Ch.118118. Calamity

As the ‘Dragonia’ appeared, subtly flaunting its ferocity and cunning, the Kupan Riders who had faced such creatures dozens of times immediately implemented their response protocol.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

While buying time by generously throwing matter-decomposition grenades—items too valuable to be wasted on “expendables” and thus only issued to squad leaders and above—about half of the Kupan Riders activated their bikes’ hidden function, transforming them into artillery platforms.

Powered by batteries, the projectiles fired from what was originally the booster section were nothing but plasma synthesized using the battery’s power.

Since this was a use that deviated from the original purpose, the bikes would break down after about 10 shots, but that hardly mattered.

Right now, what was most important to them was buying time until the Dragonia extermination team arrived.

But that didn’t seem likely to go well.

[[■■■■■■■■■■■───!!!!]]

The Dragonia, which had been blocking plasma shells by spreading its field-coated wings as a shield, immediately thrust its wings outward to deflect the shells when the barrage thinned. With a roar, it charged forward.

After hurling its field-coated head to take out the commander unit first, it began a massacre with a hammer that glowed blue like radioactive material, having concentrated field energy and psychic power to the extreme.

THUD! CRACK! BOOM! CRUNCH!

With overwhelming physical prowess, it ignored and absorbed weak attacks while its hammer created continuous shockwaves inside anything it touched. Even a glancing blow would cause the target to explode within about 10 seconds, and worse, these shockwaves spread through contact.

Because of this, even though all eight companies of Kupan Riders (800 people) rushed in, the Dragonia effortlessly killed them using its entire body as a weapon. Before long, only about four survivors remained.

And even they were merely “alive” and nothing more.

But their sacrifice wasn’t entirely in vain. Just as the Dragonia was chewing on one of the remaining four survivors—

The Tetra family’s specialized Dragonia extermination team—known as the “Draco Killer” company—arrived.

Unlike the regular Kupan Riders in their light blue powered suits riding motorcycles, these troops arrived in transport vehicles resembling trucks with pointed fronts and quickly disembarked.

Though their physical builds might be similar to the Kupan Riders, the Draco Killer company consisted of the elite among elites. The cost of producing just one suit was equivalent to a small spacecraft, and with all their equipment, one could buy about four small ships with independent interstellar travel capabilities.

Their silver-gray armor was massive and heavy, with shoulder plates rising higher than their heads, and each carried a different type of enormous metal backpack.

Some had multiple auxiliary arms equipped with various weapons, while others functioned as powerful psychic barrier generators that protected not only themselves but also their allies.

There were also Draco Killers with massive aircraft-sized turbines on their backs, and others carrying oversized and beautiful plasma cannons connected to fuel tanks they carried—

These Dragonia hunters, trained based on data gathered through nearly a thousand years of continuous struggle, moved to recreate their hunts from decades past, recalling their previous experiences hunting Dragonia.

BOOM! BOOM!

[[■■■■■■■■■!!!!]]

Naturally, they began with their maximum firepower—the plasma cannons.

Connected to the large fuel tanks mounted on their backpacks, these weapons were tank-grade plasma cannons overcharged to the point of being absurdly overpowered for infantry weapons. The Dragonia staggered from the impact, unlike its reaction to the improvised plasma weapons from earlier.

Of course, they couldn’t even scratch its scales, let alone injure its muscles. Each scale was made of pseudo-adamantium, and its muscle fibers were tough yet efficiently absorbed impacts.

Despite about ten plasma cannons spewing fire, the Dragonia charged forward swinging its hammer, completely unfazed—but something stood in its way.

Psychically compressed plasteel barricades returned to their original size and engulfed the Dragonia.

CRASH───!!!! CRACK! BOOM!!!!!!

The plasteel barriers, merely sturdy chunks of metal, shattered into scrap with each swing of the hammer, but they were only meant to buy time.

While the barricades were being destroyed, the Draco Killer company busily moved around installing devices—

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beepbeepbeepbeep───WHOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!

The installed devices—gravity amplifiers combined with gravitational psychic powers—successfully restrained the Dragonia by multiplying the gravity in its vicinity dozens of times.

Creak……..Creak.

But even gravity multiplied dozens of times couldn’t kill the Dragonia, nor even make it fall to the ground.

It merely stood in place, twitching slightly, but that was enough for now.

As mentioned repeatedly, their goal was simply to buy time—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!

The “real” attack was the escort ship’s main cannon that pierced through the ceiling and hit the Dragonia directly.

The laser beam, thick enough to engulf a 6-meter giant completely, broke through the ceiling, struck the Dragonia, and penetrated through the floor of the space station. The Dragonia vanished without a trace.

Normally, air would rush out through the hole, sweeping away the Draco Killer company, but they had already shot grappling hooks from their boots to anchor themselves to the floor, allowing them to withstand the air evacuation.

The problem came next—the Dragonia’s return.

Though blasted into space by the cruiser’s laser cannon, it was far too durable to die from that.

Having survived by sacrificing a few scales, it spread its wings and flew upward rapidly, charging at about 100 km/h toward the escort ship that had fired the main cannon.

Naturally, secondary guns and anti-aircraft weapons fired lasers to intercept it, but at 6 meters tall, it was too small a target in space warfare for secondary guns to hit, and anti-aircraft fire did no damage.

Midway through, the Dragonia began swinging its hammer by the strap at its end, then hurled it with all its might, penetrating the escort ship’s armor. Inside, it wreaked havoc, focusing on destroying the ship—

The out-of-control escort ship crashed into the space station, and during this process, the Dragonia fell to an unexpected location—the frontline where monsters and space marines were in the midst of battle.

CRASH───!!!

Landing right on top of the space marines with a thunderous sound, the Dragonia immediately opened its mouth and spewed psychic flames. It landed on the melted remains of marines who had been reduced to molten metal and carbon, and began another massacre.

“D-Dragonia!”

“Why is it here?!!! It should be in the SRP sector?!!!”

Even with 2.5-meter superhuman bodies and implants that secreted combat stabilizing drugs, the marines were merely enhanced soldiers, not genetically engineered synthetic humans.

Though terrified by the Dragonia’s overwhelming presence, the combat stabilizers from their implants and enhancement drugs administered inside their suits prevented them from fleeing—but they couldn’t advance either.

They simply couldn’t run away. The overwhelming monster methodically eliminated the space marines frozen in extreme terror, working in coordination with the other monsters like a farmer harvesting wheat with a combine.

The monster army led by this creature that had single-handedly destroyed a 1km-long escort ship was a true army of monsters, employing not just overwhelming combat power but also precise tactics.

“…How are we supposed to stop something like THAT?!!!”

When one of Arthur’s secretaries watching the scene on the display in the family office involuntarily burst out in frustration, no one in the room could reprimand him for his rudeness.

The thought that this time the Kupan space station would truly fall dominated their minds, and just as Arthur was seriously considering activating the escape protocol—

“…Ha, hahahahaha!!”

Arthur, who had been watching the displays showing various locations in the space station, suddenly burst into laughter. Turning to his bewildered secretaries with traces of laughter still in his voice, he said:

“It seems fate hasn’t abandoned us after all!”

With those words, the display showed a different scene from before.

Monsters being cut down, and attacking those monsters—warriors forged from light.