Ch.76Disguise (3)

Knights, Defense Forces, and the Monster.

In the ruins of the collapsed sewer, a fierce battle rages between three entities.

“Deputy Chief! We can’t hold any longer!”

“We need to retreat… argh!”

Every time the knights fired their plasma bolters, one soldier died. Our side was returning fire with plasma launchers, but it wasn’t effective.

Launchers have charging times, making them difficult to use effectively in mid-range skirmishes like this.

We originally brought the launchers as support weapons for fighting the monster.

Fighting knights wasn’t even in our wildest dreams.

‘Why would knights attack us?’

The Deputy Chief of Crisis Management couldn’t understand.

What could the knights possibly want from them?

The atmosphere had been good before entering the sewers, and there were no major issues during the search operation.

The knights’ deputy commander was a respectful person, and his members were well-disciplined.

‘This isn’t a rebellion. It must be orders from above.’

Just before, Deputy Commander Bickers had said this.

That they shouldn’t hand over the creature. That they must capture it alive.

‘The monster must have something we don’t know about.’

Even in the midst of the battlefield, with subordinates screaming and bullets and plasma energy cutting through the air, the Deputy Chief’s thoughts continued.

‘The monster first caused an incident in an apartment complex. It fought with armed police and fled. After that, it went to the port district.’

There, the monster killed smugglers and escaped.

The port district police who discovered this were hospitalized, and then…

‘The knights went there. Good Lord. They were destroying evidence!’

The Deputy Chief finally felt his mind clearing.

‘That creature is a biological weapon secretly created by House Egerton!’

For some reason, House Egerton chose this T&C Special Trade Center as a mock combat site for their test subject.

‘They probably created this monster with urban warfare in mind.’

Since it annihilated armed police in the apartment complex, the experiment could be considered successful.

The next to appear were smugglers.

They were likely secretly hired by House Egerton to extract the creature.

‘They probably planned to tranquilize the monster and move it.’

But that operation failed, and this scene was discovered by a detective team investigating the smuggler case in the port district.

There, House Egerton dispatched knights under the pretext of protecting an old acquaintance.

‘Because they couldn’t leave witnesses alive.’

The Deputy Chief felt a chill down his spine.

To think such massive conspiracies and plots were happening without his knowledge.

It sounded like something out of a novel.

‘…I need to report to the General Manager.’

But the current situation wasn’t conducive to that.

He needed to hold out until communications normalized so he could report this important discovery.

‘Is there any way?’

Most of his subordinates had been killed, with few remaining.

Only one soldier operating the launcher remained alive, focusing solely on firing the ground-fixed launcher.

A clearly disadvantageous situation.

As he pondered how to survive, help came from an unexpected source.

“Deputy Chief! The monster is only attacking the knights!”

“What?”

“Look over there!”

The Deputy Chief’s gaze followed his subordinate’s finger.

His subordinate was right.

The monster with its elongated tail and multiple legs was slaughtering the knights.

–

‘Let’s go to the administrative district.’

I can’t deny that the Egerton warship is also an attractive option.

Currently, this place is where elite forces from upper Capitals gather before the council meeting.

It wouldn’t be a bad choice to escape before they target my life.

Yet I chose the administrative district for three reasons that make it more advantageous.

‘First, I need to catch Cult members to evolve.’

Currently, I’ve barely fulfilled the Cult requirement for evolving to Subadult.

Without evolution, there’s a limit to what I can do even with abundant genetic essence.

‘I can get plenty of genetic essence in the administrative district too.’

On the other hand, I don’t know if there are Cult members aboard Egerton’s warship.

Considering they didn’t deploy Cult members when capturing me with knights, it’s reasonable to assume there aren’t any.

‘And if I board the warship, I can’t take the kids with me.’

No. 26 and Adhigh Orr.

Both have only benefited me and never caused harm.

If asked whether there’s merit in abandoning them to board the warship, I would say no.

‘In Adhigh’s case, we made a contract.’

I promised to save and protect him in exchange for guidance to Gallergorn’s Nest.

If we part ways here, I gain nothing.

