Chapter 109
Chapter 109
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: Forest Traps
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The forest, shrouded in fog and darkness where not even an inch ahead was visible, finally welcomed the morning.
Light poured down onto the dim forest floor. The ground was slightly damp from the dawn mist and dew.
The moist soil was covered in footprints—the traces left by pirates and Walkers as they moved.
With morning now here, unlike the predawn hours, there were no major issues with movement or searching.
However, their mood was drastically different from when they had first arrived a few hours earlier.
Unfamiliar emotions were etched on their faces, hidden beneath their helmets.
Fear.
It was the instinctive dread that prey felt.
"Deputy leader. Do you think the aide's still alive?"
"Shut up."
"...Yes, sir."
Dillon growled, and the subordinate immediately backed down.
Right now, they were tracking the missing deputy aide using detectors.
The deputy aide had vanished abruptly amid their ambush. Nine times out of ten, the monster had dragged him off.
'Damn it! If the boss finds out...'
The deputy aide was someone the boss had personally assigned to assist Dillon.
If the boss learned that such a man had been snatched by a monster, he wouldn't let Dillon off the hook.
To avoid that grim future, they had to catch the monster no matter what—alive or dead, it didn't matter.
"Enemy spotted!"
The Walker pilot's shout prompted everyone to open fire at once on the creatures hiding in the trees.
Within seconds, a beast with only its lower body intact plummeted to the ground.
"...Fuck, it's a Wood Devil. There should be two more around—find them."
"Yes, sir."
They'd been killing nothing but innocent Wood Devils for a while now, but the real monster was nowhere to be seen. It was possible it had fled far away, but Dillon was certain it hadn't.
'It's a hunter.'
One on par with the deadliest predators on this continent, no less.
It wouldn't stop the slaughter until every pirate in this forest was dead.
"Deputy leader! Look up there!"
One of the subordinates pointed to the treetops.
Dillon looked up, expecting another Wood Devil, but what he saw was far worse.
"...That fucking bastard."
Skinless corpses dangled from the trees like ornaments.
It was a message.
A warning that he'd do the same to them—or a taunt that this was all they amounted to.
Reading the intent behind the hanging bodies, Dillon ground his teeth.
"Sh-should we recover them?"
"......"
Neither Dillon nor the other pirates here had much in the way of camaraderie.
Even so, the suggestion to retrieve the bodies came from fear of the forest's other predators.
There were no predators around powerful enough to threaten the pirates.
But the dawn explosion and the Plant Lizard herd's movement might draw distant ones here.
Take the "Hond Giants," for example.
Bipedal carnivorous reptiles covered in scales as tough as a ship's hull, with jaws strong enough to crush a Heavy Walker effortlessly.
And they always moved in male-female pairs, meaning you'd have to fight two at once. The group here couldn't handle a mated pair.
'...Their sense of smell is sharp.'
The monster who hung those bodies surely knew that and had done it deliberately.
They had to pass through here to track the missing deputy aide. That made it likely they'd run into other predators drawn by the corpse stench.
"Drag those bodies down right now... No, wait."
Dillon shut his mouth before issuing the order.
'No. Would it really set something so predictable?'
This was the same bastard who had predicted their landing zone and planted mines.
It was unlikely such a cunning foe had left the corpses untouched.
'They're hung low.'
In the footage from the subordinate, they'd been high up, but now they weren't.
Low enough that even a pirate in reinforced armor could jump up, grab, and pull one down.
As if baiting them to recover the bodies.
'Suspicious.'
Dillon pulled his Purple Spray Gun and unleashed it on the corpses in the trees.
Purple flames erupted from the elongated barrel, incinerating the bodies and the wood.
The precariously hung corpses crashed to the ground—and exploded with a deafening roar upon impact.
"You son of a bitch!"
The monster had hidden bombs inside the bodies, rigged to detonate on impact.
A double trap.
Remove the corpses? Problem. Leave them? Problem.
"...Tch. We get out of here as fast as possible."
"Understood!"
Passing through a path lined with bombs was far from ideal, but it beat drawing other predators with the blasts.
Dillon and the pirates left the bodies behind and moved quickly.
"50 meters ahead—the deputy aide's movement has stopped!"
They were closing in, but Dillon felt only unease. Who knew what new trick it had up its sleeve?
"Everyone, halt."
Seemed like the unflinching leader had to check it out himself.
"You, you, and you—move with me. The rest, hold position."
"Yes, sir."
Dillon advanced with a few subordinates.
Pushing through dense undergrowth revealed a wide clearing. At the base of a massive tree stump, the deputy aide leaned against it.
His reinforced suit was severely damaged—likely from the monster's bites—everywhere except the abdomen.
Dillon first scanned the clearing with his Unflinching Mask. If the monster was camouflaged, it would glow purple, but nothing showed up.
The deputy aide was twitching—he was still alive.
"You alive, shithead?"
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
He was groaning, unable to move from his grievous wounds. Dillon gestured to a subordinate.
One pirate approached cautiously.
"Aide, sir?"
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
The groans intensified as the pirate neared.
"Huh?"
Only up close did the pirate notice something off with the deputy aide's body.
His abdomen was grotesquely swollen.
