5480 Giant Stone Eater
Ves fell silent for a time after he obtained a lot of information about calamity beasts.
The Hunting Association had good reasons to fear this powerful new class of beasts, but they were not entirely undesirable.
Each calamity beast possessed an awesome capacity for destruction, but they also promised a huge amount of benefits!
Their powerful biologies turned their carcasses into highly valuable treasures for any biotech researcher.
The mech industry could also derive many powerful ways to harness E Energy by studying the operation of these powerful beasts.
Even Ves developed a much greater interest in these calamity beasts because he could make use of them in so many useful ways!
From turning them into powerful design spirits to transforming their powerful spiritualities into high-value spiritual ingredients, he could enrich his mechs much more extensively than before.
Vulcan also developed a strong interest in these calamity beasts. The reason for that was because they usually served as the best source of artifact spirits for their works!
If Vulcan was able to obtain an artifact spirit that perfectly aligned with the attributes and powers of a proto-artifact, then combining the two together would produce an extraordinary new piece of equipment that had endless potential.
This was how powerful relics such as the original Oceancaller came into existence!
Ves had many reasons to welcome this dangerous new trend. He could create more powerful works if he gained access to all of these high-quality resources!
The way he looked at hunting preserves such as Ocanon VI had changed.
The value of a planet that bore so much alien life had increased by an immeasurable degree.
Ves was sure that a lot of groups regretted their decision to terraform so many biodiverse planets.
He even wanted to obtain his own untamed planet. There was simply no other way to generate so many mutated beasts and calamity beasts without enough virgin lands.
This was where the Larkinson Clan suffered from its lack of priority in obtaining fixed territories.
Ves had dismissed the need to colonize planets and star systems for such a long time that he found himself unable to take full advantage of this rising trend.
Only the direct owners of all of these untamed planets stood to gain the most benefits from all of the beasts that rapidly evolved from on the surface!
Outsiders such as the Larkinson Clan might not be able to access them at all. Even if a few valuable products flowed out of these controlled treasure lands, they would only be the leftovers that possessed less research value than other powerful beasts.
Ves inwardly sighed. He and his clan had little choice but to rely on untamed planets controlled by third parties to obtain what they needed.
At least the Hunting Association took control of numerous planets, thereby ensuring that less powerful individuals and organizations could obtain what they needed.
"Let us take a look at other powerful mutated beasts." Ves said after he felt a greater desire to harvest the bounty of Ocanon VI. "I have read descriptions of numerous powerful specimens that are of interest to me. I want to take a look at them before the day is over."
"Very well. The next one is on the other side of the Sorara #390 Hunting Ground."
The hunting grounds of the Chasseur Continent were merely artificial boundaries that denoted distinctly different natural biomes, so their sizes and shapes varied wildly.
As the shuttle left the territory of the Evil Lake Tree, Ves and his children continued to stare at all of the interesting features of the dry and rocky landscape down below.
Occasionally, the children shifted their gaze to large animals that stood out from a distance.
Since #390 did not support the emergence of too many large beasts, the ones that grew past a certain size had almost certainly mutated beyond the limits of their original species.
However, just because they mutated did not necessarily mean they were interesting.
The process of mutation was inherently dangerous, and this was especially the case at the start. These beasts were still comparably weak in body, which meant that any botched or harmful mutations had a high chance of getting them killed!
Only those that managed to overcome this difficult early period had the capital to evolve into calamity beasts!
"We are approaching the territory of the next notable monster." President Tarich announced. "A hunting team has recently started to engage it in battle. You are in for a good show." "Really?!" Andraste perked up. "Cool!"
"I want to see! I want to see!"
Ves grew disappointed when he heard that another hunting team had already set out for this high-value research subject.
As the shuttle stopped above a large crater environment, Ves got caught sight of an odd battle.
The massive monster drew his attention first. It looked like an enormous animated piece of rock. Nothing looked organic on the surface, making it difficult to recognize it as a living organism if not for the fact that it actually moved!
Ves became impressed by how it was able to move while supporting so many tons of weight. The rock creature was as large as a small cargo transport, meaning that it was much larger than the mechs that assailed it from a distance!
"The Giant Stone Eater is a mutation of a species that largely derives its nutrients by extracting it from rocks." President Tarich explained the details of the calamity beast. "Its evolutionary direction is biased towards size and digestion speed, so it has been able to grow its physical mass at an astounding rate. The downside is that it has compromised its ability to move quickly. It is also less effective at burrowing through the ground. The reason why its body has taken on this appearance is that its hasty digestion has become much less thorough."
The massive creature did not look bothered by that. As the mutated beast started taking hits that chipped away at its stony exterior, it devoured the rock underneath the crater and rapidly filled up the weakened parts of its body with replacement stone.
The Giant Stone Eater did not passively allow itself to get attacked.
It had already developed offensive properties. Its main form of attacking distant targets was to lob rocks at them with its large and heavy limbs!
The mutated beast possessed twelve limbs, most of which were used to support its body.
