Mercenary Black Mamba

The din of the jet flying low threatened to shred eardrums. Unlike ships, which floated with buoyancy, aircraft floated with lift. Heavy equipment like a silencer could not be attached to them.

The humpback whale lowered its head, raised its waist, and prepared to dive. With a flick of its tail, it dived right away. Mu Ssang urgently kicked the whale's back to gain momentum.

The impact, strong enough to crush rock, shook the massive 40-ton body of the whale. The humpback whales' hide was over 500 millimeters thick. They barely felt most impacts.

"Hey, missy. What am I going to do?"

The voice enhanced by Psychokinesis shook the mother whale's brain. The whale who was about to dive, unbelievably, raised her head and straightened her back.

"Huh? She understands what I'm saying. Good girl."

Mu Ssang was delighted. He thought of the stories of castaways in the international section of a newspaper. A whale let him ride on its back and took him to another ship. A whale shooed away sharks for them. A whale guided a rescue ship to their location. Considering the mother whale's behavior, those might not have been fabricated stories.

Resonance Wave was an interaction field. The mother whale was definitely intelligent if she reacted to it. If he could steer the mother whale, he did not need to struggle with the tiny lifesaving buoy.

The rope shot through the air. It wound around the titanium coffin floating on the surface and then wrapped around the lifesaving buoy too. With his martial arts skills and telekinesis, such a highly sophisticated operation was not difficult.

"Leon, wait for us at the Cape Town airport."

"Wakil, you are 145 kilometers away from Agulhas. I should pull you there."

Like boss, like subordinate. A jet was not like a helicopter. To keep them over the surface, it needed to maintain at least 200 kilometers of speed. An object flying at 200 kilometers per hour was going to drop a rope 2,000 meters long and a human was going to hold onto the said rope and move 145 kilometers. The idea was absurd.

"I am Dubaiburupa."

"Aye!"

Leon answered with vigor and changed course. His boss was omnipotent. It was almost blasphemous to question his order. Falcon shook its wings a few times and flew westward.

"Shall we begin, friend?"

[Place my unsightly body on the epidium-enhanced creature's face. I can't gobble up something just because you gave it to me. I shall first check if it is high quality.]

Kamdoong, even on the verge of death, was playful. He not only copied Mu Ssang's memory but also his personality.

"That makes sense!"

Mu Ssang smiled. The real master did not let death shake them. Mu Ssang entered the passcode, unlocked the coffin, and opened the lid. Dazzling blue light shone from Ocelot's eyes.

"You wretched bastard! I will tear out your flesh and feast on it. I will shatter your bones and feed them to pigs."

Swears and curses poured. Ocelot's handsome, movie-star-like face crumpled in a deep frown. He ground his teeth which made quite a menacing sound.

"Go on ahead. I have a gift for you."

Mu Ssang did not bat an eye. He slapped the jellyfish on Ocelot's face.

"Argh, you wretch! What is this?"

Ocelot yelled with his mouth that was not covered by the jellyfish.

"Ocelot, it is your chance to do something good before you go. You, with your own mouth, boasted about making over 2,000 stuffed humans. If you ever reach the afterlife, do apologize to the victims of your murderous hobby."

As soon as Mu Ssang finished talking, the jellyfish's tentacles dug into Ocelot's nostrils.

"What? What are you up to? Black Mamba, we belong to the same tribe. I am a victim. Why are you doing this to me?" Ocelot, suddenly anxious, jabbered on.

"I never expected for a moment to pity you."

Mu Ssang clucked his tongue. Among the parasites that control the behavior of their host, there is one called Toxoplasma gondii which lives in cats. It can only reproduce in the digestive tract of a cat.

If it ever entered the body of a non-host like a human or a mouse, it found its way to a cat through an ingenious method. It controls the brain through the nervous system. Humans and mice infected by the parasite feel an amplified affection towards cats.

An infected mouse would play in front of a cat and try to touch it. A cat is not a mouse's friend. It would return the mouse's performance with bloodshed. When the cat is sated, the parasite would lay eggs in its stomach. Humans were not unlike mice. People who would kiss cats in the mouth are likely also infected.

Ocelot was in a worse fate than a mouse infected by Toxoplasma gondii. A mouse was freed after death but Ocelot had to be absorbed by Kamdoong. Ocelot's soul would mourn such a fate.

