Hotel Selten

A Mess in Paris

Their heads look up as a big octopus-like creature arose from the canal. Everyone who wields a weapon draws theirs as they watch it emerge from nowhere. People were mesmerized too and start panicking and running away from the area. Its tentacles landed on the buildings which wrecked them and killed everyone unlucky to be there in the current situation. Some landed on the roads and ground which cracked the land where the tentacles are. 

The group of teenagers started to charge where the monster is. They approached it and tried to dodge every stomp of its tentacles on the ground. “Try to get the hold of him if you can! We need to get him immediately or else this place will be in ashes!” Hugo said as he caught the g*n that Blaise gave him. “Peony, if you can, grab one of his tentacles!” They all took cover as Blaise and Hugo started shooting. The flower nods as she spread her seeds on the ground as she tried to grow bigger veins than she could ever do before. 

Ophelia was looking at the water on the canal and thinking what she could do. “Adam! Try to throw some rocks on him, if you can, or anything! We are in desperate need here!” Hugo shouted as he dropped down and reload his electric g*n. Melvin looked at the already crashed car just meters away from him. He runs towards it and lift it with his two hands, he looked at the octopus monster and threw it across the streets unto its face. It growls in pain as it impacted and in impulse it moved its tentacles in random directions, destroying more buildings. 

One of the tentacles landed just near their area, it created a massive shake which trembled and made them fall or knocked back to their places. Adam immediately run towards the tentacle and ran up to the main body and slashed the tentacle off its body. The monster growl as it separated from its body. Adam holds onto the tentacles and the body part impacted on the ground, the upper part on the water, and the lower on the elevated ground. It knocked off the man to the water, he was so disoriented that it took him a few seconds to realize he needs to rise up in the surface. He swam up and coughs out the water he unintentionally and unwillingly drank. He swam to the edge while panting. 

Ophelia was shocked as she saw Alice’s impact on the car. “Are you okay!?” She asked Alice who is in pain, “I am not, definitely, my whip can’t handle it. Might as well use this bow once more.” Her big round earring starts to glow as it forms on her hand a bow, she aims it to the monster and started to pull its string. It slowly forms a golden arrow with a sharp tip and spirals all along the half of its shaft. As it completely forms, she released the arrow as it fly to the air onto the monster. It hits the head, which made the monster growl, but it wasn’t enough to pin him down. “Even my bow can’t do anything!” The bow returned to an earring. 

“It’s like invincible!” Blaise exclaimed as he reloaded his electric g*n. “It’s not really that invincible, it’s just hard to kill. You can hear it growl every time.” Hugo said as he continues to shoot it. “Peony, can you grow things even in someone’s body?” Ophelia asks Peony who keeps attempting to grab one of its tentacles with her vines but fails every time miserably. Her vines was too thin even it’s made off 15 of the thickest vine she can grow. “Well, once, I witnessed that I grew a vine in someone’s stomach during the last battle in the hotel.” Ophelia smirks, “I have a plan. Peony get those seeds going.” 

Ophelia went a bit near on the canal as she gets some of the water from it. She used some of it to destroy the debris that was gonna land on her to pieces. After she collected some water, she went back to Peony and grabs all of her seed then charges to the monster. Suddenly, she was lifted on the air by the water that was surging to her and as she has a good amount of distance from the octopus monster, she splashed all of the water to its face. Everyone stopped on what on their doing, waiting for something to happen, it was awkward. Ophelia was a bit embarrassed at first as suddenly the vines started to grow wild and it startled her. She was about to fall but it was just in time that the water she brought up here caught her.

The monster was struggling as the vines came from its body and injuring some of its parts. Ophelia decided to run from it so that she couldn’t have more problems. She landed back on their area as she watches how the monster suffer. Peony was in deep concentration as Hugo told them to charge and pin it down. Guns are loaded, swords are in grip, and the rest is ready. They started to do everything they can.

Wails of siren, screams, crying, large stomps, and noises from the cracking building filled the lovely place of Paris. The authorities were busy evacuating people away from the mass destruction. The monster can’t take all of the damage dealt anymore, almost all of its body parts are severely injured. Adam attempted to charge towards its head as it started to tilt and the slope to climb it was tolerable. He pierced its big forehead that is 3 times big than a human body. He keeps assaulting it until the monster continues to fall on its back. 

