Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Parasitic Tree
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“Damn it…”
The moment Big Five shouted the word “Combine,” the expressions on Gogo and Area87’s faces twisted.
Area87, who had been floating in the air, landed on the rooftop of a tall building.
He carefully set down the unconscious yellow dragon and yelled.
“Big!! Are you trying to blow this whole city away?!”
“Wouldn’t it be better to fight and minimize the damage, rather than letting that Dragonkin destroy everything indiscriminately?!”
Big Five shouted back with a boastful declaration.
Gogo Arc stomped forward.
“I’m in! I can’t take another hit from that breath! We have to end this before that happens!”
“Damn it! I guess we have no choice!”
Area87 shot up into the air, maintaining a vertical orientation.
“Convert! Combine!”
At Area87’s cry, Big Five stepped forward.
“Let’s go, Gogo!!”
“Gra-haha!!”
As Big Five charged, Gogo followed with a hearty laugh, as if enjoying himself.
Alexian realized they were proceeding with the combination.
“Damn it…!”
He had to stop them.
When the Frontline Machine species successfully combined, all their stats increased exponentially.
It would undoubtedly become a massive pain.
Alexian ground his teeth and lifted his head.
“Guts!! Ocona!! Stop that combination!!”
Alexian roared, calling the names of the white and black dragons.
They turned to look at Alexian with expressions of disbelief.
“You think we’re going to listen to you? You traitorous bastard!!”
“You tried to kill us!”
The white dragon Guts and the black dragon Ocona growled at Alexian.
“…Is that so?”
Alexian muttered, his eyes flashing fiercely.
“Then you can die too.”
Flinch—
Guts and Ocona flinched at the look in Alexian’s eyes.
Whirr, clank— clank— clank—
The sound of machinery echoed from a distance.
In the air, Area87 began transforming into the upper body of a giant robot.
Whirr, clunk—
Giant rocket thrusters materialized on the backs of Big Five and Gogo Arc.
FWOOOOSH—
Flames of immense power began to erupt from the rocket engines.
“Here I go!!”
Whirr, ch-ch-ch-ch—
Big Five flew above Area87 and began to transform into a giant head.
But at that very moment!
KWOOOOOSH—!!
From a distance, Alexian’s breath attack erupted once more.
“Big Five!”
Big Five, who was about to combine with Area87, was blown back by Alexian’s breath attack and crashed onto a building.
CRUUUUMBLE—!
The sound of the building collapsing was accompanied by Alexian’s roar.
“I won’t let you combine!!”
Big Five shouted again as he pushed through the building debris.
“Again!! Combine again!!”
Fortunately, it seemed he had avoided a critical hit.
Alexian opened his mouth again.
“At this rate…!! Combining is impossible!!”
Area87, who had been preparing to combine, transformed back into a jet and circled in the air, shouting.
“We have to combine while dodging that breath!!”
Big Five watched Alexian preparing another breath attack and muttered in frustration.
“Damn…! This is going to be tough!!”
“We need to split his attention!!”
Gogo shouted as he readied the drill rockets on his arms.
A black drill on his hand began to spin at a ferocious speed.
“I’ll draw his attention somehow! You two combine first!!”
“Will you be okay?”
Big Five looked back at Gogo with a worried expression.
“…I’ll figure out a way to escape, so just fly over to me when you’re done!”
Gogo grinned as if to say it was no big deal.
“Wait!”
The voices of the Dragonkin echoed from a distance.
The white dragon Guts and the black dragon Ocona, who had moved Silver to a safe location, flew in between Big Five and Gogo.
“We’ll handle it somehow!”
“I’m probably faster than this drill ajeussi!!”
The two dragons shouted triumphantly.
“What’s with you two? Your attitude is completely different from before!”
Gogo looked up at the two dragons with a surprised expression and shouted in a chiding tone.
“We’re sick and tired of being under him.”
Guts smirked.
“Alright! Let’s move quickly! We’re counting on you!”
Big Five urged them on, as if they were out of time.
“Area87!! Let’s go again!!”
“Right!!”
Area87 once again attempted to transform in mid-air.
Simultaneously, Guts and Ocona shot toward Alexian like arrows.
The two dragons began to unleash their breath attacks from either side of Alexian in a pincer movement.
KWAAAAAAAH—
“You little pests!!”
Whoosh—
Alexian swung his massive tail.
A dizzying sound cut through the air.
SWOOOOOOSH—!
Guts and Ocona barely managed to dodge the attack.
“Phew—!!”
“Kuaah—! That was close!”
Guts and Ocona broke into a cold sweat as they continued to circle Alexian.
They began to pick up speed.
An unsettling sound of flapping wings spread out, like an enormous swarm of locusts descending.
Rough afterimages of white and black formed around Alexian.
Alexian swung his wings and tail as if annoyed.
While Guts and Ocona were buying time.
“Now!!”
Big Five began to transform into the giant robot head again.
Soon, mechanical joints protruded from below the giant head’s neck.
Those parts then attempted to dock with the joints of the giant robot body that Area87 had transformed into.
CLANK!!
At last, Big Five successfully combined with Area87.
“We did it!”
“Gra-ha!! Alright!! I’m coming too!!”
Fwoom—
Gogo leaped into the air.
Whirr— clank, clank, clank.
