Ch.88Shadow (5)

“I’m special, special, special, die? Die…”

The grotesquely transformed Black.

Even as her appearance changed, she continued to babble incessantly.

‘This is the first time I’ve seen someone transform this strangely because of a Necrofector.’

To briefly summarize her appearance, she looked like a mutated corpse monster from a classic space horror game.

The yak horns that had protruded from her temples were now bizarrely twisted, and where all her hair had fallen out, two newly formed eyes had taken residence.

Her right arm had transformed into an elongated spear shape, as if the summoned Pain Spear had merged with her flesh.

All over her left arm, half-formed mouths had appeared, their tongues flicking in and out.

Thanks to the fusion of the Black Shroud with her flesh, her body was practically naked, but it evoked disgust rather than beauty.

Even though I like aliens and monsters, I couldn’t feel any attraction to her appearance.

“Shaaaaaaah!”

Black, no, the Necrofector, kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.

While airborne, she raised her left arm, and purple whips shot out from the mouths on her arm, rushing toward my position.

The whips, as if possessing their own consciousness, targeted my weak points from all directions.

Instead of avoiding them, I dove right into the midst of the whips.

I blocked the whips coming from the front with my head, and deflected those aiming for my sides with the shield carapace on my wrist.

Some whips that I couldn’t block aimed to tear apart my back and legs.

But I wasn’t worried.

“I can’t forgive the sooty one who bullies Big Baby!”

The incoming whips froze in midair as if nailed there, then disappeared.

This was thanks to No. 26’s “binding” ability, which had become much stronger than before.

As the randomly flying Psychic Whips were neutralized, I closed in on the Necrofector.

“Get lost! Ge, sssss, get lost! Die!”

She swung her arm fused with the Pain Spear at me while cursing.

I shouldn’t take that hit directly. Not only would it block my regeneration ability, but the Necrofector would also steal my life force.

According to the settings, a Necrofector is born by sacrificing life to the Black Shroud.

So the more life force it steals to offer to the Black Shroud, the more it returns to its original form—its human form before death.

The enhancement effects remain while the unstable negative effects gradually decrease.

In other words, the longer you fight a Necrofector, the worse it gets.

I twisted my body sideways to avoid the Pain Spear she swung. At that point, as if anticipating my dodge, she transformed the Pain Spear into a hook shape.

‘Not a chance.’

But I was also reading her attacks.

Just before the hook could strike my thigh, blood-sucking tentacles shot out from the end of my combat arm and struck her side.

“Eek! Die!”

The enemy flew back from my attack. Her left arm glowed.

‘Danger!’

I quickly ducked my head, raising the crown-like carapace extending from the back of my head.

A thin black heat ray fired from the mouth on the Necrofector’s left arm, striking my head.

‘Ugh!’

I retreated a few steps and quickly launched myself as I saw more heat rays coming.

Five black heat rays chased closely behind me, trying to tear me apart.

‘Due to the demonization, there’s no limit to energy consumption.’

Though the destructive power was certainly lower than when she was in her right mind, firing multiple shots simultaneously made the reduced power hardly a disadvantage.

The heat rays destroyed everything around—houses, trees, roads, cars—while persistently following the tip of my tail.

“Die! Die! D-kuh!”

She was screaming hysterically while firing heat rays, but suddenly closed her mouth.

When I looked back, I saw a purple net constricting the enemy.

The one who had thrown that net was No. 26.

As No. 26’s tentacles twitched, blood spurted from the enemy’s body.

“Kuaaaaaaak!”

The enemy let out a terrible scream and flexed her muscles, causing No. 26’s binding to gradually loosen.

Seeing this, No. 26 immediately switched to a different attack. Its long tentacles broke through the ground and burrowed in.

“Kill, I’ll kill… kuk!”

The enemy tried to fire heat rays at No. 26 after changing targets. However, that intention failed.

Thick tentacles erupted from the ground, targeting her arms.

She quickly withdrew her left arm and jumped backward.

She swung her right arm while retreating, but the tentacles shrank instantly, causing her attack to merely slice through empty air.

‘She’s improved a lot.’

