(Man and Woman to Monster)


Lucy glared at Eric, the two of them in one side of a Venn Machine. In the other side was the Monster Wars Venn operator, or ‘Venntendant’. The man watched them discuss their new form with undisguised interest, leaning back as Lucy looked down at her notes.

“What do you mean, it’s ‘too complex’?” She glared.

He squeaked in surprise. One second she was the cutest fan ever, and now she looked about ready to bite his head off. “H-hey. I just meant… Isn’t it a little too complex for people to control?”

Lucy snorted. “Too complex? You’ve seen Pacific Rim, haven’t you?”

Eric rolled his eyes. “Of course I have.”

Lucy clapped, that familiar and happy look back in her eyes. “See? It’s like that. And with two champions like us?” She threw him a dazzling smile, reminding him of her nickname: ‘Lux’.

“With champions like us?” Eric asked, flexing his arms.

Lucy grinned. “Atta boy, ‘Crusher’.” She trailed a hand along his bicep. “We can get so complex together.” She stressed the ‘so’, pressing her finger harder against his chest as she spoke.

“I thought you said it wasn’t too complex?” Eric grinned; then yelped as the fire returned to Lucy’s eyes.

“There’s no such thing!” She put her hands on her hips.

“All right, fine. But I don’t want complex. I want simple.” He looked at her design, then at the Venntendant. “You’re with me on this, right man?”

“Hey, I just work here.” The tanned man flashed them a smile and raised his hands helplessly. “‘Sides, I like her more. No offense, man.”

“Thanks, Mario.” Lucy grinned at the man.

“Mario? You’re on a first-name basis with him?” Eric blinked, a mild pang of jealousy coursing through him. It was a little silly; Eric had just met Lucy! Well, ‘met’ met Lucy. He’d certainly seen her on the field before as ‘Lux’.

As if she read his mind, she gave Eric a man-eating grin. “Besides, ‘Crusher’. You tried simple before. And I kicked your ass up and down the stadium.”

Eric gaped like a goldfish, and Mario laughed.

“W-well. Not literally, you didn’t.” Eric managed.

“Really? That’s the best comeback you could come up with?” Lucy rolled her eyes, placing an arm around Eric’s shoulder.

He flinched, but didn’t protest; and she continued. “So, remember that thing I did with the retractable tentacle arms? I was thinking of using more concealed whips this time around.”

“Okay...” Eric muttered, furrowing his brow. Those were definitely the most lethal parts about some of her more recent forms.

“I’ve been able to guide them a little bit with muscles… But I want you to think about using some of those. But with wings.” Lucy’s eyes positively shone as she spoke and Eric bit back a laugh at how cute she looked.

“And these… wings. Where would they come from?” Eric played along.

“They’ll appear from the sides of the tendrils. With wings, I don’t need something to control them. None of that super-thick muscle. This can be an ultrathin nervous cord, just like our last match.”

Eric nodded sagely. “But… Won’t these wings lose momentum? If I change course to use them as a seeker, I mean.”

Lucy clapped, bouncing on her heels. “That’s the best part!” She grinned. “I’ve made a drill of sorts for you to use. It’s a little construct at the tip of each whip.”

Eric frowned, trying to think of how on Earth he’d work that. “A… Drill?” He asked unsuredly.

Lucy nodded, flipping him their copy of her transformation notes. “It’s kind of complex. It’s got this spinning bit right…” She looked up from her notes to find that Eric had a completely blank look on his face.

“You want a demo?” Mario asked from the other end of the booth, still smiling.

“Hell yeah. Right arm drill.” Lucy nodded eagerly. The sample change worked without a hitch. One second she had a human hand. In the next, her wrist down had become a bony drill, but not of the sort Eric had been expecting.

He’d seen enough anime to expect a standard spiral drill. But this was something closer to what was used in professional mining. There were three multitextured orbs, and when they spun it would effectively ‘eat’ anything in its path.

Lucy whirred them to life as if to prove this. She smiled with an almost carnal look of pleasure on her face, beaming as they dangerously spun.

Eric stared in slack-jawed admiration. “Whoa.”

Lucy beamed, still whirring her arm. “Right?” She practically shouted it, she was so enthusiastic.

“How’d you get it to spin so quickly?” Eric asked, only to immediately regret his question.

