章 51: Chapter 49 – War with beasts

30 minutes later he saw the first snake, it was a horse-sized one seemingly sniffing around, like a dog, or more like a shark smelling its prey, it's nose was probably quite good, and that was even more the reason to attract them to him and kill them all, as even if the octopeople hid while outside the city, they would be found out by those beasts.

(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100610125617.htm#:~:text=It's%20no%20secret%20that%20sharks,to%20keep%20themselves%20on%20course.)

Erik cursed silently as he waited for it to get closer and then shoot it dead, the plasma shot blowing its head off with a splash of blood and steam bubbles.

[that might not be a good idea, it will quickly attract others]

" that's fine, I want them here, if there are octopeople still out there gathering resources, hunting or hiding, this will give them the chance to run back to the city, these beings don't seem too intelligent, and their mom can't fit her head inside the base anyways".

[don't underestimate any enemy, she dug her own house after all]

"maybe she stole it from another sea creature, but yeah you are right, are the pressure cannons ready?"

[just 10 more minutes for deployment]

"great, hehe, stupid snakes…"

[not technically snakes though]

"yeah, well SharkSnakes then? Better than calling them creepy alien sea eels…"

What he didn't notice though and Rose either as she was making the cannons and also as the snakes could hide from her, is that the snakes were surrounding the position of the dead snakes' smell, the smell of one their own dead attracting them. The leading snake was already semi-intelligent, she wanted to eat octopeople, they were squishy and easy to eat, but to her dismay there were none, so she went searching for them, smelling around, and then she smelled blood, from past experiences that meant some of her children had found the octopeople!, it was time for a feast!

She gave orders and started advancing herself, 12 minutes later she arrived to see lots of her children corpses around and a humanoid in black, with shiny things emerging from a hole in the mountain and lining behind him, it was a strange thing, so she sent some of her children first. A blue line shot then and cut her children to death, she was confused, but also angry, she was more cautious though and sent more of her children to tire the creature, who kept slicing them.

After 10 minutes the creature only seemed mildly tired after cutting her children, again and again, and she made up her mind and decided to go herself.

On Erik's side, he wasn't doing so well as the snake thought, it was just the armor keeping him on the fight, even if his body held on, it was stressful, but luckily for him, he was used to his body being all hyperactive and remained calm. He saw the snakes' mama approaching and retreated behind the deposits, humans never play 'fair' after all, much less against enormous sea snake alien monsters, that would be suicidal, he had even prepared his sodium harpoon and the railgun cannon that was being controlled by Erik with an interface on his helmet, all had to do was give the voice command to fire.

One of the deposits advanced forward slowly as Erik got inside the garage and closed the door to protect himself from the explosion wave, watching through a screen connected to a camera, now he would need to be careful as it would only work once.

The snake saw the being hide and the weird shiny things approach, they looked harmless, no claws or sharp teeth on sight, so she just decided to eat one.

She opened her mouth and started swallowing one, to her surprise it didn't resist at all, she was a bit perplexed as the other things pointed at her, then it happened. The one on her stomach blew up completely and the ones in the front shot a big shockwave with shrapnel at the snake, blinding her eyes as the heated balls penetrated deep, and making her thrash around, Erik still remembered his first abyssal hunt, if she thrashed like that then this hunt would be way easier.

pain... pain... PAIN!!! ALL SHE FELT WAS PAIN!, her stomach had basically exploded, and her innards were damaged, also her eyes felt on fire and she couldn't see!.

She was afraid and in pain, so she thrashed around to get rid of the now invisible enemy.

Erik could see it, it was a mortal wound, now they just needed to wait.

And indeed, the snake was weakening, her thrashing had basically leveled the area of the entrance, destroying the just-made bombs and killing lots of the smaller snakes that quickly spread out in fear.

Erik came out, looking coldly at the dying snake and saying frostily.

Erik:" you shouldn't have gone after my family monster" and quickly arrived at her head with his thrusters at full power, standing on her head he saw her bleeding eyes as the beast felt him landing on her and tried to shake him off, the beast was scared and dying though so she didn't manage to get him away

Erik: "do you understand me beast? Well, I don't really care"

He stabbed her head with his plasma spear to the brain slowly, it took him some effort but with the beast already weak.

Erik: "since you are gonna die today" he managed to pierce through, ending the beast's struggles and sending her to the oblivion of eternal death.

Next came something that had been worrying him since the beginning, and the reason he brought the snakes to him, 'did the snake manage to eat someone?' the stomach was busted open, so he finished cutting it open all the way, and his fears became reality, there it was between the now mangled pieces of SharkSnake flesh after the explosion, the slightly mangled corpse of a scout, eye half-melted and full of terror. Erik kneeled next to it and grabbed it in his arms like a dead family member, he liked the octopeople like his own big family, seeing even one dead and in such horrible condition made him feel awful and enraged. his only consolation being that if he didn't move them inside the mountain then many more would have died.

A chill then covered his face as he contemplated exterminating all snakes. You can't coexist with something intelligent and wicked that loves eating your daughters.

Right at that moment, a small army of octopeople lead by Inky came out with the Elders too, they all saw the dead snake and the scout in his arms and felt the same rage and sorrow.

Erik told Inky to translate and shouted with the underwater sound amplifier, even though Inky was the one translating, even if they didn't understand his world, they could feel his rage.

Erik:" now WE the octopeople are facing an enemy that has been stopped, but that won't end at this! no, today we will hunt them until they won't be able to ever be a danger anymore!, our future daughters and generation after generation will never have to fear these beasts! TODAY WE WILL HUNT THEM IN THE PLAINS, HUNT THEM IN THE CAVES, HUNT THEM IN THE FORESTS! LOOK AT THE SCOUT AT MY FEET!, FOR THEM WE ARE JUST FOOD!, they think they are better than us, that they can eat our daughters, inside that beast's lair there were at least a hundred dead! BUT THIS ENDS TODAY! FOLLOW ME! THIS IS A CRUSADE FOR THE FUTURE GENERATIONS SAKE!"

the army charged as one, it was as Erik had said, as long as something that considered them food remained alive then future generations would have to fear them.