The bullets simply pinged off my skin. It was honestly kind of pathetic that they kept shooting me. Some of the bullets hit my eye, but even that didn’t leave a scratch. Each human wore a gray vest with the blue Monster Purifiers insignia. I sent two hair tentacles to grab them. They cried out as they were lifted into the air. I gave them a quick squeeze to break their pistols.

  Their bodies exploded into blood and meat around my tentacles. Oops.

  “Do you want me to feed you… this?” I asked Samsara about the mess in my hair.

  “Uhh, I think I’ll pass,” she said, her nose scrunching up. While I could tell it smelled delicious, the mess made it unappetizing for her. Oh well. I brought my hair tentacles over to my mouth and dropped some of the chunks of meat in. Some of the blood also dripped into my mouth. Sadly, not all of the blood dripped into my mouth.

  I quickly washed the blood stains in the river next to us.

  “Sorry about that,” I said. “I didn’t realize they would be so squishy.”

  “It’s fine,” Samsara said. She turned to look towards the ground as if guilty. If anything, I should be the guilty one. I lost us two perfectly good snacks and made a disgusting mess in front of Samsara. “Just try to be careful next time.” I felt her mind bring up images of them exploding. She winced.

  I made a note to stop mentally squeezing humans unless I knew they were enhanced with mana. Not a good idea to bring that up. But there was a lot of food here. Of course, we would leave Irene alone since we could bring her back to the monster girl village. Then, we could get the villagers to worship us for being so kind and freeing Irene from the Monster Purifiers.

  “How about we eat all the monster girls except Irene?” I asked. Surely that would help out. Besides, our mana was still severely depleted from using [Color Camouflage II]. We only had 1,260 mana left.

  “Wait, don’t eat the chimera girl!” Samsara called out.

  “Why?” I asked as my hair tentacle freed Irene and held her out to the side so Samsara’s hair snake wouldn’t eat her.

  “Because she’s non-feral,” Samsara said, putting her hands on my shoulder blades. “She’s a person, and she hasn’t done anything wrong to us. Plus, don’t you want another worshiper?” Samsara’s mind brought up memories of warmth spreading throughout our bodies.

  “Sure, you make a good point,” I said. I felt thankful that Samsara was my friend and conjoined to me. Without her, I would have never experienced the feeling of being worshiped. Although it was hard not to think about eating them.

  I felt hesitation coming from Samsara.

  “You don’t feel the same way about being attached to me?” I asked, putting my hands on top of hers.

  She shyly looked away. “I don’t know, some of your thoughts are kind of disturbing. I’m not sure if I want to keep being connected to you.”

  “Well, you have to get used to it,” I said. “Not like we can detach from each other. I don’t think I can change my thoughts, and I’m not sure if I want to. But I can at least make you feel better.” I gave her a hug.

  She sighed. “Thanks. I know you care about me. I just wish you cared about others the same way.” It was kind of perplexing how much she cared about others.

  I pulled the Chimera girl out with another tentacle and held her far away. Samsara’s hair snake was busy stretching itself to go after another prey. It couldn’t reach the chimera girl or Irene, so it pounced on one of the monster girls in the truck.

  We peacefully ate the rest of the monster girls. I cut some up for Samsara to eat while I plopped some in my mouth to chew. A burst of different flavors entered my mouth: sweet, sour, buttery, bitter, and others. I enjoyed tasting the variety of flavors as well as the metallic taste of blood. My tongue rolled over the chunks of monster meat, savoring their various flavors. After a while, I swallowed, letting out a nice hum. Samsara also let out a contented sigh as she ate the meat chunks I gave her. We continued feasting on the rest of the monster girls in the juggernaut.

  There were also the other four monster girls that the Monster Purifiers didn’t put in the juggernaut. I made sure to grab those to eat too. Can’t let any food go to waste.

  Latex Suit Man had stopped struggling inside of Samsara’s hair snake. I wasn’t sure if he got crushed to death by the snake’s undulating stomach or if he asphyxiated because there was no air. Either way, it was a good time to [Track] our mana and our souls.

  Our mana had increased all the way to 10,000. 3,000 excess mana was converted to radiation. Our souls had increased from 1,348 to 1,400 souls. Two must have come from the final fish girl Samsara’s hair snake ate in the morning. Then three of those should have come from the humans we ate. And then there were also two rows of fifteen monster girls each, which should have given us 30 souls. Of course, these numbers didn’t add up to 39 souls. Some of the monster girls presumably ate Cores, causing them to have more souls.

  “Wow,” Samsara said. “I can’t believe you keep track of all that.”

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  I was about to respond to her when the sound of an airship echoed throughout the land. Shit. The humans were going to send backup here. This was a terrible place to fight. We only got lucky against the last mech since we were in a forest.

  Wait a minute, that’s it! There was a forest. I turned right and began sprinting in that direction. My hand continued to hold the juggernaut while my hair tentacles held Irene and the chimera girl.

  The canyon began to rise as we ran, and I saw the outline of Collum trees in the distance. The blasting of the airship’s engines became louder. Samsara looked behind me as I ran, and she gasped. The airship was rapidly approaching us.

  “Can you continue looking at that airship?” I asked her telepathically. I brought the juggernaut up to my tentacle hairs.

  “Yes,” Samsara said. “It feels like you have a plan?”

  “It’s not a very good plan,” I said. “I would have preferred to be in the forest already.”

  “Let’s try it,” Samsara said. She nodded as I explained the plan.

