The more Damon descended the mountain, the more he felt like he’d been ten steps away from being told he would be singing about the hills being alive with music. Everything looked picturesque except the scenery was all wrong, the greens were blues, the suns were two, and he was pretty damn sure he saw at least three car-sized ‘things’ off in the distance, running around amongst the alien trees in search for whatever it was they ate.

Hopefully not him.

So despite the warm sunshine and cool breeze, his mind was on high alert, it kept pointing out locations he could use to dive for cover. The training at basic left him keenly aware of how much better things would be if he had a firearm. It would’ve made the longer sight-lines more of an advantage and less of a risk. Without one, he was reduced to slinking nearer to the trees and trying to avoid being spotted by someone… or worse, something. The bony fang was a pitiful weapon, just marginally better than some random rock; its presence was not reassuring as he followed the little dot on the map labeled as “Idina”.

At first Damon had thought about approaching the person, but considering she’d pressed “a sharp thing” against his throat while he was unconscious, he thought better of it. He needed information and definitely didn’t want to get stabbed. Or shot. So keeping a distance would let him safely observe without, hopefully, as much risk.

Which was most of the reason he was currently crouched behind a bush peering down the hill at the one called “Idina”.

For an alien that may or may not be indirectly responsible for kidnapping him from Earth, she looked very damn close to a human. Two arms, two legs, one head, a torso, and light hazel hair tightly combed into a ponytail. From a distance, she would’ve been mistaken for a short woman with a forgettable face. But a longer inspection revealed the other features. Her skin was pale with a slight off-green shade to it, her ears were almost half a foot long, sharp and covered in something reflective, either silver or chrome. Her clothes were reminiscent of a medieval peasant of some sort. They were baggy and largely brown, comfortable and used, something you’d be likelier to find in a renaissance fair.

But once he overlooked her oddities, Damon’s attention turned to her backpack, its presence entirely out of place with her rough choice in clothes. It was fancy smooth light blue leather, and it had two metallic bottles hanging from the side that were polished metal. They held a promise of a much needed drink, one that left him keenly aware that he was parched.

Also, he desperately needed a shower.

The monster from the cave had bled blue stuff all over him, and Damon was feeling like the world at least owed him a bath after he’d been abducted. That “Idina” moved with purpose and direction, it told him there was a destination. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too far off. Though if this place was, he might have to reconsider his hands-off observation. Humans could last three days without water. In the meantime, with the help of the map, he was increasingly confident he could avoid her spotting him.

It was a shame that the snarling monster directly behind him didn’t get the memo that he was the one hunting. Not the one being hunted.

“System, mark enemies!”

He bolted without so much as looking back. Several things made noises in the bushes.

[...]

Error

EM-tags within range: Idina

[...]

With the ground flying underneath his rudimentary flip-flops, he turned over his shoulder to look at the thing chasing him. It was a pack of monsters, each the size of a retriever, but shaped like some sort of elongated mangy rat. Light gray fur covered its body in patches, blue naked skin apparent between the tufts. Each abomination had locked onto him as they began the chase.

There were at least three, and he would’ve missed the fourth coming out from his left if he hadn’t focused on where he was running to. He avoided getting a chunk bitten off, jumping out of the way and hastily making his way towards the tallest tree he could reach on time. Rather than give them the chance to catch up, Damon climbed the tree like a man possessed, gripping each one with everything he had, and perching himself on the highest branch he’d dare trust to hold his weight.

With curses under his lips, he paused and looked down. The monsters were screeching at him, scratching at the blue trunk, but they weren’t climbing up. Their claws were closer to a dog’s, and though they were able to jump much like a dog could, they weren’t able to find a perch to pull themselves higher.

“Ha! Fuck you.”

Damon sat down at the base of the branch, flipping the bird down at the creatures and letting out a sigh of relief. Those fangs were small, but they looked like nasty. Another thing he did not want to deal with. Now in his safe spot, all he needed to do was just wait them out. If the monsters couldn’t get to him, they’d have to tire out eventually and leave, right?

Already their yapping was calming down, so that was a plus.

[...]

System ‘heads-up’:

Idina EM-tag has left detection range.

[...]

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Damon’s gaze went down to the monsters. Their beady eyes remained thoroughly locked on him. All four of the monsters sat down, surrounding the tree and just staying there, staring at him angrily. The monsters had nowhere to go either, it seemed. For the time being, it looked like they could wait him out. If the dead blue orbs were able to express emotions, he was sure they would brim with amusement at his predicament.

“System, whatever these things are called, change name to ‘Stupid ugly rat’.”

[...]

System Update:

c̴̀_̶̶͜0͟͞͡1̢̛͜͠^̢͟d͟҉̡͜e̢͢͠ renamed to “Stupid ugly rat”

[...]

