Welcome to Naraka

A cloud of dust and dirt was raised into the air as something heavy smashed into the ground, followed by the sickening crunch of bones and organs.

A moment later, a sharp blue light in the shape of claws shot from the cloud and sliced three twin-tailed felines into pieces, sending bits of gore splattering across trees.

The cloud of dust was then dispersed by a powerful wind, revealing Mike, who blocked the tails of two of the felines with his gauntlets. Sparks flew as they tried to slice through his gauntlets to no avail, and Mike grabbed the tails before pulling the large creatures with one hand each.

He smashed the two of them into each other, dazing them. He then walked up to their heads, grabbed their necks, and squeezed until they broke.

'That's seven.' Mike thought as he straightened. All was quiet for a moment.

Suddenly, he ducked while punching upwards, and his fist collided with something, followed by a pained hiss as a creature's body shimmered into view, revealing the figure of one of the beasts that now had a slight cave-in in its chest.

Mike charged at it to finish it off, but two more of the felines appeared before it and lunged at him.

Just as they were about to reach him, Mike's body suddenly dropped to the ground, and his legs went into the air as he pivoted while catching himself with his hands.

Manji Kick

His foot connected with the side of one feline's head, causing an audible crack as it was sent flying into its companion.

Following this, Mike spun on his hand and avoided several tails which tore up the ground around him, then he brandished his claws as he unleashed another attack.

Primal Rend

Two more felines got sliced apart, and Mike quickly sprung back to his feet.

'There are a lot more hiding farther away.' Mike noted. Through his senses, he counted at least 15 more, waiting behind the initial 12.

"Heh." He spread out his arms.

"This is fun."

As soon as he said that, more charged at him, and he exhaled as he held out two fingers and swept them around his body.

As soon as he did, a blue ring made of aura hummed to life around him.

Haven Ring

The charging creatures ran into it and were momentarily stopped, allowing Mike to unleash another Prim Rend that tore up a few more of the felines.

Most people would be scared or hesitant after being confronted with so many creatures after just landing on a new planet. Moreover, this wasn't a spar or a place filled with holograms. These were real creatures, and each of them was trying to kill him.

And Mike reveled in that.

Despite being surrounded by opponents who were filled with bloodthirst, Mike didn't feel like he was the one being preyed on. In fact, it was the opposite.

They were the prey.

But beneath it all, Mike still retained his rationality.

He enjoyed what he was doing, watching his opponents try and fail to hurt him set him on an inexplicable high that was simply euphoric.

But beneath all of that, Mike's mind was still intact.

Despite giving his instincts a but more reign, he was in full control of his actions. Every attack he made was calculated, and he paced himself to avoid going all out or raising his ferocity past a certain point.

He was also aware of this.

'It's incredible, really.' Mike thought as he jumped in the air. A felines believed he couldn't dodge midair and swung its tails, but Mike created another ring and used it as a platform to propel himself.

He avoided the attack and spun before kicking the feline in the stomach, sending it flying into a tree with blood spilling from its mouth.

'They aren't mutually exclusive, but two parts of the same coin. It's honestly something else.' He smiled as he gripped the last creature by the neck. It struggled and tried to attack him with its tails, but Mike just snapped its neck before it could.

All finally went quiet, and Mike let out a breath as he took in the carnage before him.

Battered and broken corpses were strewn around the area, with more than a few having been cut into pieces. Most would be appalled by the scene, but all Mike felt was satisfaction and pride.

'I've come a long way...' He thought as he stared at the corpse in his grasp, and he subconsciously began to salivate.

Without thinking twice, he brought it to his mouth and bit down.

***

"Huh. That's weird," Theresa scratched her head and looked around. "With my luck, I expected to be jumped the moment I landed. But there's really nothing dangerous here." She mumbled.

She'd fully expected to be thrown in the middle of a group of monsters, forcing her to fight for her life the moment she landed.

But even after waiting and looking around for over ten minutes, nothing had jumped out to bite her face off.

'That, or there is a creature, and it's so good at hiding that I just haven't noticed it yet.' She mused before shrugging.

She wouldn't complain about a good thing.

'That said.' She held out her hands and manifested her bow.

She wasn't going to drop her guard.

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath.

When she reopened them, her vision had completely changed.

Now, instead of the greenery and vegetation, her eyes started seeing something quite different.

Heat signatures.

She did a slow 360 as she took in everything with a heat signature.

Small critters, birds, rodents, a massive chameleon-looking creature that blended in with the surroundings and was stalking her, and a few other things.

'Thought so.' She sighed and turned away, then in one smooth motion, she drew her bow and fired a flaming arrow that zipped through the air, leaving a trail of flames it its wake as it struck the unsuspecting creature which clearly hadn't believed Theresa knew of its position.

It let out a strange cry as its body shimmered into view, revealing its bark-like skin that constantly shifted like it was alive.

It was about three meters long and had two more sets of limbs compared to your traditional chameleon.

Currently, a basketball-sized hole could be seen in its shoulder, its edges burnt, and smoking from where Theresa had shot it.

Theresa showed no reaction when it showed itself as she simply drew her bow again and let loose another arrow.

This time, the creature was able to respond as it opened its mouth. Its tongue whipped out, creating an audible crackle as it met with the arrow.

Or, that's what was meant to happen.

Suddenly, the arrow split apart into three smaller arrows, which went around the tongue and straight towards the chameleon.

It tried to retreat, but it was clear that the turn of events was too shocking for it. As such, it wasn't able to react in time as three arrows struck its body in different places and exploded.

It let out a wail as it fell off the branch it was on, but Theresa did not let up and she let loose arrow after arrow, each one burying itself deep inside the chameleon before exploding, sending chunks of charred flesh flying.

It was only after Theresa saw the heat of the creature rapidly deteriorate that she stopped firing, and by now, it looked like a sieve with several holes in its body.

"Better." Theresa nodded, satisfied by the result.

Then, she returned to where her pod landed, hopped on it, and sat.

She would need to wait for Mike and Kris, so that's what she was going to.

Wait.

***

Splurt

Kris removed his chain from the last creature.

Around him, the place was a mess.

The ground had been torn apart and uprooted, and around him, several corpses had been imapled into trees and rocks.

The creatures looked like bats, but they were eerily humanoid, and they lacked facial features other than these unnaturally wide mouths with razor-sharp teeth.

Each one was pure nightmare fuel, but Kris killed all of them.

He looked at the scene of carnage before him and nodded to himself, his expression as impassive as always.

He then turned towards a hole in the side of a hill, which led down into a cave, which is where the creature had come out of.

In front of the cave was a pyramid-like structure that was a meter tall. On top of it was what looked like an antenna, and Kris knew that this was one of the 'flags'.

He walked towards it, and it seemed to scan him as a panel appeared, indicating for him to hold his watch to it.

However, Kris ignored it

Instead, he manifested a small chain and squatted before burying the chain in a small crevice at the base of the pyramid.

After that, he stood and closed his eyes, as though he were sensing for something, then he reopened his his eyes, nodded, and started walking.

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