"An armadillo?! No. What is it?!" Derek was flustered as he aimed his rifle towards the towering Behemoth, shakingly.
At first, it did look like it had a hide similar to an Armadillo's, but it certainly was not made out of shells nor just a hard skin. I would like to think as if it had some sort of a hard metal alloy plating on its back, with its pattern very sharply resembling of that of an Alligator Snapping Turtle, especially when it finally turned and faced us directly, standing upright in front of us with its two feet.
"Nope, a snapping turtle." Alek gulped as he began to drag his feet backwards while still aiming his rifle.
Alek was right. Not only did it have the nearly perfect copy features of the turtle armor on its torso, but both of its legs and especially its arms seemed to have extremely sharp nails on all of its fingers, unless they were all merely features of an exterior armor suit.
The legs did not look like they were as heavily armored as its torso and arms, but nevertheless I could somehow be totally sure that if I were to shoot my rifle towards it, the bullet would not be able to penetrate deep, let alone go through that body part. Its arms were also seemed to be slightly longer than its legs.
Its face; it had a pair of large, round, black eyes that gave us all a freezing cold, piercing stare that they might actually be the reason why all of the other four was starting to move back as well, including Yeon. I mean, it did feel like I was staring directly right at a giant bipedal crocodile's eye in front of my face.
And yet, its other facial features; sharp pointed nose, a very familiar pair of large fin-like ears, light gray skin tone, and surprisingly it also had lips covering its mouth, unlike all aliens that I had encountered or had been recorded before made me feel like I was a little more to be surprised rather than scared.
However, those were not the features that concerned me the most…
It was its sheer size; must be at least three meters tall from its feet right up to its head. Maybe if I compared this one to what Travis had encountered himself five years ago back in the sewers of Chicago, the size ratio would be exactly the same.
Other than that, it also carried a long staff on its back, and it was not just any ordinary beam spear that had been recorded based on the first and second invasions.
But, if it was not a beam spear, then what is it?
Just as I had begun to take several steps back too, it started to walk closer towards us, letting out a loud and echoing sound that dominated the entire cave with each step it took. To be honest, it did make me frightened for a bit of a moment…
And then it moved closer and closer towards us…
Okay, I am starting to get seriously frightened now!
"Pull back. To other side of the bridge, now!" I told to the rest of the others as I walked backwards and kept my rifle aiming to the behemoth's head.
Multiple loud footsteps were then heard from behind me, clearly implying that they were all crossing the bridge as I tried to figure out on how to at least make the behemoth staggered or stunned before I made my run.
Wait, but it has so many thick layered armor on its whole body right? Could that mean that it could not move that fast?
Should I risk it and try to run from it as far as possible? Or should I try to shoot its legs, and see if it could pin it down for a little moment?
What should I do?
I turned back for a moment to make sure how far the others had crossed. Yeon and Takeshi had already crossed the bridge, Derek still had less than a quarter of the total distance left from the bridge before he would completely cross it.
But Alek, he still had not even crossed half of the bridge yet!
Then, I have no choice!
I took aim at both of its legs, and fired a couple of rounds to each of them, hitting them although none of the bullets pierced through them.
The behemoth then stood still, not moving for a moment.
Did that do it?
Suddenly, it unsheathed its staff from its back and swung it downwards right towards me, revealing that it was actually not just their ordinary beam spear, but instead had a shape resembling a trident halberd!
"OOOOARGHH!!!" I jumped backwards as I let out the loudest scream my lungs could make me.
I could not believe my eyes how big the crack was and the depth of the hole that had been made by its beam halberd. It was almost like a tiny crater with the diameter five times of a soccer ball!
How about that, Yeon?! Your theory of me being invulnerable is now proven wrong!!
"JON! ALEK!! HURRY IT UP!! WE WILL PROVIDE COVER FIRE!!" Yeon yelled from the other side of the ice cliff as he began to open fire to the behemoth.
I sprinted away as far as my legs could bring me from that creature, finally stepping my foot on the bridge for the first time. Contrary to what I had been thinking, the icy bridge was barely slippery at all.
I was a little relieved knowing that all three of the others had made it to the other side without that much of a fear of falling down the bottomless dark abyss below that could happen because of a slip.
The volley of fire created by the three other people firing their rifles is the only thing covering both me and Alek. If the behemoth's footsteps were the thing that echoed through the cave earlier, it was then the gunshot noises instead that enveloped perhaps the whole cavern system.
"Alek! Come on! Keep up!" I yanked at his left arm as I still made my run just at half across the bridge.
However, just then Derek seemed to be shocked by something that he saw, or rather terrified…
"Oh no…" I could clearly see his mouth saying it, even though I could not hear it because of the gunshot noises.
And then, a very loud boom sound was heard just a few distance behind us…
Which also means that it happened to take place right behind Alek!
I quickly turned my head back, and the last few things I saw happened like in only a matter of split-seconds…
The behemoth apparently jumped towards right behind Alek, and as he was about to fire his rifle at almost point-blank range at it, it simply pushed him away…
Down to the bottomless dark abyss!!
