"This is damn disturbing," Gabe commented after twenty minutes of traveling alongside the mysterious canyon. "Where are all the monsters? What created the fucking thing? How did it create it? How large is it?"

"My guess," Wys responded as Nyz swept his focused spotlight over the canyon again. "Is that we aren't encountering monsters because there's something big, bad, and scary in the canyon itself, and the rest of the monsters fled its feeding range."

"Which only means," Nyz said. "It'll come out to feed, since it'll need to go hunt. That might explain why there were increased numbers of monsters before. They fled its hunting range."

"Chances are," Harn said. "It's going to decide that we are dinner. Or lunch."

"I'm in favor of lunch," Nyz said as he finished off his fourth sandwich for lunch. "We've traveled along the canyon for a little more than two miles and haven't seen it. Keep alert. It'll probably attack us. If it doesn't, then once we reach the end of this thing, we'll move on like nothing happened. On our return, we'll take a wider berth around it."

Nyz tapped on his console, looking through Kal's entries again. There wasn't one for 'if you come across a giant canyon that shouldn't exist', which bothered him. The Scavengers there told him it was better to move with the canyon in sight so that they could tell when it ended and stay in mostly-known territory, but Nyz wasn't sure.

While he had full confidence in his ability to take on anything that came their way, since he was bred specifically for combat, there was a difference between being able to take anything on and actually wanting to.

He may have been a fighter willing to just power his way through anything, but that was for when the situation called for it. To him, traveling alongside what was clearly the home of something massive was just asking for a fight, and he didn't want to do that if he didn't have to. No matter how much he looked at it, Nyz could find no benefit to fighting whatever carved the canyon.

Without an actual point to the fight, Nyz didn't like it. That was why he kept searching through Kal's guide logs, to find out if there was something he could use as advice for the situation. Attempts to contact his friend had failed, which annoyed Nyz. He was used to following Kal's plans, which optimized routes, decreased the amount of fighting necessary when possible, and overall raised success rates.

"There really is nothing here," Gabe spoke again after another five minutes. "This is even more disturbing than normal trips through the fog when nothing's coming near us."

"The beetle's scanners are picking up movement in the canyon," Nyz told him. "It's something big, like I said."

"We can handle it," Wys told him. "Especially with gear as good as this."

"The scanner is picking up," Nyz said. "An earth-based monster, use air shots with the magic guns. It's moving fast. Also, it's really big."

"Your scanners can pick that up?" Zech asked in surprise.

"How far is its range?" Kacy asked.

"Look alert, it's almost into view," Wys told them as Nyz shifted the beetle to face the canyon, the Scavengers quickly moving into position as he backed up the beetle.

A few seconds after Wys's warning, the first head shot up over the edge of the canyon, serpentine with yellow eyes, the pupils round. The head alone was taller than the walkers, the eyes meeting them in height. The scales of the snake were pale green with hints of brown and gold here and there.

"Magic shots will bounce right off those scales!" Gabe said as everyone took in the massive snake.

"Use magic shots," Nyz stated, still looking at the readings on his screen. "Also, there's more."

"More what?" Miyak asked.

A second snake's head rose over the edge of the canyon, snapping at the walker with Lyan inside. She shifted it to the side, barely evading having the monster snap at them.

"More heads," Nyz answered as the Scavengers opened fire. "It's hydra-headed, it looks like. I can't figure out how many heads there are, though. I wish Kal was here. Wys, it says to use the magic cannon, air-type."

Nyz watched as Harn and Miyak switched to using magic shots, which bounced off the snake's scales just as much as the bullets did. A third head rose up over the edge of the canyon, snapping at the beetle, and Nyz shifted it out of the way, Wys firing the magic cannon a moment later, a burst of white magic soaring through the air and meeting the third head in the open mouth.

The magical attack ripped through the fleshy inside of the snake, before bursting out the back of it, pulling flesh and meat with it as it continue into the fog. As it fell, a fourth and fifth head rose up out of the canyon and the Scavengers spread out, continuing their assaults.

"Aim for the eyes," Nyz said. "Erm. Or the mouths. Use the air shots, Harn and Miyak. The scanner says magic over bullets."

"Magic bounces off monsters scales!" Harn protested. "We need physical attacks to damage them!"

Nyz sighed as he pulled the beetle to the side, avoiding having the second snake's head bite into it.

"Wys, can you-"

"I can do both," Wys told him. "Go."

Nyz stood up and made his way to the general room, then ascended to the decontamination chamber. He entered the suit storage room and pulled on his own, black combat suit, made only slightly more difficult than normal due to the movements of the beetle.

After putting on his combat suit, Nyz quickly equipped his weapons and pack, then exited the beetle, jumping off of it and setting the rollers into gear. Using a walker, the Scavengers held much less agility than Nyz, who could easily shift positions and move around.

Utilizing his mobility in the Class S suit, Nyz rolled towards the cliff, then jumped when he reached its edge. A moment later, he reached out with his right hand and grabbed onto the right nostril of the sixth snake head, something he had seen coming through the scanner in his helmet.

