Frozen Planet (5)

Blood spilled from the corpse, spreading across the snowfield.

As the sound of leaves rustled eerily through the air, the spider-like monster charged.

Its target was me.

To be precise, the area around my neck. Somehow it had identified my weak point in an instant.

Six Erosion Tentacles erupted from my back all at once. Thanks to the Synthetic Scales covering what had already been hardened flesh, the far sturdier tentacles spread their suckers wide, ready to seize the thing.

The monster stood roughly four meters tall — only slightly smaller than Mother of the Sky. I had no idea how strong it was, but surely not strong enough to overturn the disadvantage of its size.

Six tentacles collided with its eight legs. The deafening shriek of grinding metal spread through the forest.

Far smaller than my Erosion Tentacles, the creature twisted its legs to deflect the attacks, then, its black metal skeleton stained crimson, clambered aboard one of my tentacles and began skittering upward.

In the blink of an eye, the spider monster was on my back. Its forelegs lunged for the Monster's Tentacles at my throat.

'Not a chance!'

I shook my body hard at just the right moment. The three mechanical claws at the tips of its metal legs raked through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠empty air.

The instant its stance crumbled, I launched my counterattack.

I bent my tail upward and swung the Pincer at its tip in a great arc. The creature hastily raised both flailing forelegs to block.

Unfortunately for it, my Pincer — merged with my head carapace — was the hardest part of my body. There came a colossal burst of rupture, like being struck by a giant hammer, and the monster's body was launched into the air.

Then Mother of the Sky leapt up along my combat arms. Pouring every ounce of strength into her forepaws, she smashed into the monster's right-side legs.

「Tch!」

Even while being sent flying by my Pincer, the spider monster somehow managed to twist its body. Sadly, her strike only managed to crush a single leg.

The two of them crossed paths and touched down apart from each other. While Mother of the Sky landed gracefully on the snow, the spider monster, hampered by its damaged leg, slammed half-buried into the ground.

「...It's tougher than I thought.」

[Zze ze zezze (Seems like it).]

Her single strike was heavy enough to punch a hole through a warship. And yet the creature's leg hadn't even broken — it had merely caved in.

'Looks like I have no choice.'

My original plan was to eat a piece of it and check its identity, but the opponent was fighting better than expected. We didn't have much time to spare, and dragging this out any longer wasn't wise.

I activated the trait I'd been saving: Insight.

'What?'

The information Insight revealed was anything but ordinary. I wondered if I'd misread it and used the trait again, but nothing changed much.

'It's not a player, so why?'

This was the first time I'd seen "information that cannot be verified" since Muriel.

"Left leg damage status 'Critical.' Repair impossible. Main Controller 'Pyra Eleven' — no response. Resuming combat."

While I stood still using Insight, the creature, having steadied itself, attacked again.

S-422 came sprinting, its seven remaining legs moving in a blur.

I twisted my body and whipped my tail forward. The snow piled on the ground swirled up into a blizzard.

The creature dropped low to evade my strike and, in the same motion, bent its two forelegs backward to rake at the underside of my tail. Scales and blunt claws tore away, and a stinging pain flooded in.

My Erosion Tentacles lunged to shield their master, but the creature, as if it had anticipated this, leapt upward to evade.

My tentacles slammed uselessly into the ground, and the airborne monster was met by Mother of the Sky's attack.

Her beak — the most powerful weapon she possessed — collided with the creature's forelegs. The sound was less like flesh and metal striking each other and more like two genuine blades locked in a contest of strength.

"Left leg number two damaged."

「Ugh!」

The creature's metal leg was severed as cleanly as if sliced by a blade. But Mother of the Sky hadn't come away unscathed either — the monster's claws had raked across her flank.

I crawled forward to catch her with my combat arms while gaping my jaws wide at the creature. The Acidic Fungal Gland positioned near my esophagus activated, and moments later a stream of green fungal acid blasted from my mouth.

