Rescue Fantasy (3)
A giant made of machine parts was being pushed back. The Creep tightly filling its innards plopped down with a thud. The space we were in was unsuited for combat as the massive entity moved.
Overall, the facility had plenty of room, but in terms of each sector, it wasn't that spacious. Not for a giant and a giant spider to run amok, at least.
Kiiiing-!
The multi-legged tank, now with only two laser cannons left, charged and fired right away. A crimson heat ray shot in a straight line and struck the power loader's armor directly.
Whether the armor was prepared for laser weapons or not, the surface scattered the heat ray and dispersed its energy. The Creep inside did get scorched, but that was it. It did nothing to the core.
It seemed to have become a sort of mimicry. Fusing with weapon systems was a characteristic of mimics, after all. This time, it had simply obtained a shell that was extremely dangerous to us.
"Hyun-woo! We can't waste any more time!"
Eric, who was using the guns dropped by the pureblood supremacists, pointed to the security robots fighting the ghouls.
Each time the power loader and the multi-legged tank collided, creep splattered everywhere with a metallic squelch. Security robots struck by the Creep began to behave abnormally.
Like something infected, they clutched their heads or twisted their frames in agony, then suddenly began attacking their own allies.
'Infected?!'
Just as I saw it, Licorice, through Alpha's mono-eye, also witnessed the same. She was appalled.
- What is that!
"That's what I want to ask!"
- Their core status reads as silent! Even if they're moving, it's practically the same as being broken! The real problem is the Creep in that power loader...!
One way or another, it wasn't a good situation. Thanks to the multi-legged tank pushing back the power loader, Celestia could concentrate on controlling the pipeline, but that was all.
Nothing would be solved until we pierced the armor tough enough to withstand the laser cannon. Even though the pureblood supremacists had disappeared, the situation was still hopeless.
I had no idea why they retreated, but if they hadn't we would have been dead already. We were lacking. In everything.
Gritting my teeth, I immediately swapped equipment. Not the plasma cutter, but the polar impactor, with each blow packing incredible force.
━━━━━!
The mechanical giant, having finally torn off one of the multi-legged tank's laser cannons, let out a roar. The industrial power loader was almost like a powered suit, but the military model truly deserved to be called a giant.
Its body had several military-grade attachments, but they didn't seem functional.
A small mercy. Its offensive options were limited. But that relief only lasted a moment. Suddenly, a missile pod attached to the giant's shoulder opened, preparing to fire.
Creak...
Right after a sound like a bowstring being drawn, the exoskeleton of the multi-legged tank, encased in Blue-Eye, shook violently. With each clang, it repelled black spikes—undeniably the work of a mimic, firing black spikes with no restraint.
Perhaps because Blue-Eye was a higher-tier entity, the exoskeleton wasn't pierced by the barrage. However, accumulated impacts were taking their toll on the exoskeleton's frame.
The multi-legged tank, which had held up until now, began to make ominous noises from one leg's actuator. Even that was enough to send it staggering like a drunken person. The weight of the exoskeleton made it hard to regain balance once it was lost.
Dodging the errant black spikes, I thought quickly.
'... What can I use?'
The polar impactor had great output but required intervals between shots for the stake to charge up to full power.
Eric and Nadia couldn't even get close. Stalkers and ghouls persistently targeted them.
So I scanned my surroundings for anything usable. This was the cooling and processing sector, the final stage of the refinery. Refined blue crystals processed into various forms were everywhere.
Thanks to that, the multi-legged tank and the security robots could fight without worrying about energy. Set by some security protocol, whenever their battery got low, they'd automatically swap in blue crystals.
That this applied whether the security robot was infected or still on our side was a problem in itself.
No matter how much I looked, there was nothing I could use.
If I could drag it to the melting sector where all the liquefied blue crystal had leaked out, maybe I could make use of that, but it was unlikely the infected power loader would take the bait.
We were barely managing, together with the multi-legged tank, to keep it from returning to the pipeline control room.
【Kiaaaak!】
The stalker's cry was answered by the ghouls. The ones nearby shook off the security robots in front of them and rushed toward me.
