Ch.399Ranker (4)

The fifth member of the Machine Council, Nemea Five, was currently in Megacorp territory.

The reason this ruler of the Star Union had come here personally was due to the Grand Sovereign’s orders.

The mission: to collaborate with Megacorp to eliminate an unidentified creature known as “Special Target A.”

This entity had previously destroyed the eleventh council member, Pyrrha Eleven, and annihilated an elite fleet.

While fleets could be quickly restored, Supreme Council members could not. Most of Pyrrha Eleven’s data had been lost, except for some knowledge she had backed up. One of the pillars supporting the Star Union had been shaken.

That’s why the Machine Council had spared no effort for this elimination operation. In addition to coordinating with Megacorp, they dispatched massive forces and three Supreme Council members to command them. The scale of the extermination force sent by the Star Union alone was worthy of being called an expedition.

However, now that the battle had been raging for tens of minutes, Nemea Five realized.

There had been an error in the Machine Council’s judgment.

“Anderes requesting support! We’re surrounded by Metallic Gremlins! Need immediate assistance!”

“Sashabi reporting! The creature accompanying Special Target A suddenly—ARGH!”

“S-something not detected by our scanning systems—p-please help! AAAAGH—” *static*

“Gesta reporting—” *static* *click*

XAX01-class battleship, a fortress of machines devoid of any trace of life.

The ship’s ruler, Nemea Five, sat on a crude metal throne, processing the urgent communications pouring in from all directions.

Just minutes ago, the situation hadn’t been this dire.

Special Target A had fallen into a trap prepared by Megacorp’s CEO, and the deformed Gallergorn it commanded had been critically wounded. Though the fleet had suffered considerable damage in the process, it was within acceptable limits.

As time passed, the advantage was shifting to the extermination force. The Supreme Council members had determined it beneficial to continue the operation.

But this too had been a misjudgment. The battle situation changed in an instant. Now even the Supreme Council members couldn’t predict the outcome of the battle.

A decision had to be made here. Nemea Five sent a communication to their longtime colleagues.

“Nemea Five. Report damage status.”

“Redtail Eight. 8th Fleet loss rate at 55%. Command issues due to communication problems. Predicted to reach 60% loss rate within 3 minutes 21 seconds.”

“Callion Eleven. 11th Fleet. Loss rate tallied at 72%. Reached annihilation stage.”

Currently, the 5th Fleet under Nemea Five’s command had a loss rate of 31%. Though relatively less damaged, it was meaningless given the heavy losses of the 8th and 11th Fleets that had accompanied them.

Especially Callion Eleven, newly created to replace the destroyed Pyrrha Eleven, was still quite inexperienced. Though possessing the same knowledge and physical functions as other council members, Callion lacked situational response capabilities.

“Nemea Five. Calculation results show operation failure probability at 71%. I judge immediate retreat necessary.”

“Redtail Eight. Negative. The Machine Council demanded retreat only when probability reaches 80%.”

“Callion Eleven. Request analysis from the Machine Council.”

Redtail opposed the opinion raised by Nemea Five, while Callion failed to present an independent view.

“Nemea Five. Negative. Analysis shows 67% probability that the 8th Fleet will reach annihilation stage before results arrive. Making a decision before then will reduce losses.”

“Redtail Eight. Partially agree. I concur with deciding before the 8th Fleet’s annihilation. However, deciding to retreat within 5 minutes contradicts the Machine Council’s decision.”

“Callion Eleven. Difficult to analyze. Request analysis from the Machine Council.”

In response to Redtail’s stubborn attitude, Nemea Five’s fingers twitched ever so slightly.

“Nemea Five. Continuing the operation risks damage to Supreme Council members. The safety of council members participating in the operation must be prioritized.”

“Redtail Eight. Partially disagree. Current Supreme Council models have been improved. Barring exceptional variables, the probability of council member loss is merely 11%.”

Aren’t those exceptional variables continuously occurring right now, causing this situation?

A novel sensation flashed through Nemea Five’s mind before disappearing.

Just as Nemea was about to recognize this feeling as “impatience,” a message was transmitted to their head.

After confirming the message’s contents, Nemea immediately shared the information with the other council members.

“Nemea Five. Confirmed large energy reaction in the N-51 system.”

“Callion Eleven. Question. Reinforcements?”

“Nemea Five. Negative. Energy reaction analysis confirms 5 Saintkay-produced anti-planetary weapons preparing to enter.”

“Redtail Eight. Query. Megacorp stated they would not deploy anti-planetary weapons for this operation. Is this false?”

“Nemea Five. Negative. Confirmed these anti-planetary weapons are coming voluntarily after receiving distress signals from Megacorp vessels.”

“Callion Eleven. Question. Estimated arrival time?”

