Chapter 188 - Friend for Today (1/2)

Chapter 188, Friend for Today

Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

The contour of the area was changed completely from the huge monster’s barrage. With most of the abandoned buildings blown to smithereens, the cityscape was turned into a clear open plain. Both the roads and the buildings were equally buried under debris of various sizes, it was completely impossible to differentiate where the road was. It was not something that Hunters normally came across in a ruin.

Akira looked over his surroundings while hiding under one of the relatively bigger rubble in the area.

“I guess this is how ruins slowly change into a wasteland, huh… Alpha, how is the monster?”

“It’s approaching slowly. Though it has stopped shooting, I don’t think it’s because it ran out of ammo.”

“Seriously though, how the hell does it still have some ammo left after shooting that many huge warheads around?”

In contrast to Akira who was frowning in concern, Alpha was smiling like usual.

“Oh my, isn’t it the same with your rifle?”

Akira was completely convinced by that argument and smiled wryly.

“Ahhh… You have a point there. And here I thought I’m already used to using the extended magazine made with old-world technology, but now that you mention it, the monsters are also made with old-world technology too. So it won’t be strange if they have extended magazine too.”

It was something that would surprise him in the past, but after using it for some time, Akira had more or less already gotten used to how convenient it was. This time, he understood the enemy might be using the same technology and how that convenience turned into trouble. At the same time, Akira was reminded of how his extended magazine was using old-world technology that he did not fully understand. He then turned to look at his patron who was created with a technology far more complex than the extended magazine.

“Akira, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Is that so? I understand that you can’t really relax in this situation, but just stay there, okay? The monster might notice you if you make a single move.”

“Alright.”

Akira pushed aside any hesitation inside his mind that might cause him to blunder, he then once again confirmed his surroundings and sighed.

Alpha pursed her lips and asked.

“What is with that big sigh after you look at me?”

“No, it’s not you. It’s that over there.”

Akira pointed straight past Alpha’s body, at his half-broken bike behind her. Its trunk was badly bent, its front wheel and rifle arm were gone. Even his A4WM automatic grenade launcher that was originally fixed on that arm was already buried deep under the rubbles.

“Well, things happened, just think of it as a necessary sacrifice.”

“That’s true, but still, even the truck is also gone along with the ammo that I had left on it. So at least let me sigh, will you?”

The truck with his reserve ammo was blown by one of the monster’s warheads, its driver seat was completely blown off by that shot. Its tray was crushed under the rubble, scattering his reserve ammo all over the place. But even so, Akira somehow survived that and managed to scrape the scattered supply enough to complete his last ammo refill.

Akira shifted his gaze to the monster, although there was a large rubble blocking his sight, he was able to clearly see that monster thanks to his enhanced vision. It seemed to be moving slowly thanks to its size and the distance between them. But in reality, it was actually moving relatively fast thanks to its long stride. There was no question that it would be even faster if it ran.

“With my bike and truck gone, I don’t think it would be possible to escape from it if it started running.”

“Let’s hide for now. We might have been able to blend in with the rain and run away, but unfortunately, the rain has already stopped. Judging from the clouds, it might rain again though.”

Akira looked up at the sky. Although it was blanketed in thick clouds as if the rain would pour down anytime, it was not raining.

“…It rained when I didn’t want it to and it stopped when I wanted it to rain, what kind of bullying is this?”

“Well, I promised to help you against your bad luck with my support the best I can, but as expected, I can’t win against the weather, you know.”

“My bad luck even reaches the sky, huh?”

Akira mixed some jokes in his reply, Alpha smiled in response to that.

A call from Nelia reached Akira’s information terminal. He was not sure whether to pick it or not and glanced at Alpha.

“Akira? Are you alive?”

“Yeah, somehow, what about you?”

“No problem at all. I immediately ran away from its sight, it had its eyes fixed on you after all. It seems that it’s running out of ammo so I will be going for its head. Give me some support if you’re still alive.”

“Wait for a sec, are you going to fight that thing?”

“Of course!”

Nelia replied as if it was a given fact, Akira could not help but get surprised by that. All the questions inside his head were compressed into one word.

“…Why?”

“Why, you ask? That’s given, it’s our job, right?”

“Job?”

“Oh my, it kind of hurts when you say it like that, do you think that I’m someone who would abandon my job? Although I look like this, I’m pretty serious when it comes to my job, okay?”

“…If you’re really that upright, why would you be stealing relics then?”

“That was my job back then. Well, that aside, I’ll leave the support to you.”

Nelia ended the call. Akira was shocked, he did not expect her to be actually that earnest, but at the same time, he could understand it too.

Alpha found Akira’s reaction interesting, but she still prompted him to start moving.

“I don’t know what you find weird about it, but since it seems that she will be taking that monster’s attention, let’s use this chance to move out.”

“…Good idea.”

Alpha was urging Akira to run away. He understood that very well as he readied his SSB multi-weapon rifle, steeled his resolve, and jumped out from behind the rubble.

Nelia used the full power of her powered suit to close the distance with the monster. The monster could not shoot its large cannon behind itself, so Nelia used that blind spot to draw the shortest route to the monster while utilizing the cover of the rubbles. The moment the monster noticed her, it quickly turned around and changed its priority from Akira to Nelia. Nelia was able to close more than half of the distance while it was preparing the cannon on its left arm.

