“Steel-Link?!” Hathaway went after Dill, but shots fired from his flank stopped him in his tracks. The soldiers of the Project had their guns at the ready, but Hathaway drew his cloak around him and endured the barrage. An instant later, his cloak bounced dramatically off the ground, and he vanished.
“Out of my way, small fry!” Hathaway closed with the Reincarnators in a flash, drawing his slender blade and driving it up to the hilt into the heart of the nearest foe. He pulled himself away before the blood had even begun to spray; quick-striking Hathaway had already skewered the next enemy and readied his sword once again.
“Ready, aim...fire! Fall back, three paces! Ready, fire!” Starlight gave orders to the foot soldiers verbally and to the light trucks with mounted machine guns via his remote terminal, all in an effort to deal with the monster that had appeared in the middle of the thoroughfare.
The initial plan—for a detachment of Reincarnators to draw the giant into a narrow corridor, where the main force would fan into the thoroughfare and gun it down with heavy firearms—had fallen apart. The truck Dill had commandeered and crashed into the street had overturned another vehicle, blocking the path toward the foot of the hill. This had stymied the Reincarnators, who had planned to retreat downhill while drawing the monster’s attention with gunfire.
Starlight looked back. Behind him was the path leading to the summit of the Acropolis. He now had no choice but to inch backward up the hill while battling the creature. This was the opposite of what he’d planned. They would now have to kill the creature once and for all before reaching the top of the hill, where a mass Enlightenment was to be conducted.
The troops maintained a high degree of cooperation as they turned their fire upon the one-eyed monster. The monster’s intelligence seemed low, so the same method remained effective no matter how many times they employed it. It had no advantage but its size, a mere lump of flesh.
At the cost of a few sacrifices and using some troops as bait, the Reincarnators scored an effective hit on the creature. Starlight himself retrieved a rocket launcher from the portal inside his coat and sank multiple rounds into the monster. In the blink of an eye, the road’s surface was covered in blood and flesh that had spilled from the creature’s body.
“Now...looks to be about time.”
“Huh?” Starlight’s subordinate, riding on the same truck bed, started to respond...and then his head fell off at an angle. A man pushed through the gunpowder smoke and leaped onto the truck bed.
“My name is Dill Steel-Link.”
“Ah, welcome. I thought you’d come around this time.” Starlight crossed his arms and drew his weapons from the shoulders of his coat. In his right hand was a T-shaped tonfa, and in his left was a wickedly sharp dagger. He readied the different weapons together in a cross, assuming a low stance.
Dill, however, struck first! Holding his shield in front of him, he pushed forward without concern for whatever his enemy’s response might be, looking only to crush him. Starlight kicked off from the truck bed and escaped from the vehicle, and there was the noise of shattering glass as the rear window of the truck’s cabin was broken. Dill cautiously dispatched the Reincarnator in the driver’s seat before turning on his heel and pursuing Starlight.
“Charge, engage!” Dill was caught off guard by Starlight’s signal—he cast his eye around the vicinity, but no one stepped forward to challenge him. The Reincarnator’s order had been to attack Nue. From the buildings on each side of the thoroughfare, two Reincarnators leaped across the rooftops then down into the street. One was Spiralblade, who wielded a gargantuan chainsaw by levitating it with psychokinesis. The other Reincarnator was Red Lotus, the butcher’s knife and axe he held in his hands glowing red-hot as a result of his Skill.
“Nue...” Dill tried to run toward his transformed daughter, but found the tip of Starlight’s tonfa pressed against his throat.
“Unfortunately, you’ll have to go through me.” Dill’s sword, shaking as an expression of his rage, clashed with Starlight’s tonfa. Just then, a twisted scream erupted from behind them—the two Chief-class Reincarnators had cut into the giant from its left and right. Spiralblade landed on top of the colossal chainsaw after throwing it using psychokinesis. She snapped her fingers, and the blade started turning, chewing through the Titan’s flesh. Furthermore, Red Lotus alighted on the Titan’s shoulder and, wielding his heavy-bladed cleaver and his battle-axe, hacked haphazardly at the monster. The weapons, heated by his Skill, burned and cleaved through the Titan’s body like butter, and a revolting stench rose into the air around them.
“Let’s take it out in one shot! I’ll cut its head off.”
“In that case, I’ll bring it to its knees.” The chainsaw, whose advance had slowed after hitting bone, was forcefully pulled out via psychokinesis and slammed against the Titan’s neck. Red Lotus leaped down from the creature’s shoulder, landing in front of it, and with his red-hot weapons, he slashed at both of its legs.
The mound of flesh crumpled to the ground. Its solitary eye could no longer keep up with the movements of its enemies, and it could now only glare aimlessly up as it lay on the ground. No—its glance was not completely aimless. In the direction the red eye gazed, a man with rust-colored hair was locked in battle. He cut down one, two Reincarnators, then drove his elbow into the face of Scorched Earth, who came at him from behind. He then bellowed and ran toward Nue in a straight line, aiming for the great red eye. The Titan tried to crawl toward Dill.
“Aren’t you a naughty girl? You’re supposed to die right here!” The pressure applied to the giant chainsaw pressed against Nue’s neck increased. In the blink of an eye the blade sank deep inside the Titan’s flesh, then finally ground to a halt as it hit bone again. The Titan simply seemed irritated. Ahhh, what a nuisance.