Ch.395Variable (3)

‘What is this…?’

I examined my body, which had simultaneously applied both the Hunter’s Emblem and Bone Beast.

The body shape itself was similar to when using the Hunter’s Emblem. The loss of vision, the highly developed auxiliary organs under the jaw, and the new bone scythe arms between the waist and pelvis were all characteristics unique to the Hunter’s Emblem.

What changed was that thick spikes reminiscent of stalactites now densely covered my body. They protruded not only from areas originally covered with thick carapace like the head, back, and chest, but also from arms, fingers, and tail. Yet they didn’t hinder my movement at all.

The reason was in the structure of the spikes.

The large spikes covering my entire body were formed by clusters of small, saw-tooth-shaped bone fragments. When I moved, they folded or straightened freely to accommodate my movements. Is this what wearing nano-machine armor in sci-fi movies feels like?

“Massive en-ergy detect-ed. Body shape, col-or changed.”

“White AMorph. Nev-er seen before.”

Both PS-111 and Isabelle expressed surprise at my transformation.

Isabelle seemed particularly impressed by the change in color as well as appearance. The spike armor covering me now had a silver and white hue, making me look quite different. Someone unfamiliar with AMorphs might think I was an entirely different creature.

‘That’s enough checking my body condition.’

Now that the mutation was complete, I needed to move quickly. Something had changed in the text window too, but I didn’t have time to check that.

‘Void Dice’ lasts for a total of 3 minutes. Since the Hunter’s Emblem and Bone Beast normally can’t be used together, when the effect ends, one of them will likely be canceled.

‘Or maybe both will be canceled.’

This is only the second time I’ve used Void Dice, so I don’t know what will happen.

‘No. Don’t worry about that now.’

I spread my wing arms that had contracted during the mutation. Energy discharged from my wings propelled me forward with great force.

As I approached rapidly, the vessel presumed to be carrying the enemy ranker, the Sky Sword, began to move.

“Energy concen-trating from tar-get.”

PS-111, clinging to my back, warned me. Just as it said, tremendous energy was gathering at the front of the sword-shaped vessel. Though being lightweight means it won’t have the power of a super weapon, it’s certainly no ordinary battleship’s main cannon.

I immediately stopped flying and simultaneously used “Complex Spectral Body” and “Variable Bio-weapon.”

Energy rose from the surface of my spike-covered body. At the same time, the back plate housing the corrosive tentacles began to writhe.

While heat haze gathered to form a translucent mirror-like shape, the carapace on my back rapidly thickened. The back plate of a powerful apex creature, the Magmasaur, was manifesting on my body.

[Zzz zzzzz (Everyone get down)]

My body swelled into a beetle-like shape, and I called Isabelle and PS-111 beneath my chest.

At that moment, the enemy’s energy cannon completed charging.

An energy beam similar to the Gigacracker’s ion cannon approached, radiating light. Though not super-weapon class, I could sense enough energy to easily annihilate an entire fleet.

The beam, traveling at terrifying speed, collided with my Complex Spectral Body. The giant energy disc made of energy field shimmered like a prism and wavered.

However, unlike usual, it didn’t immediately reflect the enemy’s attack.

Complex Spectral Body only reflects energy-based attacks I’ve previously been damaged by. For other attacks, or attacks that can’t be reflected, it reduces the damage by half.

Thanks to Void Dice, the restrictions were gone, so I might be able to reflect this too, but I wasn’t certain. That’s why I took precautions, and my prediction was correct.

The spectral body held for a moment, weakening the beam before dissipating. The remaining energy of the beam engulfed me.

‘Huh?’

Although I’d increased my defense through Variable Bio-weapon, I hadn’t expected to completely nullify the damage. The heat beam from the enemy ranker’s warship was powerful enough to trigger “Pain Reduction” repeatedly.

But the pain I felt was extremely minimal. High heat was burning my body, but the damage wasn’t penetrating deep inside.

It was thanks to the spike armor replacing my outer skin.

When the beam struck my body, the spike clusters covering my surface undulated like waves. Like a hedgehog flattening its quills, all the spikes on my body folded down. As they overlapped, the gaps between spikes narrowed until no space was visible.

“Outer skin struc-ture, highly hard-ened, confirm-ed, interest-ing.”

“Sister, watch your head.”

PS-111 was right.

These newly formed spikes are made of the same material as bone. They interlocked to form a biological shield, exponentially increasing my defense. Enough that I barely felt pain even when hit by a lightweight ion cannon beam.

Eventually, the enemy’s attack gradually subsided. The spikes that had been intertwined on my surface straightened again.

After firing one beam, the Sky Sword retreated. Judging by its now urgent movements, they hadn’t anticipated this outcome.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’

I had roughly 1 minute and 30 seconds left.

I spread my wings and pursued it. Battleships trying to protect the enemy ranker unleashed torpedoes and beams at me.

The spikes on my surface moved constantly, defending against enemy attacks. PS-111 and Isabelle, cradled in my small chest arms, also helped by suppressing the enemy.

When I didn’t slow down at all, enemy battleships jumped in front of me.

A massive barrier of alloy blocks my path. Previously I might have changed direction to bypass them, but not this time. Without stopping or detouring, I rammed straight into the enemy battleships.

The intense explosion from the collision engulfed me. Battleships that didn’t explode pushed back against me—Megacorp and Star Union warships executing ramming tactics with their front sections.

A foolish move. I put on Ice Horror’s carapace on my head and struck them. The sturdy ship armor, designed to withstand the harsh vacuum of space, crumbled like a sand castle.

Some ships targeted my waist and chest area. PS-111 and Isabelle quickly crawled to my back plate.

