Holding a gun had never felt stranger to Rebecca than it did in such a perilous situation. The friendly, talking bug that rescued her suggested they as a duo to kill the wicked serpent that wounded uncle Ken.
She had never seen him in such bad condition, the man's leg had turned to a lesser shade of purple, inflated and swollen by his body's defense mechanism. Yet the venom seemed to truly be something out of this world, as the valiant marine had been rendered completely paralyzed. Barely a minute had passed and he could barely talk.
A couple more loud bangs echoed through the forest, as Rebecca missed one shot and barely grazed one of the snake's heads with the other. She currently wasn't being of much help, even if she did take shooting lessons thanks to her father's status in the IHU, to believe the little girl an optimal shooter would be plain stupidity.
'What could I even hope for a human cub like her to be of help in this ordeal. Hell, being a youngling myself I expected more of her, and I was wrong, very much so.'
Young Makhar in the middle of the mirror snake's terrifying assault kept thinking about his past actions. He should have left the girl alone, she would have definitely died, but with the soldier, their chance of success would have been a lot higher.
Fortunately enough, Makhar seemed to be partially immune to the serpent's most dreaded weapon, its venom. Else, by now he would already have entered its digestive system.
The snake's teeth were extremely sharp as well as though as steel, as they punctured Makhar's shell multiple times, dark blood oozed out of his wounds as well as small cracks started to appear due to the violent's snake hits.
Still holding on, hoping for the snake to leave an opening for him to take advantage of and strike back, Makhar stared at little Rebecca in disbelief. Even with his eyes, being on the top of his shell, she would not have noticed.
It has been a while since she stopped shooting, yet Makhar had not noticed till now, as his mind was elsewhere for obvious reasons. The little girl had sneaked down from the higher tree branch she had been dropped, to one much closer to the fight. Then she had located the point at where the various snake heads come together, which was probably if not as vital, very sensitive for the snake. Being also a much bigger target than the heads, it permitted the small girl to unload the pistol's mag without worry.
Hissing through fury and pain the snake's head writhed back in agony, and as he was waiting for the right opportunity to strike, young Makhar lunged forward with renowned vigor. The feeling of his sharp claws brutally penetrating the snake's flesh greatly elated him, yet, even so, its scales appeared to be remarkably tough even for a direct hit such as this.
Thankfully, the snake was still partially numbed by pain, and Makhar's relentless trashing damaged the head in question enough for it to stop moving.
Yet such a wild creature was most dangerous when cornered, and Makhar was about to learn this lesson the hard way. In a desperate attempt to salvage the situation, or at least make Makhar pay for his intrusion, the last snake's head lunged forward with striking rapidity coiling around Makhar.
Surprised by the serpent's tenacity, Makhar had time only to absorb back the humanoid face inside his shell before finding himself strangled by the sake's deadly coil.
With much savagery, the snake then bit onto Makhar's left claw, before tearing it off completely. The creature just demonstrated an incomprehensible burst of strength, greatly surprising Makhar who just went close to blacking out due to pain. Black, viscous blood gouged out of the amputated limb, making Makhar realize how weak, and frail his body condition was.
'H-How weak am I, how could I dream of putting the entire galaxy on their knees, to rebirth my kin from their ashes while I can't even subjugate a lowly lizard... No, I cannot give up, the burden resting on my shoulder is not so light for me to forfeit my life like this.'
Trying to shrug off this feeling of helplessness, Makhar tried to think hard of a possible solution, yet he was completely immobilized, not only by the snake's hold but also because of all the poison it had managed to inject into his bloodstream. Even given his natural resistance, due to the high dosage, it now influenced Makhar's body to a greater degree.
"Hold on little bug! We are here to help!"
Rebecca's muffled scream entered Makhar's reception. The little girl had given his best to help uncle Ken's crawling toward the snake which was, at this point, too worried about digesting Makhar's body that was now about halfway through its maw.
Ken's big arms quickly intercepted the snake's attempt to eat their savior alive, getting it in a firm chokehold.
"I've got him tight! Don't worry about my stamina and take your time, try to get out of it somehow. We are out of bullets and I can't execute any complex movement, sadly my legs stopped responding a while ago."
Little by little, Makhar returned to his senses, incessant, continuous munching and tearing of flesh could be heard, as fueled by wicked rage Makhar beat the avid snake at its own game, he was eating it alive.
Thankfully the strong marine was not lying, even with the snake's desperate wriggling he did not let go of the damned creature. Such perseverance was truly commendable, of course, Makhar's own perseverance was short of absurd, yet he was doing it to save his skin, while the marine simply wanted to repay him the favor.
Ken could simply let the snake go, so what if it devoured Makhar, o the verge of dying, it would definitely not seek to continue a desperate with Ken and Rebecca.
