Origin (10)

We, who had been scattered, responded immediately to my shout. We had anticipated that a situation like this could occur.

That was why we were able to act as quickly as possible; however, we had overlooked—or rather, misled ourselves about—one crucial fact. We thought we would have enough time to escape from here.

The enemy was moving much faster than we expected. It was closing the distance at a mad pace.

- Camera 67 destroyed! And then 47! 35 as well...!

An alarmed man's voice echoed through the comms.

Camera 67 was between the maintenance area and the communications area, 47 was between the communications area and the cargo area, and 35 was located on the outer edge of the cargo area base.

The cameras currently near us were in the 30s range. The enemy reaching camera 35 meant it was about to reveal itself.

And the way the cameras were destroyed was similar to how the blue crystal's raw waves caused cameras to malfunction. It wasn't physical damage; their circuits were fried, making video transmission impossible.

With every resounding thud, I felt an urgent, almost desperate, need to change our course of action.

- Abort regrouping. Hide for now.

Suppressing our presence, Nadia, Carry, and I hid among the nearby shuttle wreckage. Thank goodness we hadn't cleared away all of the debris. It wasn't a perfect hiding spot, but without it, concealment would have been impossible.

No one argued against my words; everyone complied. They knew it too: staying low and keeping still would do more for our survival than moving.

Where comms had been filled with shouting, silence now fell as if by a lie. Then, after a very brief pause, came the sound of something large stepping on the edge of the shuttle station deck.

【Hrrr... Hrrrhhh...】

Was this heavy breathing from having run so wildly? The rough breaths lingered in the air, bringing with them the stench of blood. It smelled thick, as if aged for days—no, months. Nadia desperately held back her retching.

"........."

Dangerous. That was the thought that struck the moment I sensed the creature's presence. The idea lodged at the top of my mind, freezing my body where I lay.

Nadia, whose senses were sharper than mine, turned as pale as a corpse just from hearing the monster breathe. That said everything about the pressure she felt.

I carefully grabbed her hand next to me, and she clung to mine as if it were a lifeline. Her hand was ice-cold with tension. Or perhaps it was my hand that was cold.

I myself had barely been breathing for a while now. Thud, thud, thud—the sound of a massive body approaching ignited my imagination.

Not knowing what it looked like made the fear worse. Anxiety about the unknown expands exponentially—without a defined form, dread grows boundlessly.

That was when the shuttle station's camera caught the creature moving. A small holographic window popped up.

Perhaps sharing the view with us, Licorice displayed the feed: a mutated creature with thick exoskeleton was looking around, as if searching for something.

A bolt of lightning seemed to strike my mind almost instantly. Suddenly, I realized what it was—when I had seen it.

'... It's that thing.'

The mutant that Eric and I ultimately failed to catch. The monster that fired blue beams at us in the waste disposal area. And probably the "bud" that the pureblood supremacists had talked about.

Its appearance had changed drastically since then, but I could still recognize it. It was a primal instinct.

I swallowed hard.

【Kiiiii......】

The creature, searching, began to move. Did it know we were here? It wasn't moving in a hurry.

No matter where it had started, its approach was detected from the maintenance area where we temporarily regained system control. Considering how quickly it closed the gap from there, it was now moving at a snail's pace—perhaps to lull its prey into a false sense of security, or to remain unnoticed.

The monster sniffed the air. Or at least made a sound akin to sniffing. It was impossible to tell by sight whether it had a sense of smell.

With a station full of our scent, the creature showed no particular reaction; moreover, its face was utterly mangled.

That injury had occurred back in the waste disposal area, when I toppled the tower of metal cubes. I hoped the thing couldn't smell. Otherwise, hiding here would be pointless.

Did it still sense heat? Even if it did, we were probably safe for now, since the facility retained some of the heat generated by our recent work. Still, as the outside wind kept blowing in, that cover wouldn't last for long.jm

Static began to cloud the camera image. Every time the monster exhaled, the exoskeleton around its upper body opened like a shell, leaking an eerie blue glow.

