According to his view, the C-31 wasn't particularly strong, that is, it was a shield of flesh and had powerful physical strength, but that was it. It was like a Pugilist without skills, it could only act according to its nature. Its intelligence wasn't bad, but it couldn't plan much beyond hiding and ambushing.
Unfortunately for it, C-31 was facing a nightmare. In terms of physical attacks, the creature was indeed a problem, but spiritually? It was weak, very weak.
Thus, Black Spider advanced fearlessly, letting the clones continue collecting samples as they moved forward. Rick was annoyed by the insects, perhaps due to the "prehistoric" atmosphere, the insects here were quite large. Something that looked like a mosquito the size of a baseball tried to sting Rick for the umpteenth time, causing the pugilist to punch the creature with an angry face.
Black Spider wasn't any better, but every insect that came near had its soul destroyed by a Nightmare Blade, he had already collected several insect corpses for research.
-Damn it, could you at least help me!- Rick complained angrily, punching something that looked like a blue spider, but with a jaw full of teeth. The creature jumped directly on top of Rick, much to the half-Godoran's irritation.
Black Spider smiled, but didn't reply, Rick's irritation had become the only entertainment in this forest.
The clones didn't suffer as much, their comprehensive equipment prevented their scent from leaking and concealed their temperature, so they weren't very good targets. The few insects that attacked them were met with plasma bullets.
-Damn it! I hate this planet!- Rick yelled, punching an insect, his gloves covered in blue and purple blood. -If I had my Battleship Slicing Blade, I would have cut everything in front of us.
-Do you use a sword?- Black Spider asked curiously.
-Yes, but I lost it in the escape pod.- The man sighed, annoyed and resigned. -It's alright, it's not the first time.
Black Spider's lips trembled as he tried not to laugh, but it was while they were walking that he stopped for a moment, his face turning serious. He quickly turned his head, looking at Rick who was about to kick a strange plant.
It resembled a camellia, but it was prismatic and transparent, as if made of crystal.
-Stop!- he shouted hastily, Rick's fist stopping just centimeters from the plant.
Black Spider approached, gazing at the beautiful flower with curiosity. The future he envisioned was that, as soon as it was punched, it would release tremendous energy, not enough to harm a Super Grade B, but enough to severely injure an unprotected Grade C.
A clone approached with a device that looked like a tablet and began scanning the plant before Rick's surprised and curious eyes.
-What's wrong? You want to sell that? It's somewhat pretty, but it probably isn't worth much.- he commented, confused.
-That's not it.- Black Spider said, and the clone began to speak in order to explain to Rick.
-It's absorbing a large amount of light, this prismatic coloration is energy in a plasmatic state. The light inside it is so concentrated that if it were destabilized, it could cause serious injury to an unprotected Grade C and a Grade D would be blown to pieces.- the clone explained, his voice sounding mechanical due to the helmet.
Rick's eyes widened and he stepped back from the plant, looking at it with evident curiosity and fear. -Holy shit! I almost got blown to bits.
-Don't exaggerate, you're a pugilist, at most you'd only get a little hurt.- Black Spider commented, looking more closely at the flower.
-Damn it! My face is my livelihood! I don't want it to be blown up!- Rick exclaimed angrily, not moving an inch closer to the flower.
Black Spider chuckled slightly and Ringo's clone began scanning the future, searching for a way to harvest the plant without losing its effectiveness or destroying it.
After being blown up dozens of times, he finally found a way.
One of the clones approached the flower and covered it with a black cloth, then began digging around it without touching the roots. Finally, one of the clones opened a rectangular metal box and placed the plant inside, connecting a stabilizing device. This would keep the plant stable no matter how much the device moved.
Satisfied, they continued walking, with Rick walking as far away from the clone as possible while carrying the flower.
According to him, pugilists are stubborn, not crazy! Ringo scoffed. -That's because he hasn't met Grade S pugilists, they're all crazy.
Shaking his head, Black Spider stopped again, looking up. He stared into an empty space for a moment. The group stopped, looking in the same direction as him.
Yes, it was C-31. The creature was standing on a tall tree, but it was completely still and invisible, its cells letting light pass through them completely, an invisibility even better than that of the Invisible Demon.
But, unfortunately for it, Ringo could not only sense its soul, but also saw its attack through a vision of the future.
The creature wasn't stupid, in fact, it was very clever. So when it noticed everyone looking directly at it, it understood that its camouflage had failed. But C-31 wasn't one to fight head-on, it preferred ambushes. So it wanted to escape and try to approach by a different route, but when it was about to leave, C-31 felt something inside it tearing. The pain was tremendous and a painful scream echoed throughout the area.
Rick was the only one shocked to see the enormous quadruped creature, over 6 meters tall, appearing in the tree. The creature fell to the ground while clutching its head, clearly in pain.
Black Spider smiled, just as he had seen, the weakness of this thing is spiritual.
He had already begun emitting electromagnetic waves to disable the monitoring he sensed around him even before attacking, no one would see what would happen next.
The next moment, Ringo appeared in Black Spider's consciousness, right next to his clone, he had come in person.
He transformed into a nightmare and entered the creature's body, its soul was constantly torn apart and absorbed by Ringo and soon he began to control it.
Meanwhile, Black Spider retrieved the storage device he had purchased earlier and opened it, creating a large box. Much to Rick's astonished eyes, the clones worked to place the now inert C-31 inside the box. Ringo exited the body and remained in a state of Hidden Nightmare, waiting.
The device was closed, reverting to a small, closed Rubik's Cube. Ringo picked it up and returned to Aquamarine.
The creature was still alive, if it weren't for its extreme hibernation ability, Ringo wouldn't have risked taking it like that.
Rick stared at the vanished box with curiosity and confusion. Was that it? Was the mission over? But he couldn't speak because Black Spider didn't stop. Instead, he removed his glove while a naked clone formed right there, emerging from his hand and growing rapidly.
Ringo's clone jumped and entered the new clone's body, rapidly changing its body shape. It took only a few minutes for a perfect replica of C-31 to appear before them. By this point, Rick's eyes were wide open, he was becoming increasingly confused.
Black Spider then pulled out a disintegration grenade, he paid 50,000 enas for just one of them, but it was worth spending one on a C-31.
The clone feigned an attack while Black Spider pretended to fight him with all his might, the clone's helmets recorded everything from the right angle. Rick had stepped back as he began to understand what was happening.
In short, Black Spider wanted C-31's body and was pretending to fight him. Rick sighed and joined the "fight", feigning help from the side with great difficulty.
Black Spider smiled at Rick's movement, that's why he didn't explain anything. This guy is still reliable when the time is right.
In the end, Black Spider feigned being seriously injured when he used the Disintegration grenade and blew the "C-31" to nothing.
The grenade worked by creating extreme vacuum pressure at the explosion site, everything within the blast radius imploded into nothing, leaving only charred dust.
The group pretended to recover from a serious fight, Black Spider even bandaged some wounds while contacting the satellite, reporting that the mission was complete and sending a video as "proof", which he then sent to the mercenary organization.