The Exploding Earth

Kyle knew time was running out. If the person screaming was Sif; she needed his help now! Kyle felt the boulder he was hiding behind and realized it was reasonably round.

He had a bag of holding that contained a knife he made. He used it to quickly smooth the boulder out so it could roll better. He also etched an array on it turning the boulder into a formation.

The formation would allow the boulder to move perpetually once it started moving. Only stopping it from moving with a greater force would make it stop completely.

After he finished, he pushed it downhill. He intended to jump on top of it and stay on top by running as the boulder was rolling.

For the first couple of seconds, it was fine, but then he stumbled and fell off the boulder. Oddly, he fell forward so the boulder was now behind him.

Now, he was running from the boulder. It didn't matter if he was on top of it or in front of it. When the Mandril looking creatures saw it they got out of the way.

After Kyle and the boulder left, the Mandril like creatures gathered together.

"Hey, Chris, did you see that weird looking two-legger?" Felix asked.

"Of course I saw it, I was standing right here," Chris responded.

"What do you think he did to that boulder to make it so mad it would chase him?" Felix asked his friend.

"Yeah, I don't know, boulders don't usually do that, so it must have been really bad. If you see that weird two-legger again you should keep your distance," Chris advised his friend.

Nearing another hill, Kyle jumped off the boulder and ran up the hill. The boulder avoided the hill and kept rolling along.

Eventually, the Mandril like creatures (or Bobbies) started calling it the Angry Boulder. According to legend, a weird two-legger angered to boulder and was chased by it.

The two-legger was able to escape, and since the boulder could not vent its rage; it continued rolling and smashing everything in its path.

Kyle became a messenger of destruction for the simple-minded Bobbies.

Rushing toward the scream, he found a yellow girl sitting in a tree sobbing and trembling. Kyle looked around but couldn't figure out what was upsetting her.

"Are you the one that was screaming just now?" he asked her. The girl was startled by Kyle's sudden appearance.

"Kasa?" She said. It seemed she spoke a different language from Kyle. It was odd because the people on Miras spoke English just like him.

"Kyle wasn't sure how to communicate with the girl. He tried using hand gestures and then said each English word very slow and loud several times. Nothing seemed to work.

His attempts at communication were interrupted by a strange insect, about the size of a cat that came out from behind some boulders.

It was orange and yellow with a fierce black stripe going down its back. It looked kind of like a large roly-poly. This roly-poly was about the size of a cat.

The segmented exoskeleton of the bug seemed to break open slightly as it shot out a mist. The girl was already in the tree screaming and crying.

Kyle instinctively jumped back, but some of the mist got on his glove. The bug ran back into the boulders where it was hiding earlier.

He couldn't understand what the bug sprayed him with. He examined the mist on his glove with enhanced vision. As far as he could tell it was some kind of smelly stench.

There were also some small round things in the liquid, but he didn't know what that was for.

Maybe this bug was this place's version of a skunk. It wasn't long before he heard the Bobbies screeching in fear. He turned back to look, and they were running away from the hill he came from.

The yellow girl already fled from the place without caring about Kyle. "What's going on?" he wondered.

Then he heard a roar and a head the size of a van rose from the top of the cliff Kyle appeared on. Its body continued to rise until it fully stood up with flaring nostrils.

The creature was about 20' tall and had powerful arms like a gorilla. Its hind legs were like those of a kangaroo and it had a mighty tail with a tuft of skin at its tip.

The creature's head was more like a tiger with chimpanzee ears. He was very clear that although strange looking, it was a fearsome creature.

He remembered the eyes of the creature. Those were the eyes he saw peering at him when he looked over the cliff. Why was it going crazy now? It didn't seem to care about him earlier.

Did those creatures upset it?

For the first time since he's had the system, Kyle turned on the full version of his HUD (heads up display).

He usually only used the map, and sometimes opened more elements when he was checking his inventory. This was the first time he ever turned on all of the features of the HUD.

There was one specific reason he did this. He wanted to know how strong the creature was. Right above its head was a red dot next to its name, Kang Ape, and its health bar and spirit energy bar.

Next to the name of the creature he saw, [Kang Ape Lvl 21]. The blood drained from Kyle's face. At full power, he was a level 14 fighter, but right now he was more like a level 10 fighter.

He needed to get out of there fast. He ducked behind a grouping of rocks and unequipped his cape and equipped a hooded cloak in its place. He added some talismans to his body to hide his scent.

Using some spirit energy, he activated the cloak which turned him mostly invisible. It was an invisibility type that worked best if you were still. If you moved, people would see a visual distortion.

Kyle ran into the woods following the direction he saw the yellow girl go in. He figured if anyone knew the safest direction to run in; it must be a native to the planet.

The trees were good cover and made his already difficult to see body even harder to detect visually.

The creature was confused for a moment, but then Kyle saw the creature leap in his direction. The powerful kangaroo legs allowed it to almost instantly catch up to Kyle's position.

The creature's landing was like a giant jackhammer striking the earth. The ground seemed to explode from beneath Kyle's feet. He flew through the air with everything else.

His body smashed through a few trees before sliding to a stop. He felt terrible. Did the creature have some ability to track him?

How come the invisibility and scent remover didn't work. The creature was looking in his direction.

It didn't seem to see him, but it didn't move away as if it knew he was around there somewhere. Kyle wasn't sure what he could do. He knew the invisibility cloak worked best when he was still.

Usually staying still would be fine, but the creature wasn't leaving. He needed to find a way to leave the area without the creature noticing.

Some of the debris shifted a little and it was then that Kyle realized his leg was broken. He stifled his scream, not wanting to alert the creature.

"What am I going to do?" he wondered as his body slightly trembled.

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Good news! our power stone count is 73. We only need 27 power stones to get an extra chapter released on Sunday.

Let's aim for 250 stones and get 3 extra chapters.

Today's power stone heroes: pfsingers, SuicidalFreddy, Eternal_D

Thank you all for your support! This book wouldn't be possible without you.

--Straythought