The Non-Human Society

Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Eight - Vim - Reatti

      "Wait!"

I didn't. Swinging the sword down, I took the life of the mostly human looking man.

His large body fell with a thump, and I noted the way his red eyes spasmed as his head rolled a few feet away and came to a rest. Some kind of bat maybe, based off the way they looked.

Reminded me of Inar's eyes... though he had been more bat than human. And what I was likely remembering the most, per the comparison, was the look of utter shock and terror in the eyes more so.

"Vim, what are we going to do about the humans down here?" Reatti asked as she glanced down the hallway to our left.

"Most were as much victims as not, Reatti. We'll kill any who attack us, but if they run and hide then we'll leave them be," I said as I stepped away from the body. The three other bodies in the hallway weren't as human. One had a huge claw for her right hand, and the other had thick scales all over their head instead of hair.

"I can't believe so many were down here. How did none of us ever notice Vim?" Reatti asked softly as she glanced at the one I had just killed.

"Happenstance. That was the nineteenth I know of... I think," I said as I glanced at the head. The red eyes had stopped twitching.

"Did not a one ask to join? Or not attack you?" Reatti asked as I gestured for her to join me down the next hall. We were near the place that Fly and Renn had been tossed into that pit. The hole. It should be not far from here, if I remembered correctly.

"Well.... One..." I said as I remembered the woman with horns. The one who had been willing to incur my wrath by not telling me where I could have found Renn.

"Fly you mean," she nodded, misunderstanding.

I kept my mouth shut since I really wasn't looking forward to that woman joining the society. It was hard to blame her for her willingness to sacrifice Renn for her own needs... since I knew her circumstances. But all the same it pissed me off.

Hopefully she never showed herself again.

Reatti walked calmly next to me down the hallway, and had to pause a moment as I stepped around a cave-in. It wasn't the first we'd encountered, but at least this one didn't block off the whole hallway. Only a part of the wall had succumbed.

"The whole sewer is going to need to be rebuilt," Reatti complained as she followed me. She made a few bricks and rocks clatter, likely from kicking a few as she walked past the rubble.

"Let the humans deal with it," I said.

"Which means it'll never get done," she sighed.

Possibly.

So far the humans of Lumen had not ventured down here yet. They were still licking their wounds topside. It's been two days since the creature had died, and they had only just started burning its corpse.

It was a little late, honestly. I knew disease would start to spread, since it'd take them weeks to properly deal with the massive body. It was already decomposing at a steady rate. One of the larger tentacles had landed near the Animalia Company building, a street over, and its scaly flesh was now soft and decaying. Already abuzz with flies and other insects.

Reaching the end of the hallway, we entered a little room. One that had tables and other furniture yet was empty of people. Like most of this area down here, it stunk horribly of the non-humans and now... well...

Blood. Death. And not just of the creatures I had slain.

I had killed quite a few when down here the first time... before jumping into the hole to fight that creature. Yet the smell of death and blood was too strong. Too strong even for all the death I had caused.