“It’s REALLY cool.” Lucy started. Truth be told, that would be explanation enough for Eric, but she had to continue. “Basically, I studied a bunch of stuff like wasps, who can have these drill-like tools. The main design is obvious, but the real magic happens when you clench a few muscles that get this thing spinning. Then you just need to keep squeezing, like a stress ball, you know? The gist of it—and I’m putting this in layman’s terms—is that I tense my hand, triggering some nerves that each trigger these tiny feet along the drill’s cord. That’s this tendon that runs along the drill. You see, each drill is like a fanged eyeball: it can spin in place over and over and over; you just need to apply the proper motion. Once it makes contact with a surface—”

Eric held up a hand. “I get it, I get it.” He laughed as Lucy paused to catch her breath.

Lucy then nodded with a huge smile. “Plus, there’s a BUNCH of complicated intake valves that condense oxygen at a hyperfast rate, converting it to a thick mucus that lubricates the drill’s teeth.”

She held up her drill-hand, its spinning soon becoming a wet slucking as the drill self-oiled.

“Huh.” Eric said, still not really getting what was going on. But it looked deadly enough, and deadly was good. “So, these are our primary armaments?”

“No, that’s the best part!” Lucy grinned. “These are our tertiary method of victory!”

Eric blinked. “Um… Tertiary?”

Lucy winked. “Always got to have contingency plans, you know? Come on, you can’t mean to tell me you kept winning Monster Wars with only crushing in mind.”

Eric’s face colored, and he did his best to look everywhere but in Lucy’s eyes.

“Oh my God, that’s awesome!” Lucy squeaked, throwing her arms around him. “Um. You don’t mind that I’m hugging you, right? I’ve heard this is a perfectly natural reaction to calm someone.”

She looked up with a huge smile and went on. “Anyways, imagine your raw talent with my genius backing it! We’ll be unstoppable!”

Eric nodded. “Yeah, unstoppable… So… What are our first two methods of attack and defense?”

Lucy grinned. “Do you know pill bugs?”

Eric nodded again. “Yep. Little millipedes that roll into balls, right?”

“Bingo.” Lucy snapped. “This is a pill bug with no real front or back; so they have no idea where our head is. We’ll orient ourselves through echolocation—I’m awesome at that in case you aren’t—and then we’ll roll throughout the arena. We can fire off these drill-tentacles, or we can use the wicked spikes along our back. The plan is to harry a foe with these until they’re weakened.”

Eric nodded slowly. “Then?”

Lucy grinned from ear to ear. “We use our legs. Each of the pill bug’s legs are a tiny scythe. They all interlock when we roll so we won’t kill ourselves; but when we disengage roll mode, the hunt is on.” Lucy paused. “You getting all this, Mario?”

The Venntendant smiled. He’d been frantically tapping away at the screen as she spoke, making small alterations as she revealed details her notes had withheld. “You know it, chica. All changes set to go when you are.”

“Brilliant as ever.” Lucy grinned at him, then smiled at Eric again. “So. We roll onto something, then tear it to pieces by crawling over it or hugging it. If it’s something with a shell, our drills can break it. If it’s big and fleshy, our scythes will carve it to pieces. And if it’s tiny, we have dozens of little mouths just past the scythes.”

Eric looked at that, arching an eyebrow. “How about we keep that to just a few mouths. Big mouths can eat just as good as little ones. Plus if we limit ourselves, we can increase their strength to maybe crunch through carapace.”

Lucy’s eyes widened with realization. “Oh my God! That’s brilliant! We’ll go and do that, maybe give them some gripping power like snapping turtles. I think that’ll cover every possible thing that’ll come at us.”

Eric nodded slowly, with a teasing grin. “And if our opponents fly?” He had meant to say that as a joke, but Lucy put on a horror-stricken face, taking it seriously. Before he could correct her, she was off again.

“Oh no! Mario! Hollow out those spines, make them zinc-calcified to compensate, complete with innate threading. Then we’ll need to fill them with Bombards. Page fifty-dash-A of my notes.” Lucy issued the command hurriedly, looking back at Eric with a worried look on her face.

“Um… What?” Eric tilted his head, confused as to what she had just described.

“It’s based on the bombardier beetle. You know, the ones that expel a—”

“Poisonous spray, yes.” Eric nodded. “Which Venn Machines can’t do.” It was a needless reminder, and Eric regretted it the moment he had said it. Apparently this was all the excuse Lucy needed to gush about more of her creation.

