Ch.251Cradle of Monsters (2)

8th Fleet of the 12th Fleet, Captain Valta J, who was dispatched from the Red Tail Fleet to a temporary reconnaissance unit, is currently very excited.

Tense about the upcoming battle? Or because it’s a large-scale operation involving four elite fleets?

Neither. He’s a veteran soldier who has been through many battles. He’s not some rookie who gets excited over such things.

The reason for his excitement is none other than the fact that the Grand Sovereign will be participating in this battle.

Until now, it was rare for the Star Union’s highest dignity to appear directly on the battlefield. Even cyborgs more exceptional than Valta J rarely had cases of carrying out operations with the Grand Sovereign.

Yet today, he earned the honor of traversing the battlefield alongside that great leader.

‘Today is truly the best day.’

“Planetary encirclement in progress.”

“Good. First activate the Warp Finder, then activate the system surveillance radar. Report immediately if any anomalies occur.”

“Confirmed.”

Apart from his swelling heart, his reason operates coldly. As this is a battle in which the Grand Sovereign is directly participating, failure is absolutely not an option.

He began his reconnaissance duties while synchronized with the ship’s computer.

While analyzing data transmitted through cables and issuing commands, something strange caught his eye.

Two unfamiliar red marks appeared on the 3D system map.

‘What?’

He thought he might have seen wrong, but he hadn’t. One remained stationary, separated from the targeted planet.

And the other one…

“Enemy raid! Enemy raid! All reconnaissance units prepare for battle!”

“Confirmed. Orders transmitted.”

A red light rapidly approaching the ships that were about to begin encirclement.

Soon after, it began to split into multiple parts.

–

[Zzzzzz Zzz Zzzzz Zzzz (Avoid being attacked if possible)]

“Worry” “Unnecessary” “Kin” “Strong”

Adhigh beside me shot a thought wave expressing pride. The other Gallergorn following behind also scattered thoughts filled with emotions of agreement.

[Zzzzz Zzzz (Focus only on the target)]

“Yes”

“Ham Oort” “Remember”

Currently, I am flying through space with 15 Gallergorn.

The members are identical to when I fought Pyrrha Eleven. Adhigh who gained the power of Red Gallergorn, Black Gallergorn Ham Oort, and 13 White Gallergorn are following me.

And at the end of where my snout is pointing are enemy ships.

Thirty-three vessels with massive hulls, and numerous patrol ships protecting them. The scale is so large it could be called a regular fleet rather than a reconnaissance unit.

The enemies who discovered us quickly formed a battle formation.

Lights flicker among the stars embedded like particles against the black background. Torpedoes and drones they’ve launched are flying toward us.

Adhigh and the other Gallergorn moved behind me without me having to say anything. My new body can’t hide 15 Gallergorn, but that’s only in normal state.

My body traversing the zero-gravity space is incomparably larger than usual.

After hunting the Ice Horror in the past, I gained the fusion trait related to the body, ‘Bone Beast.’ This fusion trait has the effect of transforming into a giant monster for 60 minutes.

When I fought Jason before, thanks to using Bone Beast together with the special state ‘King of Monsters’ from the ‘Organic Evolution’ trait, my body grew to nearly 300m.

Of course, my body isn’t that big right now. I can’t use the Organic Evolution trait yet because its cooldown hasn’t finished.

‘Still, at 80m in length, it’s plenty big.’

Moreover, unlike in the battle with Jason, I now have wings. The wingspan exceeds 100m, making it wider than my length.

The black carapace is doubly covered with white carapaces added due to the Bone Beast transformation. To others, I must look like I’m wearing the bones of a large monster like an Ice Horror.

‘Well then, shall we begin?’

I spread my massive wings to protect the Gallergorn and pointed my snout toward the incoming torpedoes and drones.

Even though there’s no wind in space, the monster tentacles on my neck sway gently. It’s not wind but psychic power flowing from within that moves the tentacles.

And a psychic breath more powerful than ever poured toward the targets.

