The Hexapod mauler was much closer now, and Tatehan knew it. This was the last stretch he had to cross before he arrived at the beast's home. He felt panic rising, but he pushed it down. All the training he'd endured, all the abilities and armor he'd gained, it was here that he would finally put everything into practice.
All around him were bones. Small bones, large bones, countless bones scattered across the cracked earth. They clearly belonged to dead animals and creatures the mauler had killed. That made Tatehan think that perhaps it came here to hunt for food sometimes.
The spaceship's AI had once mentioned that other monsters used to live in this region, but the mauler had killed them all. He looked at the bones more carefully now, even bending down to examine them.
He could see deep claw marks scoring the stone, way bigger than the claws of the knight brutenecks, the carapace brutenecks, or any creature he'd faced so far. These claws were massive. Massively massive, like something only a giant would leave behind.
The more he looked at the bones, the more he felt a growing sense of dread. And it all led back to one question:
Would he be able to kill this thing?
Before leaving the spaceship, the AI had told him that direct assault wouldn't work, at least not fully, not initially. He'd have to exploit environmental advantages.
Tatehan looked at the bones for much longer than usual and decided to do a quick scan:
[Unknown creature]
Tatehan squinted. Of course. He shouldn't have expected much from the system's scan. Sometimes the system was excellent with its analysis, but most times it was just... meh.
He decided to scan the other scattered remains:
[Unknown creature]
[Unknown creature]
[Unknown creature]
[Unknown creature]
[Unknown creature]
With a sigh, he gave up. It would surely keep repeating the same result, so he saw no point in continuing.
He now looked ahead, his sword gripped tightly in his hands, and began to move forward.
He walked with light steps, moving cautiously, because who knows, perhaps the Hexapod mauler came here to hunt for food too. Maybe it was at a point where it was starving and wouldn't hesitate to crush his head for a meal.
Tatehan would have been far more paranoid if not for his armor, which provided kinetic absorption. That ability gave him a measure of calm. It gave him the motivation to even take each step. Without it, he doubted he'd be walking at all.
After two minutes, he spotted a large skull half-buried in the cracked ground.
The more he stared at it, the more he felt a sense of dread, that perhaps soon, this might be him. He shook his head, trying to dismiss the thought.
The skull seemed to have belonged to some ancient type of creature. It was massive. The teeth were jagged and ragged, and where the eyes were supposed to be were two large, empty sockets that could easily fit his entire hand inside.
This only made Tatehan imagine more vividly what the Hexapod mauler was capable of. What the foul creature could do. The destruction it could unleash.
Five minutes later, he was still walking. He could have been faster if he increased his pace, but he walked slowly, intentionally.
If he ran, perhaps he'd already be there by now. But somehow, he seemed to be delaying his arrival at the Hexapod mauler's territory.
He stopped at some point because he was feeling very thirsty. He decided he might as well drink some water now.
He opened his backpack and checked his food supplies. He saw that he was dangerously low. Only half a loaf of bread remained, and the same with water, just one bottle left.
When had he reduced his supply to this extent? He didn't even remember eating that much. Then again, it wasn't like he'd had many supplies to begin with.
He drank half the bottle, deciding to at least be hydrated for whatever he was about to face. Whether he'd come out alive or not.
Drinking the water also made his brain function better. He felt refreshed now, unlike before when he'd been slowly starving without realizing it.
The run through the canyon had exhausted him more than he thought. He'd known he needed water badly, but he'd still held off until now.
The riverbed turned out to be more complicated than he had imagined. Deeper, even. It seemed like he was the one hunting for trouble at this point. For a creature's home to be this deeply hidden made him feel like the predator, which, technically, he was.
Using his system's directional scan, he continued heading north. This was the path that would lead him to the mauler.
He kept expecting some monster to leap out at him, but none did. It was only him and whatever lay ahead. He knew he was in deep trouble at this point.
Paranoia kept making him expect monsters, making him anticipate ambushes. But there was nothing here. The mauler had killed every single creature in the area.
As he approached a region where there were far more bones scattered on the ground, he studied the claw marks on them and on the surrounding walls. He noticed they were fresh, like something that had been done earlier today, or maybe yesterday at most.
His sense of dread intensified. He was much closer now to the mauler's territory. To its home.
The amphitheater was close. He gripped his sword very tightly, his face covered by the visor, his legs weak from too much walking lately.
But didn't he have an enhanced body? Yes, but even enhanced legs could grow weak from fear.
Tatehan crested the final rise and stopped.
Below him stretched a massive circular depression carved into the Martian landscape, roughly three hundred feet across. The floor lay thirty feet below ground level, accessible by natural ramps of collapsed rock on the far side.
Steep walls descended in uneven tiers like badly formed stadium seating. Some sections showed smooth cliff faces, while others had crumbled into terraced ledges of broken stone. Dark cave openings dotted the walls at various heights, some large enough to drive a vehicle through, others just narrow cracks in the rock face.
The arena floor showed clear signs of habitation. Deep parallel gouges scored the stone where something with multiple legs had walked repeatedly, wearing grooves into the surface. Scattered bones lay in piles near the cave entrances, remains of previous meals dragged back to the lair. The largest bones came from creatures Tatehan couldn't identify, thick as his thigh and picked completely clean.
This was it.
The Hexapod mauler's domain.