“Nemea Five. Estimated within 10 minutes.”

The unexpected intervention of reinforcements.

And not just ordinary ships, but 5 anti-planetary weapons—Gigacrackers—suddenly trying to enter this area.

The firepower of 5 Gigacrackers could wipe out not only Special Target A but the entire Star Union fleet present. From the perspective of the Star Union’s highest authorities, this was highly suspicious behavior.

“Nemea Five. I propose canceling the operation again.”

“Redtail Eight. Agreed. Ships with restored communication functions will retreat in sequence.”

“Callion Eleven. Agreed.”

Redtail’s “exceptional variables” had occurred.

With that, the operation’s failure was decided.

–

Akira, transformed to resemble an AMorph.

He had changed the shape of his small chest arms, combat arms, and tail. The combat arms had transformed into blunt warhammer shapes, while the small arms became clawed limbs. His tail now had a mouth at the end with pointed appendages similar to my infection tentacles.

He was simultaneously using the perk to arbitrarily change body parts and the perk to mimic me.

[Zz zz zz zz zzzz (What other perks does he have?)]

“Life… maintenance, perk.”

[Zz zz (Life maintenance?)]

“Special, organ exists, never, die. Even without, head, heart.”

As he said, he had no problem moving despite having his head blown off.

‘Is it a mechanism similar to Voltex One?’

They don’t die either unless their Abyssal Core is destroyed.

‘Then how does genetic essence predation work?’

I’m not sure if I should eat his head like other living beings, or if I need to consume his life maintenance organ like with Voltex One.

‘Should I just eat him to find out?’

But there’s one problem to consider before predation.

‘Akira can contaminate genes.’

If I eat him carelessly, I might fall into a trap like when I ate the shadow. Whether it’s his special organ or head, the moment I consume his flesh, my body will be significantly weakened.

‘Though they say I’ll recover to normal after some time.’

Becoming weaker in the middle of a fight would be fatal. I need to minimize risk factors before eating.

‘So there’s only one answer.’

I need to immobilize Akira for a while. I should target his head and special organ after neutralizing him.

I charged toward Akira with my wings spread. He likewise spread his wings wide and faced me.

When we collided, a strong shockwave rattled my head. His arm, transformed into a heavy hammer, shattered my horn and embedded itself in my cranial carapace. He applied force to his combat arm, now like a stake, trying to push it deeper into my head.

I counterattacked by piercing his legs with my auxiliary organs surrounded by bone blades. Then I opened my mouth, extending my double jaw.

The strength of my double jaw is powerful enough to crush even a Magmasaur’s skin. As my jaw was about to mercilessly tear into his abdomen, I suddenly felt a sharp pain.

“Pain reduction activated!”

The taste of blood flooded my mouth. He had cut off my tongue with the double jaw using the hook arm on his chest.

Then he pulled his arm from my head and struck my muzzle. My neck involuntarily twisted sideways, and my body was pushed back significantly. If this had been on land, I would have embarrassingly planted my head on the ground.

He seemed to have similar thoughts as he grinned, showing his teeth. I smile like that too when I succeed in a hunt, but seeing someone else do it felt strange.

Just then, a large pink tentacle flew toward his side. Akira quickly wrapped himself with his now much larger wings to defend against No. 26’s attack.

But No. 26 seemed to have anticipated that he would block this time. His secondary attack, a net of condensed psychic power, struck the enemy. The amount was enormous, nearly twice the energy consumed by a psychic breath.

“Don’t copy Big Baby!”

No. 26 pressured Akira with power exceeding that of a Sea Demon. Akira responded not by blocking with his wings this time, but by changing his body parts. Horns protruding from his head dispersed the psychic power when they touched it.

‘Gallergorn’s horns.’

He broke free from the restraint using horns with the effect of tearing energy fields, then tried to bite No. 26’s tentacles. He intended to mimic the form of No. 26, a special Sea Demon.

‘I can’t let that happen.’

I spun my body widely, swinging my tail. He was about to strike No. 26 when my tail pincer hit him, sending him flying far away.

Before long, he stopped himself by spreading his wing membrane. Every other part was intact, but the hook arm on his chest was completely crushed by the pincer.

He nonchalantly tore off the damaged part with his teeth. Shortly after, two arms with elongated bone blades grew in its place. They looked exactly like the bone scythe arms that appear when becoming the Emblem of the Hunt.

Instead of charging at him, I turned my body. He pursued closely behind me.

A cyan beam erupted from his tail and struck my back. It was similar to the particle beam fired by Crystal Wings, but much more powerful, perhaps due to higher output.

Each time I was hit by the beam, pieces of my back plate fell off, creating large wounds. Since I couldn’t heal, small wounds gradually accumulated.

