Building Interstellar Empire With Universal Synthesis
Chapter 78: Feeding On Nether Force
"Attack! Attack!"
"We are under attack!"
"My lord, wake up!"
Neo woke up with a jolt of absolute alertness, his newly heightened reaction speed kicking in instantly.
Rubbing his eyes, he scanned the room and saw a panicked merman’s face right before him.
"My lord, the Red Tribe has attacked our village! Please save them!"
Whoosh!
Neo didn’t waste a single second. He burst out of the wooden house like a rushing gale, the air whistling around his moving figure.
Within a few seconds, he arrived at the center of the Blue Tribe’s village.
"Kill!"
"Kill the rebels! Slaughter the Blue Tribe!"
From his vantage point, Neo could see hundreds of bloodthirsty Red Tribe warriors slowly closing in on the settlement from all sides.
A little distance away from him, Zestia was already on the move.
Upon spotting him, she hurriedly ran up to his side, her face pale and anxious.
"Neo, they have three hundred men, while we are just a few. We cannot save everyone. We should focus on saving those whom we can and retreat!"
"No," Neo said, shaking his head firmly. "I promised them I would not let the Red Tribe harm a single hair in my presence. And what I promise, I execute."
Zestia frowned as her eyes scanned the overwhelming enemy numbers.
"And how exactly will you do that? I know you are strong, Neo, but even then, you only have two hands."
Neo smirked darkly.
"Just two? Just wait and watch."
Keeping a mysterious edge, Neo raised his wrist and pressed a button on his communication watch.
Zestia stared at him, completely unable to understand what a metallic device could possibly do against an army. But before she could ask for an explanation, a small squad of Red Tribe mermen parted from the main line and walked straight up to them, their heads held high in sheer arrogance.
"So, it is you who dared challenge the laws of this island?" the leader of the group sneered, stepping forward and leveling his rusted trident directly at Neo’s throat.
Undeterred by the threat, Neo replied smoothly: "Yes, it is me. I am their Lord, and you have made a grave mistake by daring to touch my subjects."
"Ahahahaha!" the leader laughed out loud, throwing his head back as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
"What a fool! Do you think you’re some kind of big shot?"
Neo didn’t bother replying with words. He clenched his fist, channeling a fraction of his newly augmented strength, and threw an explosive punch straight ahead.
Boom!
Instantly, the arrogant merman blasted into smithereens, and gory mist erupted where he once stood, the rusted trident clattered uselessly onto the floor.
Zestia was completely stunned. The remaining underlings were frozen in sheer shock. For a second, even the wind seemed to stop moving as the brutal reality of Neo’s power registered in their minds.
"Wha- what just happened?" one of the surviving squad members stammered,blood draining from his face.
"Your leader blasted into bits of flesh and bones," Neo replied coldly, "And now, it’s your turn."
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
One casual punch after another, and with every strike, a Red Tribe merman was instantly dead.
.
He moved with a blinding speed that their primitive senses couldn’t even track, turning the arrogant vanguard into a localized massacre in a matter of heartbeats.
Witnessing the sudden, brutal death of their kin from afar, the main army of the distant mermen went completely mad with rage.
The shock quickly twisted into a bloodthirsty frenzy that rippled through their ranks.
"Bastards! They killed captain Hart!" a high-ranking warrior roared, raising his weapon toward the village.
"Blood must be repaid with blood! Kill everyone from the Blue Tribe! Don’t leave a single child alive! Eradicate them all!"
Zestia snapped out of her shock at once.
"Neo, let’s move!" she said, about to rush forward to save the villagers from the advancing horde.
But Neo calmly stopped her by the hand.
Zestia looked at him with confusion, her eyes demanding an explanation.
Still, instead of speaking, he merely gestured for her to look up at the sky.
"What is in the sky?" she muttered and turned her gaze upward as he wished, and what she saw completely paralyzed her with surprise.
"What are they?"
Dozens of flying vessels, each roughly the size of a massive cargo container, descended through the clouds and touched down onto the ground in rapid succession.
As the thrusters hissed and the heavy bay doors slammed open, men began to emerge from the vessels.
No, they were not just ordinary men. They all possessed a primitive built, as if they had spent their entire lives surviving and scavenging through the harshest environment.
"Neo! Who are they?!" Zestia asked again.
In reply, Neo said smoothly,
"They are from the imperial army! You said we need numbers, right? Here they are."
Zestia’s eyes widened.
"Imperial Army? What exactly do you mean, Neo? Are you secretly planning a rebellion against the United Federation?"
Her heart skipped a beat as she made this terrible prediction.
"Not really. My goal is far beyond that. If you want to know, I can tell you. But once you learn the truth, there is no going back!"
Even though such a revelation should have terrified any girl her age, Zestia felt nothing of the sort. On the contrary, she became deeply worried for his sake. She assumed he had gone astray. If he were not stopped soon, the Federation Enforcers would come hunting him down.
However, it wasn’t the time to think about that. She and Neo moved through the ranks of the Red Tribe, effortlessly killing a few warriors in the process.
While the Red Tribe had 300 warriors, Neo had called 400 scavengers from the original 700.
Naturally, the victor was already decided.
The scavenger army was far more lethal and hungry for blood. Their ferocity was akin to wild beasts.
"Ahhh! Ahhh! Noooo!"
They tore through the Red Tribe ranks like galloping horses, stomping their enemies under their feet.
Neo occasionally paused, watching the carnage with absolute satisfaction as a series of notifications began to flash.
[ Nether Force +0.5 ]
[ Nether Force +1.0 ]
[ Nether Force +0.7 ]
[ Nether Force +0.6 ]
The battlefield was passively feeding his newly acquired physique, and his Nether Core was securely storing the energy within.
There couldn’t any perfect harvest than this.