I Became A Zompirewolf

Ashton hit something, but it wasn't Wallace's face. He looked up to see Square-face had stopped his punch. Even though Ashton had not put all of his strength behind the punch, he still managed to dislocate a couple of Square-face's bones. Other than that, no one was harmed.

"Oh, you know you could have waited for your turn..." Ashton cluelessly mumbled, "I'm not running away from here. After all, this is the least I can do after causing your squad unnecessary inconvenience."

"Cut the crap!" Square-face yelled, "You think I don't know what you're doing?"

"Did I do anything wrong though? I only did what I thought was polite." Ashton smirked, "After all, it wouldn't be much of an introduction if both parties did not introduce themselves."

"Then allow me to introduce myself!" Square-face clenched his good fist and lashed out at Ashton, "I'm the captain of 1892nd Squad and the one who'll beat your ass red, Captain Ka'erd Bonk."

"What the hell is going on here?"

Before Ka'erd's punch could land on Ashton's face, someone walked out of the elevator. It must have been someone important because the moment Ka'erd and the bitchy robot saw him, they immediately lowered their heads.  Since Ashton was already squatting down, there wasn't much need for him to do anything else.

However, he still lifted his gaze a bit to get a good look at the man. The short yet solidly-built, bronze-skinned man had a controlling feel about him. A particularly notable feature is his long nails, along with a large bruise on the left side of his face.

The wound looked old, judging from the scar left behind it had to be a plasma weapon that left its mark on him. Due to the burn mark, a part of his goatee was missing, but rather than looking ugly, the scar made the bronze-skinned alien look even badass.

[I never thought I would see a Crisik so soon.]

'Crisik?'

[These were one of the first species that sided with us during the Xyran-Precursor war. Considering how you view the Xyrans, your views about the Crisik would be more or less the same. You can say they were like distant brothers to us.]

'Oh shit... I should expect trouble then. Since they were so close to the Xyrans, it's obvious they'll hate humans as well.'

[That's where you are wrong. The Crisik weren't as heartless as the Xyrans. In fact, when the Xyrans were planning on killing the humans, they were the ones who dissuaded us. Unlike our greedy asses, they only hated the Precursors because of how they had treated them in the past and not because they wanted to rule over the galaxy.]

'What do you mean?'

[It's a long story, but I'll tell you about it as quickly as I can. As you know, the Precursors had a habit of making new species and then forgetting about the older ones. The Crisik were one of the first races they created around the same time as the Xyrans.]

[However, since the Crisik were not as involved in technological advancements as us and tend to live a minimalist life, the Precursors lost interest in them. Which meant they were as good as dead to the precursors.]

'This is the short version?'

[Hold your horses, I'm getting there. Even though they were abandoned, they were living a carefree life. That's when they were hit by a weird phenomenon... the thing that was nowadays referred to as a Dungeon. At first, they thought it was a natural calamity, and even though they tried to fight back, they lost about two-thirds of their population due to dungeon breaks.]

[You can only imagine how surprised they were when they got to know the truth. The precursors were testing their new creation and thought the Crisik were the perfect lab rats for the experiments. That's why when the Xyrans declared war over the Precursors, the Crisik joined our side and killed many precursors to avenge their fallen kin.]

Ashton was too stunned to speak. It was rare for Astaroth to paint the precursors in a bad light. After all, they were supposed to be gods, the good guys. Yet the more Ashton learned about them, the more he realised that maybe... the precursors weren't all that different from the rest of them. The humans, the Xyrans, the precursors... at the end of the day, all of them were one and the same.

While Ashton and Astaroth were busy chatting amongst themselves, the Crisik walked up to the Ena-bot and forced the truth out of her since Ka'erd nor Ashton answered his question. After listening to her report, the Crisik shook his head in disappointment.

"I expected more from you machines... maybe I shouldn't have." the Crisik mumbled to himself before turning his attention towards Ka'erd, "As for you, aren't you ashamed of bullying newbies by abusing your master's name?"

"With all due respect Admiral Mazton, I was only trying to protect my master's and my team's honour," Ka'erd replied, his voice reeked of respect towards the Crisik, "And if I have to, I'll do it 100 times over."

"Your master's honour isn't so small that it got hurt by a newbie. Stop using your master as an excuse and earn up to your mistake." Admiral Mazton berated the captain, "The Lord knows your master very well, that's the only reason you rodents are allowed to do whatever you please. But there's a distinction between what you can and cannot do."

Mazton wasn't done yet, "Believe me when I say this, you are but an insect in front of the Lord's and your master's eyes. Your master wouldn't miss a squad like yours that ceaselessly causes troubles. This is your final warning. If I ever see you abusing your privileges, you won't live long enough to say 'sorry'. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Admiral Mazton. It wouldn't happen again." Ka'erd apologised but his tone clearly wasn't apologetic, "Let's go. We'll accept the job quest tomorrow."

Just like that, Ka'erd and his squad retired to their rooms, leaving Ashton and Mazton alone. Ashton was still kneeling on the ground as he did not know what he was supposed to do. He did not want to disrespect Mazton after he had helped him. But what happened next confused him even more...

Mazton instructed the Ena-bot to go away and close the association for the day. Once she was gone, he walked up to Ashton and bowed.

"My apologies for not assisting you earlier, Slayer of Hydra."