Ch.118Night Hunt (2)

Night had once again fallen on the jungle covered with redwoods over hundreds of meters tall.

The darkness of the forest took on a navy hue as the deep green leaves blended with the red color of the trees.

In that dreary, cool space, six Heavy Walkers were advancing with their lights on.

‘Let’s see.’

I looked down at them from atop a tree.

Honestly, now that I’ve become a Subadult, I could just go down there and beat them all up, but there’s a reason I’m not doing that.

‘I can’t let them see my form.’

If my Subadult status is discovered, Muriel would either prepare accordingly or try to escape into space to get away from me.

It doesn’t seem like there’s another ship besides the cruiser, but if she has some means of escape into space, I wouldn’t be able to stop her.

To prevent this, I need to destroy all six units simultaneously in an instant so the enemies can’t capture me on camera.

And right now, I’m waiting for that opportunity to arise.

“What kind of suffering is this, not even getting to sleep.”

“Hey, is it really around here?”

“Yes. It’s nearby.”

“Damn, this injured bastard sure moves around a lot.”

“At least it’s nearby if you say so. Let’s catch it quickly and go back.”

The Walker pilots grumble, apparently bored from following traces all day long.

‘Good.’

Everyone’s guard is down momentarily, so I should strike now.

I had been hiding in a suitable position ready to ambush at any time. Wrapping my tail tightly around a tree, I stretched my upper body out above their heads.

Conveniently, there were exactly six Walkers, matching the number of my tentacles. I quickly activated my corrosive tentacles.

The corrosive tentacles with six sharp appendages rained down like arrows, precisely targeting the cockpits of all six Heavy Walkers.

The tentacles penetrated the top of the cockpits, either extracting or crushing only the heads of the pilots inside.

“…!”

The Griffon Volf, who had noticed me earlier, leaped forward. The blood-sucking tentacle that shot from my hand unfortunately missed its target and struck the ground instead.

The Griffon Volf continued its leap upward.

Its body defied natural law as it soared into the air. It moved quickly, kicking against the air as if there were invisible stairs in the sky.

There was an iron chain around its neck connecting it to the Walker, but it seemed the creature had no intention of escaping anyway.

The Griffon attacks rapidly like an eagle spotting a fish. Its target isn’t my upper body but my tail—the part holding onto the tree.

I quickly released my tail and spread my gliding membrane to fly to another tree. In that split second, the creature’s front paw struck the redwood.

Crack!

That solid redwood was deeply gouged by its front paw.

“?!”

The creature’s eyes widened, as if surprised that I could fly away to escape.

After moving to another tree, I flicked the tip of my tail forcefully.

Giant spiky hairs, larger than kitchen knives, flew toward the creature suspended in the air.

With eagle-like eyes, it read the trajectory of all the incoming spiky hairs in a brief moment and avoided them.

As the creature landed on the ground, the Walkers, having lost all their pilots, slowly toppled forward.

“What? Why are all signals cut off? Sky Mother? What’s happening?”

“The Walkers have been taken down by it.”

Muriel’s panicked voice flowed from the communicator inside the Walker. The Griffon answered briefly in a voice reminiscent of a bird of prey.

“What? Wasn’t it injured?”

“It recovered in the meantime.”

“What the f—?! What nonsense is that! Hey! Get the camera from the Walker and show me! I need to see for myself!”

I can’t allow that.

I activated my acidic fungal gland. The acidic fungus rose up from near my esophagus like boiling liquid, and I spewed it onto the cockpits of the Walkers.

The acidic fungus that landed on the Walkers splattered in all directions, spreading to all six units.

“I’m engaging it now.”

“Cut the crap and quickly get the—bzzzzzzt”

“……”

As the cockpits completely melted away, the cameras and communicators disappeared with them. The Griffon broke the chain around its neck by applying the fungus to it.

Seeing that, I was certain.

That it too was a player.

“You·are·a·player·too?”

“Yes.”

The Griffon answered calmly while keeping its eyes fixed on me. Then it frowned.

“…Damn, just when I thought I’d found happiness, I run into a psycho woman and a Morph-freak one after another.”

Judging from the conversation the Walkers had before they died and her attitude now, the Griffon Volf didn’t seem to be on particularly good terms with Muriel.

‘That’s already two players I’ve met.’

It seems there are more players who have come to this world than I thought.

‘I’ll figure that out later.’

For now, I need to deal with the Griffon Volf before Muriel arrives here.

Since it’s been showing an ambiguous attitude, I’m not entirely sure, but it’s enough that Muriel has already been caught off guard once.

Perhaps sensing my hostility, it slowly moved sideways.

Like a lion stalking its prey, the Griffon lowered its body and slowly prowled around. I too, leading with my long tail, looked for an opening.

‘There’s a wound on its belly.’

I know Griffons have excellent recovery abilities, but that must have been quite a deep wound. Even now, drops of blood were falling from between its fur.

Just as I was examining it, its gaze was carefully scanning my body. The Griffon’s eyes have an effect similar to my “Insight” trait, allowing it to identify an enemy’s weaknesses.

‘Not that it will help much.’

Looking at the gap between it and me, I clearly have the upper hand. Plus, its injury hasn’t fully healed yet.

If I were another AMorph, it might be different, but it knows my identity, so it must feel incredibly frustrated.

Evidence of this is its heart beating violently, which I can sense. It’s due to tension and fear.

“Kyao!”

After a brief period of mutual assessment, the Griffon made the first move.

It roared briefly and flew at me.

