tls123

This action scene/chapter seemed a little dull to me so I am wondering if readers have any tips or suggestions that may help. Should I cut back on some information? Should I focus more on some parts? Should I look into the emotions of the characters more? Any advice would be appreciated.

Additionally, halfway through writing this story, I thought about expanding on certain scenarios to create short side stories or full-on books of their own. The "What If" scenario in this case is an MC playing a VRMMO game as a Predator. This side story will also explain why there is an important plot piece in the main story that'll be introduced in the near future.

Thanks for reading.

The two, more cautious than ever, communicated with each other telepathically as they planned out their next attack.

Meanwhile, the Predator in front of them understood that it was in a slightly more difficult situation as these two aliens in front of it weren't like the usual prey he hunted; they were smarter, faster, and stronger.

The giant, pale one, is different from the normal castes and variants it has seen. It was sturdier than even the Praetorian it had fought, one of its most proud achievements in his career as a hunter. In fact, his and his pack's goal in coming to this world was to hunt a Queen, albeit weakened, it was still significantly stronger than a Praetorian.

But the appearance of this unique variant stimulated its desire to hunt and fight worthy and powerful prey, enough so that he abandoned his initial goal of searching and hunting the Xenomorph Queen to take a slight detour and fight the pale giant before it.

After all, in size alone, the pale giant was taller than a Praetorian and only slightly shorter than the Queen. And from their initial confrontation, he could determine the pale giant to be slightly stronger than a Praetorian.

However, little did he know, Jun was merely a warrior caste and had yet to mature into a Praetorian.

As he was distracted by these thoughts, the Yautja began to slowly strip its damaged equipment from its body, throwing aside its helmet and caster. In that instant, he somehow missed the moment Juno escaped into the shadows, causing his already strained nerves to hone his senses a notch.

But he knew, for the most part, Juno wouldn't reveal itself until the latter knew she could get an attack when a weak spot or opening was revealed, like what happened before when the two caught it in a pincer attack.

Almost immediately after Juno disappeared from his senses, Jun dropped on all fours and made a sudden and rapid dash toward him, shaking the ground in light tremors and leaving a sizzling trail from the blood dripping from its wounded left hand.

The Yauja in preparation for Jun's attack, leaped backward onto a thick tree branch. At the same time he leaped into the air, Juno came from the shadows beneath him swiping her claws at his back but was met with the Yautja's wrist blades that blocked it. Sparks flew in the air as Jun continued to approach with fervor, about to leap toward the Yautja that was momentarily immobile.

However, before he could do so, his senses alarmed him of danger and instead of jumping forward, he leaped to the side and maneuvered around the trees. When he did that, he noticed a slightly visible red laser casting a wide net where he was about to pass through. Had he gone through with his attack, he would have undoubtedly been sliced into chunks.

Juno also noticed this as she was nearby, and quickly chose to deal with any more traps set up around the forest.

The Yautja clicked its mandibles in annoyance but also excitement, as the harder it was to kill these prey, the more rewarding and valuable his trophies would become, bringing great honor and pride to him and his pack.

As soon as it landed on the branch, it began to kite Jun toward the location of its nearest weapon, the Smart Disc.

Jun's tail clashed with the Yautja's wrist blades and pushed it back several times until finding a small opening, striking the Yautjas face. The Yautja evaded the tails' deadly strike in time but failed to evade it fully as a mandible and several dreadlocks fell to the ground. Neon blood covered the tip of Jun's tail, but there was no time to celebrate as a blade came slashing across its face. A long, deep horizontal gash appeared on Jun's head which caused him to retreat a few steps instinctively hissing at the Yautja in a threatening tone.

It was then that Jun realized the Yautja was pretending to be overwhelmed as it lead him to a tree trunk that had its weapon embedded inside.

As the Yatuja retrieved its Smart Disc, it immediately jumped from the top of the trees onto the ground several meters before Jun and broke into a sprint.

Jun chose to contend with the Yautja and charged forward on all fours, slowly rising onto his hind legs and prematurely slashing the air in front of it. Acidic blood flew from his wounded hand toward the Yautja who swiftly dodged and brought its Smart Disc to its left, blocking a surprise attack from Juno who appeared out of nowhere.

Juno followed up with a claw slash but was overwhelmed by the Yautja's perverse strength and was staggered. The Yautja took this brief opening to slash Juno's arm off, severing a limb from her body.

『SKREEE~!』 (Juno)

『JUNO!!』 (Jun)

Just as the Yautja was prepared to follow up with a lethal blow to end the aliens' life, it instead withdrew its arm to form a cross in front of its chest, blocking a powerful blow from Jun which caused its body to drag several feet backward from the transferred inertia.

The Yauja was amazed by the aliens' strength as it felt its arms numb and bones creak.

『Juno, are you okay?』 Jun asked with concern.

A sizzling sound could be heard as blood poured from Juno's shoulder creating a large and deep pit in the earth that continued to deepen with more spilled blood.

『I-I'm okay... brother look out!』 Juno's shout alarmed Jun but it was too late.

The Yautja had taken advantage of the aliens' distraction and threw his Smart Disc, creating a piercing whizzing sound that cut through the air toward Jun. Fortunately, with Juno's prompt alert, Jun was able to tilt his body to avoid a lethal wound that would have sliced his head in two. Instead, one of his dorsal fins and a corner of his crown were cut off, splashing acidic blood onto the surrounding trees and shrubs.

Instead of following up with another attack, the Yautja rushed off into the depths of the forest, catching its Smart Disc and disappearing in the bushes.