Sea Demons can freely adjust the size of their tentacles when using them.

No. 26 had shown skill in using tentacles before. Perhaps that’s why she was utilizing them well in combat even after growing.

While the two were exchanging attacks, I moved quickly to close the distance with the Necrofector.

I took a deep breath, targeting the moment when she landed on the ground.

Along with my exhale, a long stream of flame burned her face.

“Kyaaaak!”

The Necrofector takes only half damage from all types of attacks, but that doesn’t mean the pain disappears.

She grabbed her head and writhed in the flames engulfing her body.

‘I heard burns are extremely painful.’

All four of her eyes, which had been suffering in pain, suddenly focused on the flames. Reflection activated, and the flames were reflected, spreading around both of us.

Using the moment when she was focused on the fire, I tried to stab her shoulder with the bone blade arm on my back.

No, I tried to.

When one of her four eyes focused on my bone blade, Reflection activated again in midair, deflecting my attack.

As my body swayed from the repelled attack from my back arm, the Pain Spear shot through the black smoke and red flames.

The spear’s target was my hand.

Having lost my tail and not yet recovered, my remaining weapons were three combat arms and the bone blade arm on my back. She was planning to disable my combat hand, which I used most frequently.

But there was something she didn’t know.

Just before the spear tip pierced my palm, my hand glowed purple.

The spear passed through my hand as if piercing a mirage.

“?!”

Though she was in a deranged state, she seemed quite surprised, widening her eyes.

I raised the claws on my intact hand and slashed at her from bottom to top.

Unfortunately, this attack failed too. As she retreated and used Reflection, my attack was deflected in an odd direction.

Whips shot out from her left arm, trying to strike my arm, but No. 26 blocked them.

While binding held her arm, No. 26’s tentacles simultaneously targeted the back of her head.

“Y-you! D-damn, you, you, you bastards!”

The Necrofector let out an enraged howl and tried to fire heat rays from her left arm.

I shook my head vigorously and struck her left arm with my horn. With a sickening sound, the enemy’s arm bent in a grotesque direction.

With the heat ray blocked, she kicked me.

Whether due to her original characteristics or not, the Necrofector’s leg strength was by no means weak.

My abdomen caved in, and my body was pushed far back.

Then the Pain Spear flew in to stab me. From my collapsed posture, I barely blocked the attack with my combat arm.

‘That’s the second time I’ve allowed an attack.’

The enemy’s strength had become much stronger than before. This attack had cut my arm’s shield carapace in half.

“Uh, uhhh, wh-what is…?”

Her eyes momentarily regained clarity, as if her sanity was returning.

“Uh, sssss, I am special, special, specialspecialspecialspecial…”

Perhaps she hadn’t absorbed enough life force to suppress the unstable effect. Her eyes returned to their clouded state.

‘Close combat won’t be easy.’

In close combat, it’s difficult to avoid the enemy’s attacks in certain situations. And the more that happens, the stronger the enemy becomes.

‘But I can’t leave everything to No. 26 either.’

She doesn’t have attack methods that can effectively damage the Necrofector.

Breaking the neck with binding, which works against humans, doesn’t work on a Necrofector. Unless No. 26 had fully matured, she lacks the necessary strength.

The saw-blade tentacles are a double-edged sword. While they can wound the Necrofector, if No. 26 is attacked in return, it’s a significant loss for her.

Also, No. 26 doesn’t have a hard outer shell like me, so even light attacks from the Necrofector could be fatal.

‘I need to change my approach.’

Initially, I planned to neutralize the left arm, the most threatening weapon, but given the situation, it didn’t seem easy.

Even without reason, she was acutely aware of her weaknesses.

‘There’s no more time. Let’s put everything into this attack.’

“Now die! Die!”

She charged at me, baring her teeth like a rabid dog. The spear she swung transformed into a hook, trying to strike me down.

Due to her movements being faster than before, I barely avoided her attack. I kicked the hook stuck in the ground, disrupting her posture, and used that opportunity to look at No. 26.

Sensing my gaze, she briefly emitted light.

Meaning she would follow whatever plan I had.

‘Good.’

I kicked off the ground and launched myself backward.

