Tatehan quickly dove sideways, rolling hard across the ground as he escaped the sharp claws of the monster by mere inches.
The monster didn't stop, it came at him like a frenzied predator, stretching its hands toward Tatehan with murderous intent, ready to decapitate him with a single swipe.
Tatehan panicked because he had been caught completely off guard. The attack had been unexpected, and if not for his enhanced reflexes, he would have been torn to shreds.
The monster kept advancing, and all Tatehan could do was dodge, desperately avoiding contact with the creature. If the monster managed to grab him, he would be finished.
Finally, after fighting for his life through fierce evasion, Tatehan landed a kick to the monster's chest, sending it backward and giving himself time to get a better look at what he was facing.
It was like the other brutenecks but looked like a being that had evolved for war.
This creature stood a full nine feet tall, its familiar slimy flesh now encased in overlapping plates of dark, chitinous armor that covered everything except its neck.
The carapace gleamed wetly in the Martian light, each plate thick as a dinner plate and hard as stone. Where the basic brutenecks had looked malformed and vulnerable, this one appeared built to endure punishment.
Tatehan stared at it in fear.
Mars was certainly not what he had anticipated. He never expected it to be terraformed to living conditions by the awakeners, nor did he expect to be an enhanced human living in a world with others like him. He also hadn't expected monsters as nightmarish as this.
Within seconds, information appeared across his retina:
[Carapace bruteneck detected]
[Armored variant, hidden weak points, higher threat level]
'Bloody hell!'
The creature began moving forward now. Its movements were heavier, more deliberate, each step creating small tremors in the ground.
The armor didn't fit perfectly, gaps showed the familiar grayish-green flesh beneath, dripping the same viscous fluid that pooled in the crevices between plates.
Most unnervingly, this creature seemed to understand its advantage. Unlike its lesser cousins' mindless shambling, there was calculated patience in how it moved, as if it knew its armored bulk made it nearly untouchable.
Tatehan slowly backed away. Defeating this monster would depend on how smart and tactical he could be.
The standoff felt like an old western duel, two opponents sizing each other up, waiting to see who would make the first move.
The carapace monster, which had been fighting ferociously before, simply waited, watching Tatehan with almost human-like eyes, as if it were a thinking being.
Tatehan was lost on how to defeat it. How could he target this monster's head with just jagged pebbles like he had the others?
The previous brutenecks had been simple to kill because their necks had been soft and exposed.
This one's neck was visible, but getting an object to it seemed nearly impossible. From the looks of things, jagged rocks might not be sufficient.
Yet rocks were the only objects available that could potentially pierce skin and kill.
Tatehan eyed the monster nervously, and hoping things would turn out well, he used his gravity manipulation powers to send rocks toward the creature's exposed neck.
But the monster dodged the projectiles Tatehan launched at it, and with a thunderous roar, it pounced forward in a mad, ferocious leap.
Tatehan jumped, and thanks to his enhanced abilities, he leaped incredibly high, dodging the monster by inches.
The monster, blind with rage, crashed straight into a large boulder, severely injuring its neck on the jagged edge.
Tatehan landed awkwardly but didn't pay attention to his stumble. He knew this was his only chance to defeat the carapace bruteneck.
Grabbing a sharp rock, he stormed toward the wounded creature.
Whoosh.
With inhuman speed—so fast it seemed like a flash of lightning, he targeted the monster's neck and drove the jagged rock deep into the vulnerable flesh.
The monster roared in pain, stretching its hands back, trying to grab Tatehan, who jumped away and used his gravity manipulation powers to send more rocks toward the creature's exposed neck.
Thwack!
Crack!
The rocks found their mark, and soon the carapace bruteneck collapsed to the ground, its head severed.
Tatehan panted heavily as he stared at the fallen monster. Walking toward it on impulse, he noticed a glowing red stone at the base of its neck. He bent and picked it up, slightly disgusted by the monster's corpse.
Words appeared across his retina:
[Monster Core acquired - helps in repairing the spaceship]
Tatehan examined the object, fascinated. It glowed with soft light that illuminated his face with gentle brightness.
He wondered why he hadn't found similar stones from the other brutenecks. Walking over to check their corpses, he found nothing. He realized this was probably because carapace brutenecks were stronger and harder to defeat than normal brutenecks—only the more powerful variants contained these cores.
If not for his enhanced body, he wasn't sure he could have pulled off the jump that sent the carapace bruteneck crashing into the rock.
Looking at his progress now that he had completed the task, he understood why the spaceship's AI hadn't given him weapons or warned him about the monster types beforehand. The system wanted him to learn how to face unprepared challenges and adapt under pressure.
He heard a low chiming sound:
[Congratulations host, you have completed your first task]
His status appeared:
Name: Tatehan
Level: 1
Species: Human (Enhanced)
Knowledge: 15/100 [+10]
Repair points: 7/100 [+7]
[ABILITIES]
• Gravity Manipulation - Level 1
Tatehan studied the stats for some time, wondering why he had gotten repair points.
And he simply came to a conclusion that it was perhaps because of the glowing rock he had picked up from the carapace bruteneck.
Now, he stood akimbo, gazing up ahead.
He could see outlines of mountains and perhaps cities and that made him wonder till how soon before he met other humans like him.
Taking one last look at the monsters he had just killed, he headed back to the Red dragon's spaceship.