Chapter 197: Resistance (1/2)

Togami’s team finally finished gathering relics and left the building. Reina stretched out and said in a content tone.

“Although we didn’t get to find any old-world automata, I think we did get a good amount of worthwhile relics this time.”

They at least got some relics to bring back home, they were even able to fill up a couple of rucksacks with those relics.

Togami himself was relieved after finally getting out from the ruin. But after he saw Reina and noticed her putting down her guard, he then said to her, which also served as a warning to himself.

“We’re basically still in the middle of ruin exploration. So don’t relax until we reach the city. Being a full-fledged Hunter also means that we have to make sure we can exchange the relics for money afterwards.”

“I know, we’re technically still inside the ruin after all. Ah, right, Akira. Can we ask you to carry some of the relics…? Compared to your APC our vehicle is a little small after all.”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.”

With this, Reina shifted the relics which were a little embarrassing to carry around as she smiled happily, but of course, she hid that smile inside his heart.

They then quickly finished their preparation and got on their respective vehicles.

—*—*—*—

Kurosawa’s team somehow managed to destroy the remaining two old-world automata.

Although they got some of their team members injured, they quickly regrouped and focused their firepower to corner the automata to the point that their bullets literally formed a wall. They riddled the automata with bullets and pushed it to the wall in order to seal its movement.

While the other Hunters suppressed the automata’s movements, Kurosawa swapped his rifle to cannon mode. With the automata unable to move, it was quite easy to shoot a warhead that could even destroy a tank at them. The old-world automata were indeed smart and durable, but Kurosawa had prepared that warhead expecting a fight against old-world automata. And as expected, the automata could not stand a direct hit from that warhead and finally stopped moving.

Although they were destroyed, they still retained their original shape. From outside, they still looked like they could move. So just to be safe, Kurosawa shot them one more time before finally calming down.

“Damn it, I ended up having to use that expensive warhead. How’s the damage?”

“Four are badly wounded. I’m not sure if the automata did that intentionally to make others cover for them or simply because it only aimed to make them unable to fight and there was no need to kill them.”

“It doesn’t matter, get them treated now. Don’t let them die if we can save them. Check how much ammo you have. If some of you are low on ammo, get those who still have a lot of ammo left to share theirs.”

The Hunters immediately sprung into action. Kurosawa returned back to the entrance of the room to stand-watch, and one of the Hunters then approached him.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

“…Not really.”

“I can stand-watch here by myself, go get some rest with the others if you have nothing to do.”

But Kurosawa noticed that the guy still stood there looking at him, so he frowned and asked.

“What is it?”

“…Well, ahh… Sorry, we should have listened to you and destroyed the automata.”

“Don’t mention it. Choosing not to destroy them at that time was not the wrong decision. It’s just that you lost the coin toss, that was all there was to it.”

“But still…”

The guy still looked troubled, so Kurosawa looked at him with a serious face and said to him firmly.

“This is not the time to worry about that. We know that there are at least three active old-world automata out there. We have to somehow manage to hold out by ourselves until the specialists get here. So get a hold of yourself.”

That guy was obviously surprised.

“We were able to repel the one that attacked Rodin and the other two ran away, right?”

“Don’t forget they might come here again bringing more friends with them. Also, they might have just gone to get their weapons. We’re still not safe yet, if you want to lament your decision, at least wait until the specialists get here and we know for sure that we’re saved. Tell this to the others too.”

The guy’s apologetic face was replaced with a serious look. Kurosawa then sighed and mumbled.

“…Though, to be honest, they should be here anytime soon. I wonder if they got into some trouble or something? Good grief, just give me a break already…”

Kurosawa made sure not to let his team hear that since it might affect their morale. He also made sure not to let his team see him making a difficult face in such a precarious situation.

—*—*—*—

Togami’s team went from the centre of the Lida commercial district, through the gaps and valleys between the plant-covered buildings, and eventually reached the outskirts of the ruin where plants started to thin out.

Akira was driving with a rather content face.

“Well, I did get some good loot for today although I went out to the wasteland with no particular plan.”

Alpha who was sitting on the driver’s assistant seat smiled at him. There was a slight trace of exasperation in her smile.

“Akira, just to make sure that you understand, this doesn’t mean it is a good idea to keep exploring without a plan, you know?”