“Precisely. But you’re with Lux now, remember? I realized through careful inspection of things like shrimp and pressure, and… Well. Basically, all of our spines are full of liquid, which gets fired though successive claws akin to that of the snapping shrimp. It fires through each cylinder in succession, like a railgun. These form lots—and I mean lots—of cavitation bubbles. These produce lots of shockwaves and pressure that heat up the liquid, making gases which will then fracture the tip of our claw, firing off the sharp tip as well as a jet of superheated liquid and/or gas.” Lucy practically doubled over to catch her breath; then she looked up at Eric with a huge grin.

Eric’s head spun from that. He began to get the impression that if Lucy said ‘basically’, then everything that followed would be anything but. “What? Pretend like all I do is crush things really well.”

Lucy beamed. “It makes our every spine into a potentially deadly projectile. It’s small and wouldn’t deal too much damage, but it’s a damned fast ranged weapon. Especially against fliers.”

Eric sighed, his headache beginning to go away. “I’m not sure how necessary those are…”

Lucy nodded. “You’re right. Mario! Spines are Quill Cannons. Page seventy-three.”

“Quill cannons?” Eric asked, knowing he’d regret it.

“Um…” Lucy tapped her lower lip. “Each spine houses several dozen quills in it. Each quill is hollow and connected to a main system where we build up pressure; then fire them. Simple?”

Eric blinked in surprise. “Actually, yes.”

Lucy winked. “I tried to make it understandable. These are less deadly individually, but if we fire them all at once at a flier that can dodge out Tenta-drills…”

Eric grinned. “Dead flier.” His grin widened. “And Tenta-drills?”

“It’s a cute name and a portmanteau.” Lucy muttered, her face colored. “Like tentacles and drills.”

Eric laughed, running a hand along the top of her head. “Don’t worry!” He laughed. “It’s all fine! I think it’s adorable.”

Lucy cooed slightly, then snapped back to seriousness when she remembered Mario was still in the booth. “Okay, anything else?”

Eric shrugged, rolling his neck. “Nah. I’m more of a pilot than a designer. You make the monster and I’ll ride us to victory. Though you might need to control the more complex things, like the Tenta-drills.”

Lucy smiled eagerly. “Oh, I love it when you talk transformation.” She turned to Mario with an eager grin. “Mario! You ready?”

“Ready and waiting!” The Hispanic saluted with a gleaming grin that flashed across his face.

“Then do the thing!” Lucy punched her fist in the air enthusiastically.

Eric looked at her with a bemused grin; then they became one.

It wasn’t a painful or a horrifying sensation. It was a little odd, but not in the negative sense of the word. It felt to Eric like he was swimming in a sea of Lucy, and that she was adrift in him as well. Then, the two of them opened their senses with a faint tremor.

‘Okay.’ Lucy’s voice was cool and crisp in his head. ‘I’ve read about merging with Venn Machines before.’

‘Oh?’ Eric asked. Talking via their mental connection was as easy as speaking in person. All he had to do was think about talking, and his words would be conveyed to her. ‘Researching for this date?’ He teased, hoping to get a rise out of her.

‘Exactly.’ Lucy said, disappointing him slightly with her frankness. She picked up on it, apologizing immediately. ‘Don’t worry if I’m like this when I Venn. Right now we have a fight to win, and excess emotions are unnecessary baggage.’

Eric mentally blinked in surprise, curling their body slightly.

‘Ceding control of main form now, assuming primary dominance of tertiary and reflexive systems.’

Her voice was a clear reminder that they were in a new form, and Eric took the time to acquaint himself with the pillbug’s form. It didn’t take long: he’d always had a natural connection to sinking into a Venned creature’s mind.

That said… ‘This is the first time I’ve changed into something with so many… features.’

‘Is that going to be a problem?’ Lucy asked sharply. ‘I can pilot some of the additional externals should you require.’

‘No, hold on. I just need a moment to acquaint myself with the extra legs and mouths.’ Eric said calmingly.

He sank a little deeper, acquainting himself with the monster’s instincts. Thoughts of shredding and tearing bubbled below the surface of their shared brain. Eric chuckled to himself at that. ‘How about we call this thing the ‘Killbug’?’ He thought to Lucy.

Immediately, a surge of giddiness flowed across their metal connection, complete with the image of Lucy’s face blushing. A moment later, her calm voice carried across their bond again. ‘Sorry. I’ve kind of had dreams of you naming something I’d make.’

Then her emotions colored again. ‘Sorry again. I’ll be more professional.’

Eric sent a reassuring pulse to her, following that with: ‘And if I told you that was incredibly cute?’

Lucy’s blushing face again appeared in his mind, complete with a mental rush of joy-fueled dopamine. ‘Please don’t do that.’ Her voice sounded more strained this time, like she had to fight to be composed. ‘Maybe we can do it later. After the fight.’