It wasn't an ordinary blue light. It was the chilling radiance of the blue crystal—causing the surrounding cameras to scream, so to speak.

The static seemed to grow louder and louder, as if warning us not to look directly at this thing, this monster that should not be seen.

Licorice got greedy, probably trying to gather as much data as possible or to precisely track its movements. The moment she adjusted the camera angle—thud! An explosive shock shook the air.

I tensed, thinking our location had been discovered, but that wasn't it. Then again, it wasn't something to be grateful for either—one of the camera feeds we were viewing went dead.

It was the very camera Licorice had been operating. It wasn't just crippled by the creature's resonance; it was physically destroyed, ripped apart by its hand—in the blink of an eye.

Ting–tidik–

The sound of falling debris and a blacked-out screen was all that remained.

'... Too fast.'

I couldn't understand how it could move so quickly with that much exoskeleton. I kept my eyes fixed on its movements, not even blinking, as the cameras lost focus. Only my own eyes could be trusted now.

- Save the cameras.

- Got it.

- You're hiding well, right?

- We're in the control room. It's safer than being below. Are you guys hidden? There isn't much cover over there.

I replied that we were hiding among shuttle debris, then turned back to fix my gaze on the creature. Its breathing was growing rougher in irritation at finding nothing.

It tore up a completely unrelated rail and hurled it elsewhere,ripped through the containers Eric had painstakingly compiled, ruining them all,and scraped sharp claws across the metal floor with a grating, piercing sound reminiscent of ghoulish remnants.

Each action stoked our tension to the bursting point, only to fade and bubble up again. However grating the shrill noises, I couldn't afford to cover my ears.

For now, every sound the monster made was a clue. Its actions, its exertion, its weight... every detail mattered.

- I think it knows we're here.

- What? ... Well, that's possible, given how much noise we've made.

- Hyun-woo, is there any sign it's leaving?

I hesitated before replying to Eric's question. It would be nice if the frustrated creature left empty-handed. However, it showed no sign of leaving.

Suddenly, the mutant drew in a deep breath and took a stance as if preparing for something. Its exoskeleton—interlocked like armor—expanded abruptly and its maw opened wide. Opaque fluid dripped down.

"...!"

Preparing for its next move. Witnessing that, I immediately shielded Nadia with my body, wrapping around her. Sensing the creature was about to act, I couldn't just do nothing.

━━━━━━!

An indescribable shriek rent the air. The hideous sound surged with eardrum-shattering force in a pulse, vibrating the surrounding atmosphere.

The tremors conducting through metal made the creature even more terrifying. We cowered further, as it howled to declare this was its territory. We were given a taste of what it really meant to be terrified to your marrow.

At length, the mutant—clad in an exoskeleton that seemed impervious to anything—bolted for the warehouse connected to the station. Digging its hands into the container walls, it climbed up.

- It's headed to the warehouse! Be careful!

I quickly warned Eric and the man in the control room. They were unlikely to be found—unless the creature crawled all the way up to their ceiling-level hideout.

- ... I can't see it.

There were cameras in the warehouse, but not packed closely together. More than half no longer worked, which meant our field of vision was severely compromised.

There was an anxious quality to the voices over comms, as the yelling beast disappeared between the containers' walls. Our breaths, ragged with apprehension, tickled our ringing eardrums.

I overheard Licorice muttering about possibly using Alpha as bait if it came to it. As the seconds ticked by, Nadia's hand in mine only squeezed tighter.

'Did it go?'

Go. Please, just go. I repeated the same plea internally, not even knowing whom I was praying to. I was so parched with stress I couldn't swallow another dry gulp.

I was certain we couldn't win if it came to a fight. Our equipment had been severely damaged battling the ghouls. If forced to fight, I couldn't guarantee our lives.