Two of the limbs looked the weirdest of them all. They looked as if the Giant Stone Eater deliberately mutated so that it could grow these arms.
They resembled rocky scorpion tails, but instead of stinging any enemies up close, they lobbed rocky projectiles into the distance like a catapult!
Their attack frequency was low, but they were able to throw rocks that were so large and heavy that the hunting mechs had to evade these heavy rocks!
BOOOOOM!
Strangely enough, despite looking like solid stones, the lobbed projectiles exploded upon impact as if they were genuine artillery shells!
Ves could perceive the strong release of earth energies whenever they detonated upon contact with the ground!
"That monster fights like a heavy artillery mech." Andraste noted. "It is so slow, but also so tough. No second-class mech wants to get hit by those rock catapults."
"Your description is not entirely correct, honey. Real heavy artillery mechs cannot adequately confront a squad of mechs by itself, pumpkin. Their lack of mobility makes it easy to outmaneuver them or whittle down their defenses. This is different. The Giant Stone Eater does not appear to be on the losing end of this exchange."
"It takes guts to attack the Giant Stone Eater." President Tarich approvingly said. "The Arrow Gods are among the more famous hunters of Ocanon VI. Their reputation is not as high as that of your Swordmaidens, but they are the strongest mech pilots that they primarily rely on bows to take down their prey."
The Hunting Association's rules and restrictions encouraged the use of simple and even primitive weapons in valid hunts.
The less powerful and sophisticated the weapons, the higher the rewards and ranking points of a successful hunt!
It was fairly common to see hunters on foot taking down their prey with bows and arrows.
It was much less common to see them utilized by mechs. The attack method was so clunky and primitive that it simply did not make any sense to equip them onto mechs!
Yet the Arrow Gods did not listen to common sense and adopted them anyway.
To their credit, their ranged attack power was not small. Their alloy bows possessed a huge amount of draw weight, making it so that the arms and torso of these specialized archer mechs were abnormally strong for ranged mechs.
It not only made for a novel sight, but also caused these archer mechs to be quite powerful in brawls!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The long and sturdy alloy arrows were not simple metal rods.
When the Arrow Gods fired them at the Giant Stone Eater, they penetrated deeply enough to bury their tip inside the stone armor!
Once they could go no further, the warheads embedded within the arrow structure exploded, creating a new hole in the stone armor!
Yet the Giant Stone Eater was nowhere close to suffering serious injuries!
It continued to eat the soil and rock and rapidly regenerated the holes in its defenses.
"This cannot go on forever." Ves analyzed. "Those heavy arrows are expensive, and I doubt the Arrow Gods brought enough of them to last for hours."
BOOOM! booom!
In the meantime, the Giant Stone Eater constantly forced the archer mechs to move. The mutated beast did not seem to tire out at all. It constantly absorbed a lot of earth-attributed energy from the environment, enabling it to instinctively empower its armor and stone projectiles.
The creature was not getting exhausted at all. The opposite was happening. The Giant Stone Eater was actively adapting to the pressure, causing it to lob more and more powerful projectiles!
"The Arrow Gods are starting to get serious."
One of the important lessons that hunters had learned was that they could never afford to go in guns blazing.
Mutated beasts evolved so rapidly that any intelligence on them had already become outdated after a week.
The Arrow Gods expended valuable arrows to confirm that the Giant Stone Eater had not undergone any radical evolutions.
Upon a silent signal, the three archer mechs switched from launching regular explosive arrows to utilizing more exotic projectiles.
The Arrow Gods soon shot three abnormally thick arrows at their prey!
As soon as the chunky arrows made contact with the stone arrow, they did not pierce through the surface layer.
They instead disintegrated, causing them to release a lot of acid!
The Giant Stone Eater's exterior began to smoke and dissolve as the extremely powerful acid not only ate into the stone armor, but also inhibited its regeneration!
"More mechs are entering the fight!"
Ves noted to his surprise that three Huntmasters leapt over the edge of the crater and raced towards the Giant Stone Eater in the center.
The familiar living mechs wielded modified spears that were longer, thicker and more suitable to punch through solid rock.
A few rifleman mechs remained behind and started to shoot kinetic rounds into the partially dissolved rocky exterior of their prey.
Soon, the Giant Stone Eater started to endure a lot more pressure than before.
The archer mechs bombarded it with acids.
The rifleman mechs exploited the new weak points.
The Huntmaster utilized their long spears to harass and interfere with the beast up close.
Their glows shifted attention away from the more vulnerable ranged mechs, causing the Giant Stone Eater to become less focused on launching exploding rock projectiles.
However, its ability to defend itself at close range was not weak.
In one moment, the Giant Stone Eater planted its two powerful forearms into the soil.
The three Huntmasters hastily aborted their next attacks and quickly jumped to the rear!
Their response turned out to be correct, because a huge amount of sharp and sturdy spikes erupted from the ground!
A large semicircle around the Giant Stone Eater had turned into a forest of spikes!
"This mutated beast can do this as well?!"