"Acidic substance detected. Danger."

Still airborne, the creature wrenched its body aside to avoid the incoming liquid.

But this time it couldn't dodge completely. The ravenous fungi that splattered across its body began gnawing away at its metal skeleton.

"External skeletal damage: 88 percent."

Having landed, the creature rubbed at its eyes with a leg, but it was already too late. Its legs were beyond saving now.

Unable to stand any longer, the creature collapsed into the snow.

'Is it over?'

Its legs had been its primary weapons all along, and from the look of it, the creature seemed to have nothing else.

'No. There might still be something more.'

Since I couldn't see its equipped equipment, it might have a hidden weapon. I approached it cautiously, keeping my guard up.

"Main Controller 'Pyra Eleven' — confirmed in communication failure state. Defeat recorded. Registered in database."

Its head bowed to the ground, the creature kept muttering something without pause.

"Incineration. Incineration Protocol activated. 20, 19..."

'Incineration Protocol?'

"18, 17, 16..."

I was about to finish it off with my combat arms when the creature suddenly began counting down.

"15, 14, 13..."

'Wait—no way?'

A terrible premonition washed over me, and I grabbed Mother of the Sky in a rush. Madly, I crawled out of the clearing.

「Wh-what's gotten into you all of a sudden?」

When I abruptly scooped her up and started running, she fired her psychic wave at me, laced with bewilderment. She didn't seem to understand why I was acting like this, but there was no time to explain.

Instead of explaining, I kept crawling forward, knocking down every tree in my path.

About ten seconds later, I felt a staggering surge of energy and heat erupt behind my back. Along with it came an overwhelming roar violent enough to make my auxiliary organs tremble.

Mother of the Sky glanced back at me, and her eyes went wide.

「Oh you crazy—RUN!」

'I know!'

An extraordinary heat was already searing my back and tail. From that alone, I could tell that the energy generated by the creature's body exceeded dozens of shots from a Plasma Launcher.

'I'll probably survive, but...'

Mother of the Sky, cradled in my combat arms, would not. I was plenty durable as it was — at worst I'd lose my carapace, arms, and legs. But she would burn to nothing without even ash left behind.

Thanks to a frantic sprint using all three combat arms, my blunt claws, and even my Erosion Tentacles, we barely escaped the blast radius.

Watching the forest blaze in the flames, Mother of the Sky murmured.

「Was there something like that even in the game?」

[Zze zezze zeze (Not that I remember).]

「Right?」

It wasn't as if the game had no suicide bombers. MegaCorp, for one, had long since made bombing the bodies of useless Employees and sending them on suicide charges a standard tactic, and there were wild creatures that self-detonated to deal damage too.

But nothing had ever produced an explosion this powerful.

'Could it be one of those leftover Spacedogs I ran into before?'

I suddenly remembered the hulking Hulk Mutant who'd planted a bomb in one of his two hearts to give me trouble. Part of it was that I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been weak back then, but he'd stuck in my memory for being remarkably intelligent — for a Hulk Mutant.

I soon shook my head.

'No, the odds of it being him are ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠low. Showing up out of nowhere in a place like this would be far too random.'

If anything, it was far more likely connected to the new-model Screamer I'd encountered aboard the Star Union warship before arriving here.

'Though it's absurdly over-spec'd for a Screamer.'

Besides, I'd seen it just now with Insight.

The word "mass-produced" displayed in the creature's species name. That single word told me two things.

First, that the creature had been made by someone. And...

'It's not the only one.'

There could be dozens, even hundreds more of these Screamer-like monsters somewhere on this planet.

'...I'll worry about that later.'

Right now, I had to get away from here. If a fire this massive roared up on a planet of nothing but snow and ice, the Galagons would come flying without fail.

Or the creature's comrades.

'Today's hunt is a bust.'

We could never come back to this part of the forest again — not with the Galagons patrolling it.

We'd have to circle around and approach the mountain range, and only after I was certain it was safe.

