“He’s gone, Leo!”
“Leave it to me!”
Kevin Holst—the Black Shield, Gareth—knocked an autonomous puppet down with a hard shield bash, while Lionel Karsch—the Royal Spear, Rhongomiant—cut it in two.
The pair might have retired from professional competition, but their brilliant teamwork remained undiminished.
“Good job, you two,” Ernest Fairclough said, casting a sideways glance at his former teammates as he himself laid low another two puppets.
They were in a corner of the commercial area, in a square in front of a large shopping facility equipped with an oversized air-window display.
Until just a few minutes ago, a great crowd had been gathered here to watch the championship match live, but they had all been evacuated into the facility. The only figures left were the three former members of the Life Rhodes who happened to be in the area, and the countless autonomous puppets that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere.
“Well, I know it’s a little late for this…,” Kevin grumbled while attacking a puppet with his massive shield, “but wouldn’t it have been better not to get involved?”
“Are you saying we should just stand by and do nothing? There’s a whole lot of people in there!” Lionel scolded him.
“But these things don’t attack until you get in their way… And there’s no end to them!”
As Kevin had just pointed out, the puppets weren’t actively attacking bystanders. Or rather, that didn’t seem to be their priority. Of course, once Ernest and the others tried to stop them from entering the facility en masse, they had launched a full-scale assault.
Judging from the mandatory evacuation order that had just been issued, it was probably safe to assume that similar attacks were taking place throughout Asterisk.
In that case, the goal of these puppets probably isn’t to kill or injure people, but to sabotage the city—specifically the transportation infrastructure, if the smoke rising from the port block is any indication.
The roof of this large commercial complex served double duty as a landing site for airships. If that was the puppets’ target, they could arguably leave them alone.
That said, a great many people from the local area were now inside, so letting the machines in would undoubtedly place them in great danger.
“I know what you’re saying, Kevin, but we should stand our ground. As knights of Gallardworth!”
Ernest changed the direction of his thrust, skewering an oncoming puppet through the head.
“Then again, I’m afraid we can only do so much!”
Lionel’s mighty spear tore through a group of several puppets all at once, but it was unable to break past their defensive barriers to completely destroy them.
These puppets were by no means weak. In make and appearance, they were very similar to Allekant’s autonomous puppet Ardy, which had gone on a rampage during the Phoenix. While not as strong as that unit, anyone other than a Page One from one of the six schools—or at least, anyone not on one of the Named Cults—would no doubt have a hard time facing them down.
Of course, this wasn’t the only entrance into the shopping facility. Considering the number of puppets, even if they went all out here, it wouldn’t hold them back for long.
Some support from Stjarnagarm would have been nice, but the city guard was likely short on manpower given the extent of the turmoil.
Now then, what to do…? I could contact Elliot and get him to send support, but they have their own problems to deal with, and I doubt they’d make it in time…
Just then—
“Pah!”
A deafening voice burst through the air, and the puppets in front of Ernest were shattered into countless pieces.
“YO, ERNEST. IT’S BEEN A WHILE, HUH?”
Standing before him was a woman dressed in the uniform of Jie Long, her face covered with a wolf mask.
“Well, well, well, Seiten Taisei. How long has it been since I last heard that voice?”
“HEE-HEE. WELL, XINGLOU GAVE ME THE ALL-CLEAR TO HEAD OUT,” the woman said, removing her wolf mask to reveal countless scars crisscrossing her face.
Alema Seiyang—the former number one at Jie Long before handing that title over to Xinglou Fan, and a current member of the school’s intelligence organization, Gaishi.
Alema raised a hand into the air, and a dozen other individuals each wearing similar wolf masks appeared around her, falling down on one knee.
“PROTECT THE ENTRANCES AND EXITS IN TEAMS OF THREE. SOME PUPPETS MIGHT TRY TO BREAK THROUGH THE WALLS OR WINDOWS, SO DON’T FORGET TO KEEP THEM OCCUPIED.”
At Alema’s orders, the masked operatives disappeared just as quickly as they had arrived. They were fast, but they were clearly using covert concealment techniques—which meant that they, too, had to be agents of the intelligence organization.
“I never thought Gaishi would come to our rescue,” Lionel murmured with a conflicted look.
It was common knowledge among those who had been part of the student council that Gaishi was the most belligerent and rabid among the six academies’ intelligence agencies. This was almost certainly because it was under the direct control of Jie Long’s student council president, whereas the majority of the other agencies were heavily influenced by their school’s integrated enterprise foundation.
“So is Her Highness doing us a favor?”
“NO. LI’L XINGLOU JUST SAID WE COULD DO AS WE PLEASE. WE’RE ACTING ON OUR OWN AUTHORITY,” Alema said with a grin. “WE’VE GOT TO PUNISH THESE IDIOTS, THINKING THEY CAN DO WHATEVER THE HELL THEY WANT IN OUR BACKYARD. WE JUST BUMPED INTO YOU GUYS BY CHANCE. BUT HEY, IF YOU DON’T WANT OUR HELP, WE’LL GO ELSEWHERE.”
“No. Thank you.” Ernest bowed his head.
It was precisely because Alema and her colleagues belonged to Gaishi that they were so light on their feet. The other academies would have prioritized protecting their own students and evaluating the situation before taking action.
“HAH! IT’S BEEN TOO LONG SINCE I LAST WENT ALL OUT! TIME TO HAVE A LITTLE FUN!” Alema burst into a maniacal smile, holding her right hand out in front of her as she regulated her breathing.
Her movements, which should have been slow, were fluid and seamless.
“Yargh!”
With a roar even louder than before, Alema stepped forward, her leg piercing the earth as she attacked with the flat of her hand, penetrating the defensive barrier of a nearby puppet and obliterating its head.
She turned her right hand upward. It moved like flowing water as it hit the neck of another oncoming puppet.
Then, fending off the hammer of a third machine with her left hand, she spun around and tore off its head with her right.
She took out three of them all at once…?! And with her bare hands…?!