Blessed by Night

When the world first fell, food was scarce.

When humans ran out of what they had at home, they of course had to venture outside their homes to hopefully procure more.

But the N'Kai are often methodical in their destruction.

Grocery stores, fresh markets, farms, and restaurants are usually the first to be destroyed or are just heavily monitored.

With starvation as a constant worry, one must be crafty about their way of procuring food.

As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

In certain locations all across the country, there are special facilities with an abundance of unused meat that are just lying in wait to be taken.

The Gate Processing Plants.

There, one can find an abundance of monster meat and materials that are set to be studied, incinerated, or donated to local zoos.

The best monster meat tastes like eating a leather boot and the worst kind tastes like bad decisions, sperm, and regret.

But when the only other option is starvation, the luxury of being picky is one that no one actually has.

Lo and behold, a group of four fraternity brothers were able to make it towards one of these facilities and break in through a window.

Naturally, they found enough meat inside of the gate plant to last them for years at a time if needed.

But they didn't want to just stay locked inside of the facility hiding, scrounging around like rats in the dark.

With all of these materials and equipment around, surely they could find a way to make themselves into creatures with some real muscle behind them.

In the end, their desperation heeded results.

Monster meat is indeed useless to humans ordinarily, but if eaten with monster blood running through your bloodstream, drastically different outcomes are achieved.

Once the group of survivors achieved the power they had been searching for, they could finally start to take the offensive to the N'Kai.

As they fought, they found more survivors.

With those survivors, they shared the gifts and strength that had saved their lives and started to build up their own forces.

In nine month's time, they were able to set up their own stronghold in the state of Iowa where they reigned like kings.

But due to the savagery of the creature's whose DNA they had stolen and assimilated, they also became more savage themselves.

And the 'society' that they created grew to reflect that savagery.

Now, instead of assisting survivors out of the goodness of their hearts, they kept them for more… primal reasons.

The men were eaten, the children were used as little servants and of course the women were used for libido relief.

A peculiarity of otherworlders is that they seem to have an easier time impregnating and getting pregnant by humans.

In addition, the children grow remarkably fast.

A baby abomination can grow from the size of a newborn to a young adult in the span of seven days.

With such explosive growth, it was no wonder how they had managed to take over the wastelands of Wyoming and were beginning to spill into Idaho.

Left unchecked, this scourge would continue to grow at an unprecedented rate until earth had their own version of monsters to contend against.

-

A once nice and sterile hotel was now unrecognizable from it's previous self.

Literal bonfires were raging up in the middle of the lobby, and groups of monsters were surrounding them in groups of ten or more.

Some were chowing down on some rather questionable looking meat.

Others were heavily petting a few uncomfortable looking human men and women.

The abominations themselves were not just troll-like.

Some were half orcish, others were akin to goblins, and one was even a Jotunn.

"I found a great one the other day, looked just like my third grade teacher! I was so excited when I grabbed him that I accidentally crushed his head in my hand like a peach. I was sad for the rest of the week."

Deep, guttural guffaws erupted from the surrounding abominations as they laughed at the female orc's morbid story.

"I'll lend you one of mine for the night, Aela, don't you worry!"

"This is like the sixth one you've broken isn't it? Gotta be more careful, boss lady!"

"You're just too powerful for the meat!"

The green skinned abomination waived her hand thoughtlessly as she picked up another cut of meat that certainly wasn't lamb.

"Food's starting to get more scarce even with those creatures suddenly putting up a disappearing act… if you ask me the Beast King should be putting more energy into migrating so that we can find new food."

The air seemed to get more tense with the mention of a pivotal figure in abomination society, and Aela merely scoffed in response.

"Don't shit yourselves, insects. It's not like I said anything blasphemous. There's no reason for you lot to start.."

Suddenly, a very familiar scent tickled the orc's sensitive nose.

Though she was already eating, her stomach growled with a new hunger and she felt her mouth begin to water.

"Well… looks like food's come to-"

*CRASH!*

The doors to the hotel lobby came flying off the hinges with a surprising explosion that alerted all of the abominations inside.

"Gods this place smells like shit… even Cami's got nothing on this."

Through a cloud of smoke, six women came striding in through the brand new hole in the wall.

Leading the group was an enchanting but dangerous looking woman wearing a dark bodysuit and an overcoat.

Her beautiful eyes and bold tattoos were glowing with the same intense shade of purple, making it easy for her to light up the dark room with only her presence.

"Well what is this!" Aela exclaimed excitedly. "Are there more of you out there? Just six is a little-"

"Ah, hold on."

The woman at the lead pulled out a piece of paper from her jacket pocket and squinted her eyes together cutely as she recited it out loud.

"Attention Abominations. My squad and I represent the Nightfall Faction and are here for… geez, Sei… why'd you have to make this so long..?"

"…What?"

"Sorry, sorry. The gist of it is surrender or die."

Heckling laughter erupted from all of the abominations inside the base.

The idea of food coming in here and asking them to surrender was so laughable that they almost couldn't stand it.

"Whatever… it's not like I was expecting a whole lot anyway."

Anna folded the piece of paper back up and placed it back into her pocket tenderly.

She knew Sei wasn't the kind of woman who was okay with indiscriminate slaughter but she didn't really see any way around it this time.

'I hope.. she won't be too upset with me.'

"You all have twenty minutes to clear out this floor. Do not injure the hostages and do not let anyone else in the squad die. Get me?"

"""""Yes ma'am!"""""

"Go wild then."

A fierce gust of wind blew Anna's sleek black hair into her face.

When she opened her eyes again, all of her members had rushed in headfirst to make first contact with the abominations.

It was only a few seconds before tainted blood started to flow like rivers onto the ruined carpet.

Anna was sort of a hands-off kind of leader, so while her squad mates were cleaning up the mess, she leaned against a wall and stuck earbuds into her ears as she watched.

'Ma'am, huh..? I kinda see why mom joined the military now. This is kinda fun.'