The One Who Hunts the King (2)
Survival is competition.
Finding food, securing shelter, taking a mate and leaving offspring behind — every one of them is bound up with competition. To claim a limited supply of food, you must outcompete every other creature, and the places one being finds comfortable are comfortable to others as well. Even feelings for a mate are no different.
But the fact that survival and competition are so tightly intertwined doesn't mean everyone can win that competition. Most creatures in nature live out their days having already lost in one way or another.
The master of the small cave, the Sharkbear, was also a creature of two faces — victor and vanquished. He had triumphed in every contest he entered and failed in exactly one.
He had no mate.
Perhaps it was because he'd been cast out of his pack at so young an age. He never learned social graces; he judged every living thing other than himself as nothing more than food. Females sometimes came near him, but his temperament drove every one of them away.
But what did it matter?
He had a snug cave, and the vast territory surrounding it was entirely his. Aside from the fact that he would never leave offspring behind, his life was thoroughly satisfying.
Today, as on any other day, the young male Sharkbear was lazily prowling his hunting grounds to fill his belly. Nothing in these parts could threaten him.
Except for the beast with white fur and unnaturally long arms and legs that occasionally strayed into his territory.
That two-legged monster was quick and strong, and its arms — long out of proportion to its frame — were particularly annoying to deal with. For the Sharkbear, it was a somewhat troublesome opponent.
Even so, the young male didn't worry. Not long ago, the creature had blundered foolishly into his forest, and he had chased it off. He'd taught it a proper lesson, so it wouldn't come back for a good long while.
He was wandering through the forest, reassured, when a scent touched the tip of his nose. Warmth and stickiness, utterly out of place in this frozen land — and steeped within it, a thick, sweet fragrance.
It was the smell of blood.
Something had died in his hunting grounds.
"Kuuong."
The young male let out a low growl. Who dared covet his territory? He decided that this time, at last, he would not let the insolent white-furred monster off easy.
Following the scent drifting through the air, he came upon a wide clearing. In the center of the snow-swept expanse lay the source of the blood smell.
Had it been any other time, he would have charged straight in — but the male held back. Something was off. No predator alive abandons a prize of delicious meat lying in the open for no reason.
His interest in the sweet scent momentarily set aside, he scanned his surroundings. The snow-covered ground bore no tracks from any other animal. He lifted his head and looked up at the empty sky.
As always, only white snowflakes fell without pause from the perpetually dark heavens. Was the instinct screaming that something was wrong mistaken?
His gaze caught the tips of tree branches at the clearing's edge. Limbs bent at unnatural angles. It looked as though something heavy had fallen from above.
Had he possessed even a shred of social instinct — had he ever mingled with his own kind — he would have known what those traces meant. He would have known just how dangerous the things that flew overhead could be.
But the young male, who lived alone, had no way of knowing that. He approached the snow-dusted carcass. His jaws gaped wide, and the teeth within sprang out all at once.
The very moment he was about to enjoy his feast —
Something came hurtling down at him from that black sky.
The trait Enhanced Endocrine Gland has been applied.
Can be fused with the existing trait Muscle Augmentation.
The traits Enhanced Endocrine Gland and Muscle Augmentation have fused — evolved into Berserk Synapse!
Berserk Synapse: Enhances all physical capabilities across the board. Energy consumption is reduced, and greater amounts of energy can be stored within the body.
*P.S. — You are a living tank, an unstoppable freight train.
Phew. Finally.
Only after taking down my eleventh Sharkbear had I managed to acquire the new trait. It had taken quite a while since I hadn't used the Avatar of the Hunt.
I'm saving the Avatar of the Hunt for the Skywhale.
The Skywhale carried minefield traits like Energy Absorption, but plenty of useful ones besides. Giant Organism, Spaceflight — it possessed a wealth of other good traits as well. Powerful as it was, that alone made it more than worth the hunt.
In any case, I looked down at my body, now fitted with its new trait, Berserk Synapse. True to a fused trait of the internal-organ variety, there was little visible change.
The only real difference was that the muscles around my arms, neck, and tail had been reinforced and grown thicker. The muscles of my wing-arms had improved as well, letting me fly faster and longer.
Power is overflowing.
In the game, there had only ever been a change in numbers — perhaps that was because this was reality. My whole body brimmed with a sensation of surging strength. I hadn't activated any transformation mode like the Avatar of the Hunt, yet instinct told me clearly:
I no longer needed to worry so much about side effects.
｢Big Baby, you don't want any more?｣
[Zzzu zuzuzuzu zuzuzuzu (Yeah. I'm fine. Eat the rest)]
"A sharp rise in muscle density and a change in energy distribution have been detected."
｢…Your muscles are insane.｣
No. 26, who had watched me grow from the very beginning, showed little interest — but the others were another matter. PS-111 looked like she was dying to take a sample of my skin tissue, and Mother of the Sky was eyeing the muscles of my combat arms.
