Mama Tentacon

Morning rolled around and Page wanted to show Zeeth the path that they would take if they were to depart, which Zeeth was still hesitant about. Page was hoping that if he knew a bit about their exciting adventure ahead of them that he would be more willing to leave.

Page put four screens together and enlarged them to be as big as possible. He then pulled up a map of the world and zoomed in on Jarlon. The map even clearly showed all the windows on the buildings, although they couldn't see inside. He swiped upwards and to the right, revealing a volcano some distance away. Just as he was about to speak, a bunch of teleporter sounds started ringing and the clamoring of people running and yelling grew larger. Sirens from the Jarlon door suddenly blared and red lights shone through the entire hall.

Norman jumped in yelling, "it's a code red! There is a massive tentacon coming up! It's serious, it somehow got past all the defenses and is coming up to the wall!"

Page gave the four screens back to its owners, Kelle, Zeeth, and Will who were in the room with them and ran out with Norman. From the massive indoor screens, they could see the top of the wall begin to get taller. But it wasn't the wall, it was the head of a tentacon slowly rising upwards.

The massive head of a tentacon slowly loomed over the walls, casting a shadow on all the civilians peering back up at it's massive, beady eyes. It pounded on the wall a few times, but the magically reinforced stone didn't budge. As expected of a creation made with the help of Afir. Instead of breaking it down, the tentacon simply pulled it's tentacles up and tried to climb the wall. In the process, it knocked down a small tower atop the wall where a magic cannon stood.

A bunch of people from the Vasaleus was yelling orders around, "Why aren't they using the cannons? What's with the defense, why is it not activating?!"

"Get all the Vasaleus members back into the main building, call out a few A rank soldiers, we might need one of the Eight!"

"I'll tell Emma!"

The tentacon completely pulled one of its giant tentacles over the wall and dropped it into the city, crushing a few buildings and creating a small dust storm. It was already pulling 3 more tentacles over, narrowly missing a few more cannons.

"Zeeth, we need to get out there and help!" Page grabbed Zeeths shoulder, shaking him a little.

Norman looked at Page like he was a crazy man, "What? Are you crazy?! How are you guys going to help them? Shoot it down?"

"No, that would be ridiculous. We will calm it down."

This time, Will spoke up, "And that's not ridiculous?! That's even more insane!"

"Zeeth, follow me and I will prove to you your strengths. You have to get out here, come on!"

"Zeeth, don't go! You're safe in here, why go out and risk your life?"

The entire time, Kelle had just been staring up at the screen in terror, something clearly on her mind. And Zeeth seemed to have the same thought, his expression of terror had a large mix of guilt in it, his eyebrows creased in a concerned way.

Kelle stopped their arguing with a quiet question, "Guys, do you think… that tentacon is coming for something?"

Zeeth muttered, "yeah, like its child? Page. we need to talk." Zeeth pulled Page to the side while the others were still staring at the screen and whispered so that they couldn't hear, "when you said that the town was destroyed. Was it perhaps because of me? Is that why I was so depressed about it, and that why I didn't want to talk about it?"

"I- possibly. I'm not sure. Maybe in the past, you weren't able to stop it, and constantly felt the weight of all these deaths, knowing that you lead it here and that's why you stayed so silent. The guilt must've crushed you."

"Then I have to go fix it." he turned to the others, "guys, I have to go. I brought Kanna here and that must be why this giant tentacon is coming, to get her back. I have to go stop it before it causes any more destruction, or all these deaths would be because of me. Don't stop me, I will do this."

"Zeeth, I know how you feel, but this is insane-"

Kelle looked between the tentacons then back at Zeeth and cut Norman off, "Zeeth, if you think it wants its baby, then we'll give Kanna back. It's not worth having a city destroyed for a single baby tentacon."

"Thanks, Kelle."

"That's great thinking, I'm sure it will stop when it sees the baby. Zeeth, come on we have to go before it kills any more."

Norman looked at them like they were crazy, but with one last slap on both his cheeks, he grabbed Will and Kelle's arms, yelling, "Alright, fine! If you're really going to go, then we're going too!"

Will seemed surprised at the sudden proclamation, but we were more than ready to help too if it meant he could be included in something.

They all helped lift Kanna, Page led the way in running, Zeeth following shortly behind them and Will, Norman, and Kelle ran with the tentacon sprawled on top of them.

"Okay, this baby should calm it down, but even if it doesn't, Zeeth, you have had a lot of experience, I know you can calm it down. Your practice with all those slimes will help you, even if you don't understand how to calm it down now, it should come really naturally to you." Page yelled at Zeeth, making sure it was obscure enough that the others wouldn't understand, even if they heard over the screaming sirens and the wailing of the surprised tentacon, which was unlikely.

"Alright, do you have any tips?"

"Yeah, you told me to get close to its brain or its control center and try to make as much physical contact as possible! Then try to sing a soft tune or gently rub it, all creatures love head scritches! It's what you told me! Also, don't be nervous whatever you do! If you show that you're nervous, they will get nervous. And wild animals are natural creatures of instinct, even if they don't notice your body getting nervous, they could still feel it by subconsciously picking up subtle body languages. It's like when we know someone is lying without evidence and just from their body."

"That's a lot to remember!"

"Don't worry, it should come naturally! You've done this subconsciously a hundred times before."

"Alright!"

Amidst their talking, they unknowingly ran past security trying to get people into the building and people running against them. A security man trying to direct an old lady to her room suddenly yelled at them as they ran past and a tentacle of the tentacon slapped his face, "Hey, you five! With the weird… thing! Get back here!"

But they were already in a frenzy and all the noise around them drowned out his voice as they jumped onto the handle and teleported out, tentacon and all.

They ran past all people running away from the tentacon and quickly came into a clearing where everyone had already evacuated, except for some crushed and trapped under rubble and a few trying to rescue them.

They ran past all of that devastation, damage caused by the massive tentacon simply trying to move and throwing rubble around, and got to the real danger zone. The tentacon had gotten four of its limbs across and many of its tentacles had trees and bushes on the ends, showing that this was the secretive type. Its power definitely wouldn't be as strong as a battle oriented tentacon, but it's hiding and digging capabilities were incredible. Of course, none of that would be all that useful now, now that it was up in the air and trying to attack openly.

Even though it was more stealth-oriented, its strength from its weight was nothing to scoff at. It could easily crush a house by simply moving, that's how massive each of its tentacles was.

Because of its size though, it wasn't able to see Zeeth and his group trying to show it its baby, simply ignoring the little speck on its side as it continued on its rampage.

"We need to get it closer to its eyes!"

"We got this! Kelle, get your telekinesis ready for a huge upwards launch! As high as you can go!"

"Got it, just like we did as kids!" Norman and Kelle looked at each other and gave a thumbs up, slowly letting go of the tentacon, putting more weight on the rest. They bent all the way down, getting as low as they could with their feet planted on the ground.