The alien octopus sensed the challenge from her, its tentacles lashing out at her with great speed and power, as if water resistance wasn't even a concept in its vocabulary. Its physiology had numerous holes and channels through its body, within which were cells and tissue that could cause a current of water to flow through either way across the channel.
This allowed the creatures to generate thrust that canceled out water resistance, allowing them to basically move as if they were in the vacuum of space.
Several tentacles zipped through the water at blindingly high speeds, faster than Ria could possibly hope to move at those depths.
And yet, she had no intention of moving out of the way.
BOOOOOM!!!
A devastating blow with the power to shatter a tectonic plate slammed into Ria. The alien octopus was certain that it had erased the strange outsider with it. For no other creature in the ocean could possibly withstand its power.
And yet, she hadn't sustained any damage.
SPLAT
The eyes of the octopus quivered as it saw its own tentacle severed at the point where it had struck Ria.
It was then that it realized that it was not dealing with an ordinary lifeform.
Ria's amber eyes flared with bloodlust.
"You are so dead."
The ensuing battle was so one-sided that one could only feel sorry for the alien octopus. It tried to resist all it could; it attacked her with multiple tentacles all at once, only for Ria to ravage each of them with a single blow.
Out of the countless channels for her power that existed, there were those that left the octopus particularly vulnerable. She aimed for the weakest links even within the most vulnerable parts of the octopus's tissue, surgically attacking the parts where her attack would do damage.
It didn't matter if she didn't know the anatomy and physiology of this tree of life at all. Her Martial Body honed in on every single micrometer of the octopus's body. She could feel from how the sound bounced off within the octopus's body which parts of its body were most vulnerable to fissures.
After that, it was a matter of waiting for the right moment to strike where an opening showed itself, and then using her power to cleave the creature apart, bit by bit. By the time she was done, the purple blood of the creature had spread across the bottom of the ocean floor, while the guardian's butchered body collapsed lifelessly.
STEP
Ria landed on the ocean floor, staring at its corpse. Despite the darkness of the ocean floor, she could see it as clearly as day. She felt a momentary surge of vindication at butchering the guardian, but the emotion was fleeting. No matter how much she tried to make it a target for the anger and grief she felt at losing two of her friends, it simply didn't go.
She heaved a deep breath, causing several bubbles to emerge from her mouth, before turning towards the manifold tree.
"Time to get out."
*****
Miss Mearsheim sat at her table in her office, skimming through reports sent to her by the chief of operations of the mining operations of the ruins of 'Planet Pinky,' as EsoQuest Solutions called it. She had deployed nearly a thousand mining harvester that were designed to sift through a large amount of debris, collect esoteric ore before heading back to human civilization to deposit in one of the many refineries and purifiers that Terrestrike had waiting for more esoteric ore.
"The profits on this batch of esoteric matter will be perfect," she could help but grin with a flash of greed in her elderly eyes. "The war may not be such a bad thing after all."
It had caused skyrocketing demand for more esoteric matter for the production of superweapons, warships, planetary fortresses, among other things, causing the already high prices of such esoteric matter to skyrocket.
Even the ten billion alliance credits she paid for the information was more than worth it, as far as she was concerned.
CLACK
The door to her office opened, revealing none other than her Director of the Market Research Department. The man wore a visibly displeased and confused expression, prompting Miss Mearsheim to inquire.
"What's the matter?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Well." He took a seat opposite her. "I've been digging deeper into finding the true power behind this 'EsoQuest Solutions,' and I'm unable. I tried contacting my informants in banks to get access to their KYC documents, but they haven't been able to get it. I tried bribing someone I know for a fact would be able to get me the relevant information, but he said that he wasn't able to find the information despite being an executive in the bank, which is just absurd. I even tried contacting the Beggar's Sect, which is expensive but has the answer to most questions and—"
He spread his arms in frustration. "They said they didn't have that information! I've never come across something this inscrutable!"
Miss Mearsheim frowned as her eyes wandered about. If not even the Beggar's Sect was able or willing to sell the information, then there was certainly something very strange going on. She knew Seltis was very competent at acquiring information, investigations, and cracking secrets, which was why she had hired him. He was a former intelligence officer in a fallen country, which was why he was as good at his job. The fact that he had failed to find out who was behind EsoQuest Solutions meant that whoever was behind it was very capable and powerful.
"Forget it." The old woman shook her head. "The reason I wanted you to gather information on them was to know whether I could trust them on the information they sold me. But now that that has been settled, it doesn't matter anymore. Unless, of course—"
BZZZT
She paused as the notification of a new email drew her attention.
Her eyes widened as she got a sense of deja vu from the title and the sender.
[Information Regarding a New Infected World]
[Sender: ]
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