[Zuzu zuzuzu zuzu zuzuzuzu (Let's head out as soon as everyone's finished eating)]
｢Okay. Flap-flap, let's go.｣
[Zuzuzuzu zuzuzu zuzuzu zuzuzu zuzuzu (Where should we go to find a Skywhale?)]
｢…Huh? Uh, well. Hmmm.｣
She had brought the High Priest's Golden Spear back from the nest, and she seemed fascinated by the changes in my body. She'd been drilling her amber eyes into my arm, and my question startled her out of it.
｢Th-that, um, they're definitely somewhere in the atmosphere, but I can't say where you'd easily find one. You know how they never stop moving.｣
She was right — Skywhales had no lair. A planet, and indeed all of space, was their roaming ground. They circled a planet's atmosphere, absorbing solar energy and assorted other energies, and once they'd had their fill, they moved on to another planet or star system.
The planet where the Dragon's Nest lay was rich in psychic power, so Skywhales visited it often. Which meant there was a very high chance one was somewhere on this planet right now.
"No detections in the surrounding area."
PS-111 spoke while eating a slab of Sharkbear meat with her hook-like hand. The chunk of meat in her grip shriveled in an instant, drying into something like a dead leaf. The shriveled leftovers were disposed of by No. 26's stomach.
I watched them eat and considered.
The Galagons are at the Dragon's Nest, so it won't go anywhere near there.
Even in the game, events where Galagons fought Skywhales cropped up from time to time. The Skywhale, which absorbed even hostile energy, was a natural counter to the Galagon, a powerful psychic creature — and so the Galagons hated letting a Skywhale anywhere near the Dragon's Nest.
Guess I'll have to fly around and search myself.
Once again, it looked like I had no option but to rely on my auxiliary organ for the hunt.
When No. 26 and PS-111 finished their meal, we set out together to search for the Skywhale.
Every time I beat my wings high in the sky, thick muscles flexed and coiled. Each stroke of my black wings split the clouds around me. Hailstones the size of soccer balls hammered down through the snowstorm, but my wing membranes took not the slightest damage.
While my body and wings cut through the sky like an ascending imugi, the auxiliary organ beneath my jaw worked without pause. The composition of the clouds, the energies streaming through the air — it analyzed every factor without missing a single one.
[Zuzu zuzuzuzu zuzu (See anything?)]
｢Not yet.｣
｢Nothing over here either!｣
Mother of the Sky and No. 26, riding on my back, were searching for traces of the Skywhale too. Mother of the Sky stood on both legs, sweeping her hawk's eyes through the clouds. For someone supposedly afraid of flying, it was remarkable progress.
Aside from the fact that she's gripping one of my erosion tentacles with both hands, that is.
Beside her, No. 26 extended a tentacle to trace the flow of energy.
I kept flying, holding my speed just fast enough that the kids could keep searching without strain. I'd eaten my fill of Sharkbear, and thanks to Berserk Synapse, my energy reserves still had plenty of slack.
After a long stretch of searching, my auxiliary organ caught something. The feeling that lightly tickled the tip of the organ was subtly different from psychic power.
What's this?
An unfamiliar flow of energy pulsed from a specific direction. No. 26, on my back, seemed to sense it too — she sent out a wave.
｢Big Baby! Something weird is coming from over there!｣
[Zz (Right)]
I folded one wing slightly and banked toward the source of the energy. Inertia threw my body's axis sideways in a sharp lurch. Then I spread both wings wide again and beat the air hard — and my body shot forward like a missile off a launch pad.
As I accelerated and surged ahead, a colossal mountain peak came into view. It was a mountain so tall it couldn't be compared to the Twin Peaks where I'd once hunted the Crystalwing.
It rose far above the clouds. Since the summit stood above the cloud layer, no snow had piled there, and no trees grew — it showed only as sheer black.
Less like terrain shaped by nature, it resembled a giant out of myth.
｢It's enormous. First time in my life seeing a mountain that big.｣
Mother of the Sky wasn't exaggerating.
Would it feel like this, I wondered, to see Olympus Mons with one's own eyes — the largest mountain known in the Solar System? The sheer majesty of the enormous black mountain was truly staggering.
As we drew closer, the alien flow of energy grew stronger still. The Black Mountain was pouring energy out of its peak the way a volcano spews ash.
So that mountain is generating the energy…
｢There! There's the Skywhale!｣
The instant I tried to turn my attention to the mountain, Mother of the Sky fired off a thought-wave and pointed with a forepaw at the area near the summit. Too far away to see clearly, but something like a tiny grain was circling around the peak.
I accelerated toward it. Soon the Skywhale's form came into view for my eyes as well.
A body stretched long like a whale, six wings that looked as though they were made of gathered opal particles, and a multitude of eyes.
The whale of space — a Skywhale.
Judging by its size, it's still young.
Even a sub-adult Skywhale reached a body length of fifty meters. The one before us was roughly sixty. Nearly twice my size.
｢■--------｣
The creature noticed my approach and let out a warning cry. I had come to eat it in the first place, so I ignored the warning and kept closing in.