So we escaped the burning forest — only to face a new problem.

「Crossing the snowfield will be dangerous.」

A black beacon was rising over a world of endless white. Everyone would be looking this way now, and crossing the Frozen Plain with no cover whatsoever was far too risky.

'With these scales, I'd stand out even more.'

But using Organic Evolution to transform into the Clever Underdog and shrink my body wasn't ideal in this situation either.

I might end up fighting unknown monsters or the Galagons. If that happened, the King of Monsters — one of the special states I could assume with Organic Evolution — would be my trump card, so I had to save it.

'We'll go underground.'

There was a vast subterranean space beneath the ice sheets.

Even my nest wasn't fully enclosed by walls — it was open on two sides. I had no idea whether the underground space beneath here connected all the way to the nest, but it had to be safer than walking on the surface.

[Zzeze zeze zezze zezzez zezzez (I'm going to break through the floor. Keep watch for anyone coming).]

「Got it.」

Leaving the watch to Mother of the Sky, I repeated what I'd done the day before. I heated my body with Heat Dissipation and cracked the ice with my combat arms and tail.

「We might want to hurry.」

[Zezeze (Why? Who's coming?)]

「Dozens of Galagons.」

At the bad news from above, I picked up the pace. Summoning even my Erosion Tentacles and bifurcated jaws, I frantically dug through the ice.

Digging with everything I had, I managed to complete a tunnel leading down into the underground space. I hurriedly crawled back out and sent Mother of the Sky down first.

By now the Galagons were close enough for even my eyes to see. As luck would have it, they were focused on the burned forest. They scooped up the corpses of charred creatures and flew off somewhere with them.

While the enemies were preoccupied elsewhere, I hastily concealed the entrance to the new tunnel.

With everything finished, I crawled down into the ice tunnel. Thankfully, I sensed no sign that anyone had noticed us.

「We weren't spotted?」

[Zezeze (Probably not).]

Reaching the underground space, Mother of the Sky and I hurried away from the area.

'Damn it.'

I never expected to end up in such a bind because of some mass-produced monster made by who knew whom.

'I don't know who you are, but...'

It had been a long time since anything had irritated me this much. It was as infuriating as the time the Morph hunters interfered with my evolution.

'Just try and hide from me.'

I had never once forgiven anyone who stood in the way of my evolution. In the game, I took revenge on the Morph hunters with every means at my disposal.

Whoever made that ugly spider monster would walk the same road as the Morph hunters.

-

A vast subterranean cavern stretching hundreds of meters in every direction.

Coiled up, savoring the comfortable darkness, the It sensed a tremor. Some fool was evidently rampaging across its territory again.

Lately, such things had been happening far too often.

Hordes of little beasts it had never seen in these parts kept swarming it, and the rainbow-scaled serpents of the sky had suddenly taken to circling its territory over and over.

Having lived through countless uncountable ages, the It was lazy by nature and disliked moving its body on a large scale. It responded only by crushing or swallowing the little beasts that dared attack it.

But today's tremor was a different breed of anomaly from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠anything before. A powerful vibration had shaken even its very nest.

When insolent wretches threatened its own home, the It thought:

If these idiots kept trampling its territory like this, wouldn't the serpents of the sky begin to look down on it too? Would they not whisper that it had grown too weak to protect even its own home?

The It was lazy, but it was not stupid. In this barren world, the weak were left with only one future: death.

And so it had to show its enemies that the king of this underground still lived and breathed.

Having resolved to move for once, the It tracked its enemies' scent with its two long antennae. At the tips of the antennae — old, but still keen — two fragrant trails of scent drifted close.

Intruders had entered its territory after the great tremor. The scent left behind by two beasts had reached its antennae.

Prey found, the only thing remaining was to hunt it down and punish it. The It, which had filled the cavern of hundreds of meters, slowly uncoiled its massive body.

The hour of the hunt had come again, at long last.