The taste of blood, the sensation of raw viscera being ground over, and over again by the incessant cyclic motion of young Makhar's, black chitinous mandibles, it all felt very natural and elating, satisfying even.
To hunt prey through your very efforts, with determination and patience of a naturally borne hunter till the moment finally came. Victory followed and he was now effectively tasting the result of his efforts.
A few minutes after the small group of deers had been scared by his presence, young Makhar had decided to wait and strike only if certain about his chance of success. Nonetheless, standing still, motionless on the same spot, waiting for prey did not convince him much. Instead, he hurried over, following behind the deers' traces, perhaps they would lead him to more game, in one way or another.
Wriggling up and down, his pair of insectoid antennae were Makhar's principal means of perceiving the world, which he found far more useful than the pair of eyes residing on his shell.
The antennae were capable of following bio-chemical traces released by other living beings, while at the same time possessing thermo sensitivity. As such, Makhar had memorized both the thermal and chemical print of the small fawn and had been stalking the group for hours now. Of course, he had been very conscious of danger that might befall him, he was certainly not the apex predator of the forest, and always tried to avoid and different signature than that of the deers, even if it meant risking losing his target.
Orange streaks of light weakly basked the surrounding leaves hiding Makhar from the animals grazing below, as he suddenly felt subtle vibrations coming from the tree. The ground was shaking, even if ever so slightly, if one was not being attentive, they would probably have ignored the phenomenon. But young Makhar was still extremely weary of this foreign environment, as he climbed up the tree as far as he could, ever watching the situation below with ol' Mitch's eyes.
Suddenly the ground ruptured, just below one of the fawns of the group, which now counted five adult deers and a dozen small fawns. A strange quadrupedal creature came out of the earth, with its two rocky front limbs it grabbed the defenseless prey, gripping its neck with its strong mandibles till it quickly snapped. With tantamount terrifying speed, the beast disappeared underground, living a small earth-like conic formation in the process.
[Trick worm: Description disabled, host's analysis and comprehension of the target is too low.]
'Peculiar, how so, with the 'deers' the observer did provide me a description, and I just saw a common member of their species, I did in truth observe it for a longer time but it shouldn't make such a difference.
Could this particular exemplar be an exception among its kind? It's called a trick worm, I know the concept of trick and deceit, but I don't know anything about what a 'worm' is supposed to be. In the egg's knowledge database, there wasn't anything mentioning it.
If so their relevance could not be high, I should ignore this happening and proceed to stalk the other deers, they are starting to get quite far already.'
However, before Makhar was about to climb on a nearby tree branch, the ground shook one more, and the eight eyes of the rocky monster come out of the ground, as he opened his mandibles and let out a deafening screech, Makhar knew that he had to climb even higher up the tree, before starting to flee branch to branch.
He was not yet ready to confront another predator in the wild, their experience and ferocity would spell doom over him.
However, something unexpected happened once again.
'A tail? Did it have a tail? During his earlier assault, I didn't see it because it remained underground. Is it enough for the system to deny me its description?
Not that I don't recognize how much it helps, but rather...'
Young Makhar's Intuition appeared to be true, as the creature's tail just didn't seem to end, no, it even expanded in diameter revealing a monstrous cylindrical body hiding below the surface.
Coiling around the tree, the trick work began to quickly climb up, intent to take Makhar as a tasty snack.
It was definitely faster than the newborn alien. At this point, a physical confrontation was anything but inevitable.
The quadrupedal, brown, monster-like head of the worm was the first to detach from the tree, lunging forward in an attempt to assault young Makhar. Soon after, the imposing mass of the slimy, silver tube-like worm followed, grating against the treebark, and leaving a slimy trail in its wake.
Makhar braced himself, flattening his body against the tree trunk, to have an appropriate angle to strike against the creature, that perhaps was a little too confident and reckless. In the wild, you could never know what dangers awaited, even from the smaller creatures, especially with their appearance being as bizarre's as young Makhar's.
The creature arrived just in front of Makhar, with frightening speed, it revealed a set of sharp metallic claws adorning its front limbs, ready to tear its prey apart.
'It did not use them when taking out the fawn earlier, does it recognize me as a bigger threat?'
Thanks to his strong grip, Makhar jerked off the tree with equally strong speed, preparing its retractable scythe-like, black claws to strike in one lethal, definitive attack. He intended to injure the beast so much it would retreat, he knew that due to the difference in mass, this wasn't the kind of opponent he could take on.