And finally,

‘T&C has less information about me than Egerton.’

Although Egerton and T&C are conducting joint operations in the sewer search, there’s quite a gap in information between them.

This is evident from the armaments of those who entered the sewers.

Egerton brought weapons capable of subduing me.

Plasma bolters and blade claws can penetrate my outer skin, and they equipped assault packs in preparation for close combat.

‘Plus they brought launchers too.’

Launchers can severely damage any part of my body except my head, which is the hardest part.

The knights made every effort to capture me alive.

‘The Defense Forces, on the other hand, didn’t.’

They also brought launchers, but that’s standard for platoon-level support weapons, and their other equipment isn’t much different from what the armed police wore during the apartment complex battle.

‘The knights didn’t share information.’

They probably did so for their own benefit.

Thanks to the knights’ information control, the leadership of the T&C Special Trade Center knows very little about me.

While the Special Trade Center certainly sees me as a threat, they don’t know how dangerous I really am.

The less my enemies know, the more options I have.

So hiding in the administrative district benefits me.

‘Now that I’ve made up my mind…’

Only action remains.

I charged at the knights who were attacking the Defense Forces.

A knight who had just killed a soldier with his blade claw was aiming his bolter at another soldier.

I pounced on him from behind and knocked him down.

“Ugh?”

The knight fell defenseless, clearly not expecting the attack.

I pinned him down with my combat arms so he couldn’t get up, then bit his head with my mouth.

“He-help…!”

The knight struggled in the water, but my combat arms held him firmly in place, making his resistance futile.

I bit through his head, helmet and all.

As the helmet crumbled, brain matter and bone fragments spilled out.

After sucking up the contents of the knight’s head, I left the corpse and leaped at new prey.

“Damn it! Catch that thing!”

When I suddenly attacked a knight from behind, Bickers shouted in rage.

I swung my tail at the knights surrounding me.

The sharp spines at the end of my tail flew toward the knights.

They quickly raised their psychic shields.

The shields, formed by extremely concentrated psychic power with physical defensive capabilities, neutralized my spines.

A knight’s bolter aimed at my head.

Just before the bolter fired, a penetrating round flew in and pierced his head.

“Damn Defense Forces!”

As Bickers shouted, the Defense Forces were firing gauss rifles at the knights.

Of course, they were shooting at me too, not just the knights.

“Four of you handle the Defense Forces, the rest deal with the monster!”

‘I can’t let that happen.’

The Defense Forces should be the ones to ‘kill’ me. For that, at least two or three need to survive.

I extended a blood-sucking tentacle from my right shoulder combat arm and swung it.

The red tentacle struck one of the four knights’ heads. With a chilling sound, the knight with a broken neck collapsed.

“How dare you!”

A knight shouted at his comrade’s death and fired his bolter at me.

I quickly raised my head to block the plasma round from the bolter.

The outer skin of my head is the hardest part of my body. A tingling pain spread through my head and neck as it collided with the energy round, but it was still bearable.

‘Still, it would be dangerous to take more than two consecutive hits.’

Being able to withstand doesn’t mean it’s okay to get hit.

I crouched low in the sewage water, which came up to the knights’ waists, to reduce my target profile.

Moving quickly with my four combat arms and legs, I started to confuse the knights.

“Where did it go?”

The water level was low enough that my back was clearly visible above the surface.

But with debris floating on the water, it wasn’t easy to distinguish my form.

“Over there!”

A knight seeking vengeance for his comrade spotted me with burning eyes.

He aimed his bolter at me.

“You goddamn son of a…”

“You idiot! Get down!”

Bickers called out in panic, but it was too late.

A plasma beam from the Defense Forces erased both his bolter and arm.

“Aaagh!”

The price for ignoring the Defense Forces to catch me was steep. The knight screamed, clutching where his arm had been vaporized along with his armor.

“Get that fool to the back immediately!”

I couldn’t miss such a good opportunity.

I shot spines at the knight who had fallen into panic after losing his arm.

The spines, loaded with neurotoxin, struck precisely where his arm had been severed.

