“M-Master... This isn’t good any way you look at it!”
Regardless of Watt’s strength, the Tyrant Rhinos were formidable foes. The thought of taking on four of them all alone was nothing short of preposterous to Meddié. In stark contrast, Anna’s voice was filled with assurance as she nodded.
“It’s okay, Meddié. I just know father’ll win.”
“Because he was the Top Knight of the Kingdom?”
“That’s part of it, but... It’s his Mechsteel. It’s called ‘Lord Gryphon.’ Those are reserved for our kingdom’s finest warriors: the glorious Royal Knights in direct service to the king.”
“So what you’re saying is...master’s as strong as they come, and he’s piloting the strongest Mechsteel out there, right?! We might actually be okay, then!”
“Well, um... Yes. I think that’s more or less it,” Anna replied, thinking back to the day she’d fled from the capital.
Her mother, Cullinagemia, had told her about her real father. She’d said it’d be far safer to stay with him than stay in the capital, where they had few allies to count on. While Anna could’ve understood that if it were simply a matter of staying in hiding for a while, had her mother truly meant “safe” in the sense that even if they were attacked, they could drive off the attackers?
“There’s no mistaking that father is far stronger than anyone could imagine. But mother...just what were you planning to do by sending me here?”
After coming all this way, the questions now began to emerge within Anna. Just why in the world had her mother chosen to have her flee here when Watt carried such a past? Anna was certain that there had to have been a reason.
✦ ✦ ✦
While Anna sank into thought, the battle had already begun.
“Now that’s more like it!” Watt said. “I don’t have time to deal with you one by one! Bring it—all of you!”
“That’s some nerve!”
Following Watt’s provocation, the squad of Tyrant Rhinos sprang into action all at once. Two of them unleashed their Mighty Bunkers on either side of Watt, trying to catch him between the attacks, while the other two launched a delayed charge. The Tyrant Rhinos had sprung a merciless wave attack on Watt.
In return, Lord Gryphon simply unsheathed the two swords hanging at its waist. While they were on the long side for a Mechsteel, they were otherwise completely unremarkable longswords. One of the blades, however, had been broken off from the middle for some reason.
“Whaaa—?! Master, that’s just way too reckless!” Meddié shouted, leaning forward.
The Tyrant Rhinos’ attack in unison was indeed just like a tidal wave. With the Tyrant Rhinos engulfing and crushing everything in their wake, Watt stood against their brutality with nothing more than his dual blades. In Meddié’s eyes, it seemed like sheer madness. Already imagining Watt suffering a crushing defeat, she couldn’t help but look away. Anna, however, had her hands clenched together as if in prayer, her eyes open wide so she wouldn’t miss a thing.
“You might be my enemies, but I gotta hand it to you—that’s some spirit all right! It’s only fair if I get a little serious and show some myself!”
Lord Gryphon took a step forward before vanishing the very next moment—or rather, it burst out into a sprint at such an astonishing speed that it seemed to have vanished. Drawing close to the two encroaching Tyrant Rhinos, Lord Gryphon swung its blades. In the wake of the beautiful arc the swords drew, the Tyrant Rhinos’ arms danced through the air.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wha...?!”
“Have another!”
Watt launched his second attack right on the trail of his first. His blades carved a low arc, severing the Tyrant Rhinos’ legs from the knees down. Having lost all of their limbs, the two Tyrant Rhinos sailed through the air, dumbstruck.
It was no ordinary foe they were up against; after the first group had been defeated so easily, one of the remaining pilots decided that he’d be crushed if he simply charged ahead, instead opting to ball his hands into fists and draw Watt into a fistfight. Thanks to the Tyrant Rhino’s Magi-skill, its hammer-like fists had been bolstered in terms of both might and durability. Even then, however, a glimmer from the twin blades was all it took to lop off the mech’s fists. As if it were an afterthought, Watt severed the Tyrant Rhino’s legs as well, leaving the mech to sink to the ground.