"Get this thing off me!"

Ocelot jumped. He accomplished the miraculous feat of jumping with a body that only had crushed bones and severed tendons. That was how shocking of a sensation it was for Kamdoong to touch up the inside of his brain.

Mu Ssang, who was about to inflict another punch, lowered his fist. Ocelot's eyes turned and only showed the white. The ripple-like flinches in his body faded.

[Epidium affinity: 2.25 percent, Excita virus affinity: 35 percent, Deuterium: 0.05 percent, Viral recording: 5,200. Not quite high grade. Also, it is severely damaged.]

"I had to subdue it. Is there a problem?"

[No. Epidium makes you violent. There is a reason it is called 'Epidium of Insanity.' The tissue could be damaged. I only need the cellular structure intact. The tissue can be regenerated.]

'He is just as unbelievable as Ocelot!'

Mu Ssang shook his head. Few were as fearsome as Kamdoong. It was incredible for Ocelot to stay alive with a destroyed body but it was even more incredible for Kamdoong to attempt to regenerate it.

"What are you going to do? Is there anything I can do to help?"

[I need energy. Shake this fellow's brain with shockwave. Don't touch anywhere else but the gray matter of the cerebrum which you will turn into a soup-like state. Don't ever touch the hippocampus. I need it to stay alive. I must take over the body in a living state to make the most use of the material.]

"That is quite a tall order!"

Mu Ssang sufficiently understood Kamdoong's demand. Kamdoong was intending to erase Ocelot's soul once his ego was paralyzed. That way, they could eliminate Ocelot for good.

When the synaptic connections in the gray matter of the cerebrum were shaken, one lost one's ego. The soul and the body are bound together by a chemical connection. Even a powerful shaman cannot separate the soul from its body as long as the ego is alive.

Mu Ssang grabbed Ocelot's skull and used Resonance Wave. Careful not to touch the brain stem and cerebellum which were in charge of vital life functions, he battered the gray matter of the cerebrum. Dozens of billions of sophisticated synaptic connections were ground up.

"Argh..."

Ocelot managed to let out a feeble sigh during such a drastic operation.

[I found deuteronion! I shall not worry about viruses anymore. This is the greatest gift, friend.]

Kamdoong's though waves took on an overjoyed tone.

"Deuteronion? What is that?"

[It is a chemical compound incorporating deuterium only produced in an epidium-brain. It is a great janitor, sweeping away all intracellular germs, viruses, and toxins at once.]

"Aha!"

Mu Ssang exclaimed. He had seen the white granules from his own brain which neutralized the botulinum toxin in five minutes. That must have been deuteronion.

Kamdoong, a molecular organism, was most vulnerable to viruses and very low temperatures. Every organism has a natural habitat. Viruses lived in cells. Epidium's deuteronion immune system was invulnerable. Kamdoong had acquired an ultimate elixir that surpassed any other legendary elixirs.

After the probing was done, Kamdoong began the assimilation. The jellyfish melted, turned into a gel, and disappeared into Ocelot's nostrils. A silent yet desperate fight took place inside the coffin conveyed on the whale's back.

"This is quite interesting. A fight between an impure soul of epidium and an awakened soul of Adras? Hopefully, it will end well."

Mu Ssang was way too emotionally detached for a person who catalyzed the fight itself. Mu Ssang dropped the lid of the coffin and plopped down on top of it. He had no idea how long it was going to take. He just had to wait.

If things went smoothly, Ocelot was going to be born again as Kamdoong. If Kamdoong cannot completely subdue Ocelot's soul, he will end up with multiple personalities.

"Thank you so much, miss. You saved my friend!"

Mu Ssang patted the whale's head with Billion's Water Armor. The whale screeched. Either intentionally or unintentionally, the whale swallowed Kamdoong and saved him. If he floated around the ocean with depleted energy, his life energy would have faded before Mu Ssang could get there.

"Good girl, take us to land."

They could not stay on the whale's back forever. Mu Ssang located Cape Agulhas with GPS and hit the surface to the whale's left with Rakshasa.

There was a great splash. The humpback whale was more intelligent than he expected. She steered right and accelerated. The humpback whale glided through the strong waves of the Indian Ocean with a human on her back.