｢■---!｣
Enraged, it spread its wings. Opal particles began gathering along them, glowing and drawing together.
Oh no!
I knew exactly what that meant. I folded my wings and dove. A beat later, six photon cannons fired from its wings — six beams as thick as my own Psychic Breath scraped past the spot where I'd just been.
In the community, Skywhales have a reputation for being herbivore-like in temperament.
Someone who didn't know better might take that to mean they were gentle and harmless — but think it through. African elephants and hippos are herbivores too. How frightening are they?
The whale of space was no different.
The one who had fired first loosed its opal beams again. I wrapped my body in my wings and spun through the air. The beams grazed the outer skin of my wings as they passed. The moment I re-spread my wings after the evasive maneuver, Mother of the Sky on my back leapt into action.
She was trying to seal the Skywhale's photon cannon with the power of Ice Evil Spirit. The Skywhale, meeting her gaze, shuddered violently.
The light on its brilliantly shining wings flickered — then died out at once.
｢I can only hold this for a minute! Finish it before then!｣
[Zuzuzu (Don't worry)]
I had no intention of dragging this out anyway. While the creature's mind unraveled under the Ice Evil Spirit, I closed the distance in an instant.
I could see its eyes, stripped of reason. The maddened thing charged straight at me — and I charged straight back, dodging nothing.
Black wings and opal wings collided. Thunder like a lightning strike boomed across the sky.
｢■-----!｣
Its mind was gone, but pain could still reach it — the Skywhale shrieked. I too felt no small ache at the point of impact, but it was bearable.
Erosion tentacles burst from my back and bit into its body. It answered by clubbing my head with a wing. My carapace didn't crack, but the impact was considerable.
｢Pain Mitigation activated!｣
Ignoring the textbox, I opened my jaws and clamped down on its wing. The creature howled and tried to strike me with its other wing.
｢Everyone, help Big Baby! Attack!｣
"Assisting now."
Then everyone on my back threw themselves at the Skywhale tangled in my grip.
Mother of the Sky had brought the High Priest's Golden Spear for the first time in ages. As the golden short spear flashed, carving strips of flesh away, No. 26 lashed her tentacles beside her, gouging wounds into the creature's back. PS-111 crawled up it like a spider, clamped onto its flank, and raked wildly with her claws.
The Skywhale's energy absorption nullified every attack that relied on energy, so I'd warned everyone before we came — and they all went at it with raw physical force.
Close combat favors us.
Its skill at close quarters wasn't poor, but it lacked one thing: toughness. Its hide was thin.
Our strikes could wound its outer skin without much difficulty.
｢■------｣
The creature whipped its body, trying to shake off the enemies clinging to it. I bound it tight with my erosion tentacles so it couldn't move freely.
Apparently judging that it couldn't deal with the others until it killed me, the creature gaped its mouth wide open.
A Skywhale's mouth is used less for feeding than for something else entirely. By lore, when males contest a single female, they bite each other's bodies with their jaws to prove their strength. Caught in those massive jaws, even another Skywhale would suffer fatal injuries.
But there was something the creature didn't know.
Now!
｢■?!｣
The instant its mouth opened, I rammed my head inside instead. Before its jaws could clench, I drove the horns of my head hard into its palate.
Six massive horns punched through the tender roof of its mouth and tore into the delicate structures within. I flexed the erosion tentacles holding the creature and shoved my body deeper into its maw.
｢■--------｣
The creature tried to scream — but it couldn't. A quarter of my body was crammed down its throat.
I thrashed my head, gouging the inside of its palate with my horns.
｢---…｣
And at last, when my horns ripped all the way into its brain, the creature stopped moving. The light drained from its beautiful glowing wings, and its six eyes closed slowly.
The moment its breath ceased, all of us floating in the air began to plummet.
｢Ahhhhhhh! You crazy Morph-fucker! Let go! We're falling!｣
｢Waaaaaah! This is fun!｣
"Calculating damage from the measured altitude…"
I pulled my head out of the Skywhale's mouth and spread my wing-arms wide. At the same moment, a massive load settled onto the erosion tentacles gripping the space whale's corpse.
[Zuzu zuzuzu (Climb up, quickly)]
"Thank you."
｢…Good grief.｣
｢That was fun!｣
Even as the kids clambered up my tentacles, I never stopped beating my wings. As I flapped with the Skywhale still in my grip, our falling speed gradually bled away.
Now all that's left is to land and eat…
In that instant, I felt a surge of intense psychic power. Immediately, I released the tentacles holding the Skywhale and shot upward.
In the sliver of a moment, a thick violet beam tore through where my tentacles had been. The space whale's corpse plunged down together with the shorn pieces of tentacle.
｢King of the Sky｣｢I cannot let you slip away｣
Above the black sky, a being like a pure-white angel was looking down at me.
…Ham Ort.
The snow-white Gallagon who had taken Adhai away.
The White Gallagon Ham Ort was there.