The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Hey, what did you say? If I remember correctly, there shouldn't be any other armored warriors on this ship, right?" Fish was slightly surprised after hearing Huang Yan's words. "Logically speaking... ooh meow!"

To Fish's question, Phoenix Flame's answer was a direct electric shock to his groin. Although quite mild, the stinging pain from the impact on a sensitive area almost brought tears to Fish's eyes.

"Idiot! In your eyes, just because someone can't be a match for an armored warrior means they're an 'ordinary person'?!" After delivering that electric shock, Huang Yan asked, "Many guys like you have this problem. Once they find out they have the talent to use intelligent combat armor, they think they're superior and arrogant... Most people like that don't live long."

"But..." Fish wanted to say something more, but then he noticed a series of warning signals appearing on his helmet display: just a few seconds ago, Phoenix Flame detected several rapidly increasing energy reactions, all of which came from below the deck of this ship!

"What...?"

"Based on the changing pattern of the energy response, we infer that the engine of a large mechanical device is starting up," Huang Yan explained. "There is a 95% chance that it is the G-22 multi-purpose walking engineering exoskeleton, or 'Goron' for short."

"Huh? Oh no, I completely forgot about that!" Under his helmet, Fish looked as if he had just woken up from a dream. Before, when he and his fellow poor boys from all over the country were undergoing basic training on the "Waves" with dreams and aspirations, he had seen those things several times in the cabins: as a large warband with complete equipment and abundant resources, the main assets of "Tidal Lightning" included not only ships, airships and rare armored warriors, but also as many as six "Gorons", with three on each of the warband's ships.

These mechanical giants came in various chassis types, including bipedal, quadrupedal, and even hexapedal, and possessed immense strength. As common engineering devices in the old civilization, they were mass-produced. In ancient ruins, dozens, even hundreds, of these devices were often found piled up in warehouses and automated workshops. However, although the number of "Gorgons" was large, only a small fraction were still usable. The vast majority of discovered "Gorgons" could only be disassembled and used as "organ donors."

"Watch out, they're coming!"

As a vibration came from the deck, Fish's tactical radar detected three large machines that rushed onto the deck: they were all the smallest bipedal "Gorlons", but each weighed as much as 1,400 kilograms, with thick, enclosed cockpits covered by composite armor several centimeters thick.

Although they are not equipped with military weapons, the powerful single-molecule mechanical clamps, laser cutters, and multi-purpose mechanical claws mounted on their robotic arms can still crush concrete like tofu and shred steel plates like tin foil—all of which Fish witnessed on his way here.

"Wait, I don't recommend you do that," Huang Yan quickly said as Fish raised his ion gun and aimed at the nearest "Gorgon" to fire. "Analysis shows that these 'Gorgons' are late-production MK11 models, also known as the 'Hazardous Environment Adaptation' model. Their protection has been enhanced, especially the cockpit area, which has a NBC protection layer inside the composite armor, and a special coating on the outside that can resist the ablation of energy weapons. According to calculations, even using the energy storage overload mode, our ion gun is not enough to break through their defenses."

"Damn it, you should have said so earlier!" Fish yelled. His high-energy plasma beam had accurately hit the cockpit of one of the "Gorons," but it only caused a large cloud of smoke to rise from the armored surface, leaving no gaping hole. When the enemy raised its mechanical claws to swing at him, he had no choice but to abandon his firing plan, barely leaping aside to avoid being cleaved in two. As for the main cannon he had used as cover, it fared much worse—the "Goron's" razor-sharp slash had sliced ​​off a large portion of the armored gun shield and created a large gash in the breech, completely destroying its airtightness.

"Aaaaaah! Our cannons! Those cannons are worth 800,000 dinars!" On the water not far from the "Waves," the main gunner, who had been casually tossed overboard by Fish and was now bobbing up and down in the water, let out a wail. "We just paid off the Van Schering Group's loan last month!"

Although the guy was crying very pitifully, unfortunately, Fish simply didn't have time to empathize with him. Because after the "Gorlon" missed its first attack, it still maintained the spirit of "pressing the enemy to the bitter end" and launched a series of slashes and combos. Although Fish successfully dodged each attack, he was still in grave danger.

The most critical issue is that Fish is currently severely lacking in effective means of retaliation.

In the stories circulating in the Oasis City taverns, armored warriors are always associated with all sorts of cool and powerful ancient weapons. But after actually equipping himself with the Phoenix Flame, Fish learned another part of the truth that wasn't revealed in those stories: armored warriors' weaponry needs to be upgraded by themselves! Different intelligent combat armors will gradually analyze the user's strengths and habits as the user accumulates experience, and modify and strengthen the personal equipment they come with. However, more highly complex heavy equipment, such as the "railgun" that represents the scientific power in the stories, or multi-launch missile launchers, cannot be generated by the armor itself transforming.

According to Huang Yan's instructions, after user confirmation, this combat armor has at least five "attachment points." Each can directly connect to a set of equipment produced in the old civilization era, equipped with a standard universal interface, ranging from standard military weapons to additional protective gear and various complex tools. With continuous upgrades, the number of these "attachment points" can be further increased, enough to turn the user into a walking, human arsenal, capable of blasting these three Gorons to smithereens in a head-on attack without a problem...

...The only problem is that Fish hasn't found any heavy equipment suitable to hang on there yet.

In this situation, although Phoenix Flame is more than capable of dealing with ordinary synthetic beasts or unprotected ordinary people with its own series of small weapons, in essence, it is like a fighter jet in 21st-century air combat that only relies on its own fixed machine guns to fight, and it is severely lacking in offensive means when facing real opponents.

Furthermore, although Huang Yan gained access to most of the automated equipment produced in the old civilization era when he absorbed the power of the "Black Destroyer," this access was meaningless to Goron, who had switched to manual operation mode.