'So now they're targeting me.'
Even the stalker knew. That as long as they just defended the power loader in this state, they'd win. The only time to settle this was while the multi-legged tank and the still-functional security robots outnumbered them—right now.
I took a deep breath, and, matching the pounding in my chest, flung my body forward. The ghouls, having emerged from their cocoons, raked at my ankles with shimmering blue claws as they tried to grasp me. Their slashing claws severed anything they connected with.
"Don't get in Hyun-woo's way!"
Nadia, riding on Carry, used the laser deployer to clear a path for me. As if to show me the way to go, the laser swept out in a straight line, the glowing beam acting as a barrier that made the ghouls hesitate. Having been burned by the laser before, they must have remembered.
Where the laser couldn't cover, Carry built a wall with the flamethrower. The intense heat reached me, but I could bear it. I had to. Anything was better than being hindered by the ghouls.
The headache I'd felt since seeing Cystus wouldn't subside. My heart kept pounding like a faulty pump, and the accelerated blood flow repeatedly narrowed then cleared my vision.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto the multi-legged tank and vaulted upward. I immediately drove the polar impactor's stake forward.
Bang-!
A discharge followed. The penetrating energy smashed into the power loader's armor. The plate, already heated by the laser, gradually split under the energy released in the form of a spike, momentarily exposing the core.
The polar impactor needed time to charge. Without hesitation, I whipped out the plasma cutter at my waist and swung it. I thought I'd landed a clean hit.
Kaaang-!
Until the plasma blade scattered from the backlash. I gritted my teeth and tried to apply physical damage by force. Chances like this didn't come often.
Just then.
【Kyaaak!】
The stalker spat at Nadia. It was an attack forcibly activating Creep to bind its target. Nadia, who had been retrieving the laser deployer for the next attack, recognized this instantly.
She tried desperately to dodge, but the Creep entangled her first. Like the hands of the dead rising from hell, creep spread into a net, grabbing Carry's thrusters. Nadia's hand was caught as well.
"No!"
Despite my desperate shout, Nadia was struck by the power loader's fist and was sent flying far away, unable even to scream.
"Nadia! Carry!"
I cried out urgently, staring at the space where the blue crystal flooring had collapsed. Nadia had been flung there by the power loader's attack.
I wanted to run over straight away, but the situation wouldn't let me.
【Kieeeeek!】
"...."
Silently, I glared at the enemies before me, forcing my trembling hands to steady and putting every ounce of killing intent into my gaze.
***
It hurt. She felt a burning pain all over her body. Her vision wouldn't return and she couldn't see her surroundings.
Still, she hadn't lost all sensation. There were sounds—faint, but real.
She heard something shattering and falling to pieces from the impact, and the sound of warm liquid dripping.
Each time she heard it, she felt her strength ebbing away, so she realized soon enough it was blood.
'... Am I going to die?'
It was a thought that flickered up abruptly, in a mind she didn't know had returned. Nadia could feel that her consciousness had sunk deep.
It felt as if she was suspended underwater. A liminal state just before sleep from which she might never wake. Realizing this, she wasn't seized by fear. Instead, there was only urgency.
'I have to help...'
Broken as she was, Nadia knew full well why she'd ended up like this, what was happening outside the wreckage pressing heavily on her, all of it.
She tried to move, but only managed to twitch a finger. Nothing else would respond.
'Please.'
Muttering a prayer to no one in particular, Nadia desperately tried to open her eyes. Hot liquid, as if her brow had been split open, dampened the corner of her vision. Thanks to that, her eyes, parched from the heat, regained a bit of moisture.
Finally, with all her might, her vision slowly returned. Her blurred surroundings flickered in and out of focus, tinged with red. There was only one person who caught her eye.
Hyun-woo was shouting something as he fought a fierce close-quarters battle with the military power loader. Each time the loader's fist hit the ground, the floor trembled as if in an earthquake, making her feel nauseous from the shaking.
How much time had passed? The surrounding terrain had changed drastically compared to her last memory. The destroyed security robots, the ghouls no longer regenerating, the blue crystals shining with refined light, all of it.
