Cian ignored the laws of gravity, his spectral form rising effortlessly toward the five mechanical hunters circling above.
The drones whirred, their optical sensors glowing a murderous crimson as they locked onto the energy signature of the Error Watch.
Zap! Zap! Zap!
High-intensity laser beams sliced through the dark, trailing heat that shimmered in the night air. Cian's bulky, shrouded form seemed too cumbersome to dodge.
"Try this on for size!"
He reached into the jagged maw of his own chest, tearing the wound wider. With a wet, ripping sound, a mass of blood-red tentacles erupted outward like a pressurized explosion. They didn't just wave; they lashed out with the precision of a thousand whips, intercepting every single laser mid-air and shattering the concentrated light into harmless sparks.
"Those tentacles... they're tougher than reinforced steel," Max whispered from the ground, his eyes wide with a mix of awe and professional concern.
"No way," Ben stammered, his XLR8 visor flickering. "Don't tell me... the alien that scared me to death was actually the 'cute' one in Cian's watch?"
Cian continued his ascent. His control over the appendages sharpened; they ceased their frantic flailing and coiled together into a dense, muscular shield. The heat and smoke from the drones' barrage couldn't even touch him—everything died against that wall of crimson flesh.
Once he reached their altitude, Cian pulled back, his tentacles retracting slightly as if he were exhausted. The drones, sensing a weakness, lunged forward to dump their remaining energy into a final, killing blow.
"You can't touch what isn't there," Cian rasped.
Voom.
His body didn't just turn invisible—it vibrated out of phase with reality. The lasers passed harmlessly through his translucent torso, detonating in the forest far behind him.
[TARGET LOST. REACQUIRING...]
The drones hovered in a confused formation, their sensors unable to track a ghost.
"Game over."
Cian drifted behind them. As his form solidified, the drones whipped around to fire, but they were too slow. Cian lunged, his chest cavity bursting open once more. The tentacles slammed into the drones like massive lead pipes.
The military-grade robots were swatted like flies. They were sent spiraling into the earth and trees, exploding upon impact in a shower of sparks and blackened gears.
One drone head skipped across the dirt, exploding right at Ben's feet.
"Whoa! Watch it, Cian! You almost took me out too!" Ben yelped, jumping back.
The terrifying Ectonurite mask turned toward Ben, the single eye blinking slowly. "My bad," Cian said, his voice a gravelly whisper.
"..."
Ben's bravado vanished instantly. He straightened his posture, looking like a soldier at attention. "I-it's fine! My fault for standing there!"
Cian glanced around. The forest had returned to a heavy, unnatural silence. In a matter of seconds, he had turned a high-level extraction squad into a heap of scrap.
[Ding! Host has defeated five drones and put Vilgax on high alert. Progress +1!]
[Template Progress: 3/100. Reward: Major Physical Enhancement Unlocked!]
Enhancement? Cian thought, intrigued. I don't feel any different.
[Ding! Reward will be applied upon de-transformation.]
The red light of the Error Watch began to pulse—a warning. Cian landed beside the others as the transformation timed out, his body dissolving back into his human form.
The moment his feet hit the grass, his world changed.
He felt a surge of vitality. His bones felt denser, his senses sharper. Beneath his shirt, his muscles tightened and defined themselves, surging with a power that felt foreign yet perfectly tuned. He felt light, as if the moon's gravity had lessened just for him.
Is this the baseline for the template? Incredible!
Cian clenched his fist, feeling the raw power coiled in his forearm. He walked over to Max and gave him a hand up—nearly hoisting the large man off the ground with a single, effortless pull.
"Easy there, son!" Max laughed, looking at Cian with newfound pride. "Your strength... it's growing fast. You remind me of myself back in the day."
That strong? Cian internally checked his status.
Host: Cian Template: Error Watch Progress: 3/100 Aliens: Initial Ten Physique: Peak Human (Strong Adult Level)
My base form is already at professional athlete levels... which means every alien I turn into will be proportionally stronger than the original.
"But why is Vilgax so alert?" Cian mused, his eyes narrowing. "What is that octopus-head planning?"
"Hey, why is the dweeb still out?" Ben asked, pointing at the unconscious Gwen.
"She... she just got overwhelmed by the fight," Max lied quickly, not wanting to tell Cian that his own face had sent her into a coma-like faint.
"I'll wake her up," Cian said, walking toward her with a look of intense determination. "I'll use... Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!"
Aboard the massive flagship, Vilgax—still suspended in his healing tank—stared at the monitors. His face, usually a mask of cold calculation, was etched with a rare expression: genuine unease.
The screen looped the footage of the drones' destruction. It showed the black-and-red demon tearing through military tech as if it were wet paper.
"What... what kind of monster is this?" the Conqueror hissed.
He had expected the Omnitrix. He had not expected this. A device that didn't just transform the user, but seemed to corrupt the very fabric of the transformation into something primal.
"Deploy more units to Earth," Vilgax commanded, his voice trembling with a mixture of fury and fear. "We are no longer just retrieving a device. We are testing the limits of a biological weapon."
He looked at the image of Cian's Ghostfreak and felt a cold shiver. "Azmuth, you hypocrite. You claim to love peace, yet you secretly forge a Devil King."
In the shadows of the bridge, his subordinates began to mutter curses against the "deceitful" Galvans. None of them wanted to be the next one sent down to face the red light.