Ch.132132. Wolves of the Universe

Momentarily fast-forwarding in time, right after Yon was thrown onto the monster’s low-orbit vessel for ground attacks.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAANG───!!!!!

CRASH!

With a thunderous noise, Yon physically boarded and entered the vessel. He heard the sound of his protective barrier shattering, and he was already deep inside the ship.

‘……..Dreadful.’

And as his brief thought suggested, the interior of the vessel was, unsurprisingly, bizarre and grotesque.

Golden eyeballs served as lighting, the floor was covered with hard chitinous shells instead of tiles, and the walls were lined with things that looked like intestines or blood vessels hanging in clusters.

It was the very embodiment of what a ‘bio-vessel’ would be, causing Yon to frown as he unconsciously looked back───

‘……..Regeneration?’

The hole he had broken through was naturally being filled as the bone and flesh that served as the wall’s support structure regenerated.

Though Yon was now trapped inside this vessel without escape……..surprisingly, he wasn’t too concerned about it.

He had already decided not to leave until the monster vessel crashed anyway. Just as he sensed monsters gathering around him and was about to extend blade-shaped claws from the back of his hand─

Pssshhhhhhhhhhh…………

Suddenly, there was a sound like gas leaking through narrow gaps, and suspicious green mist and liquid rapidly sprayed out from the organic pipes that resembled blood vessels and intestines all around him.

“───Activate!”

Woooong!

Hastily defending himself with his suit’s psychic barrier, Yon noticed that the paint on the power suit’s armor plates on his legs and shoulders that had direct contact with the gas was peeling off, revealing these substances to be highly concentrated acidic liquid.

Of course, his powered suit was capable of complete isolation from the outside and made of durable adamantium-plasteel alloy armor, so a few drops wouldn’t cause any issues. However, the problem was the environment—his field of vision was completely covered in green mist, and acidic liquid was beginning to pool on the floor with splashing sounds.

The suit wouldn’t survive prolonged exposure to high-acidity solution, and if the suit were to be damaged, the acidic liquid would seep in through the breach.

But since maintaining an active psychic barrier throughout the entire battle would be too taxing, Yon decided to use another method.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve had to use this so crudely.’

Suddenly, the temperature dropped dramatically, and ultimate cold energy manifested through psychic power spread out from him.

The cold froze any flesh it touched, turning it black, froze the spraying acidic liquid in its state, and even froze the acidic liquid inside the surrounding organic pipes, causing them to burst from expansion.

Even the eyeballs that served as both lighting and CCTV burst as their internal moisture froze and expanded, and everything else—from the acidic mist in the air to the pooled acidic liquid on the floor—completely froze.

This was the true power of a high-class mercenary of such caliber that finding five of them on a single planet would be considered miraculous.

‘My body is……..stiffening a bit.’

Anyway, in this completely frozen ship, recognizing that his powered suit was slightly frozen, he continued to trudge through the vessel’s interior, inhaling and exhaling cold-infused breath.

Most monsters he encountered along the way had become ice statues, and the few that were still alive died instantly when he tore off their heads with his claws.

As he headed toward the location with the strongest psychic energy waves, presumably the core of this vessel……..he finally encountered a monster that hadn’t become a frozen statue—the first one inside the ship.

And it was a specimen very familiar to Yon.

‘……..Is that thing still around?’

A lizard-type monster with a red exoskeleton, one pair of pincers extending from the shoulders at the sides of its head, and psychic flames burning like a mane behind its head.

The monster known as the Crab Salamander was hiding in a corner and emerged suddenly to spew flames, but───

“……..Hmm.”

SLASH!

Being merely a mid-level monster at best, it was cut into pieces with a single strike, and afterward, Yon reached the front of the vessel’s core without encountering any other monsters.

However, there was a problem……….

‘…………A wall.’

Between the vessel’s core and his current position was a large, thick flesh wall, completely frozen.

Even a quick psychic scan showed no entrance nearby, and the wall was quite sturdy, possibly too difficult to destroy with just his claws.

So, Yon chose the easiest and fastest option.

Click.

He would shoot through the wall with a plasma hand cannon, a miniaturized pistol-sized version of a plasma cannon.

THOO───KWAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!!

The high-pressure plasma mass fired from the hand cannon’s muzzle blew away the wall with a thunderous noise upon impact, naturally creating a large hole.

And behind that hole…….

‘Found it!’

■■■■───?!!!!

There was a humanoid monster with its lower body buried in flesh protruding from the floor, and its upper body connected to countless blood vessels and a single spine descending from the ceiling.

This was likely the entity commanding this vessel───or possibly all three invasion vessels.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Yon rushed forward, intending to sever its neck before it could make any moves…….

But the command entity reacted even faster than him.

───WHOOSH!

Suddenly, a massive psychic flame erupted from the floor in front of him, forming a wall.

TSSSSSSSK……..!

Of course, he had considerable experience dealing with such attacks.

Coating both arms with powerful cold energy, Yon broke through the flame wall by crudely neutralizing the psychic flames, then immediately aimed his plasma hand cannon at the creature and───pulled the trigger.

WOOOOOONG───!!!

As he pulled the trigger, another plasma mass shot from the muzzle, but the command entity caught it with telekinesis and threw it back at him.

“───?!!!!”

Momentarily startled to the point where his entire body tingled, Yon hurriedly twisted his body to avoid the plasma mass. At that very moment, six capsule-like objects suddenly emerged from the floor───.

“Huu, huu, huuuu……..”

What appeared from inside were six humanoid monsters, ranging from mid-level to just below high-level, clearly meant for escort duty.

These creatures, standing about 4 meters tall, were covered in thick carapaces resembling powered suits and carried plasma weapon-like spears and oval shields capable of generating their own psychic barriers.

They were specimens Yon was quite familiar with, having confirmed their appearance numerous times during his battles with monsters.

Their official name was Hive Guard, and true to their name, they specialized in protecting monsters that focused on command or wide-range psychic abilities. Rather than having special abilities, they were purely specialized in close combat.

They were disgustingly durable and tenacious, with decent firepower—records showed that eight Hive Guards once killed a Grade 3 high-class mercenary, though only one Guard survived.

And now there were six of them, with appearances suggesting they had been continuously improved over hundreds or even thousands of years, supported by a powerful psychic-specialized monster.

Sruuuk…….

Therefore, Yon began condensing cold energy to the extreme in his claws and circulating psychic energy within his body to warm up.

He coated his muscle fibers with psychic energy, distributed massive amounts of energy throughout his body via blood vessels and nervous system, hardened his bones, and brought his physical condition to its peak───

PSSSHHHHHHHHHHH───!!!

Activating the thrusters mounted near his powered suit’s backpack, he initiated his specialty—high-speed combat—by firing his psychic cold rifle from the armor on his shoulder area.

TDDDDDDDDDDDDING!!!!

Ice bullets formed from psychic cold energy poured out from six muzzles, but the Hive Guards firmly blocked them with their shields───no matter.

This was merely a diversion. The real attack was his claws, glowing white from the cold energy swirling around them.

Made of pure adamantium, each about 30cm long—neither too long nor too short.

The three claws that protruded from the back of his powered suit’s gauntlet drew three lines as he swung his hand───and sliced one guard that was in full defensive stance into pieces, shield and all.

─────SLASH!

And as the Hive Guard’s body, cut into four large pieces, fell to the floor with a thud.

Next!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Yon immediately lunged toward the Hive Guard right beside him.