Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Back in the Shen Wu system.

***

[Requirements to reach C tier: Basic control over at least 1 element (Complete), kill over 1000 enemies of a higher rank than yourself, solo. (945/1000)]

'Nearly there.'

Alex had put in his rounds on the battlefield over the last week.

His initial estimate of being able to beat the second requirement of killing 1000 enemies in 6 days turned out to be an overestimation on Alex's behalf.

Instead, he had spent over 20 hours each day on the battlefield, constantly killing any Red Demon he came across, regardless if they were higher or lower ranked than himself.

And only 4 days had passed.

He was ahead of his own schedule by 2 days.

His 20 hours on the battlefield were up for the day though, so he would have to complete the rest of his mission on the 5th day.

He could have easily ignored this time limit and went out to kill another 55 Red Demons to complete his last requirement to rank up, but he wouldn't do that.

His time limit was self imposed, it didn't come from any orders from the army or anything like that.

20 hours was as long as he could go fighting before he started to feel fatigued, and he didn't want to risk fighting on the battlefield any longer than that, in case he comes across another group of elites, or worse, a prodigy like Varkoth.

***

King, Alex's personal ship, streaked across the night sky as he left the planet and all the battlefields behind for the day.

He was heading towards the human territory in the Shen Wu system, where he would park his ship somewhere and take a 4 hour nap, before heading back.

But just as he was leaving the vicinity of the Planet…

Ding!

"Enemy attack warning! Detection systems suggest that there are four military class ships targeting us. As the captain is currently unable to pilot, Autonomous dodging will begin!"

The spaceship's alarm resounded, with the AI announcing an enemy attack on Alex's ship!

Right after the announcement was made, King made a sharp series of turns to dodge the bombardment of energy beams coming its way.

Some missed, but a few still managed to hit their target.

Bang!

Experience more magic at m v l e mpyr

The violent energy from the beams crashed out in every direction as they hit the defensive barrier surrounding King, sending ripples across space.

But that wasn't the end of the energy beams.

Another bombardment was sent, and more energy beams were shot at King.

Ding!

"The ship's defensive barrier's durability reduced by 10%! Defensive durability at 90%!"

The AI came on the announcements again.

Alex's eyebrows rose upon hearing the alert.

He assumed that his ship would be able to just ignore the enemy attack entirely, considering Admiral Olgierd said that it was able to block a single B tier King class attack, so Alex assumed that meant the defensive barrier's durability would be depleted by 100% from that one attack.

This meant that whoever was attacking him had some heavy firepower to be able to enact 5% of the amount of damage a B tier King class attack could cause, with each of their shots.

If 18 more of those energy beams hit his ship, then his defensive barrier would completely go down.

Alex wasn't happy to say the least.

This was his personal ship!

He had barely even gotten to use it for 2 weeks, and someone was already hell bent on destroying it!?

Not on his watch!

Alex had a frown on his face as he looked towards the direction of the Planet.

The energy beams were coming from there.

More specifically, from the four ships that were trailing behind him.

The four ships were all different, with the smallest being just 50 metres long, half the size of Alex's own ship. It was covered in dark red paint, made to resemble blood. It looked like a floating red shark in space.

It was quite menacing.

While the largest was 500 metres long, five times as long as Alex's ship. This one looked even more menacing.

It was covered in all types of spikes, traps and the sort.

It was clearly designed to make sure that no one would be able to cling on to the sides of it and try to board it.

This one looked like a warship of sorts, but from where, Alex had no clue.

It didn't resemble a ship from either the Federation nor the Red Demon race.

As for the other two ships, they were similar in the fact that their origin was unknown, with their sleek, black paint making these last two look like the most advanced ships of the bunch.

At 100 metres long each, they probably had a similar use as Alex's own ship.

At this moment, Alex's originally confused face looked back at the three ships.

'Who are they?' There was a coldness in the way he thought.

At this moment, the energy beams stopped, and some sort of tractor beams came out of the four ships, putting a halt to any attempt Alex might have made to escape from their grasp.

Alex was a little startled at this.

The ships stopped applying direct fire? Why?

Right as he tried to understand this irrational action, four figures left the ships, one from each ship, and traversed the hundreds of kilometres separating Alex and them at lightning speed.

Alex took a good look at their appearances.

The four figures were all different. Not a single one of them was from the same race.

They weren't human, but they also weren't Red Demons either.

They were a completely different third party.

Some of them looked similar to humans, with a few distinctions, some similar to the Red Demons, while others looked completely different entirely, with four arms, scales, or hair covering their whole body.

But considering their actions, it was clear they weren't here for a friendly interaction.

And the fact that they would intervene in a war between two races, could only mean one thing.

'Space pirates.'