It was already dark out.
No one has eaten today at least except the dwarf poncho, who had hidden in the dinning hall.
Till now no monster has approached this place so he was safe. He had been the only one here all three times it was time for food.
' what's taking so long? Shouldn't those scary things have been taken care of by now '
He hadn't heard anything since he'd gotten to the dining but that was because of it's distance from the action.
Two of the fights where close and restricted to the river and forest areas and the other one was a mobile unit.
The only reason why the moving grenade hadn't approached the dining hall was that it was full.
The gluttonous thing had eaten so much corpse and dirt that it's body couldn't desintigrate it quickly enough.
Funny enough what fild it's stomach like system the most was the dirt and it's body was subconsciously rejecting the ability to desintigrate dirt.
Poncho thought that it was all over so he decided to leave the always open hall.
He wasn't aware that a forced stalker was creeping up on him.
He had at first wanted to go to the river to confirm that everything was over but on second thought.
' meh, why should I risk it?'
He left to the dorms.
At some point he wanted to pee so he stopped and looked around.
' to open '
He thought for a moment then looked around then thought a bit longer.
' I'll use the sparkling clean toilet in the hall area '
And just like that he was going back to meet the scene of a future brutal death.
The Kris team was already down by half and their stealth was made completely useless.
In the past hour and a half things had gone from shity to shittier.
The land and distraction team had been scattered, because of horrible coordination they were almost completely erased. From the first idiot to the last one all their deaths could have been avoided if they had followed Nathan's instructions.
At some point some wise guy decided that Nathan was using them as shields to survive and that he shouldn't be their leader.
From there some people started following him and others Nathan. The two leaders had the same ideas and because of that people were at the right position under the wrong circumstances. Multiple people moving into a region would attract the beast and thus the manurvers were turned to shit.
Right now only about twenty of the initial more than hundred were still alive. And ironically the other leader was still alive somehow all though soaking wet and bruised.
They land force's biggest mistake was not considered how dangerous water could be.
The sea farers had suffered even worse in scale.
They had located the crystal rather quickly but from their it was one problem after another.
Someone had surfaced for air and returned without getting caught so it started a whole thing which eventually led to them being spotted.
But being chased out of the water was better than if they had proceeded.
Reagan could testify, he had tried to go at it alone then realised that there were 2 other tentacles beneath and one of which was made out of mud.
If more than one person was down there it would have wiped most of them clean but because it was just Reagan he could escape.
It was like trying to swat at a fly.
Even after leaving the water the tentacles chased after them. The oxygen deprived swimmers couldn't get far and much of them were killed.
They had gone again this time with only three people.
The idea was for two to distract or at least prevent the tentacles from reaching Reagan who would go after the crystal.
That was were kris was now, dodging tentacles for her dear life.
' this has been going on for a whole twenty seconds, what's keeping Reagan?'
Naturally elves had better control over themselves than others so Kris could keep doing this for a while but the fish girl handling the other tentacle didn't seem like she was going to last any longer.
Her limbs were getting slow.
Kris noticed and was getting worried.
She didn't want to see someone else die. If not for her level of control she would be crying herself right now. So many people were dead. The other younger elf was gone too.
Honestly Kris was also on a timer, she couldn't suppress her chemical build up of hormones.
Just then she noticed Reagan disloging the crystal.
She wanted to scream out.
' we don't have time for that. I'll soon...'
Just then she was wiped away by current.
All around her she could feel an increase in the water level.
' ooh shit no, it's coming back in.'
Kris didn't bother to continue with the tentacle, there wasn't anything she could do to assist at this point.
She started to rush back but immediately after leaving the initial estimated reach of the tentacle she remembered the other girl.
' I have to help her'
She started to swim back.
From her distance and the increasing murkiness of the water she shouldn't have been able to see the fish girl.
But she did, the fish girl was swimming as quickly as she could to reach away.
Kris stopped swimming, she was hoping that the fish girl would reach her but before she could.
A stream of pink escaped the fish girls body. Another tentacle pierced through her. The two tentacles push apart and destroy the girl.
In that moment Kris can't hold it anymore, if not for her subconscious sense of preservation and need for air she would have broken down right then and there.
She gasped once her head broke the surface.
Her mind was split into three one was counting the people she knew that were dead and the ones that their status was unknown, another part of her brain was praying Reagan could escape with the crystal and last part of her mind was being flooded with images and memories.
She remembered the innocent fish girl and the time before they re emerged.
The girl had said she didn't want to be used as bait again. It hinted at so much at least to Kris, who had seen her die.
Before ten drops of tears hit the ground the earth quaked a massive giezer erupted into the air along with wisps of smoke.
Kris Looked up and finally let herself crumble.
' he'd done it. They had defeated one of the three beasts, she could rest now'