A fireworks display unfolded with each movement of the purple beam. The Star Union’s torpedoes were helpless before the flames of psychic power amplified by Bone Beast and ‘Dragon’s Heart.’

The APD, an anti-psychic weapon, held out, but couldn’t avoid torpedoes exploding at close range. Drones caught in the explosion either burst or malfunctioned, getting flung into space.

After neutralizing the first attack with a single blow, I charged toward the enemy ships. Special waves flowing from the membrane of my wings helped me move very nimbly even in space.

Similarly, the Gallergorn also used psychic power as propulsion to follow me.

The enemies tried to pour fire in succession, but I had already approached the scattered enemy ships.

Patrol ships around the destroyer poured ultrasonic torpedoes at me, but it was useless. Even if the vibrations penetrated inside, the layered carapaces blocked them.

Trusting my defense, I landed on top of a patrol ship. It must be chaos inside. A monster larger than their ship is gripping their vessel.

I picked up the patrol ship and threw it toward another patrol ship that was shooting down torpedoes. The ship tumbled wildly as it flew and collided with another ship.

A flash of death flickered from the colliding ships. An X10-class destroyer that had been under the protection of the patrol ships tried to hastily retreat after seeing this.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’

I pulled out corrosive tentacles from that spot. The corrosive tentacles, enlarged like my wings and body due to the Bone Beast effect, grabbed the back of the destroyer.

The destroyer’s guns move to target me and my corrosive tentacles. I pulled the tentacles to bring my body close to the destroyer.

‘Is this the bridge?’

I pushed my head against a slightly protruding part on the top of the ship. Dozens of small cameras behind the alloy outer wall are filming my snout.

I opened my mouth wide in front of them. Green waves surging from inside my throat poured onto the destroyer’s outer wall.

All Star Union ships are armed with overwhelming heavy armor, but it’s meaningless before the massive amount of acidic liquid. The amount of acidic fungus I discharge has increased as much as my body has grown.

In the blink of an eye, the outer wall melted away, revealing the half-destroyed bridge’s situation room. The cyborgs in the situation room are writhing. Whether from shock at seeing me or from exposure to space is unclear.

To end their pain quickly, I shot an enhanced psychic breath at them.

A huge bubble about 10m in diameter seeped into the ship. The cyborgs struggling to survive became food for the greedy bubble.

Watching the cyborgs melt away with silent screams reminds me of a classic American SF creature film. It was about a pink slime monster from space decimating an entire town, very similar to what’s happening on the destroyer.

‘Then this…’

After destroying the situation room and neutralizing the destroyer’s control, I gripped the destroyer with my tentacles. Then I pushed it strongly toward other enemies.

Destroyers coming to support their comrades collided with ships flying toward them. During this process, the psychic breath I had sent into the ship I threw moved to find new prey on other ships. The destroyers that collided with their comrades’ ships couldn’t even attack properly due to the psychic breath that had invaded their interiors.

Then I finished off the confused enemies by shooting regular psychic breath at them.

‘Good. That’s one.’

One of the destroyers that became food for my psychic breath contained a Warp Finder.

PS-111 said the five Warp Finders are placed on three XAX 5-class high-speed battleships and two destroyers.

I just destroyed one, so four remain.

While fighting patrol ships that were charging at me like they wanted to bite me, I checked how the others were doing.

Far away, clusters of red, black, and white stars swim across the sea of stars.

The red star at the apex of the meteor shower charges toward the patrol ships. Patrol ships penetrated by the star explode one after another, decorating the black canvas.

Small patrol ships fired torpedoes and drones to catch it, but it was too fast for them to be effective. Living up to the expression ‘meteor,’ the red star moved at high speed, ravaging the patrol ships.

A destroyer behind moves its guns to eliminate the rampaging red star, but this is a trap. A black star with scales as dark as space itself attacks the destroyer.

Like a fierce hound suffocating its prey by biting its neck, the black star pressed its body tightly against the destroyer and exhaled purple breath.

