Chapter 278
Chapter 278
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 278
Chapter Title: Collapse (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'Visual impairment, huh.'
Hanging from the silo wall, I checked my body's condition.
Color Night inflicts heavy damage on the target while simultaneously triggering random negative effects. The real hassle wasn't the damage itself, but those debuffs. Things like weakening sensory organs or muscles, or scattering one's focus.
Having taken a rainbow-colored energy blast to the abdomen, my vision was severely impaired. Everything around me looked blurry.
'If I didn't have my auxiliary organs, that would've been a real problem.'
Among an Aimorph's sensory organs, the auxiliary ones dangling under my jaw take up the biggest share. Even without my eyes, I could clearly sense everything happening inside this silo.
I clung to the silo wall, monitoring my opponent's movements through my auxiliary organs.
Cynthia was currently focused on healing her wounds. The smell of blood from her injuries and the cold sweat from the pain were steadily fading.
In the meantime, I sorted through the crucial new intel I'd gathered.
I'd run a few experiments while clashing with her.
Wondering if it only blocked projectiles, I tried striking it with my hand directly. I even tested if the "Predator Leech Hand" could devour the barrier.
The results, as you can see, were failures. As payment, one finger and the palm of one combat arm got blown clean off.
Next, I tried a joint operation with Specimen 026.
Her barrier was a dome shape laid out on the floor. So, attacking from below by breaching the ground should work.
I unleashed acidic breath all over the barrier. Cynthia probably thought I was targeting it directly, but really, I was melting a hole in the floor.
Specimen 026 hid in the toxic fumes rising from the corroding floor and slipped down to the level below unharmed. There, it grew massive and smashed the floor beneath the barrier with its tentacles.
I wasn't slacking off either. Timed with its strike, I used "Herald of Great Chaos," driving one pirate into a frenzy of madness.
Unfortunately, Cynthia countered by reshaping the barrier into a perfect sphere, blocking the Herald's effect. The pirate failed to kill her.
'Still, I got some key info.'
The barrier can't block attacks originating from inside it. She took a hit from her bodyguard's gun and got wounded.
Among boss-level creatures' deployable defenses, some make the protected area completely invulnerable. Hers isn't that type.
'But luring attacks from inside won't be easy.'
After the surprise attack from within, Cynthia shoved her bodyguard outside to eliminate the threat. True to her ranker status, she quickly judged it as some kind of infection and responded.
If the bodyguard had died inside the barrier, there was a slim chance the madness bomb could've spread. A slight pity.
She'd been hit hard once, so she'd be on high alert now. She's a ranker like me— no way she'd fall for the same trick twice without losing her mind.
'Or maybe I can turn that against her?'
Quite some time had passed since we started fighting. By now, she'd realize I had no way to pierce her barrier. So, if I acted like I was switching tactics to find a way around it, that'd look natural.
The barrier's known weakness so far: vulnerability to internal attacks. Both she and I knew it, making it the key to cracking her defense.
'...Or so she'll think.'
While she bought into that misconception, I'd target something else entirely.
My auxiliary organs twitched, probing Cynthia's reactions.
I could feel her exhaled breath slipping out beyond the barrier. Thanks to her healing, the pain was easing— her ragged panting was steadying.
'Perfect.'
I'd pieced together my strategy.
Finally, I checked the timing— critical for this plan— then sent a psionic pulse to Specimen 026 waiting below.
[Zuz zuzuz (You okay?)]
｢Yeah! I'm fine!｣
[Zuzuz zuz zuzuzuz (Sorry, but I need a favor)]
｢What? What is it?｣
[Zuzuzuz zuz zuz zuzuz (Go tell Adhai)]
I relayed the necessary details to Specimen 026.
It seemed reluctant to leave, but eventually agreed.
｢Big baby, don't get hurt anymore!｣
[Zuzuzuz (Don't worry)]
Reassuring it, I fired a psychic breath from my monster tentacles. Not at her barrier, but the space around it.
"Tch!"
Realizing I meant to shatter the entire floor around her, she clicked her tongue. A psychic scythe, under her will, burst from the air and slashed down at me.
Were my impaired eyes making other senses sharper? I sensed the psychic power concentrating in the air beforehand and spread my wing arms to take flight. Dodging Reaper's Hand easily, I flew toward the opposite wall to cling on.
Mid-flight across the vast silo center, my body suddenly grew heavy. I felt intense psychic power focused in Cynthia's left hand below.
She'd snared me with "Binding" and yanked her left arm back hard. My body lurched downward, slamming into the floor.
It didn't really hurt, but it soured my mood. The bio-cannon on my back vented my irritation with a shell. Two explosive spores arced over the barrier.
They burst, sending faint vibrations through our footing. Undeterred, Cynthia reached for me.
Psychic techniques inducing all sorts of debuffs rained down on me.
My body slowed like sinking in quicksand. With me pinned, she unleashed a barrage of Color Night.