“I know, but it’s fine to celebrate for a bit since it has been quite a while since the last time I managed to do a successful ruin exploration, right? Ah, we’re still basically not done until we reached the city, huh.”

Akira was not that serious when he said that. But Alpha suddenly made a serious face, Akira who saw that immediately tensed up.

“Akira, be careful.”

“I know, there’s no need to make that face…”

“No, we have a company chasing from behind.”

Seeing Alpha making a serious face when she said that, Akira immediately switched to battle mode.

“Monsters?”

“It depends on what defines a monster. We have 2 humanoid signals, they’re closing in on us at a high speed, it’s as if they’re either cyborgs or using augmented suits. But if they are Hunters and they want to talk with us, they should at least send us something beforehand through close-range communication. So I don’t think they’re friendly.”

Akira left the wheel and let Alpha take control of the vehicle as he went to the back of the APC. He then took his equipment and checked their condition before opening the back door of the APC and sent a call to Reina.

As Akira opened the door, Reina’s vehicle came into his view. Reina who was driving the vehicle and Togami who was sitting next to her looked confusedly at him. Akira’s gaze shifted from Reina’s vehicle to behind it and focused his information terminal in that direction. He then could see a male and a female in an old-world style dress running at a high speed from behind Reina’s vehicle although the plants that covered the ruin made it difficult for them to even sprint.

“Togami, I don’t know what’s going on here but someone is chasing us from behind. Tell me what you want to- Watch out!!”

At the same time Akira shouted, Alpha suddenly accelerated the APC. His body obeyed the inertia and swayed. In the midst of the swaying vision, he could see the female carrying a cylindrical object in her hand and a blade of light extended from that object the moment she swung it.

A few minutes before Akira contacted Togami and Reina, Kanae also noticed that signal.

“Ane-san. Someone is chasing us.”

“…Indeed.”

Shiori tensed up while also impressed by how sensitive Kanae was as always. She then looked back to check what was chasing them.

“Not monsters…? People?”

“It seems to be people, but those are not Hunter equipment. At this rate, they’ll eventually catch up to us. They don’t look like the kind of people who would try to get something that we dropped by accident though…”

“Milady, there are-”

When Shiori was about to let Reina know, she could hear Akira’s voice shouting at them through the vehicle’s information terminal. Right at the next moment, Shiori grabbed Reina and Kanae grabbed Togami from behind and jumped off from their moving vehicle.

A split second after that, the light blade swung by the female chasing them split Reina’s vehicle cleanly into two. But even after it was split, both the right and the left sides of the vehicle that were separated from each other continued moving forward due to the inertia. It then rolled over a few times before finally stopping.

Both the male and the female humanoids chasing Togami’s team were old-world automata in butler and maid outfits. The female one once again swung its blade chasing after Shiori, while the male which was carrying a rifle went for Kanae. Shiori covered Reina as she repositioned herself for battle while Kanae signalled Togami to stand back as she focused her attention on the incoming automaton.

But suddenly, a storm of bullets swallowed both automata and threw their bodies back. It was Akira shooting at them with SSB rifles in both hands. The normal bullets were released at a mini-gun-like speed, emptying the magazine in a flash.

“Alpha! Did that do it?!”

“Unfortunately, that didn’t hurt them by much.”

Akira ejected the empty magazine, using his time compression, he let go of his rifles, reached for nearby magazines, threw them up in the air, grabbed his rifles back, agilely pushed them against the flying magazines, and finally completed the reload.

“I know they were just normal bullets, but that was a highly compressed barrage, you know?! What the heck is with them? Aren’t they just too durable?!”

“I bet they are old-world automata, and they’re high-quality automata on top of that.”

Akira then remembered back when he had to fight old-world automata in the Kuzusuhara ruin and could not help but nod with a rather conflicted face.

“That would explain their durability!! Are they here to get back the relics since we took too many of them?”

“Just keep shooting. If we can destroy them, we can bring them back as relics too.”

“Oh, that’s a good point!”

Akira reactivated his time compression. He thought back to how relaxed he was, and that ruin exploration was not over until he arrived safely back to the city. This made him believe that he might have jinxed it as he smiled bitterly.

Akira was successfully able to provide suppression and prevented the automata from making any complex manoeuvres, but that was not enough to destroy them.