Chapter 63: Flustered And Critical
Chapter 63: Flustered And Critical
‘Looks like Roka was right about leaving it here…’ The Paru thought to himself while peeking from the edge of the forest. ‘The corpse is starting to pester… The smell reaches the Graniliths and Wizzos… And they come running. Ugh… It’s such a waste though! Leaving…’
While he stood on the edge of the forest, what lay on the other side of the area of barren land was,
The body of a dead Alpha of the Wizzos! Well, I’ve already eaten one. Because of how big they are, there really isn’t anything I could get from it.’
The Paru turned away.
‘There’s enough meat for all of them. The Graniliths and Wizzos aren’t even fighting, since the corpse is on neither of their turfs. Unlike me, they only need to eat enough to be satisfied. It’ll take days for Alpha’s whole body to be eaten. All things considered, this is pretty good. It’ll keep them busy for a while.’
Step- Step-
‘Might as well eat a bunch of the creatures that I find around. Even if they’re very small…’
…
“What’s up with you?” Raya asked, suspicious.“N-Nothing. We should check the weapons and-”
“No, no.” She interrupted with a smile. “Something is definitely up, Liz.”
Liz remained silent for a moment.
“Of course, something is up! We lost the Tsero Crystal! The whole mission is fucked now!”
“Mmm…” Raya stared, her eyes filled with doubt. “Seems to me like you’re more flustered than angry.”
“F-F-Flustered? Why would I be?”
“I don’t know.” Raya shrugged before standing up.
She walked around the area, deep in thought.
‘The Tsero Crystal… Should I ask him if he’s eaten it? It doesn’t really matter though. We have to get a new one either way. If I tell the others about that possibility, they will never agree to use him. We can’t make it without using him though… What’s even more annoying is…’ Raya’s gaze scanned the area, studying every one of her crewmates. ‘How easily we accepted the Tsero Crystal disappearing. It won’t take long before everyone starts doubting the Paru. I’ve told Roka about the Paru’s ability to change by intaking things so… Still, it’s not like he exhibited any ability that can be linked to the Tsero Crystal’s, or to the fucking monsters living on that planet.’
Raya suddenly felt a shiver go down her back.
‘The Visero… Ferocious creatures able to discharge bolts of electricity. They’re used a lot in movies, so they’re quite well-known. Of course, a real Visero isn’t used on-set. They’re rare… Because of how tough it is to capture one, or even defeat one. Plasma guns don’t work well against them. Neither do bullets. Even the Paru would have trouble against them. Still, if the Paru manages to… If we manage to capture one…’ Raya’s heart started beating faster, as she could already imagine a specimen lying on a table inside her lab. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves! The truth is… We might have to do it the same way we did before. We split into groups, and ran towards the Tsero Crystal. Only one group survived, while the others were used as decoys. Of course, each group had the same probability of survival so… We just got lucky.’
Raya’s index finger tapped her cheek repeatedly as she held her chin.
‘Using him as decoy… We need to be ruthless, if we want to attain our objective… Once more… Just like we were then…’
Sigh-
‘But getting him is a breath of fresh air. Even with the Tsero Crystal on board, we doubted our ability to accomplish our mission. Upon leaving with it, fuel was necessary, so we had landed here… Onto the Planet where those invisible creatures are. Incredibly interesting. I would’ve liked to bring one to study, but the corpses-‘
Raya’s eyes narrowed.
‘He can understand us… Differently than how a pet understands. It’s not rare for alien species to be able to communicate and talk… But he’s able to understand our language.’ She scratched her head, annoyed by the situation. ‘Could he have eaten the corpses… Of our…? Those who died to the creatures capable of turning invisible? Is that how he…?’
She let out a long sigh.
‘Accessing brain information is a bit much for a Species’ natural ability. It’s unlikely. Still freaky though.’
Raya massaged her face in an attempt to focus her thoughts.
‘With how little commotion we made to losing the Tsero Crystal… It’s almost like we didn’t expect to succeed. I suppose that’s not entirely false.’
Raya headed into the spaceship to find Rea, the Navigator.
“How is it going?”
“Good. We’re stocking up fuel at a decent rate.” Rea answered before laying her elbow on the edge of the command board, and resting her chin in her palm. “We’ll need to discuss what we’re doing though. Depending on what the plan is, we could leave in a dozen hours.”
“A dozen hours of fuel and we’ll be good to go back there, huh?”
“That’s right. It’ll be enough fuel for going there, and back here.”
“Then we’ll get more fuel here, and finally go home…”
“Yep. We’ll need to make a stop along the way, but that’s not as much of a problem.”
“Right. A civilized place where we can buy fuel instead… Do we even have enough funds for it?”
“These parts are wild and uncivilized. We barely used any money on our mission.”
“So we’re basically done.” Raya muttered.
“Yeah… Except for the huge setback of LOSING THE OBJECT OF OUR MISSION??”
“Mm… That…”
Raya exited the spaceship a couple of minutes later.
‘I wonder what Roka will decide. There’s no way she’ll say we should go back home without anything to show for it, right? It’ll probably-‘
The sound of leaves being moved resonated, and the crewmates reached for their weapons.
‘We need to be ruthless. To use him as much as we can. But…’
They sighed once they realized that it was the Paru.
‘What’s up with that?’ He asked himself, as he noticed that there were, now, two of the Worka who wouldn’t even look in his direction.
‘I’m having so much trouble looking away from his dick!’
As well as a third one who was trying to do the same as the other two.