Pain blossomed in my chest. I growled and held my chest with my hands as I dropped [Color Camouflage II], making myself visible.

  “Ramona!” Samsara cried out. My hair tentacles dropped the juggernaut, causing it to fall to the ground. Samsara sliced at the front turrets with her claws, obliterating them. The two back turrets rotated around towards us. I activated [Serrated Tentacles] and swiped at the two turrets as they fired. Their blasts didn’t do anything to my tentacles as they tore the turrets off the sides of the juggernaut.

  The juggernaut wheels began to screech and turn, the juggernaut dashing away from us. Get back here, you little fucks.

  My hair tentacles extended outward and grabbed the juggernaut again. Its wheels continued to spin as I brought the juggernaut into the air. Note to self: Destroy turrets when I see them.

  I sliced off the roof of the juggernaut and dropped it to the ground. Inside, a handful of feral monster girls were restrained and unconscious in chairs on the left side. Tubes carrying the same transparent liquid as before were attached to their necks. In the cockpit were four female humans.

  One of them stood out from the rest. She was wearing a golden latex suit that matched her gold-blond hair. Six golden wings came out of her back. They didn’t appear to have any feathers or even mechanical parts. Instead, it looked like they were made of pure light. The drones back in Utlond could project holograms, but they always looked digital. It was like the light had a texture of its own, which sounded completely absurd.

  Each wing had a white eye in the middle. And they were all staring at me. Another human wore armor similar to that of Armored Suit Lady. The last two humans simply wore gray suits with the blue Monster Purifiers insignia. One human with a gray vest was in the right seat of the cockpit, while Armored Suit Lady #2 was in the left seat.

  The winged lady ascended into the air. I went to grab her with my hair tentacles, but she dodged out of the way. And then something unexpected happened.

  Her six wings separated from her body. She continued to float, but each of the six wings flew in different directions around me. What the heck?

  My [Serrated Tentacles] went to grab the flying wings. The eyes flashed, and a bright white orb emerged from each of the eyes. They dashed towards me. I blocked using my hair tentacles.

  The white orbs hit my tentacles, and white lightning coursed up through my hair tentacles. What the fuck? As the lightning entered my skull, Samsara and I yelled out in pain. It was so intense that I dropped to my knees.

  A single hair tentacle held onto the juggernaut, making sure it didn’t get away again. But more white flashes filled my vision, followed by more white orbs. I couldn’t let this continue. I activated [Color Camouflage II] on a single tentacle. Angel Lady simply stood in the same place as I moved out of the way of the white orbs. My other six hair tentacles tried, each swiping at a wing. Of course, they simply moved out of the way.

  My invisible hair tentacle wrapped around Angel Lady.

  “What?!” she panicked as she tried to move against my hair tentacle.

  I [Focused] on the [Sacrificial Soul Transfer] [Incantation] as more orbs appeared from her wings. She went limp as I completed the spell, and the orbs vanished. All six wings returned to her side. Finishing the spell hurt way less than the lightning from her white orbs. What a nuisance. She should be glad I didn’t eat her.

  Besides, she might be useful later. While I wasn’t going to control any of the monster girls at Lateo, I wouldn’t mind controlling Angel Lady.

  “Control her?” Samsara asked. “Didn’t we already discuss this?”

  “Her abilities would be super useful against a Kaiju or mech,” I explained. “If we ever get into a dire situation, she could end up saving our lives.”

  “Right, it did go through your armored tentacles,” Samsara acknowledged.

  “Of course, she won’t save us of her own free will,” I said. “So we may need to force her.”

  “Still, I don’t like the idea of permanently controlling her,” Samsara pouted. She folded her arms.

  “Well, we won’t be doing that,” I said. “This is only for emergencies.”

  “Emergencies?” She asked.

  “Emergencies,” I confirmed. “Besides, we need her to go back to where they are keeping the kidnapped monster girls. And we can’t read her thoughts, so we can’t control her if we want to get Aisling back.”

  “That’s right,” Samsara mentally nodded. “I hope the emergency never comes.”

  “We can never be too careful,” I said.

  “Let her go!” a female voice called out. I could feel something tickling my eyes. Looking down, one of the humans wearing a gray vest was shooting at me. Why do they always try to blind me? How rude.

  My free hair tentacles reached inside to grab them. I easily got the two humans in gray vests, but Armored Lady #2 jumped out of the way. She grabbed a lance on her back and tried stabbing my tentacles, but the lance simply bounced off my tentacle.

  I activated [Color Camouflage II] on one of my tentacles to grab her. Like Angel Lady, she didn’t see it coming. I lifted her into the air.

