"Ah, there's my rock." Gustav joked.
Judging from the scene, he had been very precise earlier on. One of these attackers had their whole upper body crushed, while the stone debris in question fidgeted over ten meters away from the battle scene!
"No wonder you're so tired, I could never lift that." Arila added, she was concerned.
While they took some time to observe the corpses, Tunada went back to the village. Her house was on fire, and the odds were that almost nothing could be recovered there, thanks to that wave of hot coal from earlier on.
She had her own problems to deal with right now, and could end up worse than homeless. Gustav understood that well, so he didn't mind relying on Arila only for bodily balance.
They had a bit of walking to do, just to take in a few more details. Gustav asked, "Do you know where these bastards came from? I have no idea what's going on here, to be honest."
"I don't know either, Gussy. They're not rhinos... or, anything? Even humans don't look this weird." She explained.
With that considered, he was further convinced that these enemies came from the sky. Now he didn't understand the concept of space all that well, but it wasn't difficult to paint a mental picture.
He used the moon along with the sun as an example, and figured that every living thing either lived on some moon or a hot sun. It wasn't entirely true, but he at least understood more than these villagers.
This issue was concerning nonetheless, so he frantically thought. "They flew down here looking for me... erg, my guts. How did they find me, for fuck's sake! I'm not the only mammoth out there."
He was confused, and a string of fear blocked out the only bit of intelligence he had. Paranoia helped him believe that these creatures with futuristic weapons, had somehow memorized his face as well!
It was the only thing that made sense to him. "How else could they find me here? This is some weird shit."
He then lightly kicked one of the corpses, out of frustration. It was reasonable to worry, but a sudden, rugged sound didn't give enough space for that.
A thin, rectangular device had bounced out of the corpse he just kicked, and it begged for attention!
Apart from a collection of foreign words it quickly spoke, this device suddenly projected a visual show as well. Red and black lines shot out of it, and those lines formed some figures which were mostly see-through.
"Huh?" Gustav tried to back away.
Although baffled, he still understood what these hovering shapes tried to represent. Numerous planets were drawn out first, which he solely recognized as moon-shaped, pieces of land.
Afterwards, the black lines drew something that Gustav was accustomed to, a mammoth. What helped tell this shape apart, were the few red lines which later depicted a pair of large, curled tusks!
"Oh they're definitely here for me... unless some other mammoth made a deal with the devil, or some shit." He concluded.
It was a waste of time to think of other, alternative reasons though, as he was clearly being hunted. These aliens wanted his guts without a doubt!
Gustav was annoyed by that idea at this point, as he couldn't even get a short break from this madness. Just days ago the whole spaceship he had been in was shot down from space due to some related reasons, it was a staggering headache!
Anyway, as the device stopped working, Arila expressed. "Weird, I only see stuff like this after a warm beer."
"Dunno what this is, but it's probably better than this crap." He said, and kicked the rectangular thing away, out of frustration.
Gustav feared that this was not the last attack, it couldn't be. Luck may not be by their side, if another battle occurred.
With that considered, the signal beacon's importance sky-rocketed. He had to build it soon, or else a gruesome abduction was inevitable!
"Tunada will spit on me for this, but I need her help." He thought.
Out of desperation, he then decided to loot these corpses. It was a crude idea, but he hoped to find some advanced weapons on them.
There wasn't much to scavenge though, as these corpses were torn up pretty bad. Gustav aimed for their small utility belts, as he figured that was where fancy tools were stored.
"Well well well, this gotta be that crazy shooter bow." The good man celebrated, unaware of what its actual name was.
He found a tube-shaped item, which was likely a weapon. It had no trigger, weirdly, nor did he find a spot where ammunition could be slapped in.
Out of a sudden, an orange light-beam shot upwards and almost blew his head off!
"Holy shit!" Gustav shouted, and noticed how his tusks sizzled.
Thankfully they weren't blown off either, just painted with a black scar. He thought that it looked badass, and barely cared that a lot of his snout-fur was torched off!
"This should help," He thought, and finally felt an ounce of joy.
It would be ideal to fight advanced aliens with such technology. Close combat would be unnecessary, as he could rip aliens apart from afar!
He was enthusiastic about that, and even looked for more enemies to shoot down. There weren't any to be spoken of, though, be it on the ground or across the sky.
It was comforting at least, as he had some space now to focus on other issues, and was about to head off. The demons on his back fiddled with the utility belts, necessarily carrying them.
Gustav carefully handled the short, mostly black-tube which shot out those deadly, orange bits of light. He knew to avoid its red tip, as that was where the danger lied.
"Why the hell is this thing so spiky? I'm gonna shoot myself like this, it feels like wrestling those bass-fish back home." The good man complained.
It didn't help how this spiky weapon was so small, because his rugged and big hand covered it almost entirely. An accident was just waiting to happen, so as retaliation, he couldn't help thinking about a smaller pair of hands.
"Here, Arila. Hold this for me, but avoid the tip." He requested, and was rather familiar with how tiny her hands were.
"Oh... okay but only till we get back home. I don't want to kill anyone." She answered, and awkwardly held it.
They headed towards the village at that slow pace. Gustav insisted on meeting Tunada, or basically any other blacksmith.
He had a beacon to build, and hoped to avoid starting from scratch!