Chapter 99: Inattentive
Inattentive
By the time they duo was done eating, the sun had fully set, bringing out the night sky, and it seemed like there were a lot more stars on Naraka than Proxima Centauri.
After talking for a bit, Mike set out, but not after making sure that the wolves would protect Theresa with everything they had if it came down to it.
He wasn’t too worried about anything happening, though. His instincts were quiet, so he felt like it was safe to leave her alone. Still, there was no harm in taking extra precautions.
Once he was out of the cave, he traveled in a certain direction for a few seconds before taking out the yellow glove Kris had given it and sniffed.
Unlike Theresa’s scent, his carried a faint smell of ozone and roses. Which was a weird mix, but not bad, so Mike didn’t mind sniffing it a few more times to make sure he got the smell memorized.
Soon enough, a trail visible only to him appeared, and without hesitation, he followed it.
However, not even a minute after he started moving, on the opposite side of the planet, Naraka’s moon rose.
Mike, who was in the middle of his run, froze abruptly, which caused him to lose his footing and trip. His body tumbled violently and stirred up a trail of dust and dirt. However, the pain was meager.
What was more important was how his body suddenly started to quiver.
’What... The...?’ He gritted his teeth. It wasn’t quite pain, but it was like his muscles just seized up and started spasming uncontrollably, causing him to be unable to control his body.
That’s also when he got a notification.
[Ding. The full moon looked around the corner, and the most primal parts of oneself are being pulled to the surface. The closer the full moon gets, the harder it becomes for the Host to keep his ferocity under control, and the more his wolf side rears its head forcefully. Once the full moon arrives, the Host’s ferocity will forcefully rise above the safe threshold, causing him to transform.
Prepare well.]
[Time until Full Moon: 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 12 seconds.]
Mike stared at the notification with wide eyes, the shock momentarily overriding the feeling that cracked his body.
’... Huh?’ Was all he could think before his instincts suddenly warned him.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to roll away. A moment later, two large limbs smashed into the ground where he had been and caused a loud explosion. The force from the blast thre Mike a couple of meters away, and he crossed his arms to block the shards of rock that rained down at him.
However, his instincts warned him again, and before he could activate his aura to defend or evade properly, another one of those limbs tore through the smoke and crashed into him. The force sent him flying as his body crashed through multiple trees before smashing into a large boulder that almost completely shattered under the kinetic energy, embedding him within it.
’Dammit...’ Mike groaned as a ringing noise filled his ears, but it wasn’t from his ears. Instead, the HUD of his helmet showed that his armor had sustained considerable damage in numerous areas, and the nanites were working overtime to repair said damage.
He couldn’t pay much attention to that, though, as he sensed the next attack coming.
He pulled himself out of the boulder just as something crashed into it and utterly eviscerated what remained of it, the force once more pushing Mike away, but he managed to stay on his feet.
Then he sensed an attack from above, and he crossed his arms over his head just as the attack came, and a massive explosion erupted as the floor beneath his feet shattered and caved in, and his arms throbbed.
’H-Heavy...!’ He winced before he growled, and his aura erupted powerfully.
Instantly, the pressure lightened, and he pushed against the thing trying to crush him, sending it back a bit and allowing him to regain his bearings as he stared at the creature in front of him.
It looked... strange. There wasn’t much he could liken it to in terms of appearance.
Its torso was wide and muscular, with 3 pairs of arms jutting out of it. Two in the front and one in the back. The bottom had a pair of unnaturally muscular legs with padded feet, and there was a fleshy tail that hung behind it for 3 or so meters.
Its head was an orb covered in many bulbous bulges, which Mike quickly realized were eyes, and its skin looked like a grotesque mix of hardened skin and scales.
In the center of its torso was a vertical slit about a meter long, and when Mike focused on it, he had to suppress a shudder.
It was a mouth.
’What even is that?!’ He shouted inwardly. That was pure nightmare fuel!
That said, he wasn’t scared. Just... angry.
Angry at the random distraction and angry that he hadn’t been able to react properly to the creature’s attacks despite his instincts giving him an ample warning as his body was doing weird things.
Even now, his muscles were spasming slightly, but at least he could move now.
He was confused and extremely pissed, but he had no time to ponder on the matter as the creature came again.
This time, he was able to react to its speed. But even then, it was simply absurd.
Mike barely managed to twist his body out of the way as two of its large limbs whizzed past him, the sheer wind pressure shredding the ground. He then leaned back as two more of the arms swung above him, and he turned the motion into a backhand spring as the tail came next and tried to take out his legs.
Then he used a Haven Ring to avoid the arms on its back, and he brandished his claws as he prepared to unleash a Primal Rend.
Then he crossed his arms at the last second, and the many eyes of the creature suddenly glowed, and a wave of force smashed into Mike and blasted him back, causing him to crash through many more obstacles before he dug his gauntlets into the ground to slow himself down.
Even with his armor, Mike tasted blood in his mouth.
’Yeah, no doubt about it,’ He straightened and watched the creature use its arms to pull itself through the devastation it wrought and approach him. ’Other than that giant flower, this thing is probably the strongest thing I’ve met so far.’
From the moment he laid his eyes on it, his sense of danger had been going crazy, and he already knew that this wouldn’t be an easy fight.
Not at all.
’But I won’t run. Not again.’ He thought as he stared right at the creature. The Titanic Corpse Flower was on a completely different level.
But this thing?
If he ran, he wouldn’t be able to live it down.
’You might have to wait a bit, Kris. I have something I need to deal with.’ He thought as he started to run Crimson Ladder, and he leaned forward as the muscles in his legs tensed.
The creature seemed to sense his approach, and it leaned forward as well, the muscles in its massive hind legs bulging as it prepared to charge as well.
There was a moment of silence, then the ground beneath their feet shattered as they shot towards each other in impossible blurs of motion.
The distance between them was crossed in an instant, and a titanic clash followed as both of them swung at each other, the surrounding trees and boulders getting utterly obliterated from the shockwave.
***
Kris jumped from tree to tree as he dashed with his full speed, not even bothering to look back as a literal tide of rats chased after him relentlessly.
Wherever they passed, trees, rocks, or hiding creatures were devoured in moments.
One would think that devoting so much attention to a single being when they could eat seemingly anything was just pointless, but they followed no reason.
More than that, though, was that in the same way they could eat anything, energy included, they could also sense things and what was good to eat.
And what they sensed from Kris was utterly tantalizing.
Kris, who looked a bit worse for wear but was still calm, suddenly felt something from below, and he used his chains as springs and sent himself into the air.
The tree he had been on shook before getting covered in countless rats, which had been lying in wait for him.
He shot out a chain and used it to pull him to a tree that was a bit farther away before he continued his dash, and the swarm charged after him again.
’They are getting smarter.’ He thought with narrowed eyes.
Before, they had simply chased him madly, which they were still doing, but he realized that they were doing more than that now.
Not only were they now setting traps and ambushes, they were even creating bait here and there.
They were crude and barely effective, but Kris had a feeling that would change soon.
Still, he hadn’t spent all his time simply running, either.
’I found you.’ He thought as he looked back at the tide. However, he didn’t focus on them, but far behind them, where the coat was the largest and seemed to keep spawning out of seemingly nowhere.
’That’s where you are.’ But instead of going after it, he simply faced his front and kept going.
Now wasn’t the time. But it would be soon.