SML Ch 26

Chapter 26

The process of subduing the tentacles, though grueling, wasn’t particularly difficult.

First, they kept some distance and waited for the tentacles to approach. While the flower buds couldn’t launch an attack unless the target was within a certain range, the tentacles could extend quite far to snatch at human limbs. The priority was to carefully decapitate the tentacles while avoiding getting caught by them.

Once their heads were severed, the tentacles drooped. During the regeneration of the head, they would pour all their energy into the process, leaving them immobile. Taking advantage of that window, they would inch closer to the fields, at which point the crimson flower buds would snap open and lunge forward.

Unlike when they were curled up in bud form, once the petals fully unfurled, their interior—lined with teeth and a throat—was revealed, making them look grotesque. One person, wielding a club or a farming tool, would lure the flower’s attention while being careful not to get bitten, and another person, armed with a sword, would quickly stab into the sepal, causing the flower to be cleanly decapitated.

After taking down a flower bud monster, they had to swiftly retreat to avoid getting drenched in the red sap gushing from the stems. In the meantime, the tentacles lying slack on the ground would begin to regenerate and lash out again. From a distance out of the flower buds’ range, they would cut down the tentacle heads, then seize the opportunity to target another flower bud. As long as the sequence was followed correctly, the task wasn’t all that difficult.

However, the psychological toll on the young men seemed to be significant.

“Don’t hesitate! Deal with it properly!”

“Y-Yes, we know that, but…”

“Haven’t you all been dealing with these things every year? You should be the ones pushing harder!”

Watching the youths flinch every time they severed a tentacle, Reynald clicked his tongue in disapproval. Of course, he could somewhat understand how they felt.

To be honest, he also couldn’t bring himself to view those tentacles in a flattering light. Though he’d faced them several times during his subjugation unit days and had grown accustomed, even so, those things were…

“How can anyone get used to that?!”

“Right! I mean, it looks honestly f***ed up!”

It was, in many ways, a perfectly reasonable rebuttal. Reynald let out a deep sigh and hacked off another tentacle. The grotesque accuracy in their size and thickness made anyone feel unsettled just by looking at them. Worse yet, the red and white fluids that dripped each time they were cut were an experience that defied easy description.

“No, seriously—every time I cut one, my lower half goes cold! It feels like I’m doing something terrible!”

“Don’t pity the damn things, you idiot! They regenerate anyway!”

“Yeah, our junk doesn’t grow back once it’s chopped off!”

“Are you seriously going to keep saying that crap?! By that logic, cutting off the flower buds is the same thing—we’re chopping off their reproductive organs!”

“I don’t know what you’re saying, but it feels different! It’s the vibe!”

One of the young men, who apparently knew way too much about botany, tried to correct the others, but regardless, the entire group seemed to be mentally scarred just from dealing with the tentacles.

Every time one of them accidentally stepped on a fallen tentacle, they’d flinch in horror. That sensation—like stepping on someone else’s junk—was something only those who had experienced it could truly understand.

Even Reynald himself freaked out when he accidentally stepped on one. Because the shape resembled male genitalia a little too closely, every time he cut one down, he couldn’t help but feel the urge to check that his own was still intact. The irrational fear that he’d somehow chopped off his own kept creeping up on him. But no matter how disturbing it was, not dealing with them simply wasn’t an option.

“If you’re really that reluctant, should I offer you up to one of these tentacles instead?”

Reynald shouted irritably, and the young men quickly shook their heads, faces pale. That idea scared them even more. With sweat pouring down their faces, they swung their swords with renewed urgency. No one wanted to witness someone get caught and… violated by one of those things.

While the flower buds devoured humans to satisfy their hunger, the tentacles absorbed nutrients directly from the soil. In theory, they had no reason to attack humans—but they did so anyway, driven by their instinct to reproduce.

Their method of reproduction involved shoving tentacles into every orifice of a human body, pumping in a fluid filled with seeds. They weren’t even interested in other species. Occasionally, monsters like scavengers would gnaw on their bodies and inadvertently spread seeds, which probably accounted for more of their reproduction than human hosts.

Why these things were so obsessed with humans still wasn’t fully understood. But from Reynald’s and the villagers’ perspective, it hardly mattered. After all, no one wanted to be used for… that.

‘Now that I think about it, how do these guys know so much about the tentacles’ behavior?’

That thought suddenly crossed Reynald’s mind. But the answer wasn’t hard to find—he noticed that a few of the young men jumped particularly high whenever the tentacles came near. Granted, no one liked the things, given their appearance, but there was still a difference between those who found them unsettling and those who were genuinely terrified.

Reynald tried not to dwell on it. Instead, he recalled a soldier from a former subjugation unit who had suffered psychological trauma from one of these