Andy pointed the crowbar at the frame, ready to try and support it as it came loose, in the hope that it would not make too much noise and alert the creature.

The creature had gone off somewhere, he had heard it walking away, but he felt like it was still somewhere near the complex at the very least.

The iron sheet came loose and he successfully helped it to the ground with very little noise. Andy shifted the sheet to the side and out of the way.

Now he would take it slow and keep his head on a swivel-

Arrrgggghhh!

A long black limbed flicked inside the airlock, the talon on end clawing into Andy’s leg.

Where the fuck had it come from! Did it trick him? Was it also fucking intelligent!?

The creature had it’s talon hooked into his calf, half on the boot portion of his suit. There was so much red hot fucking pain!

Andy cried out in pain and reached for his blowtorch, unclipping it from his belt.

But the creature had other ideas. Using it’s hook point, in one swift motion, it rapidly dragged Andy out of the airlock and underneath it. He lost his grip on the blowtorch as he banged his arm hard on the wall frame.

Andy took a swipe at the skidding blowtorch, but missed.

The creature was large. The bulk of its body was directly above him and it was easily as tall as a bear. Andy could mostly only see it’s hairy underside from his position on the floor, the bulk of its body was supported by four long limbs ending in talons. It resembles something like a very large four legged spider. Just meaner.

The creature reared up, probably pissed off and intent on bringing its two front talons down on his face. Andy’s leg was no longer hooked as a result, but he most definitely was not going to be able to get out of the way in time.

The creature brought its talons down fast and Andy did the only thing he could.

He hit the activate button.

Fire burst out from him on all sides, the front-most ports scorching the belly of the beast and it responded by shrieking and twisting to the side, trying to get out of the way of the high temperature H2O combustion. The creature twisted so hard, it actually fell over and got tangled on it’s own limbs. But it quickly righted itself and leapt backwards to put some distance between them, the creature clearly having been unnerved.

Andy was glad now that he had set the hud to be on the flush option, it had already saved his life, and this fight was just getting started.

With the moment of space, Andy grabbed his crowbar and threw it at the monster. It quickly sidestepped out of the way, but gave Andy the additional distraction that he needed.

Andy ran over to the waste tank that was rolling across the floor. It had been literally bounced out of the airlock when the monster initially dragged Andy out, and now was within practical reach.

The monster charged Andy, already suspecting he was up to something, as Andy picked up the waste tank, pointed it at the incoming creature and turned the external valve.

One turn of his hand on the valve screw was enough for oxygen to start shooting out of it in the form of a high pressure fast flowing stream. The stream in turn igniting with the atmosphere in an incredibly high heat flame, just as it had always done so far. Normally this very same reaction had caused him an endless amount of trouble and almost killed him at least once.

Now however, it was a weapon to be wielded!

The creature never saw it coming and as it drew up upon Andy, shrieking, mandibles chittering, it caught a face full of the high heat jet stream and raged in pain.

Andy had only turned the valve once, so technically only a very small amount of oxygen was being propelled out of the tank, making it manageable for him to hang on to, instead of flying around dangerously.

The creature was forced back once more, shaking violently to put out the remaining body hairs that were still on fire. It shrieked at Andy once more, then charged straight at him again.

Andy brought his makeshift flamethrower up to intercept, but the monster simply dashed to the side and circled around, still drawing closer.

Andy adjusted his pace even faster to try and keep up with the monster and keep it at bay. The two of them performing a fiery dance of death as they rotated around.

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Andy quickened his pace once more to try and keep up with the monster as they spinned around. The monster was close enough now that the increase would end up cutting it off with the path of the flame.

The monster simply ran up and sideways along a wall with its incredible speed, like something out of a matrix movie.

Andy tried to arc the flame up a bit to catch it.

And then it leapt.

The monster catapulted off the wall and narrowed its limbs front and back, like a projectile sailing through the atmosphere with minimal air resistance. It was a surreal sight, to witness the deadly transformation.

Andy barely managed to duck out of the way as the monster glided overhead. It nearly caught him. Andy fell to one knee in the process, but he quickly adjusted and flipped around, pointing his ‘flame thrower’ in the direction the monster had jumped. He had heard the tell tale signs of the monster's claws scrape against the floor where it landed.

