SOS CH 5 (Patreon)

The run through the abysmally cold and desolate landscape of the exoplanet continued, fast and steady in gait…

“Hey. Don’t you get hurt?”

Morgiana asked speechlessly to the running Noah who was nonchalant in his gait. She didn’t know exactly how long he had been running at this point, but it had already gone on for a few minutes by her estimates. And during that whole duration, he had her, with her heavy armor on, in one hand and the large snake-like monster in the other.

It was a mystery how his skin wasn’t even becoming red or bruised from all the heavy lifting that he was doing here.

“I am not really hurt. I am just famished. Speak less or I will eat you up.”

Morgiana laughed at Noah’s joke but still stopped bothering him any longer. She knew that this situation must be quite strenuous for him after all, even if it didn’t feel like that from the outside.

‘If only I had my strength back.’

She sighed to herself as she thought up that possibility.

Meanwhile—

— We should really eat her, to be honest. I found the core of her ship already and her energy reserves are extremely large and plentiful. If you eat her then we can finally leave this desolate run-down place for good.

‘Shut up.’

Noah was hungry. Very, very hungry right now. He had been trying to build up the special energy that he had acquired by himself without relying on the voice in his head too much. But the result until now had been worthless and dissatisfying all throughout the board.

His body still had yet to properly adapt to this mysterious energy and the beasts on this planet had rather weak energy themselves so he was not able to do much about it by consuming them either.

— If we eat her right now you will finally be able to adapt to this energy. I can also finally call ‘it’ from beyond the event horizon.

‘You still haven’t found the coordinate after all this time… Don’t spout that bullshit speech to me.’

— It’s because you are too weak for me to do that.

‘I am the strongest. So, shut the fuck up already…’

Noah scoffed in his mind and ignored the mocking laugh of the Voice in his head. He had been fighting and discussing with her for so long that it was second nature to him now.

As for whether he should eat the woman on his back or not.

‘Hummm… well, it’s ultimately useless. I feel like she is a big bait. Soon, something big will happen with her as the center.’

— So you really considered eating her then?

‘I, Noah, am an upright and gentle man. Stop saying eating this and eating that right at my face, you gluttonous pig…’

He stopped short when he felt a certain pressure registering in his senses from not far away from their location…

‘Hum… Ugh… A beast. Great, just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse…’

Noah frowned and sighed to himself, lamenting his accursed fate. The existence of beasts and the like on this planet had always made him curious. After all, if he was right, this planet should be in the Alpha Centauri System. An Exoplanet relatively similar to Earth but with no life on it due to some troublesome conditions. Or at least that was the consensus they had reached back then and they were definitely wrong.

Either way, the situation was troublesome for him. The beast incoming wasn’t too dangerous for him all things considered but in his current situation, fighting it would make him even hungrier than before and may even make him faint.

“Something big is coming.”

He warned the one on his back and at the same time,

[Warning: Large life source detected.]

[Danger Rating (In Current Condition): High]

[Immediate retreat is advised.]

Morgiana was surprised not only because of the incoming danger. But first and foremost how this young kid had managed to notice it even before the AI was able to notice and warn her about it.

‘This doesn’t matter now though.’

Slowly, the silhouette of the monster began to appear and she was able to get a better view of it. And, she could only gasp at what she was seeing with her own eyes.

She didn’t know what kind of food those monsters devoured but the thing rushing at them was ginormous. Nearly as huge as some small Mechas out there. Around 4.5 to 6 meters in terms of height.

Unlike the previous snake-like monster, this one had a twisted appearance, as if it were the result of many changes and additions over centuries of evolution…

“Abyss Beasts? Kid! We need to  leave fast.”

She didn’t understand why a monster from the abyss was on this deserted planet and she didn’t want to know either. In her current situation she was nothing but cannon fodder for something like that and even without her injuries, taking this monster on without her Mecha would be a tedious and difficult task for her overall.

She shouted a little hurriedly, fearing that the kid would be frozen stiff in fright. After all, the abyssal beasts could not be compared to normal animals, no matter how big they were, unless the latter was rich in energy.

Despite the situation though, the little Noah showed nothing but a somewhat disinterested expression on his face.

“Running is useless. This guy is fast and he is after my Prey.”

Morgiana had no time to answer as she felt her vision blur, and then, all of a sudden, she found herself high in the air as if she had been thrown by a canon.

Bang~!

The ground shook as a large paw descended and struck it at full power, leaving an imprint.

The Ice broke in the air, creating a magnificent sight but now she didn’t have time to focus on the wonderful phenomenon. Her savior was in danger.

“Noah!”

She was still high in the air and looked at the ground where Noah was but soon, realized that the paw had been unable to crush whatever was below it.

What happened next was nothing but a blur to her eyes. Her body only made one rotation, she only turned for a few seconds, or not even one second for that matter…

But it was at that very moment — Crunch!!

The sound of something being crushed filled her ears and when she finally landed, she silently watched, her eyes opened wide in surprise as half the body of the monster was crushed completely and the other half completely gone somewhere her eyes were not able to see… Maybe it had been obliterated out of existence but who knows, she didn’t…

“What… What the hell just happened?”

She was a mercenary and she had seen many rare and somewhat secretive things while exploring the galaxy and doing missions on different planets.

But even for her, this was a first.

“Take me and continue running south.”

“Huh?”

She was interrupted by the tired voice of Noah,

“Noah, are you alright?”

She looked at him and sighed when she saw his chest rising up and down. At the very least, she knew that he was alive right now…

Finally standing, she looked all around her, and her eyes went back to the crushed half of the abyssal monster.

From her position, it looked like something had completely gnawed at it in one instant.

‘We need to move to avoid the corrosion.’

Frowning at the black blood that was flowing and tainting the ground, she took the young boy on her shoulder and started to walk slowly and steadily.

Did you record everything?

[Negative: All functions are currently focused on survival. Would you like to switch modes?]

Nevermind.

She sighed and looked at the little boy.

Someone very mysterious.

Someone very dangerous.

She simply hoped the people of his tribe wouldn’t kill her at first sight.