The noise was getting louder and louder and the ground had begun to shake as well.
Something was coming.
"What is it now? At least let us die in peace….." Aiden grumbled as he looked towards a certain direction.
"Bro, I don't wanna die….so stop getting me in your suicidal plans." Leo replied helplessly as he turned around and began to look for a place to hide.
Suddenly heavy clanging noises entered their ears and the next instant the sky turned dark as a shadow appeared above them.
The duo looked above and froze.
It was their evacuation shuttle above. It had bent in an unnatural way and went flying right above their head before crashing into the trees and rolling over several times before finally coming to a stop.
The two couldn't help but gulp inwardly looking at the thousand ton shuttle being tossed up like a toy.
An inhuman mechanical screech soon followed after coming in from the direction where they had landed. It immediately sent chills running down their spines.
"Reaper!"
"Run!"
Leo sprinted at his max speed but Aiden easily took over him. He couldn't help but curse inwardly. Didn't this guy wanted to die? Why was he running faster than him now?
He shook his head and concentrated on running. He could feel himself crossing his bodily limits. If he had sprinted like this during his physical examinations, he might have topped the entire batch, but alas there wasn't a reaper behind him that day.
Leo turned around from time to time to see the creature following behind them. Yet, the thing was still far away and nothing entered his visions.
"Why in hell did we have to encounter this thing here?"
"Isn't this your Solar System Federation's fault? I can't believe they haven't realized a relic from the war is still roaming around this planet…We are dead if it catches us…" Aiden said with a nervous face.
"What now? Afraid of death?" Leo mocked while sweating.
"Yes, I am…Anything is fine but dying in that things mouth…" Aiden replied.
"Huff! Huff! Huff!"
Leo began to feel short of breath. The atmosphere was thinner here and doing a such an intense physical maneuver was definitely a bad idea. He began to pant vigorously and his sight began to turn blurry.
His body began to slow down and a figure finally appeared behind them in the distance. He had only seen the menacing creature in books before….
A gigantic worm.
And when he said giant, he literally meant it. Its size was no less than a tiny mountain. It was frickin huge. Its skin had a metallic luster to it as if made of metal. What terrified him the most was its mouth. It was like a tunnel filled with spikes on all sides. A tunnel he definitely wouldn't wanna step in.
The creature seemed to be looking around for something as it continuously turned around its head on a lookout. Leo could see that a thin red-colored beam was being projected out of its mouth. It didn't seem destructive as nothing happened to the place where it fell.
Suddenly, he felt the red beam onto his face. In that short moment, it seemed as if the creature and Leo's eyes had met. The creature which was on the lookout seemed to have found what it was looking for and bolted towards Leo.
"What the hell are you waiting for?!!" An angry voice entered Leo's ears and the next moment he felt being pulled.
Aiden had began to pull him along after noticing that he had begun to slow down.
"Do you want to die in it's mouth?" He asked with squinted brows.
"I am willing to die anyway but in its mouth!!!" Leo screamed as he repeated Aiden's words and the two pushed through the bushes not paying any attention to the beauty of nature which was being crushed under his feet.
The two ran for a while as the thing behind closed in but they soon came to a dead end after coming out of a forest. There was nothing but a huge rocky terrain wall in front of them. It looked like they were at the bottom of some kind of cliff or something.
There was no way for them to go back with that thing closing on from behind.
"What do we do?"
"Climbing is our only option!" Aiden said as he grabbed a protruded rock and put his feet on a small opening and began to climb.
"We won't be able to outrun it! That thing can shoot projectile…" Leo said with a frown but still followed after him as he couldn't see another way out.
"Do we have an option here?" Aiden asked. Sweat had began to pour out of his forehead and veins bulged on his body as he desperately tried to climb higher.
But it wasn't a good thing to rush so much. After he had climbed a few hundred meters or so, he holding below Aiden's feet broke as he put his weight on it. It seemed he didn't check it properly.
'Sh*t!'
His eyes widened and he knew he was done. Falling from that height, even if he survived he would end up in that thing's stomach.
But suddenly he felt his feet land on a surface and he regained his position. He couldn't help but be surprised as he looked below to see raising his one hand and holding onto his feet while his other hand held onto the cliff.
That was extremely dangerous and daring thing to do, he might have fallen below along with Aiden as well.
"Hurry up! I can't support much longer!" Leo shouted and Aiden immediately regained his holding.
"Are you crazy? Do you want to die with me?" Aiden couldn't help but curse after he was safe.
"Stop with your death threats! Didn't you come for me earlier as well?" Leo replied as he glared at him, but suddenly his eyes landed on an opening above.
"Cave!!!"
Aiden followed Leo's gaze and his eyes lit up as well.
"Scree!!!"
But the Reaper Worm had arrived.
"Go!"
The two didn't care for any safety checks and began to rush up without a slight care of mistakes.
The Reaper Worm seemed to be looking around when it finally detected the two's presence.
It released a metallic screech and charged towards the cliff.
"Boom!"
It's giant body rammed into the cliff and shaking the rocky terrain.
Leo and Aiden held onto the cliff with all their might as the cliff quivered and rocks fell from above.
Luckily, the huge ones missed them. But a stone the size of a fist landed on Leo's forehead. It broke apart his skin and blood began to gush out of his forehead like a fountain.
Leo groaned in pain but didn't let go as that would be equivalent to death.
The two didn't know why the thing wasn't using any projectile attacks but it was a blessing for them.
The two continued to climb even through all the shaking and Aiden was the first to arrive to the cave.
But as he grabbed the edge and was about to get up, a rock fell from above and smashed his left hand.
