

But there was a hostile soul beast on the loose.

I needed to investigate to make sure that she wasn’t the one causing those sounds, but I also wasn’t about to head into the forest alone when I saw Kresimir in the distance.

I waved one tentacle at him to grab his attention while pointing the other into the forest in the direction of the sounds. As soon as I saw him start running toward me, I went ahead into the forest knowing that he’d be there to back me up soon.

Having backup on the way was good enough. I didn’t want to risk the soul beast getting away from us, assuming that it was her who was there. Also, I was sure that Kresimir would be able to figure out where to go once he was close enough to hear the sounds.

Even without backup, she would still be down an eye and I had a new tentacle to use against her. I had the upper hand—the upper tentacle.

And it looked like I was right to worry that it could be her. Trying to sneak up on the fight by moving among the treetops, I came across the sight of one of those beasts with antlers being torn into by a four-legged beast covered in fur with feathers… but there was no scar on the side where I got her with acid, and the beast had both of its eyes still. It was the same kind of beast as her, but that was it.

As for the beast it was trying to make a meal out of, one final bite to its neck was enough to silence its cries. With a head soaked in blood, the soaring wolf shook the neck around a little bit more just to make sure its target was dead before getting started on tearing into its side.

I did get that hungry feeling by looking at the slain beast, but I wouldn’t be able to eat it as long as its killer was there. Not to mention that I had no idea what I’d even want to get from it by eating it.

That aside, since I was only going up against a normal beast and not the soul beast as far as I could tell, I felt confident about fighting it on my own. If I could almost handle a soul beast version of the beast before, and now had an extra tentacle that could be helpful in fights, then I figured I could definitely win against a normal version of the beast.

Now, did I really have to kill a normal beast just trying to survive by hunting?

Not really.

But was it a dangerous beast that might turn its eyes toward the villagers of the island if it struggled to find other beasts to eat?

Definitely.

Not to mention that it was already closer to the village than it should have been, so it needed dealt with before it could cause any issues. It should have stayed on the surrounding islands if it wanted to live.

Then again, considering that it was just a beast, it wasn’t like it wanted anything.

I lifted up my new spinner tentacle and took aim as the soaring wolf worked on eating its meal. Once I had the shot lined up, I fired my webbing at it and kept on firing until there wasn’t any left. I wanted to try and get it stuck where it was to minimize risk while finishing it off.

And it worked.

My webbing covered the soaring wolf’s body, clinging onto it, the ground, and the corpse in front of it.

The beast immediately recognized that it was under attack and tried to break free, though, and that proved not to be too difficult. My webbing slowed it down, but the beast proved that persistent struggling could tear through it after about ten seconds.

That was probably enough time to go down there and try to finish it off, but I also wanted to see just how strong the webs were.

They weren’t as strong as I hoped they were.

Though, I did also rather randomly spray the webs at it. Maybe if I put more thought into where I targeted with the webs and how I overlapped them, I might be able to create a situation with them where the beast wouldn’t have been able to easily break free. Such as only targeting the legs and overlapping webs to strengthen them.

In other words, that required some experimenting with. Maybe I’d go out and look for beasts to randomly web and experiment with what techniques got them the most stuck.

Or…

I could always experiment with Lada and Korova in much more perverse ways.

It was all the same in the end, right? It was still webbing a target to make sure that they can’t move.

Even though there was a snarling beast barking at me looking like it wanted to tear me to shreds, I couldn’t help but to fantasize about using my new webs on Lada and Korova.

But that would be for later.

For the time being, I really did need to focus on the beast wanting to kill me. Especially since that beast used its claws to run up a nearby tree and then jump toward me with its legs extended, allowing its flight capabilities to carry its body toward me.

Fortunately, I was faster than it. Wrapping a couple of tentacles around some branches of the tree across got me away from the beast before it could reach me.

But things were a bit risky at that point as it left the beast on an equal height. It didn’t have to climb up another tree at that point. All it had to do was jump and glide to wherever I was.

This would be a way better opportunity to use my webs… but nothing’s coming out. Webbing it while it’s in the middle of a glide would really interrupt it and probably drop it to the ground. Sticking it to a tree or branch where it won’t have as much space to try and break free could also work. It managed to break free so easily before because it could reach out its legs and dig its claws into the ground. If it’s on a narrow branch, it won’t have much ground to use.

I moved to the next tree before the beast could reach me again.

I guess I have to rely on the usual.

And the “usual” was dipping one of my sucker tentacles into my body to capture some acid in them before pointing said tentacles at the beast and shooting it out in a stream.

The acid struck the side of the beast’s face and left a line of burning skin, but that wasn’t enough to win. Actually, I wasn’t sure if I could win relying only on acid. Against a soul beast or any other living person? Sure, that would cause severe pain and potentially scare them away, but it wasn’t really enough to win a normal fight on its own. At least, not against any large enemy.

The bigger the enemy, the less effective my acid was.

Even if I tried wrapping my tentacles around its neck, I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to choke it or to break its neck.

I realized the flaw of being small. While it was great being able to fit my entire body between Lada’s and Korova’s breasts, I wouldn’t be able to protect them and everybody else against larger threats if I remained so small.

Unless I could somehow strengthen my tentacles, which I would rather do since I came to love having such a tiny body.