‘I’ll hold you to that.’ Eric laughed mentally, flexing all of their muscles. ‘How do we see again? Echolocation?’

‘I’ll handle the sensor suites and project the map to your mind.’ Lucy muttered, stealing some more connections from Eric’s mind. ‘You focus on killing them.’ As she spoke, she began a quiet clicking from their body, almost like a metronome.

Eric nodded mentally, seeing the world around them without actually seeing it. ‘Whoa. I never even thought echolocation would be like this. It’s like that Ben Affleck movie, ‘Daredevil’.  He could pick up where everything was, knowing locations without having witnessed them.

Lucy tutted. ‘I assumed you’d have seen it, so I’m relaying our world-view to you like this. If you’d prefer, I could send you it unfiltered.’

Immediately the view became more chaotic. Instead of seeing what each pulse sent, Eric could pick up every sound in the area. He could hear the crowd outside their door; catch glimpses of the announcer’s booth. And he could feel something stomping far away from them: their opponent.

‘I like this.’ Eric said, slipping back into the Killbug’s brain. ‘This is natural to our form, it helps me sync more.’

‘Noted.’ Lucy said, a tint of admiration in her thought-tone.

Eric popped them onto their legs, moving about to examine how accurate his view of their surroundings was. When he’d confirmed its success, he chuckled. ‘Killbug is operational.’ He skittered back and forth a little on their scythes, then rolled the Killbug into a ball. ‘Oh, it’s very responsive.’

‘It should be.’ Lucy confirmed. She flexed the rows of extra armaments down their body, checking each one in turn. ‘All Tenta-drills are operational. Quill Cannons are loaded as well.’

‘That tickles.’ Eric muttered, unclenching themselves back to their skittering form.

‘It won’t tickle them.’ Lucy sent, complete with an image of a thoroughly eviscerated carcass.

‘Well, then. Let’s get going.’ Eric chuckled. ‘Skitter out or roll out?’

Lucy paused. ‘Roll. Keep them guessing as to what’s inside us. Disinformation is death on the battlefield.’ She intoned. Then, she paused and sent an interrogatory pulse. ‘I trust you won’t get dizzy?’

Eric rolled them up, sending them from the Venn Machine to behind their door. He did a few test rolls after that, monitoring their stability. ‘How’s that for an answer?’ He asked, balancing on two of their spikes.

Lucy didn’t respond, instead focusing on their surroundings. She expected Eric would prioritize their echolocators, which left her to make sure their other senses were running at optimal capacity. She barely linked them all to her mind before their door began to move.

 It ground open before them and Eric sent them out at a breakneck pace, skirting the side of the wall. ‘Contacts?’ He sent to Lucy, focusing on piloting their new body.

‘One.’ She muttered, focusing. It was a large object with none of the scent of fur. So that left plates or scales… ‘Reptilian or insectoid. Bipedal. Legs are thick… Unsure as to the rest of its body.’

The beast they were facing roared, likely unknowing that it had just given away its position and composition.

‘You hear that wet, throaty sound? Gotta be a reptile.’ Eric relayed, en route to their target.

‘Confirmed. Firing Quill Cannons.’ Lucy relayed, letting loose a volley of shots as they spun. She timed them perfectly, each quill shooting parallel to the ground and hitting the other Venned fighter. They landed with wet, meaty thunks, and Lucy nodded.

‘Torso is unarmored; no confirmed hits where arms should be. Stay careful.’

The Killbug picked up the wet trails of blood leaking from their target, painting it vividly in their mind.

Eric grinned, sending them spinning at the beast. They landed with a wet thunk, embedding into its side.

It felt like some of their spikes had pushed in their quills, driving the points closer towards what Eric hoped were vita points. Unfortunately, it seemed like this wasn’t the case, as blood only streamed. If he’d hit something vital it should have poured.

Still, it was a clean hit. ‘Got him.’ Eric muttered.

Instead of a congratulation, Lucy sent him a warning. She had picked up onrushing air and the tang of a sweat-covered arm. ‘Brace left!’

Her warning was less of a statement and more of an irrevocable command. Eric moved their body before he fully processed the word, hurriedly curling them into a tighter ball.

The impact of a hard sledgehammer-like fist crashed into their left a moment later, and the two were sent rolling off. The blow came at a cost to the reptilian monster the Killbug was facing, however.

