It seemed unlikely that monstrous beasts could understand human language, but this one did appear to grasp that the tiny little creature standing before it had just announced plans to clobber it.
“I didn’t know sharks could howl. You learn something new every day—!”
Proto suddenly dashed forward. She didn’t shrink. Each step crushed the pavement beneath her feet, scattering stone fragments into the air. Leaping into the air, Proto leaned backward as far as her range of motion would allow her, carrying the momentum through to swing her war hammer and strike the fiendish beast in its massive side.
There was a dull thud, like something dense being struck, and the huge shark tilted backward.
“How do you like that?!”
The blow felt solid. A moment later, however, Proto’s vision was suddenly awash in static. She realized she had just suffered a heavy blow, but the source of the impact was unclear. Based on the sensations she was registering, she had likely been hit by a single powerful attack and was now bouncing and skidding across the ground.
The errors in her visual sensors soon corrected themselves, allowing her to realize what had occurred. She was confronted by the sight of the shark’s tail, which had whipped through the air in the blink of an eye.
The crawler shark must have unleashed its own counterattack the moment Proto struck. The fact that it was able to retaliate so quickly proved that the blow from Proto’s war hammer had not actually been very effective.
“Hey, that hurt! Not that I can actually feel pain…!” shouted Proto as she stood up. She’d never had a chance to break her fall. The tail had flicked her pretty far away. “Best suited to fighting this thing or not, I still feel like I got the short end of the stick… Aren’t there any easy enemies I can take on?”
Proto was not fast and agile like Jin. Her one forte was hitting things as hard as she could. And as their heavy hitter, Proto knew she was the one person in the group with a real chance of defeating this behemoth. But even if she had a chance, the margin of victory was slim. The slightest mistake could end with her shredded to pieces.
As Proto leaned down to pick up her fallen war hammer, she noticed that she was having trouble moving her body. Her armor had been partially crushed, and the hinges and other moving parts seemed to be damaged.
“Well, I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles…”
With a sigh, Proto began removing her helmet and armor. For Proto, armor was just a disguise, as well as a tool to extend her reach. Against an opponent as massive as this, little tricks like adding a few centimeters to her reach were going to be practically useless anyway.
Proto detached and extended the right wrist of her girl-shaped exterior, deploying wires from inside the opening to entwine around the war hammer, making it quite literally a part of her “body.” The hammer would be easier to swing around this way, and there would be no risk of it slipping from her grasp.
The gargantuan shark began trudging in Proto’s direction. With each step, the ground shook, tossing rubble into the air.
“If, at first, you don’t succeed—smash, smash again!”
Proto’s one tactic in battle was to hit, hit, and then hit again.
She took a running start this time. The extra speed would translate to pure force. There was nothing between her and her target. Perfect for a charging attack.
With each step, she dialed up her power, her feet crushing the stone tiles below her. Her power source began to interfere with spatial continuity, glaring brightly and emitting a high-pitched resonating sound. She was like a shooting star as she raced across the nighttime harbor.
The monstrous beast must have been unimpressed by their last exchange, because it showed no signs of attempting to move out of the way. An opportunity this perfect would not come again. If she couldn’t make an opening with this attack, there was no chance for success.
She leaped into the air with the speed of a meteorite, twisting her body to accelerate herself even further.
It was a resounding blow!
The strike landed on the creature’s nose with explosive momentum and a faint cracking sound.
This time around, the attack felt truly solid. Proto saw a crack form in the creature’s armored hide, right where it covered the tip of its nose… Unfortunately, the injury was far smaller than the one Torreque had already inflicted with a single blow.
“You’re kidding me! How is this thing so tough?!” shouted Proto as she landed on the ground once more. She stared up at the behemoth, comparing the two injuries on its head. “That shark lady must be real powerful for a creature like this to follow at her beck and call.”
Torreque was unbelievably strong, and the giant shark creature was like a brick house. And yet the demon girl’s strength evidently dwarfed them both.
“But hey, I still hurt it…!”
Proto’s war hammer had been effective. It was too soon to stop now, though. Proto began running forward again immediately. The monstrous beast was still stunned from the unexpected blow. This time, Proto swung upward at its lower jaw.
The crawler shark’s underside was not coated in the same tough, armored hide, making it considerably softer than its back. The giant beast groaned as Proto’s war hammer caused it to teeter to the side. It seemed to feel this blow much more strongly than the previous two.
Proto didn’t have time to pat herself on the back, however. She soon realized that the monstrous beast’s groans of pain had transformed into howls of anger. Now furious, the creature swung its massive teetering body back toward the ground with the full force of gravity.
“Ack!”
Proto was nearly crushed to death, but she managed to leap out of the way just in the nick of time.
The earth shook violently as the creature’s tremendous mass crashed into the ground. The wind that rushed out from underneath the creature’s body created a dust storm that obscured Proto’s vision.
She needed to make distance. Proto had barely even formed this thought, however, before she realized a massive shadow was already charging straight for her through the swirling dust.
“Oh crap—”
Proto was struck by one of the monstrous beast’s massive forelegs and sent flying. She was launched into the air like a pebble, before tumbling head over heels across the ground.
For a moment, all systems went black, but she quickly got back onto her feet.
“Thanks for kicking me so far away, Sharkbrains. Now I’ve got enough room for another running start. You must want to die!” shouted Proto, full of bluster.
She began to charge. The monster took off, too, as if in response. Its stolid body parted the air as it barreled forward.
“That’s right, come straight for me, stupid!” said Proto, rotating her body to the side as she ran. “Now try this on for size!”
Proto pivoted rapidly as wires shot out from her waist, temporarily affixing her to the ground for a moment. At the same time, she struck the ground with her war hammer as hard as she could, gouging the stone and sending it flying.
A hail of rubble shrapnel struck the frenzied monstrous beast in the face, robbing it of any remaining composure. Taking advantage of the distraction, Proto charged in close to the gargantuan monster’s side.
She wasn’t aiming for its head now; she was aiming for its legs.
Using her incredible strength, Proto swung her war hammer down upon one of the creature’s defenseless front legs. The sound of something large and thick being crushed echoed across the harbor. A howl of intense pain rose into the night sky.
The enemy had more explosive power than was immediately apparent, meaning that before anything else, she needed to target its ability to move. That was the first step toward achieving victory.
“This is what you get for coming onto land where you don’t belong, you dumb sha— Arghhh!”