Chapter 101: Nym

Julian stood atop a tall building. He’d been watching what was happening below for some time now, unable to make a decision purely out of curiosity.

Down below, right on a deserted road covered in asphalt torn apart across a devastated battlefield.

Julian watched clouds of dust drift ceaselessly upward, forming a thin haze that lingered in the air.

Strange howls and growls echoed out, accompanied by a creature standing on four massive legs.

It was an Alien species roughly the size of a car. Not humanoid, but more akin to some kind of unusual beast.

The Alien resembled an insect, equipped with an enormous pincer and a shell so hard that anything striking it only produced a simple clanging sound.

Julian had already learned a fair amount about them. This particular Alien was a Kark, an insect-type Alien.

They moved incredibly slowly, but possessed a terrifyingly strong defense. Alongside that, their attacks, though slow, carried devastating destructive power, to the point where several guides and explanations about this species stressed how vital it was to avoid their attacks entirely.

Meanwhile, the Kark was fighting against an Alien from an entirely different species, clearly originating from a different planet as well.

They weren’t on the same side, which had led to this unavoidable clash.

The other one is a Varg. A type of Alien vastly different from the heavily armored Kark, Varg relied entirely on its slender, agile legs.

Varg is a predator-type Alien. About the size of a motorcycle, standing on four legs, with a thin, lean body packed with muscle optimized for speed and agility.

Julian observed them closely. The Kark seemed to be struggling to land a hit on the Varg, eventually trying to flee instead. Meanwhile, the Varg was having just as much trouble, the Alien blinking in and out of existence at incredible speed, appearing elsewhere and trying to break through the Kark’s defenses.

Yet all of it proved futile against the Kark’s terrifyingly resilient armor.

The main reason Julian found this so interesting was because this sight genuinely handed him a completely different perspective.

’Not every Alien fights on the same side.’

They were enemies, existing solely to consume one another.

After watching them both for a considerable while, Julian let out a small sigh. He then turned around and found Ilunia sitting atop a pile of collapsed rubble.

After walking a considerable distance, Julian had now reached invaded territory classified at Rank-E level.

Just as Julian had planned earlier, he approached the resting Ilunia, stretching out her tired legs.

"Ilunia, wait here for a bit, okay?"

Well accustomed to this by now, Ilunia nodded and answered immediately.

"Yes, Master."

Julian had no intention of hunting down the Kark or Varg for Ilunia’s benefit. That would prove genuinely difficult, since incapacitating either the Varg or Kark would require Julian to subdue them first, and his own attacks likely wouldn’t be gentle enough, risking stealing away all the damage contribution Ilunia actually needed.

So instead, Julian vanished using Flash Step. He felt his entire body disappear, then reappear on the far side of a different building.

After a fairly brief search, Julian soon found exactly what he wanted to catch for Ilunia.

It was a Nym, a jellyfish-type Alien. Just like Varg and Kark, Nym also held a deep hostility toward both those species.

Julian remembered clearly, from an article he’d once read, discussing how fortunate humanity had actually been, given that these creatures never immediately pushed toward humanity’s defensive walls, largely because they were still too busy fighting amongst each other.

These Aliens fought constantly for dominance around wherever they happened to emerge.

Back to the matter at hand, Julian felt his lips twitch.

"Seriously.... these really are flying jellyfish."

Muttering softly, Julian’s gaze locked onto a group of six Nym, floating together at a height equal to two stories of a building, neither too low nor too high.

And, true to their jellyfish-like appearance, they trailed thin tentacles hanging beneath their heads. Uniquely, each jellyfish head bore a single, constantly bulging eye, veins pulsing visibly through its black-and-white coloring.

Unlike Kark and Varg, Nym specialized in aerial combat. They attacked at mid-range using their thin tentacles, roughly eight in total, each capable of stretching out impossibly long and unleashing bolts of lightning.

They weren’t as weak as Rank-F Invaders, but not quite as powerful as other Rank-E types either. Nym were likely the easiest to hunt among Rank-E Aliens, given how straightforward hunting them actually was.

Julian didn’t waste any time. He leapt off the top of a building over fifteen stories tall.

’I’m curious...! Would my cowardly old self scream in terror doing something like this?’

Feeling the wind cutting sharply across his face, Julian felt absolutely nothing at all. He simply watched the ground rapidly approaching below, the group of Nym floating in the air.

As he did, they noticed Julian’s presence and immediately formed a distinct formation.

Right, they were Aliens who fought as a coordinated group.

Their tentacles twisted and writhed, stretching out long enough to intertwine with one another.

After that, they created a circular formation at the center of their interlocked tentacles.

Crackle—!

A sharp crackle of thunder echoed through the air, flashing bright yellow bolts across the empty sky.

Julian simply watched it all unfold. Then, the next instant, Julian saw a spiraling stream of yellow lightning shoot upward, aimed straight at striking his body.

"Whoa."

Julian let out a small sound, his lips curving slightly. Then, right at that same moment, his body vanished once more, reappearing not far from where the Nym were gathered.

They had fairly decent reflexes. The moment they registered Julian’s presence, the Alien immediately redirected its aim toward him in a rushed, panicked scramble.

Bolts of yellow lightning struck once more at extremely close range.

Julian simply extended a hand, revealing two layers of transparent mirror shielding him from that lightning strike.

Cra—!

A light shattering sound rang out, but that was all it amounted to. The Nym’s attack, as it turned out, wasn’t nearly strong enough to break through Julian’s mirror barrier.

Of course, that was because the attack had come from a single Nym alone, not the combined force they’d used earlier to create that lightning spiral.

Julian felt not a shred of hesitation or fear.

Killing a Nym was simple. Just close the distance, cut it down to point-blank range, and then...

Julian raised his hand, catching the head of a violently trembling Nym.

Now, all he had to do was strike them down until they lost consciousness. Because their durability was fairly weak, given how soft their heads actually were.

They only sat at Rank-E purely because they were a species born with a single, shared innate talent.

A talent that linked every member of a group together, collectively elevating them into a Rank-E classification.

So, the moment Julian took down just one of them?

It was over.