A pained screech reverberated through the forest, as birds flew off the trees as silence took over. Makhar managed to greatly damage the monster's head, one of his scythes lacerated three of its eyes, while the other blocked off one of the monster's drill-like arms. While the other sliced and injured two of Makhar's insectoid legs, rendering them useless.
Unexpectedly, two other strikes followed, heavily denting Makhar's exoskeleton, the monster's hindlegs could be very much used as a weapon even in this situation, as its main worm-like body was firmly coiled around the tree, and its "head" was actually free to move.
Pain inundated Makhar's senses, as even more blows started to accumulate, causing internal damage to the insectoid alien. Blinded by pain, Makhar made one last savage attempt, squeezing as hard as he could his right claw, then hearing bones creaking, and the rocky armor of the worm's head break, a good chunk of flesh was amputated from the trick worm's head. Red, hot blood, and yellow, pus-like fluids gorged out of the open wound, making the worm finally retreat, leaving Makhar a few seconds of rest.
'It's not looking good, I'm down two legs and I'm bleeding internally, if I have to die this way, I'll at least make it pay a hefty price.'
Determined to fight till death, as at this point running away would e a meaningless attempt, Makhar flattened his body once again against the tree, gripping as hard as a could, ready to strike back once again, one last time.
Seeing its prey unnerving, ready to fight once more, the worm started to question whether this hunt was beneficial to it at all. What seemed to be easy prey, due to the difference in their size, turned out to be a much more dangerous opponent. Especially because Makhar's exoskeleton was much harder than it looked, especially the sharp little teeth that adorned his scythe claws, the sliced and ripped through its rocky armor with too much ease.
It should have been better off chasing other herbivores like the fawn he just ate, they were easier prey that wouldn't compromise his body as much, if not at all.
But the blinding pain, and the partial cerebral damage the worm just took made it mad, seething with fury and even if it was a counterproductive hunt, it wanted revenge.
The worm trashed its head, in an attempt to keep increasing Makhar's internal wounds, if not even ripping through his exoskeleton. Makhar tried to resist as much as he could, cutting and intercepting whenever he could. One of his antennae was soon to be cut, black blood oozed out of the wound, he broke through the pain, soon enough to notice another vicious attack of the worm. It had utilized the real tail of its body to lash at Makhar while he was busy dealing with the head.
Yet young Makhar noticed it, as he endured a few hits to strike back the moment the squishy tail was about to hit him. Surely there was much mass and momentum after the tail, yet analyzing the biology of the worm, one was quick to notice that it was an ambush predator and was not made to fight in the open like this. It had come out of the ground only because it greatly underestimated Makhar's fighting prowess, and now it was about to dearly pay the consequences.
With extraordinary striking speed, Makhar's claws opened and snapped down with fury on the worm's tail, ripping it almost all off. Screeching in pain the worm fell down the tree, it had finally decided to retreat, this battle was definitely not worth continuing, or else it would be too injured for the next hunt, or it could even receive permanent injuries.
Yet, once again, it underestimated greatly Makhar's character. After all, he had done nothing to the worm, he made his best to hide himself and flee his hunting grounds, even if it was a mindless beast that only saw him as its next meal, it had to pay.
The moment young Makhar saw the worm hastily jerking itself off the tree, he jumped, holding to its body, and the moment they hit the ground he started slicing and ripping the worm's body. A disaster of flesh and bodily fluids gushed out from the part that was being attacked by Makhar, so much was his thirst.
Considering the worm's mass, Makhar, in the end, couldn't but watch him escape, digging underground to get away from the fight.
'If it decided to continue, the situation might have been deadly for me, I must become more careful, the trick worm must have had sensory glands like mine to perceive its victim from below the surface.
It must have been able to sense even my most subtle movements, or else there was no way for it to be able to find me.
I am now greatly injured and need to rest, yet before that I have earned myself some food to taste.'
Thus Makhar started to collect the various pieces of flesh he managed to rob the worm off, hiding inside a tree hole to get his first taste of victory.
[System notice: remarkable feat has been accomplished by the host!]
[Host has been rewarded with one system point!]
[Host has been given access to public media tier: Primitive]
A small stream of data invaded Makhar's consciousness, informing him of such gifts. Even if he did not know what either f them were.