  Unlike Angel Lady, everything else here was going to be breakfast.

  “Okay, which one do you want to eat?” I asked Samsara.

  “Which one of you fired the turrets on Ramona?” Samsara asked out loud. She folded her arms.

  “Huh?” one of the humans wearing a gray vest asked. Now that I think about it, the humans with gray vests were the ones most likely piloting the juggernaut.

  “Who the fuck is Ramona?” Armored Lady #2 asked.

  “That’s me,” I said, squeezing her. She made a muffled coughing noise. “Also, watch your language.”

  “Fuck you!” she spat. I gave her another squeeze.

  “Did you make the turrets fire on me?” I asked Samsara’s question again.

  “I should have kept blasting you giant piece of—” I cut her off with a squeeze before she could cuss again. First of all, no need to refer to me as fecal matter. Second of all, that confirmed she fired at me. Which made sense, since I had heard her say, ‘Give me that’ earlier. I wasn’t entirely sure what she meant by ‘that’, but she must have meant the controls for the Juggernaut. And that also explained why she was in the left cockpit seat.

  “I’ll eat her,” Samsara said.

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  “Sure,” I asked. Samsara still folded her arms. “Do you want to hold out your hand?”

  “Actually, I’ll eat her with my hair snake,” she said. “I want to try controlling it more.”

  “That works for me,” I said.

  I felt Samsara’s mind concentrate on her hair snake. It moved from behind her back to above her shoulder. It slithered through the air towards Armored Lady #2.

  “What the fuck?” Armored Lady #2 cursed. Again.

  Samsara’s hair snake opened its maw and pounced on Armored Lady #2. I made sure to release her from my hair tentacle so Samsara could eat her. The hair snake’s fangs easily pierced through the armor. Armored Lady #2 struggled inside its mouth. After a few seconds, she went limp from the venom. I could spot a slight bulge in the hair snake as it tried to swallow. We had grown larger through evolution, so it was easier for the snake to swallow human prey, since they were smaller to us now than before.

  “It ate her…” one of the gray vested humans said, staring at the snake. The snake stared back.

  “So you’re able to control the snake fully?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Samsara said, looking down at her hair snake.

  “Awesome!” I cheered for her. “I see you also had the snake swallow her whole. Do you still need me to cut up meat for you?”

  “Actually, I just directed the snake to put her in its mouth,” Samsara said, her face turning into a frown. “I didn’t actually do any of the swallowing. It just did it by itself. Can you still cut up meat for me, please?”

  “Sure!” I said. “I’m happy to be your personal blender.”

  “Ramona, you shouldn’t reduce yourself to an object,” she chided me.

  “You know I was just being playful,” I said. “But fine. I won’t be your personal blender. I’ll be your personal chef, ready to slice and dice whatever meat we find. Do you want me to slice these two up for you?”

  “No, I’m fine,” Samsara said. “You can have them.”

  “You monster!” the gray-vested human who shot me cried out. At least she wasn’t cursing like Armored Lady #2. The other human sobbed, tears streaming down her face.

  I brought both of them up to my mouth, their screams echoing through the air as they rose. I opened my mouth wide and plopped both of them in. As I closed my mouth, my cheeks bulged out. They were still relatively bigger than most pills I’ve seen before I became a Kaiju.

  And then I began to chew. I hummed in content as I felt their bones crunch and crack. Their flesh and blood filled my mouth with a metallic and salty taste. I actually felt bad for Samsara that she couldn’t experience this. There’s just something amazing about being able to chomp and chew on prey.

  “I don’t mind,” Samsara said. “Plus, since our senses are shared, I get to experience chewing food through you.”

  “Oh, that is true,” I telepathically said as I swallowed. “Do you want to have any of the feral monster girls?”

  “I think I’ll just have one,” Samsara said. She clawed out a rat girl from one of the seats. Samsara focused, and her hair snake came over to engulf the rat girl. Her fur had a milky taste.

  My hair tentacles came over to grab the four other monster girls, easily breaking them out of their restraints. The tubes dumped the transparent mana blocker liquid onto the floor of the juggernaut.

  One by one, I sucked each of them into my mouth and began to chew. The owl girl was first. Her fur tasted like sweet chocolate, melt-in-your-mouth rich, but the moment I hit blood, it tasted buttery. Next was the lion girl. When I bit into her flank, the flavor hit me in a rush. It was savory, smoky, like barbecued meat left over from a campfire, which was crazy since she hadn’t been cooked at all. It reminded me of the taste when Mom barbecued a cow girl. The lion girl’s blood was thick, almost syrupy, metallic but smooth.