“Hold! We are gonna fall!” Ernest shouted as he pierced his dagger on the tentacle he is in as the body of the monster starts to fall. It landed on the ground which created a big impact on them, throwing off some that have a weak grip on their positions. Some fell on the water which created a big splash. They all recovered as they helped the others who fell on the water. “That was… So… So so so… Tiring.” Peony said as she leans on Ophelia. “You did great, look what have you done.” They looked at the monster who is tangled with vines on every inch of its body. Melvin pulled one of the vines on reach out of the body which created a gross sound and a gross sight too. “Melvin! Stop your hands for a while, will you?” Arabella shouted as he throws off the vine behind his back.

“It’s fine, as lo—” Hugo was stopped as Ophelia nudged him on the elbow. He looked at her and followed where she was looking. Up above the city, in its skies, there are flying creatures with their wings flapping fast that you couldn’t see what they look like. “What in the precious Paris is that!?” Blaise exclaimed as they keep looking at it. “Whatever it is, it seems not friendly.” Hugo reloaded his electric g*n and shot it at them. It hit on one of them as it falls to the ground, the attention was droved to them, which made them nervous. “Oh-oh…” It shifted its direction and charges to them. 

“RUN!” Hugo shouted as they started to ran away from the swarming flying insect-like creatures. People with melee attacks tried to kept it away from their backs so that it will not catch them. They stopped as Peony was pinned down by that canine creature they fought before. She screams as Hugo shot it with his g*n. Ophelia kept the big insects away with water which was effective as some of them dies and twitches on the ground. They looked around as new creatures were deployed to them. “Asante!” Blaise shouted, “Don’t be a coward! Fight us personally, not with your critters!” He shot one of those anthro-arachnids that was charging to him. 

“You know he can’t hear you! He is just chilling on that museum!” Bennet said as he crushed a charging group of Medusa’s kind by huge debris from the building. “This is insane! Does he have a secret laboratory here too!?” Ernest exclaimed as he stabs one of the new ones that looks more humanoid than the rest, except it has claws and is completely black comparing to the others who has more variety. “Maybe and most likely, it’s impossible to fit this whole army under a museum grounds!” Blaise reloaded his g*n as he was pounced too by one of their enemies. He tries to dodge all of its attempt to eat his face as he tries to finish reloading his g*n. At last, he finished so and shoots the enemy at point-blank.

They retreat whenever they are getting outnumbered or they can’t hold their position. They have already gone in circles as they try to win this, even though the hope is low that they do. They are getting tired every single minute, but they are trying their best to hold the others off. Ophelia keeps running out of water and gathering on the nearby buildings makes it more harder since she needs to detect it without seeing it. She keeps holding the enemies away who are charging towards them. She ran into an alleyway, where she found a crying child in the corner, unharmed. 

“Why are you here, little girl!? You should be with your mommy or something.” She said as she keeps fighting back, the child looks at her. “M-mommy… Mommy’s gone… Can’t find mommy…” She murmured as she keeps crying. Ophelia was a bit distracted as the child screams, she turned around as she was been carried away. “No, you don’t!” She said as she grabs the child and points her palm to the face of the monster. The water did its thing to pin it on the wall so hard that it was disoriented. She fixed how she carried the child as they started to run away from the alleyway. 

“Mommy… Mommy…” The child cried as she was caressing Ophelia’s chest. It was chaos since she needs to fight back whoever tries to attack them. “Hold on tight.” She said as the little girl does so, she wrapped her arms around her upper torso as Ophelia jumps over a tolerable-sized wall. “I am sorry if every move hurts.” She added as she keeps running and keeps waving her hand in different directions. The child keeps crying as she hides her face on Ophelia’s chest, avoiding looking at the face of the enemies which could bring a lot of nightmares to a child. 

“Where did the police evacuated the people!?” She asked her friends as she caught up to them. “You saved a time to save a child?” Alice said as she goes behind her and unleashed her shield which was a pendant of her bracelet. “I can’t leave this child on that alleyway!” She said as keeps throwing water at those creatures who are behind them. “If you find a street that goes east, go there and just run until you find a place that has none of this creatures that Asante manages to created. I don’t even know if some of them even exist until he got his brain tumor!” Blaise said as he keeps shooting. Ophelia nods and turned as she saw a street that leads east. 

She was glad that the monsters didn’t saw her run in another direction. She is starting to feel weak every step she take in this run. “Don’t worry, we’ll go to a safe place.” She said in assurance to the girl who seems stopped crying and just sniffing. Ophelia looks around as her eyes widen that some manage to detect her. Now she has problems to deal with. One of the insects charges at her as she tried to run faster. She suddenly tripped but manages to flip herself as she falls and fell on her back. “Run!” She said as she coughs. The child runs and hid, hoping the monster she can only see in her nightmares don’t caught her. Ophelia closes her eyes slowly, the last thing she saw was her doom. 

“You’re finally awake!”