Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner Chapter 848: Survive the Horde of Alien monsters

Far off in the galaxy, a duo of Noah and Storm were approaching atmosphere.

The planet grew slow beneath them, a mottled brown-red sphere wrapped in thin, sickly clouds, nothing like the lush green of the last world they’d left behind. Noah leaned forward against Storm’s neck, watching it fill more and more of the view ahead, the massive ship they’d been tailing still visible far out in front, a dark speck cutting steady toward the surface.

’How long have we actually been at this,’ he thought, watching the planet grow. ’Days now. Flying fast enough that I’ve had to hold my breath the whole stretch, cycling through the domain whenever it got critical, and for what. Following a ship because it felt like the smart move at the time.’ He frowned. ’I didn’t even think this through properly. What if this is just another salvage run. What if this whole detour’s been a waste, and One’s trail’s gone cold six systems back while I’m out here chasing scrap.’

He shook the thought off before it could settle too deep.

’No use second-guessing it now. I’m here. Might as well see it through.’

Storm banked in a wide, controlled arc, cutting altitude gradually instead of diving, and Noah felt the air around them thicken, atmosphere finally catching hold, turbulence rattling faint through Storm’s wings.

They came down hard in the lee of a jagged rock formation a few miles out, well clear of the ship’s projected landing point, and Noah slid off the moment Storm’s feet touched dirt, boots crunching into ground that looked less like soil and more like dried, cracked clay stretching endlessly in every direction.

He straightened, scanning the horizon, and the scale of what greeted him stopped him cold for a full second.

Wreckage.

Not one ship. Not a handful. As far as his eyes could track in either direction, half-buried hulls jutted up out of the cracked terrain like broken teeth, some scorched black, some rusted to nothing, some so old they’d sunk halfway into the ground and grown over with some dark, wiry lichen that looked more mineral than plant. Dozens of them. Maybe more, stretching past the point where his vision gave out against the horizon’s haze.

’This isn’t a graveyard,’ Noah thought, turning slowly, taking in the full scope of it. ’This is a monument.’

Storm shifted uneasily beside him, wings half-flared, a low rumble building in his chest that had nothing to do with excitement this time.

"Yeah," Noah said quietly. "I feel it too."

He crouched down, resting a hand against Storm’s foreleg.

"Rest up here. I mean it. You’ve been flying for hours straight and I don’t want you running on empty if this goes sideways." He glanced toward the distant speck of the ship, still descending somewhere beyond the wreckage field. "I’m going to blink my way closer. See what I can see. I’ll come back for you before anything happens, promise."

Storm huffed, clearly unhappy about it, but settled low against the rock formation anyway, tucking his wings in, eyes staying open and alert despite the posture.

Noah exhaled once, steadying himself, and blinked.

The world folded and snapped back into place a quarter mile closer, and he kept going like that, short bursts, careful, scanning each new position before committing to the next jump, working his way through the wreckage field toward the ship’s now-visible landing site.

He stopped behind the crumpled hull of what had once been some kind of transport, low enough to stay hidden, and looked out at the scene unfolding beyond it.

The mothership had settled into a wide crater clearing, ramps already extending, and Harbingers poured out in the same organized ranks he’d watched before. A thin hiss carried across the clearing, and Noah’s eyes tracked to its source. A small device strapped to the nearest Harbinger’s forearm hissed once, venting a faint violet vapor into the air, dispersing quick in the thin atmosphere.

But this time, something else moved among the wreckage at the clearing’s edges along with the Harbingers.

They came out from between the ruined hulls slow, almost curious, drawn in by that vapor, and Noah’s stomach tightened just looking at them.

Seven feet at least, built like something that had started as a man and then been left out somewhere brutal long enough to warp entirely wrong. Shoulders too wide for the frame beneath them, arms hanging a fraction too long, ending in broad, blunt hands that looked built for crushing stone rather than holding anything delicate.

Skin ran the color of wet ash, cracked in fine lines across the chest and forearms like sun-baked mud, and threading through those cracks, faint but visible whenever the things moved, ran patterns that looked less like scars and more like something painted from the inside out, dark red veins pulsing visible just beneath translucent patches of skin at the throat and temples.

Their heads sat low between hunched shoulders, faces mostly flat except for a jutting ridge of bone across the brow and a mouth that looked permanently open, packed with teeth angled backward like something built purely for holding on rather than chewing. Long, whip-thin tails trailed behind each of them, ending in a knob of bone sharpened to a wicked edge.

He watched, motionless, as the nearest one approached that same vapor-marked Harbinger, pressing its flat, ruined face close against the creature’s shoulder, drawing in a long breath through what passed for a nose. The Harbinger didn’t react at all, didn’t flinch, didn’t so much as glance down at the seven-foot horror pressed against it.

The creature pulled back a moment later, apparently satisfied, and wandered off toward the wreckage without further interest.