Soon after Makhar got out of the snake's body, all bloodied and battered, the trio decided to delay any further conversation till they recovered some of their strength.
...
"So, you are conceding me three out of four of the snake's heads? Seems very generous of you. What's the catch?"
"Makhar right? I see you are very straightforward, yes I'd like something out of you in exchange for conceding you a bigger bounty. Even if I hoped for it to come out of you much more spontaneously, I have no problem skipping a few steps.
I am a member of the IHU Spacer military division, Marine Ken Rugs, and I was tasked to escort Rebecca to our embassy situated in Cherlì's war camp due to political reasons.
Bus as you can see I am quite incapacitated and will have a much harder time keeping on with my mission. Now that I've rested and recuperated to a certain degree, I can feel it, or rather I can't. The leg that has been bitten, I'm not feeling its knee or anything further down.
Stay with us, till we get to the forest border, we would probably still have about two weeks' worth of quick march. Think about it, it would be quite beneficial to you as well, even if impaired I can still hold my own in a fight, especially if I am not the one ambushed but the assailant."
"Your leg. And I keep the gun."
Makhar's concise and firm sentence made Ken slightly flinch, making him ignore its now robotic, extraterrestrial tone.
"S-Sorry? You want my leg?"
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Yes, your leg, you're gonna chop it off and feed it to me. During our travels, I will keep the gun wrapped around my shell as well as provide for your nutrition."
"..."
At a loss for words, Ken did not know how to respond to the insect's demands, in the heat of battle he didn't notice Makhar's eloquence and did not realize how sentient the creature really was.
'Change of plans, the bug is both smart and greedy...'
"Your leg, uncle Ken, if you need any help just ask. Also if you need a painkiller or any of the meds Father got for me feel free to take them."
"Thank you, little princess, but don't worry I won't feel much pain. I am afraid this leg is already gone for good."
'Fortunately, I wasn't dub enough to wait for your permission to take those meds. Why do you think the poison stopped spreading and I'm not yet become a vegetable?'
The process did not take much longer, as Ken executed the procedure without batting an eye, heating his machete with psychic powers he sliced where his purple, black flesh started mixing with some shades of pink.
Huffing and puffing, with ragged breath he threw the amputated leg toward Makhar's scythe claw, which caught it with a rapid snap.
"Take it. I hope you'll respect our promise. But even so, hope is not enough to keep on living in this world, I want you to make a contract with me through the system, then I will pass the gun on to you."
"Fine with me."
...
[Bio-encoder recombination progress:
Extraction affinity ratio: 25%
Extraction quality ratio: 40%
Extraction bio-mass quantity: 75% ]
'Substantial progress has been made, between the mirror snake and the man's leg, I've gotten quite the bounty. Especially his leg increased the affinity ratio much more than the snake's meat, there was also a special kind of flavor on it that I did not find in any of my other prays.
I'm guessing it could have something to do with his strange powers that seem to go beyond the simple laws of nature. Yet my knowledge is very limited, as I'm relying on my brief life experience and the data I absorbed from the eggshell before hatching.
For once, even that database was too small, and even so I don't know how much of that information is either true or vastly outdated, since, apparently, a lot of time passed since my egg was laid.'
[System notification, an award has been granted to host.
First 'enemy' class combatant defeated.
Open system gift?]
'I accept, open it.'
[Relic 'Broken doll' has been awarded to host.
Description: A headless, small marble figure of the long-forgotten lady of fate. Wrapped in a long tunic, one hand's holding a sword, while the other's a heart.
Once corrupted by the dark taint of the abyss, it has now been cleansed by the relentless passage of time, its energy signature almost lost, so long since its last owner was separated from it. Teodoro, son of Soma wanted to forget, and so he left it alone, as he did not need his memories to cloud his mind anymore.
'I killed them all, I ended their lives, and now only silence reigns over Terron, not a single soul is left. Only dread and pain are left, as I sit on the flesh and blood of my kin.
My valor, you served well, but I do not need you anymore, as only madness is left in me by now. As only madness will let me prevail, to slay the one I dread most, once and for all.'
This statuette is now almost powerless, utterly broken, it has now become a completely new artifact, of much lower strength and power.
Usage description: Bonding the relic to host's ??? will allow for host to sap into its powers.
Active skill 'Sound disturbance': A psychic interference will attack the designated target's mind, creating a disturbing echoing sound through their mind.
Passive skill 'Formless shield': While held by the host, it will generate a very weak shield protecting the user from malevolent psychic attacks targeting the mind.
Gifted to Makhar, the last of his kind, for his first hunt, by the observer system. This is a 'Relic' class artifact, as such is capable of upgrading itself along with its user. How and when it'll happen, depends on the user's personal experience and ??? strength.]
'Interesting, a gift worthy of my important self, so far I like this 'observer' a lot. Keep gifting me such presents and we will get along well!'
