Chapter 1177
Though he had not thoroughly studied the field of ecosystems, Lev was knowledgeable enough to have a question about Klar that most people would probably share. That question was what the beasts in space ate. Obviously each other- but that only worked until they used up all the energy they had. Then they would just be a lump of materials.
That problem could be mitigated by absorbing natural energy from the sun, but their numbers or total mass couldn’t substantially increase without some sort of input of material. Various options had been suggested by Anton and the others studying the system, but it had taken some time to get evidence.
Now it was pretty clear that it came from the planets occasionally building up large concentrations of energy that rose into the sky. And then the spacefaring ones ate things. They might also descend on planets occasionally, but it was one method.
It might be part of the natural cycle of things, and Lev didn’t want to disrupt that. But when they tried to eat him he wasn’t just going to let it happen. Nor the few individuals he knew were people.
Bear Hug had actually grown much stronger compared to when Anton first met them. Lev remembered Anton had described them as vaguely comparable to Essence Collection. While the vagueness was still there, when Bear Hug was motivated their power felt like a fairly strong Essence Collection cultivator.
They even had the time to shout at things, even though ‘speaking’ took energy control. “No! No eating me! I’m not even that tasty!”
For the most part, Bear Hug held back until they determined that whatever was trying to eat them couldn’t speak. Then they tended to impale, crush, or tear apart whatever was causing trouble.
A few things thought that Liberty looked like a good meal. One actually managed to swallow him whole, but the whale-like creature soon found out what Liberty’s roots could do. Instead of a slow years long process, however, it was much quicker. It vomited Liberty out with a significant quantity of blood before flying away as quickly as it could.
Lev was getting used to a lot of different things that had weird joints and body structures. Not all of them were recognizable as something else, especially since they didn’t have to deal with air resistance of any kind. Lots of limbs with sharp tips, usually but not always with durable surfaces so that the enemy didn’t immediately win by attacking their longer appendages.