In response, I activated "Complication Specter."
Smoke poured from my body, rapidly coalescing in the air. The massive tray-shaped specter, big enough to shield not just me but the walls behind, blocked Cynthia's Color Night.
"!"
The reflected blasts scattered like popcorn from a hot pan. Pockmarks began pitting not just the floor around her but the silo walls. Seeing that, her heartbeat quickened more than before.
She was probably wondering just how much hidden power I had left.
After that, we traded cautious blows.
Having confirmed Complication Specter, she shifted to techniques that bound and disrupted my movements rather than raw destructive power.
Just as Jason said, she was a rear-support specialist ranker— her skill was top-notch. No decisive blow, but she interfered perfectly when and where needed.
After the specter faded, I took a few more Color Nights. I shattered one with my horn to avoid the debuff, but the rest piled damage on me relentlessly.
One combat arm went numb, and the acidic fungal gland in my throat's production plummeted.
Then psychic-manipulated gravity crushed me. With my head smashed to the floor, unable to move properly, Cynthia prepared another Color Night.
'Aiming for my right wing arm.'
Reading the psychic flow with my auxiliary organs instead of my blurry eyes, I forced my sluggish body to prepare a block.
Soon, her rainbow energy bolt came flying. Meant to strip my flight, it hurtled fiercely— but veered off not toward my wing arm, but somewhere else entirely.
"...Damn it!"
About ten minutes into the fight, her attack missed for the first time. Her short curse dripped with thick bewilderment.
Meanwhile, I crawled out of the gravity control zone she'd set up. She fired another Color Night behind me, but it, too, flew astray.
"Why is this...?"
She muttered in confusion. She wanted to figure out why she kept missing, but her head seemed too foggy to think straight.
I knew exactly why. Kindly, I pointed behind her with a wing arm finger.
She turned to follow my finger.
The pirates behind her. Their chatter had dropped sharply; their faces were deathly pale. Especially the burly one, clutching his chest like it was in a vise, gasping desperately.
"No way?"
Whipping her head back, she glared at me with bloodshot eyes. The red in them wasn't just rage.
The weapon I'd chosen to pierce her barrier was none other than—
'Time.'
This fortress's oxygen levels were plummeting in real-time due to PS-111's sabotage. In an hour, no human could stand upright inside.
Normally, each command center has backup oxygen systems for such emergencies. But now, they weren't working right. I'd wrecked them on my way up, so more oxygen leaked out than got supplied.
Over twenty minutes since it started venting to space. Time for her and the pirates to feel it.
"Can't breathe, you die. Cult or not, same deal."
In that regard, being an Aimorph rocks. I can hold out forever without breathing.
"...Montana, get inside."
"Ar-are... you... sure?"
Ignoring me, she loaded her pirates onto the shuttle. It had limited oxygen supply, so they'd last a bit longer.
Of course, Cynthia had to face me, so she was the exception.
As I readied for round two, she spoke up.
"Number Five, I have something to say."
Stalling would've hurt her more than me, yet here she was. Surprising.
'Her thinking's too muddled now?'
From her nonstop cold sweat and ragged breaths, her desperation was obvious.
"In a game, maybe not. But this is reality. No need to avoid talking if we can."
Not wrong, but no need to chat now either. We were fighting to kill each other; this could give her a counter chance.
"So steeped in Aimorph life you refuse talk even with a fellow human?"
That made me pause involuntarily.
"Fellow human?"
"Yes."
"Not something for you— hunter of other players— to say."
She was part of Jason's crew. They'd tried enslaving Heaven's Mother and killed players for their perks.
"That's related to why I'm asking to talk."
"Meaning?"
"I don't agree with their goals at all. Never took any perks either."
One thing matched what Jason said: Cynthia claimed she'd never directly claimed a perk while with them.
From my experience, perks only transfer if you kill the owner directly. That's how I stole Muriel's and Jason's.
"Excuses mean nothing. You contributed to other players' deaths."
"It was to achieve my faction's goal. I hung with them for intel."
"Intel?"
Breathing hard, she slipped a hand into her collar.
"Number Five. You devour others to reach evolution's end— Ascension, right?"
"Yeah."
Nothing to hide, so I answered simply.
Her voice steadied a bit.
"My comrades and I aim to clear the game and return home."
That jogged a memory from Heaven's Mother: conflict between players seeking the ending and those wanting to rule this world.
I'm closer to the former.
"Won't you ally with us?"
So her offer was predictable.
'Ally, huh.'
No deep thought needed— it was tempting.
Her faction likely knew players once cooperated for the ending but failed for some reason. If they still pursued it, they probably had info I lacked.
In this game so changed, knowing beats ignorance by miles. Especially with ending mission difficulty spiked— teaming up would be advantageous.
'Obviously. But...'
Her proposal had a trap. After a moment's thought, I decided.
"I refuse."
"Think it over... What?"
Assuming I'd accept, Cynthia stared at me in disbelief.