No matter how sturdy the destroyer’s outer wall is, surviving a dragon’s breath at such close range is impossible. The elongated destroyer split in two.

Cyborgs and androids poured out from inside. They flailed in the endless space without ground, then soon stopped moving.

Other ships tried to spread out to surround the two dragons, but the pure white vassals serving the great meteor’s daughter would not allow this. Thirteen white dragons exhaled psychic breath to keep them at bay.

‘They’re fighting well.’

The destroyer Ham Oort just destroyed was a ship carrying a Warp Finder. That’s the second one.

‘Three remain…’

At that moment, a torpedo much larger than those fired by other ships flew toward me.

I wrapped my corrosive tentacles around debris from a destroyer floating nearby, then threw it toward the incoming torpedo. Though it was a smart torpedo with AI installed, it couldn’t have anticipated that a ship made by the Star Union would be used as a shield. A powerful explosion vibrated the empty black space.

‘Perfect timing.’

Beyond the explosion, a series of enemies appear. A ship larger than a destroyer is targeting me while being escorted by patrol ships.

That ship that attacked me is an XAX 5-class battleship with one of the Warp Finders.

As if noticing my gaze, they finished reloading and fired another torpedo at me.

A torpedo of a size that chills one just by looking at it approaches rapidly. Even I would sustain considerable injuries if hit by that.

‘If I weren’t using Bone Beast, that is.’

Just before colliding with the torpedo, I headbutted it hard with my head carapace. Massive impact and flames engulfed my body.

–

“Ha, haha, hahahaha! It’s dead! I killed that crazy monster!”

Valta J, watching the explosion through the ship’s camera mounted on the battleship’s outer wall, shouted in jubilation.

He was shocked when he saw the ‘mission target’ throw a destroyer at his comrades. Even as a veteran soldier, he had never seen a monster capable of such absurd feats.

Especially when the creature that blocked their first shot turned its gaze toward them, even he felt a chill down his spine.

But now it doesn’t matter. The creature is finished after being hit by a torpedo fired from the battleship’s main gun.

“Remaining ships continue maintaining the Warp Finder, and those monsters too…”

“Warning. ‘Mission target’ confirmed alive.”

“What?”

At the computer’s urgent report, Valta J’s eyes widened. Video information being recorded in real-time through the cameras was transmitted to his eyes via cable.

‘N-no way?!’

From within the black flames, elongated arms emerge. Every time the membranes attached below the arms move, the fire and smoke undulate greatly.

Behind them, the head of the creature with an elongated snout and large horns is faintly visible. Despite taking a direct hit from the torpedo, the creature appeared intact except for some damage to its head.

Dull eyes like a dead fish. The devil’s eyes were staring at Valta J.

“R-reload the main gun immediately! Kill it!”

“Confirmed.”

As he shouted, the ‘mission target’ moved again. Black wings that absorbed all light flapped, and the monster’s appearance grew rapidly. Because it approached so quickly, it looked as if it was being greatly magnified.

Patrol ships and destroyers escorting Valta J stepped forward to buy time.

Unfortunately, this was a mistake. Six tentacles protruded from the creature’s back and grabbed the approaching patrol ships. It smashed the approaching patrol ships by wielding them like clubs.

Destroyers tried to maintain distance and fire at it, but it was meaningless to the creature. Purple beams shot out from the tentacle clusters around its neck, smashing the destroyers.

‘R-retreat…!’

Valta J’s orders were to stall for time until the main force arrived. More time was needed before the main force would arrive.

“After firing the main gun, full speed retr…”

As he was about to give the order, the ship shook violently. It was a massive impact like being hit by another battleship’s main gun.

Falling forward from his chair, he saw the creature’s head. It was pressing its face against the ship’s camera with its mouth wide open.

“Hee, heek!”

The overwhelming fear didn’t last long.

Because the purple flames melted both the entire bridge and the fragile cyborg’s flesh.