The Humanity Defense Coalition considered six abilities essential in combat: defense, strength, magical energy, magical control, special ability, and speed, with each of the Great Six excelling in one of these fields.
Master of Defense, Griffith Maxwell.
Master of Strength, Strong Garfield.
Master of Magical Energy, Leen Clarice.
Master of Magical Control, Lynel Foxfort.
Master of Special Ability, Chris Almard.
Master of Speed, Stephan Goldeagle.
These brave young warriors, averaging eighteen years of age, stood before the machine golem, which towered over them at four hundred meters tall or more.
“Now, what do we do about this hunk of junk?” asked Griffith, their leader.
“How ’bout I just throw the sucker?” said the tall and strapping Strong.
“I could easily go ‘boom’ and blow it away with my magic,” said Leen, the one dressed like a magical girl.
“You two have some grand ideas as usual,” said Lynel with a strained laugh. He was a slender, handsome young man with long silver hair.
“But that’s their strong point,” said Chris in a soft voice. She was a black-haired young woman with tanned skin, a glamorous figure, and a graceful face.
“So? In the end, what do we do?” Stephan asked in a perturbed tone. She was the gaudiest of the group, with her hair dyed in every color of the rainbow, plus suns and stars drawn under her eyes.
“Good question.” Griffith placed a hand on his jaw and pondered for a moment. “To add a few thoughts, our enemy is an absurdly tough but sluggish hunk of junk, which means...”
“Chris’s special ability will be effective,” said Leen, eliciting a nod from Chris.
“All right, we’ll go with the usual then.” The other five nodded in response. “Okay, let’s go!”
At Griffith’s command, the Great Six rushed toward the colossal machine golem. In response, the golem raised its leg to trample them all at once. It had no strategy or tricks up its sleeve, only its massive body and weight that could crush anything. It brought its foot down on them, but it never reached the ground.
With a grunt, Master of Strength, Strong Garfield, caught its foot with both arms.
“What, is that it?” He strained his muscles to put more strength into his arms. “Compared to that hag’s strength, this is as light as a feather! Get thrown, idiot!” Strong screamed his lungs out and managed to actually push the golem back, throwing it off-balance. “Now!”
“Here I go, Chris!”
“I’ll be in your care, Stephan!”
Master of Speed, Stephan Goldeagle, grasped her comrade’s hand and took flight on magical wings that sprouted from her back. True to her title, her speed was remarkable even when burdened by carrying another person. She flew to the joint of the golem’s right leg and sharply thrust her rapier into it, but her weapon bounced back.
“I was expecting some weak points in its structure, but I guess this hunk of junk doesn’t have any,” she grumbled. “Well, nothing I can do about it. You’re up, Chris!”
“Okay!” Chris, still holding on to Stephan’s right hand, braced herself. A moment later, Stephan tossed her straight at the golem. “If you have no weaknesses, I simply need to create one!”
Chris retrieved a short knife from her bosom and pricked her fingertip. Drops of red blood came to the surface, which she then smeared on the golem’s right leg. “Weak Point, Lightning Group!” The bloodstain on the golem then took the shape of a lightning bolt.
Stephan arrived right on time to catch the falling Chris in midair, then asked, “How did it go?”
“Perfectly,” Chris replied with a wink. Master of Special Ability, Chris Almard, had a special ability—as you may have guessed—just like Derek’s brainwashing magic or Kevin’s Save and Load. Hers was called Weak Point. It allowed her to mark enemies using her own blood and bestow the affected area with an elemental weakness of her choice. Therefore, the golem’s right leg was now extremely vulnerable to lightning magic.
“My turn! ☆” Master of Magical Energy, Leen Clarice, pointed her magical staff at the enemy. However, even a hulking golem wasn’t enough of a slowpoke to take an attack lying down. It raised its structure-sized fist and threw a punch at Leen.
“In your dreams. Onion Shell.” Master of Defense, Griffith Maxwell, stood in front of Leen and raised his hands in the air to create a mana shield. The two-meter-diameter dome didn’t look up to the task of blocking the golem’s attack, but it knocked its fist away regardless. Onion Shell was a spell that created a shield using countless thin mana barriers stacked upon each other, like its onion namesake. Since each layer was both flexible and sturdy, the shield as a whole was much more durable than it looked.
“Now’s your chance, Leen!”
“Gotcha!” Leen started chanting her spell. “The winds and clouds in havoc, lightning rumbles through the skies, and the roar of thunder fills the air! Lightning Hurricane!”
Bzzzzzzzzzzzt!
Like thunderbolts attracted to a body of water, numerous electric shocks peppered the golem’s right leg. A dull sound echoed as a crack formed there. Although it had been given a weakness thanks to Chris’s special ability, managing to crack such thick and sturdy armor was still an impressive feat. The girl with the highest raw magical energy in the Humanity Defense Coalition was a force to be reckoned with.
“As usual, Leen’s giving it her all,” said the silver-haired Lynel Foxfort with a wry smile. “I don’t have the same mana output you do, so pardon me if I work more efficiently.”
The youth with the title Master of Magical Control pointed his right index finger at the enemy. “Lightning Group, Twenty-Ninth Magic!”
A single line of electricity sparked from his finger. It lacked the fierce impact Leen’s spells had but made up for it by precisely hitting the crack she had created earlier. Spells that generated electric shocks were notoriously hard to manipulate delicately because of their speed, so firing one of them in a straight line was a sign of great skill.
With the crack widening even more, the golem’s right leg could no longer support its massive weight and snapped in half.
“Augh! It’s coming this way!” The golem’s colossal body was collapsing in Yoshida’s direction. A tragedy was inevitable if something wasn’t done soon.
“Hmph!” Strong bashed the golem from the side, tilting it toward a direction with no people. An enormous cloud of dirt and debris scattered in the air when its four-hundred-meter-tall body slammed into the ground.
“Whoa!” Yoshida and the surrounding knights were almost blown away by the shock wave that followed. Meanwhile, the Great Six were unbothered.
“Hah! Take that, you hunk of junk!” one of them cried. Majestically, the group stood before the golem they’d just toppled.
“Those kids are amazing,” Yoshida muttered. They’d improved since the last time he’d seen them. That must have been the result of a growth spurt. Above all else, they had the courage to stand before such a gargantuan foe without losing themselves.
“They really are great warriors...unlike me,” he said with a mixture of hope and envy.