With a weary sigh, Damon’s thoughts turned back to basic training. There’d been a bit about dogs, hadn’t there? Protect head, neck, torso, and thighs. If you’re going to get bit, better for it to be shin or forearms. And keep hands clenched into fists. But if given the choice, use a gun. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a gun, nor did he want to have to deal with getting his arm torn to bloody ribbons when the things might have some unknown disease.

It also did not look like he’d be able to outrun them.

So he was left with the next least worst thing.

Standing on the branch, Damon removed the wolf-monster skin and wrapped the excess around his left arm. It took him a second to secure it to the rest of his body. It restricted his mobility somewhat, but it was better than leaving the pelt hanging loosely and potentially snagging on something. With the fang on his right, and regretting every passing moment he was having to spend without actual pants on, he focused on his target, the larger of the four rat-dog-monsters.

“If I die naked, I am going to kill whoever brought me here.”

He dropped to the lower branches before he jumped off, left padded arm forward, screaming madly at the creature and brandishing the fang like a knife.

The monster reacted, opening its mouth, ready to bite and take a chunk out of him.

It came as a surprise as its head exploded into a spray of blue gore. Damon’s fur-covered limb had slammed its skull against the ground, and just like that, it had burst like an overripe melon. Everyone present took a moment to look at the blue splatter the monster’s skull had turned into. He even forgot to move, having half-expected to be currently madly stabbing at the thing and trying to wrestle for his life.

“Huh.”

Damon rose to his feet, glancing at the other three monsters that had suddenly lost their confidence. Not one to miss the element of surprise, he pounced on the nearest one. It tried to turn to avoid him, but the fang pierced through its skin and into its ribcage with barely any resistance. It was like its bones were made of cartilage. The thing dropped dead with a silent wheeze. The other two hesitated less to attack, hissing loudly. Perhaps revenge, or perhaps desperation. But neither got past his left arm before he’d smashed them both.

The monster’s bodies were surprisingly tender. It didn’t feel like punching actual muscle and bone, more like sacks filled with jelly that had dried up a bit.

[...]

Congratulations!

You have defeated 4x of the lamely weak “Stupid Ugly Rats”

Gained: 4 Hunter Points (-2 deduction from boring). Total: 6

You can redeem points in exchange for upgrades!

Nearest booth located at: 5͟͠҉&̶̴̡_̀͢:̶̀̕̕͢ȩ͝2̷̢͜2̸̨

[...]

Damon dismissed the prompt as he unwound the monster's fur so he could go back to pretending he was wearing clothes. This time he took the chance to use the fur to wipe down some of the blue goop the monsters had splashed on him. “I really, really want a shower.”

Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention, alarms rose in his head right after. He spun around and raised his guard, ready for a fight. But no attack came. The carcasses were moving though. At first, it wasn’t clear what he was looking at. But… were they bubbling?

Damon jumped back. “What the fuck!?”

The corpses were frothing, like an effervescent pill dissolving into a glass of water. Or more like worms were crawling under their skin, which was every type of wrong he could think of. Tense, he kept a close watch, unsure whether to expect it to explode or jump at him or what.

It took exactly a minute; the bodies diminishing with every passing second. Eventually, only scattered remains were left behind. The corpse closest to him decomposed to only the white fur. Nothing else remained in its wake. The two others were left with their skulls, the fur and everything else gone. The last one just vanished entirely.

“What the fuck? What is that? What happened?”

[...]

Query Answer:

Rapid decomposition

[...]

“I can see that! Why does it do that!? Normal bodies don’t do that.”

[...]

Error

Query Answer not found

[...]

“For fuck’s sake...” He’d rub the bridge of his nose if his fingers weren’t goopy from monster blood. “I can’t waste time. Give me Idina’s last known location. Here’s hoping she didn’t just make a run for it.”

The map popped back up, and he moved.

Bad news was that Idina indeed made a run for it.

Good news was that she didn’t make it very far.

Her attempted escape got her only a couple hundred meters outside of the system’s detection range, and by the time he’d jogged his way to her last known location, she was back on the edge of the map again. A rather fortunate thing since he didn’t want to find out how far he could keep running with the mostly ruined flip-flops and lack of water.

Once her dot was in the map again, Damon noted she’d stopped to rest or hide or something. So he just climbed up a tree and monitored the area just in case some other monster opted to sneak up on him. The watch didn’t have to wait too long, Idina began moving after only half an hour.

Her pace was slow, enough that he suspected she was trying to avoid being seen, but he wasn’t about to complain. That scare with the giant rats left him paranoid about potentially getting ambushed by another monster if he paid too much attention to the map.

Two hours of walking later, Idina took another half hour break. The slow pace had remained throughout, which wouldn’t have raised alarms if not because she’d also begun moving in a kind of bee-line. It left Damon fearing she was aware she was being followed. Maybe she could identify his presence the same way he was able to detect hers. Perhaps the map was a tool more people had and not just himself. Whatever the case, he figured he’d get answers so long as he remained patient.

And then the Idina dot began running again.

Either she was trying to get away from him, or something else was chasing her, and in either scenario, he couldn’t afford to let her get out of range. The chase began.