The screaming knight went limp, confusing his comrade who was supporting him.

I charged at them and impaled both simultaneously with the horns on my head.

“Kh, khek! Y-you monster!”

Despite having his stomach pierced, the knight didn’t give up. He swung his blade claw and cut off part of the outer skin covering my head.

‘Good thing it’s outer skin with less sensation.’

It would have hurt a lot more if he’d cut off one of my tentacles.

‘Pointless resistance.’

With the knights still impaled on my horns, I shook my head violently.

The knight groaned in pain as the horn in his stomach tore through his intestines. His arm, which had been trying to strike my crown, lost strength and drooped.

“Die!”

Another knight targeted my back.

I turned my head to match the trajectory of his plasma round.

Naturally, the knight skewered on my horn became a meat shield.

The sound of tearing leather was followed by the acrid smell of burning flesh that stimulated my auxiliary organs.

“Avoid friendly fire! Avoid friendly—argh!”

“Deputy Commander!”

Bickers, who had been shouting commands, clutched his shoulder after being hit by a penetrating round.

The knights began to waver rapidly at the sight of their wounded commander.

After my surprise attack began, the tide of battle reversed dramatically.

“Good! Now’s our chance with the Deputy Commander wounded!”

The Defense Forces pressed their advantage against the knights.

Soldiers at the front created a field of fire by shooting indiscriminately in the direction of me and the knights, while those at the rear evacuated the wounded and regrouped.

In contrast, the knights’ formation had completely collapsed because of me.

Those who had been facing the Defense Forces were mostly incapacitated due to my attack and the Defense Forces’ fire, while other knights seemed confused about who to attack first.

With their commander wounded in this situation, the unfavorable battle conditions accelerated.

“The operation has failed! Everyone retreat!”

Finally, the word “retreat” came from Bickers’ mouth as he was supported by his subordinates.

‘Should I let them escape?’

Even if the relationship between the two houses has deteriorated rapidly because of me, they’re likely to maintain cooperation for a while due to the council meeting.

If they resume hunting after I go to the administrative district, I might encounter them again.

‘You never know what might happen.’

It’s best to minimize potential threats.

I pounced on the retreating knights and eliminated them one by one.

Not just me, but the Defense Forces also seemed determined to annihilate the knights here, attacking them from behind as they fled.

“Deputy Chief! What should we do about that monster?”

“Penetrating rounds won’t work, fire the launcher!”

I heard the Defense Forces’ voices while I was tearing off a knight’s neck.

‘Time to fake it?’

I checked the number of remaining knights.

There were six fleeing, including Bickers.

The Defense Forces still had dozens of men left. They could handle this without me.

‘This is far enough.’

To avoid suspicion that I deliberately got hit, I shook the knight’s corpse violently in my mouth.

Like a beast showing off its prey.

Seeing this as an opportunity, the Defense Forces fired their launcher.

A green light cut through the water’s surface toward me.

I had already used my auxiliary organs to anticipate how the enemy’s attack would come.

I straightened my head to match the beam’s trajectory.

The beam, capable of easily penetrating a ship’s hull, collided with the outer skin of my head.

‘Kuk!’

I involuntarily stepped back several paces from the unexpectedly powerful force.

Though my thick outer skin absorbed most of the impact, the shock that couldn’t be absorbed spread throughout my body.

The outer skin of my neck, back, and legs burst open from the impact, spraying blood.

‘…I can still endure.’

My entire body was instantly covered in blood, but I have the regeneration trait. As long as my brain in my head isn’t destroyed, injuries like this heal quickly.

‘Activating dormant state.’

I pretended to collapse from the beam while activating my ‘dormant state’ trait.

At that moment, all strength left my body.

My body, out of my control, collapsed in the sewer passage as it pleased.

The auxiliary organ below my jaw, always reliable, hung limply with all sensation completely lost.

I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear anything.

The only sensation was a chilling coldness.

Death.

It felt so real that I wondered if something had gone wrong.

‘So this is what it feels like. But somehow familiar…’

The inexplicable sense of déjà vu disappeared along with my fading consciousness.

And so I died.