Kneeling they watched as the hologram flickered beneath the hovering drone. The four eyed Grim shaman watched their god pacing, they flicked again as it appeared they kicked something unseen. "This is because you didn't follow my instructions properly. You divided up the corpses. The specimen was weakened by this." The shadowy hologram stopped to face the Grim shaman that knelt with its face pressed to the stone ground.
"All that work and the dimension tunnel has already stabilized. There is no longer any way to breach their little hidden city. Why is such a powerful evolver in such a shit hole? They don't even have a proper territory. We shouldn't have faced anything so powerful." They turned to scream at the prone Grim, who only understood a small portion of their words. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT."
The projection resumed pacing, the buzz of the drone as it shifted was the only sound in the cavern. "What about the other one? And the equipment?" The four eyed shaman jumped up grunting out a response.
"Do not bark at me, you filthy creature. Speak properly or not at all!" The projection wavered as the drone moved around so the projection was directly in front of the shaman.
"Hatch soon. Blessings almost ready." The grim struggled to speak English, his words coming out with a lisp.
"Show me." Even the shadowy featureless form of the projection couldn't hide the resignation in their posture.
Quickly the shaman turned to rush through the tunnels. Smaller two eyed Grims scattered worried the larger Grim was on the prowl for a meal. Buzzing behind him came the drone, in their wake Grims, peeked out in awe and fear.
In short order, the shaman brought them to the spawning pools. Many large pools of sludge had leathery looking eggs the size of melons floating in them. Dozens upon dozens piled into each pool. Then a pool housed a single giant egg. Floating in the sludge was a mottled leathery egg the size of a person. "You dumped only the female corpses into this pool?" There was a hint of curiosity in the tone.
"Weak scrawny ones." The shaman nodded and the projection clicked its tongue.
"How many were there?" They asked. The drone flew out over the pool of sludge letting the projection get closer for a better look.
There was a short pause while the Grim worked out the number on its fingers. "Three."
"What else did you put in the pool?" They were circling around the egg.
Again there was a pause, this time because the shaman was afraid to tell their god that they had deemed the egg produced with the female corpses not worth wasting nutrients on. Grims had no gender. They were born from eggs created from the flesh of any Grim. They were put in huge pools of sludge that dissolved organic materials that were then absorbed by the eggs. Grims were a species that functioned completely on a might makes right logic. Even eating the weaker ones of their kind. They had the unique ability to evolve if provided enough nutrients of sufficient quality. A two eyed Grim might become a three eye if it fed enough on something strong. In turn, the eggs would hatch stronger Grims if they absorbed enough nutrients before hatching. It was why the shadowy figure had chosen to experiment with them.
Its orders had been to take the human corpses, the evolver corpses their trap had netted them, and use it as the base for a special Grim. Only the shaman hadn't followed the instructions. Believing the smaller female bodies to be a different and obviously weaker species it had divided them. Then only fed the one created with the male human corpses. It was saddened that the one corpse they most wanted hadn't been aquired. The Grim wanted that one pesky monster that had nearly killed it. It didn't know what to call it or it would have known it was Jake they wanted.
"Oh, is it hatching now?" Before they could come up with an answer that wouldn't anger the shadowy projection the egg started moving. A hand pressed against the leathery shell and then another… then another. Multiple hands, more than a single creatures worth moved around pressing against the egg from within. "Interesting. A multiple birth from a single egg? Is that possible? Do Grims have multiple births in such a manner? Intriguing."
As quickly as it began all the movement stopped, and the swarm of multiple hands stopped pushing against the egg shell. Then without warning a slender hand thrust through that leathery hide from within. All the fingers were stiffened into a knife blade and those slender fingers gripped the egg shell. A second then a third and a fourth hand pushed through gripping the egg shell. The shadowy figure made an intrigued humm as a fifth and then sixth hand also pushed threw before pulling the egg apart. A slimy face emerged from within and blinked its eyes. All six of them. There were two where a normal human would be, then a set above and below. While such a number of eyes was unheard of, it wasn't the only unique feature on that slender face. It had a nose unlike normal Grims, small and slightly upturned. Their pouty mouth split open and vomited up more slime as they pulled the rest of their body free.
Only one body emerged from that egg. A six eyed and limbed slender frame. Grims generally had what would be considered a male frame but were without sex features. A naked Grim was as anatomically correct as a Ken doll. But what had emerged was definitely female. Their grey skin was slick with slime as they sucked in their first breath.
"Intriguing! This. This is something unexpected." The drone buzzed loudly as it zipped around the figure taking in its full form. Other than the extra eyes and limbs they looked exactly like a grey skinned bald human woman. Their figure was lean and muscular like an athlete lacking the hulking look of most Grims. "This level of difference should easily qualify it as a different species!" The newborn Grim swiped at the figure, their hand passing through the hologram. Instead of continuing to flail at it, they paused to study their hand and then the figure. Another experimental swipe followed.
The Shaman grunted at them angrily, barking at them for daring to attack their god even if it was pointless. The newborn turned and looked down their nose at them, a look of disgust and superiority. That look quickly changed as there was a flash of recognition. They pulled back their full lips in a snarl and lunged forward surprising the Shaman. They raised their staff intent on showing the newborn their place but six hands caught them with strength beyond what they expected. Two limbs held them while the other four began punching, clawing, and at times thrusting their knifed hands into their body in a wild frenzy.
In a matter of moments, they had brutally killed the shaman and knelt over their mangled corpse panting. The entire time the hologram watched without saying a single thing. Now they watched the panting blood smeared naked figure. "Was that the normal pecking order at work. Or was something else going on?" They finally spoke.
The newborn whipped around to glare at them. "Fuck off." They snarled before lunging, not at the hologram but the drone. They caught it in several hands and pulled it apart. Far away from the underground Grim spawning pool the real body of the shadowy figure trembled with excitement. "Yes. With this, we can bring those spoiled pampered fools down a notch finally." Their smile grew so big it made their face hurt.
*********
Back in the Grim lair the smaller weaker Grims scattered as the naked figure of the newborn sauntered through the tunnels. They could feel something deeper, a power radiating out that brushed across their skin like a warm breeze. Following it they found a chamber in which pools of liquid metal roiled as if boiling. A single metallic crystal jutted from the largest pool with a huge Grim impaled through the chest. Its four limbs were covered in metal like a second skin. Even as they stood there watching more beads of metal formed from pores near the edge to merge slowly with the existing armor. The impaled Grim raised its head to look at them with five glazed eyes.
For a moment the six eyed female examined the pool of liquid metal before starting to wade in. They seemed unaffected by the pool's contents as they moved towards the impaled Grim. It just watched them, seeming barely alive. When they got close they reached up one hand and traced a slender finger gently down the metallic hand. Their lips pursed and all six eyes squinted as if they were trying hard to recall something. Then a single word emerged from their lips. "Jake."