How many days had it been? It did not know. It did not have a concept of time in the first place.
That being said, the humans did. A week had gone by. An area of the city had quickly become a forbidden zone. No one dared approach. Civilians stayed far away, and enforcers wouldn't get too close either.
Still, there were idiots who didn't believe it or thought they could do something about it, and would foolishly enter.
One such example was now.
A trio of girls was approaching.
It could feel them getting closer. It waited patiently. Several tentacles snaked across the ground while somehow remaining out of sight. The first two were impaled almost instantly. As a tentacle approached the third, it suddenly twisted and ended up going around behind the girl and impaled a wall. The tentacles pulled the two bodies back the way they came. The third tentacle pulled itself out of the wall and returned from whence it came as well.
The girl, pale faced fell as her legs gave out. After much puking and crying she managed to stagger to her feet and leave. Of course, she would try and tell others what had happened. But who would believe her? A tentacle monster attacked her and her friends, and only she survived? What kind of shows and fantasies have you been indulging in?
Another two months would go by.
The city could no longer take this matter lightly. The area of "unexplainable disappearances" had expanded, and even the local enforcers were disappearing now. With a few tele-calls, the nearest branch of the planetary defense force* sent a mechanized battalion. Within a few hours they were there.
The hum of the engines were dull and almost at the level of being loud. Large trucks with tracks instead of wheels were hauling various other vehicles in their trailers. Some carried crates of drones, some carried artillery, some had tanks, and some even had power armor and mechanical exo-suits.
The trucks reached a plaza not far from the section of the city that had been sealed off. The artillery was locked into place in the plaza while the tanks accompanied by a few drones, at least two people wearing power suits and exo-suits, and four people with something resembling a jetpack on their back and grappling gear on their feet, hands and waist.
One could see these groups moving towards the sealed area. Many wondered if all this firepower was really necessary. Only time would tell.
As they entered, they felt a chill run up their spines. The deeper they went, the more cautious they became.
Very quickly several groups were attacked. As tentacles whipped around crushing everything but the tanks and the people in power suits, a thin shield surrounded the tanks. There was one on each side, but the coverage wasn't perfect. The edges didn't touch so there were no corners, only flat rectangles. A tentacle with a spike made of metal on the end suddenly came from nowhere and ripped through a power suit. Several more of these tentacles appeared as more and more groups were attacked.
The pulsing of weapon fire could be heard from the survivors of the initial attack. The people in power suits carried large, long barreled guns that bore a resemblance to chainguns. However, instead of bullets they fired bolts of energy. The tanks rotated their twin barrels and also fired, but missed more often than not. The light pulse rifles on the tanks also fired, but still missed quite often. Any tentacle directly hit was severed, as these tentacles weren't very thick.
With slow progress, the groups pulled back. All the tanks came out relatively unscathed, but only a handful of people in power suits were still with them. It was a massacre.
The bodies were pulled back to the blob of mostly flesh, but there was some bits of metal here and there as well. The blob was about 10 feet wide and 8 feet tall. Tentacles of Orum reached out from the blob and devoured not only the corpses, but the metal as well. The blob suddenly stirred and several tentacles rapidly flew off down streets and alleyways, and occasionally through buildings.
With incredible momentum, the tentacles grazed an approaching girl as they just barely avoided her.
It was the girl from before. The one that had previously been left alive.
In her hands was a small rifle. She raised it and pointed at the seemingly unaware tentacle.
A whistling sound could be heard.
The tentacles trembled for a moment a before another suddenly appeared and wrapped itself around the girl's waist. In an instant it began pulling her along. The force caused her rifle to clatter to the ground as she shrieked and struggled to free herself. The tentacles suddenly separated and followed two different paths.
A large artillery round struck the ground not far from where she dropped her rifle. Many more rounds followed, obliterating a little over half the of the the area that had been sealed off.
Craters and debris could be seen everywhere.
The tentacle with the girl reached the blob a few moments after the bombardment ended. With a quick motion the tentacle unfurled and dropped the girl to the ground.
As she rolled over she could see the corpses being devoured. A shriek escaped her as she began to back away with vomit rising in her throat.
An Orum tentacle reached out and wrapped itself around her. She shuddered at what began unfolding next.
Something cold and menacing seemed to press up against her mind, but a child-like energy pulsed through the tentacle wrapped around her. Whatever was pressing against her mind suddenly pierced into it and she immediately had tunnel vision, and a few moments later and she collapsed.