The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"What...what's going on?!"

As the two mini loitering munitions launched by Ange through "Golden Soup" exploded into two tiny fireworks in mid-air, Fish let out a low exclamation—thanks to the visual enhancements provided by his intelligent combat armor, he could roughly see that, in the final instant, a sword-like beam of light pierced through both munitions simultaneously, detonating their warheads instantly.

Of course, since the explosion occurred more than ten meters away from Iskander Lomonosov's SUV, the latter was unaffected. With the roar of the engine, the enigmatic archaeologist, who had lived since the old civilization era, disappeared into the dark night along with his SUV.

They won't be able to catch up now.

"It's the enemy's armored warriors, they've come as reinforcements!" Ange whispered. "Activate energy detection mode."

"Ah, okay!" Fish quickly complied—this mode was the most unique among the various aiming modes offered by the intelligent combat armor, as its purpose was to specifically search for and locate the energy signal reactions of other armored warriors' intelligent combat armor. Once activated, even Xiaoxing's "Grape" with its optical camouflage stealth ability would be detected during operations. However, because battles between armored warriors were infrequent, Fish had rarely used this function in the past.

But now, it has become quite useful.

"Is there... a total of seven people?" As Huang Yan began to probe the energy signals of the armored warriors' intelligent combat armor, seven points of light appeared in the surrounding darkness. Most importantly, judging from the energy reaction of the points of light, five of them possessed strength at least at the "Crystal" level, while the other two seemed to have already crossed the "Lapis Lazuli" level, which is the threshold of the fourth level of intelligent combat armor.

In other words, these people are all quite powerful armored warriors—although individually, none of them would be a match for Fish and Ange, it would be very difficult for the two of them to deal with them at the same time.

Moreover, and more importantly, due to the lingering effects of the "Gray Mist," Phoenix Flame and Golden Soup's energy output has only recovered to 45% of their normal levels, reducing their actual combat capabilities by one level. In this situation, fighting two against seven is no longer just "somewhat unfavorable."

"Who are these guys...?"

“I’ve heard of them,” Ange said. “They’re the ‘Crystal Knights,’ an elite armored special forces unit of the Imperial Guard directly under the Emperor, usually assigned to the First Battalion of the Imperial Guard. Their name has two origins: first, the entry requirement for this squad is an armored warrior rank of ‘Crystal’ or higher, exceeding the average level within the armored warrior ranks; second, their intelligent combat armor has a crystal-like reinforcement layer on its surface, a technological product of an old civilization that can deflect energy weapons to some extent.”

"Deflect energy weapons? Isn't that a special countermeasure against armored warriors?" Fish panicked slightly—it's common knowledge that, aside from close-quarters combat and various attacks based on special abilities, most intelligent combat armor primarily relies on energy weapons such as laser beams and ion beams. In combat between armored warriors, being able to deflect some of the energy weapon firepower is practically like having an extra life!

Well, the situation is now quite bad.

"However, my intelligence indicates that the 'Crystal Knights' should have eight people... There are only seven at the moment. Could it be that there were casualties during a dangerous mission?" Ange continued to mutter to herself. "In any case, if we confront them head-on now, the odds are against us."

"Everyone, wait a minute, I have something to tell you!"

After thinking for a while, Fish finally chose to turn on the communicator and shout into the communication channel between the armored warriors.

The seven figures paused briefly.

"You've been deceived, brothers and sisters!" Fish continued. "Dr. Iskander Lomonosov, the scientific archaeologist you've been protecting, has deceived and betrayed everyone! Including you and His Majesty the Emperor! Continuing to believe him will lead us all to disaster! If you don't believe me, we have audio evidence..."

A burst of laughter suddenly came through the communication channel—no further explanation was needed; Fish understood simply by hearing the laughter.

"My lord, do you remember the 'proposal' that Iskandar Lomonosov made to us?" Ange said. "It seems that these 'Crystal Knights' have made... a slightly different choice from us."

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: ①⓪①ⓚⓚⓢ.ⓒⓞⓜ]

"Indeed," a woman's voice came through the communication channel. Her tone was high-pitched yet carried an operatic elegance, clearly indicating she came from an imperial noble family. "We armored warriors are blessed by the heavens and have every right to use our talents to earn greater rewards. Lord Iskandar Lomonosov has promised to reserve a very lucrative position for us in this new world order."

"At the same time, he will also fulfill our personal desires," another, much hoarser male voice said, "and he meant it. I got what I wanted from him: my three brothers who had usurped my inheritance and taken away the noble titles that were rightfully mine, all died 'naturally' without a trace a week after I made the request, and even their families were all brutally murdered in their own mansions. Even I, as a armored warrior, was powerless to do such a thing."

"Me too! Lord Iskandar Lomonosov restored my deformed face from childhood and removed those ugly birthmarks from my body, just as I wished! So that I no longer need to be discriminated against and ridiculed."

"My lord has found me the perfect wife of my dreams, one who is absolutely obedient to me—I now believe that the great Lord Iskander Lomonosov is capable of anything!"

"It's because I followed 'that person' that I was able to escape the boring job of guarding the palace gates and get the opportunity to fight all sorts of strong and powerful enemies! Being able to fight so exhilaratingly time and time again, even if I die, it would be worth it!"

"I can assure you that Lord Iskandar Lomonosov will always keep his word," the female noble armored warrior continued after her subordinates had spoken. "We, the members of the 'Crystal Knights,' have already experienced this. Therefore, I urge you to seriously consider his proposal one last time, abandon your original obstinacy and loyalty, and join us in assisting him to complete this great undertaking."