Even with everything that had pummeled him throughout the past day, he was still light on his feet, so it was easy to navigate the hill, especially when the trees were so sparse. By comparison, the harshest part was the ground itself and his damnable sandals. Damon swore that he’d buy himself some good shoes at the first chance he had.

As soon as he crested the hill, the first thing he spotted were more of the ugly rat things. Idina was clearly running from them, and she was doing a poor job at it. At the current distance, even if he ran as fast as he could, Damon would not get to her before the monsters did. The buggers were faster than him. He’d have to hope she’d be able to hold them off.

“The tree!”

His shout got her to turn around and look his way. Her eyes widened like plates and with a shriek, she somehow started running faster. The same did not happen to the monsters. As soon as they’d spotted Damon, all three monsters turned on a dime, rushing in his direction without a moment of hesitation. That was very concerning, but it wasn’t like he could readily climb another tree to wait things out to wonder what was going on.

With no time to remove his single piece of clothing and make an improvised shield again, Damon picked up the first rock he could find and prepared himself. The moment the first monster came into range, he threw the stone at it, diving right after. The monster dodged the projectile, but it had not expected Damon to be part of the package. A swift kick landed against its chest and blue blood burst out of its mouth and ears as it collapsed.

The other two showed a brief hesitation before jumping straight at him. Damon’s left calf burst into pain when the creature’s fangs bit down. He screamed, kicking backwards with his right. It broke something because the monster let go and stumbled to the ground, but its friend was trying to circle around Damon to attack him from behind.

So he did the only thing he could think of.

Copying the previous owner of the fur he wore as a tunic, he jumped backwards and landed on top of the monster. It wasn’t enough to seriously damage it, but Damon still weighed twice as much as the surprised monster. With the monster knocked down, all he had to do was pummel at it with his elbows until it stopped moving.

Pained and grimacing, he stood back up. His left leg was looking worse for wear.

[...]

Congratulations!

You have defeated-

[...]

“Dismiss.”

“HELP!”

Idina had kept shouting all throughout his fight. She’d not stopped to climb a tree but had continued running down the hill. Towards a village.

It was a small thing, probably closer to a hamlet, and confined within the blue hills. There were barely twenty buildings in total. The design reminded Damon of the sort of houses he’d seen when he’d been visiting Europe. The walls were white, but the wooden beams outside were blue, with the roofs being slanted enough he wondered how grueling it must be to change the shingles.

If not for the four meter tall walls made out of blue lumber, it was the sort of picturesque you’d see on a postcard.

“Is that a drone!?” he said.

Damon blinked twice.

The thing was entirely out of place within the rustic village.

A robot the size and shape of a washing machine was flying out of the hamlet and in Idina’s direction. The front of the device had a circular lens that glowed in soft yellow light. Rust and gunmetal gray paint covered the machine that was keeping itself aloft with two flat circular discs embedded to its sides. The faint buzzing gave away the nature of what those disks were doing. It was a sound like a helicopter rotor that had taken a big dose of helium.

“MONSTER!” Idina screamed, clearly pointing at Damon. “HELP!”

The drone adjusted its course, turning its glowing eye in his direction. It accelerated to full speed.

“That bitch!”

Traveling through interstellar space at speeds faster than light carries many risks. Though one may hear about rogue planets and supernova flares, those were extremely rare. Freak accidents that would often make the rounds through the net and make people wonder whether they should really board a shuttle off-planet or not. But those with the experience knew better, the real danger were the interstellar winds.

They were produced by massive clouds of gas and dust, remnants of stars long dead, their size spanning tens if not hundreds of thousands of lightyears across. Anything moving across them at any significant speed would be buffeted by charged particles. Using warp bubbles left the ship technically near immobile while space was compressed and expanded around it, but at the border of the bubble matter would accumulate in tiny quantities over time, compressing against more matter, making it all the worse. The thicker the cloud, the longer the jump, the more it built up.

Emilie, swiveling in her chair, was looking at the readings on her screen and pondering on this very matter. “On one hand, I could get another misdemeanor for delays and get my pay cut some more.” Slowly, she hummed. “On the other hand, I could die.”

If one were to allow the buildup to continue indefinitely, it would eventually have enough energy to break through the bubble. At that point, the ship would be exposed to enough plasma it might as well have crashed directly into a star.

Her finger hovered over the button. She could turn off the bubble down right now, the ship would stop its relativistic speeds, and she would have to wait for a whole day before it had cooled enough to be able to engage again. Was 0.6% chances of catastrophic failure too high?

She rubbed her chin. All the ship had to do was hold-out until it reached the system’s heliosphere and then she could disengage the warp bubble right on schedule. So long as she didn’t hit something crazy unlikely like remnants from the First Wave, everything would be fine.

Emilie shrugged and dismissed the notification. With a flick of her fingers against the screen, she set up the alarm to blare out if the chances of failure rose to 3%, and went to watch something from her saved up video rental catalog.