’They’re checking something,’ Noah thought, watching two more repeat the exact same behavior against different Harbingers, each one carrying that same small device on its forearm, each one venting the same violet vapor before contact. ’That gas. Whatever’s in it, the Harbingers wear it like a badge. Recognition marker.’ He frowned, filing it away. ’And whatever these things are checking for, the Harbingers have it built right into that gadget. That’s why all of them are getting smelled,’

He didn’t get much further with the thought.

A scream cut through the air behind him, high and furious, unmistakably Storm’s.

Noah blinked without thinking, and reappeared at a dead sprint the second his feet touched ground, already running toward the rock formation, and what he found there made his blood go cold.

One of the creatures had Storm pinned low against the rock, its tail lashing hard across his flank, and Storm was thrashing, wings beating uselessly against the confined space, another gash already opening along his shoulder where claws had raked deep.

Noah blinked again, closing the last of the distance in an instant, and drove his fist into the creature’s skull from behind before it registered his arrival at all.

CRACK!

Its head snapped sideways, and it staggered off Storm, giving him room to scramble free, wings snapping open, putting distance between himself and the attacker with a furious shriek.

Noah didn’t have time to check on him properly.

Something moved fast in his peripheral vision, and he turned half a second too late.

A second one’s tail caught him across the ribs, the bone knob at its tip driving in like a spear point, and pain exploded white-hot through his side.

[-247 HP]

[Hostile Detected]

[ANOMALOUS LIFEFORM DETECTED]

[Classification: Zenomurph — Origin: Kaldrath Prime]

[NEW QUEST RECEIVED]

[A species reshaped by conquest still bleeds like any other.]

[Survive the horde.]

Noah staggered back, genuinely startled by the number flashing at the edge of his vision, the unfamiliar name settling into place a beat behind it.

’What the hell.’ He caught his breath, straightening despite the pain already fading under his regeneration. ’That’s not a scratch. That’s a real hit.’

The first Zenomurph he’d punched was already back up, shaking off the blow like it had barely registered, and both of them turned toward him now, tails coiling low, more emerging from between the wrecked hulls further out, drawn by the noise.

Noah planted his feet.

"Okay," he said, rolling his shoulders. "Let’s actually do this properly."

The nearest Zenomurph lunged, and Noah ducked under the swipe, driving two fingers hard into the exposed joint of its elbow mid-motion, a precise, needle-thin strike that punched clean through muscle and tendon in one controlled burst. The creature’s arm buckled uselessly, and Noah used the opening to plant his other palm against its chest.

He released a burst of red-white energy directly into the point of contact.

BOOM!

The Zenomurph flew backward, crashing through a stack of rusted hull plating hard enough to collapse it entirely.

[Zenomurph defeated. +1,200 EXP]

Noah didn’t wait to see it land. He spun on his heel, catching a second Zenomurph’s incoming tail strike on his forearm, the impact rattling clean up into his shoulder, and used the momentum of the block to swing his whole body around, driving his elbow into the creature’s throat.

It gagged, staggered, and Noah followed immediately with a rapid series of VPT strikes, three fingers drilling precise, narrow holes into its shoulder, its side, the soft junction where neck met collarbone, each strike landing with surgical, economical force rather than raw power.

The creature dropped to one knee, wheezing.

[Zenomurph defeated. +1,200 EXP]

More were closing in now, six, seven of them emerging from the wreckage on all sides, and Noah felt the shape of the fight shift under him, no longer a single threat to answer but a wave building around his flanks.

He raised his hand.

"Void Barrage."

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

Three bolts of concentrated erasure tore into the nearest cluster, and two of them staggered hard, chunks of ash-grey flesh simply gone where the bolts connected, cauterized wounds at the edges. A third Zenomurph pushed through anyway, closing fast, tail already whipping around for a strike.

Noah blinked.

He reappeared mid-air above the creature’s head, twisting his body into a spinning heel kick, red-white energy crackling bright along his shin as he brought it down.

CRACK!

The kick connected clean across the Zenomurph’s skull, chi and momentum both driving the impact deep, and it dropped instantly, body crumpling to the cracked earth in a heap.

Noah landed in a crouch, breathing hard now, more of them pressing in from every direction.

A tail lashed at his back, and he caught it bare-handed at the last possible second, wrenching hard, using the creature’s own momentum to fling it into two others closing from the side, all three tangling together in a snarl of limbs.

He didn’t let them recover.

He surged forward, driving a palm strike into the nearest one’s sternum, and the moment contact landed, he shifted his grip and delivered a full Enhanced Null Strike straight through the point of impact.

The Zenomurph’s chest simply ceased to exist where his fist connected, the creature collapsing instantly, no scream, no resistance, just gone.

’One,’ Noah thought, already moving, already tracking the next threat. ’That works. Good. That actually works.’

Storm crashed back into the fight from the side, wings tearing through two Zenomurphs at once, lightning crackling wild along his tail, and Noah caught the movement peripherally, a spike of relief and worry both hitting him at once.

"Storm, stay clear of the tails, they hit harder than they look—"

A Zenomurph caught Storm’s exposed flank mid-warning, tail driving deep, and Storm shrieked, staggering hard, blood welling dark against pale scales.

