CHAPTER 65: PINCER BEAST

This certainly wasn’t the first time Julian was facing something as weird as this. In fact, this wasn’t so weird.

The weirdest thing he had to face was the steel monsters. If he could survive that, he was surely surviving a wolf crab.

Xea had just told him his armor had the right call to everything. Like when he had needed not to be able to smell so as to pick up chips from the corpse, the armor had come along, and it did so very much.

The wolf crab growled and stared intently and stared at him like he was some prey.

So now, the wolf crab became the predator, and Julian, staring, surprised, was the prey.

Julian almost laughed. Perhaps the wolf crab was too daft to reason, as was the case with all animals he knew.

Julian stared at the wolf crab again.

Ok, his plan was very simple. He would wait for the creature to attack, and when it did so, he would simply strike.

Booya!

Julian stood akimbo for a second there and then realized he had to be serious here. And so, he stood, hand stretched to the sides, staring at the predator.

The wolf crab moved in circle, and Julian watched, not for once scared. To him, he had passed this level. This level of being afraid with something as this.

"See what I’m seeing?" he asked Xea.

’[You bet]’ came the reply.

"Mind helping me doing a quick scan so I know what I’m up against?"

’[A sec]’ Xea said.

Julian waited, his eyes not going away from the wolf crab.

He didn’t know why the wolf crab wasn’t coming to attack him.

Perhaps because when it first attacked, he dodged. Julian was hearing none of that. This wolf crab wasn’t ordinary. There was something wrong with it.

And you see, it had been earlier stupid, you know. Why make a growl before attacking? Julian found it dumb.

And he didn’t know if it was the nature of this creatures. From the movies he watched back at Zyros, anytime an animal was about to attack a stranger who didn’t know what was about to hit him, it growled.

That..., that..., was simply it. Same with the books he had been reading back at Zyros too. It was usually something like:

The monster growled and then jumped at...

Julian was almost laughing as he stared at this monster.

Xea was still scanning, someone that had said:

A sec

Was now taking ages to scan the damn beast.

That was why Julian wouldn’t believe in anything ’A sec,’ because it just wasn’t possible. There’s simply nothing like a sec.

You can never be done in one second!

It was impossible.

Julian must have been acting silly and thinking unnecessary things, and he too knew. It was perhaps the result of too much wine sipping. Not that it made him dizzy or anything.

Finally, Xea came over:

’[It’s a Pincer beast. A sec, lemme get you its profile]’

"The fuck is a sec?" Julian said. "Give me now. You never know when this thing might sprout at us again."

’[Sorry, seems I’ve been slow. This is it:]’ Xea said, and then, Julian could see the words clouding his retina, doing so, he could no longer see the wolf crab. But the wolf crab must be thinking it was staring at it.

[Threat Profile:]

[Name of beast: Pincer beast]

[Abilities: Can jump like crazy, can use its claws like crazy to pinch, and can bite like crazy]

’Damn!’

[Will it be hard to defeat: Of course it will because this is an animal that is never gives up]

’Never gives up?’

[Pincers are also very poisonous and can melts hard stuffs, and that includes your armor]

Julian opened his eyes very wide.

"The fuck is this animal?" he muttered.

Staring at it at this point was really daunting.

He had just solo defeated a mass of army soldiers, a very strong commander, and lots more. Wasn’t he supposed to be strong? Why would fighting this small creature be a problem?

Julian voiced his problem to Xea while the animal moved in circle at around him, not even stopping for one, and Julian wasn’t about to take his eyes off the animal. He would sure look at it very well.

He was a bit tensed.

’[Well, you had fought that war in the day]’ Xea replied him. ’[Against this animal, it’s in the night, and that gives you quite a disadvantage]’

"What of my night vision stuff?" Julian asked. He had been speaking in whispers this whole time, doing so the pincer beast (if it was wise, that is) wouldn’t hear what he was saying.

The beast was gritting his teeth, staring at Julian right in the eyes, ready to come at him at any given moment.

