Chapter 28: Experimental GHOST-157 (5)

Tap, tap—

After a few quick hand signals and exchanged glances, the retrieval team swiftly surrounded me.

It seemed they really thought I was a mindless monster.

Whatever they thought, I quickly assessed their strength.

'The leader is Sergeant Henry. Six trainees in total, one of whom is incapacitated.'

As expected, the number of team members was similar to a standard squad.

However, the composition was anything but ordinary.

Even with their goggles and masks on, I could still recognize some of the trainees from the leader's team.

'Sergeant Henry, Klutz, Hildegard, Dmitri, Iris...'

They were the so-called playable characters.

Each of them was a protagonist that players could control and key figures destined to become prominent heroes in Ark's future.

'And... Kalakin too.'

Who is the protagonist of The Defense?

With countless characters populating the game, debates among players were never-ending.

But as far as I was concerned, the protagonist was already decided.

After all, he was the only character who had gotten me all the way to the 99th stage.

The One with a Thousand Eyes.

The Dragon Hunter.

The Hope of Ark.

Any one of those grand titles was impressive on its own, but unbelievably, they all referred to a single person.

The Great Kalakin.

The one I considered the true protagonist of The Defense was now pointing his gun at me.

'Hmm.'

Yet, I didn't feel particularly intimidated.

No matter how great Kalakin would eventually become—praised and revered as the Great Kalakin—right now, in front of me, he was just a young, inexperienced trainee.

No matter how talented Kalakin was, at this moment, he was nothing more than a sheltered cadet within Ark.

'The one to watch out for is Sergeant Henry. His equipment is different from the trainees.'

The weapon Sergeant Henry was holding was a DR-404 Revolver.

Despite being a small firearm, it was a monstrous weapon with a default rating of five stars, even without any modifications or upgrades.

It had excessive recoil and limited ammunition, but its sheer power made up for those drawbacks.

'The standard-issue weapons the trainees are carrying can be blocked by the hardened bone armor... but I can't be sure about that revolver.'

Even if I could withstand the impact, the sheer force could still incapacitate me.

'Sergeant Henry takes priority.'

Before I could even finalize my strategy, the muffled gunfire of an Ark-15 automatic rifle with a suppressor echoed through the air.

Bang—!

The bullet struck my bone mask and ricocheted off.

Thanks to the skill [Hardening], Kupf's Bone Mask didn't even get a crack, but the impact made my head throb momentarily.

'Still, I can't afford to stop.'

Hesitating would only make me a perfect target.

Bang! Bang!

I deftly dodged the incoming bullets while rushing toward the trainees.

'Scream.'

In response to my command, the Bone Parasite let out a grotesque wail.

[Gigigigigeeet!]

The cries of monsters tend to make humans recoil instinctively.

Moreover, adding vividness to my monstrous act certainly wouldn't hurt.

Crack, crack—

I gripped the two bone spears tightly, while bone tendrils squirmed from my body.

"He's coming!"

Yeah, I'm coming for you.

Swoosh—!

A bone spear tore through the air, instantly piercing Klutz's left arm.

"Aaaargh!"

"Klutz!"

I had deliberately crafted the spear to be as thin as possible to minimize damage to his muscles.

Still, if he didn't receive immediate treatment, excessive bleeding could be life-threatening.

"Iris! Tend to Klutz!"

"Got it!"

Following Kalakin's swift command, the trainees moved in perfect synchronization.

Iris treated the wounded, while Hildegard guarded both the injured and Iris.

Meanwhile, Dmitri and Kalakin maintained their aim on me, squeezing the trigger without pause.

Sergeant Henry, however, remained silent and composed despite the chaos.

He watched me carefully, like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

'As expected, Sergeant Henry is waiting for an opening before taking his shot.'

The DR-404 Revolver wasn't a weapon suited for rapid fire.

It made sense for him to bide his time and aim for a decisive blow.

It wasn't good news for me, though.

'Just once—if I can dodge his shot just once, that's my chance.'

That slight gap would give me enough time to subdue Henry before he could fire again.

'If I can just take down Sergeant Henry, the rest will be manageable.'

The standard-issue weapons wielded by the trainees wouldn't be able to penetrate the hardened bone armor or mask.

'I'll bait him with a small opening.'

In that fleeting moment when I intentionally exposed a minor gap, Sergeant Henry pulled the trigger of his DR-404 Revolver, and flames burst from the barrel.

But I had been watching for it all along.

'Not a chance.'

Tilting my head slightly to the side was enough to render his shot useless.

And I wasn't about to waste the opportunity that presented itself.

'First, take down Sergeant Henry.'

Small spikes began to protrude from the side of the bone spear, transforming it into a bone harpoon.

'This way, it won't be easy to pull out.'

The harpoon shot forward, embedding itself in Henry's left leg.

I quickly swung the other harpoon to knock the revolver out of his hand.

With his leg injured and his weapon lost, he wouldn't be able to fight properly for a while.