He attempted to transform into the lower body of the giant robot, beneath Area87.
A chilling flap of wings echoed.
SWOOOOOOSH—
“Uwaaaah!”
“To think he just broke through!”
Ignoring Guts and Ocona’s interference as if they were worthless gnats, Alexian flew toward them at incredible speed.
With both arms ending in sharp claws, Alexian grabbed Gogo’s body and slammed him into the ground.
“Kuaaah!! Dammit!”
As Gogo’s scream echoed from where he was embedded in the ground, Alexian looked down at him and muttered.
“I told you…”
Crack—
Alexian’s mouth gaped open.
His sharp teeth glinted menacingly.
“I wouldn’t let you combine!!”
CRUNCH—!!
Alexian’s sharp teeth tore through Gogo’s shoulder armor and began to dig in.
CRACKLE!!
“Gogo—!! Nooo!!”
Big Five and Area87, who had just combined, separated again and roared in unison.
Crackle, crackle, crackle, BOOM—!!
A few sparks flew before Gogo’s shoulder exploded.
“Kuaaack!”
Smoke from the ruptured shoulder began to envelop Gogo’s face.
Crunch— Creak—
As if tearing into a piece of meat, Alexian lifted his head with wires still in his mouth.
A black, engine-oil-like liquid splattered everywhere.
Rumble, rumble.
Inside the elevator, Shin-ju, Jekovic, and Sharin’s bodies began to sway back and forth.
As the interior shook violently, Jekovic wore an anxious expression.
“Hey, hey, you don’t think this thing is going to fall, do you?”
Jekovic muttered, looking around.
Sharin, on the other hand, looked as if she didn't care what was happening around them.
Shin-ju glanced over to check on Sharin’s condition.
Unlike before, she seemed much calmer.
However, within her eyes, an unextinguished ember still burned, and a dark aura, as if she were hypnotizing herself, lingered.
“Park Shin-ju…”
“Ah, yes! Lady Sharin.”
“Don’t worry. I agree with what you said, that one must remain calm in times like these.”
“Ah… It was nothing.”
Shin-ju, feeling embarrassed that his needless worry was so obvious, quickly turned his face away.
“By the way, what floor did you say it was?”
“Ah, we’re almost there.”
Shin-ju used the Old Book to detect the Bluerobic’s bio-signature.
A faint reaction was detected from the middle floors of the building.
Ding—
*Floor 34.*
The elevator doors opened.
Their expressions slowly turned ashen, as if they had discovered something they should not have seen.
Before their eyes stretched the corridor of a dark laboratory with flickering lights.
The corridor, which had a rather high ceiling, was a complete mess, as if it had been attacked by something enormous.
The bodies of researchers in white lab coats lay everywhere, covered in blood.
Wooooong—
Shin-ju summoned a brightly glowing orb from the Old Book and took the lead.
The place before them was not a space within the building.
The elevator had been a gate to this location.
“Where in the world is this…”
“Wait.”
Sharin grabbed Shin-ju’s shoulder tightly from behind.
Feeling the urgency in her grip, Shin-ju looked back.
Sharin was glaring at something with fierce eyes.
Jekovic’s ears and fur were also standing on end.
The moment Shin-ju saw their unnerved expressions, he felt a horrifying chill creeping up on him from somewhere.
He turned his head again and stared at the end of the corridor.
The corridor was silent.
A cold, heavy silence.
But he could not let his guard down.
Shin-ju stared intently into the darkness.
Grooooan—
Suddenly, a faint, grotesque sound came from the distance.
Shin-ju’s brow furrowed even more.
All his senses were focused on his eyes and ears.
From the end of the dark corridor, the grotesque sound gradually grew closer.
The three of them, with their nerves on edge, assumed combat stances in their own styles.
A moment later, from the distant darkness, a reddish-black silhouette slowly emerged into the dim light.
Shhhk— Shhhk—
Grooooooan—
The silhouette became clearer.
Soon, a long-haired female Bluerobic Elf, infected by a massive, monstrous plant, appeared before them. Her eyes were rolled back, her mouth gaped open, and she dragged her blood-soaked body forward.
“What is that…”
Sharin let out a pained groan at the sight of her hideously transformed kin.
Her body was abnormally large. On the hunched back of the female Elf, a large, eerie tree, like some haunted, ancient wood, had taken root and was growing parasitically.
The tree reached the top of the corridor ceiling, and with every step she took, it swayed from side to side, making a *shhhk, shhhk* scraping sound.
What was even more bizarre was that mummified corpses were dangling from its branches.
The corpses were connected to both the female Elf and the tree.
It looked as if they were receiving a blood transfusion from an IV bag.
She raised a hand into the air.
Her long, slender fingers swayed like fins.
Soon, tree stems unfurled around her hand, shimmering like tentacles.
Thump, thump, thump.
The sound of a heart about to burst echoed.
Everyone stood still, unable to speak, simply watching the Elf who had become a horrifying monster.
Shin-ju glanced over at Sharin.
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
Her fierce eyes, showing the whites all around, glinted.
Her complexion had turned ashen, like a burnt-out forest.
Sharin’s lips trembled uncontrollably.
The patience she had been desperately holding onto began to crack.
Unable to contain her rage, she took a step forward.
Shin-ju’s breathing began to quicken.