CHAPTER 47: UNDERSTANDING THE MONSTER

Kael caught his chakrams, panting hard as he watched Tatehan run at the Hexapod mauler. The beast was now face-first to the ground, both of its eyes oozing out blood. The one Kael just hit was oozing the most, it wasn’t even oozing, it was pouring like a damn tap of water.

The other eye was still manageable. The outpour from it wasn’t so severe as the one that Kael had just hit.

But then, the beast being down didn’t mean that Tatehan and Kael should relax. Because if there was another ability this thing had, it was resilience. The ability not to give up too easily. Tatehan had this in mind as he leapt, using his gravity manipulation to make himself faster in the air.

He landed on the head, the mauler shouting and howling wildly. It wasn’t used to being beaten. No, it had never lost before. This was a monster that would rather kill you than let you kill it. This was the predator of predators, this was the god of all monsters, at least in this region, because Tatehan didn’t know if many more deadly monsters existed in other regions of Mars.

This was another thing Tatehan found ironic. He was finally going to kill this goddamn thing.

HIM! (With the help of Kael, that is.)

But then, the mauler began to shake very violently, trying as hard as it could to resist death.

Tatehan was finding it hard to balance himself...

The monster was slowly standing up...

"Shit," Kael shouted in frustration.

Since they started this fight, the amount of almosts in killing this monster of a beast was simply tremendous.

Kael was frustrated as hell at this point. He couldn’t let this happen again. He sent his chakrams to the lips of the beast, really large lips capable of kissing a man to death.

The chakrams tore the lower lip, tearing it in half. The mauler howled very loudly, falling to the ground completely.

It came down with a really large thud that swept the dust under Kael’s feet.

Tatehan’s sword fell in the process and he almost did too himself. Kael was unshaken, though. Tatehan couldn’t go down to pick up the sword as it took him quite some effort to get upon this monster in the first place, so without Kael watching, he used his gravity manipulation and sent the sword up toward him. He caught it with his right hand in dramatic precision.

Now the mauler was weak in movement. Tatehan looked at the translucent opening at the back of the beast’s head, covered with something soft.

There seemed to be no other way to completely kill this. He couldn’t just cut off its legs and expect it to die, of course it would still be alive. And he couldn’t even cut the legs (a leg!) in the first place. He remembered trying to cut the monster’s leg when he first came to this region a week and one day ago, the rock sword! One of the most powerful swords he would ever own.

The sword had just sank into the skin of the monster and then broke. If a sword like that couldn’t cut the legs of this monster, then it was certain the one he was currently holding wouldn’t either.

He also could not thrust his sword in its face, it was too large and his sword would be like a needle. The skin would swallow the sword no matter how it was aimed.

And there was no other place on this Hexapod mauler’s body that would kill it if he used this sword.

Facing him was the answer! Glowing right at its back was the goddamn answer. He would target this opening covered with softer skin.

But would it be a good idea? Would aiming at it not damage the bio-neural core?

Tatehan was on the fence on this one. And the thing was, Kael didn’t even know what Tatehan was doing in the first place. He didn’t know how Tatehan was to kill the beast by climbing on its back.

But Tatehan, with the mask on, looked like someone who knew exactly what he was doing.

But as Tatehan stared more keenly at the translucent place, he seemed to reason something.

He seemed to remember, actually. He remembered the words of the Spaceship’s AI to him before he embarked on this journey:

[This creature’s brain contains a Bio-Neural Core — essentially, hunting instincts perfected over decades.]

The creature’s brain!

Tatehan squinted his eyes and looked at the opening more clearly. With the armor’s helmet on, he saw more vividly than his normal eyes would have. And the crazy part was that he had enhanced eyes.

With the helmet further enhancing his vision, he saw the opening more clearly. He could see what looked like a brain— very small and fragile, and beside it he could see a glowing core: the bio-neural core!

The bio-neural core was what seemed to provide the light.

Tatehan gained a completely new understanding. He could feel his system echoing into his brain:

[Congratulations player for gaining a whole new understanding!]

When the Spaceship’s AI had said that the mauler contained a core, he had taken it literally, that he actually had to extract the brain of the beast to see the core.

But standing here now, his enhanced vision doing its work, a vision further enhanced by the helmet. With an enhanced brain processing what he was seeing, Tatehan now understood.

The Hexapod mauler was a really complex creature, he didn’t know who created it. A creature so complex it was the most grotesque thing he had ever seen.

As its body was complex, so was its brain. It seemed the monster was designed to be defeated and for one to actually gain something from it.

Tatehan aimed for the brain— a feeble, slimy thing. What was the best way to defeat something as impossible as this than to target its brain? The sword split the brain into two, damaging severe things.

The mauler had a seizure, just for a split second before all the howling stopped. The shouting, the resistance, Tatehan had damaged it.

Tatehan didn’t just defeat this monster, he damaged it.

Literally.