Ch.220Reorganization (1)

–

‘What’s going on?’

The Sky Mother, who had been hiding, raised her head after confirming they had left.

Not long after she began monitoring the nest, Gallergorn started rushing out in large numbers. They emerged as if there was an urgent matter and hurriedly flew into the sky, disappearing from sight.

‘Why are the Gallergorn…could it be?’

She looked up at the gloomy sky. It was still filled with dark clouds, but there was one difference. Golden light flickered intermittently within the clouds that were dropping snow and hail. It was as if lightning was flowing between the clouds rather than striking the ground.

She realized the situation was turning strange. Something was wrong.

That lightning, or rather, the psychic power resembling lightning, was created by her companion. It was the trump card her companion used when fighting a formidable enemy. The fact that this ability was being used meant her companion was in danger.

While contemplating whether to go help him or what to do, she made a decision.

‘I’ll do what I can.’

She got up and ran toward the cliff where the nest was located.

Thanks to the Gallergorn leaving en masse just now, there were no White Gallergorn in the nest. To be precise, except for Ham Oort who was captured by them.

‘If not now, it will be difficult to extract him.’

She had already heard from AMorph that Ham Oort possessed important value. With attention drawn to AMorph, this was the only chance to rescue him.

‘Besides, he’s also Adhigh Orr’s birth mother.’

She thought of the small-bodied Gallergorn. Adhigh harbored mixed feelings of love and hatred toward the mother who abandoned him.

If something happened to Ham Oort, he would forever lose the chance to resolve the resentment in his heart.

‘He can be annoying sometimes, but…’

Somehow, she didn’t want to see him sad.

‘If there are only Green Gallergorn, I can break through somehow.’

That is, if she utilized her perk, “Hunter God’s Transformation Shell.”

‘Using Wendigo would be better.’

It’s not the strongest phantom beast (幻獸) she can transform into, but Wendigo is much better for infiltrating enemy territory and extracting personnel, as needed now.

She also had to consider the possibility of consecutive battles.

When using Hunter God’s Transformation Shell to transform, she cannot transform into another phantom beast for a month. If she wants to transform again, she must return to her griffon form and wait a month. So for a prolonged battle like this, the Wendigo, with its transformation duration of 5 days, is more suitable.

Running on four legs, she activated Hunter God’s Transformation Shell.

The black wave patterns on her body spread widely and enveloped her entire body. Her skeleton twisted, and the firm muscles throughout her body disappeared.

As her skeleton changed, her waist straightened, and her hind legs became thicker and longer than her forelegs. She had been using all four limbs but was now running on just her hind legs.

Running on two legs, she roughly tore off the fur remaining on her body. Golden fur and flesh were torn away, revealing obsidian-black bones and thin skin underneath.

Finally, she tore off her facial skin. What remained after the skin was peeled away was a bird’s black skull and massive horns protruding from the head. It should have been in the form of a stag’s head, but the griffon form remained slightly.

Within the empty eye sockets, her distinctive amber eyes glowed like will-o’-the-wisps.

The Wendigo she transformed into had a body structure similar to when she took a humanoid form, in that it was suitable for bipedal walking. Of course, it had an overwhelmingly eerie and hideous appearance compared to her humanoid form.

She looked down at her body while running and let out a small sigh.

「The appearance is still not great.」

The Sky Mother, transformed into a Wendigo, began climbing down the cliff using both hands and feet.

The nest had not yet noticed her intrusion.

–

Odr Grad’s figure was obscured by the flames created by the cruiser’s main gun. While he was burning in the flames, I flew toward the cruiser where PS-111 was.

Other Gallergorn also targeted the ship that had attacked their leader. The ivory-colored vessel began firing its guns at the approaching enemies.

The medium and small-caliber guns mounted on the ship’s exterior all spewed fire at once. Purple-glowing shells targeted the flying Gallergorn.

The White Gallergorn skillfully avoided them, but the younger Green Gallergorn couldn’t. Several green-scaled Gallergorn fell with holes in their wings.

Seeing this, a White Gallergorn charged its breath in anger. Seeing its tentacle bundles turning purple, I accelerated and rammed into it.

「!」

The White Gallergorn was startled by the surprise attack. Its head quickly turned toward me.

The psychic breath hit my head carapace. It probably expected to see me falling with a hole punched through me, but reality disappointed its expectations.

