Chapter 173: Carnal
The armored beast went down as a stream of lightning burned a whole through the armor. Then the tentacles abandoned the armored shell of the grazing beast they'd been inhabiting. The black tentacled ball of snapping tendrils. It whipped the tentacles around violently. Three tentacles shot out towards Ethan, and he blocked them successfully as Savannah poured fire onto it.
It started lashing its tentacles even more violently than before. Trying to grab at us all. Ethan, and I weren't having trouble fending them off, but Savannah was struggling. Two tentacles wrapped around her body. Pinning her in place while the third went for the back of her neck.
I rushed her way, and bit the one headed for the back of her neck, but defending her left me open for attack. I bit the tentacle I had in my mouth off the beast, and dug my teeth into the tentacles that were tying her in place. Ripping them off, and using them to throw her clear.
"It's strong," I yelled as a tentacle pierced the back of my neck, "We need to regroup."
Pain shot down my spine, and my limbs went numb. Ethan retreated away from the beast, but I was still tied up. My vision blurred as the system tried to warn me of something. My vision went black for a moment, and when I snapped back to awareness I was watching my own body from above as it stilled in the tentacled grip of the creature.
"What the fuck is going on?" I exclaimed.
The tentacles of the creature slowly loosened until my body was just standing there on its own. My body started growling, and walking towards Ethan, and Savannah.
"No!" I struggled in place since I couldn't actually move my current perspective as my body moved closer, and closer to my friends, "No! No! No!"
My body moved to strike them, but stopped. I almost relaxed when my body stopped, but something was off. My body stepped back, and turned towards the creature with all the tentacles. Magic built up around my body as my elements were drawn to me. My bloodlust was let out with such force that for a split second all the air near me was pushed away.
The tentacle creature almost stopped moving for a second. Ethan, and Savannah both stepped back with pale fearful expressions. My pupils narrowed until they were such a thin line that they almost couldn't be seen. Then my body rushed forward on its own. Ripping into the tentacles of the creature in front of it with a rabid viciousness.
Ripping, tearing, and biting without restraint. If I'd had a human face I'd go pale watching this kind of violence too. Once the tentacles stopped writhing my body stilled. Then I saw the same thing that had been in the back of the other beasts neck. I glanced around, and saw that both of the predatory beasts, and the armored grazer thing had these pods in their necks.
The tentacle beast must have used them to control all three, and it must have gone wrong when it tried to do the same to me. My head snapped up, and around as I growled at Ethan for taking a step forward. Once my eyes landed on him, my growl went silent. So I'm not controlling my body, but my body still recognizes my friends. I was pretty sure it had something to do with our bond.
Another noise went off to my left, and my body rushed it angrily. The poor creature didn't even have time to flinch as my teeth were sunk in deep, and it was ripped into tiny pieces. Ethan, and Savannah kept me within eyesight, but at a distance as I continued rampaging towards anything that moved, and killing them. My body acted on its own like this for a few hours before the pod on the back of my neck shriveled up, and I collapsed with my mind being snapped back into my body forcefully. I sighed as the stiffness of my limbs, and the muscle pain of being on the highest level of alert possible.
Ethan approached me first.
"Are you back?" Ethan stayed a good ten feet away as he looked me over.
"I feel like I ran ten marathons back to back," I snorted, and winced as I raised my head.
Ethan relaxed a little visibly, and came closer.
"I didn't think we'd come across a mind seeder," Ethan sat down next to me with a huff.
"A mind seeder?" I groaned as I rolled onto my side.
"Yeah," Ethan nodded, "It's a plant type monster. They plant a seed in you, and use you both as food, and defense. Siphoning off your life force until you die. They don't usually move very far very fast. I bet if we went back we'd find all kinds of bodies near where it was standing." He stopped to think a bit, "I bet it took over the armored one first. Used it as its own personal armor, and then terrorized anything that came for the quick easy meal."
"Irritating fucking thing," I sighed.
"You want to know the crazy thing," Ethan chuckled, "Mind seeders, at the lowest tier, are considered a tier twelve beast."
"What!?!" I almost leaned back up to look at him, "You've got to be kidding me."
"They're physically weak on their own which is why they need puppets to control," Ethan nodded his head as Savannah came to sit by me, "Controlling puppets takes a lot of power. More puppets, more power available to control things."
"Did we get them all scanned or do we need to go back?" I groaned as I stretched out slowly.
"I scanned them," Savannah mumbled.
She was being quiet again. I didn't like it. Savannah being quiet meant she was thinking, and she tended to over think things.
"What are you thinking about Savannah?" I rolled back onto my belly while being careful not to disturb Ethan.
Savannah was far enough away that I didn't need to worry about disturbing her.
"You went rabid," Savannah stated simply.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone