Syunios

He pulled back two wooden arrows and released them before anyone could stop him. They split and revealed a thin rope that restricted the kids, not hurting any of them. It scared them all enough to stop, but a towel nearby fluttered from the wind they created and revealed a stash of glistening, golden coins.

He jumped over, grabbed a small handful, and asked, "Are these all stolen? Oh lord, there must be hundreds of styrs here."

"No!" she yelled, "you can't steal those! We're going to die! The adults will hurt us again!"

"What?" Page dropped a few of the coins he had picked up, looking at her, alarmed. "What adults? You're being forced to steal?"

A few kids tore the ropes off of them and she held her hands to her mouth, terrified that she had let that slip.

"I don't remember any of this from last time," he whispered to Zeeth. "I just took our things back and left. They stole a spatial bag that could only be opened by me so it wasn't useful, they just handed it back when I explained that."

Gror asked again, "what adults? What are they making you do?"

"We're the adults. What are you turds doing here?" someone walked down from a dark staircase on the other end of the room. "Who led them here. WHO!?!" he grabbed someone nearby from the collar and shook them.

"I-it wasn't me!"

"THEN WHO!?"

"We came here by ourselves. Put the kid down." Gror said, holding up his sword again.

He dropped the kid. His hands were covered in black marks and calluses, his head was a pale white. His hair was held up in a long, purple spike. He planted his hands into the floor and long purple spindles came wiggling out around the hole. A much fatter man with thick, dreadlock hair came from the same staircase.

"Weller, what's going on. Who are they? Not looking to be thieves for us, are you?"

"Fatso, they are here to steal from our little children. We should take them out, their sword and bow look pretty expensive."

Fatso pulled off a few of his clumps of hair and threw it to the hole where the spindles were coming from. They began moving on their own like fingers that attached themselves to the tentacles and wiggled around.

Page shot an arrow at him before they could do anything and Zeeth threw a ball of magma shortly after, hoping to stop them before they attack. Weller jumped aside to dodge the arrow, which hit Fatso, who didn't have enough time or warning to dodge it, in the shoulder and the ball of magma landed on Weller's foot. They both yelled out in pain, grabbing the hurt body parts, anger spreading on their faces.

They both pulled out a little green bottle and poured something on top of the strange finger covered spindles. They pooled in the holes but were quickly soaked up by the spindles that grew immensely larger. The kids had all ran away by then and hidden in places, otherwise, the growing and thrashing tentacles would've hit a few of them. One grew much longer than the rest and rushed at the three of them. Page formed a mana arrow and shot it but the tentacles easily swooped past it. Gror swung his electric sword with incredible speed and cut off a chunk from the tentacle. The tentacle hit the floor, drying up and withering into black, wrinkly skin. But another one had popped up where that one had been cut in the hole.

Suddenly, five more grew and shot at them. Zeeth created a wall of gems and greystone but the tentacles climbed around it, but that was all he needed. He threw a few balls of magma at the trapped tentacles that had come out exactly where he had predicted them to come from. Page noticed and shot a few arrows as well, killing all five as quickly as they had come.

They withered just like the first one and five more sprung up.

Fatso and Weller had been trying to heal their wounds as they dealt with the tentacles. The ones that had sprung up again began to appear smaller and less active, especially the last five.

Page shot another arrow at the foot of the tentacles where they couldn't move to strike them, but just as the arrow was about to hit, the finger-like dreadlocks pushed against the floor and pulled them out. They began moving around like little centipedes, climbing on walls and jumping on children that they found.

"Guys, kill the tentacles! The hairs are sucking the blood out of the children to grow stronger." Page stabbed one and cut the hair off one of them and stabbed it until it was dead. It withered away but no new tentacles came from it. Zeeth created walls around the kids to prevent any more from being attacked and began burning them with molten gems. Gror killed the stray tentacles that haven't latched onto anything. Soon, all of them were stabbed, sliced, or burnt to death. They approached the two and tied them up with the withered skins of the tentacles, which were a lot tougher than they had expected.

The children hesitantly came out from their hiding places.

Zeeth trapped them with a few more gems and asked, "These are the adults that have been making you steal?"

The little girl nodded, "uh-huh."

"So if we just get rid of them then we can free you guys?"

"Like that's going to work. Were just the caretakers, we have bosses above us that will just take over this, it's pointless to kill us."

"And are these bosses stronger than you?"

"Yeah, they'll kill you in an instant, the big boss will tear you to pieces!"

"How many are there?"

He tried to spit onto their faces, which were blocked by Zeeths gems, saying, "I ain't telling you anything!"

"Alright, then this guy is useless. Kill the fatso and torture the other one until he tells us everything we know."

"Page, there are kids here." the kids timidly looked around at the five of them.

"So? I was only seven when my dad had me kill a deer."

"Alright but these kids don't need to be as messed up as you."

"What? I'm not messed up."

"You wanted to kill and torture people when they would talk in front of all these kids."

Weller reminded Zeeth of his school advisor who had stolen from his mother back then and anger welled up within him. He grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up, and yelled in his face, "WHO ARE YOUR SUPERIORS!? Tell us everything you know, what they are like, what they have, skills, talents, and appearances. You will tell us all this or I will crush you into a tiny little mulch of blood and meat!"

His anger and frustration from not being able to actually harm all those who had tried to harm him and his mother burst forth unexpectedly. His mind fogged by rage, he kicked him in the stomach.

Gror and Page looked at him, alarmed, as well as all the kids. Gror pat his shoulder and asked, "Zeeth, what's going on? Why are you so mad?"

"Nothing, just interrogating him." he gave another small kick at Weller, who was now curled up on the floor in pain.

Fatso saw the pain Weller was in and yelled out, "I don't know anything about our higher-ups, they tell me things through messengers!"

Zeeth looked at Page who nodded his head, saying it was truthful.

"What about Weller. Do you know any more?"

He was finally recovering from the pain and muttered, "N-no…"

Page glared at him and grabbed his hair to pull him up. "That was a lie. Tell me what you know."

He looked terrified that he had been found out and had begun breathing heavily. Page held a small arrow near his neck and coldly said, "Tell. Me."

"I heard he acts like a nice guy, but you should never let him touch you because a single touch can kill! T-that's all I know!"

"Fine. Empty your pockets, were taking all your things."

"Yes, sir." Fatso had already given up all hope, his skills were mostly related to stylish or clean hair cuts since that was his previous occupation. They stripped him and had him wear the tentacle skins for underwear. His pockets were full of strange hair growth products, small metal parts, and some money.

Weller had even stranger things, a little brown bud, another bottle of what they had poured on their tentacles, and more money.

"What is this bud?"

"I don't know, I picked it off the ground. It's probably useless."

"That was a lie. Tell me what it is or I'll rip your fingernails off."

"It's a copy of the legendary seed, Gahall, imbued with the life of Syunios."

Zeeth had no clue what any of those names meant, "Who is that? What can the original seed do?"