2
Alice shouts out as I put her back on the ground:
“Execute—!”
I didn’t expect it to appear right under our feet, so the first thing to do is to get clear.
Alice and I maintain our readiness and slowly open some distance between ourselves and the Sand King.
“Hey, Alice, don’t shout too loudly. This thing’s got good hearing, right? You’re fragile. It’d take you out in a single blow. Be careful.”
“If that happened, it wouldn’t escape with its life. My reactor will blow, and I’ll take it out with me.”
Your reactor blowing is exactly what I’m worried about!
“Squeesqueesqueeek…”
The Sand King twitches its nose and turns to the bait.
I’m sure it can hear our voices, but it seems fixated on the bait for now.
“Hey, Alice, Tiger Man’s still stuck in one of the traps.”
“We can just leave him as live bait for the Sand King. It’s his own damned fault.”
The ruthless android then heads off toward Mr. Destroyer.
As Tiger Man pleads for help, Viper rushes to his aid.
Seeing that, everyone else remembers their roles and leaps into action.
After making it to Tiger Man’s side, Viper quickly removes the wires holding him down.
“Lady Viper! Behind you!”
As though answering Heine’s voice, Viper lets loose with a punch as she turns around.
“Demon Lord Punch!”
“Squee?!”
Buffeted by an enormous shockwave, the Sand King lets out a short squeal and falls over.
So that’s the Demon Lord Punch that’s not a kick. First time I’ve seen it.
“Well done, Vipurr! Leave the rrrrest to me!”
With most of the wires undone, Tiger Man is able to free himself, and after standing up, he cracks the joints in his neck.
It’s faintly irritating that I’m still counting on him when he got himself into trouble in the first place.
Speaking of, it seems like the Sand King has identified our traps and is purposefully avoiding them.
Which means Tiger Man tripped a trap that even a mole can avoid.
…While all this is going on, the agents who’ve arrived at the Sand King’s hole start pouring quick-drying cement into it.
“The Sand King’s coming this way!”
One of my colleagues pouring concrete shouts out a warning.
Seems the Sand King, realizing it’s a trap, is trying to run.
…However.
“Nope! I’m not letting you pass! If you wanna get by, you’ll have to leave something valuable! Don’t think you’rrre getting away fur frrreeeee!”
“I’ll reduce you to ashes with my flames! Your death will be anything but quick!”
“Listening to you two makes me feel like we’re doing something bad…”
The three fighters assume a battle formation around the Sand King.
After Heine halts its movements with her flames, Tiger Man quickly closes the distance.
“Grrrrraaaah!”
“Squeesqueesquee!”
The Sand King and Tiger Man, each well aware of the other’s strength, exchange cautious glances.
Then Rose, who ducked behind Tiger Man, uses him as a springboard to leap into the air.
“Bow before my lightning!”
Rose yells something as she latches onto the Sand King.
“Sleep for all eternity! Blue Lightning!”
Her horn glows bluish-white, and she discharges electricity from her body.
Evidently, the Sand King’s never encountered an electrical attack before and, twitching, hurriedly swats Rose away.
I lend the swatted Rose a hand.
“Rose, when did you learn a new move?”
“Ms. Alice said, ‘I’ll feed you some gourmet food,’ and gave me something called an unagi don. Ever since then, I’ve been able to do this zappy thing.”
Where I’m from, unagi don, a dish of eel over rice, is pretty gourmet if you ask me. I have a feeling that Alice used a special kind of eel to make this one, though…
As I help Rose up, Tiger Man and Heine unload on the visibly weakened Sand King.
“Looks like it’s numb frrrrom the shock and can’t move rrright!”
“This is great! Time to turn it into barbecue!”
The Sand King tries to retreat in the face of the two warriors’ onslaught.
Its escape hole is being blocked by Tiger Man and Heine, though, and behind them, the agents are filling it up.
Understanding it can’t retreat, the Sand King gets up on its hind legs.
Just seeing the giant claws, which can tear through tough power armor like paper, is enough to dispel any illusions that this’ll be an easy fight.
“…Daaaamn. It rrrreally is big…”
“O-our job is to defend the hole and the agents, right? We can leave fighting this thing to the ones in the back, right…?”
As the two look up in shock at the building-size monster, we receive an answer to Heine’s question.
“Yep, well done, everyone. Looks like the hole’s plugged, so leave the rest to me.”
* * *
Hearing Alice’s voice from the speaker system, we hear the low-rumbling engine noise that every Kisaragi employee knows all too well.
Mr. Destroyer, the Multilegged Combat Vehicle, steps out in front of the Sand King.
The beast’s escape route is cut off, and it’s surrounded by enemies looking to take it out once and for all.
“Squeesqueesquee, squeeeek!”
The Sand King lets out a high-pitched series of squeaks.
“Yeah, well, bring it, you damned mole! Monster-slaying isn’t just for Heroes!”
Mr. Destroyer and the Sand King finally face off in earnest…
“Taste the power of science!”
“Squeeee!”
Far from Hideout City, they engage in a genuine giant-monster battle.
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