Its front paws were aimed at where my arms were.

‘It knows my head is hard.’

Judging by the strength it showed when destroying the redwood earlier, while it might not be able to sever my arm, it could probably break it. In other words, it’s better to dodge than to take the hit.

I twisted my body like a dancing cobra to avoid its front paw.

When its front paw struck the ground, a boom echoed like a grenade explosion.

Having failed its attack, its posture was broken. I didn’t miss the opportunity and pulled out a bone axe from my hand, swinging it toward its back.

But just as its attack failed, my intention wasn’t realized either. In the midst of it all, it flexibly twisted its body and narrowly avoided my attack.

It used the momentum from twisting its body to kick with its hind legs at the area around my neck, or more precisely, where the monster’s tentacles were.

‘Oh no!’

I hastily pulled back my body so the tentacles were only slightly grazed, but considerable pain still surged through me.

‘Not bad.’

The monster’s tentacles are based on psychic organs, a trait rarely seen in the game. No player who becomes an AMorph acquires psychic organs.

Yet it managed to identify the weak point on my body in a brief moment.

While I was backing away in admiration, it didn’t launch a follow-up attack.

More accurately, it couldn’t. It was busy avoiding the corrosive tentacles that had sprung from my back.

The tentacles pierced through the ground where it had been standing and the air, while it kicked against empty space, avoiding them like an acrobat by the narrowest margins.

But my means of attack don’t end there. The eye-shaped patterns on my head all light up at once.

The Fearful Observer suppresses the Griffon’s mind.

For a moment, its eyes became hazy. The Griffon has resistance to mental attacks, so it quickly regained its senses, but it was already too late.

“Kuk!”

The blood-sucking tentacle shot from my hand grazed the Griffon’s side. It gritted its teeth and tried to dodge backward somehow, but my combat arm didn’t let it escape.

I grabbed its front paw and used Ghost Claw. When my hand touched the bone and muscle inside its paw, I deactivated the trait effect.

Naturally, since my hand was larger than its front paw, its paw was ruptured from the inside by my hand.

“Kraaaang!”

Even it couldn’t bear the pain of its front paw bursting from the inside, and it let out a loud scream.

Meanwhile, my other arm grabbed its neck. And I slammed it straight into the ground.

It couldn’t resist and was pinned to the ground in my grip.

To finish it off, I struck its fallen body with my massive tail.

“Kuk!”

It coughed up blood. The last blow had broken all the bones in its waist and legs.

If it hadn’t been a Griffon with exceptional vitality, it would have died instantly.

‘Your sense wasn’t bad, but you faced the wrong opponent.’

The timing was bad too.

I’ve subdued it. I grabbed the barely breathing creature and lifted it up.

“I·won’t·kill·you·yet.”

“……”

“Tell·me·everything·you·know.”

I don’t know what relationship it has with Muriel, but it’s clear they were working together. If so, it must know a lot of information about Muriel.

I’ll decide whether to eat it or not after getting all the information.

But it showed an unexpected reaction.

“Kh, khuk, kuluk… indeed, nothing has changed.”

The Griffon laughed while coughing up blood. Among all those I’ve killed so far, only one type laughed in front of me.

“Are·you·insane?”

“Kuok! Kuluk, kuluk…. That’s not wrong. Because I’m about to do something insane.”

Saying that, it looked straight into my eyes.

In its amber-glowing eyes, some emotion was boiling.

It wasn’t fear of death, nor despair at the fact that it would soon be eaten by me.

According to my auxiliary organ under the jaw, that emotion was fierce anger.

“I’ll tell you everything I know. If you ask for cooperation, I’ll listen, and if you want to use me as a slave, do as you please. I don’t care if you eat me.”

“What?”

“Just promise me one thing.”

The blood-covered Griffon says through gritted teeth.

“Give Muriel the greatest despair that you, the one called Morph-freak, can show. If you promise that, I’ll give you everything you want.”

It seems the relationship between Griffon Volf and Muriel was very poor. The grudge the Griffon harbored seemed genuine even to me.

“You’re·not·in·a·position·to·negotiate·with·me.”

“I know. Kuluk, I know my position. But you also know. The drawback of parasites.”

Its gaze turns to my arm. The arm containing the parasite colony.

“You·know·about·this?”

“Kukuk, how much I suffered from that… kuluk, I don’t know how much, kuok! Kuluk… it’s changed in reality, but it’s probably not perfect.”

Griffon Volf’s discernment was extraordinary. Among all the enemies I’ve faced and fought so far, none had grasped my nature so quickly.

Thanks to acquiring the Infection Enhancement type, the number of parasites I can control has increased to 10.

Also, if I don’t move and concentrate, I can control the body of one parasite-dominated being for 10 minutes. Even in the game, I’ve raided clans with mimicry organs and parasite colonies more than once.

‘But it’s true there is a weakness.’

While it’s very effective for inducing internal strife among enemies, the interrogation function itself hasn’t been greatly enhanced.

Therefore, as seen in William’s case, one can still refuse to tell the truth despite extreme pain or harbor other thoughts.

‘Plus, it knows quite a lot about me too.’

From the way it speaks, it’s clear that it has fought me several times in the game. However, I’ve fought so many Volfs that my memory is a bit hazy.

‘Hmm.’

When I remained silent, it closed its eyes as if telling me to do as I pleased.

This dying Griffon Volf is quite an interesting being.

‘What should I do?’

I’d like to think more, but I don’t have time.

Having made my decision, I reached my hand toward its head.