Ronan pulled one hand behind his back and conjured a dagger in it. He tried not to give anything away with his body language, but it was hard not to tense up in the current situation.

Ryan and Florence stepped out of the portal after him, with the former swearing and reaching for his weapon and the latter squeaking out a yelp and stumbling back towards the portal.

Unfortunately for Florence, the moment they left the gate it powered down, the glowing blue streams of mana retreating into the stone base as the goopy portal substance was sucked into a small hole in the capstone. Their only potential path of retreat had been cut off.

The seven zombie-like humanoids stood there, not making a move. Ronan struggled to analyse their body language. It didn't seem aggressive, but they were clearly not human, meaning any signals he was reading might be completely off the mark. At the very least he could read their tags, which meant he wasn't dealing with a group of overpowered attackers. However, his allies might be in trouble.

[Kzark - Vatronid Fleshmancer Lv.59]

[Xsix - Vatronid Fleshmancer Lv.57]

[Zloek - Vatronid Fleshmancer Lv.60]

[Kzaisz - Vatronid Fleshmancer Lv.59]

…

All of them had similarly impossible to pronounce names, identical classes, and levels around the 60 mark. For Ronan, they shouldn't be a challenge to defeat. Despite that, he was unnerved in their presence. None of them had made a move since he arrived. Not one twitch of a muscle or a blink.

As his gaze ran over the most prominent of the seven, he realised why he was so put off by their presence. They weren't breathing. Their eyes didn't move, either. Yellow orbs without pupils, glowing with an eerie light—it was like staring a dead person in the face.

Not to mention the smell. He wasn't sure if it came from the corpses strewn about—they had clearly fought the stragglers from Lord Rockmore's group and won convincingly before he arrived—or if it was the Vatronid themselves.

"Can I help you?" Ronan had grown bored of waiting and decided to break the tense silence. There was no visible reaction to his words.

The two on the edge of the group raised their inner hands. Ronan gripped his conjured shortsword, ready for a fight to break out at a moment's notice. They touched the nearest of their compatriots, who did the same.

He squinted as the seven strange humanoids made physical contact. A few seconds passed with the only movement being their arms occasionally shifting. Then they broke contact and returned to their original stance. The leader stepped forward.

Ronan was ready to run the creature through with his sword the moment it made a wrong move. He had no qualms about protecting his life and earnings in this iteration against an alien he barely knew.

Or I guess they're not aliens if our planets got merged? How the hell does that work… He realised it didn't matter at that moment. The creature's jaw fell open, revealing a mouth like a shark's, with rows of sharp teeth running down the edges.

"Are you the one called Ronan Steele?" The voice was odd. Squeaky and somewhat high pitched, yet made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"Who's asking?" He didn't need to wonder why they could understand and talk with each other. The universal translation skill was finally coming in handy.

The creature paused, closing its mouth. Its grey skin made it look a bit like a shark or a dolphin. Though the rotting flesh made it seem more like a carcass than a living creature. Their heads were similar to a human's, but with a longer jaw.

"We are all of the members of the Vatronid present in this sector. We received the notification from the system informing us that you claimed the pillar, giving you command over this sector and those who reside within it. We recognise your strength, Ronan Steele, and thus have appeared in our true forms to challenge you for the right to claim the pillar. Do you accept?"

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True forms? Ronan was confused about that part for a moment, until realisation struck. These must be the shapeshifters they were talking about down in the sewers!

It was bad enough having to worry about a shapeshifting monster sneaking into your base at night to attack, wearing the face of someone you cared about or trusted. That their real forms were so hideous was adding insult to injury.

Still, Ronan recognised a gesture of respect when he saw one. They hadn't tried to sneak attack him as he exited the portal or claim the pillar while he was gone. Instead, they had come to him and made a fair challenge.

"What will your challenge involve? Am I to fight all of you at once?" He asked, taking a step forward, bringing him closer to his new enemies.

"It is the way of the Vatronid. And the way of this new world. To be strong is to survive. The weak die, becoming flesh-fuel for the battles to come," the leading creature said.

Ronan felt confident in his ability to take them all on at once. He only had one worry. His two new allies had grown in strength during the wave trials, rising all the way to level 50 and earning their first class evolution. They were approaching the level of these strange creatures, but he doubted they would match up to what was clearly a group of trained warriors.

Given how the creature had spoken of the world and his people, they would not have rules of engagement. But Ronan had always been ready for this.

"You two, stay back, keep yourselves alive. I can handle this." He didn't bother to turn back as he spoke to Ryan and Florence. He heard soft steps as they retreated behind the portal.

Ahead of him, the sector pillar loomed over the seven Vatronids. It looked exactly as it had done when he entered the portal. A vibrant canopy, uniform branches, and a perfectly round trunk.

The subtle connection between them was something he'd been able to feel even inside the gate, but it was stronger now that he was back in the top floor of the tower. He met the unflinching gaze of each of his seven opponents in turn. They stared back with glowing yellow orbs.

"You do not fight with your people? They will die when you lose. They should fight for their lives while they have the chance."

"I do not need others to fight my battles for me," Ronan replied, revealing the conjured shortsword in his hand and taking another step towards his enemy.

"A weakness that will bring about your death." The leader did not speak further. He stepped back in line with the rest of them. They all closed their eyes.

Ronan was confused. Should I attack while they're blind? Surely this is a trap of some kind? In the end he felt going slow and feeling them out would be best.

He formed a rainbow bomb in his left hand. When in doubt, blasting things to heaven was a sound strategy.

It took around nine seconds until it was ready to launch. Slightly faster than the first time he'd cast it, but he knew he could still improve. The eyes of his foes were still closed. He heard noises from behind them, beyond the tree. He launched the rainbow bomb right at the leader of the seven Vatronids.

Right before it struck, he saw a grey blur on the edges of the group. As his rainbow bomb shattered into a thousand streaks of colour, it occluded his view of his foes. He didn't hear a death chime.

He began to form a mana bolt while taking a few steps back. Not a single one had died. At least the leader should have fallen to the direct hit. It was all too strange.

When the dust and smoke cleared from the blast, Ronan was stunned. A single Vatronid stood in front of him, one arm outstretched. Smoke curled into the air from a burned stump that had clearly been a hand before his spell struck it.

This creature, however, did not resemble any of the seven from before. It had six arms, each with two hands of six fingers at the end. Its jaw was longer, extending out of its head. There were spiked ridges running along the side of its head, like a shark's fins. Its feet had turned into strange claws that dug into the tiles. Ronan raised his gaze to check the tag floating above its head. It surprised him.

[Zloek - Vatronid Fleshmancer Lv.60]

The tag of the leader was the only one that remained. His level was the same as it had been before. Seemingly it was only the layout of his body that had changed, but Ronan knew that wasn't the case. The damned thing had stopped his rainbow bomb with a single hand.

As he watched, the burned stump seemed to crust over. Strips and flakes of flesh peeled away and fell to the ground as a fresh pair of hands grew out of the arm. A gross display, but one that explained the identical classes of these alien creatures.

Even faced with an unknown and absurdly strong enemy, Ronan was not scared. This was a real challenge, one that might make up for the boredom he'd experienced inside the gate.

When the Vatronid burst forward, crossing five metres with each stride, he raised his blade to meet its charge. His visitors from the world beneath the surface would not find their host lacking in hospitality.

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