This new, unexpected bounty brought joy to Makhar, as he realized that fighting with the snake had been a very dangerous gamble and had almost lost his life. Since their departure from the site of battle about a day ago, Makhar kept thinking, weighing the pros and cons of his actions.
Not even a week had passed and his body was already missing one antenna and a claw. Till now, he did not suffer any devious injury to his vital organs thanks to his sturdy shell, but if he kept it up it'd be just a matter of time. He needed to learn to evaluate better the strength of his enemies. Yet, it was not going to be an easy thing, after all, he lacked the very root of the problem, experience. At least, he now got some thanks to his last few deadly battles.
He knew he would have to take such risks if he wanted to fulfill his ambition in any way. Power was not something he would get through a passive approach, at least not the kind of power he needed.
Proof of it has been his ordeal, his efforts had not been for naught. He had made quick progress on his reactor encoding as well as gained his first artifact. Sure it didn't look like much, but the system said he bestowed it for his first hunt, would it do the same for the second, the third, and so on?
Also, he found it strange that the system called it his first hunt. The trick worm didn't count, as he did not manage to kill it, but then he had killed a few more rabbits, deer, and small animals before and now after killing the snake, but the system did not give him anything.
Were all these prey not worthy of such achievement? They sure were beneath him, and now that he studied their general behavior he could hunt them much more efficiently. Sadly, the amount of progress they gave him was basically none existent.
Further speculation on this was required, as this 'system' appeared to be much more crucial to Makhar's progress than he initially thought.
...
A few more days passed, and Makhar started to get a hold of his two new companions of sorts. He did not talk much with the duo, yet he was all ears for their conversations.
The blonde, tall marine, did not like him since the time Makhar saved his skin. He would have rather liked the man's body to have entered his digestive system, yet it has been a good decision to keep him alive, as in the end he would have perished if not for his help. The man also needed Makhar's help in completing his mission, as he was now injured.
The man could still keep up with them even without one of his legs, as his vigor could not be underestimated. Makhar estimated that with a surprise attack, he could tip the scales of a fight between the two of them on his side, yet due to him losing a claw, in a fair fight he would probably lose. Still, Makhar has been on alert since their departure and would definitely be able to escape a fight with the man, crawling up on the tress would make it hard for the limp to follow.
Also, their system contract stated they could not hurt each other till the men of Cherlì were to be sighted. Makhar did not know if the man could go around with words and dirty the contract, or what kind of punishment the system would bestow upon transgressors.
For all he knew, he did not trust both the soldier and the system enough to keep his guard down.
Alas, their animosity was reciprocal. Even without such blatant signals, he would not have trusted the man. Makhar did not forget about the 'cursed' attribute his kin had been afflicted with since ancient times.
The little girl, on the other hand, had much more to her than he initially thought. She often looked at him with her big, deep black eyes filled with curiosity, Rebecca had never met such a talkative big bug before, Makhar was so unique that she couldn't avoid stealing some glances here and there.
But Makhar saw much more than, bare, innocent curiosity. The girl emanated malice and wit he did not expect and yet liked, very much so. To whom was it directed? To him of course, and yet not only him.
...
Time passed by, roughly another three to four days, as they ventured deeper inside the forest. During this time, Makhar learned something of extreme value and importance, cooking. Sadly, due to his anatomic limitation, the culinary arts were off the charts for him, yet. He could not give up such a prospect and only hope that his future metamorphosis will gift him the much-required limbs.
Still, he often observed the marine crudely cooking the game he hunted through his wok, using some wild ingredients he found along the way as side dishes to accompany the meat, not much concerned about the flavor combinations at all.
The man was not a chef, yet the food he cooked could not taste as basic as eating everything raw. Also, the man warned him about the possible attack of 'parasites', would he still insist on eating everything as he found it. For, once, he decided to trust the man, as cooking his food had no downsides to it.
Makhar had also tried to explore the system a little bit more, needless to say, but he initially did not make much progress. Only the day before, as he was starting to get impatient, he managed to pull two more holographic panels out of it.
[Panel of conquest: Statistics regarding host's current achievements towards his conquest of planet 'Gaia'. Certain goals will manage host rewards based on their difficulty to achieve.]
[Conquest ranking: 20th place ]
[Conquest fame: 0 points]
[Conquest honor: 225 points]
[Truces in place: None]
[War prisoners: None]
[Regions held: None]
[Portal fragments possessed: None]
[Ship fragments obtained: None]
[More conquest objectives are currently sealed, Host's ladder ranking is too low.]
Quite the grim reality that was, he was weak. Yet he already knew that he was sure of it without the need of the system to remind him so, seeing this panel did not make Makhar sad or worried one bit, instead, it posed the exact opposite effect.
'Watch me from up there, you darn bastard, because one day I will climb that ladder and come take you too.'