CHAPTER 48: THE KILL

Kael watched in awe, impressed with what Tatehan had done, but before he could make a move, the mauler, who they thought had been completely dead, let out one final sound, an ear-splitting shriek.

Tatehan only heard the beginning because before the rest entered his eardrums, his armor (the helmet this time) absorbed the sound and stored it as energy waiting to be released anytime Tatehan was ready.

Kael had to use both of his hands to cover his ears so that the sound wouldn’t damage his eardrums severely.

The beast... the monster of a beast was now finally dead.

If Tatehan didn’t know what the creature was, he would have assumed it was a cry for help. It wasn’t. It could never be. Not when the monster was a solo hunter, a predator who had no friends, the reason being it had eaten those so-called friends, so no one would be coming to its rescue.

The ones that might even hear would be very scared of coming to investigate the sound.

Not that there were many creatures living in this region in the first place. So he was doubtful most heard.

Now he looked at the bio-neural core. He had been sure not to damage it. He had even been cautious with his aim, targeting only the brain, not a sliver of his sword touching any other place.

Now he slowly aimed for the core. It was time to take it, bid goodbye to Kael, and then go back to the spaceship. He so much missed that place. Over the one week that he had lived in the cave with Kael, he had only gotten to eat just meat and drink water, nothing else.

The meats were bulky, though. He didn’t know what type of creatures they were, by the way. He had never followed Kael to hunt before—he just didn’t want to do so (he was recovering too, so...).

He couldn’t wait to take this core and go back to the Spaceship where he would eat something different: bread and jam, maybe a plate of rice with some really good stew, a bowl of soup...

He could feel his mouth watering already.

He couldn’t wait to explore Mars too, meet with other humans, Kael had once mentioned a clan.

But as he reached to take the core, he felt another hand grip his tightly. He could feel that hand. It was just Kael, maybe he wanted to congratulate him or something.

"Wait, kid," Kael said. The voice was rough and sharp, like when they first met. But that wasn’t what surprised Tatehan. What did was how stern and unfriendly it sounded.

Tatehan had taken Kael for a friend, but hearing the way the voice sounded made him confused. What was going on...

Tatehan paused just as Kael asked. He did wait from taking up the core, not that he had any choice. Kael’s grip on his hand was very tight. So tight Tatehan was yet again surprised. How strong was Kael?

"What...," Tatehan asked like he would to a brother.

"You’ve done your part," Kael said, his voice now carrying a hint of maliciousness. "Now I do mine."

Tatehan was finding this hard to understand. What was wrong with Kael? Why the sudden change of demeanor? Why was he now like an enemy, speaking in what felt like a parable?

"What is this?" Tatehan finally asked. "What are you doing? Why are you holding me this tightly?"

Kael still held Tatehan’s hand regardless of his words, the latter now standing upright.

Tatehan’s brain processed the scene as fast as it could, trying to understand what was happening. Finding a possible reason but finding nothing. Why nothing? Was that how good and honest Tatehan was?

It was clearly obvious at this point.

Tatehan looked at Kael’s face and he quickly understood. The face wasn’t what gave it away. It was the eyes. They were focused on the bio-neural core, seething with intense desire.

Kael wanted the core!

It hit deeper than he would admit. It was pure, likewise intense shock! He couldn’t believe his eyes. He couldn’t believe Kael’s eyes either.

This would be a big problem.

Tatehan had a reason for wanting to get the core, it was to contribute to building the spaceship. It was to help restore a very important part of it. It was something he had been seeking for over a month and two weeks now.

It should be over a month and a week, but when he woke up in the cave, Kael had told him that he had been in that state for more than a month. It could be more, but he didn’t know, there was no watch in the cave with Kael, so it was based on his calculations.

Tatehan would put the time estimation at: over a month and two weeks.

He had been beaten to death on many occasions because of this core. He had taken daring risks and he had seventy percent defeated this mauler, with help from Kael which was thirty percent.

If not for his talent for thinking deeply to find logical solutions to problems, he wouldn’t have thought of targeting the brain and all that he did while standing on the mauler.

Sure, he had an enhanced brain that could process things and find ways out of them. That didn’t mean it actually helped if one couldn’t reason with it. Or if one didn’t have an iota of deep thinking ability (naturally) before gaining the brain.

Tatehan had suffered so much for this core. Sufferings that shouldn’t have been for something as normal as restoring...

So he needed the core very much. Not exactly for restoring the module, but as something he would see and be like:

’Yes, I bled for that and now I have it.’

Kael had saved him from dying. Without this man gripping his hand tightly, he’d be dead by now.

But without Tatehan, he wouldn’t be seeing the core in the first place. Without Tatehan saving him in the middle of the fight, he might have been dead too.

So Tatehan had actually repaid the deed in a way. Killing the monster without damaging the core was even a tremendous achievement.

Kael didn’t care.

"Let me take the core," he said, his voice hoarse. "And you live."