[System points: Virtual currency of the Observer system, much less valuable than observer coins, can be exchanged with common knowledge throughout this galaxy.]
[Every being contracted by the observer system will gain access to the most basic tier of social media communication upon receiving their first system point. It is classified as a rapid and easy means to exchange information and socialize between sentient beings.
With each tier upgrade the range of its action will increase, together with their functions.
Primitive tier: It is limited to the Etesh continent, and enables host the usage of the written communication chat. Host cannot read messages of others of a higher tier if they do not wish it, even if they write in a chat host is a member of.
Private messaging is disabled, vocal messaging is disabled, and holographic communication is disabled.
Host has been given right to participate in three different social aggregations.
Host has been invited to the " Fight for Etesh unification " social group, accept?]
With all this information at hand, Makhar decided to postpone his answer for the time being, as first, he preferred to fill his belly.
The worm's flesh did not taste good at all, and with him being foreign to the concept of cooking, Makhar wolfed down everything, as a small tear fell down the grimaced face resting on his exoskeleton.
Having eaten his fill, Mahar rested on the hardwood, inside a tree hole, cramped, and tainted with the stench of flesh and dried blood, maybe it was best to change his hiding spot before going into torpor. Yet Makhar felt way too tired to think about anything else, hopefully when he'll woke up, his body will have healed up a little bit.
[Bio-encoder recombination progress:
Extraction affinity ratio: 2%
Extraction quality ratio: 15%
Extraction bio-mass quantity: 35% ]
Upon waking up, Makhar was happy to witness his progress, apparently eating prey was his current mean to progress and increase his power.
'Although the affinity rate was lacking, I guess my species does not have much in common with worms, yet the mass has definitely gotten up. Could it be because I've also eaten part of the trick worm's head, which should be its most dense and fundamental body part?
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Further episodes are needed to ascertain the ratio distribution.'
Soon after, followed Makhar's first real catch, the very fawn he stalked the day before. He had managed to get back on their tracks, although with much difficulty, since his missing antenna did not grow back, thus his senses had dulled, with only one antenna their radius was halved making it harder to stalk and spot prey.
Luckily his damaged legs had healed, as well as a good portion of his internal injuries, only bringing him relative pain while jumping from one tree branch to the other.
This time, Makhar tried another one of his abilities to catch the fawn, he waited till it strayed slightly from the group, and used his peculiar mimicking ability to recreate their mother's call. He managed to deceive the young fawn since he had memorized the differences between its mother's various calls.
As soon as it came into striking range, Makhar's claws snapped quickly, cutting and lacerating the young fawn's neck. The little teeth of his scyther claws were directed backward, not leaving the fawn any chance to escape. At this point, not that it had any in the first place.
Carrying its first catch, young Makhar speeded away from the hunting zone, fearing that any other predator would be attracted by the smell of blood. He had already experienced what could be hiding in these woods, and would not be surprised if anything worse could even appear.
He found the meat of the fawn to be much more edible than that of the trick worm, flavor-wise they were two worlds apart.
After much consideration, he chose to decline the invitation to Etesh social group. He was not yet ready to start contending with the other nineteen civilizations for reign over Gaia, because that was ultimately the objective of social groups. At least, he thought so.
To negotiate alliances, and enmities between the contending factions, and to exchange, sell and acquire common goods, weapons as well as information.
Makhar possessed none, nor was he pressed to, first he had to increase his personal power. Even as inexperienced as he was, he knew that without power he wouldn't go far. Perhaps, in a way, ol Mitch was trying to teach him a valuable lesson.
Unknown to the young Ancient, on the site where he fought against the trick worm.
"A fight has occurred here. One was a young exemplar of trick worm, this yellow putrid substance fills the innards of their tubelike body section. Its lack of experience led him to attack a thorny prey.
The collision ensued, till it fled here, on this borrow, injured. It should manage to survive. While this antennae here should belong to its alleged prey, insectoid type, this black dried blood is very unusual, if it even is blood in the first place.
It could be a new species spawned by the system or even a biological threat issued by the other continents. Between Umios and Usif I'd bet on the latter. Being the second biggest continent, I would imagine more powerful civilizations here.
I would still not exclude it from being the work of some weird sub-factions of our continent. Etesh might not be as big, but it still is a vast continent.
