Chapter 35 - Beasts

Walking for what appeared to be weeks on end without food or rest, Spencer had come to observe nothing but an unbelievably arid desert filled with nothing but hills of sand and miniature dust storms at every turn. The landscape was dry and without production, or any form of life really, except for a few small plant-like forms in the soil. He couldn't find anything to catch his attention no matter where he looked, it's not as if he could expect anything else from a desert planet such as this.

In actuality, if Spencer wished, he could simply fly around the planet in roughly five hours to search for what he was looking for, but he would much rather take his time and familiarize himself with this new landscape before he meets any of the Martians that may reside on the planet. In his memory, this planet held much more to it than just the overwhelmingly powerful Martians. In its depths, large spider-like beasts known as the pralah and other potential life forms exist on this planet. All of those creatures are unique in their own right and possess abilities and traits that Spencer was very much lacking in his arsenal.

The thought of these exotic creatures and taking their traits for himself made Spencer excited in many ways. A sensation he hasn't felt for quite some time now, but he has to make sure he can find them to begin with. Spencer halted his walking and sent out another routine pulse into the surroundings, something he has been doing since he landed here.

Once the pulse returned, Spencer noticed that it wasn't just an empty echo like all of his past attempts, there was something there in the distance.

"About time…"

He quickly closed his eyes and focused on the source of where the signal originated from. Honing in on it, Spencer could sense multiple others resting nearby in a bundle. Noticing that these signals were not that great of a distance from him, he morphed his legs into their demi-human state and began sprinting towards the direction it was coming from.

Spencer was running at a moderate pace for him, but with the aid of his transformed legs, he was already many miles away from his previous location, zipping through the arid landscape, kicking up sand into the air whilst forming a cloud of dust behind him. As Spencer arrived closer, his hyper-evolved eyes could make out the details of what he was chasing after, even though they were still many miles away.

In his view, he could make out a few quadrupedal life forms of medium size traveling in the form of a pack, surrounding what looked to be the corpse of another creature of this planet. They appeared to be eating it, their jaws opening into four sections as they sunk their jagged teeth into the flesh of the corpse.

Upon seeing how close he was to his mark, he reverted his legs to the normal state and began to fly the rest of the way towards the quadrupedal creatures. His eyes went blank as he began to fully repress his aura and any disturbances from his body, as to not alert them to his presence. Spencer started to observe from above and examine what exactly he was looking at, while they were ravaging the body of whatever creature they hunted and killed. Although the mangled corpse of the creature was strangely riddled with holes, however, Spencer paid no mind to it and focused on his discovery.

He could sense eight of them in this small area, but he was troubled by a strange phenomenon with these creatures, even though they were in front of him, his attempts to scan for their presence was a struggle. It was as if they were resistant to his sensory capabilities to a point, making it harder for him to notice them.

After a moment of contemplation, Spencer set his sights on an individual member of the pack and placed his eyes in full focus, scanning the creature to see what traits it may hold. Sadly, he didn't see much, other than their four sectioned jaws and their sharp jagged teeth. The creatures held many features he was already familiar with, only a few that intrigued him.

The creatures appeared to be reptilian due to the intricate scaled patterns covering their bodies akin to armor. However, the additional fur that covered parts of their tails implied that these creatures were more complicated than it appeared. The fur on the tails looked thicker than average and was excessively pointed, leading him to be intrigued by what their purpose could be.

As Spencer was deep in though analyzing these quadrupeds, he failed to realize that a small portion of them had surprisingly noticed him and was observing him with hostility. To his astonishment, the creature he was observing looked up at him in a rush and prepared itself to attack. The others who were now alerted quickly followed and came closer together in something similar to a battle formation, which shocked Spencer greatly as he hadn't expected this.

Crouching forward, the creatures raised their tails towards him and began slamming them on the sand. In his head, he took this action as them warning him to back off, but this only intrigued him further. Instead of outright attacking him like what he was used to from the prehistoric creatures that were similar in appearance, these monsters showed further intelligence by giving him a warning beforehand. Spencer wanted to further test what they would do if he came closer, so he descended to the sand below and stood in front of the pack.

"What now, huh?"

Wanting to see what would happen if he ignored their warnings and pushed a little more, Spencer began walking towards them slowly, raising his hands in the air and loudly taunting. Keeping their focus on their movements, so he could see their response to his advances, he slowly crept closer. The creatures raised their tails for a second time and flicked them at him. This action would be unthreatening if it was not for the needle-like projectiles that burst from their tails and flew in his direction.

Akin to a wall, the projectiles covered the sky. Any other creature in this situation would have had an immensely high chance of dying from this kind of assault, however to Spencer, this just caused his blood to boil with excitement. Putting up an invisible barrier around his body in response, Spencer obstructed the progression of the needles and allowed them to fall to the ground. Picking up one of the needles at his feet, he examined it, noticing that the spikes were barbed.

"This would hurt a lot! Haha, now I feel sorry for that poor fella over there… I want these!"

Spencer's eyes were filled with greed for these needles, having these in his arsenal would add an interesting variety to his selection when the time would arrive, especially if he could somehow add poison to them in the future. He couldn't stop smiling just from imagining the range of applications he could have if he had something like this with him.

Paying no attention, Spencer continued to think to himself as the creatures in front of him stood confused by their attack not yielding any effects. Seeing that their first-round bore no fruit, they all rushed him, attempting to rip him apart. He only stood there until he snapped back to reality and noticed that he was practically mauled by these things.

"Sigh… Let's get this over with. I want to see what else I can find in this place."

Shrouding himself in purple energy, Spencer hovered above the creatures and focused his energy into a ball of light at his pointer finger. Releasing the condensed energy ball, it separated into 8 identical beams and pierced the skulls of the creatures, effectively killing them. Landing back on the sand, Spencer walked over to the corpses of the carcasses, he watched with eager expressions as their bodies liquified and converged towards his body.

Seconds later, he could already feel the changes brought by the assimilation. He fused the traits he didn't need with his old ones and focused all his attention on the needles. Raising his right arm, it quickly became covered in a notably bristled fur. Looking over at a conveniently placed boulder next to him, Spencer flicked his arm in its direction to test his newly acquired skill.

The boulder was instantly impaled by countless barbed needles, much to Spencer's satisfaction. Soon, after enjoying himself, Spencer faintly noticed that another bundle of memories from the assimilation was added to his mental library, which wasn't common when he absorbed less intelligent lifeforms. This proved his earlier theory that the creatures on this planet were much smarter than those on Earth.

He could see the entirety of the creature's life and the variety of things that it has seen throughout. Some of the other entities were in the memories as well, but their locations were not, so he would still have to search if he had any intention of finding them.

"Hmmm… This place has so many interesting treasures to obtain…" He sighed to himself, looking once again in the distance.

Sending out another sensory pulse, Spencer began to walk in a random direction, in hopes of finding whatever he could.