Harem - English version [onc2024]

Chapter eleven

As soon as I wake up, it's still light. It may have been dark in the meantime, but I doubt it.

My surface sways and the smell around me is sweet, making me realize that Zandr has left me on the carpet and that I am on the plane of the original inhabitants: the Serailers.

The cyborg himself is nowhere to be seen, but I have other priorities anyway. Nature calls in the form of an empty stomach and a full bladder, and it's time to switch that up.

I have remembered that it's dangerous here: the more colorful, the more deadly, and that is why I carefully lower myself from the rug and try to find my path among the dullest flora. After a few minutes I have done something about my bladder problem and load my arms with exotic fruit. If only I had Simix with me, he could undoubtedly tell me which species are edible and which aren't, but then I realize that there is a botanist around here somewhere. Zandr will probably want to pick the best items for my balanced breakfast.

Now that I'm on the ground, I notice that the roots of the trees are loose and they are constantly wiggling, but other than that they're quite still. They seem harmless to me, as far as that's possible in an unknown natural phenomenon.

I'm ready to visit Zandr and that's why I peer through the splendor of color around me. The forest plays some standard tones. The buzzing of insects, the rustling of leaves and the whoosh of a gentle breeze even make me feel nostalgic for Earth, where these were not unusual sounds either.

With my ears pricked, I hear a long snore, followed by a series of high-pitched beeps. That also brings back a certain memory, although I don't have a specific image of it. I'm not a scared person; that's a requirement of my job, and I walk in that direction with a shrug. In the meantime, I'm thinking about whether I should eat something or whether I should exercise patience. I've spit out my dinner and I could use something nutritious to recuperate, but I'm not hungry enough yet to choose that over an optionally painful death.

At that moment, the pink trees part and I have a view of an open space, where bunches of Serailers float or bounce around just above the blue-green ground. They look almost exactly like Earth balloons, except they are one size larger than what I knew at the time. They talk to each other in a language I don't understand and they do so with the typical sounds that balloons make when they slowly deflate; with beeps and snoring sounds. The biggest difference of all is that the glistening surface of their skin can open into a large mouth. Because they're living creatures, they also need to eat, so it's understandable.

Eating is exactly what I see them doing and when I realize exactly what they're eating, I stop dead in my tracks. They haven't seen me and I suddenly want to keep it that way.

Their food is in a pile, so I can't make out any details. However, the overall picture is clear and I now know where the losers of the arena are going. The blood-red Qura is recognizably on top, with the crushed pea just below it.

Some of the Serailers are already eating, and I now see others opening their mouths and floating towards their breakfast. For a moment I wonder how exactly the eating works, because at first nothing seems to happen, but then I see the dead shredding before my eyes. This is happening slowly but steadily. If I had seen the bunches of Serailers ten minutes later I would have seen only a cloud of colored mist hanging between them and I would not have made any association with that. Now, I'm not that lucky.

At that moment, a piece of my own breakfast falls from my full arms, causing their attention to shift to me. The balloons looked so peaceful before and maybe I think differently now because I judge them for the kind of food they're eating, but now I see them as monstrosities and they're coming towards me. I don't like that at all.

I throw the rest of the fruit on the ground – the saying is to eat or be eaten, but at the moment I don't need either – and turn around to run. Behind me, however, is a larger bunch of balloons floating, which have come to hang silently behind me, trapping me.

'Can I just drop by?'

I don't expect much from my politely spoken sentence, but I can always try. However, they don't look like they understand me. I'm so used to everyone having a translation mechanism implanted that I don't really know how to handle this situation so I start running. They've left a small space on the side and that's my best option for escaping them. I am not going as fast as I would like, the environment is too unknown for me, but fortunately the balloons are not moving very fast either.

The further I go in a certain direction, the less trees bother me and that's why I'm proud of myself for choosing the best path. That is until a gaping hole blocks my way and I realize that the Serailers deliberately lured me here. I conclude the latter because they have now left no escape route open for me. Other than that, it turns out they are a lot faster than I thought. They pile up behind and around me, and despite their fragile appearance I feel them pushing me closer and closer to the abyss.

I don't know what's there exactly, but I know I don't want to fall in there. The balloons use their right to float by hanging effortlessly above them, but I know that gravity bothers me more here.

'I don't want to,' I say, struggling. I can handle a single balloon, but there are so many of them. I dig my heels into the ground, which only leaves a trail of destroyed plants. My opponent is completely silent, which makes the whole thing spooky.

Zandr undoubtedly knew about the victims from the arena and where the bodies go, which makes me refuse to call him for help. I don't give him the satisfaction of seeing me die. My presence here is suddenly so clear to me. Why did I think it was something different? If I'm completely honest, I expected a declaration of love or something like that, while he was just in the mood for a different kind of entertainment. Life can be boring sometimes and I know he has high expectations, to take the arena and his harem as a few examples.

The Serailers push me to one side and I push the other, but I'm slowly but surely losing ground, so I know I have to come up with another solution. I cannot allow myself to be led to the slaughter like a weak sheep, that is not in my nature. My strong point is that I put myself in my enemy's shoes, looking for their weaknesses, and a balloon's biggest weakness seems pretty obvious to me.

Without thinking about it, I force the tips of my nails into the skin of the nearest balloon and it immediately pops with a satisfying pop. His body is shattered into flat pieces, with a neon-colored piece of purple draped over my nose. I don't take the time to wipe my face because now I'm going into fighter mode. I would have liked to have my cyber cannon at hand, but I can't have everything. Moreover, I am extremely happy that a part of my body turns out to be fatal. I'd like to tell Lieutenant Cr@x that Earthlings aren't as useless as he thought, but I honestly don't know if he's still alive.

'Come on,' I shout and they do. The balloons join forces even more than before and that is quite inconvenient because I only have ten fingers. I try to throw my feet into the fight, but unfortunately that doesn't work.

I know that it is always better to go down fighting and I feel a furious feeling taking over me. Deep in my heart I know that I will not survive and that my job is to take as many of my enemies to their deaths as possible, and that is what I do.

I will become as monstrous as I must⁹⁴.

***

⁹⁴Prompt 94. 'I will become as monstrous as I must.'