I didn't know why it had gone into the warehouse. It was impossible to predict. Even while watching, I had no countermeasures. Nothing I could do.

Then.

-... Damn it.

Licorice's voice, choked with dismay, came over the comms. Even without visual of the warehouse, her tone warned something was very wrong. Nadia sucked in a breath, tail fur bristling.

Immediately after, a blue beam cut a straight line through the warehouse.

Kwakwakwakwaang—!

The hand, aimed to split the world, slashed right next to the shuttle wreck where we were hiding.

'Shit...!'

We let out a silent scream. At first, all we could see was the blazing cut edge, but the follow-up shockwave quickly swept in, filling the space with a whirlwind of dust.

Because we had crouched low, we weren't blown away. Dizzy, we hurriedly slapped out flames on our suits. The high-temperature beam had all but erased the wall between the station and warehouse.

It wasn't as if the wall had been totally dividing the sectors anyway, but now—with one monster attack—it was simply gone.

Clatter—kururur...

The containers, Red-hot and exposing glowing, swirling cuts of orange, Red, black, and gold, looked like an open tomb. That scene was soon choked out of view by thick, black smoke rising from all around.

Whatever was in the container, it flared up in flames. The acrid smoke tickled our respirators. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to stifle our coughs, and making noise now would only cause further disaster.

Those in the control room—who had survived the mutant's attack and its aftermath—were safe. Licorice, who knew better than Nadia and me what was going on, spoke in a trembling voice:- ... Roxy, don't come until we call you. You'll get shot down.

- Are you kidding? Don't you know my skills? I'll be there in 20 seconds tops! Even if the shuttle's trashed, I'll land fast and get you out—just hang on!

- I said don't come. I mean it. This isn't a joke.

Before their argument could be resolved, the conversation was abruptly cut off. A heavy silence fell. As it must have.

Something heavy began to thud beyond the thinning smoke.

In this situation, the only creature that could move freely was the monster, so all our tense gazes were fixed on the scene ahead. Pure survival instinct rang in my mind, warning me over and over.

... Thud.

At first, it was only one hand with sharp claws. But all of us knew this was but a fraction of the monster about to appear.

Kiaaaaaak...

The other hand climbed up, scraping the metal container. The skin-crawling sound played like ominous background music.

- Roxy, I won't say it again. Do not enter the cargo sector until we give the signal. Absolutely not.

Eric's written message appeared on the holographic screen. No voice, just the weight of the text. It left even more of an impression than words shouted aloud.

Even Roxy couldn't insist further, replying only that his shuttle had double armor this time and could withstand a couple of crashes, before falling silent.

And then.

【Kiiiiiii......】

The creature—worthy of nothing but the word "monster"—lifted its face between its grotesque hands, sneaking a sly peek as if eavesdropping.

Its mouth gaped, split as if to an obscene grin. The twisted smile, at odds with its bulk, only accentuated the malice burning beneath. Maybe it was due to the influence of the blue crystal.

Just witnessing the raw crystal it held was enough to blur my vision—it gave off that strong a wave.

【Ki... Kikik...】

The instant its gaze met mine, I felt suffocating despair. It had known all along, playing with us, and I realized then it had never once intended to let us go.

The monster's actions were a warning: it knew where we were, so don't even think about pulling anything.

I realized all of my previous assumptions were wrong. It was not a matter of whether we could win if we fought—we had to win.

- ... We have to take it down.

- What? Are you crazy?!

Just as I'd expected. But there was no helping it. I didn't waver.

- Don't be reckless—just fall back little by little! How do you expect to fight that—?

Before Licorice could finish, time seemed to slow. My heart pounded, each beat stretching out.

But the monster—unaffected—began moving toward me.

To take revenge on the one who had nearly killed it.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Exoskeleton Boss Round 2!!!【༼ ᕤ◕ロ◕ ༽o:【】:::::::〉】

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