After breaking my carapace with particle beams, he accelerated and climbed onto my body. Then he inserted his bone blade arms into my wounds, digging out chunks of flesh.

“Pain reduction activated!”

‘Ugh!’

Excruciating pain surged from my ruptured muscles and torn flesh. Simultaneously, I felt the enemy’s emotions from the blades mercilessly probing my wounds. Akira was taking pleasure in torturing me.

The perks he possessed had excellent synergy with each other. Because of this, despite mimicking an AMorph, he was overwhelming me and the kids.

‘…or so he thinks.’

There was a reason I “pretended” to flee helplessly. I was luring him to a specific location.

Strong energy reactions could be felt not far away. Heat rays fired by battleships were approaching.

And one of them hit my back—or more precisely, Akira.

Perhaps the battleships’ targeting systems malfunctioned due to No. 26’s psychic power? He seemed flustered.

But it wasn’t a mistake. The subsequent heat rays all struck Akira. He jumped off my body to avoid the plasma barrage.

When he jumped off, the heat rays fired by the battleship’s main guns split into two branches. The battleships were precisely targeting both him and me.

Seeing this, Akira flinched. He realized what he looked like.

‘He can’t even revert his transformation now.’

The enemies know I can change my body at will to fight. Even if he transformed into something other than an AMorph, those warships wouldn’t drop their suspicions.

Even if he had left information about his transformation ability with the fleet commanders, it wouldn’t matter. Due to communication instability caused by No. 26’s psychic power and my “Herald of Great Confusion,” the enemies’ coordination was very vulnerable. Smooth communication couldn’t be expected in this situation.

‘Which works in my favor.’

While he was distracted elsewhere, I found a suitable position. And just then, my split body also revealed itself near Akira.

Akira recognized the existence of my Right Head just as I did. His head tilted sideways according to the direction of his auxiliary organs. He immediately fired a particle beam at my Right Head.

My split body, with a hole in its chest from the beam, was struck. Akira flew like lightning and thrust his bone blade arm into the wound.

Blood gushed like a fountain, and my split body went limp.

He was about to smile at the sight when he suddenly paused. He must have realized something was wrong.

‘Too late.’

While my Right Head served as bait, I prepared to snipe Akira. And just now, the fruit of that preparation left my body.

A sinisterly glowing chaos orb rolled forward. Though its power was greatly reduced due to my Clever Weakling state, it didn’t matter. In fact, the smaller bullet size was advantageous for firing stealthily like now.

The malice-filled bullet approached its target. Sensing this, Akira turned his head.

He protected his body with his wings, just as he had when defending against No. 26’s attack. This would have been a good decision for other attacks, but not now.

That’s because my attack was a psychic breath imbued with the “Color of the Abyss.”

The small orb hit his wing and shattered. The chaos color contained inside flowed out, soaking the membrane.

“?!”

The psychic breath began rapidly corroding his wing. He frantically cut off his wing. In the process, ominous colored foam spread to other parts.

Psychic breath applied with the Color of the Abyss continuously corrodes until organic matter is completely destroyed. The only way for him to escape this is to remove all parts contaminated with the foam.

‘Which means he’s neutralized until then.’

I pushed hard against the ship’s outer wall with my four legs. My body shot up like a bullet fired from a gun.

He spotted me flying toward him like a bullet. He tried to intercept me with a particle beam by moving his tail, but his tail had also lost its function due to the foam. The speed at which he gathered energy dropped significantly.

“■■■■!”

Akira belatedly realized the solution to the foam and tried to detach his tail.

But once again, it was too late.

‘This is the end.’

He must know by now. That nothing can stop me here.

I swung my head hard. The bone blade growing under my jaw moved along my muzzle, cutting off his neck.

The disgusting head that poorly imitated an AMorph floated in the air. The hybrid, having lost its head, flapped its arms and legs.

I reached out and collected Akira’s head.

‘Next…’

It’s time to find where his life-maintaining special organ is.

Just as I thought that, an image blocked my view.

Five massive spaceships appeared, looking like neatly peeled tangerine skins or fully bloomed flower buds.

Soon after, the super-large turret positioned at the center of the spaceships began to move. Just as cyan flames were about to rise from its end, the image abruptly cut off. Simultaneously, a strong impact overwhelmed my body.

A nearby Megacorp ship had rammed into me. The impact sent me flying a great distance, crashing into some wrecked ship debris.

‘What was that just now?’

It’s not often that images appear to my eyes while the Emblem of the Hunt is active. One such instance is when my predator sense warns me of danger.

‘It was definitely 5 Gigacrackers.’

Though the image was cut off midway due to the impact on my body, I’m certain.

Super weapons somewhere in this star system.

They are preparing to strike.