"Did Nash just jump off a cliff?" Zech exclaimed.

"He does that," Wys deadpanned.

Aiming with the gun in his left hand, Nyz shot at the snake's right eye three times. At that close of a range, his Type 10 air bullets pierced through the protective membrane with ease, punching into the eye, then through it and into the brain.

Sensing the life go out of the sixth head, Nyz released the nostril and activated the floaters on his suit, twisting and aiming at the seventh head as he moved backwards to avoid being bitten by its attempted attack. Firing six shots, Nyz struck the head in each eye three times, and as it opened its mouth, revealing its fangs, he tossed a grenade down its throat.

Shifting to the side, Nyz pulled out a second gun and began firing at the eighth head, watching on his helmet the tracking of the grenade he'd tossed into the dead seventh head. It hadn't fully emerged out of the canyon wall, and by the time it started to drop from its death, the grenade had already moved into the neck still in the wall.

The eighth head moved swiftly enough that Nyz's shots struck it on the side, chipping its scales where they struck. As it turned back to face him, Nyz returned his left gun to his hip and reached over to tap on the inside of his right forearm as he continued shooting the eighth head.

Stolen novel; please report.

A moment later, the tracker on his helmet's screen let him know the detonation was a success, and the eighth head began to fall, the second head going limp as well.

"What just happened?" Miyak asked. "One of the heads just stopped moving."

"I'm guessing Nash did something," Lyan said.

"I tossed an air grenade into one of the heads," Nyz stated. "Then detonated it when it reached where I thought the joint might be. It took out that head and the neighboring ones. You have just one left, right?"

"Just the fourth one," Wys told him. "Which I'm about to take out with the cannon as soon as it opens its maw again."

"Do you need help getting back up?" Kacy asked. "Or will you just climb?"

"These suits have floaters," Nyz soared up to the top of the canyon, before flying straight to the remaining head as it attempted to attack the walkers.

Landing on the head, Nyz began shooting it, chipping into its scales with his guns. The snake hissed, opening its mouth as it lifted its head backwards, and Nyz floated backwards to avoid being tossed, then burst forward as quickly as the floaters would allow him, knocking the head back down.

At the same time, a burst of wind magic was fired from the magic cannon atop the beetle, striking into the snake's mouth in the fraction of a second it was open and able to be targeted.

"Fucking hell, that timing!" Miyak exclaimed. "How did you manage to do that, Wys?"

"With deadly-fast reflexes," Wys answered.

"That was bad," Nyz muttered as he landed on the ground, turning off the floaters. "Very bad."

"I thought it was good," Kacy said.

"I thought floaters were difficult to integrate?" Gabe said as Nyz returned to the beetle. "Even the military and top corporations only have them on a handful of flight craft, and they aren't small."

"Kal's floaters are better," Nyz said as he entered the beetle and sealed the hatch, the decontamination gas filling the chamber a moment later. "Though they're only on this suit and its twin. Only someone with reflexes like mine or Wys's could handle them on a combat suit right now."

The truth was that they were thought-activated, and that of the eight people there, only Nyz and Wys could access the thought interface. However, he wasn't planning on mentioning that to them. Nearly everything in the Class S combat suits could be accessed through it, though he used the manual settings for show for those around.

Kal had warned him against letting them know about the thought interface because it would supposedly make them paranoid over what the suit might be doing to them. Nyz didn't understand the paranoia, but he did trust Kal's word on stuff like that.

"Let's get going," Nyz said as he began stripping out of his combat suit, the gas having cleared. "I'm not sure if that's the only thing which carved out the valley, seems like a tall task for something that size to do in such a short time, and I doubt the hydra-headed snake was the only reason monsters fled this area in search of better prey."

He felt the beetle begin moving as he finished putting his suit and weapons away, then pulled off the bodysuit and hung it up, before pulling his clothes back on. Dressed again, Nyz returned to the cockpit and sat down, taking over piloting the beetle.

It took another hour for the canyon to narrow enough for the concentrated spotlight to reach the other side, and another twenty minutes past that for them to reach the point where the canyon ended, the two sides of it meeting in a point.

As soon as they cleared the end of the canyon, Nyz directed the group to head straight towards the next waypoint, planning on moving back to the normal path once they were several miles away from the canyon, just in case.

They were halfway to the waypoint when Nyz figured out how to mark the map so that he could put on it an obstacle not already listed, muttering under his breath a note to tell Kal to make stuff like that easier to find in the guides next time.

The rest of their trip to the way station consisted of lesser fights, though they still occurred as frequently as before, once they cleared six miles from the canyon.

After arrival at the way station, they decontaminated, then everyone except Nyz left the mechs to use the facility and check its supplies to restock on supplies. Once the resupply finished, the Scavengers left Nyz alone as they prepared to sleep for the night.

Finally alone, Nyz changed into shorts and a tee, then returned to the cockpit as he pulled on a pair of yellow-tinted glasses, playing an RPG until Sen called, as he expected her to.