The moment the pirate reached for it—
The suit burst open, and black bugs clinging inside swarmed out, overwhelming the pirate.
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'Perfect.'
The hidden Tooth Fairies sprang into action. Now it was my turn.
I'd used Metal Predation to go stealth and climbed to the top of a giant tree, evading their sensors.
'That leader back there used his head a bit.'
Spotting the bomb trap was commendable, but still within my expectations.
They'd fixated on the corpses below and missed checking above—failing to spot me perched atop the giant tree.
'Right in the palm of my hand.'
I leaped from the treetop.
My target: the Walker prepping for battle at the rear.
Nightmare Horizon made my body incredibly heavy, accelerating my fall. Screams from ahead distracted it—it never saw me coming while charging its Plasma Launcher.
"Gah?!"
"Argh!"
The Walker I collided with toppled forward, its charged launcher firing wildly and vaporizing two pirates ahead.
"I-it's the monster!"
The pilot's shout leaked from the cockpit. I'd aimed to crush it outright but fell short.
The thick steel armor around the cockpit bent like taffy from the impact but hadn't killed the pilot.
The other pirates and Walker turned at the cry.
I activated Ghost Claws and thrust my hand into the cockpit.
A few swings silenced the pilot for good. I launched myself forward just as a plasma beam grazed my back.
'Damn!'
I thought I'd dodged clean, but no—the beam shattered the rib plates on my back.
Radio Jamming trait unusable until they regenerated.
Purple flames from Purple Spray Guns bombarded me next.
'...Hot as hell.'
The psionic flames seared my exoskeleton.
The Purple Spray Gun packed punch, but its flames clung like white phosphorus, hard to extinguish. Made of raw psychic power, they burned on for a set time.
Currently, I had Psionic Enhancement type, Psionic Resistance trait, and Pain Reduction.
Thanks to them, it only felt hot—not agonizing enough to halt me. Missing any one, and I'd be writhing in full-body inferno.
'Wasted the Metal Absorption.'
The clinging purple flames ruined transparency.
'...But I've got strategies for this.'
Flames wreathing me, I charged the remaining Walker. It hastily fired its shoulder-mounted grenade launcher as I closed in.
'Idiot.'
The plasma-packed grenade bounced off my head.
It landed amid the pirates hosing me with psionic flames.
"What the—?!"
I ignored the explosion behind and slammed into the Walker. Unlike the one I'd crushed at dawn, this one tilted to redirect my charge.
My horn scraped a long gash in its armor but didn't pierce. Dodging, it kicked me back.
Focused on the charge, I was flung far.
'Doesn't matter.'
The Walker aimed its launcher at my unbalanced form—but its plan failed.
"G-gaaahhh!"
The psionic flames on me had transferred over.
As the cockpit engulfed in purple fire, the pilot scrambled out.
'Where you going?'
I whipped my tail at him.
Struck by my scale-wrapped tail, he flew off and splattered against a tree like a swatted mosquito.
"Fire! Kill it with fire!"
The pirate leader, who'd gone ahead scouting, had returned and was bellowing.
His shoulder-mounted auto plasma gun locked on and fired.
I twisted my head, blocking the shots with my arm. My skull throbbed, but I could endure.
'Time to switch spots.'
Dodging flames and plasma, I leaped into the midst of the pirates.
Purple Spray Guns didn't discriminate friend or foe. The heavy gunners panicked and ceased fire.
"You morons! Shoot it now!"
The sharp pirate leader raged, but too late. I drew all my combat arms' weapons.
First, my bone axe cleaved a flailing pirate's head.
"Gurk!"
As brains splattered, blood-red vampire tentacles snagged another pirate's leg.
"Eek?!"
The tentacle-suspended pirate became a 1.9-meter club, bashing his fellows.
"Kragh!"
"Argh!"
Even in reinforced suits, they couldn't withstand a comrade-wielded bludgeon. They toppled like bowling pins.
The rest, abandoning their fellows, tried reactivating Purple Spray Guns.
I gaped wide at them.
From the organ in my throat, a sac of malignant mold burst forth.
The black mass arced and landed behind the heavy gunners. It ruptured like a water balloon, unleashing hellish fungi that latched onto them.
"Gr-graaagh!"
"Grahack!"
They shrieked grotesquely, collapsing. Thanks to Enhanced Infectivity, my space bacteria and decay mold organs were deadlier than before.
The far more vicious mold devoured their bodies rapidly.
"F-fuck this... Retreat! Retreat!"
The Walker was gone, and nearly half the pirates too.
At the leader's order, the survivors turned tail.
I didn't pursue. Instead, I gathered the still-living ones nearby.
"St-stop... Krgh!"
'Heal up before chasing.'
I crunched the wriggling pirate's head.
My radio-jamming rib plates were damaged, and psionic burns covered me.
Better to recover wounds and recharge energy before pursuing hastily.
'I've wiped the Walkers and heavy gunners anyway.'
The leader guy had a Purple Spray Gun and auto plasma gun, but that was it.
In this deadly forest, they were wounded deer now.
'Now I'm It.'
No need for my prepared traps anymore—a shame, but fine.
I loved a good chase, after all.