So he spun around and pointed the flame in that direction.

But there was nothing there. Andy was about to spin his head around in a panic, searching for the monster before it could get him. But instead, in that moment of hesitation, his instincts screamed at him. He knew. He had a sense for the way this thing fought, the way it thought.

Andy dived and rolled to the side, just as the monster came crashing down from overhead, talons digging into the floor from the impact. If he had been there even a fraction of a second longer, he would have been skewered.

Andy had dived in the direction of the discarded crowbar, he gripped it and swung. The monster had already recovered from its landing and had already taken two quick steps towards Andy, who was still prone. It took another step forward with its left set of legs, raising its front right talon, in preparation to skewer Andy.

But the crowbar connected and smashed into the outstretched front left limb, with a sickening crunch sound. The monster wailed and lost its balance in the pain and toppled forward, arresting its motion right above Andy. Man and monster literally came face to face.

And then Andy smashed the activate button again.

Fire erupted all around him and the monster cried out once more and scramble backwards with more burn marks. Its retreat was frantic and showed none of its former grace or precision.

He needed to end this. While it was still rattled. Andy noticed that the still flaming waste tank was in a certain position, the flaming end facing almost perfectly away from the monster.

He had a hunch, a crazy idea that was as ludicrous as its chance of success seemed… It just felt right though. The waste tank had just rolled into reach as he was mentally mulling this over.

Andy reached for the valve screw on the waste tank as he called out to the alien.

“Hey!”

The alien froze as it regarded him with its full attention. As if it was an enraptured audience hanging off his words.

“Chew on this!”

Andy spun the screw open.

In an instant, the flame nozzle burst to life with an angry vengeance. The mostly stationary canister up to this point blasted off like a missile. One that was pointed straight at the creature and it knew it! The creature tried to dodge to the side, despite how fast the canister was moving.

Unfortunately for the creature however, the canister also just so happened to curve in the same direction, resulting in a truly lucky hit for Andy.

Not so lucky for the monster though. The canister struck it mostly dead center and it was catapulted into a wall five meters away like a ragdoll.

Andy dove out the way as the makeshift rocket bounced around and then dove straight for his head. He caught a glimpse of it going way outside the perimeter of the base and out of sight.

Andy glanced back at the alien. It was actually still managing to get back up despite being hit by the equivalent force of a truck. But it was not shaking that one off quite so easily. The monster looked dazed and heavily injured.

He had nothing left, no more tricks. Just the crowbar.

Fuck this. Andy charged the creature. For the first time truly, he was not the prey.

Andy ran, crowbar raised, poised to strike, he ran. A war cry bubbled up in his throat and spilled forth as bore down on the monster that now regarded him seriously.

As Andy got in range and was about to start the preparatory motion for swinging the crowbar, the monster suddenly leapt to the side. It stumbled as it landed, no doubt from its multiple injuries, but quickly got back up again.

What the fuck?

Andy was basically serving himself up on a silver platter, intentionally going into a melee with this thing and instead of capitalizing, it simply retreated.

This thing was afraid of him, either that or it finally regarded him as a serious threat, as an equal.

Andy stood there staring the creature down, it simply stared back. Neither backing down.

The monster chittered angrily at him. But Andy responded in kind with a growl of his own: “Dead men don’t fear death”.

“Bring it, fuck face!”

The monster shrieked at him one final time. But instead of charging him, it simply turned around and slowly limped away.

Andy stared dumbfounded, as it limped off into the distance and left the base behind.

Apparently, he was no longer ‘prey’. He was not food. He was a threat. He was, simply put, ‘not worth it’.

Andy watched as the creature crossed a hill in the distance. It looked back at him one last time, before disappearing over the horizon.

He had won. He had driven it off. The monster that had already killed at least one other player.

Alarms were going off like crazy in his HUD. He had lost his waste tank. His health was low. His suit was torn. And come the morning he would likely die of dehydration. But he had won.

For the first time since coming here, he had hope. Hope that he may just be able to survive the insurmountable odds of this hell hole. He may just be able to survive on this ashen world.