Chapter 112: Sudden Anomaly Emerges

Something was wrong.

Listening to the sounds drifting over from the battlefield, Feren quickly realized that something was not quite right. Earlier, the battle had sounded like a fierce clash between two sides. Now, however, it was completely different. Screams and cries of agony rose from time to time, but the anger and fighting spirit they had carried before were gone, replaced by profound fear and despair. Even the gunfire had become scattered and disorganized.

It no longer sounded like a battle. It sounded more like some kind of resistance...

Hm?

At that moment, Feren’s eyes suddenly widened. He instantly leapt backward from the wreckage of the vehicle. At almost the exact moment he jumped away, the wreckage he had been using as cover shattered with a loud crash, as though something had slammed into it.

Immediately afterward, Feren saw several black shadows slash through the air like whips, lunging toward him.

Faced with this sudden attack, Feren’s expression did not change. He flicked his right hand, and the silver surgical knives shot through the air, tracing countless intersecting arcs. The crisscrossing flashes of cold light quickly transformed into razor-sharp teeth, tearing the approaching shadows to pieces.

But Feren did not relax his guard. The instant he landed, he retreated rapidly. The dense fog obscured everyone’s vision, yet it acted like an extension of Feren himself, swiftly relaying every sensation it detected back to its master.

Through the fog’s feedback, Feren clearly sensed that something was changing.

Something was gradually spreading out from the battlefield...

“Chris, fall back to the Harmony. Eluka, be ready to withdraw at any moment... Kulona, find out what’s changed on the battlefield and show it to me!”

While raising a surgical knife to block another assault from the bizarre black shadows, Feren issued his orders at once.

To be honest, he could withdraw now. Yet Feren did not immediately choose to leave. He was deeply curious about the cargo being exchanged between the two sides.

When he had first devised the plan, Feren had considered the possibility that the Federation might retreat immediately. After all, he had threatened to destroy them. If the Federation was not foolish, then waiting ten years to avenge themselves would have been the wisest choice. That was why Feren had arranged for Eluka to pilot the Harmony and block their escape route.

What he had not expected was for the Federation to choose to stay and defend the position to the death. Even knowing that he was watching them like a predator, they had still chosen to protect their cargo.

That only made Feren more curious about the unremarkable-looking iron crate. Whatever the Federation was transporting—something they were willing to risk their lives for, something they would rather fight the Caesar Legion over than abandon—had to be extraordinary in some way.

Should he stay and reap another harvest?

Robbery was a business that required no investment. Aside from the danger to one’s life, the returns were practically doubled...

“Vroooom!”

Just as Feren was pondering the matter, an engine roared to life. He “saw” a Caesar Legion transport truck not far away, its fog lamps blazing as it thundered toward the outside.

It was moving incredibly fast. It did not even care about the soldiers in its path, plowing straight into them. In the blink of an eye, the truck had already burst out of the area covered by Feren’s fog. It seemed that it was about to escape.

But at that moment, the thick fog suddenly churned violently. Several tentacles made of congealed flesh emerged from within it, wrapping tightly around the Caesar Legion vehicle like the limbs of an octopus.

The machine gunner on the truck fired wildly at the tentacles, but before long, several thick, arm-sized limbs forced their way through the gaps and into the cabin.

A string of screams rang out. Then the unfortunate truck was dragged back into the fog by the tentacles, vanishing without a trace.

“What the...?”

Feren and the three sisters had all witnessed the scene. Eluka and the others stood dumbfounded, and even Feren felt irritated.

This was his fog. How had it suddenly begun acting as though it had changed masters?

“If I had a cruise missile, I’d drop one right here and worry about the consequences afterward.”

Watching the truck twist and disappear into the fog, Feren chuckled softly. Then he quickly made his decision.

“Eluka, Chris, prepare for battle...”

As he spoke, Feren raised his right hand.

At his gesture, the heavy fog began to disperse rapidly. Once it was no longer sustained by his power, it naturally had no way to withstand the wild winds of the wasteland. Before long, it vanished completely.

And as the fog disappeared, the monster’s true form was revealed before Feren’s eyes.

“What the hell is that...?”

Eluka stared blankly at the monster before them, her open mouth large enough to hold a light bulb. Even Chris, who normally disliked showing emotion, widened her eyes in astonishment as she stared ahead.

As for Kulona, she needed no explanation. Clutching the little bear in her arms, she trembled violently, looking as though she might collapse at any moment.

It was no wonder the three sisters reacted that way. The thing before them had surpassed anything they could possibly have imagined.

Beside the bonfire stood a pillar of flesh nearly three meters tall. It looked like a person who had been inflated until their body had swollen grotesquely. From the base of this “flesh pillar,” countless bloody tentacles spread in every direction like the roots of a plant, gripping the ground with terrible force.

Hundreds of tentacles covered the area, and fragments of torn bodies could be seen everywhere upon them. The overwhelming stench of blood swept toward them on the night wind, provoking nausea.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

At that moment, a series of explosions erupted across the body of the flesh pillar.

Not far away, the Caesar Legion Commander threw down the rocket launcher in his hands, his face ashen. He gripped a shotgun with both hands and aimed it at the monster.

The flesh pillar, having come under attack, immediately changed direction. Its tentacles thrashed through the air and rapidly extended toward the Caesar Legion Commander.

“Monster! Die! Die!”

Facing the tentacles, the Caesar Legion Commander showed no fear. He roared furiously as the shotgun in his hands spat blazing fire, blasting every tentacle that approached him into pieces.

But it was useless.

The severed ends of the tentacles began to heal at a visible rate. In a very short time, they had regenerated completely, growing back to continue their assault.

“Die! Die! Die!”

As the ruler of the Caesar Legion, the Commander naturally possessed considerable skill. Unfortunately, even extraordinary courage could not make up for the ammunition he was consuming.

Before long, his shotgun had exhausted every shell.

Before the Caesar Legion Commander could draw his knife and fight to the death, the tentacles that had been waiting for their opportunity suddenly wrapped tightly around him.

Then mouths began to grow from the tips of the tentacles. They opened wide, revealing rows of sharp teeth, and clamped down hard on the Commander’s body.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

His shrill screams rang out as several tentacles gnawed and tore at him. In no time at all, he had stopped breathing, becoming nothing more than a mass of flesh that was swallowed into the monster’s body.

“...W-we should leave, Commander...”

Seeing this, Eluka sucked in a breath of cold air and quietly offered her suggestion.

Feren, however, clearly had a different opinion.

“I never imagined we’d be this lucky—to encounter such a rare and precious mutant species here...”

Feren’s eyes shone as he gazed at the tentacled monster. He looked like someone who had just discovered countless gold bars in a vault, or a man who had spotted a breathtakingly beautiful girl in the street.

His expression brimmed with excitement, exhilaration, impatience, and—

desire.

“Let’s go! Time for treatment!”