Chapter 87: Fort Return

“Shit. Another attack!” the captain cursed. He barked to his men, gathering them.

“Send all the wounded here. Move the field hospital closer to the wall—we have a healing symbiote user!”

Hiro would have preferred the captain not to overestimate his abilities. His healing was powerful, but it had limits—namely, his cell storage.

Cell storage usually felt irrelevant to Hiro since he rarely spent time outside his hosts, and they rarely starved. but it didn’t just cap his healing, it also limited how much of his body he could manifest outside his core. Without it, he couldn’t extend his tentacles properly.

And that was important.

Unfortunately, Hiro couldn’t speak, so he had no way to voice his concerns.

“Should I help?” Nana asked.

“Yes—but don’t get too close,” the commander replied.

When they reached the wall, the assault from the Tentacle Forest had intensified. Massive creatures—rhino-like monsters—charged out of the trees. Each bore the same flower-like growth on its back, gathering sunlight.

Hiro immediately realized these weren’t ordinary beasts. They had been modified. The parasitic tentacles hadn’t merely grafted flowers onto them—they had grown armor on them as well. Bone exoskeletons covered their heads, and thick keratin scales layered their bodies.

Bolts rained down from the walls, but they barely slowed the creatures. The projectiles couldn’t penetrate their thick skin.

Nana loosed an arrow that struck one monster in the leg—right at the exposed kneepit. The beast stumbled and crashed to the ground. It was thanks to Hiro’s amphetamine buff sharpening her precision. Hiro was impressed; the target had been charging at an angle, yet she still hit the weak point.

The other soldiers weren’t nearly as fortunate.

“Bring out the ballista! Hurry—before it reaches the wall!” the captain shouted.

The soldiers were already moving before he shouted the order, a testament to how accustomed they were to tentacle attacks.

Two men hauled the ballista into position while another brought the bolts. They worked frantically, hands practiced and efficient. A bolt was let loose toward the beast, piercing right into its skull. Then another one soon followed.

Two monsters were already down.

Two remained. They rammed the wall. Hiro could feel the earth tremble. Yet the wall held.

Hiro had expected it to shatter like glass when the rhino charged, but it didn’t. Instead, the wall caved inward, forming a rubble that trapped the monster inside. The armored rhino still had tricks left. Tentacles latched onto its body, began to writhe, and the flowers that had finished charging fired beams of light toward the soldiers.

Most of the shots missed. The tentacles were tenacious, but they were still monsters—they didn’t plan far ahead. This was Rebecca’s moment to shine. Her magic scorched the advancing tentacles, and Hiro watched as the rhino’s body gradually shriveled while more tendrils spawned, desperately trying to seize the soldiers.

We need to find the core, Hiro thought. But how do I tell them?

He knew the tentacles’ weakness—and so did the enemy. The core was buried deep inside the host’s body.

Then the second wave arrived.

This time, there were no hosts—only pure tentacles emerging from the forest.

“Artillery!” the captain shouted.

Hiro paused, then finally understood. Once parasitic tentacles evolved into flora, they were no longer dependent on hosts. They could draw nutrients directly from the soil. Still, hosts were usually preferable—faster, tougher, and less fragile.

An arrow from Nana struck one of the flowers dead center. The built-up energy inside detonated violently. A ballista bolt punched through a tentacle monster’s torso. It collapsed and died—the bolt had pierced its core.

Another wasn’t so lucky. It took three bolts before it finally went down.

“Argh!!” A soldier screamed.

Hiro had thought the battle was turning in their favor, but one inexperienced soldier was caught by slithering tentacles extending from the trapped rhino. His body was hoisted into the air before anyone could cut him free. His screams faded as his body shriveled, mummified when every last nutrient was drained away.

As if reinvigorated, the tentacles burst outward from the corpse, lashing toward nearby soldiers.

A more experienced mage didn’t hesitate. He cast a firewall spell on the spot, incinerating both the mummified body and several tentacles around it.

It was a brutal decision—but a necessary one.

The tentacles might look weak, but once they latched on, it was already over.

With the last rhino defeated, the battle slowly turned in their favor. Soldiers peppered the remaining monsters with arrows, turning them into porcupines. The tentacles attempted to thicken their armor, but since doing so slowed them down, they didn’t bother reinforcing ordinary orcs, and they fell after Rebecca doused them with her fire magic.

Hiro felt disgusted, but he noticed that all the monsters were already dead. Their flesh was rotten, allowing even normal arrows to punch through with ease. In that sense, they truly were zombies.

The assault continued until evening. This time, casualties were fewer thanks to the reinforcements. Hiro moved on to healing the wounded. Burn injuries proved the most difficult—not only because the skin damage was severe, but because of the psychological trauma as well.