“I’m sorry, but my answer remains: absolutely not,” Fish said. “We will not negotiate with a guy who sees the New Humans as a ‘fallacy that shouldn’t exist’—yes, perhaps our race was born from the moral decay and collapse of the old civilization’s end, but since we are already living in this world, he has no right to choose to ignore the future of the New Humans as a whole and take risks. No matter how generous the terms he offers me personally.”

"It seems we each have our own choices. Well then, that's it." After saying this coldly, the other party ended the communication.

"Hey, you idiot! How could you say that?!" Huang Yan shouted.

"Otherwise what? Am I supposed to deal with these bastards—"

"You hopeless idiot! Can't you use some more words to buy me a little more time?! I'm still in the process of eliminating the interference of the 'Gray Mist', wouldn't it be better to delay a little longer?" Huang Yan shouted.

"Uh...why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought you could figure this out!" Huang Yan sounded genuinely angry. "Didn't you see scenes like this in all those old shonen battle manga?!"

"But I've never read comics before..."

"Ah... eh? Never mind. Anyway, my energy output level has only recovered to 61%, and Jin Tang's is 56%! I'm not very confident in dealing with those guys."

"But we have no other choice, do we?" Fish bit his lip, extending and transforming his right arm armor into a four-foot-long monomolecular blade. In the next instant, he leaped more than three meters into the air, dodging a blazing plasma missile while simultaneously slashing at a "Crystal Knight" attacking from the sky.

In the instant their weapons clashed, a spark briefly flashed in the darkness before disappearing quickly.

Because the energy weapons' firing marks would be too obvious under the cover of night, the Crystal Knights' shooting was mainly aimed at suppressing and drawing the enemy's attention. Their real plan was to quickly close the distance and engage in hand-to-hand combat. Of course, as experienced armored warriors, Fish and Ange had guessed the enemy's intentions and were on guard against this from the beginning.

To gain an advantage, the "Crystal Knights" assault was divided into groups of three: one fired while the other two launched a rapid sword attack. Furthermore, the two attackers approached from different directions: one used anti-gravity wings to swoop down from the air like a raptor, while the other charged forward from the ground. Their attack angles were also subtly staggered to increase the difficulty of the defenders' defense.

However, Fish and Ange certainly didn't intend to play passively—that was the most hopeless tactic. After dodging the first wave of attacks, the two quickly formed a back-to-back combat formation and began to actively adopt mobile tactics: Phoenix Flame and Golden Soup were almost completely superior to ordinary intelligent combat armor in terms of speed, and even if their output power hadn't recovered to its peak level, they could still ensure that they were much faster than those "Crystal Knights" who fought on foot.

Of course, simultaneous maneuvering by two people requires a very high level of coordination. However, Fish and Ange not only train together repeatedly but have also conducted numerous coordinated operations in combat, accumulating considerable experience in this area. Their coordination during operations is so close that it's almost as if they are one person, with absolutely no hesitation or abruptness.

While the Crystal Knights are also adept at teamwork and are unlikely to be easily broken up or thrown into chaos in high-speed, dynamic maneuvering, they currently have two obvious weaknesses compared to the Fish and Ange combination.

First, while their intelligent combat armor is powerful and possesses various unique abilities, it only has the most basic tactical support functions. Unlike Phoenix Flame, it lacks situational analysis and coordination capabilities equivalent to tactical experts. This means that the "Crystal Knights" are often slightly slower than Fish and Ange in making instantaneous decisions. Although the actual difference is only a few hundred or even tens of milliseconds, in the ever-changing high-level competition, this difference in reaction time is enough for Fish and Ange to maintain local initiative and even counter-restrain their opponents.

Secondly, for several years, the "Crystal Knights" had been training in units of eight. Not long ago, they had experienced a very rare loss of personnel. Although it was only one person, for most tactical maneuvers, this was enough to significantly reduce redundancy and create subtle difficulties in coordination for those not yet accustomed to this new situation.

Thus, Fish and Ange, whose intelligent combat armor output power had not yet recovered, barely managed to keep up with the "Crystal Knights." Although they were always restrained or forced back by the other enemies whenever they successfully threatened one of their opponents, the other enemies were also unlikely to pose a serious threat to them. However, this situation obviously could not continue indefinitely.

"Note that the output power recovery of Jin Tang and I has been temporarily stopped," Huang Yan said after Fish and Ange launched a joint attack and used two ion guns to quickly repel a "Crystal Knight" that was attacking from the side and above using anti-gravity wings. Thanks to the enhanced protective layer on his body, the "Crystal Knight" was not seriously injured although it was blown away by the plasma explosion. "The current consumption is too great, and I cannot continue to recover under these circumstances."

"That's troublesome," Fish said. "In that case, we can't hold out for long..."

"Then let's just move towards the 'funnel'," Ange said after taking the initiative and repelling an attacking "Crystal Knight" with her sword. "I remember that should be the passage to the ancient ruins buried beneath the vitrified surface of the 'Secret Realm'."

"That's right. We did come here to investigate this place," Huang Yan said. "However, I think I should warn you, there's probably only one underground passage—meaning that once you go in, the enemy can trap you down there, putting you in a hopeless situation. I suggest we retreat for now; the chances of success are still quite high..."

“That’s right, but the most urgent task right now is to prevent Iskandar Lomonosov from bringing out the ‘Tomb Slayer’ that can control an unlimited number of ‘Tai Sui’ hosts from below,” Fish said. “If we choose to retreat, who can guarantee that the guy won’t dig to the very end tomorrow?! If that happens, all our actions will be meaningless.”

"That makes sense," Huang Yan thought for a moment, seemingly conducting various probability calculations. But finally, she relented, "Then, let's do as you say."