Pain immediately shot through his hand he clearly felt the bones break and his hand turn bloody.
"Don't stop! Grit your teeth and go ahead..." Leo screamed from below a bit towards his left.
Aiden gritted his teeth and even with only one hand pushed himself above the edge entering the cave. After all, he was an awaken and was a dozen times stronger than Leo.
As Leo was about to follow after him, his eyes dilated as he saw a huge part of the cliff break and come crashing down towards him.
"Grab it!!"
Aiden's voice awoke Leo and he saw the guy extending the wooden spear that he had crafted for him earlier. Leo didn't hesitated and immediately latched onto it.
Aiden's feet slid as Leo's entire weight poured down on him and he almost got pulled out of the cave as he only had one hand to use.
'Damn it!'
Aiden suddenly let out a roar and and with veins throbbing over his forehead he pressed his right foot deep into the ground and pulled Leo all the way in.
"Thud!" Leo's body smashed onto the rocky floor of the cavern and he breathed in heavily. A second late and he would have been smashed to death.
"Are you fine? You are bleeding a lot?" Leo saw Aiden looking at him with a concerned face, but he had began to feel dizzy and soon his vision turned dark.
….
After an unknown amount of time, Leo finally opened his eyes.
He looked around to find himself around surrounded by a breathtaking sight. The place was beautiful.
"Is this paradise? Am I dead?" He couldn't help but frown.
"You really are afraid of dying aren't you?" Aiden's voice entered his ears and he turned around to see him eating some alien fruits. His injured hand was tied up with his shirt and there was still traces of blood.
Leo looked at him as he touched his own forehead to finally realize why he was missing one of his shirt's sleeves. It was wrapped around as a bandage on his head, "What happened after I fainted?"
"Well, I committed double suicide with you. This indeed is a paradise…" Aiden said with a smile.
"Don't joke around, I am serious here." Leo glared at him. This guy really had the balls to joke even in this situation.
"Boom!"
A noise suddenly shook the valley and Leo looked a towards the huge rocky wall in the distance.
Well, that looked a bit familiar to him.
"Yup! The cavern led us to this place. It wasn't a cliff but huge wall and it is an enclosure to this paradise. I think someone has constructed this place to chill out.
"There are living being aside from us on this planet?" Leo asked in surprise.
"Well, I doubt there are with that thing which still is ramming its head into the cliff." Aiden replied with a frustrated face.
"Boom!"
"How long have I been out for?"
"A day probaly.." Aiden replied as he continued to eat.
"You really are daring enough to eat anything aren't you?" Leo asked as he looked at the unknown fruit.
"Slowly starving to death or a quick death from poison which would you prefer?" Aiden asked looking at him.
"Why do we talk about death every time you open your mouth?"
"Bro, you started it!" Aiden retorted feeling that he was being wrongfully blamed here. "Anyway, the place looked like it was constructed by someone. Who would plant a poisonous tree in a place like this? So I took the risk…"
Leo thought about it and yeah it made sense. There was also a small pond around and it wasn't poisonous. It even contained some strange aquatic life in which was edible according to Aiden.
Aiden had tried to find an exit but aside from the one they came in from, there were none. The only other option they had was to climb over the rocky walls and escape.
The two decided to wait for the creature to leave. Not to mention this place had enough for them to survive for now.
And so their survival life on the stranded planet began…
….
Time passed very quickly and in the blink of an eye a month had passed…
Leo and Aiden had gotten very used to each other's presence. The two already had great synergy to begin with and now in that situation. No one could say that the two were just a month old friends.
During this time, Leo had finally given into boredom and asked Aiden about his story but the suicidal guy stubbornly held onto his oath of not telling Leo anything even if they were bored to death.
In the end he could only let it go.
There routine during this period of time was very simple.
Aiden taught Leo some self defense and the two trained together to increase their physical ability as much as they could. After all, running and climbing was an important requirement to survive here. Aside from that, the two played games and talked about random stuffs to know about each other's race and culture. It was good way not to get bored.
And the most important thing was…
"What do we do? This thing had literally made this place his home?" Leo said as he looked below from the opening of the cave. The Reaper Worm had coiled around and seemed to have entered a slumber. It had been constantly ramming its head in the wall all this time before finally entering its slumber 3 days ago.
"We need to get out of this place. The aquatic life in pond has an extremely low reproductive rate and the trees are the same in fruit production probably. We will be out of food soon at the rate we are consuming it." Aiden said with a sigh.
"Well, they tasted really good. It wouldn't be a surprise if those things are some rare exotic species of plant and animal. Such things obviously couldn't be cultivated this easily.." Leo replied.
"I wonder which filthy rich guy owned this place…" Aiden wondered looking around. "Perhaps it is a privately owned small planet and the guy was killed by that thing.."
"That sounds a bit too exaggerated…" Leo shook his head. He couldn't even imagine people having enough money to buy a planet. After all, he was just a poor nobody.
"Why doesn't that thing drops dead…I hope a meteorite strikes it.." Aiden couldn't help but curse in anger.
Leo looked above not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Won't they die to if a meteorite fell in such a close proximity to them?
'Hmmn?' Leo's eyes which was looking at the sky suddenly fell on something around the cliff and he suddenly spoke, "I think we can kill it.."
Aiden followed his gaze and saw that dust was falling off of a cracked part of the cliff which had a giant rock peeking off the edge.
He then looked below trying to see if there was any chance of that thing hitting the creature below and it did.
A smile broke out on the two's faces. This thing really had been making their lives miserable, constantly keeping them on edge…
Now, it was time for some payback..