2
“Heine of the Flames, pillar of the Demon Lord’s Elite Four! My name is Snow! Face the wrath of my sword, Iceberg the Frost Blade!”
“So you’ve come at last, Snow or whatever your name is! Bring it on! Heine of the Flames, pillar of the Demon Lord’s Elite Four, shall face you!”
The two armies clash in the center of the ridge where we’re positioned.
A short distance away, Heine and Snow face off in a scene worthy of a movie poster.
“Dammit, it’s no good! I mean, I half expected this, but bullets won’t scratch that thing! Alice! Hurry up and wake Grimm, will you?”
Despite its bulk, the golem moves with surprising agility, closing the distance after my shots bounce harmlessly off its hide.
“Hey, Six, Grimm’s not just asleep, she’s out cold. She won’t be waking up anytime soon.”
“Every damn time! Every damn time we need her, she’s either asleep or dead! She has yet to do anything useful! Seriously, what the hell?!”
I’m starting to think there was a pretty good reason behind putting Grimm in the reject club.
“Guess there’s no other choice. Six, buy me some time. I’ll order some C-4.”
“Whatever, just hurry!”
I yell at Alice, boosting the strength assist setting on my power armor as high as it’ll go. I glance around the battlefield for help and notice Snow weaving her way through Heine’s fireballs to close the distance.
“SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
The high-pitched scream catches my attention, and I glance up. In the skies above, Rose digs her nails into the griffin’s flank, biting down on the beast’s neck as it tries desperately to shake her off.
Both of them are a little too busy to offer me any support, which means…
“Okay, I put the request in! Six, just hold on a bit longer!”
I feel more than hear the heavy footfalls of the golem as it stands in front of me. Behind me is Grimm, slumped over and dead to the world, and an unarmed Alice waiting for the shipment of C-4. Sure, this isn’t the best situation to be in, but for the first time in a long while, I feel a bit of excitement at the challenge.
I’m Agent 6, longest surviving Combat Agent and survivor of countless battles against Heroes!
“Come on, you worthless lump! I’ll show you what Kisaragi power armor can do!”
I jump toward the golem, putting all my weight and passion behind my punch!
“……EEEEEOWWWWWWW!! Alice, it’s broken! My arm is broken!”
And all I get for the shattered bones in my arm is a crack in the golem’s chest. All that excitement and drive? Gone in a little over two seconds.
“You wouldn’t be able to scream about it if the bones were actually broken. Calm down, your bones are fine.”
“That makes no sense!! You’re a Lilith creation, all right! Your logic’s almost as flawed as hers!”
Yelling at Alice, I duck under the golem’s grasp, circle around it, and land a kick square on its back. But the golem barely seems to notice that it was kicked, turning to face me and lunging with both arms outstretched.
I lock my fingers with the golem’s, hoping to buy a little time by forcing a contest of strength.
“Hey, Alice, is it me or are the Supreme Leaders taking longer than usual? The hell is going on over there?!”
Alice ponders for a moment, then claps her fist down on her hand in realization.
“My internal chronometer reads 1514 hours. They should be having their scheduled teatime right now.”
“Goddammit!”
I drop to one knee as the golem gains the upper hand.
How the hell is this golem stronger than I am in my power armor? Isn’t this supposed to be an underdeveloped world with primitive technology? This is where I’m supposed to start a glorious new chapter of my life!
Putting all that aside for a moment, what the hell are they doing back on Earth? What kind of evil organization just breaks for tea in the middle of the afternoon?
I redouble my efforts, fighting back a sense of impending doom as the golem looms over me. As I brace myself against the boulder bearing down on me, I let out a hoarse cry.
“Release Restraints!”
Alice turns sharply at my scream of defiance.
“Have you lost your mind?! Cancel that order! The golem’s not the only thing you’re fighting, genius! Heine will roast you alive during your cooldown period!”
In addition to Alice, a familiar voice in my head chimes in.
<Preparing to release power armor safety restraints. Proceed?>
Ignoring Alice’s warning, I hurriedly yell out my reply.
“Yes, proceed! Hurry!”
<With restraints disengaged, the power armor will require a three-minute cooldown period for every one min—>
“Yeah, I know! I accept all the risks, dammit!”
<Releasing safety restraints. To cancel, please issue cancellation order at any point during the countdown. Ten…nine…eight…>
“Hurry! The hell! Up! I can’t hold this thing back forever!”
The golem is on the verge of crushing me like a bug, when suddenly…
Something falls out of the sky and slams into the golem. The impact knocks the golem sufficiently off-balance, and I’m able to catch my breath.
A few moments later, the griffin lands a little distance away with a loud thud, smoldering and smelling faintly of charred feathers. Looks like Rose torched it from point-blank.
The griffin writhes on the ground in pain, but Rose seems unfazed by the fall, standing up and dusting herself off.
“Yuck! Boss, that thing tastes gross! I won’t be able to eat enough of it to absorb its flying ability. But maybe if I cook it…”
I admit I’m a little impressed that she’s already gotten a taste of it.
As I’m admiring Rose’s dedication to her stomach—
<Restraints released.>
—The announcement I’ve been waiting for rings in my head.
“Wroaaaaaaaah!!”
With the true potential of my power armor unleashed, I slowly turn the tables on the golem.
“Huh…? Wha…? B-boss?!”
Rose stands there watching in muted amazement as the multiton golem begins to lift off the ground.
“Six, the C-4’s here! Just give me a second to stick it on the golem.”
The golem starts kicking its legs against the empty air. Alice approaches with her package of C-4, sticking the plastic explosive onto the golem and molding it into shape.
“Wh-what’s that? Some sort of clay?”
Rose stammers out the question. I confirm that the C-4 is firmly attached to the golem.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”
With a loud cry, I throw the golem as far as my power armor and enhanced strength will let me.
“It’s an explosive from our country. It may not look like much, but it’s quite potent.”
“E-explosive? With a fire user nearby?!”
The golem lands with an earthshaking thud, and I take the opportunity to put some distance between us. Alice watches the golem land, detonator already in hand.
“Relax. It only burns when exposed to flame.”
“Then how do you set it off?”
As if in response to Rose’s question, Alice twists the detonator.
“Like this.”
The golem explodes with an enormous BOOM, sending rock fragments flying in every direction.
“Ow, ow! I’m getting pelted by golem bits! Alice! Stop using me as a shield!”
With the minute of active use over, my armor enters cooldown mode. Alice takes advantage of the fact that I can’t move to use me as shelter from the golem fragments.
“I-incredible…”
As I weigh my options on what to do with this coldhearted pile of junk, Rose just stands there next to me staring at what’s left of the golem, evidently unbothered by the rain of shrapnel pelting her face.
“Unh… Can’t you wake me up a little more gently…? You seem to be treating me worse and worse…”
The rain of golem shards is evidently enough to finally wake Grimm.
“Ah, Grimm, you’re awake. Hey, uh, I’m afraid I can’t move for the next three minutes or so. Do you mind shielding me from the enemy until that time’s up? There shouldn’t be too much to worry about. The other units are taking care of the grunts, Snow’s handling Heine, and it looks like Rose took care of the griffin earlier…”
“Heine’s actually on her way over here. Oh, and the griffin’s up and looking pretty angry.”
………
“…B-boss, I want to eat something really tasty when this battle’s over.”
“I’m not really sure what’s going on, but I could go for a good drink myself.”
“Okay, okay! Fine! You can have whatever you want! Just help me out here! But, Grimm, you’re gonna get it later!”
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