A large number of small deer-like birds hopped through the forest. They had big eyes and were making odd MEEP noises as their feet carried them off in meters at a time. Zhang Han had turned his head to watch the spectacle, noting that those were likely herbivores because of their short beaks meant for grinding seeds and vegetation.
He ran into the solid leather sack that Vaien carried.
It seemed that...Vaien had stopped in place.
In the next moment Vaien forcefully grabbed his wrist, dragging him to the ground so hard the wind was knocked out of his chest.
Zhang Han wheezed and was about to cough when Vaien clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle him. Knowing how arrogant and self-confident Vaien was, Zhang Han knew that something was terribly wrong, and he managed to hold in his coughs at the expense of a few tears leaking out the corner of his eyes.
Fuck. His wrist was gonna bruise later, too.
But what was making Vaien act so cautiously?
The two men were packed under a large fern plant with sprawling leaves that laid horizontally. It was such a lush and verdant plant that it was large enough even to shield the brimming sack of ship materials.
Zhang Han saw that there were bugs that chewed on brown, decomposing fern leaves around him. One of them started to crawl up his arm until he flicked it off. He gave Vaien a kind of scathing glance, but he was completely focused on something visible through a single open patch in the ferns leaves.
There was a tremor that went through the ground.
Then another, the entire forest seemed to shake down to the roots. It had to be footsteps. The footsteps of some very large creature...
Vaien's hand was still tightly gripping onto Zhang Han's wrist, and he really wanted to shake it off if not for the fact it would make noise.
Finally, the culprit of the tremors came into view.
Zhang Han's eyes widened in horrified curiosity. It was a hulking creature with scaly and thick skin, and was a mottled mix of brown and black. There was also an extremely long tail with numerous barbs at the end that looked unnecessarily menacing, as though they'd be sharp enough to pierce through wood. Its head was close to a lizard's with feathers dusting around the edge of its face like lines of blue.
It opened its mouth in a yawn as it slunk around, casually showing off a maw of hundreds of pointed teeth meant for tearing flesh apart.
It stopped walking, then almost seemed to stare at the spot Vaien and Zhang Han had hidden.
...
It tilted its head.
...
Zhang Han felt his ability to think leaving him as his panic set in again.
At least if he died from this...it should be quick, right? Yes, very quick. Nothing worth getting upset over. The blood sucking method would be worse.
The creature took a leap forward with its two lengthy hindlegs and thudded to the ground a few meters off from them, the forest shuddering even louder than before. Leaves fell pattered down from the treetops.
It swiveled, and in one smooth motion its tailed wedged into something on the ground near them with the slick noise of flesh being punctured.
Whatever it was that got hit let out a piercing squeal.
Zhang Han's ear drums were aching from the noise.
When the hulking creature's tail lifted, he was surprised to see one of those face-eating rats impaled on the spikes. That rat was struggling despite its imminent doom until its body convulsed sporadically and curled into itself, stilling as foam frothed out of its mouth.
The large beast shifted its tail so the rat was held up to its mouth and then there were squishy crunching noises as it was devoured within a few bites.
It was not long until it slunk onward, its footsteps creating tremors each time.
It was a while, at least ten minutes, before Vaien stood up out of the ferns and brushed off his clothes. "Awful. I didn't think we'd run into one of those here."
Zhang Han was sufficiently afraid after witnessing what it could do. Moreover, the fact Vaien hid from it meant that it wasn't an easy opponent, especially when the man already made most of the animals here seem harmless.
"What was it?"
"Those are called Goliath Killers. Not cause' they're big, but cause' they can kill stuff even bigger than themselves. There's a bunch of stuff about them that's annoying to deal with. Anyway, killing one alone is risky."
Zhang Han agreed, thinking about the creature's size and speed.
"I can see why...they were fast and accurate at finding prey."
To that, Vaien just looked at him, then gave half a sigh that finished with a dry chuckle.
"Even worse than that. Their barbed tail has venom on each spike. If you get struck you're guaranteed to die. But the thing that makes them the most dangerous is what makes small humans like us dangerous--their intelligence. They remember little details about enemies they faced. That ended up killing more than a few people I used to know, cause' strategies that usually work against them stop working."
...so that was the apex predator in these parts.
This planet is...brutal.
Vaien looked Zhang Han in the eyes and said, "Hey, if you ever get caught up with a Goliath Killer I'm not helping you. They'd put even me at risk."
"Thanks for the warning," Zhang Han replied, sarcasm apparent. "I wouldn't have guessed."
Vaien made a grumbling noise. He decided to help this guy, but outside of sex his attitude was stale and poor at all times. What a killjoy. But he should probably offer a little more detail about the Goliath Killers, he supposed.
"Look, just avoid them, then I don't have to watch you get shredded to bits," added Vaien. Um, wait, that wasn't really what he intended to say. After a pause he continued, "Goliath killers have keen eyesight and hearing, but no sense of smell. Just hide in silence as soon as you hear the ground start to tremble and that's enough. Only a pair of them live in this area since they're territorial."
"All right."
Zhang Han was nevertheless skeptical. He might as well dig a hole in the ground and bury himself in order to stay safe from the plethora of dangers on this planet...but there was probably some dangerous underground animal there, too!
He just stared at the leather bag that he couldn't even move a millimetre by himself and prodded Vaien, "So are we going?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Vaien dusted the soil off his hands, hoisting up the sack again. "But since my hands are full, why don't you catch our meal for today?"
A couple seconds passed. Zhang Han was like a deer in headlights.
"...huh?"
"Use your laser gun or whatever to kill something. You didn't expect me to do everything, did you? Ah, but no worries about the size of what you hunt, I can carry it."
Vaien wanted to see the laser gun working in action, moreover, he loved that look of pensiveness that washed over Zhang Han's stony face.
Zhang Han's black eyelashes drooped a little as he replied, "...all right, I'll try."
Vaien gave a big smile, hoping for prime entertainment.
It should be all right, thought Zhang Han, as long as he's attacking from a distance. He'll have complete control of the situation like a sniper, so there's nothing to panic about. He'd shot guns in training multiple times, and even during hostile situations where conflict broke out on other planets.
The only concern he had was that his laser gun wouldn't be effective against animals with a thick hide. He'd have to test it and see. But against a person it was like punching a hole through paper, so he did think there ought to be something he could kill with it.
He'd kept the gun tucked into his belt and now drew it out.
It was a sleek and unobtrusive model, great for hiding on one's person. The tip tapered into a thin muzzle and the make was blue and silver.
First he saw one of the dog-sized locusts chewing on a leaf on the lower branch of a tree, about seven meters away.
He decided on that one, since it wasn't moving and obviously wasn't paying any attention.
Since Zhang Han was used to eating nutrient bars and his other exposures to food included odd delicacies from other planets, he wasn't adverse to eating a creepy bug for dinner. He even wondered if it would taste as good as the flatfish.
The bug's head was covered in a shiny and hard-looking carapace that granted its brain a lot of protection. Its underbelly, however, was exposed to them as it chewed on leaves.
Zhang Han tilted his arm upwards and stared through the targeting lens.
He pulled the trigger, aiming straight at the middle of the hopper's soft underbelly, and the gun made a small 'pew-pew' sound as it went off. The light from it was condensed blue that flared with a white spark at the tip. It was the shape of a thin needle as it went through the air within a millisecond.
It cleanly cut into its target.
The hopper flailed in pain and fell onto the ground belly up. But it was still barely alive.