Back to the more pressing matter, I focused on dodging the beast’s attempts at reaching me while occasionally shooting more and more acid at it. It almost felt cruel to do that since it was damaging its body without killing it or even getting close to killing it. Thankfully, normal beasts didn’t feel any pain, so I didn’t have to worry about it suffering or anything.

Then I heard an expected voice shout, “I’m right here!”

In an instant, the soaring wolf dropped its interest in me to glide at the shouting Kresimir with its claws extended, ready to tear into him.

Even I felt my attention pulled toward Kresimir. Not just pulled toward him, but forced to him.

Then, with a confident smile on his face, Kresimir drew his sword and swung it toward the incoming beast even though it wasn’t within range yet.

And it clearly didn’t need to be in range in the first place since a shockwave followed the path of his sword and crashed into the beast’s body. The blast was enough to sever one of the beast’s front legs before cutting halfway into its torso where its force was spread out and knocked the beast back, reversing its momentum and sending it flying into the tree behind it.

That… that was incredible. Is Kresimir actually really strong? Not that I ever doubted him, but an old guard in a quiet place like this… I never expected him to be capable of such an attack. Something like that would make that soul beast no match for him! And that was only a single attack! I have no idea what else he’s capable of!

“Is this her?” Kresimir asked, looking up at me. “The soul beast?”

I held my tentacles up to make an X before dropping down to the ground next to him.

“Dang. Well, a soaring wolf desperate enough to come this close to town is dangerous even if it’s not a soul beast. All it takes is finding some kid foolish enough to sneak into the woods on their own for us to end up with another soul beast on the loose.”

If it wasn’t for the children then I wouldn’t have been as worried, but he was right. Though, even adults not trained in fighting would probably die to a beast like that.

Kresimir then groaned and stretched his arm wielding the sword. “Guess I’ve got to practice some more. Think my body might be getting a bit out of shape to use an attack like that without warming up.”

It was hard to think of him as out of shape when he looked like the healthiest old man in the world. His biceps alone were thicker than most men’s torsos.

Pushing aside any discomfort he must have felt, Kresimir walked over to the beast and cut its head off with a single swing of his sword to finish the job. “Alright. That should do it. Thanks for calling me over here.” He turned his attention to the first beast—the one with the antlers that the soaring wolf killed. “A fresh greystag… looks like the wolf there didn’t get much opportunity to eat it. But… what’s this white stuff on it?”

I held up my newest tentacle and sprayed what tiny amount of web I just made to demonstrate.

“Huh. Alright. You gain new tentacles or whatever it is from eating beasts, right?”

I nodded.

“Then how about this? Since I saved you,” he said with a cocky, playful smile to make it obvious that he wasn’t actually trying to hold that over me, “I’ll take this here greystag to the butcher so I can have a nice feast later. All my grandkids have been eating lately are vegetables because of my son, so I need to get some meat in them the next time he turns his back. As for that beast over there,” he looked back at the soaring wolf, “well, that one is all yours. Their meat is nowhere near as good as a greystag’s.”

I held out my notebook and pen to write. Also, carrying them with me became such second nature that I completely forgot they were even there with me during the fight.

SOUNDS LIKE A DEAL TO ME.

“Great,” Kresimir said, sheathing his sword and walking over to the greystag. He then proceeded to pick it up with a single arm, slung it over his shoulder, and held it by his back legs not at all minding the blood dripping all over him. He also managed to do all of that absolutely effortlessly. I would have thought that swinging a sword would be easier than picking up a dead beast, but he proved me wrong. Then again, he had to have used some kind of ability to do what he did with his sword. That ability probably took an exceptional toll on his arm. “I’ll give you some privacy then. And don’t hesitate to get me the next time something like this happens, alright?”

I nodded and saluted, prompting him to nod in return and then leave.

My hunger returned as soon as Kresimir left me alone with the soaring wolf’s corpse. I didn’t even notice my hunger was completely gone until he was.

Going by how I felt when he shouted and that I didn’t even feel hungry with two corpses here… maybe that shout of his was affected by a skill or ability? The way that the beast focused all of its attention on him in an instant backs that theory up. It’s not normal, even for a simple-minded beast, to swap attention that easily.

That was interesting since it would be an ability or skill that didn’t sound familiar at all, and I felt like I knew about many different ones even if I wasn’t sure how I knew about them, but that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that I was about to get something out of the corpse.

But what?

I needed to get bigger and stronger, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to go about that yet, and it wasn’t really what I wanted. What did I want?

Honestly… when I thought about what I wanted, my mind went to Lada and Korova.

I only had a single tentacle worth using for penetration.

Even though I knew it would be better to gain or develop tentacles in a way that would make me stronger so that I could better defend everybody, what I really wanted were more tentacles to have fun with in the bedroom. No matter how hard I tried to convince myself that I should get something more useful out of the corpse, I just couldn’t shake what I truly wanted.

Maybe it was Lada’s perverse influence corrupting me into wanting all sorts of sexual additions to my body.

Whatever it was, I knew what I wanted. I knew what I truly wanted despite all of the more logical or more important changes I could get.

And it was another cock.

Going by how my first tentacle grew a cock based off of the beast I got it from, I wondered what it would look if I got one from a soaring wolf.

It was time to find out.