  The third girl I ate was a giraffe girl, her elongated neck nearly at the back of my throat. Her flavor blindsided me: sweet, fruity, like peaches. I wish I could have peaches again. I was always happy when Mom bought them. The giraffe girl’s blood flowed into my mouth, matching the same sweet and fruity taste her flesh had.

  Finally, there was the butterfly girl. Her taste bloomed across my tongue as she entered my mouth. It was bright, sugary, and citrusy. The blood was fizzy, yet tasted like honey. I guess butterflies do get honey from flowers, but I’m not sure monster butterfly girls do.

  That was another benefit of being able to chew my food: all of the diverse flavors stored in the blood of each feral monster girl.

  All that was left was the juggernaut and Angel Lady. I set her back down into the juggernaut.

  “We’ll probably have to leave,” I said. “She’s going to keep fighting with us if we stay.”

  “Sure,” Samsara said. “We can track her anyway.”

  First, we became invisible after I used [Color Camouflage II]. Then, I activated [Sacrificial Mana Transfer] and felt my mana flow into Angel Lady. She woke with a gasp.

  “Huh?” she asked as I quickly ran away. A new set of eyes connected to me: her two main human eyes and each of the six eyes on her wings.

  Angel Lady looked around the juggernaut. There was nobody else in the cockpit. Her steps creaked on the metal as she went towards the back. I could hear it as if it were coming from my own ears. She stared at the transparent liquid pooling on the floor. All the seats were vacant.

  She floated into the sky and scanned the surroundings. Angel Lady stared at my footsteps going off into the distance.

  “Huh?” she asked again. “Why didn’t it eat me? Was it because I’m an Unbound?”

  What the fuck is an Unbound?

  Angel Lady descended into the juggernaut. She walked over to the cockpit. There were two seats each behind a control wheel. Each wheel was attached to the dashboard at the front of the juggernaut. A plethora of screens showed plots, figures, and words on the dashboard. Angel Lady tapped on the central screen with three fingers. She held them there for a few seconds.

  The graphs on the central dashboard vanished and were replaced with a giant message: "MAKING SOS CALL."

  “Hello, this is outpost OU-U-1,” a male voice responded. “Who is this?”

  “This is Archangel from unit J-U007,” Angel Lady said. She called herself Archangel? And she had six wings? Wow. “I have a situation to report.”

  “What is the situation?”

  “A Kaiju attacked my unit,” Archangel said, her voice creaking. “A chimera Kaiju. And it ate my teammates and the monster girls we captured.”

  “But it left you alive?” the male voice asked with incredulity.

  “Yes,” she said. “I don’t understand why. Is it because I’m Unbound?”

  “I am unsure about that,” the voice responded. “But you should return immediately for a report. Is the juggernaut still mobile?”

  “Uhh… let me try,” Archangel asked. She sat down in the left seat and put her right foot down on one of the pedals. The juggernaut’s engine roared, joined by the sound of its wheels grinding against the dirt, causing it to dash across the plains. Archangel grunted as the vehicle moved.

  “I can drive it,” Archangel said, her hands firmly on the control wheel.

  The screen's response was muffled, drowned out by the engine and wheels.

  “Hello?” Archangel asked, slowing the juggernaut down. The vehicle stopped, with the engine idling being significantly quieter. “It works! I can drive it.”

  “Good, I can hear you again,” the male voice said. “We’ll discuss more once you return. Let us know if you encounter anything.”

  Archangel sighed. “Roger that.”

  The roar of the engine came back as she forcefully pressed on the pedal. The juggernaut continued rolling. Now that I think of it, this was the closest I would ever get to driving a car.

  “Technically, aren’t we way faster than a car?” Samsara asked.

  “True,” I agreed. “It may not even be like driving a car either.” The control wheel wasn’t a circular wheel like in most cars and trucks. Instead, the bottom half was shaped like a wheel, while the top ended in two side sticks. Each stick was covered in buttons. Were the buttons on there for the turrets? Emphasis on were since the turrets are no more.

  Another point against this being like a car was that the juggernaut was driving off into the grass. I had only seen cars and trucks on roads. On the other hand, this was more fun than driving a car, since you could go wherever you wanted, without needing to follow any streets.

  Up ahead, the grass gave way to white sand. I could spot dunes, and the terrain became more uneven. Rather than heading straight, Archangel turned to the left, staying on the grass.

  I was right. Following the blimp wouldn’t lead us to their base since they made a turn. We would just end up in the middle of nowhere.

  After what felt like an hour, I could see something in the distance through Archangel’s eyes. As it got closer, I realized what it was. Multiple buildings behind a chain-linked fence.

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