Eric and Lucy’s spines came out at an angle, tearing gory chunks of flesh from their opponent. The monster shrieked in distress, trails of blood pouring from its flank. More than that, a pair of the Killbug’s spikes remained lodged in its side.

The reptilian monster shrieked and slammed its fist down on the embedded spines. That was a bigger mistake, as the two had stuck in deeper than the rest. The reptilian monster let out a wet gurgle as some of its innards spilled from the wound.

Unfortunately for Eric and Lucy, it looked like those weren’t necessary to the thing’s survival, as it let out another roar just as healthy as the first. A second later, the Killbug detected the scent of rot and fecal matter.

‘Hit to lower digestive system confirmed.’ Lucy muttered, in case Eric hadn’t picked up on the fact. ‘Status?’

Eric skidded to a halt then focused on their own body, assessing the damage. Their shell was cracked slightly, and a slight dripping confirmed that they were bleeding. It wasn’t much, though—their opponent was bleeding more from their salvo of quills.

‘I think we’re good. Double-check that for me while I come up with a plan.’ Eric said.

‘Internal damage minimal.” Lucy confirmed his suspicions a moment later. “External damage… Two spines broken, left side.’

Eric sent a quick pulse; the mental equivalent of a nod. ‘Get me a lock on his arms, I’m gonna tear them off.’

Lucy sent a pulsing frown, doubt entering her mind for the first time since the battle had begun. ‘I can only detect one…’ A second later, her pulse was victorious. ‘Because he has only one. Center of his back.’

‘Great. Watch this.’ Eric laughed confidently.

Lucy would have responded that she didn’t have eyes, but she was too excited to see Crusher in action; to feel him in action. It was a blatant breach of her normal combat conduct, but she felt that she had earned this much.

Eric sent them hurtling towards the beast at an alarming rate, going straight for the other monster’s chest.

‘We tried that already, remember!’ Lucy hissed.

Eric’s lack of response was response enough.

Lucy shut up immediately, feeling him work. All of their muscles were tensed, more so than when they were normally rolling.

A moment later, she saw why.

There was a dim onrush of air, the whooshing of their opponent’s massive fist. At this angle, at this speed, it would surely crack their armor, maybe even threaten their life.

But Eric had accounted for that. He turned, then unfolded their body, flexing it out in a massive springing action. The result was a turning leap, a whirling cacophony of blade and lethal intent.

Their Killbug sailed right over the creature’s back, their blades held open. With a meaty thunk, they dug their scythe-like legs into the meat of its arm, sinking in fast.

Lucy mentally swooned as she picked up a massive wave of bloodlust from Eric. He clamped their body down with a twitch of his muscles, circling them back into roll-mode. Their muscles clenched for just a moment, meeting resistance: the reptile’s arm was built to take hits.

But it hadn’t accounted for blades as sharp as the Killbug’s; muscles as powerful. With a loud squelch, they tore the creature’s combat-capable arm loose in a swelter of gore. Blood fountained from the thing’s stump as it shrieked.

This was cry was one of primal terror, and Lucy and Eric basked in satisfaction. He started to clench their belly’s mouths, the internal maws chewing hard. He had to devour the bits of arm that had gotten trapped behind their legs; refueling and cleaning them.

The meat was tough, as expected by something that was meant to be an overmuscled defense mechanism. But that wasn’t even close to a match for the Killbug’s powerful jaws, meant to crack keratin and enamel alike. Eric bit down harder, noticing a peculiar flavor to the gibbets of arm.

‘Hey, did you program taste buds into this?’ Eric paused mid-chew, just for a split second. It tasted a lot like fine steak to him, and he worked harder. ‘It’s good.’

The Killbug’s mouths were a little bit flexible, and were capable of moving a little past their position. Eric used this flexibility to tear chunks and gobbets of their opponent’s arm from the Killbug’s scythes, waiting for Lucy’s response.

She was focused on their opponent, but it looked like the thing was still squeaking in distress, a constant stream of blood pouring from its back. The Killbug’s olfactory glands were able to pick up that the blood was just that: no tricks were being held in their foe’s gore.

That check complete, she returned her attention to her copilot. ‘Taste buds are an essential factor in survival. Anything that tastes good is edible, anything that tastes bad could be potentially toxic.’

‘Oh? Neat. Want a taste?’ Eric ceded control of three of their maws, leaving them chewing on reflex.

Lucy grabbed them almost immediately, working harder to chew than Eric had. He hadn’t lied regarding the taste, and Lucy allowed herself a moment to refuel and refresh. She swallowed and tore another chunk loose from their spines. ‘Much thanks.’