If Fish were willing to take the risk, he could try to use his agility to get close to his opponent and then use the monomolecular cutting blade to sever the opponent's joints in close combat. However, this tactic would only be effective in a one-on-one situation. Facing three Gorons and dozens of armed crew members, doing so would be asking for trouble.

Therefore, his only remaining option was to do everything he could to delay the inevitable.

Fortunately, the narrow deck wasn't all bad for Fish: although the limited space left him nowhere to hide from the crew's concentrated fire after the holographic trick was exposed, the limited space was also a significant problem for Gorons, who were nearly three meters tall.

To avoid falling into the water during combat, these massive vessels had to limit their movements and carefully maintain distance to avoid collisions. Because they blocked the line of fire, the crew members armed with rifles and cannons could not fire at Fish at will.

The combination of these unfavorable conditions gave Fish a rather delicate amount of room to maneuver: he could escape from the onslaught of these big guys time and time again by the narrowest of margins, like a mudfish caught in a trap, and he could even seize the opportunity to strike a pose and make a sarcastic remark, making the Goron's pilots even more furious and flustered, like bulls being mocked by a matador.

"Hey, don't do that!" As Fish dodged an attack and then stuck out his rear and raised his tail in a provocative pose, Huang Yan shouted in his ear, "What if something goes wrong?"

"Don't worry!" Perhaps emboldened by his previous series of successful dodges, Fish subconsciously did the worst thing he could have done—making a promise halfway through: "Nothing will happen, I promise—meow!"

Then, like all those who are used to making bold predictions, Fish's joy turned to sorrow, and unsurprisingly, an accident occurred.

The accident was caused by a 7.7mm rifle bullet. In the chaos, a crew member fired it haphazardly towards Fish, and by sheer coincidence, it struck him squarely in the center of his buttocks. Although the Phoenix Flame absorbed most of the impact energy, preventing Fish from being pierced in the worst possible way, the remaining kinetic energy was still quite painful.

"Meow! Aaaaaaahh ...

Then, the Goron wielding its claws walked to the ship's side, raised its claws high, and prepared to deliver the final blow to Fish, who had nowhere to escape...

"Go!" Fish shouted over the comms channel.

In the next instant, the speeding "Wave" suddenly turned hard to port, and the ship began to list severely. Goron, who had raised his claws high, lost his footing and fell into the water without warning, creating a large white splash.

"Damn it, what's going on?!" The pilot of the second Goron, Tucker, the first officer of the USS "Waves," quickly steered his vessel to jettison the laser cutter and grabbed a winch on the edge of the deck, barely preventing the Goron from plunging into the water. But his companions weren't so lucky—these bulky pieces of equipment would sink instantly once they hit the water. Although the pilots could escape through the hatches, it was impossible to salvage them anytime soon. "Helmsman, what are you doing?!"

No one answered. Then, Tucker noticed that the bridge behind him was eerily silent: the crew members who had been providing fire support for the three Gorons were now falling silent one after another!

"What the hell is going on?! Helmsman?! Are you crazy?! How are you even maneuvering this ship?!" Tucker continued shouting into the short-range tactical radio. "Where is everyone else? Provide support! Provide support now!"

"Received, navigation normal." A moment later, as the "Waves" made its second sharp turn in the opposite direction, a reply finally came over the radio. But what Tucker heard was not the helmsman's voice, but a girl's delicate, calm tone: "Steering according to plan."

"Wait, what plan?! And who the hell are you?!" As the Wave made its third sharp turn, its hull scraped against the corner of a building submerged in the sea. The violent tremor completely ruined Tucker's plan to get the Goron up: he had just managed to stand up the behemoth when he stumbled and fell into a pile of rigging next to the foremast, and then, like some action movie actors of the past, he was tightly entangled in thick ropes.

Of course, under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be difficult for a skilled operator to manipulate Goron into untying these ropes. However, due to the ship's violent rocking and the intense mental strain, Tucker's attempts all ended in failure. Worse still, when the violent rocking of the "Waves" finally began to subside, Tucker saw on the monitor in front of him that a figure had climbed back onto the deck from the ship's side and jumped onto the immobilized Goron.

As Fish's arm armor began to extend and transform, a slender, triangular armor-piercing spike took shape. Like a light infantryman stepping over a fallen heavy knight on a medieval battlefield, guided by Phoenix Flame, he thrust the spike into the gap in Goron's cockpit, disabling the locking mechanism. Then, as the red light of the automatic safety system began to flash, the armored cockpit hatch of this behemoth opened.

Although the operation was slightly hampered by coordination issues, fortunately, Fish's contingency plan ultimately proved effective: while he personally retaliated against Moore and drew the enemy's attention, Xiaoxing silently landed on the aft deck of the "Waves." Although her combat abilities were inferior to Huangyan's, Xiaoxing's combat armor, "Grape," with its excellent dynamic stealth capabilities, proved invaluable in this situation, allowing her to eliminate the crew members one by one unnoticed and successfully seize the crucial steering room.

From then on, everything became much easier.

"Wait a minute! I don't know anything!" As Fish grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out of the cockpit, the unfortunate Tucker screamed, "Brother Fish! Listen to me!"

"I'm listening."

"I...I...I have absolutely no knowledge of this! The entire operation was devised by Liu Gang and Moore! As the first mate, my job is just to steer the ship!" Tucker shouted. "I'm innocent!"

“Ah, well said,” Fish nodded. “You know absolutely nothing about this.”

"Yes, yes! You have to believe me."

"Very well, but there's something else I need to tell you," Fish transformed the armor-piercing spikes on his gauntlets into a short scimitar. "My dozens of companions were equally unaware of what they were about to face. Sadly, they're all dead."