The monster swung its head sideways, tossing Proto into the air with the tip of its nose.
Proto may have crushed one of its legs, but naturally, it was still perfectly able to attack with its head. She hadn’t been careless, exactly. The counterattack had just come far quicker than she had anticipated. The creature’s anger had allowed it to push through the pain before Proto even regained her own footing.
Proto was tossed higher and higher, helplessly into the air. The ground waited for her far below.
“Perfect!”
Proto gripped the shaft of her war hammer firmly. As she fell toward the ground, she used its weight to rotate her body. She spun twice, three times. As soon as the war hammer picked up enough momentum, she hurled it straight down, her right arm still attached. Her arm was connected to the rest of her body by a glowing bundle of wirelike tentacles, which created a bluish-white stripe of vertical light that descended through the sky.
The war hammer plummeted toward the ground at ultra speed, striking the monstrous beast directly on its brainpan. The attack pulverized the thick, armored hide covering the crawler shark’s skull, leaving the creature dazed.
The cleft that was left behind this time was far larger than the one that Torreque had inflicted earlier.
Proto retracted her wires, reeling the war hammer back in. All that was left now was to deliver the finishing blow. This was her chance while the creature was defenseless.
Just as Proto was about to deliver her follow-up, however, she felt her body jerk awkwardly. Despite the damage, the gargantuan monster had only remained stunned for a brief moment. Having already recovered its bearings, it had clamped its jaws shut on the war hammer, which had been suspended over its head. It hung on tight, yanking the wires downward and instead reeling in Proto.
The inside of the shark’s mouth was lined with rows of sharp, massive, and serrated teeth. The creature’s jaw strength was overwhelming. If it managed to bite down on her core, there was no way she would survive.
It was a life-and-death situation.
“This could be bad.”
The monster finally opened its mouth again in order to crunch down on her when the time came. Proto hurriedly began reeling in her arm again. But even if she freed it, there was no way she would have enough time to swing her war hammer once more.
The massive jaws began to creak shut again, aiming to catch Proto when she fell helplessly into range. Proto escaped being chomped into pieces by the seat of her pants.
“Phew, that was close…”
Her right arm, however, was now firmly clamped between the monster’s powerful teeth, and her war hammer was still trapped inside its mouth. The monster must have been woozy from getting hit in the head and having its brain shaken in its skull, because it had miscalculated the distance slightly and bitten down too early. This less-than-half-a-second error had transformed a moment of “certain death” into a much more preferable “narrow escape.”
However, the monstrous beast wasn’t going to open its mouth a second time unless she let go of her war hammer. It understood that as long it could keep her from using her weapon, it was unlikely to lose this battle. With its jaws still clamped firmly shut, the shark began shaking its head back and forth in an attempt to tear her arm off.
“Son of a—!”
Although exceptionally strong, Proto’s wire tentacles began to accrue surface damage under the circumstances. If the shark managed to work its teeth deeper, not even Proto’s repair systems would be able to fix it.
Proto swung her free arm high into the air. Even without a heavy weapon like her war hammer, she was still capable of producing a fair amount of force.
“Let go, you creep!”
Proto began punching the shark in its tooth. The tooth was much more brittle than Proto had expected, and new cracks appeared with each punch.
But while the tooth may have been brittle, the girl-shaped exterior covering Proto’s true form had its limits as well. The metal frame that gave her exterior its shape grew more crumpled and dented with each punch. By the time she finally destroyed the shark’s tooth, her left hand was a bent and misshapen mess.
But at least she had created enough of an opening to attempt to free herself.
Just as Proto was about to yank her arm loose, before the monster could have time to readjust, it instead chose to open its mouth slightly. While this worked out well for Proto, she braced herself for the worst. What was it planning to do?
Its mouth only remained open for a very brief moment—far too brief for it to have time to readjust its bite. Far too brief, that is, as long as its tooth was still missing.
But amazingly, a new tooth had already emerged where the previous one had been. Normal sharks had backup teeth to replace the ones they lost, but apparently, this species could replace its teeth almost instantaneously.
She could struggle all she like, but the monstrous beast was not going to let go of her hand. If Proto didn’t try something new, she was going to lose.
“In that case…!”
It was time for Proto’s trump card.
“Hyaaahhhhh—!!”
Leaving her right arm trapped between the creature’s teeth, Proto began racing across the giant creature’s head. As she ran across its lower jaw and right cheek, she purged her now-useless exterior left-arm fitting, detaching it at the shoulder from her chassis. Once she reached the top of the creature’s head, she began to deploy a flood of wires from the opening at her shoulder.
The wires began to swiftly extend along the monstrous beast’s massive body, caressing its surface and circling two, three layers thick around the creature’s head. The creature grew frantic as it tried to free itself, but the wires had already wrapped snugly around the creature’s head. They wouldn’t budge.
Proto suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Override initiated! Exceeding critical power levels!”
This would allow Proto to boost her output exponentially, but the mechanical burden was extreme. She was unable to maintain override status for very long, and one wrong step while at critical levels could leave her deactivated instead. This was Proto’s last resort.
But she had to win. She doubled down on her choke hold with single-minded fury.
Her reason—the reason she needed to win so badly—was her friends. Despite having developed an attachment to this town, she didn’t really give a damn about what happened to it or to this world. But if she didn’t win this fight, she would no longer be able to spend time with the new friends she had made.
Something about being with them just felt right. For some reason, they clicked. It may not have been much of a reason, but it was enough of one for Proto.
“Drop dead! You…inferior…life-form…! Hyaaahhhhh—!!”
Error messages were exploding inside her head. Proto ignored them, using every ounce of her overclocked power to begin retracting her wires. The bluish-white light intensified, and the high-pitched whine grew louder than ever.
The monstrous beast squirmed and struggled violently as the crack along its head began to steadily grow larger. The armor gave off shrill pops and squeaks, which mingled with the rumbling vibrations that it made as it bucked and heaved. The sounds continued for a moment longer, until eventually, the creature stopped moving.
“Phew…that was…easy…”
Despite her tough talk, the tiny warrior had used up most of her energy and was on the brink of shutting down. She stood atop the behemoth’s head and stared off into the distance—toward her comrade, who was still fighting her own fight nearby. But when Proto saw the expression on Jin’s face, her own face lit up.
“It looks like you’re finally getting it, Jin.”
The moment Jin unsheathed the malefic sword, she felt a chill rise up from somewhere deep inside her. Her vision took on a dark-red hue, like blood, and a gravelly hum and pop filled her ears. She had trouble forcing her body to move the way she wanted it to.