Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: Ep. 108
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"All preparations are complete."
"Good."
At the deputy adjutant's report, Dillon rose from his seat.
He was currently clad in an upgraded advanced reinforced suit, with a peculiar mask covering his face.
The silver mask, shaped like a death mask mimicking a human face, was called the Unyielding Mask.
It was special equipment bestowed upon Dillon by the boss himself, granting the wearer the ability to detect concealed targets and immunity to poison and psychic powers that affect the mind.
Moreover, the Unyielding Mask had the tremendous advantage of being compatible with any equipment.
For instance, the auto plasma gun mounted on his shoulder right now.
Thanks to its connection to the mask, it could automatically fire even at enemies undetectable by standard scanning gear.
None of the gear he wore was cheap, but Dillon didn't mind.
The enemy they had to face was no pushover, after all.
As Dillon emerged from the tent, thirty heavily armed pirates were waiting in the clearing of the campsite.
All of them wore advanced reinforced suits and carried Gauss rifles as their primary weapons. On top of that, they'd brought infantry support weapons: portable plasma rocket launchers and Purple Spray Guns.
"What about the Heavy Walkers?"
"They've already been loaded aboard."
And then there were the Heavy Walkers, clad in thick heavy armor and armed with storm guns and Plasma Launchers.
There weren't many cartels in the entire Space Dogs that could muster equipment of this caliber.
"Alright. We'll go with the standard encirclement tactic."
"Understood."
Dillon always divided his crew into three teams when hunting with his subordinates.
The scout team to search for prey, the driving team to flush out or lure the prey, and the strike team to deliver the killing blow.
The scout team had six members including the deputy adjutant, the driving team ten, and the strike team sixteen including Dillon and the Walker—a total of thirty-two for the hunt.
The reinforced suits and weapons the pirates wore were also tailored to their teams and roles.
For example, the scout team wore lightweight suits with stealth functions, while the driving and strike teams had defensive-enhanced reinforced suits.
"Let's move out."
"Yes, sir! Everyone, board up!"
The pirates boarded the large transport ship one by one, following Dillon.
The large transport carrying the Walker and the pirates soared through the dawn mist.
The humid jungle air unique to the forest quickly filled the transport ship.
The pirates silently checked their gear once more. Their faces were tense with the anticipation of battle, but not a trace of fear showed.
The pirates of the Humanity Cartel had fought fierce foes before.
They'd lost sometimes, but those who survived to the end were always them.
"An unknown monster? Monster this, monster that—let's show 'em who the real monsters are."
"Yes, sir!"
The pirates responded vigorously to Dillon's words.
The large transport, flying swiftly, soon reached the airspace above the landing zone.
"Boss, we're almost there."
"Good. Once we land, everyone starts searching around Camp 17."
As the large transport prepared to land in a wide clearing, the pirates loaded their weapons or boarded the Walkers, finishing their preparations.
And just as the transport's landing gear touched the ground—
Dillon heard something.
"Huh?"
He realized it was the sound of a mine detonating, but it was already too late.
A massive inferno engulfed everyone aboard the transport ship.
'It's started.'
I could see a pillar of fire shooting into the sky from far away.
The mine I'd planted beforehand had gone off.
Before they arrived, I'd interrogated captured pirates to learn their transport's planned landing zone.
Then I gathered all the defensive mines stored at the campsite and planted them thickly in every clearing I thought they'd use.
'They're probably wearing reinforced suits, so that won't kill many.'
At most two or three?
Not many casualties, I figured, but destroying their retreat option was achievement enough.
Mission accomplished. I leaped down from the top of the giant tree.
'Next up...'
I dashed through the misty forest. Small creatures scattered in fright as I crashed through the saplings.
When the air's humidity thickened noticeably, the trees thinned out, revealing a wide riverbank.
There, hundreds of Stegosaurus-like creatures were gathered.
Plant Lizards, the ones I'd eaten back in the space city. They looked like herbivorous dinosaurs but were classified as plant-type organisms.
Matching their ecology, they absorbed nutrients in sunlit areas during the day and came to water's edge at night to hydrate.
'Sorry to interrupt your rest.'
Right now, I needed help from my forest friends.
I let out a mighty roar toward them.
The enormous bellow from my nearly 12-meter body, tail included, reverberated thunderously through the entire forest.
A flock of pterosaurs nesting in the trees took startled flight overhead, and roars of wary predators echoed from deeper in the woods.
The Plant Lizard herd awoke at my roar.
"Kuung?"
"Keurung! Keurung!"
The largest male, 10 meters long, looked at me and let out a short cry. The herd began fleeing in the opposite direction from me.
'Perfect.'
I chased after them, swinging my tail and roaring to keep up the pressure.
The male tried to stand his ground several times to protect the herd.
Each time, I feigned attacks on the rear Plant Lizards instead of charging the male directly.
Threaten another when he guarded his family. Target yet another when he moved.
This kept repeating, forcing the herd to keep fleeing to escape me.
'Just like that.'
My goal was to have the herd crash into the pirates while fleeing.
Plant Lizards had little offense beyond their tail spines, but in a herd, that changed.
Imagine hundreds of 5-to-10-meter Stegosauruses charging at once.
Even a heavily armored Heavy Walker couldn't survive being trampled.
'And I'll pick off the enemies in the chaos.'
They were pros too, so they'd recover quickly, but this was far from my last trick.
I still had dozens more ways to cook them.
'Almost there.'
My sub-organ under my jaw whispered to me.
The clueless fools were heading this way.
"Scout team: two KIA. Driving team: one injured. One Walker immobilized."
