Slaughter

"Wait!" Asher shouted as he ran after Berk.

Seeing the state of Berk, he too felt like something gravely wrong had happened, causing his heart to race. The closer they got to the source of the cries, the worse the feeling became. And once Asher finally saw it, his eyes went wide.

"Sourcefather's mercy…" Asher muttered as he gazed at a scene of massacre.

It was worse than what he had seen earlier, with more bodies lying everywhere. Most of them were mangled and weren't even complete. It was unknown where the rest of their parts had gone.

They were either flung somewhere or now in the bellies of the demons.

And the cause of it was another demon.

It had two horns as well, but didn't look like the Orc demon from earlier. This one had a large fanged mouth that was disproportionate to its head. There were two beady marble like floating eyes that were attached with a fleshy branch rising from the top of its head. And from behind these rose its straight horns.

Its torso was extremely obese, but it had no legs. Instead, it had a slug like lower half that left a trail of foul slime. It had six thin arms with two fingers, each all of which were currently holding humans in their grasp. Despite being thin, the arms were not weak at all.

"SCREEEEEE!" The Slug like Demon opened its mouth and bit of the head of one of the humans that he was holding.

Behind the demon, a wide and large hole could be seen, along with the remnants of a barricade which Asher recognized to be the ration storage cellar.

'The demon ripped the earth apart?' Asher could see that the roof of the entire cellar had been pulled away, revealing its insides. 

The people inside it had tried to run, but not all of them were successful. The humans in the Demon's hands were the first ones that it had caught.

"Warren!" A woman screamed from behind a pile of rubble next to the cellar.

She was being held back by other people, and was crying nonstop.

Asher knew the man who had just been killed too, as he was a fellow miner with him.

~THUD~

The Slug Demon threw the headless corpse of Warren away and bit off the heads of three more humans, before throwing them away as well.

Now only two humans were left in its lowest two hands, both of which were women. 

"LET GO OF CARRIE, YOU FOUL DEMON!" Berk charged at the two horned Slug Demon, absolute fury apparent on his face.

It was then that Asher recognized one of the women in the Slug Demon's hands. 

"Auntie Carrie!" It was none other than the wife of Berk.

~CLANG~

Berk swung the sword at the demon's hand, but only felt a recoil. 

"Ugh!" The Sword bounced off the carapace of the Demon, barely leaving a scratch on its surface.

"SKEWEE!" The Slug Demon was a bit surprised by Berk's attempt, as humans mostly ran away from it when they saw it. 

Thus, seeing a weak human charging at it was a new thing.

"AHH!" Berk swung the sword again, attacking the demon's hand, hoping that it would drop Carrie.

~DENG~

But this time, the Slug Demon was not going to just watch. One of its hands directly grasped the sword, stopping it midair.

~CRACK~CRACK~CRACK~

Berk watched with wide eyes as the blade cracked apart under the grip of the Slug Demon.

~KACHA~

And finally, after a couple of seconds, the blade broke apart!

~THUD~

As soon as it did, the Slug Demon took hold of Berk and lifted him in the air with his neck.

"ARGH!" Berk could only groan with his neck being held firmly. 

The Demon gazed at him with a mix of anger and amusement, its two eyes tilting slightly. 

"No…" Asher couldn't even scream as the Demon opened its cavernous maw, biting away Berk's head.

~SQUELCH~

The Demon chewed the head of the human that had tried to attack him, and savored it for a bit before noticing a faint sensation on one of its hand. 

"Skwele?" It found that one of the women in his hand was biting him.

"SKEWEH!" The demon took great offense at it and crushed the woman's neck, ending her life in a fit of rage.

"Carrie too." The people watching from behind were left overwhelmed with sorrow as both the husband and wife died at the hands of the demon.

Asher didn't know what to do, as the demon continued its slaughter.

One by one, it started to kill off the humans, while they tried to run. That was the only advantage they had on the slug demon.

The creature was slower than a human.

But that was only in the case of healthy humans. The people of the Crude Lands were hardly an icon of health, with most being affiliated with various illnesses as well as being malnourished. Even if they could run faster than the Slug Demon, that didn't mean they could do it endlessly.

Their stamina would only last for a short while.

Asher was frozen, watching it all until he heard a cry.

"Grandma!" Tess's image appeared in his mind as his eyes darted about.

He quickly spotted the old woman, along with two more women, hiding behind a collapsed hut. The Slug Demon was currently heading towards them, and had smelled their scent. Instead of chasing down prey that ran, it would much rather kill easy ones.

As soon as Asher saw Tess's impending doom, his own fear disappeared, and he ran toward her with all his might. At some point, he had pulled out the knife that Berk had passed onto him as well.

~THUD~

The Slug Demon slapped the half collapsed wall of the hut away, revealing the women that were hiding behind it.

"Skehehe," It seemingly laughed and extended his arms towards them, intending to start his feast.

"DIE!" But before it could proceed, a shout was heard.

~SLICK~

Then… the demon lost its vision.