"ALEK!! NOOOO!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
"UHAAAAAAARRRRGHHH!!" he screamed with his face full of terror, until I could no longer see him, and his scream quickly faded away.
First Dong, and now Alek…
No, no more! This creature is going down!!
"HRRARGHHHH!!" I finally opened fire my Browning Automatic Rifle at the behemoth using only my right hand.
The behemoth was clearly staggering and even stepped back, at the very least a little when it received at least twelve bullets fired from my rifle, and which all hit at its torso. However, someone hold me from my back and forced me to keep going by dragging me from their direction.
"Hey, get a hold of yourself!! Come on!" Yeon grabbed my right arm, stopping me from firing more bullets as he fired his handgun towards the behemoth's head and neck.
I had no choice but to rush back alongside Yeon, who had come back about a third of the bridge length just to make sure I did not die stupid. I had that anger inside me that I really wanted to vent out to him for saying that I was invulnerable to them, but I know fully well that it was just not the right time.
When I turned back for a little moment, apparently the behemoth was still taking its time to cope with the amount of damage it received from the bullets fired from my rifle, and maybe also from Yeon's handgun, because I also noticed there were at least a couple of small gunshot wounds, or rather marks on its neck.
It was also clear however, that the combined firepower was nowhere near in completely taking it down since it only just stopped moving, and still in standing position.
"Okay, good." Yeon sighed out a small relieve once we had completely crossed the bridge. "Now we can focus on that monster!"
Everyone quickly reloaded their rifles, including me. Unfortunately we were not quick enough to be able to open fire at it before it began to show signs that it could start to move again.
"Dammit, it can recover that quick?!" Derek sounded extremely scared.
"We have to get inside one of these holes." Takeshi replied. " Lieutenant Colonel Kim!"
"Like we have any other choice!" Yeon chose the middle one from the other two on our left and right directions.
Rushing as fast as we could and as far away as possible from that behemoth, the cavern system around us began to get enveloped with the echo of our footsteps again.
"H-how far do you think we have gone now?" Takeshi began to have trouble catching up his breaths.
"Do you really think we bothered to even count in the first place?" Derek shrugged him off.
"Yeah well, not far away enough from that thing that is for sure." Yeon finally interceded.
Getting deeper into the complex cavern system, we caught up with the first forking path. There were six paths around us, and if we count out the ones we just got out from, that would make it five.
There were three large paths among those five, and all three of them large enough that the behemoth would most likely fit right in without any trouble of tight space when it moved. The rest of the two paths however, were small enough that it supposedly would not fit for that creature to get inside but still enough for us to move freely if we were to go one by one inside.
There is no difference among these two huh? Then which one should we pick?
"There! Let us take the one with many sharp needles on the walls!" Derek was eager to move again, but he was stopped by Yeon.
"No, wait!" Yeon exclaimed. "If we take it and later on that monster somehow ended up meeting again with us, we will have a harder time not getting ourselves scratched while going back here."
"Those ice needles will not do a thing to that thick hide of it anyway." I shook my head.
"Fine… then that means we have to take the small one on the left." Takeshi pointed his finger towards the other small path before he began to rush again, but of course after he had caught up some of his breath.
At least, that was what we had decided. Not too long after we entered the small path, we began to hear the very same loud thudding sound again.
"This sound, it is the footsteps!" Derek growled with a low voice.
"Keep going!" I pushed him forward, in order to follow up with Yeon who was following Takeshi.
But the thudding sound, it just will not stop!
Is it getting closer? If it is, then where is it now?! Is it right besides us? On the other side of either of the cave walls?
That sound kept on getting closer and louder to the point that we were all convinced that it was literally moving alongside us. Then, it suddenly stopped.
Everyone gave out their heavy breathings, seemingly unable to hold it within themselves. Not even a single person decided to, or rather dare to, speak out a word. Even though none of us asked anyone about anything, I was completely sure that we all came to realize that the alien definitely knew where we were.
Each of us were armored with a serious protection, but we also know for sure that one swing of that beam halberd would be enough to slice either of us into two pieces. Confusion, mixed with tension, and also added with the fear about what could happen to us if that behemoth made up the resulting atmosphere that filled the entire cave.
Not often I had to admit that, I could not stop my legs from shaking…
It felt like as if time itself had stopped, before the cave ceiling above us suddenly caved in out of nowhere, revealing something we had been trying to avoid from the beginning.
The towering snapping turtle behemoth!
Everyone immediately opened fire again to its head, but perhaps due to the insufficient amount of firepower to stagger it again, it ignored us and unsheathed its beam halberd again, before swinging it down toward us with full force!!
…or at least that was what we thought at first.
It hit the cave ground hard, and destroyed everything that we could use as a foothold, except on where it was standing and to the cave up ahead before it, sending all four of us straight to the deep, dark abyss below.
"HEARRRGHHHH!!!" We screamed out as hard as our lungs could make us until we could no longer hear each of our voices.
I also began to lose my consciousness as we fell down…