Rangers, keep patrolling this area, I'll immediately report to the chief. Do not engage in fights, for now, the threat is still unidentified."
From the five hooded figures, one darted away, galloping through the tree with inhuman speed and agility.
The four remaining started patrolling the area, carefully walking through the lush forest masked by the sounds of nature, their steps as quiet as possible.
From under their hoods, one could not discern facial features, yet they presented long blond hair and pointy ears, their skin pearly white. They dressed in long green capes that barely missed ground, brown leather boots, and an overall tall stature if confronted with the standard height of common bipedal humanoids.
Finally, they possessed longbows more than half their size, resting on their backs, together with a quiver full of arrows.
"The shadow warrior is being too cautious, this is our forest, our heaven. We must protect its integrity whatever the cost. One of the queen's young has been injured, if we do not act fast and find a culprit she will wreak havoc till the perpetrator is found.
We will draw their blood before the shadow comes back, what do you think."
A more feminine voice was soon to respond, masked by the sounds of the forest, reprimanding their colleague's choice.
"Gorwin, don't get over yourself, this decision is not yours to take. The shadow has given us an order, and we shall respect it. You were still a scout barely a week ago, now that you have been integrated among the Rangers corps, your duty comes first.
Move on, and keep patrolling."
Syvis, this wench, always bossing around, crushing Gorwin's pride. Every suggestion, and decision he proposed to the team was denied. As a prideful forest elf, he felt it hard to keep tolerating her.
To take care of their forest, to ward against evil forces they had to act, to show their might. Even as a mere sub-faction, even if they lost their right to compete for domination over Gaia, their chances were not completely gone. Gorwin would not let their name be sullied in such a way.
At a certain point, a while after they resumed their silent march, Gorwin dashed away, hiding among the tall trees. If his comrades were too scared to act, he had to take matters into his own hands.
"Gorwin, you moron, what's the point of having a blade if it does not strike when intended to?"
After finishing the young fawn, Makhar was relieved to receive a new stream of data from the system.
[Bio-encoder recombination progress:
Extraction affinity ratio: 2.5%
Extraction quality ratio: 17%
Extraction bio-mass quantity: 40% ]
[System warning, feeding the bio-encoder with the same ingredient will progressively diminish its extraction progress the host would normally receive.]
The fawn tasted definitely better, yet compared to the worm did not make Makhar's progress much better.
'It seems hunting weaker and easier targets won't make me progress much, I hoped that would have not been the case, but the system's hints are quite clear. I'll need to hunt bigger game.'
Till now Makhar tried to avoid any strong chemical signature, and anything that had a presence bigger than his, following the deers around, and occasionally observing other herbivores, marking them as prey.
He had to change his plans, although not so drastically, his collision with the trick worm was still fresh in his mind, as well as having one less antennae, he wanted to be cautious.
He decided to keep looking for smaller prey during the day, while during the night he would go out to find tougher creatures and plan to hunt one once he'd have analyzed it enough to access the system's description.
For the first two days, Makhar had yet to make a move on anything bigger than himself, having caught a rabbit and another fawn he did not make much progress.
[Bio-encoder recombination progress:
Extraction affinity ratio: 4%
Extraction quality ratio: 20%
Extraction bio-mass quantity: 45% ]
[Mirror snake: Description disabled, host's analysis and comprehension of the target is too low.]
'Again, what am I missing now... At least I'm sure of it not being such an easy target...'
Makhar had set his target to be a strange snake he encountered, it positioned itself as a bridge between two tree branches. Probably an ambush predator he thought, lying there motionless, it camouflaged itself perfectly within the foliage of the trees. If not for his peculiar senses, that went beyond simple sight, it would have been very hard for him to sight the creature. Maybe he would have become its next meal, as Makhar seldom touches the ground and is most of the time up on the trees.
Even so, he had difficulty hunting birds, as they would either sense the vibrations of him moving up the branches or directly see him during the day. He also tried to feed off smaller lifeforms like insects, but the amount of extraction progress they gave was negligible.
At this point, he decided to stay nearby and wait, to see the snake in action, if patient enough he would be able to witness it revealing its cards. Then he could make a plan to hunt it down.
Another day passed by, Makhar stayed still, unmove on a higher tree branch, observing the brown, intricated pattern of the snake's scales. The temptation to jump and ambush was starting to form in his mind, if the snake had yet to notice him till now, how could it expect a quick assault on his part?
