Great tension filled the air as the two majestic people stared me down. The glasses guy stared with disgust at the monster sitting half dead on the ground, the Claudia person just kept a single expression on her face as she seemed to show no interest.
"You couldn't deal with this human-beast?", the glasses guy folded his arms. "Of course, what else am I to expect from the weakest duo in the entire organization."
Red and Green expressed visible embarrassment and a hint of pain in their eyes.
"Weakest?", I thought to myself. "Damn, those two maniacs are the weakest in the whole of Zephain?"
"Milady, I shall slay this barbaric beast if you pass the order", the glasses guy bowed.
There was a bit of silence before he spoke again, "As you wish."
"Uhh, what? She didn't say a single thing", my concern grew. "Is it telepathy? No, Psychic humans rarely land on this planet, or am I missing something here?"
Psychic humans were an extremely small group of evolved humans that had the ability to tap into the deepest corners of the human mind and conscience. Not only that, they were efficient in battle since they could easily take over the most powerful battleships internally. Because of their power, they're mostly recruited by Battle Captains.
The atmosphere on the great mass planet was composed of very light gases that caused the Fluff Effect, a condition that greatly shuts down the body's functions for years. The Fluff effect mostly affected foreigners that came from largely dense planets to settle on the great mass.
Of course, there was the existence of neo tech that provided suits to combat the condition, but only the rich had the chance to access them. To the psychics, coming to the great mass meant shutting down their ultimate weapon, their brains. That Claudia person must've arrived with one of those suits to avoid the condition.
"Show gratitude for milady's pardon, beast", glasses guy broke my thoughts.
"Hmm? So she decided to 'pardon' me?", I spoke out lazily. "Pfft, I don't need it."
"Arrogant", he snapped his finger, bringing the mechs to life. "Lady Claudia, please allow me."
Claudia still maintained the same mono expression on her face but yet again, the glasses guy responded.
"Hmph", he smirked. "Lady Claudia has acknowledged your fierce power and wants to propose a deal."
"From barbaric beast to fierce power?", I stared at him with a blank expression.
"Milady wishes for your recruitment in the Zephain company's star fleet", he said with a serious expression.
"Hmm", I placed my hand on my chin. "I refuse."
Slight shock erupted on the glasses guy's face, "Heh fool, you haven't even heard of the benefits yet."
"I don't care about what I'm gonna gain from your inhuman operations, it's probably trash anyway", my legs shook from weakness as I stood up.
"This-", he paused, "As you wish, my lady", and then bowed.
Claudia walked up to me and drew her scythe, pointing its sharp tip at my face.
"The greatest scythe master, lady Claudia. Wishes to spar with you", the glasses guy's voice changed into a really stern one. "If you manage to win against her, you shall be allowed to leave, and if milady wins, you'll have no choice but to join the Zephain star fleet."
"Tch, are they blind? I can't even stand straight", the thought of frustration filled my head while I looked at them with a wry smile.
"Oh, and your reward will be doubled once you willingly join our noble organization", he smirked.
My inner self raged, "NOBLE MY ASS! oh", an idea suddenly came up. "Fine then, I agree."
A look of confusion and surprise appeared on their faces except for Claudia, they must've really depended on their plan to take advantage of my weakness but there was one last item at my disposal. The very thought of using it made me give a wide grin.
"But, I don't plan to take part in it myself", I pulled out a black cube from my floating storage system. "This guy will fight on my behalf. Beating a battered person up isn't really 'noble', is it?", my smile turned sinister.
"That cube", the glasses guy took a good look at it. "Why does it look so familiar?"
"Well then, why don't you find out on your own?", I threw the object into the air, creating a resounding thud as it bounced onto the ground.
*Click*
It twitched once, then twitched again until it suddenly became stable.
"-Virus activated-", a mechanical voice boomed out from the cube as Claudia walked back.
"Release restraints", I commanded.
"He plans to make a virus go beserk!?", Red's face showed fear.
Viruses in this era posed a great threat to technology. They were only used by cyber ninjas whenever they were given tasks on assassination and espionage. In other cases, they were used in an event of an uncontrollable power surge to forcefully shut them down but they heeded commands only because they were restrained by a powerful electric force within their coded circuits. Once these restraints were unlocked, they'd go into their Berserk mode which is a single command code that directs the virus to destroy every single thing in their path.
Silence followed as the cube levitated and brought out a humming noise. All of a sudden, tentacles burst from within the enclosed monster and injected its multiple arms into the mechs that surrounded us. The tentacle-like cables drained the neo shard energy from the mechs, heavily compressing their metallic armour in the process.
"Absorption, that's Virus code 0125 rank 4", the supervisor held his waist as the virus largely increased in size. "Viruses below the 100 code have monstrous abilities while those that range from 150 to 101 focus on growing larger every time they digest power from another tech. Of course, its destructive power increases as well and it has a limit to how powerful it can get... depending on the virus' rank."
"Ha, expected that from a Zephain official", with that demon ready to fight for me, I sat down with my legs crossed. This was gonna be one hell of a show.
"To a twisted block of codes like a virus, it doesn't care who or what unlocked it", a smile formed on his face. "Meaning..."
*Slam!!*
An arm burst from the huge sludge-like virus and tried to smash my head into pieces, but my force field activated in time.
"Holy dudhiskbud! I knew this would happen!! Thank the stars, my field activated in time!", my panic was only visible in my head as I simply gave a cool smirk on the outside.
The virus had attained its raw form, a huge lump of squishy substance and red lines moving all over its body with a huge circle on its small head for an eye. Slowly, the virus observed the life forms that stood before it, immediately attracted by the tech gear they all wore and especially the mech suits Red and Green wore.
"Lady Claudia, please allow me to fight instead", the supervisor stood before her. "Xynon, take form."
"-Command executed-", an ear comm appeared and blinked a purple light as a humanoid mech took form out of thin air before him.
"OOh, his tech gear's true form!? Dzilaiza, can you do that too!?", his cool-looking gear piqued my interest.
"-Access to transformation has been blocked by the main server-", Dzilaiza instantly crushed my happiness.
"You must be severely punished", I smiled sarcastically.
"That fool dares to use us for entertainment", the glasses guy snapped his finger. "Xynon! Destroy-"
*Crunch!*
Me: "..."
Red: "..."
Green: "..."
Claudia: "..."
Glasses guy: "..."
"Uhh", I was actually quite impressed.
The virus had lashed out and swallowed the mech full, digesting it with crunching sounds from the compressing metal. It was so fast, no one noticed until it had the entire thing in its mouth.
"Pfft, poor guy", I looked away with a smug expression on my face.
"H-How is that possible? Xynon can't possibly lose so easily", the supervisor stared at the beast before him in terror.
"-Transformation corrupted -> Deleting link data-"
"Lady Claudia?"
The quiet lady gestured for him to move back as the virus took the shape and form of the mech it had just digested. Only this time, it was completely black with two menacing red eyes. Its body hardened, adding more sturdiness to the metal.
"I understand, milady", glasses guy moved back.
Now, Claudia and the virus stood facing each other on the field, exchanging glares as they both waited for an opportunity to steal the next move.