Chapter 165: Alien Down

Soon, an ugly bipedal creature about two meters tall emerged.

It was thin, had digitigrade legs, a smooth faceplate with no eyes, sharp frontal claws like a mantis, and a head shaped like a wedge sensor.

It was like one of those walking mannequins with a thin body carved from ugly dark-colored porcelain, except there was nothing fragile about its skin.

“It’s really an insectoid scout,” she said, body tense. Although they easily could handle a scout back then, it was different in their current state.

One had to remember that, in the beginning of the apocalypse, even the weakest of these beasts were difficult to defeat, even after they were barraged with guns. For a while, humans were helpless against these alien creatures and could only focus on hiding and defending their lives.

And even then, battling an alien could be a case of killing the enemy with a thousand, but damaging oneself with eight hundred.

Don’t be fooled by the thin frame; that was so they could move quickly. It made them extra hard to hit as well.

CLANK!

Kael blocked its attack on her side, and then swung his sword to push it back. His eyes narrowed at it.

“It’s still weak. We woke it up by accident,” he said, voice a bit relieved. “We can do this.”

Naia was a little distracted by his state. He was pale, but obviously they needed to finish this off before they could take a look at his wounds.

She swung her rope dart straight at the alien’s head, though it managed to avoid it. Her hand slid down the length of the rope and added tension in a direction, causing the dart to change directions and wrap around its head.

Her feet slid as she was pulled, and Naia was forced to bury her feet into the ground. Fortunately, it was underdeveloped, so her limited strength did manage to stall its movement even for a few seconds, and this was enough for Kael to land several hits.

The alien scouts were also called Scrapers. They were the weakest among the aliens. The fact that they hadn’t killed it after several shots felt a bit imbalanced.

Logically, they knew it was because they hadn’t fully awakened yet—for one, Naia couldn’t coat weapons with her power yet, and Kael couldn’t bend space to attack—but it was still annoying.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. We’re in new bodies, after all,” Kael said at the side, apparently reading the expressions on her face. “Don’t fret; we’ll handle this together.”

Kael’s calm words shifted Naia’s mind at ease. Soon, she could focus on keeping this monster on a leash so Kael could deal with it.

Still, the fact that they were taking a minute to deal with a Scraper was really disconcerting!

In terms of enemy population, the scouts comprised about 55 to 60%. Imagine seeing so much of this, to the point that they were treated as alien meat shields, and ending up struggling with one? Embarrassing!

Further, the other types were even harder to deal with, which gave them an extra sense of dread. She couldn’t help but think about the other type of aliens. Hopefully, there was nothing else in this meteor. If any of the other types emerged, their current states wouldn’t be able to handle it.

For example, one of the more troublesome types were called Soldiers. They were basically the alien equivalent of the infantry, and were also the main battle unit due to their numbers.

These so-called Soldiers were 3 meters tall and had broad torso shield plates. They had six legs, long front and short back, middle for extra damage. They comprise about 30-35% of the alien population. To kill this one with one shot, you’d need a bazooka.

In between there were Elites and Brutes, which were like specialty-type of aliens, with one specializing in speed and the other in brute strength. Together, they comprise about 5-10% of an alien mob.

The next in rank would be the Lectors or the command units, though those comprise less than 1% of a mob’s population. They were four meters in height and had even greater defense than the Soldiers, though their movements were a bit slower.

They looked like compact spiders, their bodies having a floating crown-like sensory ring, which was the signal organ that glowed faintly. If it was present, the lower aliens within a kilometer radius could move in sync and could do more damaging movements. It functioned a lot like a buff.

It also had its own small brain, in a sense, and was capable of basic strategies. When this was in a mob, it was guaranteed to be 10x more troublesome than without it.

There were also the Bastions, or the Siege creatures, which were crawling creatures 6-10 meters tall and several times their length. It was like a compact centipede in appearance with multiple limbs. Its movements were slow, but it had a head ram and drilling limbs was used to overtake even the most fortified bases.

Finally, there were the Queens, which occupied each one of the three big meteorites. These monsters were at least 20 meters tall, with a mass of a small hill. It was the root mind making commands in an entire region. It had seismic resonance skills that could imbalance enemies for a few seconds.

All these creatures, except the queen(s) and the Lectors, did not have their own brain, only something like storage units inside them, and every one of them worked in sync and seemed to lack pain receptors, making them difficult to deal with.

Anyway, with all those ‘stronger’ aliens, they absolutely had to be trained to deal with the weakest ones quickly and efficiently.

Fortunately, Naia and Kael had been fighting side by side for years. There was no need for words, especially when the enemy was once what they could handle on their own, let alone a weakened version of it.

Kael blocked its movements and controlled its battle path, while Naia’s rope dart moved as if it were an appendage, targeting weak spots accurately.

It wrapped around its legs, imbalancing it, and a millisecond later, Kael’s broadsword was on top of its head, stabbing down.

BAM!

The monster made an unceremonious final twitch before finally dying.

One alien down, countless more to go.

Will resume after one of the other ongoing stories end~ Thanks!