The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

"Um... Your Highness Fish, I feel like a lot of big guys are coming this way." After noticing the ground shaking, Alicia's previously joyful expression immediately turned into anxiety and unease.

"You don't need to remind me of that again." Fish swallowed nervously. In fact, if it were just "many big guys approaching," he wouldn't be too panicked—even if he couldn't take down so many opponents at once, he could at least maneuver around. But the problem was, these big guys seemed to be approaching simultaneously from different directions, which meant…

"Based on the conclusions of my tactical analysis system, it seems that while you were busy dealing with that guy riding the horned dragon, her companions had already spotted you," Huang Yan said. "Moreover, they possess exceptional tactical awareness, so after pinpointing your location, they first chose to quietly disperse, forming an encirclement from a distance, and then..."

"I don't need that kind of analysis right now," Fish immediately interrupted Huang Yan. "I need to know how we should get out of our current predicament."

"Considering that the enemy has already formed an encirclement, from a two-dimensional perspective, the probability of us escaping is not high—unless we can take down one of them at an extremely fast speed and create an opening in the encirclement."

"Let's not even mention this option." Fish waved his hand dismissively. After all, the battle just now proved that although the individual combat strength of these girls acting as hunters in the artificial jungle was obviously inferior to his, and probably even less than Ange's, they were at least not much weaker than Moon Butterfly and Frostleaf when they were at their full strength. With the dinosaur vehicle as a support, taking down any one of them would mean spending a lot of time and effort.

Anyone with an IQ above 70 could easily deduce that while he (even if we include Alicia) was busy dealing with his opponents, the others would almost certainly swarm him and launch a coordinated attack. At that point, there would be no escape.

"Then, we need to expand our breakthrough into the three-dimensional space level," Huang Yan said in a rather academic manner.

"Uh... but this probably won't work, right?" Fish looked up at the treehouse perched on a large tree branch in the center of the clearing—it was tall enough. Hiding inside would at least allow him to avoid the dinosaurs that made those strange "clucking" noises. However, considering that those dinosaurs had a group of fully armed female riders on their backs, hiding in such an obvious place would be tantamount to walking into a trap.

"Oh, that won't work," this time, Huang Yan's reply was as soft and sweet as a honey-soaked glutinous rice ball—the blonde, busty girl who had been blasted into the bushes had somehow gotten back up. However, judging from the red, sticky residue around her nostrils and mouth, Huang Yan, who had just destroyed one of her "clones," had obviously done "that kind of thing" to her again. "According to the memories I found in this girl's cyborg brain, this treehouse is a place where beautiful girl hunters do 'that kind of thing' to their prey; it's not suitable for hiding."

"Damn it. What should we do then—"

Fish had barely uttered half a complaint when a massive figure emerged from the jungle more than ten meters away: it was a colossal creature with grayish-brown skin, significantly larger than the ceratops from before, and possessing two horns on its head instead of a single one. However, its forelimbs exhibited a sickly atrophy, hanging limply below its shoulder blades like a pair of ornaments.

Compared to this mighty and terrifying beast, its rider appeared petite and delicate—a white-haired, red-eyed little girl, only 1.3 meters tall with no curves, almost leading Fish to mistake her for Iskandar Lomonosov. Even so, Fish knew very well that this small body contained no shortage of fighting power.

"Hey... I thought people from the old civilization era all liked big breasts." Alicia looked at the "clone" that Huang Yan had just acquired, then at the loli on the back of the giant dinosaur, and shrugged.

"Well, different people have different preferences, so it's normal to order different sizes," Huang Yan said.

"Gurgle—cluck cluck cluck cluck!" The dinosaur under the white-haired loli lowered its head, opened its mouth, and, like the previous ceratops, let out a...not very scary roar.

Seeing this, Fish simply clicked his tongue twice and shook his head—based on past experience, he knew very well that a true predator wouldn't swagger up to its prey and give a grand, self-introduction. The truly effective hunting method was to quietly crouch in a corner, hold its breath, wait for the prey to approach, and then suddenly pounce. Undoubtedly, this "dinosaur's" exaggerated behavior was merely a deliberately designed performance, used to create the atmosphere the guests wanted in the hunting game.

However, Fish didn't care about the atmosphere. As a thorough pragmatist, as the dinosaur lowered its head, opened its mouth, and began to roar, he immediately patted Alicia's hand lightly and then made a few gestures to her using tactical hand signals they had agreed on during training.

Then, leveraging the physical prowess unique to top-tier armored warriors, Fish leaped up, landing on the carnivorous dinosaur's head before it could even finish its "self-introduction," also pulling the newly acquired "clone" of Phoenix Flame onto it as well. Because the two were so close, the whole thing happened almost in the blink of an eye. Although the white-haired loli riding on the dinosaur's head realized something was wrong and tried to maneuver the dinosaur to dodge, the massive dinosaur wasn't as agile as an armored warrior.

"Gotcha!" Just as the white-haired loli hastily pulled a thick, long, heavy elephant-hunting gun—completely disproportionate to her size—from the bag under her crotch, intending to fire at Fish, Huang Yan's "clone" had already approached her and pulled her into her arms. Then, she launched a very peculiar "offensive"—directly pressing her lips to the white-haired loli's lips.

"Waaaaahh ...

The white-haired loli with her lips sealed dropped the elephant-hunting gun, struggled a few times, and then calmed down. The dinosaur, now without her command, was paralyzed, like a remote-controlled robot whose signal had been cut off. A little while later, the blonde, busty "clone" that Huang Yan had just acquired suddenly flipped off the dinosaur's head and fell with a "thud" into the grass.