Yet he know he could not be impulsive, his belly did not call for hunger, and there was not any need for him to risk it. Like so, another day passed, and finally, Makhar's patience seemed to bear its fruit.
"Uncle Ken, how much until we arrive at camp?"
"Rebecca, quite, and again, I don't know. We just need to keep traveling north. When we get to Tranard please behave, the men of Cherlì are a proud bunch, if they chose one of the weakest continents is because they are short-handed for this conquest.
They must have sent more people to another planet, Gaia is not the sole habitable planet of System-Bi0234."
"Yes, yes. Of course uncle Ken, I will behave don't worry. I will behave like a role model, so much even father would be proud of me!"
Mentioning her father, the little girl's eyes shined with newfound joy, which as of late tended to be scarce on the girl's face. Traveling brown bear forest had been harder than it initially appeared to be. After all, this one forest occupied about one-fourth of Etesh.
Rebecca was a small girl, about eight years old, she had long, black hair, and deep black eyes and gave innocent, playful vibes at first glance. She was wearing a long elegant, white tunic, unusually clean for someone traversing the forest.
The man she referred to as uncle Ken was tall, about 1.9 meters in height, his physique was muscular, and well trained while he sported military attire, with the classic black, brown, and green pattern.
On his left hand, he was holding a big machete, dented and dulled by the long journey, while on his right hand, he was holding a gun, a jet black pistol ready to fire when needed.
A backpack two-thirds his height rested on his shoulders, containing all types of necessities for the travel.
"Uncle, Rebecca is hungry! Please, would you give her some food?"
"We just ate two hours ago, and we must be careful with our rations on this side of the forest, I told you that. I cannot hunt on elven territory they would not permit that, soldier up little girl, you are not yet skin and ones."
"Uncle Ken please, don't you hear? My tummies' rumbling, I'm hungry!"
Not sure about her throwing a tantrum, or legitimately being hungry, Ken decided to give in and feed the little monster. As a proud marine of the IHU, he could endure hunger much better than a child, still, he couldn't debilitate himself too much, else he would spell doom for the little girl as well.
The duo started getting up a tree, taking up a spot on the thickest tree branch. Then, Ken took out a black metallic wok from his backpack, as well as a few ingredients, rice, various spices, and the tail of what had to be a reptile, either a kind of snake or lizard, Young Makhar couldn't tell.
The man then started chopping up the meat, before throwing everything onto the pan. Not a particularly thought dish, but it had to do, it would be tasty enough.
The wok must have had something strange to it, as it heated up without a fire, as the food contained started to vigorously sizzle, Makhar started to doubt his own culinary habits,
'I'm clearly doing it all wrong.'
"Yummy! Thank you, uncle Ken, but you could have taken some for yourself!"
"Little devil eat now, we don't have much time left till the first event begins, we can't be late or we won't hear the end once we meet with the men of Cherlì."
"But uncle why must we even go there if you hate them so much, can't we directly join the 'New Arrivals'? "
"It's not that I hate them, I just dislike them. They have very weird, backward customs. We aborted chivalry a long time ago, to survive, while they made it their strong anchor, especially on the field we often disagree. But that's not something a little kid should worry about."
He then got up, ruffled little Rebecca's hair, and took a peak below, alert for any danger.
"But uncle, why did we get up here to eat?"
"This area is not safe for those that walk on the ground, ready yourself, we'll do a good amount of climbing for a while."
How tiresome, to proceed from tree to tree like this felt like an unnecessary bother for Rebecca, but if uncle Ken said so there had to be a reason. Luckily her dress had self-cleaning properties, a gift from her dad she wished to wear forever, yet she was bound to grow taller, out of this tunic. It made her sad, hopefully, he will gift her a new one when they'll see each other again.
"Wow! Uncle Ken did you see how pretty this branch is? What beautiful colors it has!"
Yet she soon regretted saying these words, as uncle Ken's expression froze, terrified, he lost his composure for a second.
'Crazy! This thing's mimetism is absurd, how can its scales mimic the tree bark to this level!'
What impressed the man even more, however, was the snake's level of patience and calculative behavior. It had been laying motionless till now, waiting for him to either drop his guard or start passing onto the next tree. Its strength was also incredible, as it supported his weight without moving an inch.