"Any advise?" Julian asked Xea one last time before he took the next step of facing this beast.

’[Well]’ Xea said. ’[Just be very fast and try, as much as possible, to avoid its pincers. For it to stop for long like this and stare at you, it means it fears you a bit. This isn’t a battle of being strong or a god. This pincer beast can kill a god-like being considering its venom]’

Julian inhaled and exhaled, staring at the beast.

The creature had paused, and it was staring at Julian with precision.

Julian was ready to dive to the right or left at any given time. He was about to throw a punch to the monster’s jaw. He was about to..., he was about to save himself.

He spat on the floor and steeped on it, twisting his neck sideways a bit. His aim for spitting was to trigger the beast to come at him, and it kind of worked because just as he spat and was steeping on it and twisting his neck sideways, the monster came at him.

Julian froze.

He wanted to jump to the right, dive to the left, do backflip, somersault.

But then...

Boom!

The Pincer beast fell to the ground. Julian was surprised. He looked at the dead creature and then around.

It had been shoot because blood was gushing from its mid section. But then, it wasn’t dead. It was trying to get up.

Julian wouldn’t let that happen.

He quickly summoned the costral blade and without hesitating, split the creature in half.

Whrshhhtsh!

The inwards sprawled open.

Julian was..., disgusted. The whole time he had been killing beasts and enemies, this was the first time he was being disgusted.

The inwards looked simply disgusting. Venomous black thick liquid stuff.

Julian made sure it was fully dead by slicing off the pincers and then the neck and then, everything! He wasn’t taking chances.

He looked up ahead.

Standing afar was Matt. He was the one that shot the beast.

---

Matt stepped over the crab-wolf’s split remains and gave it one last glare. "What the hell even is this thing?"

Julian didn’t answer immediately. He kept staring at the corpse like it owed him something.

They walked inside the building, footsteps echoing against cracked metal floors. Inside, the other guys—Zyan and the one Julian still couldn’t remember the name of—were lounging, half-awake, half-bored.

Matt flopped into a seat. "Yo. We just fought a crab-wolf mutant freak outside."

Zyan blinked. "You’re joking."

Julian came in behind, wiping black gunk off his armor. "Wish he was. He didn’t actually fight the stuff, he just shot a bullet."

Zatt raised a brow. "Seriously? What kind of animal has pincers and fangs?"

Julian slumped into the seat beside them and stretched his legs out. "No animal I’ve seen here."

There was a moment of silence. Rayn sat up straighter. "Wait. Are you saying it’s not from this planet?"

Julian tilted his head. "Well, you guys tell me. You’re know this planet than I do. Have you seen something like that before?"

Matt, Ryan and Zakk nodded in the affirmative. "Not at all."

Julian shrugged, he knew it wasn’t from this planet since Xea had told him so. "I did a little scan, and all I’m saying is, I’ve seen a lot of things, guns, soldiers, monsters, but that thing? That thing’s not normal. And it for sure doesn’t belong here."

"So... what then?" Zatt asked. "Someone experimenting? Making new breeds?"

Rayn scoffed. "What, like monster breeding in a basement? Who the hell would—"

"You’d be surprised," Julian cut in. "Wars do things to people. Maybe it’s a leftover experiment. Maybe it escaped from somewhere. Or maybe..." He looked at the ground. "Maybe something else is here. Something we haven’t met yet."

They all went quiet.

Matt scratched the back of his head. "Damn."

Julian sighed. "Welcome to my life."

Zakk folded his arms. "What do we do then?"

Julian stood. "Nothing tonight. We get some rest. But tomorrow..." His eyes narrowed. "We investigate. Something brought that beast here. And if there’s one, there might be more."

Matt glanced toward the door. "Rehul’s already asleep. Should we wake her?"

Julian shook his head. "No. Let her rest. She’s had enough for one day."

Ryan nodded. "We all have."

"Yeah," Julian muttered, sitting back down. "But the day’s not done with us yet."