Chapter 187
“Kuk!”
With the bone blade attached to the arms on my back, I attempted to tear Jason apart. However, the ‘Harmonizer’ effect was triggered, rendering my attack futile. The golden spear of the priest he was holding plunged deeply into my eyes. The enemy had already anticipated using the Harmonizer. Blades of bones surrounding the auxiliary organs briskly flickered. Having predicted Jason’s direction, I dashed towards him without hesitation.
“Revenant Mechanism… Kuk!”
Jason, reconstructed from dozens of meters away, shouted before quickly noticing my approaching figure. The golden figure on his back hastily attempted to transform his arm into a blade.
‘As expected, the Harmonizer isn’t quite compatible.’
From what I’ve observed so far, after teleportation, he’s always fixed in a form resembling a human. This means that each time he teleports, the weaknesses of his golden form are fully exposed. There’s a certain delay when the form changes.
Before the golden figure could transform its arm into a blade, my combat-ready arm slashed at him.
“Agh!”
The one whose face was scratched by my nails screamed. Blood gushed from the eye split in half by my nails.
As he screamed, the one clinging to the purification swung his reflection into action. However, I had already moved back. His attack sliced through the air in vain.
“You rat! I’ll finish you with one blow!”
New eyes sprouted on his forehead, pouring blood from both eyes. The name of those eyes is ‘Third Eye,’ a technique that grants effects similar to the auxiliary organs I possess to the user.
It’s a good detection technique for detecting invisible enemies or movements, but there’s one thing he doesn’t know.
[The fur of unknown creatures: This is a benefit provided by the ‘Intelligent Weakling’ trait. It provides the user with a hiding effect that allows them to evade detection equipment, traits, and techniques by sensing the subtle vibrations of the fur. ]
While the kids held him down, I prepared both the Intelligent Weakling and the Symbol of Hunting simultaneously.
As the King of Monsters effect faded away, the discarded carapace became a cover, and I was reborn as a small monster of about 5 meters. With my four combat arms moving downwards to form my lower body, my physique resembled that of a centaur rather than a snake. Among the armor and scales covering my body, dense fur with powerful protective effects had grown. But that’s not all. Many deadly weapons are also attached to my body. Between the fur covering my back, two arms with bone scythes attached are newly attached, and below my jaw, a secondary organ covered in blade bones awaits activation.
As an Intelligent Weakling who uses agility as a weapon and a Symbol of Hunting that greatly enhances combat power, these are the last cards I’ve prepared to adorn the climax of this battle.
Originally, since I had already used the King of Monsters, it should have been impossible to transform into an Intelligent Weakling. ‘Organic Evolution’ has a cooldown of one month each time it’s used. But the Revenant Mechanism nullifies this restriction.
While the small organ attached to my heart is active, I can use all the traits I have without restriction. Why did I choose to shrink instead of growing larger? There are two reasons. Firstly, I don’t have much energy left. Even if I were to use something like the King of Monsters, it wouldn’t last long. And growing larger would undoubtedly make it difficult to avoid the enemy’s attacks. Even now, blood continues to flow from my neck, soaking my fur. Taking any more damage wouldn’t be ideal.
‘Instead, let’s end this quickly.’
As long as I have this thick fur covering my body, there’s no way he can detect me. Not until he sees me with his own eyes, that is. Transformed into an Intelligent Weakling resembling a centaur, I dashed over the ground with my four legs.
The one who located me by sound unleashed psychic power techniques like Pain Spear at me. I narrowly avoided his attacks and approached again.
Even though his vision hadn’t fully recovered, he anticipated my attack and immediately cast Reflection. As my arm halted in mid-air due to the intangible energy field, he smirked with satisfaction.
‘Amusing.’
Perhaps it was because his vision hadn’t fully returned yet. If he were directly looking at me, he couldn’t have smiled like that. Because five humanoid faces attached to my headpiece were glaring at him with bloody tears.
“?!”
The humanoid faces under my control chorused together. The devilish melody tore through his mental defenses, rendering his movements powerless.
While his body was stiffened, my bone blade attached to my jaw swiftly moved. The paralysis inflicted by the humanoid faces varies depending on how strong the opponent is. Jason’s paralysis was quickly dispelled.
He barely managed to evade the blade, twisting his neck to avoid getting his throat slashed. Instead of severing his neck, my blade deeply pierced his collarbone.
“Agh!”
While it wasn’t as fatal as the throat, the collarbone is still a vulnerable spot. Having it shattered would be excruciatingly painful.
As I twisted the bone blade to finish him off, I felt nothing at the tip of the blade.
Unable to endure the pain, he used the Harmonizer to escape.
‘This is the fourth time.’