She clicked her tongue when her attack, which had transformed the hook stuck in the ground to target my ankle, failed.

The fact that she clicked her tongue suggested her reason was returning more than before.

But I didn’t rush.

She raised her left arm to fire heat rays at me, who had created distance. At that moment, the ground behind her split, and tentacles shot out.

No. 26’s tentacles wrapped around the Necrofector’s left arm.

She tried to deflect the tentacles with Reflection, but at that moment, iron rebar fragments from beneath the destroyed road flew and pierced her eyes.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

It seems the original intent was to penetrate, but due to her resistance, it only managed to pierce her eyes.

“Shaaaaaaaa!”

She let out a sound that was either a scream or a howl after having her vital point attacked, and tore off the tentacles with her right arm.

No. 26’s body trembled at the pain of her flesh being torn.

It was strong enough to be felt through the tentacles holding me.

“It’s okay! It doesn’t hurt at all!”

After shouting that, she put strength into her tentacles and threw me high into the air.

The direction No. 26 threw me was above the enemy’s head.

Flying toward my destination, I turned my head to aim at the crown of her head.

And I unleashed the Psychic Breath I had been preparing.

“What?!”

Judging this to be dangerous, she quickly tried to pull her body back.

“You can’t go!”

No. 26’s binding, exerted with all her might, hindered her movement. It was for an extremely short time, but it was enough for the Psychic Breath to reach her.

She looked at No. 26 with disbelieving eyes, but it was already too late.

The dragon’s flames mercilessly engulfed the Necrofector’s body.

–

‘The enemy is faster than expected!’

Red, who had been continuing anti-air fire against the airborne enemy, unconsciously broke into a cold sweat.

The tungsten bullets condensed with plasma that she fired from her coil gun were certainly larger than regular bullets, but they were not easy to see in this darkness.

Thanks to the Psychic Control Web, she could detect and control bullets fired from the coil gun, but the enemy couldn’t.

Even though the night in the space city was artificially created and relatively bright, it was by no means easy for that Green Gallergorn to dodge each bullet individually.

Code Red had experience fighting Gallergorn with other Shadows.

But none were as swift and terrifying as the green devil she was facing now.

‘Need support urgently!’

She had already attempted several times to forcibly summon Black using Spiritual Attunement.

But all attempts failed.

There was no response from Black.

This indicated only one thing.

Black had entered Necrofector mode.

“Kut!”

A red light came on in the coil gun, and a message appeared indicating that ammunition was running low.

The enemy was now close enough for an ordinary person without abilities to see with the naked eye.

The unfavorable situation awakened emotions dormant within her.

Fear of defeat.

‘Emergency retreat!’

She threw away the now useless coil gun and concentrated her mind.

She was releasing the Spiritual Attunement cast on Black to summon her comrade, Code Blue.

It was something she should never do, but currently, she was not in her right mind due to the fear of death she was experiencing after a long time.

A green meteor rapidly approached the purple halo glowing from her head.

‘Still have time.’

She had calculated the Green Gallergorn’s movement speed while fighting just now.

At the enemy’s speed, it couldn’t reach her before Code Blue was summoned.

That’s what she thought, but there was one thing she overlooked.

The Green Gallergorn hadn’t yet used its full speed.

“?!”

The enemy’s wings glowed intensely green, and its speed increased significantly.

A shock wave formed behind the rapidly accelerating enemy. The sound of air being torn echoed, and all the windows on the Monument’s exterior wall trembled.

With the roaring sound, the enemy rapidly closed the distance, then additionally folded its wings sharply backward.

With acceleration already built up, the extreme reduction in surface area made the enemy’s speed truly comet-like.

The windows on the 50th floor where the observatory was located all shattered from the shock wave, and chairs inside the observatory tumbled about in disarray.

‘Misjudgment.’

Seeing the enemy’s purple pupils that had already reached right in front of her, Red closed her eyes.

The Green Gallergorn not only destroyed her body to pieces but also pierced through the entire floor beyond the observatory.

Was it a coincidence?

At the moment the Green Gallergorn spread its wings again in the airspace above the Monument, far away, another dragon’s flames were burning intensely.