Chapter 128: Still-Growing Hunters (1/2)

Akira was completely dumbfounded when the pile of monsters that was blocking the entrance to the room suddenly got blown away.

From there, Kanae and Shiori jumped out. Kanae immediately punched a B18 monster while Shiori swiftly sliced a B18 monster near them. The punched monster crashed into the wall with a loud banging sound, while the sliced monster was beautifully cut into two symmetric pieces and fell down to the floor.

Akira immediately noticed that those were Kanae and Shiori, both of them also immediately noticed Akira too. Not too long after that, Reina also jumped out from that room. The moment she was out, she immediately looked around and checked her surroundings.

Shikarabe quickly grasped the current situation and shouted.

“We’re heading back now!! Akira, you take the rear!! Togami, escort them back to the hall! Let’s go!!”

Right after Shikarabe gave that order, he immediately made a 180 degrees turn in order to secure the hallway back to the hall.

Kanae grabbed Reina’s arm and pulled her along since it seemed that Reina still did not fully understand the current situation. She then glanced at Akira and spoke to him in a good mood.

“I’ll leave the rear to you!!”

Kanae was waving at Akira with her free hand and a big smile on her face. Reina was half-dragged by Kanae as she passed beside Akira, she was still obviously dumbfounded.

Shiori elegantly stopped and stood next to Akira.

“Is it alright to leave the rear to you alone?”

“Just go.”

Akira did not hesitate at all. Both of them were busy, after all.

Shiori slightly bowed at Akira before quickly catching up with Kanae and Reina.

Togami just stood there frozen for a few seconds, his brain could not process what just happened, but he eventually returned back to reality and flusteredly tried to catch up with the other Hunters.

Now Akira was left alone in the rear, Alpha was floating next to him while smiling.

“Aren’t you glad that you don’t need to search inside that room now?”

“You can say that again. We just need to return back now. Thank goodness we’re in the last part of this search. It went better than I thought it would.”

“I’m sure that the rest of the job is not that hard, you just need to return back with the rescue targets. But you should not lower your guard yet, okay?”

“Yeah, I know.”

Akira pulled out his A4WM automatic grenade launcher and aimed it at the hallway. The A4WM grenade launcher immediately spewed out grenades, it was not a weapon designed to be used indoors. Even if the inside of the old-ruin building was resilient, Akira still had to be careful using that rifle. Even though it was a powerful weapon, it would be meaningless if it ended up destroying the interior and blocking the hallway, that was why Akira did not use it until now.

But he only needed to head back now, so Akira thought that it was even advantageous in that situation if he ended up breaking the wall and blocking the hallway to prevent the monsters from chasing them, so he pulled the trigger without holding back at all.

Grenades flew from its muzzle into the hallway and swallowed the swarm of monsters coming from the deeper part of that hallway with explosions. The shockwave from the explosions did not have anywhere to escape inside the closed hallway, thus, it was blown right back at Akira. Because of that, a huge wreckage suddenly just flew right past Akira.

Akira staggered as he gasped.

“…Whoah!!”

Alpha amusedly looked at surprised Akira and said.

“That rifle is not designed to be used indoors, so you need to be careful.”

Smokes raised inside the hallway and blocked the view. Akira kept his eyes on that cloud of smokes for monsters but he did not see any disruption in the smokes. So he then decided that it should be fine as he turned around and started running back while still keeping his eyes for more monsters.

Reina, Shiori, and Kanae were running following Shikarabe, who was guiding them back to the hall where Elena and the rest of the Hunters were waiting. Since Shikarabe destroyed most of the monsters on their way to the room, they had not much trouble on their way back. It was not like there were no monsters at all, but Shikarabe, Shiori, and Kanae could handle them just fine.

They then heard explosions coming from behind, it was the sound of Akira using his A4WM automatic grenade launcher.

Kanae glanced behind her.

“That Akira seems to be having fun back there. But still, I didn’t expect to find him in this building. I guess this must be some kind of fate, huh?”

But Shiori quickly warned Kanae.

“Stop with the chatter and focus on the fighting.”

“It’s fine, I can chat this must basically because I have the leeway… Here!”

Kanae kicked a B18 monster that suddenly appeared in the hallway when she said that. As her leg that was wrapped in black tights and a pretty big shoe extended out under her maid outfit, she drove a powerful kick into the B18 monster near her.

Kanae’s maid outfit actually had a good defensive capability, while her black tights was a part of her augmented suit. Shiori was also using the same equipment as Kanae except for the boots. The ones that Kanae was using were specially designed boots for CQC. Not only was it exceptionally robust, it was also equipped with mini force field armour that could create short force field burst. It was specifically designed to boost the power of the kick of its user.

The B18 monster that Kanae kicked was blasted as if it was a cannon.

Shiori immediately focused her attention on another B18 monster that appeared in the opposite direction and cut it with her blade. Shiori’s blade was able to easily cut open the B18 monster as if it just ignored the force field armour and went straight for the monster’s body.

Shiori sighed, exasperatedly.

“No matter whether you have the leeway or not, it’s shameless to make unnecessary chit-chat, you know? They should’ve taught you that right, Kanae?”