"Whoa! Are you alright?!" Alicia, who was watching from below, was startled and rushed towards the fallen "clone" of Phoenix Flame. Unexpectedly, just as she was about to help it up, the blonde, busty woman pulled out a short knife and stabbed it into Alicia's throat…

Sokhov said: Read this book!

...and then he was stomped to the ground by a huge, powerful foot.

"Wow?!"

"Stop yelling! I've taken care of this guy, hurry up and get on!" the white-haired loli riding on the dinosaur's head shouted. At the same time, the dinosaur that had just stepped on the blonde big-breasted girl lowered its head, gesturing for her to mount its horned head.

"Eh... what was that just now...?"

"I just changed a 'clone'—this kind of rapidly cloned human body with cyborg-modified brain tissue is as easy for me to change as changing clothes," Huang Yan replied in the voice of a white-haired loli. "Also, after taking down these two 'clones' one after another, I have a pretty complete understanding of the situation here."

"For example, these dinosaurs..."

"In the internal system's directory, this guy is called 'Carnotaurus'—but actually, although it is indeed a theropod dinosaur, it is very different from the real Abelisauridae in history," Huang Yan explained quickly while manipulating the newly acquired "clone" and using the white-haired loli's small hands to grab the Carnotaurus's horns to make it move. "If you have to say, this thing should be a descendant of Maniraptorosaurs."

"What do you mean?" Fish and Alicia asked at the same time, as they had very little knowledge about dinosaurs.

"In short, it's essentially a bird—its genes originally came from some kind of large farmed bird, such as an ostrich or a turkey, and it's even possible that it also has genes from domestic chickens," Huang Yan explained to the two using the knowledge he had just found in the mind of his new "avatar." "Those guys from the old civilization era used very complex genetic methods to completely modify them, ultimately giving them an appearance similar to large theropod dinosaurs from the Mesozoic era."

"Isn't this fraud?"

"That's not important. Besides, birds are dinosaurs too, so it's not entirely fraud," Huang Yan replied. "These dinosaurs' brains have been slightly modified so they can be manipulated by assigned hunters. So, as long as you can capture the person riding on their back, you can control them."

"This is really... impressive." Fish muttered, looking at the pseudo-carnivorous carnivore beneath him.

"Back then, people could even create something like a cat-like new human like you, so making this kind of thing was a piece of cake for them," Huang Yan said. "By the way, you two, hurry up!"

"Meow?!"

"Huh?!"

As Huang Yan's newly acquired white-haired loli "clone" clamped its short legs tightly, the pseudo-carnivorous carnivore was propelled at a terrifying speed, as if its tail had been set ablaze... before crashing violently into another horned dragon that emerged from the forest. The latter, and its female rider on its back, hadn't even had time to understand what was happening before they were thrown to the ground, unable to get up for a moment.

Then, another large dinosaur of similar size, with a pair of sharp forelimbs, along with its female rider on its back, was also mercilessly knocked over.

"We were pretty lucky," Huang Yan commented. "At least, those genetic engineers were quite diligent when they were replicating the biological characteristics of dinosaurs back then."

"Hmm... So what?" Fish still didn't quite understand.

"So, at least this pseudocarnivorous carnivore does have the typical abilities of an abelisauridae: it's fast enough," Huang Yan said. "Back in the Cretaceous period, the true abelisauridae were close to cheetahs in their ecological niche. Although their bite force and size weren't the strongest among top predators, because they completely abandoned their forelimbs and strengthened their legs, they were much faster than their competitors... like those megaloraptors." She glanced at the long-armed dinosaur that had just been knocked down and was still struggling on the ground, and added.

"Oh, oh, oh." Fish and Alicia both nodded—although they still only half-understood most of what Huang Yan said, they were at least certain that their "mount" was fast enough and wouldn't lose to anyone else when running.

Given that a direct confrontation is not the best strategy at present, this speed advantage is extremely valuable: at least, they can use this advantage to evade the enemy's encirclement and interception, break out of this small artificial jungle, and seize control of the "Guanghan Palace" first...

Unfortunately, this wonderful idea only lingered in Fish's mind for about ten seconds before being shattered by unfortunate reality.

What broke it was a huge creature that suddenly leaped out of the nearby jungle.

"Meow—"

Unlike the previous creatures that would pop out and strike a pose or shout, this one strictly followed the tactics of an ambush predator: it silently hid under the cover of vegetation until the chances of a successful hunt were highest, then suddenly jumped out to launch a fatal attack.

As for the results... the phrase "outstanding results" is used to describe this situation.

Fortunately, the giant creature's initial attack was a ramming attack rather than a biting attack. Although the pseudo-carnivorous carnivore was knocked to the ground, and the three people on top of it also fell, they—including Alicia, who was not a armored warrior—were at least unharmed.

"Run!" After falling into the bushes, Huang Yan's new "clone" was the first to jump up, grabbing the still dizzy Alicia and hiding to the side. Then, the attacker opened its astonishingly large maw and bit directly into the neck of the still struggling pseudo-carnivorous carnivore, its two rows of dagger-like teeth cleanly and neatly ending its life.

"Hello, hello, we meet again!" After taking down the enemy's dinosaur, a figure that Fish found somewhat familiar waved to the three of them from the back of the giant beast that had ambushed them.

Although he wasn't currently wearing an envoy's uniform like he was in the Coral Palace at Oasis Harbor, but rather a set of off-white intelligent combat armor, they could never forget the pair of short horns on his head and the enormous, lewd things on his chest.

"It's you, you stinky cow!" Huang Yan shouted.

"How rude! Her name is Katrina." This former high-ranking diplomat of the Principality of Fayun and a loyal subordinate of Iskandar Lomonosov sneered. "I never expected that you would actually come all this way to this godforsaken place more than 400,000 kilometers away from Earth... It's worth the time I've been waiting for you here."