The creatures, who had relentlessly pursued the retreating Exilon soldiers, butchering them without a shred of mercy, abruptly halted. Then, without hesitation, without so much as a sound or a signal—without any visible form of communication—every single one of them turned in perfect unison and began to retreat.
But they did not simply leave. As they withdrew, they consumed everything in their path. Their maws opened wide, tearing through bones, muscle, and sinew, devouring broken armor and discarded weapons alike. Tentacles emerged from the depths of their throats, slithering across the blood-soaked ground and sucking up every last drop of spilled blood, every fragment of biological matter. Not even the ashes of the fallen were spared.