Mu Ssang was enjoying it all. It was no different from reining the cow when he was young. "Where, where" meant "to the right," "there, there" meant to the left. "Go, go" meant to speed up and "Stop, stop" meant to slow down. The intelligent whale quickly learned the orders. Mu Ssang hit the surface occasionally to indicate direction.

An apt one looked majestic no matter what he did. The Indian Ocean with a backdrop of the red burning sun. The massive humpback whale glided through waves. A man on its head wielding a whip. The scene was picturesque.

The mother whale reached the waters near Cape Agulhas after five hours. It was a smooth journey. The great white sharks who approached hastily for the baby whale were promptly scared off by Rakshasa.

One withdrew after receiving one blow and survived. The other one who kept harassing them was cut in half. The behavior of the sharks differed greatly from the orcas' behavior. Even as their partner was being cut in half, they thrashed about, agitated by the smell of blood. Dozens of impertinent great white sharks were sacrificed to Rakshasa.

Mu Ssang bound the titanium coffin with a rope and shouldered it on his back. He threw the lifesaving buoy on the surface and jumped into it.

"She is quite big!"

Seen from the front, the mother whale seemed different compared to when he was on her back. Her massive body was overwhelming. The mother whale firmly gazed at Mu Ssang with her gigantic eyes as if to put him in her memory. The eyes wider than a dinner plate could not seem kinder.

Her eyes resembled those of a wise person. They reminded him of his teacher's eyes. He patted her head with his palm. The whale let out a long screech. He could feel the affection palpably emanating from her.

"She knows that it is time for farewell."

Mu Ssang let out the identical sound waves from his mouth. He had analyzed the pattern with Dimensional Sight. The whale's eyes looked different. Mu Ssang felt like she was smiling. The baby whale shoved its head in as if asking him to touch it as well.

"Are you a puppy or a whale?"

It was a big baby whale but behaved just like the Jindo puppy he had in the distant past. Mu Ssang responded with the same screech as the baby whale's and caressed its head. The baby whale splashed the water with its fins in joy.

"It was nice meeting you, farewell!"

The mother whale and its baby hesitated. Mu Ssang splashed the surface with Rakshasa then pointed at the distant ocean. The mother whale let out a long screech and turned. The baby hesitated then followed its mother.

When she was about 500 meters away, the mother whale jumped out of the water. Her massive body rose five meters from the surface. Her massive fins flapped in the air.

The 40-ton body hit the water with a tremendous splash. She jumped 30 more times. Mu Ssang's heart trembled.

"What a beast! I shall reciprocate."

Rakshasa circled in the air. When it had sufficient momentum, it fell to the surface with a great splash as if a bomb had gone off underwater.

Mu Ssang mindlessly stared at the whales gliding toward the horizon where the waves turned red, reflecting the setting sun. The scene was peaceful and beautiful. He felt his eyes well up. The beauty tugged at his heart.

The world must be a very bleak place without friendship. He did not expect to reunite with Kamdoong in this manner and be friends with a pair of whales.

If he had cut the whale open to get Kamdoong out in his hurry, he could not have gazed at their gliding away which was so peaceful and beautiful.

The fact that they were a mother and her baby changed his mind. The love between them moved him. No matter the species, love had no reason. If there ever was, it no longer was pure love but some kind of transaction.

The horseshoe-shaped lifesaving buoy charged toward the shore. Mu Ssang had walked barefoot on Lake Yoa. He did not need to use Resonance Wave. Instead, he simply hit the surface with Rakshasa to gain momentum.

Once ashore on the gravelly shore, he requested a helicopter from the French embassy in South Africa then sat on the coffin. The one with the upper hand moved their mouth. The ones beneath him had to move their legs.

Andre, the embassy's security officer, frantically searched for an available helicopter. Ever since the incident at the embassy in Damascus, all French embassies in various corners of the world were on high alert. Rumor had it that if you did not respond promptly to the Special Military Advisor's request, you will be scrapped of your rank and have several bones in your body broken. The rumor was considered to be very reliable.

The moon rose. Mu Ssang used the coffin as a bench and gazed at the dark sea at night. Dark waves that pranced here from a distant place in the ocean slapped the rocky cliff along the shore. What sounded similar to running locomotives hit Mu Ssang's ears.

"Are you happy?"

He straightened his back, pulled in his chin, and lowered his already baritone voice. He felt like only at this moment would his inner self tell the truth.