He could barely breathe, and now he could feel blood dripping from his forehead. He touched the spot and felt a sharp pain sear through his body.
He tried to stand up, but he could barely move.
"ARGHH!" He cried out as he felt large feets stomp on him.
He couldn't even stand. His body seemed to have gone numb. And so he lay there for a minute, enduring the feet trampling over him.
But he could feel a soothing sensation flow through him. It was his partial regeneration doing its work.
After a minute, he was able to roll away from where he had been. He rolled twice, then once more before finally landing against a boulder.
A boulder!
Thank goodness.
He sat up with great effort and rested his back against the boulder, watching the scene that unfolded before his eyes.
Fighting the lunatic carapace brutenecks were creatures that looked like brutenecks but wore rusty old armor. They had glowing red eyes and long, sharp teeth that looked like fangs.
Teeth that looked fatal. Things that looked like they could rip out his scalp.
They had much larger hands, and their backs were hunched like mountains. They looked like carapace brutenecks but far more ancient and deadly versions of them.
They held swords, things that looked like rocks shaped into blades.
Rock swords!
Things so sharp they looked sharper than any normal blade…
Thatchk!
A lunatic carapace bruteneck's head fell to the ground with a loud thud. It had been severed clean by one of the rock swords.
The buildup that led to the lunatic carapace bruteneck's decapitation was simply mesmerizing.
The movement, the ducking, then sliding beneath to drive the sword smoothly through the neck of the lunatic carapace bruteneck.
Simply mesmerizing.
The armored brutenecks were only five in number, but they were doing impressive work. It wasn't like they were defeating the lunatics easily, but they were doing it with style—fighting with such fluidity that it seemed almost beautiful.
Tatehan watched in awe, wondering what would become of him now.
While the lunatic carapace brutenecks fought like monsters, just stretching their hands out, shouting and howling, the armored brutenecks fought with precision and purpose.
They seemed to know all bruteneck weaknesses, especially the soft, exposed necks. Because that was all they targeted. They never aimed for another spot. Their goal was just the necks, and they were severing them beautifully.
Words appeared across Tatehan's retina:
[Monster name: Knight brutenecks]
[Difficulty: Very hard to fight]
[Weapons: Rock swords, fang-like teeth]
[Can they fight: Yes, very excellently]
[Will you die facing them?]
[At your normal healthy self (which was before you left the Spaceship), you'll last ten seconds, and that's only thanks to your fluid evasion (enhanced fast reflexes)]
[At the current state you are in, you'll only last one second (most likely a split second)]
Tatehan sighed as the words finally left his retina after he had absorbed the information.
He appreciated that his system was being honest, though, being so blunt about him not being able to last even a second, most likely a split second, in the state he was in.
Think about someone being so battered it seemed like all life had been sucked out of him. Every single morsel of it.
He might as well pass as a breathing corpse because he looked like hell.
His condition was terrible after running at that speed for the duration he had. Running like a machine, because only someone inhuman would continue running at the same pace from start to finish. And his pace had been incredibly fast.
When he finally stopped, his lungs, his kidneys, his heart, and his brain were so tired and exhausted.
So worn out that he would need to breathe deeply for minutes before he would be able to stand up again. And even then, his head would probably be throbbing intensely.
So you see, he would be like a walking corpse at that point, and that was without the beatings from the lunatic carapace brutenecks. Three brutal hits that seemed to fracture his bones as they landed.
Critical hits!
It was a miracle he was alive, and that was only because he had an enhanced body. If he had taken three more hits before the intervention of the knight brutenecks, he would be dead by now. He was certain of that. There was a 0.00 percent chance he would have survived.
But what his mind wrestled with was why the knight brutenecks had saved him. Even though they looked graceful and fought with precision, they were still monsters. Nightmarish creatures who looked disturbing to behold.
Although the knight brutenecks had a certain charisma that made them captivating to watch, making them look almost noble, they were still monsters— beasts whose only instinct was to kill.
And Tatehan wasn't sure if they could speak or be reasoned with like normal humans.
He decided to watch the fight more closely and figure out his next move, whether he would wait or start running away from the scene.
The armored brutenecks fought with incredible agility.
They swerved, rolled, kicked, and…
Swoosh!
The heads of the lunatic carapace brutenecks were severed clean.
But as Tatehan watched more closely, he realized something—something that made him almost gasp in awe.
He could have missed it if he hadn't paid attention. The way they moved while fighting made it difficult to get a closer look at their bodies. But Tatehan still caught it.
The necks of the armored brutenecks—the knight brutenecks—were covered with hard protective plating.
And so by looking at them, it was very clear they had no weakness.
Then what was the point in calling them "brutenecks" if their necks weren't their weakness like the others?
As Tatehan stared, he gained more insight about the armored brutenecks. He was able to understand that the reason they had fought the lunatic brutenecks and stopped them from killing him was because they had such intense hatred for other bruteneck species.
And that this was their territory.
Tatehan quickly moved to the back of the boulder to hide, now peering through a gap that seemed to offer a bit of cover.
He decided he would have to get out of here because the knight brutenecks were almost done killing the lunatic carapace brutenecks, and he would surely be next.
Tatehan suddenly squinted as he peered at the scene. Perhaps the armored brutenecks weren't as godlike as he had thought, because now he could see one falling to the ground, dead.
What fascinated Tatehan was how it had been killed.