"Rebecca, keep eating, slowly start moving toward the tree trunk, once you get there, climb on the other side of the tree and hide on a tree branch."
"But uncle, what about you? What will you do?"
"Uncle has some work to do remember? It's not the first time this happened, trust uncle, uncle is a professional he knows what to do."
If there was something she earned during this trip was that her uncle was a dependable person in this kind of situation, her father assigned him as her escort for this very reason.
Rebecca slowly took backward steps, while wolfing down what still remained on her wooden bowl.
Once gotten to safety she had on a nearby branch, hoping uncle Ken would end up on top of this as he always did.
Two loud bangs echoed throughout the forest, as Ken filled up with lead the head of the mirror snake. Hissing with rage, the injured head was still going, trying to retaliate against the marine, yet the man was ready, before shooting he had readied himself, the instant he pulled the trigger, he had already performed an inhuman jump, tightly holding onto the tree trunk.
The huge snake retaliated going for a bite at Ken's torso, leaving behind a trail of blood, Ken was flabbergasted at the snake's vitality, how could it still be alive?
Once again, with reflexes and strength that went beyond what was humanly possible, Ken tightly grabbed the snake, putting it on a strong hold at the base of its neck. Then, with his machete he tightly squeezed the blade inside their neck, one could notice the blade getting red hot, as Ken suddenly twisted it, detaching the snake's head completely.
Yet, as he breathed a sigh of relief, pain assaulted his right leg, looking down, he noticed the head of the snake, biting him. At the same time, a girly squeak of pure terror echoed from the other side of the large tree trunk. It was Rebecca.
Confused, Ken looked down, to confirm his suspicions.
'I knew it, what a bizarre creature. It was such a bad idea to come here in the first place. However, on such a remote planet, so young they barely stated its conquest, she'd be much safer than inside the IHU. For how much I respect the coalition, I admit the fight for the highest ranks is truly fearsome.
It would have been hell for the little lady. Perhaps it is better to die free than live in fear.
Cough! Cough!
What am I thinking, the men of Cherlì usually say such things. It is but a pity for her to die so young, such a bright little girl.'
As his body started numbing, Ken felt the snake's venom penetrating his muscles and internal tissues, eventually, they would reach his organs paralyzing him for good.
It probably would not manage to kill him, as his energy core was of the first tier, and would slowly neutralize the poison. Maybe given a few hours he would manage to move at least a couple of limbs. Yet by that time, he would already be inside the belly of the snake.
"Hey, there big guy mind not giving up on us yet?"
Dominus Mark's mocking tone surprised the resigned marine. As a weird jet-black insect appeared just above him. Its hideous front scythe claws were drenched in blood, hot red liquid dripping from them trickled on his forehead.
Much to the strange repulsion he innately carried over the bug, Ken felt soon overjoyed.
"Hold on right uncle Ken! Little bug is here to help us!"
Makhar did not like this loud little pest, not even a couple of minutes had passed since they met and he already regretted saving her. In a sense, he felt kind of obliged to the duo, since they posed as bait for him to discover the snake's hidden cards. Yet he felt also compelled to eat both of them after killing the snake.
He saw the strange properties the human Ken demonstrated, eating him would make his progress to the next level skyrocket.
However, the snake was not yet dead and he was unsure to come on top of this fight on his own. He preferred not to risk it. Even if the marine was downed, he saw that dangerous weapon of his in action, perhaps the youngling would be able to use it in its stead.
Unluckily, due to his biology, Makhar would not be able to even hold the gun, much less properly aim at a moving target.
From high above the scene, Makhar discovered how insidious this snake was. In truth, it had four heads, and its body was X shaped, while only one head was camouflaging as a tree branch, the other tree where hidden even better, flattened under other branches.
After Ken attacked, one of the other heads went straight for the girl, yet unaware of Makhar's presence it became an easy target. With striking precision, Makhar's claws cut deep into the snake's neck, twisting and lashing, Makhar lacerated into a pulp this snake's head. Yet he was quick to retreat, taking the girl away and putting her to safety.
"Would you mind giving me a hand? This thing is anything but dead, that weapon of yours, lend it to the girl, I would not mind a hand, take a look o your left."
Seeing another pair of heads approaching them, Ken decided the disgusting bug up there had a reason to speak after all.