Nelia believed that the monster still had some ammo left. But after shooting around that many warheads, she was sure it would not have enough ammo left to demolish all the buildings in the area. Her guess was correct, as a matter of fact, it was no longer able to maintain its original rate of fire. Now that it started shooting in intervals instead of continuous fire, she was able to skillfully avoid the falling warheads with the precise control of her powered suit while she approached the monster.

Nelia used the advantage of her cyborg body to connect directly to her powered suit. As she was able to control the powered suit as if it was a part of her body, Nelia was able to execute complex manoeuvres with high agility. Not to mention that the powered suit had extra limbs and a propulsion system that originally did not exist on the human body and the additional sensors on the powered suit provided Nelia with extra information on top of her usual 5 senses.

It was a matter of the rider’s skill on how much a cyborg could take in the discrepancy coming from a real body and a cyborg body. And in the case of Nelia, her skills were not something to be taken lightly.

An ordinary person might go mad if he or she was connected to a tank or a non-humanoid machine. But Nelia did not show any difficulty at all in controlling her powered suit. It demonstrated her talent as well as her distorted mind.

As someone who was accomplished both as a close combat fighter and cyborg body user, Nelia was able to evade the high-speed warhead coming at her. She quickly slipped under the monster and slashed its legs with the blades on both of her arms. The moment her blades touched the monster’s legs, fire sparked followed by a blinding light. It was the light from the monster’s force field armour exchanging kinetic energy into photons.

Nelia turned and confirmed the monster’s legs, she was sure that she could not sever those legs based on the sensation from that slash. But from that light flash, it should have shaved most of the force field armour’s energy. Unfortunately, what Nelia had hoped for was completely off. The monster was unscathed, its force field armour was able to completely disperse the force from that slash.

“Whoah, that was pretty hard. Well then, it just means I will have to keep slashing you.”

While Nelia was mumbling as if she was mocking it, the monster brought down the blade on its right arm. The light blade crushed the rubble and buried itself deep. Rubble flew left and right from that impact as the blade melted its contact point, releasing steam into the air. But Nelia quickly jumped into the monster’s blind spot and immediately assaulted the monster with her blade.

Every time her blade struck the monster’s body, a blinding flash of light was released, and every time the monster swung its light blade, rubble was thrown into the air. Although it was a battle between giants, the difference in their sizes made it look as if it was a battle between an adult and a kid as both of them swung around blades unsuitable for their respective sizes.

If it was a simple contest of swordsmanship, Nelia would have the upper hand. The monster was swinging its blade-like it was a beginner, its blade was not even able to touch the opponent who was smaller and darting around it. But in contrast to that, Nelia was able to strike the monster’s legs multiple times.

But Nelia did not believe that she was winning. Although the monster was like a beginner, it was still a powerful monster.

Nelia’s blades were not able to reach the monster’s legs, the momentum of those blades was completely killed by the monster’s force field armour. Although each swing shaved more energy from the force field armour compared to her powered suit, there was no guarantee that the monster would run out of energy faster than her powered suit.

If it was not thanks to the enemy’s beginner-like swordsmanship, Nelia would have been dead by now. Even if she did not receive a single strike, she would lose the moment her powered suit ran out of energy first. And as she kept consuming energy, her powered suit would eventually slow down which would make it harder for her to evade the monster’s attack. She understood that her force field armour would not be able to receive the monster’s attack, so she turned that off as well as the other parts of the powered suit that she did not need for high-speed manoeuvring. But even so, there was still a good chance she would run out of energy first before the monster. Thus, she judged that she was losing that battle.

The monster kept swinging its blade without paying attention to its defence. And the strength behind its amateurish swing after getting interrupted by a powerful blow greatly surpassed her prediction.

Nelia understood she would not be able to evade the light blade coming down at her, so she quickly shifted her stance to maximize her survival, which was to receive that blow with both of her blades, but she also understood that it was futile. Although she was not scared, she knew that she was going to lose the fight.

But at the next moment, a barrage of anti-forcefield bullets riddled the monster’s head. Although the barrage was completely nullified by the monster’s forcefield armour, it was enough to throw it off balance.

Nelia used that opening to completely evade the incoming blade and jumped back, opening some distance between her and the monster. She then checked the area where that barrage came from and found Akira aiming his SSB multi-weapon rifle from quite a distance away.

Akira had a stern look on his face, his SSB rifle ejected its empty magazine and empty energy packs.

“…I emptied an extended magazine full of anti-forcefield armour bullets in 5 seconds, you know? And that was not enough?”

Alpha was frowning deeply.

“It seems that its head is protected by a strong forcefield armour. Even after factoring in the loss of momentum from the sniping distance, it’s still an impressively strong forcefield armour.”

“I’m sure I did that pretty up close though, should I get closer next time?”

The big monster noticed Akira from that barrage and aimed its cannon. But before it could release a shot, Nelia slashed at it, throwing its aim off. Although the shot landed far away from Akira, it had enough power to blow rubble sky high. Akira could not help but frown seeing that.

“…I take that back.”