No matter how skilled a veteran he was, his movements couldn't keep up with my Level 2 Ether-Adapted Body.

"Ugh...!"

"Sergeant!"

With Henry injured, the tense formation they had maintained crumbled instantly.

"Iris! Over there!"

"...Ah."

When I pretended to lunge at the wounded, Kalakin and Dmitri quickly shifted their aim toward me.

But Iris and the injured were directly in their line of fire.

If they pulled the trigger recklessly, they risked hitting their own teammates.

'Well, you can't shoot me now, can you?'

I couldn't help but feel like a third-rate villain, but it didn't matter since I was technically the villain at the moment.

However—

Bang!

Kalakin didn't hesitate at all and fired his gun.

As if to prove that hesitation wasn't a virtue for the hunter who would one day slay a dragon.

Clang!

Even though I could have dodged the bullet, I didn't.

If I had dodged it, the injured soldiers behind me might have gotten hit.

'So that's how you want to play, huh?'

As expected of Kalakin...

Although he wasn't a threat to me now, it was obvious that he would become an annoying adversary someday.

'Well, not that it matters.'

The reason I was sparing them in the first place was that they weren't my enemies but my allies.

Although I had to put on this monster act for the sake of my objective, one day we would be fighting side by side to protect Ark.

'Let's wrap this up.'

Sergeant Henry, the biggest threat, was already incapacitated, and the remaining weapons weren't enough to pose a serious danger to me.

[Kigigigit!!]

With bone tendrils surging from my body, I charged at them.

* * *

Sergeant Henry gritted his teeth as he wrapped a bandage tightly around his bleeding leg.

"Ugh..."

Was I careless? No, that wasn't it.

He had clearly been waiting for the right moment.

It was just that the opponent saw through it all.

'...At least Level 6 or higher.'

Skull Turncoats, created through bone parasites, had no fixed rank as monsters.

Their strength varied greatly depending on the host's condition and the parasite's growth level.

An unranked monster—that was the nature of Skull Turncoats.

The one standing before him now was at least a Level 6 monster, maybe higher.

Considering that his opponent was that formidable, the moment Sergeant Henry was taken down, the fight became unwinnable.

The standard-issue weapons carried by the trainees couldn't penetrate the Skull Turncoat's solid bone armor.

The only weapon that could deal damage—the DR-404 Revolver—was lost somewhere in the swamp, nowhere to be seen.

It was the worst possible situation.

'...Is this the end?'

The Skull Turncoat had appeared without any warning and was overwhelmingly strong.

Even with the trainees fully armed and Henry himself at the front, they couldn't handle it.

Although they were still trainees, the ones chosen for this recovery mission were exceptional talents, comparable to Ark's soldiers.

'...Damn it.'

Henry cursed his own failure, lamenting that such promising talents might die because of his mistake.

"Argh!"

"Dmitri!"

Every time the bone spear—or rather, the bone harpoon—swung, one of the trainees fell.

The Skull Turncoat before him moved as if it had long surpassed human limits.

'No... It's not just the movement.'

There was an exceptional sense of combat.

Henry couldn't be sure, but it was highly likely that the human this Skull Turncoat had overtaken was once an excellent soldier or warrior.

"Aaagh!"

One by one, the trainees dropped.

"Huff... huff..."

Among them, Kalakin—one of the trainees Henry had been keeping an eye on—was the last one to remain standing.

However, it wasn't long before a bone harpoon pierced his chest.

"Urgh!"

As Kalakin's once-steadfast body crumpled, it didn't take much longer for the entire recovery team to fall.

"Ugh..."

"Grgh... urgh..."

Fortunately, it seemed none of the trainees had lost their lives yet, but they were as good as dead.

When Sergeant Henry finally accepted his fate...

'...Huh?'

For some reason, the Skull Turncoat just turned its back and left the area.

"What...?"

"Huh?"

The remaining trainees couldn't hide their confusion.

They had thought they were as good as dead, yet the Skull Turncoat had walked away without hesitation.

"W-what? We... survived?"

However, it didn't take long for them to realize that was just a false hope.

[Shhh... Shiiik...]

[Geiiiik...]

The presence of beasts surrounded them.

They had been aware of monsters lurking nearby but hadn't approached since they didn't attack first.

Now that the recovery team had been weakened, the beasts seemed to be eyeing an opportunity to strike.

Sergeant Henry shouted.

"Everyone, gather here!"

"S-Sergeant..."

The injured trainees hobbled over to Henry's side.

None of them were unscathed.

There were barely enough of them who could even hold a weapon.

Fighting off the incoming beasts in this state seemed nearly impossible.

Sssshhh—

Sssssss—

The presence of monsters crept closer from every direction.

Step, step, step—

Death was approaching.

As despair spread across the trainees' faces...

[Kieeeeek!]

[Gyaaaak, gyak!]

Screams of monsters echoed from the thicket beyond.

***

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