‘Hey, didn’t your mother teach you not to think with your mouth full?’ Eric joked.

Of course, she either didn’t get it or didn’t want to acknowledge she did. ‘One minute to optimal performance if we continue to eat at this rate.’ Lucy said. Then, after a moment’s hesitation: ‘Nice work.’

‘Yeah, thanks.’ Eric pulse-nodded. ‘But I think we have less than a minute. Any chance we can speed-eat?’

Slowly but surely, their foe was recovering from its wound. It looked like the reptile had a built-in healing factor. Already its blood had thinned from a jet to a faintly spurting stream, and the beast roared once more. This time, its cry sounded weaker.

‘Hear that? I think baby needs to be put to sleep.’ Eric sent with a telepathic grin.

‘Agreed. That last approach gave me a better view. Its current offensive capabilities are limited to its maw. That said, its vital organs seem to be concentrated in its armored legs.’ Lucy sent the thought rapidly across their connection with confidence.

‘Then it’s in your hands.’ Eric sent with a faint chuckle.

The reptilian monster charged at the Killbug, roaring its defiance to the last.

‘Well, we can’t roll… So let’s try this out.’ Eric chuckled, unfurling them back to walking capacity.

He waited for the charging beast to draw closer. Once it was a few paces away, the veteran warrior sent their body into a scuttling run that turned into a slide. He dipped past their foe’s snapping jaws, climbing up its body.

Then, he sank every one of their scything legs deep into its back. Blood sprayed from these wounds, coating their underside in gore. Blood streamed from the monster’s missing arm, anointing their carapace in gore.

‘Lucy. Go.’ Eric said, digging in deeper as the creature they were on began to writhe in earnest pain.

Her response was to fire every one of their Tenta-drills. The small cords fired, one by one, wings sprouting from each of them. The second each of the wings had fully extended, Lucy commanded the drills to loop around, burying themselves in their foe’s legs.

As though it sensed its impending death, the creature roared, beginning to turn its head to snap at the Tenta-drills.

‘Oh no you don’t.’ Eric growled, pulling two of their uppermost scythes free to bury them in their foe’s arm-hole. It squealed in distress as Eric severed its spinal cord from the base of its neck. While the body remained upright, its head went limp.

Blood trailed from the monster’s dead head as it stomped about blindly, flopping its head from side to side. It still gurgled out a wet roar, despite the horrendous damage it had taken. The reptilian monster’s thrashing grew more and more focused, a last-ditch effort to shake the Killbug.

Whatever it hoped to do was moot, as the Tenta-drills were already in motion. They bit deep into the beast’s plated sides and a wet grinding filled the air. Each drill ejected its spend mucus and bone from its sides, digging as quickly as Lucy could push them.

The monster screeched, rearing back onto its hind legs.

‘Lucy, I think it’s trying to crush us!’ Eric warned, dancing the Kill-bug’s lower talons along their foe’s legs. His every motion tore a new gash in the beast, each one deeper than the last. But still the beast kept tilting back, upsetting its own balance.

‘Too bad.’ Lucy laughed uproariously as several of their Tenta-Drills bit through. ‘I’m in.’

Eric sniggered as well; though his laughter stemmed from how she showed emotion when she was close to victory. He idly wondered if she’d thought the same the half-dozen times she’d killed him in the ring.

Then the Tenta-drills made it past the other monster’s thick skin. The holes they had made now ejected blood and bits of viscera, showering the arena’s floor in bits of gore. The creature squealed loudly, falling onto its front instead.

‘Ooh, that felt important.’ Eric sniggered as Lucy sent their questing drills in deeper.

More and more soft organs were either pulped or mulched by the drill’s inexorable onrush. Free within the beast’s insides, the little appendages ate away at it. It was like placing a rotary saw inside someone’s chest cavity; then revving it up.

More and more of the monster’s vitality seeped onto the ground; its death throes going from large, sweeping kicks to feeble spasms. Lucy chuckled, activating small blades within their carapace and severing the Tenta-drills.

The Killbug slowly scythed its way free of their fallen foe, landing on the wet ground with a reassuring slucking sound. It seemed that their foe had bled quite a bit before expiring, giving them a red-carpet finale.

‘How was that?’ Lucy asked, already cooling down from their fight. ‘A fun little fight, no?’

‘Were it me, I’d call that one hell of a first date.’ Eric replied. Then, a promise from earlier re-entered his mind, and he mentally chuckled. ‘Cutie.’