The only one that remained now was the captain, his eyes wide in horror. The Tyrant Rhinos’ armor wasn’t so flimsy as to be torn apart by the likes of a longsword. It was then, looking at his fallen comrades, that the captain realized it: His foe had precisely aimed his slashes for the joints in their armor to sever their limbs. It was absurd! There was no way he could’ve had the time to leisurely aim for their joints. Just what sort of skill could make a feat like that even possible?!
In the midst of the shaking that had overcome him, the captain found his answer within his memory. “You blasted monster... I remember who you are now. You said you retired from being a knight? I know of a Royal Knight who wielded dual blades...a man who was famed as the strongest of them all! The Dragonslayer! The former Top Knight of the Kingdom! You... You’re Watt the Heavensripper!”
“Well, now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while! Who woulda thought anyone still remembered that!”
The captain couldn’t contain the trembling that tore through him from head to toe. He was in a situation he never should have been in, against a monster who never should have been there.
“Your Highness... We may have lost this battle.”
Only one of the Tyrant Rhinos remained. The captain stood frozen in place, having lost all of his subordinates in the blink of an eye. The Tyrant Rhinos were considered unstoppable, but they’d been cleared away like mere insects. That was all the captain needed to realize he was outclassed. He couldn’t see a path to victory anywhere at this point. It was a strange twist of fate; making short work of the city’s defense force had been no bother at all, but now they found themselves in a total reversal of the situation.
“But! No matter how strong of a foe you may be, failure is not an option! We’ll push on to bring victory to our master!”
“And just why the hell can’t you use that pride of yours to protect people?!” Watt demanded. “You’re a knight too, aren’t you?!”
“Enough! All that matters is that you ran away—you’ve no right to talk about what it means to be a knight!”
Thrusting aside his resignation through force of will, the captain broke out in a dash before immediately charging off directly to the side, plunging through a building to disappear into the street beyond.
“Dammit, he just had to go and hit below the belt. I mighta lost, but there’s still things I can’t give up!”
Just where would the Tyrant Rhino attack from? Listening attentively to Lord Gryphon’s amplifier, Watt searched for any trace of the captain, only to hear a string of smashing sounds ring out deathly close to Agile Gazelle behind him.
“Anna Turris! All that matters is that I have you!”
“Whoa! He came over here?!” cried Meddié.
The Tyrant Rhino broke through a building as it leaped at Agile Gazelle. Even with the captain’s best efforts, just one Tyrant Rhino was no match for Lord Gryphon. He had no other path to victory than to capture the girls and use them as a shield.
“Keep yer filthy paws away from my daughter!”
There wasn’t a chance in hell Watt could just sit back and ignore that. Bending his legs, Watt leaped forward with enough force to blow away the ground he was standing on. He closed the distance between himself and the captain in the blink of an eye. Lord Gryphon sped up, and almost as if it were dancing, it brought its twin blades through the Tyrant Rhino’s arms and legs, severing its limbs into the air.
“Bwuuuh?!”
Agile Gazelle leaped out of the way of the Tyrant Rhino’s frame hurtling toward them.
“C’mon, master! That was really close, y’know!”
“Oh, sorry ’bout that! Guess my instincts haven’t come all the way back just yet.”
After voicing her protests, Meddié took a breath and looked at her surroundings. Scattered on the ground before her were the Mechsteels’ carved-up limbs and the Tyrant Rhinos that couldn’t even move any more.
“But...you really did beat all those big lunks, though. That was amazing. So this is what the Top Knight of the Kingdom can do, huh?” she whispered, dumbfounded.
Watt didn’t reply, instead immediately turning back in the other direction. “All righty, then, I’m gonna go help the others outside the city. You two go ahead and tell Otto the party’s almost over,” he said in a carefree tone.
Leaving them with that, Lord Gryphon broke into a run. Anna watched him speed off in a dazzling flash.