But instead, Kanae tried to make an excuse.

“They taught me that random chatter is important to calm down my nerves during a long fight though? Didn’t you also do that with Milady?”

“Your unnecessary chatter is not the same as my conversation with Milady.”

Shiori and Kanae showed enough leeway to make that exchange while keeping their guard up and making sure that Reina was safe.

Reina was running behind Kanae and Shiori. The swarm of mechanical monsters that surrounded them when they were barricading themselves inside the room were mostly gone. The moment they came out from that room, Shiori and Kanae immediately killed any monsters near them. Reina had considerably calmed down compared to when she was inside the room.

Reina, who regained some of her composure, finally noticed Togami who was looking in her direction. She then somehow sounded a bit harsh as she asked Togami.

“…What?”

Togami flusteredly replied.

“No, it’s just that… If I’m not mistaken… You should be on the same team with Katsuya, right?”

“…I was. But I’m no longer in Katsuya’s team. So, what about it?”

“Well, Uhh… No, it’s nothing.”

Togami finally looked away. Reina kept staring at Togami with a confused look for a few seconds before she just casually returned her view forward.

Togami lightly sighed and thought.

[What the heck am I doing…]

Togami was actually only glancing at Reina when she suddenly looked back at him. When that happened, he thought that he should at least say something and just spoke out anything that came up in his mind about Reina. That was all there was to it.

But Reina sounded a bit annoyed when she replied. Togami was slightly overwhelmed by that and decided to just cut their conversation short.

Although Togami did not realize it himself, he actually glanced at Reina since he felt a sense of camaraderie with Reina.

Togami was together with the other Hunters who were better than him. Although this was only his self-evaluation, he believed that he did not contribute much, it could even be said that Akira and Shikarabe were protecting him along the way. Or at least, he did not think that he contributed much or did anything that he could be proud of during that rescue operation.

At that time, Togami caught sight of Reina who was protected by Shiori and Kanae. The scene of her being protected by Shiori and Kanae inside a place that was far too dangerous for her to be, and the fact that it seemed she lamented her situation there. It was basically similar to the situation that Togami was currently in. As in matter of fact, Reina’s skill was indeed relatively closer to Togami than to Shiori or Shikarabe.

When Reina suddenly spoke to him, Togami did not even realize that he was staring at her and could only react flusteredly and throw out a random subject. But in the end, it seemed that it somehow annoyed Reina and it left him with a strange feeling of self-admonishment.

Reina also lightly sighed and thought.

[Why in the world did I do that…]

The reason why Reina reacted harshly was because Togami’s question reminded her of her own patheticness, so it was her venting to Togami.

In reality, Togami’s impression of Reina was simply one of the people from Katsuya’s team, that was all there was to it. The only reason why he remembered her was simply because he saw Reina on Katsuya’s team from time to time back when he had a one-sided rivalry with Katsuya.

But on the other hand, Reina knew Togami to some extent. She knew that Togami was a skilled young Hunter in Drankam, he might as well be the second strongest young Hunter in Drankam after Katsuya. People in Drankam had their attention on him and they hoped that he would be the beacon for the anti-Katsuya faction. She also knew that Togami was a skilled Hunter who successfully hunted a bounty monster with Shikarabe and a handful of other Hunters.

So in short, Reina saw Togami as a Hunter who was above her, just like how Togami saw Shikarabe.

So when Togami asked Reina if she was still in Katsuya’s team, to Reina, it sounded as if Togami was asking her why an incompetent Hunter, who could do nothing but tag along with Katsuya, was in this place.

Reina’s logical side was telling her that was not what Togami meant and it was nothing more than her imagination. But since she thought like that once, it was hard for her to change it now.

Reina realized that she just vented her anger at Togami and she hated herself for doing that.

If only they were in a safe place and they could take their time talking to each other calmly, Reina and Togami could be able to get along. But unfortunately, they did not have that luxury at the moment. The still-growing Hunters, both of them, just pulled themselves together for now and somehow moved on from that worry.

Akira was still shooting grenades using his A4WM automatic grenade launcher while retreating. His retreat was going very well, even too well that Akira started questioning it.

“The monsters stopped coming. I don’t think it’s because I’ve defeated them though… So what’s going on here?”

Alpha casually answered his question.

“They might have decided fighting frontally would be ineffective, so they might be avoiding you right now.”

Alpha was not smiling like during the last battle, but she did not seem worried either. Her expression was neutral.

“Either way, let’s use this chance to retreat.”

“You’re right.”

Although it was not as dangerous as before, Akira still could not lower his guard on his way back.

Shikarabe led the group in the front while fighting the enemies that were blocking their way back to the hall where Elena and the other Hunters were waiting. Once they returned back, Shikarabe immediately scanned the situation and finally sighed in relief.

Elena immediately approached Shikarabe.

“How was the rescue?”

“It went well, we secured the targets and retreated back without any trouble. Give us your next order to get out of this building. We basically recovered 3 Hunters and they’re not badly injured.”

Elena looked at Shikarabe, then looked at the hallway where Shikarabe came from. Not too far from the entrance, she could see Reina, Shiori, Togami, and Kanae running, then also Akira a little further behind them.