Now, there’s only one use left for the Harmonizer. When Jason reappeared from dozens of meters away, his body was unscathed.
While he glared at me, the emotion within his eyes wasn’t anger.
Fear.
He’s afraid of me.
“…Tsk.”
Instead of attacking me, he enveloped himself in a golden figure. Although it resembled the beams of light he used to move or attack, there was one difference.
‘A blue light?’
As he attempted to soar into the sky with a mixture of gold and blue, a drill made of rock and ice suddenly struck him.
‘Not going anywhere!’
“This damn demon bastard…!”
It was 26’s Demon Crush technique that attacked Jason, causing about a third of his body to be shattered. This attack seemed to have caused considerable damage as the golden aura surrounding Jason wavered. The beam-shaped figure returned to a humanoid form and transformed both arms into shields.
Meanwhile, blue particles continued to spread throughout his body, expanding their range from his feet and hands to now covering his arms and legs.
‘That appearance… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.’
Regardless, it seemed evident that he was preparing his ultimate move. Considering he focused solely on defense with the golden figure and didn’t use Reflection or any other technique.
“A suitable opening to penetrate his defense… Ah.”
In my battered state, I dashed towards the PS-111 lying on the ground.
“Are you okay?”
[The damage is severe. Damage rate is at 92%.]
As expected, its body was in a dreadful state. Its legs were severed, and even its facial skin was peeled off, revealing the muscles underneath.
“…I’m sorry, but I need to ask for your help.”
[No need to apologize. In fact, I’m asking for your assistance. Please help me to maintain the main controller.]
I nodded and looked at its tail.
“Can you shoot?”
[If there’s energy supply, it’s possible.]
At his words, I immediately thrust my arm into the creature’s mouth. Understanding my intention, it promptly bit down on my arm without hesitation. In an instant, I felt a draining sensation throughout my body. As my condition worsened, blood poured again from the wound on my neck. If this were a game, my health would probably be at around 5% by now. Nevertheless, I remained steadfast.
‘Mistake here could mean death. No, death might be preferable. If I’m captured by Jason, who knows what might happen.’
[We have secured enough energy to use Demolisher against the hostile life form.]
I wasn’t the only one thinking this way. Everyone here shares one goal: survival. The PS-111, now replenished with energy, aimed its tail towards Jason. Seeing his body already tinged with blue up to his torso as he shielded himself, I dashed towards him, leaving the PS-111 behind.
The distance between us was no more than 50 meters. Amidst the four legs pounding the ground, my auxiliary system detected another movement. Something was descending rapidly from the high sky. The entity descending like a lightning bolt in a straight line was none other than Adhai. Despite the pain of her broken wings, she paid no heed.
We were all exerting our utmost in this fight. Jason attempted to adjust the shield’s angle upon sensing Adhai’s approach. At that moment, his attention was diverted elsewhere.
The PS-111’s Demolisher disintegration energy blast was launched from its tail. The blue energy mass flew unhindered, destroying Jason’s golden shield. With the blue light reaching up to his shoulders, Jason’s face showed surprise at the attack, but he didn’t seem greatly shaken. Instead, a faint smile graced his lips. Seeing that, I could guess what he was thinking. He probably thought it was all over, regardless of what we did.
“Nonsense. It’s not over until I say it’s over.”
Before his broken shield could regenerate, Adhai collided with Jason’s golden figure. Due to the acceleration, both Jason and the golden figure shook violently.
｢You.｣ ｢Reap what you sow.｣ ｢Deserve.｣
Despite the shock, Adhai’s wings and forelegs were completely shattered. Surprisingly, however, her attack wasn’t over yet. On his back, the Mother of the Sky was perched. Despite her broken beak, she vigorously thrust the golden spear held in both hands. Jason, with only his neck remaining exposed, hastily turned his head. The spear shattered one of his antlers, causing wounds to his forehead and ear.
Relief flickered in his eyes. But that was his final mistake.
With me now within arm’s reach, my arm on my back moved. Through the remaining gap among the regenerating golden particles, the bone scythe attached to my arm tip pierced precisely. The sharpest weapon of Amorph accurately severed the target.
As the bone scythe tip sensed the desired result, the golden figure in front of me disappeared along with Jason’s body. Just after he vanished, the auxiliary system picked up one small sound. It was the sound when something falls on the eye.
More specifically, it sounded similar to the sound when something the size of a human head falls.
I picked up what had fallen on the ground.
‘Success.’
The warm liquid on my hand, with its familiar and fragrant scent—it was Jason’s head.
His expression remained as if he had an almost imperceptible smile, from beginning to end. He died because he was complacent.
‘Foolish.’
Without hesitation, I put the loot left by the foolish enemy into my mouth.