"You can't keep doing this," he told her as he paused his game and took off the glasses. "Why does Kal even let you do this? I know locking you out shouldn't take him too much extra time away from whatever he's doing."

"Is it really that bad?" She asked. "I'm bored, Nyz. There's only so much I can do, and with Kal busy most of the time and Taylor avoiding me, there's no one to talk with much."

"So you decide to harass me?" Nyz asked. "You're a prisoner. A hostage. You aren't a friend. We aren't on good terms. I don't want to have to deal with you calling me every night. Please. Stop. I'm not turning off the alert in case Kal contacts me, and with you calling me, it's not easy to know if Kal needs to tell me something or if you're just harassing me again."

"Sorry," she apologized. "I just… never mind."

Sen ended the call, and Nyz sighed, before looking up how to tap into the way station's PA system, having forgotten how to do so despite having done so at the previous two way stations.

"Lyan, could you come to the beetle, please?"

Nyz disconnected the contact, then waited five minutes. He was preparing to request her presence again when the hatch to the general room opened, and he smelled Lyan entering. She dropped down to the floor, then walked into the cockpit and sat in the other seat.

"What's up?" She asked.

"You're better at social things than Gabe," he said. "And Wys would just be inappropriate with his responses. If I don't like someone, and they know it, why do they keep calling me?"

"Kal?" She asked.

"No," he answered. "We have a, ah, prisoner back home. We're holding them hostage until their father gives us something he stole from us. We aren't hurting them, and they have access to the call system. So they call me every night since we left on this trip. They said it's because they're bored, but I wanted your opinion on it, since I trust you more than them."

"It could be several things," Lyan gave him an odd look. "I've never pegged you as the type of person to take prisoners, Nash."

"The item is really important to Kal and me," he told her. "We're planning on releasing them once we have it back. So? Thoughts?"

"Well," she said. "They could be doing it to annoy you, they could be doing it because they really are bored and wanting to socialize, they could be doing it because they find you attractive-"

"I kidnapped them."

"Some people are into that," she said. "And some people end up falling for their kidnappers. If you're treating them well, more like a person than a prisoner, they may not see it as a bad situation, especially if they know the plan."

"She does," Nyz confirmed. "After finding out why we kidnapped her, she offered to help us convince her father to return it. She's living at base like anyone else would."

"So she can just walk around?" Lyan asked, and Nyz nodded. "Then yeah, it's possible she's fallen for you."

"I doubt it," Nyz told her. "I did kidnap her."

"Who knows?" Lyan asked. "Anyway, without knowing her, I'd say that it's hard to know for sure. But it's possible she really is just bored and looking for someone to talk to."

"So she picks the one person she has to call to talk with?" Nyz asked. "Someone she knows only looks at her as a prisoner?"

"Seems like it," Lyan told him. "Without knowing her, though, I can't tell you for sure what her motives are. What do you think they are?"

"To harass me."

"That's one possibility," Lyan said. "Just make it clear that even if she has permission to do that from base, you're viewing her as more of a traditional prisoner than they are."

"I did," Nyz told her. "She ended the call, but I was still wondering why she would do that."

"Well, I hope I helped a little," Lyan told him. "As little as I probably did."

"Thanks," Nyz told her. "You're a good friend, Lyan. It's nice to see you again."

"It's good to do a job with you again," she smiled. "Even if it's one which might take our lives."

"Yours, maybe," Nyz said. "Even if the rest of you die, Wys and I will make it out alive."

"I'm sure!" She laughed. "Wys has been in some strange situations and made it out! Sometimes, we think that he's not human at all, but maybe some sort of god."

"He's not a god," Nyz snorted. "That would be preferred. Anyway, I'm going to get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

"See you," she said, then left.

Nyz walked into the general room and lay on the couch, only for the cockpit to alert him to an incoming video call. Grumbling under his breath, he got up and returned to it, taking his seat and answering the call.

"I know you're a bit grouchy," Kal told him as his face came into view. "Since you were just laying down and want some sleep, Nyz, but I have some news."

"You couldn't wait until tomorrow to tell me there's a fourth job?" Nyz asked. "Aren't you busy with whatever it was? You had to pick now?"

"I didn't 'pick' now," Kal told him. "I'm actually still busy, that's why I'm calling you via a laptop in the hanger. I'm working on constructing a new thing, teaching Taylor how to use a Class S combat suit and a tiger mech, and doing my research into where it's located."

"Back up a moment," Nyz said. "You're teaching a terrorist how to do what?"

"I know you don't like Sen or Taylor," Kal told him. "But you need to trust me with this, Nyz. Sen's proved herself with the truth-telling, and Taylor's agreed to give us his skills to help with something separate from the stuff I send you on."

"Fine," Nyz grumbled. "I'll trust you on this, but only because I know they wouldn't be able to fool you with lies and deceit."

"Thanks," Kal said. "Anyway, Nyz, I have some news. Bad news."