  The blimp was about to catch up with us. I threw the juggernaut at the airship. The airship swerved to the left to dodge. I missed. Crap. At least the airship was forced off our path.

  And then it went back to chasing us. But those few seconds it spent avoiding my throw allowed us to reach the forest. Yes!

  I activated [Color Camouflage II] and made myself and Samsara completely invisible. I used my hair tentacles to grab onto a nearby tree branch from a Collum tree. I jumped up, using my tentacles to help me land on the branch. Samsara reached out with her hands, and I pulled her upwards. We jumped to another branch since this one was close to the ground.

  The sound of metal clanking made us stop. I moved my hair tentacles holding Irene and the chimera girl behind some leaves. The rest of us stayed hidden due to [Color Camouflage II].

  A mech made of blue-painted metal appeared below us. It had four arms, each ending in a scimitar that gave off a neon green glow. I saw the same “PROPERTY of BEVOR VAMBRACE” etched into its chest. It continued walking through the ground, scanning the trees. The humans inside of it were too stupid to look up. Even if the mech did look up, it wouldn’t spot us. I stifled a giggle.

  More metallic clanking came as the other mech stayed still. Huh? A second mech emerged. It looked like a clone of the other mech. Four arms ended in scimitars, except these swords gave off a neon blue glow. I decided to name them Mech Blue Four and Mech Green Four.

  They both took a look at my footprints on the ground. My footsteps just abruptly stopped. Their cockpits rotated around, searching for where I could have gone.

  Everything was going according to plan until the second mech showed up. I knew from last time that I wasn’t able to outrun the mech. Plus, I wasn’t able to use [Color Camouflage] since I was stained in Kaiju blood, but now I could. Then, once the mech wasn’t looking my way, we could use [Blood Spike Launch] on it.

  Now it was a risk to attack both of them. I wasn’t sure if [Blood Spike Launch] would kill them in one shot, so if they both survived, we would have to survive both Mech Blue Four and Mech Green Four. Now, we would just have to wait for them to go away.

  A loud growl echoed through the forest, sending shivers down Samsara’s spine. My hands kept her still so she wouldn’t make any sounds. Both Mech Blue Four and Mech Green Four turned towards the sound and raised their scimitars as if they were going to strike.

  A massive figure pounced on Mech Blue Four. It was a Kaiju cat girl, but she seemed way bigger than the mechs. Black pointed ears emerged from her head, while two black fluffy tails ending in spikes pierced the mech’s leg. Mech Blue Four stabbed her chest, and Mech Blue Green stabbed her from behind. Well, it was more like tried to stab because the scimitars didn’t even break past her dark, shadowy fur.

  The Kaiju cat girl’s claws tore into Mech Blue Four, leaving deep scratches in its torso. Gray liquid leaked out. She began chomping on one of the lower scimitars. Mech Blue Four sliced her on the cheek with its upper scimitars. The Kaiju cat girl let out a growl and threw Mech Blue Four into a tree. Hey, we did that!

  Mech Green Four continued to try stabbing the Kaiju Cat Girl. The Kaiju Cat Girl turned around and swiped at Mech Green Four, bursts of wind emerging from her clawed hands. Mech Green Four was also sent hurtling through the air, its upper arms coming off as it flew. She darted towards Mech Green Four. Her tail stabbed Mech Green Four in the leg. Her clawed hands sliced through Mech Green Four’s lower arms with ease. She had her back turned towards us, so I couldn’t see her face. But I heard the sound of metal crunching. She was eating Mech Green Four. Hey, I wanted to eat that! This Kaiju Cat Girl was stealing my ideas.

  Sadly, I couldn’t sue her for plagiarism. We would have to fight it out. And I didn’t think we would win.

  The crunching continued as the Kaiju girl continued to munch on Mech Green Four. Metal clanking came from behind her, and Mech Blue Four aimed its three remaining scimitars toward the Kaiju cat girl. As it began to charge towards the Kaiju cat girl, the Kaiju’s dual tails stabbed Mech Blue Four in the chest and lifted it up into the air.

  The Kaiju girl turned around, gray liquid dripping from her lips. Her hands held nothing. She must have eaten Mech Blue Four in its entirety. Her face was completely devoid of the black, shadowy fur, showing off fair skin. Several white whiskers protruded from her face, each one ending in a black spike.

  Mech Green Four struggled and flailed around. The Kaiju cat girl swiped at the limbs of Mech Green Four, its limbs falling to the ground. She began taking large bites out of the mech. Shivers went up Samsara’s spine. Bite by bite, Mech Green Four disappeared into her mouth.

  The Kaiju cat girl finished her meal by eating the sliced-off arms of both mechs.

  “That was crazy,” Samsara told me telepathically. “She tore apart both mechs like they were nothing.”

  “She must have evolved,” I said. We should do that too, so mechs wouldn't stand a chance against us. I imagined being able to slice mechs at ease, their weapons being unable to harm me or Samsara.

  “So what do we do now?” Samsara asked. “We’re not going to fight her, right?”

  “Right,” I said. “She’s too strong for us. We only need 110 souls, and we will evolve anyway. So let’s just wait for her to leave.”

  “Got it,” Samsara said. “Sorry, your plan didn’t work out.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said. I could be patient. Sadly, I’d lose mana due to [Color Camouflage II], keeping us invisible, but I’d make it up with another meal.

  The Kaiju cat girl sniffed the air. Its head turned upwards towards us, its eyes staring directly at me.