The reflected beam pierced straight through its neck. The light in its amethyst-like eyes faded. I opened my mouth and bit off the Gallergorn’s head right there.

‘I’d like to give this to Adhigh, but…’

I tried earlier, but their interference was too severe to make it possible here. I threw away the headless corpse and prepared a psychic breath.

While the energy within it was transforming into psychic power, a voice came from the cruiser.

“I’m glad everyone is safe. Do you have a plan?”

The reason I called PS-111 here was because of the cruiser he was on. We need that cruiser to safely escape from here.

As I was about to convey my thoughts to him, a high-powered psychic breath flew from behind me. I quickly ducked my head to avoid it.

The dark purple psychic breath wasn’t targeting me but PS-111 at the end of my flight path.

The ship he was controlling performed an emergency evasive maneuver. However, since the beam came very quickly, it couldn’t completely avoid being hit in the rear area.

As the diamond-shaped cruiser staggered greatly, I felt the thought waves that Odr Grad was spreading behind me.

「Worthless dwarves!」

Naturally, a cruiser’s main gun cannot kill a Black Gallergorn. As a psychic creature, it has resistance to Cult weapons, and by the time they reach Black Gallergorn status, their skin becomes very thick.

Of course, that’s not to say it took no damage at all. Looking at the left lower body area where it took a direct hit from the main gun, scales were peeled off and blood was dripping.

In fact, it was closer to a wound slightly worse than a scratch, but he seemed very angry about the fact that he had been injured by an unexpected attack. Judging by his eyes, which were dripping with malice, he looked ready to tear apart the cruiser right away.

「Traitors!」「For the crime of attacking Odr Grad」「Pay with your death!」

‘Perfect.’

The more attention he pays to the cruiser, the better.

[Zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz(Just distract him for a moment)]

“Five minutes, correction due to the recent hit. It will be difficult to hold out for more than three minutes.”

That’s enough.

While PS-111 was drawing his attention, I flew to where Adhigh Orr and Nel Germa were.

The two were moving in sync as if they were twins.

Adhigh actively utilized his characteristically small body and quick movements to penetrate the enemy’s gaps. When he disrupted the Gallergorn’s formation, Nel Germa, with her strong firepower, sniped the separated Gallergorn.

「Small one」「Difficult」「Big one」「First」

After being defeated by the same method several times, Odr Grad’s companions moved to eliminate Nel Germa.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’

Not intending to let them be, I fired the psychic breath I had prepared at them. This time it was a regular breath without the color of the abyss applied.

They hurriedly scattered to avoid my attack, but there was one that couldn’t dodge in time. It was the companion that had played the role of bait. It tried to increase altitude to avoid but failed, and its lower body was blown away.

[Zzzz(Catch it)]

「Black kin」「Order」「Confirmed」

Nel Germa, hearing my thought wave, moved quickly and grabbed the corpse with only the upper body remaining.

When one companion died so unexpectedly, the other six companions were greatly confused. While they were in shock, I called Nel Germa and Adhigh.

[Zzzzzzzz zzzz zzzzz zzzz(We’ll retreat after this)]

「Enemy」「Many」「How?」

I explained the plan to them who were asking how we would escape.

「Difficult」「But」「Only way」

「Agree」「Great One」「Possible」

「Don’t worry! I’ll protect the big baby!」

Honestly, it’s a high-risk operation, but they trusted me. I just took the companion’s corpse from Nel Germa and retreated. Leaving them to engage in aerial combat with the Gallergorn horde again, I flew toward the cruiser.

Although it hadn’t been even a few minutes since the fight started, the cruiser was already in tatters. It was barely floating in the sky with only the thrusters remaining.

While flying, I sent a wave to PS-111.

[Zzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzz(Can you overload the engine?)]

“The ship’s computer structure is more complex than expected, but it’s certainly possible.”

[Zzzzzzzz zz zzzzz zzzzz(After overloading it, prepare to escape)]

“Confirmed.”

I suppose this is where being half-machine comes in handy. Despite it being a dangerous command that could result in immediate death, he obeyed instantly.

‘Of course, I won’t let him die.’

As I approached, Odr Grad turned his head. And he belatedly realized that I had killed his companion.

「You」

Odr Grad didn’t react much despite his companion’s death. Instead, the dark purple flames rising from his eyes only intensified.

