"Everyone! Form up! Eclipse! To the front!" I roared, but the sound of my voice was immediately swallowed by a noise that didn't belong in any world I knew. It was a wet, grinding sound, like a mountain-sized slug dragging its weight across a field of broken glass.
The black tentacle that had descended from the sky didn't just sit there. It was easily sixty feet thick, covered in shimmering, oily scales that seemed to bleed darkness into the air. It slammed into the center of the newly formed plaza, right between a group of beast-men and a squad of futuristic soldiers in white ceramic armor. The impact sent a shockwave of silver dust and marble shards flying in every direction.
"Ren, look out!" Red yelled, grabbing the back of my tunic and yanking me sideways just as a secondary lash of the tentacle—thin as a whip but long enough to bridge a canyon—sliced through the air where my head had been a second before.