"Storm!"

Noah blinked to him instantly, putting himself bodily between his wyvern and the next incoming attacker, catching the strike on his own forearm this time, gritting through the impact.

[-198 HP]

He drove a counter-punch into the attacker’s jaw, felt bone crack beneath his knuckles, and followed immediately with a precise VPT strike into its exposed throat, dropping it in a single motion.

"Go," Noah said, voice tight, glancing back at Storm’s bleeding flank. "Get clear. I’ve got this."

Storm hesitated, clearly reluctant, but the pain in his side finally won out, and he lifted off unsteadily, gaining altitude and putting real distance between himself and the fight below.

Noah turned back just in time to catch three Zenomurphs closing on him simultaneously.

He blinked, reappearing behind the leftmost one, and drove a knee into the back of its leg, folding it instantly, following through with a chi-laced palm strike to the base of its skull that put it down for good. He spun without pause, catching the second one’s incoming claw strike on crossed forearms, absorbing the impact, and used the brief opening to drive three rapid VPT strikes into its ribs, precise little detonations of force that left it gasping, staggering, easy prey for the follow-up Null Strike that ended it cleanly.

The third one hesitated, watching two of its kin drop in the space of a few seconds, and Noah didn’t give it time to reconsider. He surged forward, closing the distance in a blink, and drove his fist through its sternum with everything the strike carried, the creature’s chest caving inward with a sound that made even Noah’s stomach turn slightly.

He straightened, breathing hard, surrounded by fallen Zenomurphs, more still emerging from the wreckage in every direction, the numbers not thinning nearly as fast as he needed them to.

’They keep coming,’ he thought, wiping blood from a split lip. ’How many of these things are actually out here.’

Movement caught his eye near the ship’s ramp, high on a raised platform overlooking the whole clearing.

A three-horn stood there, arms clasped loosely behind its back, entirely unbothered by the carnage unfolding below it. It wasn’t watching the fight with any particular urgency. It was watching Noah specifically, head tilted slightly, the posture of something cataloguing rather than worrying.

It raised one clawed hand, and the Harbingers loading cargo near the ramp visibly quickened their pace.

Noah’s stomach dropped.

’It’s not even worried,’ he realized, watching the three-horn’s stillness. ’It’s just waiting for them to finish loading. This whole thing, the sweep on that other planet, leading me here specifically, it was never a mistake. They knew exactly what they were doing.’

A tail strike nearly caught him across the back of the head, and he ducked just in time, spinning into a counter that drove his elbow hard into the attacker’s jaw.

’They found something on that scan,’ he thought, driving a follow-up VPT strike into the creature’s throat and dropping it. ’Not me specifically. But it’s hard to explain a shelter out in the middle of that planet. They couldn’t find me but I’m guessing they knew something was there from their scan that they didn’t have evidence of,’

’But they clearly had gathered enough to guess something was tailing them. Storm’s energy, the cold, the lightning, all of it, hard to hide completely.’ He caught another tail strike on his forearm, gritted through the pain, and countered with a chi-charged punch that sent the attacker sprawling. ’And instead of turning to fight whatever was following them themselves, they just led it here. Let this planet do the work for them.’

More Zenomurphs pressed in, and Noah’s arms were starting to ache with the accumulated impact of every blocked strike, every parried tail, his HP bar ticking down steadily despite his regeneration working overtime to keep pace.

He blinked again, reappearing several feet clear of the nearest cluster, and raised both hands.

"Void Barrage."

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

Four bolts tore through the advancing line, and three of them dropped outright, the fourth staggering hard enough to buy Noah the second he needed to close the distance and finish it with a clean Null Strike to the chest.

He was breathing hard now, blood running from a dozen small cuts he hadn’t even fully registered taking, his HP bar sitting noticeably lower than he was comfortable with, and still more Zenomurphs kept emerging from the wreckage, drawn by the noise, by the scent of blood, by whatever passed for coordination among them.

’This isn’t slowing down,’ he thought, watching another cluster of six break away from the wreckage toward him. ’And I’m not going to out-punch an endless supply of these things bare-handed forever.’

He glanced up at the three-horn on its platform, still watching, still utterly unbothered, and felt something cold and determined settle into his chest.

"Alright," Noah muttered, raising one hand toward his own chest. "Fine. We’ll do this the hard way."

[E.N.D. Armor: Equiped]

Gold-black plating folded into existence across his frame, Harbinger Skin humming to life along every surface, and Excaliburn materialized in his grip a heartbeat later, deep purple energy bleeding along its edge.

The nearest Zenomurph lunged.

Noah didn’t dodge this time.

He met it head on, blade sweeping in a clean arc, and the creature’s tail, its claws, its entire forward momentum simply failed to matter against Excaliburn’s edge, the strike cutting clean through flesh and bone alike without slowing.

He turned toward the rest of the pack, armor humming, blade catching the pale light of an alien sun, and exhaled slowly.

"Alright," he said again, louder this time, voice carrying across the wreckage field. "Let’s finish this properly."