I bit off the female Gallergorn’s head and threw the corpse at him. His gaze momentarily turned toward the corpse.

The moment No. 26 controlled the corpse to block his view, I used the Watcher of Terror imbued with the color of the abyss.

The bubble created above my head carapace flew toward him, hiding behind the corpse. This time too, he seemed to have glimpsed the future with his crisis detection ability and urgently distanced himself.

Using that gap, I quickly sent a wave to PS-111.

[Zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz(Now. Jump out)]

A few seconds after my wave was sent, the ship’s hangar opened, revealing PS-111. Having heard my order, he jumped from the hangar platform without hesitation.

A mutant screamer falling without any auxiliary equipment. I adjusted my wings to catch him.

My wings folded and my body descended rapidly. Just as I was about to grab him, a second sun rose in this planet’s atmosphere.

The clouds that had been split by my God’s Whip were once again obscured as they were engulfed in a massive explosion.

I tightly wrapped No. 26 and PS-111, who were on my back, with my wing arms. Then the explosion reached where I was.

With the impact of the explosion combined with the falling speed, my body rapidly approached the ground. Soon after, an intense shock hit my body.

‘What about Odr Grad?’

Messages about pain reduction being activated popped up frantically, but I ignored them and quickly looked up at the sky. In that cloud-filled place, there was only a sphere emitting light intense enough to blind the eyes.

And outside that sphere, small dots were visible. There weren’t many of these small dots outside the explosion’s boundary.

「Black slaughterer!」「Slaughterer!」「Unforgivable!」「Unforgivable!」「Unforgivable!」

A thought wave so strong it could be felt from the ground. The owner of the message, whose vocabulary had become poor due to extreme anger, was Odr Grad.

It’s uncertain how much damage he and his subordinates suffered, but I suspect it was not insignificant.

Adhigh and Nel Germa, whom I had given advance notice, quickly moved outside the explosion radius as soon as they felt the vibration in their bodies, but the others did not.

[Zzzz zzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzz zzzzz(Now we’ll hide and escape. Help me out)]

「Okay. Big baby is hurt, so I’ll help with everything!」

Due to the impact when I crashed, the bones in my wing arms were pulverized, and parts of my head carapace were broken. Fortunately, No. 26 and PS-111 weren’t hurt at all thanks to being in my embrace.

No. 26 came out, puffed up his body, and used psychic power to lift me slightly. Then, following my words, he began digging a tunnel using Demon Crash.

[Zzzzzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzz zzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzz(We’ll collect corpses on the way. PS-111 will help with this)]

“Understood.”

There are many corpses of Gallergorn who fell while fighting us in this area. Collecting at least some of them will help Adhigh’s growth.

PS-111 heard my order and was about to move when he suddenly stopped.

“I have something to say.”

[Zzzz(What is it?)]

“I was modified to withstand atmospheric entry without major issues. In what sense did you perform that action just now?”

Hearing his words, I couldn’t think of what to say. Because it was a fact I didn’t know either.

‘Wait, I think I might have heard about this somewhere…’

As I remained silent with nothing to say, No. 26 answered for me.

「Big baby helped because he was worried his friend might get hurt! Friend is big baby’s family, right?」

“Is that so?”

It was actually an action I took without knowing, but there was no need to deny it. As I kept my mouth shut, PS-111 bowed his head to me in gratitude.

“Thank you for AMorph’s consideration.”

[Zz(Yeah)]

After that, we hid in the tunnel No. 26 had created to avoid the enemies’ eyes.

The enraged Odr Grad cursed me and fired psychic breaths randomly into the forest. He seemed determined not to stop until he caught and killed all of us, but surprisingly, his offensive ended quickly.

His subordinates hurriedly returned in the direction they had come from, as if there was some problem at the nest.

「Black slaughterer!」「I swear in the name of the great Odr Grad」「You will surely die by my hand!」

With that thought wave, he also disappeared with his subordinates.

‘Was it the Sky Mother’s doing?’

Like PS-111 who came running after seeing God’s Whip, she might also have launched a diversionary operation after realizing I was in danger.

‘She’ll be fine.’

It would be a lie to say I’m not worried, but she’s a ranker like me. She should be able to escape safely.

And so the first battle with the black dragon ended.

This time it ended in something close to a draw, but next time will be different.

The next time we meet, he will die by my hand.