Ch.128128. Ancient Hero

And fortunately for Bjorn, no major accidents occurred during this mission.

Following standard protocol, the “Wolves of Winter” mercenary group infiltrated the Ophilin pirates’ ship, wiped out all the Ophilins inside, and rescued the client’s daughter who, though stressed and exhausted, had not been physically harmed.

“Thank you, thank you! Here, I’ve added a little extra to the promised payment!”

“Oh my, you’re too generous.”

They received additional compensation for their quick and efficient work, and since they hadn’t caused any damage, there was no need to pay any compensation.

With the additional profit from selling the captured pirate ship, the mercenary commander was in a particularly good mood and decided that the group would take a vacation to a resort planet.

As their mothership “Ice Fang” rapidly navigated through space, the mercenary members were excited about visiting a resort planet so prestigious that even people from Earth would travel there as tourists.

They were heading toward a planet that used cutting-edge technology purely for entertainment purposes, a destination consistently ranked in the top 10 places humans should visit before they die. However…

During their journey, they encountered something completely unexpected.

“W-what is that—”

“…Why, why here of all places?”

A massive satellite-class organic vessel so enormous it almost seemed like part of the background, with eyeballs that moved as if alive, escorted by what appeared to be over 100 capital ships.

It was a full-scale invasion fleet including a “Doomsday” class ship, the kind that appears only once every few decades.

They had accidentally encountered what seemed to be the vanguard of what was known as the Great Invasion, while taking a shortcut to quickly reach the resort planet.

“Evade! Evade!”

“Activate the emergency escape system, quickly!”

Since a mere 500-meter class ship obviously couldn’t stand against such a fleet, the “Ice Fang” tried to avoid the barrage of laser attacks with superhuman focus while desperately holding out until the emergency escape system could activate.

But no matter how skilled the pilot, it was physically impossible to dodge the rain of lasers that covered nearly the entire area. Eventually, the Ice Fang’s psychic shield shattered, and the ship began to break apart chaotically.

Everyone tried to maximize their personal shields while somehow managing to put on powered suits to survive in the space environment.

And at that very moment.

One of the laser beams struck the already damaged mothership’s engine directly, causing the still-activating emergency escape system to malfunction—temporarily creating a massive wormhole.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

The ship’s debris and the humans aboard, regardless of whether they were alive or dead, were sucked into the wormhole. Jon, who had somehow managed to survive, screamed as he was pulled into the spatial rift.

And when Jon opened his eyes again.

“Where… am I?”

He had fallen into the depths of a dark forest, along with several mercenary members and parts of the ship’s wreckage.

※ ※ ※

“The suit… is still functioning.”

A while later, after retrieving unconscious mercenary members from the wreckage and collecting the bodies of those who hadn’t survived, Jon was checking the condition of his body and equipment.

Thanks to the expensive psychic shield generator installed in his suit, its condition was remarkably good considering the terrible bombardment it had endured, and its functions had prevented his body from being shattered.

As Jon sighed with relief and sat down to rest beside the mercenary members who were still breathing despite losing consciousness:

“Uh… uhh…?”

“Are you awake, Bison?”

“C-Commander?”

The fallen mercenaries began to regain consciousness and get up one by one.

Three of the six “Wolf Guardians” who served as the mercenary commander’s bodyguards including Bison, Hela Milson who was the deputy commander and staff officer of the 1st Company, and four members of the 5th Company’s heavy weapons team.

These eight people had been on the bridge when the ship was attacked, and it seemed almost certain that those who were close to each other when they were sucked in would land close to each other when they fell.

After Jon, who was also the mercenary commander, regained consciousness and spoke with the others gathered around him, they made a decision.

They would first search for their comrades who were likely to be on this planet, and only then would they decide whether to escape from the planet or stay.

“We’re moving out. Form up.”

“”””””Yes, sir!””””””

Jon, Hela, and the three Wolf Guardians took the front line, while the four members of the heavy weapons team equipped with various firearms positioned themselves behind.

Since the forest was so dense, they couldn’t rule out the possibility of encountering unusually strong native creatures, so they chose a formation that would allow them to engage in combat at any time—and this choice seemed to be a good one.

“Hostile life form approaching rapidly! Enemy attack! We’re under attack!”

Hela, whose suit was equipped with a life form detector, shouted after checking her helmet interface as they had been walking for some time. The other members also received the shared information from Hela’s interface and began to watch for the direction from which the hostile life form was approaching.

And shortly after.

■■■■■■■───!!!!

From the identified direction, a massive wolf at least 10 meters long appeared, emitting a psychic roar of intimidation and mental confusion from its mouth.

Judging by appearance alone, it might have seemed like just a canine animal that had become native to the area and unusually strong while gaining psychic abilities, but it was the same species as the monsters seen on the home planet of the “Wolves of Winter.”

Its exact name was the Hive Wolf.

It was a mid-level beast-type monster specialized in guerrilla and mobile warfare, commonly deployed in terrain like forests or mountainous areas where infantry couldn’t easily enter.

Its hide contained components that could deflect optical weapons like lasers, its teeth and claws could split tank-grade plasteel alloy plates in an instant, and its keen senses, enhanced by psychic abilities, were said to never miss a target on a planet.

—THUD!!!!

CLANG…!

But it was still just a mid-level monster. The charging beast was knocked back by Jon’s plasma fist and then immediately killed when Hela’s spear pierced its brain.

However, the group couldn’t rejoice at having defeated the monster; rather, they felt a kind of fear just from the fact that it was there.

The presence of a specimen with the original gray fur—not a type that had remained in a specific area and become native—meant that this planet was also being invaded by monsters.

Judging by the state of the forest, it appeared to be a terraformed planet, but the fact that such a dense forest remained unmanaged suggested that the planetary government was relatively new and lacked resources.

Naturally, it would be difficult if not impossible for such a planet to survive a monster invasion, so it was highly likely that the planet’s civilization had already collapsed at the hands of the monsters.

‘Damn, what should we do…’

As the mercenary members realized these facts and were deep in thought, unable to even speak:

“Commander! Human life signs detected! They appear to be engaged in combat with monsters!”

At Hela’s words, they immediately began moving quickly to meet the humans who were reportedly in combat.

They quickly cut down several monsters they encountered on the way, smashed through obstacles, and easily jumped over pits.

In a state of hyper-focus where one second felt like ten, they walked for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, they arrived at the location where the life signs had been detected and immediately moved toward the sound of combat—

“What, what the…”

“H-how, how is that person here?!”

All nine of them were shocked at the sight of the person slaughtering monsters.

Wearing a tight-fitting bodysuit of white and gold, wielding a laser sword typically used as a secondary weapon by crew members of armored vehicles, and with long blonde hair flowing, the figure was decimating monsters with various psychic powers.

Crushing monster tanks with telekinesis, applying pressure to groups of monsters with gravity manipulation to wipe them out in one go, and literally dismembering dozens of monsters with a light sword made of laser blades that should have been weak due to its focus on portability.

The combat prowess and beautiful appearance, almost transcending humanity, belonged to someone they all knew.

Her name was—Teresia.

The legendary hero of humanity, widely known for slaying the fire dragon Volcania in the distant past and establishing the Mercenary Guild, was somehow fighting monsters on this planet right now.