“Argh! Get away!” a soldier screamed as Hiro’s tentacles slid over his scorched skin.

“Hey! We’re trying to heal you!” Rebecca snapped. “Hiro isn’t like those tentacles!”

“Forgive him. I’ll restrain him,” a field hospital officer said calmly. “Once the treatment is done, you can move on to the next patient.”

This wasn’t the first time a soldier had reacted with panic toward Hiro. Others did too, though less violently. Many still twitched whenever his tentacles touched their wounds.

Late into the night, instead of returning to the fort, the group stayed in the village. Repelling the monsters wasn’t the end of the work—they would need to repair the damaged wall the next day. The captain had already dispatched a scout to report the damage at the fort.

“I’m hungry again, even though I just ate,” Cecile muttered.

Nana and Rebecca nodded in agreement. This was already her fourth plate, and she was still hungry.

Hiro slipped out and tapped the edge of her empty plate with a tentacle. The waitress hurried over, setting down another serving while Hiro nudged a piece of bread into Cecile’s mouth.

It couldn’t be helped. Hiro had used more than half of his cell storage to heal the wounded soldiers. With the possibility of another attack looming, he needed to replenish his nutrients. He could have asked Cecile and Rebecca to lie outside while he absorbed nutrients from the ground, but not only would that be slower—it would also look suspicious.

“I need to stop now…” Cecile said, resting a hand on her stomach. It had visibly bulged. Despite still feeling hungry, she knew she had eaten more than twice her usual amount. A flicker of concern crossed her face as she wondered if something was wrong.

“Yeah. Let’s stop,” Rebecca agreed quietly. “People are staring.”

Hiro thought it would be fine—symbiote users were known to eat far more than normal—but even by those standards, the amount they’d consumed was excessive, especially for women. With a reluctant sigh, he accepted that he couldn’t push them any further.

Fortunately, the parasitic tentacle attacks ceased.

While Cecile helped repair the damaged wall, Rebecca used her fire magic to burn away the fallen tentacles. Hiro knew they were dead for good, but the locals remained uneasy. Fear lingered that the creatures might somehow return to life.

During the afternoon meal, Vina finally emerged from the inn. She had been excluded from the fighting—the general wanted her kept hidden—so even the fort’s officers only knew her as a beastgirl accompanying the symbiote users.

They paid her little attention, assuming she was there to help with menial tasks like laundry.

“Vina, how are you holding up?” Rebecca asked gently.

“...I’m fine. I think,” Vina replied. Her voice was quiet. Hiro could feel that she was still unusually warm, and a trace of guilt surfaced. He wondered if he had pushed her too hard emotionally during their first bonding. She had rested the entire previous day, yet her body still reacted sensitively.

“Hiro,” Rebecca muttered under her breath, “you need to be gentler. She’s still new. You were obviously overdoing it with her yesterday.”

Vina shook her head quickly, cheeks flushed. “No… I’m okay. I want him to do me more. My body now wants him… Hiro. Please don’t stop.” Vina blushed. To her, Hiro’s caress was the only thing that could distract her from losing her symbiote. Hiro pumped his fist inside Vina’s womb. He had successfully conquered her.

“Cecile, Rebecca, Nana—we must return now! There’s a smoke signal from the fort,” Captain Bohn said.

The other soldiers who had been eating nearby immediately looked up. They shoved food into their mouths and rushed toward the barracks. In less than an hour, the town was nearly empty of troops. Only Cecile and the knights from Litmus lagged slightly behind as they prepared to move.

“These parasitic tentacles are relentless, aren’t they?” Rebecca muttered as they mounted up. “We killed hundreds of them yesterday, and they’re already attacking another target.”

“Yes,” Captain Bohn replied as the cavalry set off toward the fort. “It’s their spawning season. They won’t stop attacking until next month. Sometimes, they even strike multiple locations at once.”

A month? Hiro’s thoughts raced. My cell storage won’t last that long. How did they gather so much nutrient mass in the first place? Was planting themselves like trees really enough? Wouldn’t that leave the soil barren? I should copy their method back in Quantora… but how would I even transfer the cell storage here?

Hiro hit a dead end.

He knew he had diverged from normal parasitic tentacles. He also knew that, compared to them, he might actually be weaker. However, he didn’t realize how expensive keeping his hosts alive was. Preserving their consciousness severely limited his cell storage and mitosis.

So this is their true strength, Hiro thought. And the reason they’re so feared.

As they reached the fort, the smell of smoke and blood greeted them.

Another scene of carnage awaited.