"...You fucking bastard, that doesn't include the transport and pilot? You wanna do this right or not?"
"S-sorry, sir!"
The damage Dillon's group took before even engaging was far from minor.
Losing one of their main firepower sources, a Heavy Walker, was especially critical. Only four remained now.
'Damn it...!'
The bastard who hung skinned corpses from trees. I should've anticipated he'd turn our bombs and weapons against us.
It was a blunder born of thinking we were just fighting a dangerous beast.
"Disband the scout team. Everyone joins the driving team."
"Got it."
"Boss, what about the injured?"
At another pirate's question, Dillon approached the wounded driving team member. His leg was twisted unnaturally; walking anytime soon seemed impossible.
Without hesitation, Dillon shot him with the auto plasma gun on his shoulder.
"Our cartel has no use for the wounded."
No one protested Dillon's action. In this hellish forest, being injured and alone was as good as dead.
The pirates scavenged tools and ammo from the transport wreckage and headed for Camp 17.
When they were close to the camp, the deputy adjutant at the front gave a hand signal.
"......"
All the pirates froze at the signal. While the others scanned the surroundings with night-vision built into their reinforced suit helmets, Dillon activated the Unyielding Mask's concealment detection.
Purple flames flickered in the mask's eye area, revealing every creature hidden in the forest to his vision.
｢Chik, 11 o'clock direction.｣
The pirates' muzzles snapped to 11 o'clock. Dillon's shoulder-mounted auto plasma gun followed its owner's gaze.
"Keurung!"
"Keurung!"
Beast roars echoed from afar.
The surrounding scenery looked identical everywhere, shrouded in thick fog, with unknown animal cries.
The eerie atmosphere made cold sweat trickle down the pirates' necks.
As the roars grew louder, Dillon placed his finger on the trigger, ready to intercept the approaching foe.
Then he felt his body tremble faintly.
'Earthquake?'
Sensing vibrations rising from the ground through his knees, he pressed his palm to the earth. What started as subtle shaking grew violent.
"No way? You shit—everyone, scatter!"
The moment Dillon shouted, dark green massive reptiles burst from the thick fog.
A herd of Plant Lizards, sporting striking bony plates on their backs, charged the waiting pirates.
"Arrrgh!"
"You fucking idiots! Scatter and take cover behind trees! Don't fire back!"
At Dillon's bellow, the pirates dove behind trees and rocks. The Plant Lizards ignored them entirely, thundering past without attack.
"Wh-what?"
But the bulky, slow Heavy Walkers couldn't evade so nimbly. One of the four fired its Plasma Launcher at a Plant Lizard but missed its dodge timing.
As a result, the Heavy Walker was buried under the charging herd.
Hundreds of creatures each over 10 tons trampling it— even heavy armor couldn't withstand that.
The cockpit, protected by thick plating, crumpled, crushing the pilot inside without a chance to resist.
"You son of a—!"
But their ordeal wasn't over.
Something with jet-black exoskeleton leaped from amid the Plant Lizard herd, charging at one of the remaining Walkers.
It slammed into the Heavy Walker at full speed, its two thick head horns piercing the reinforced glass of the cockpit.
"It's here!"
"Open fire!"
The pirates immediately unleashed on the monster clinging to the Walker. Penetrator rounds from Gauss rifles wove a deadly net, purple flames spewing from Purple Spray Guns.
The creature yanked its horns free and vanished into the opposite forest to evade.
"Walker pilot? Check now!"
While driving and strike teams fired at the monster, a former scout pirate checked inside the Walker.
"Status?"
"...It pierced the pilot's chest clean through."
Dillon's face twisted at the report.
They'd lost three precious Heavy Walkers before the fight even properly began.
"Aaaargh!"
Dillon's scream-like roar echoed through the forest.
'That oughta piss 'em off good.'
Hearing their leader screech made me feel pretty damn good, for some reason.
The more they lost it and charged blindly, the better for me.
'As expected, they've got top-tier gear.'
I'd guessed the Humanity Cartel was loaded, but their armament went beyond typical pirate fare.
Just their Heavy Walkers, with Plasma Launchers on both arms, could kill even me outside hunting mode.
So I prioritized taking them out first.
Regrettably, I'd only managed two.
I'd planned to sneak more during the chaos, but their counterfire was fiercer than expected.
'They even brought Purple Spray Guns.'
The Purple Spray Gun was like a psychic flamethrower.
Think of it as halving my Psionic Breath's power but spreading it wide.
I had psychic resistance, but it wasn't something to tank head-on.
Two Walkers left. And all the Purple Spray Gun wielders intact.
I needed my next trap to finish the Walkers. Only then could I focus on the Spray Gun pirates.
'Alright, time to—huh?'
As I moved toward the next trap, my sub-organ warned me. Something invisible was nearby.
'Invisible something?'
My keen vision caught nothing. But my sub-organ wouldn't lie, so I halted and focused.
Earth scent on the ground, moss on rocks, mist's moisture, trees sucking water and breathing, sweat smell...
'Wait, sweat?'
An alien odor mixed in the air. Faint, easy to miss without focus, but definitely human tension sweat.
I flicked my tail tip toward the smell. Barbed hairs flew, embedding in something transparent.
It collapsed paralyzed, revealing a reinforced suit wearer. Through the helmet's translucent visor, wide eyes stared in disbelief.
'Stealth gear?'
Similar to the sniper suit from the space city fight.
'Perfect timing.'
I'd prepped another trap ahead, but this windfall sparked a fun idea.
'You'll fetch a high price.'
I scooped up the stealth-suited man and headed to the next spot.
For the pirates who'd entered this forest.
I still had plenty to show them.