『Is it retreating?』 Juno asked unsure of her speculation.

『No... damn! It's going to get its spear!』 (Jun)

The two ignored their wounds and chased after the Yautja who set up more traps behind it. With Jun in the lead, he took the brunt of the attacks while Juno followed safely behind, gritting her teeth in worry for her brother.

All of a sudden, a net came flying and captured the two, but only managed to slow them down as their acidic blood melted the net. However, they were left with a grid-like pattern on their flesh, similar to the grid alien in the Aliens vs Predator movie.

After chasing the Yautja for a few dozen seconds Jun instinctively stopped and whipped his tail to the left. The Smart Disc thrown by the Yautja was deflected and half buried in the earth a short distance away. Following this sudden attack was another as the Yautja brought down its spear from above. Jun quickly raised his arms to block the attack but was kicked in the chest and sent flying back. Juno attacked at the same time the Yautja kicked and managed to leave a deep gash on its thigh but was also sent flying with a smack on the side of her head, giving her a light concussion and messing up her senses. During this time, it retreated to the Smart Disc and held both weapons in each hand.

Jun stood back up and roared at Yautja, growing increasingly frustrated and bloodthirsty. Juno, too, was affected by the mood of the atmosphere and grew eerily calm.

The two engaged in a frontal assault on the Yautja, timing their attacks in sync, deflecting attacks, evading lethal ones, and helping each other.

Like this, they continued to grow rapidly in their battle, learning a natural fighting style that was more of a wild, savage, flurry of attacks than anything systematic and refined.

Jun slashed down with his sharp claws bringing a heavy attack but the Yautja parried it and stabbed Jun in the shoulder with his spear. Juno grabbed the Yautja's arm and went to bite a sizable chunk of flesh out of it but instead had her own inner mouth cut by the Smart Disc as she swiftly pulled away.

Every time the Yatuja suffered a wound, the twins would suffer two more. Every time they managed to land a lethal blow, they too would receive a life-threatening wound.

Both parties, the Yautja, and the twin Xenomorphs thrived in this battle and grew stronger from the life-and-death experience.

But as this story was about the twins, the Yautja had to suffer the unfairness of it all as no matter how careful he was, life had it out for him.

Blood from the twins' wounds splashed wantonly in the surroundings, and they used it to their advantage, turning their wounds into weapons as they spat or flicked their blood toward the Yautja.

After another round of exchanging blows, the Yautja stabbed Jun in the stomach, but the latter firmly held onto the spear and the Yautja's wrist, locking him in place.

『Juno, now!』 Jun shouted telepathically, translating to a terrible screech in the Yautja's ears.

Juno, who was prepared, stabbed the Yautjas spine, piercing through his heart and out of his chest. Blood gushed from the opened wound and spilled from its mouth, painting the tip of her tail and Jun's chest a neon green.

However, at this close range and with Jun also locked in place, it would prove difficult for the latter to evade its next attack. But Juno didn't want to give it any chance at all and instantly crushed its skull as the Yautja slashed with its Smart Disc. The strength in its arms died down and only left a shallow wound on Jun's neck, embedding its blades in his thick bio-mechanical flesh.

Finally, the battle came to an end with the twins as the survivors.

...

Earth, in an alternate universe.

"Ugh..." David grunted in discomfort as he exited the cheap virtual pod. Stinging, numbing pain overwhelmed his senses and flushed his aching body with fatigue. All of this was due to the high-intensity battle he just went through in the game, Apex Hunter.

[Mr. King, you are suffering from multiple side effects of high-intensity activity. Your blood pressure and stress levels are all abnormally high. Should I call a doctor for you?]

"Don't bother. Flush the pod and refill the tank with two C-grade Nutrient Fluids."

After giving his virtual assistant its commands, David recalled his earlier battle with the two unique Xenomorph variants.

Initially, he was entering an instance dungeon to complete a quest to hunt a Xenomorph Queen for his class advancement, but the game system announced a sudden special event.

The event mentioned two anomalies, mutated Xenomorph variants, and requested him to hunt them down. Of course, it wasn't for free, as he was offered bountiful rewards worth several times more than completing his own class advancement quest. Naturally, he was attracted by the system's offer and chose to put aside his own quest to complete this special event.

So upon making his way to the location provided by the games system, he was surprised to see the pale giant xenomorph similar in appearance to a Praetorian, which should have been impossible as this instance dungeon was made for newbies, a relatively safe and harmless area; excluding the part where one had to advance their class by hunting the Queen.

Nevertheless, David grew excited as he would receive bonus rewards if he were to claim the lives of the two mutated variants as trophies and record their various data.

So, he jumped right in with a hardened mindset of a warrior and fought the two with everything he had at his disposal.

Alas, he failed in the special event and died.

Fortunately, death in Apex Hunter wasn't permanent. Unfortunately, it had a death timer of 72 hours in-game, which converted to 24 hours in reality.

But that was alright, as David had some things to deal with in the real world which would take him a few days so he slowly closed his eyes and began to recall his battle, looking for flaws in his strategy and where he could improve.

"Whew, there were two opportunities I could have taken to seize the victory, but my instinct to protect myself from harm caused me to miss it,"

David spoke in realization and mentally noted that he should learn to suppress this instinct.

"However, those two were exceptionally smart for AI monsters. Is this due to their unique trait as mutated variants? I'll need to look at the forum."

David recalled the intelligence and sympathy he noticed in the aliens and wondered.