“Uuuu~ M-my…face is itchy, stop licking, Blue-chan.”
Lick, lick, lick… “Awoo~? Ke’er, are you alright?” Blue tilted her head to the side while licking her lips with her soft tongue.
“I’m okay, I’m just dizzy… Ah? Your saliva is dripping on me, Blue-chan! That’s very dirty!” Ke’er grabbed her damp and sticky clothes as she puffed her cheeks up.
“Uuu~ Even if you say that, I can’t do anything. It’s not my drool, you know?” Blue expressed that Ke’er had wronged her.
“Then what exactly is…”
“Pitter, patter…” Water droplets fell on the tip of Ke’er’s nose.
From the surface of the dark and moist ceiling above her, splotches of water incessantly spilled downwards.
Only then did Ke’er realize that the lower part of her clothing was damp as well. Her current location had amassed a layer of water deep enough to submerge her ankles. However, its warm temperature didn’t make it particularly discomforting for her to soak her knees in it.
Within the sea of darkness, the only light source was a furnace not far away from them that was burning with vigorous intensity.
“Blue, w-where are we??” Ke’er felt a sense of unease upon seeing the thoroughly-crimson meat walls encapsulating the dark, humid surroundings.
“No idea~ When I woke up, I realized that we were already lying here…” Blue sniffed her small nose in an expression full of innocent cuteness.
Ke’er heaved a sigh and knew that it would probably be an unwise choice to count on her.
“But… I guess we’re most likely inside that creature’s stomach?” Blue tilted her head to the side.
“Uwa… Don’t make it sound so scary!”
“Eh, I don’t think it’s very scary though.” Blue tilted her head to the side in puzzlement.
“…Are there only the two of us …here?”
“If you’re asking about the people that got sucked in, there seemed to be quite a lot of them, actually… They’re over there… Eeeh?!” Blue froze as she looked in the direction she was pointing at.
Ke’er looked over. Indeed, there were dozens of unconscious people disorderly lying in that direction. However, she could only make out their rough silhouettes due to the poor lighting.
“What’s wrong?” Asked Ke’er in doubt.
“I have a nagging feeling… that the numbers are somewhat amiss. It seems that quite a few people are missing?” Blue tilted her head to the side and said in uncertainty.
“Missing?”
“Mhm… However, I remember that there are very few trolls in our school, so why were so many sucked in?”
“Gunyaa!? T-There are trolls here??” Ke’er felt her body tremble all over.
“Yup.”
…………
Half an hour ago.
“Are you …truly a human??”
“Hey inferior species! —Why did you forcefully teleport us for?? We still haven’t killed enough yet!”
“You better give us an explanation… To interrupt our noble pursuit… I won’t spare you even if our leader thinks highly of you!”
“Don’t think you can change your nature of being an inferior species just by changing your skin!”
The troll leader remained silent as he narrowed his eyes and looked at the sinister-looking Lan Yu sitting on top of a giant ball of meat. The calm demeanor of his made him feel like something was amiss.
“…How impudent.” Lan Yu raised his head, as his copper-bell-sized eyes gazed downwards on the pack of trolls.
“What did you say!? A mere human like you dares to be this arrogant…”
“You shall become my food as well, second tier species!” Lan Yu spread his long and dark wings out.
“I’m afraid this human has gone insane…”
“Shoosh…” The meat ball below Lan Yu resembled a featureless face as a large mouth opened wide.
A malevolent wind howled. Like an invisible large hand, it dragged the group of troll soldiers into the large opening.
“Aaahhh! …W-What’s going on?”
“What is this thing??”
The gale incessantly dragged and pulled on the pack of massive trolls. This gave the extraordinarily powerful group a sense of helplessness, as they were unable to fight back no matter how hard they wanted to.
“How is this possible? …What sort of sorcery is this??”
“Section Head Lan! What is the meaning of this? Are you planning to end our partnership?! Cease your actions immediately!” The troll leader steadied his body and furiously shouted at Lan Yu.
“Partnership? Hehe, don’t you understand that a partnership is only established under circumstances where both sides have equal bargaining chips for negotiation? For a species that boasts of its nobility, a second tier-species is only so-so.” With contempt in his eyes, Lan Yu looked down at the trolls that were incessantly continuing their tenacious struggles.
“Scumbag! You… Aaahhhh!”
“The whole lot of you will also turn into my bargaining chip for conquest. Ahahaha…!”
…………
“Why would trolls appear in this place?” Ke’er dazedly looked at a massive silhouette that was lying flat near her and couldn’t help but curl up her body.
“Sigh. Ke’er don’t be scared. Those guys seem to have lost their consciousness. Besides, I can protect you. If anyone dares to touch you, I will bite them to death!” Blue adorably brandished her canine teeth.
“Rustling…” As if Blue’s words had come true, the body of a troll soldier that was lying flat moved slightly.
“Awoo! A troll has woken up! Wha shuld we do, wha shuld we do, Ke’er?” Blue immediately shrunk into Ke’er’s embrace, her dog ears shivering from fear.
“Eeeh… Blue-chan, quickly get up. These trolls haven’t woken up yet.” Despite being struck speechless by the puppy’s actions, Ke’er still comforted her by stroking her head.
“Ehe? Then what exactly is-…”
“Drip…” A sound reminiscent of a creature’s drooling resounded.
“Drip!” A series of unidentified meat tentacles burrowed their way out of the meat ground like extremely fast-growing plants.
“Waaah!” Ke’er and Blue were lifted in the air and moved to the side.
The tentacles seemed to know their respective roles. After finding a target, they began to wind around a troll foot soldier in two and three.
Their motives were extremely clear — to toss the troll soldiers into the large furnace blazing with intense flames nearby.
Their viscera and fat made “crackling” sounds, as the fire in the furnace burnt even more intensely.
“What are those things?? Uwa, where exactly are we?”
“Blue-chan, there, there. Don’t be scared. I’m here with you, aren’t I?” Instead of being comforted, Ke’er still had to reassure the puppy at her side that had curled up into a ball.
It didn’t take long for the surrounding troll soldiers and other corpses of unknown beings to be successively thrown into the blazing furnace by the tentacles.
The corpses were thoroughly burnt, without the slightest bits remaining.
“R-Right! I remembered… Those ‘people’ that had been lying here earlier seemed to have been tossed in there the same way!” Blue was frightened to the point that her face had turned pale and her furry dog ears began to tremble incessantly.
“Whoosh…!”
The flames in the furnace flickered. As if they had received some kind of signal or finished their only functionality to transport bodies into the furnace, the tentacles stopped their work and retreated back inside the meat walls once more.
“Ke-Ker… Is it possible that… it will be our turn later…?” Seeing the flames crackling and rattling in the large furnace, Blue showed an unsightly complexion as she swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
“Uuu… T-That probably shouldn’t-… Blue, be careful!”
“Ehh? What’s happening…Woof-ah!” Blue was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a burrowing tentacle behind her, as it wrapped around her neck. Before she could even put up a struggle, two more tentacles burrowed out and respectively grabbed her ankles and wrists before dragging her towards the furnace.
“Aee…” The tentacles were completely oblivious to the concept of treating the fairer sex well and had no intention of moderating their strength.
Under the strong pressure of asphyxiation, Blue’s eyes rolled to the back and she fainted with her tongue out.
“Blue-chan!”