I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary

Chapter 221 - Monster Hunting

Translator: SFBaka

“Lieutenant!”

I parried a slash accompanied by howling wind with the short sword on my left hand and tried to cut the rocky arm off with the longsword on my right hand, but the counter ended up shallow. It looked like the blade would break if I continued clashing with the armored arm, so I hurriedly pulled my sword back.

“What! Is it!?”

Lt. Col. Serena just managed to duck down in order to avoid a backhand blow from one of the enemy’s four arms. Sword blows from two arms on one side of the enemy’s body immediately chased after Lt. Col. Serena. However, Lt. Col. Serena rolled to one side and avoided one blow while parrying the other. It looks like she was being pushed quite hard.

“In this situation! You won’t suddenly tell me! We need to take this guy back with all limbs intact! You won’t, right!?”

I started reconsidering our battle plan as I fended off a storm-like series of thrusts from the arms on the monster’s right-hand side, as the arms on its left continued to assail Lt. Col. Serena.

Although it still retained some human features, it would be virtually impossible to capture this four-armed creature which appears to be Geritz without a scratch now. The swords on his four arms seem to have integrated with his flesh and were lodged on top of his fists instead of him holding them.

『DIEEEEEEEEEEE!』

“-Kh!”

Maybe he decided to leave Lt. Col. Serena for later. He started focusing on me instead, and his four arms unleashed multiple slashes toward me. But I managed to hold my breath at this point and returned to that world of extreme slow motion.

I side-stepped one of the now-slowed but undoubtedly powerful slashes, moved forward, and bent over to avoid the second sword that was trying to mow down my flank. The third sword that was thrusting at me diagonally from above was fended off by the short sword I held in my left hand. And finally, I altered the trajectory of the fourth sword before it reached me. Tsk. I would have loved to cut off a wrist or two while I was at it. However, after I managed to dodge all his attacks, I was now right before him.

He must have moved instinctively. A knee strike comparable to a huge battering ram was now heading straight for me.

『GYAAAAAAAAA!?』

But that was a poor move. The longsword held in my right hand matched the timing and dug deeply into the knee of the four-armed monstrosity that was used to attack me. A fountain of black blood spurted out of it. I jumped sideways in order to avoid being drenched by the blood and finally heard the sound of the giant collapsing on the ground.

No matter how mutated the body gets, as long as the form was still humanoid and used muscles to move, it won’t be able to stand up when its thigh gets cut right to the tendon and bone. It was unavoidable as long as the opponent was a bipedal creature made of flesh, muscles, and blood.

And with me right now was a warrior who wouldn’t miss such an opening.

“Raaaaah!”

Lt. Col. Serena deftly wielded her sword and cut off some of the opponent’s four arms. Of course, I also used my swords to cut off his other arms.

“With this, it’s over. So what’s next? I think this guy will die from bleeding out if we leave him like this for long.”

“It looks like that won’t be the case.”

When I followed Lt. Col. Serena’s line of sight, I saw that the stumps of the creature’s arms had actually begun to stop bleeding already. Eh…… Seriously? The wounds have completely stopped bleeding you know.

“……And we’re supposed to bring this thing back alive? For some reason, I can only imagine a horror scenario inside a lone military transport ship though.”

“……We’re under orders after all.”

Lt. Col. Serena seems to be scowling behind her transparent full-face helmet. Well, the imperial military probably has a gadget or two used to transport dangerous creatures, right? I’m not sure though. I ain’t never gonna transport such a thing, and I won’t help with this one either. I will firmly refuse such a request.

“Uh, this just hit me right now. Wouldn’t these swords serve as proof as well?”

“Yes, you’re right. We might be able to trace the owner of the swords if we check their inscriptions, manufacturer, and serial numbers.”

Lt. Col. Serena nodded as she ordered the marines around. They were probably gonna prepare to transport this creature that’s presumed to be Geritz back.

However, there were four swords with the creature. Even if Geritz was originally a dual wielder, just where did the extra two swords come from then? Or rather, just how many people were actually on board that suppression ship?

“Do you really think this guy is Geritz?”

“We can’t test his DNA pattern here, so I’m not sure. However, it’s possible that the real one is actually hiding and using this guy as a cover.”

It looks like Lt. Col. Serena also had misgivings about whether or not this big guy was actually Geritz. At least, judging from the four swords, this thing was probably a composite creature made up of a noble (or nobles) and a Twisted.

“Let’s look at the time frame of this incident as well. Even if they didn’t suffer attacks from the Twisted when they arrived here, there was definitely no space inside the suppression ship to cram transport vehicles to traverse the planet’s terrain quickly after getting off, and it’s also doubtful if they had the equipment to function normally in Comatt IV’s extreme environment in the first place. It would have taken them quite some time to reach this structure and even further time to go all the way to this secret underground facility. But if they truly possessed a way to completely control the Twisted, then the possibility of them making use of Grapplers and Bulls in order to travel rapidly can’t be dismissed as well.”

“Physical and time constraints huh…… If you factor them in, it certainly seems possible that Geritz is still lurking about freely.”

“Perhaps. Of course, if that’s the case, then we have to plan on continuing to explore further as well.”

Well, of course, that would be the logical next step. The moment I reached this conclusion, I had a really bad premonition come over me. No, it can’t be. Ugh. I have to confirm it, at least.

“……It’s okay for me to return to my original post, right?”

“No. There’s a possibility Geritz is still out there after all.”

After saying so, Lt. Col. Serena flashed me an angelic smile. In other words, that means I won’t be released from this hell anytime soon huh? It would have been better if I didn’t ask.

Afterward, we performed a thorough sweep of the secret underground facility and confirmed that Geritz wasn’t hiding anywhere inside it. Well, we did manage to find the Twisted production plant behind the place we fought the four-armed abomination earlier. We also discovered data regarding how to gain control over them. We’re still in the middle of analyzing the data, but if it all goes well, it might be possible to forcibly ‘shut down’ all Twisteds present on this planet. In other words, we can order them to self-terminate.

If that four-armed monster wasn’t Geritz, then we need to consider the possibility of him escaping into other facilities, but the ones that would be responsible for searching for the guy would be the combat bots. Lt. Col. Serena said that, depending on the circumstances, I might get called in once again to help deal with Geritz. Honestly, I didn’t wanna come back to the surface of a planet that’s under terraforming anymore.

We spent a total of three days on Comatt IV until the investigation of all hidden facilities was completed. After that, I was finally released from the clutches of Lt. Col. Serena and returned to my original post - Krishna.

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