“Don’t worry about us!”

“Must elimin-ate Sky Sword.”

Isabelle sent a strong thought wave.

She was right. I couldn’t let the enemy ranker escape here.

I swung down at a nearby battleship with the bone scythe arm attached below my waist. The blade, enhanced with the Pyromancer’s heat emission ability, flashed white-hot. The outer wall, several meters thick, was cut like paper.

The battleship split in two with a single strike. Next, my combat arm, mimicking Gigantarium’s body, swelled terrifyingly. I grabbed a battleship with my rapidly grown arm and swung it hard.

Enemies surrounding me were swept up in the hurricane created by the steel club. Ships shattered, causing continuous explosions. I pushed forward through the inferno.

There was the Sky Sword. While the battleships were holding me back, it was preparing to fire another beam.

The distance wasn’t too far. At this range, I could grab and pull it with corrosive tentacles.

Just then, my body suddenly shook violently.

A Star Union Jax Alpha class battleship, even larger than my current form, had rammed me from above. The tentacles protruding from my back plate were blocked by thick armor.

‘But…’

I still had one more means to grab the enemy.

I opened my mouth wide toward the Sky Sword. The muscle of my tongue connected to the double jaw rapidly increased. Then the tongue with the double jaw shot out like a bullet.

The Dreadsong’s tongue, manifested by Variable Bio-weapon, pierced the front of the Sky Sword. Unable to move while preparing the beam, it couldn’t dodge.

I pulled on the tongue embedded in the ship’s front wall. As the distance between us narrowed, the energy gathering in the enemy ship began to disperse. They were clearly canceling the beam weapon to try something else.

Only about ten seconds remained.

With too many interferers and too little time, flying directly to attack the enemy wasn’t feasible.

‘No choice then.’

I’d been trying to avoid using it since the Dragon’s Heart was neutralized, but there was no other way.

The monster’s tentacles moved according to my will. Energy stored in my body converted to psychic power and gathered in the tentacles. The white tentacles became soaked in familiar purple light.

Psychic power, concentrated enough to be visible, gathered from the tentacles in front of my mouth.

‘5 seconds left.’

The sphere floating in front of my head elongated. The purple line stretched like the horizon at dawn.

A powerful shield, the kind Cult members might use, appeared from the Sky Sword to defend against the psychic breath. But even that couldn’t withstand the breath forged from dragon power.

After briefly holding, the shield broke and the breath directly struck the Sky Sword. An explosion more powerful than when an ordinary battleship detonates occurred, and its shockwave engulfed me and surrounding ships.

The spikes protecting me crumbled upon contact with the shockwave. Simultaneously, my enlarged body gradually shrank.

“Don’t know what that was, but is it over?”

“Energy loss, body col-or, shape, restored to pre-vious.”

Due to Void Dice’s duration ending, Bone Beast was being canceled.

‘Hunter’s Emblem is still active.’

Since they were incompatible characteristics, only one of them seemed to have been canceled.

‘Fortunate that I finished before the effect ended.’

As I was thinking this, I suddenly sensed a massive energy flow from far away.

‘FTL navigation!’

Judging by the energy amount detected through my auxiliary organs, a considerable fleet was attempting FTL navigation. The enemy ranker must have called for reinforcements just before being incinerated with the ship.

‘Dangerous.’

I had already expended much power and many traits. Continuing to fight a large-scale fleet wasn’t advisable. Moreover, if there was another ranker among the enemies, things would become much more complicated.

‘I should use Black Devourer Cannon here…’

While I was considering this, the enemy fleet jumped into the system. Over a hundred battleships appeared, tearing through the black space wrapped in blue light.

I might lose my sanity due to energy consumption, but there was no time to consider risks anymore.

Just as I was quickly preparing the Black Devourer Cannon, I felt a familiar presence behind me.

It was Adhigh Orr, a Gallergorn faster than anyone I knew. A purple sphere shot out from the tentacle clusters at its mouth and flew toward the fleet.

That small sphere looked very fragile and insignificant. But its creator was the great dragon queen. The power of Red Gallergorn tempered by starlight.

When the purple sphere, Starflame, collided with the fleet’s vanguard, an enormous wave spread in all directions. It was such a tremendous energy explosion that my auxiliary organs were momentarily paralyzed.

After the energy dispersed and the shockwave subsided, nothing could be sensed from where Starflame had swept. The enemy’s reinforcements had vanished without leaving even a speck of dust.

“Star power” “Twice” “Difficult”

Adhigh, who had annihilated the enemies, approached staggering. Having fired Starflame consecutively without being in full Red Gallergorn state, it looked very exhausted. So much that it couldn’t even maintain Red Armor.

“Great One” “I” “Did well?”

[Zzzzz zzzzzzz (It was a perfect move)]

“Praise” “Happy!”

It expressed joy, sensing sincerity in my brief praise.

‘It’s done enough.’

Now it could rest. Of course, I would need to protect it since the battle wasn’t over yet. I extended my wing arm toward it.

At that moment, Adhigh’s body twitched.

‘Huh?’

Sticky liquid flowed from the small Gallergorn’s abdomen, spreading into space. It slowly collapsed onto my hand.

‘Adhigh?’

As soon as I realized the liquid was blood, I quickly grabbed it and pulled it toward my body.

“AMorph! Enemy in debris ahead!”

Before I could worry about Adhigh’s condition, Isabelle’s thought wave flew in.

As she said, something was among the debris left by the Sky Sword’s explosion. A grotesque monster was watching me while holding a rifle-shaped weapon.

‘Akira Yujin!’

The Megacorp ranker, who hadn’t died, was aiming for my neck.