'Hyun-woo looks really angry.'
She'd never seen him so furious. She couldn't see perfectly, but it seemed as if blue light was shining from his eyes. Was it because of her? Was she a burden again? She hated that.
She was scared—but not of dying. What scared her was that her existence seemed to be holding Hyun-woo back, that he might die because of her, and that she might not be able to maintain herself anymore.
The situation was dire. The stalker relentlessly harried them, and the security robots that touched the Creep leaking from the power loader were gradually losing the ability to distinguish friend from foe.
For now, there were still more functional security robots, but at some point that number would be reversed. And they had to remember this was a den of monsters.
It was tough. Hopelessly tough. Eric was badly injured, and she herself couldn't move at all. Only Celestia and Hyun-woo could still function.
But even Celestia couldn't leave her position due to pipeline control. Nadia wanted to call Carry but her voice wouldn't come out, and she couldn't even figure out its location.
In the end, all the pressure fell on Hyun-woo. What was she supposed to do?
The helplessness swelled until, at that moment, Nadia's eyes alighted on an industrial artificial gravity chain connector. When she was struck by the power loader and thrown, the Big Hand she had attached under Carry seemed to have flown loose as well.
"...."
Big Hand. If only she could use this, she could easily defeat the power loader, their greatest obstacle. But the Big Hand wasn't in a functional state.
All the shock-absorbing mechanisms were broken. That was probably why it had been stuck in the equipment room. Equipment that delivered recoil too great for the user to survive was only suitable for suicide.
Even so, Nadia started crawling across the floor, just to get a little closer.
'... I will.'
Even if she died here, she would save them. She believed that was how to repay Hyun-woo, who had saved her. Was this a rational or an emotional decision?
Honestly, it didn't matter what the fundamental reason was. Ignoring the pain from her possibly fractured or cracked arm, Nadia finally reached the Big Hand.
A few remaining neural circuits near her heart recognized the new equipment almost instantly.
【Warning. Equipment durability 17%. Forcing neural connection will place extreme strain on the user.】
'Doesn't matter.'
Nadia was perfectly aware of what she was doing right now. This was different than whenever she'd used the Big Hand before. Controlling it with her incomplete neural connection was tantamount to suicide.
Nonetheless, Nadia did not hesitate. She connected the Big Hand to her suit. The metallic click sounded almost like a sentence being pronounced.
There was a core problem, but that didn't really matter. Refined blue crystal was everywhere here, after all. She grabbed a handful and shoved it into the Big Hand.
No, to call it 'shoved in' wasn't really accurate. With trembling hands, all she could do was hope the Big Hand would absorb the energy on its own.
【Energy absorption commencing.】
The equipment hummed as it powered up. The vibration made Nadia cough up a mouthful of blood. Even just the start-up noise was enough to upset her battered body.
She was afraid. But what was there to hesitate for? She'd learned that losing something was even scarier than dying.
Maybe being born beastkin meant being tamed was inevitable. The reformationist groups would never agree, but what did it matter.
She had already decided to take a different path. Even if she hadn't resolved her emotions from the past, she was able to make choices.
If she waited and did nothing, maybe Hyun-woo would kill the power loader and stalker both somehow.
Perhaps he would solve the situation without her having to risk everything.
If anyone could, it was Hyun-woo. Whatever it took, he would see it through to the end, she believed.
But that—
'... That wouldn't be what a partner would do.'
A partner is supposed to act like a partner. Sometimes offering a shoulder to lean on, sometimes depending on each other, being supports for one another. That was what being true partners meant—not just relying on someone, like now.
Nadia struggled to extend her hand. Unfortunately, she didn't have the strength to fully open it. But that was okay. The Big Hand, connected to her right arm and shoulder, opened in her stead.
As each segment of the Big Hand lit up and formed a gravity chain, Nadia felt a burning pain near her heart. It was the strain placed on her broken neural circuits. In a way, she was glad her body was ruined; at least the pain was dulled.
'Hyun-woo.'
Just as you did for me, I wanted to help you. I was saved once already. So we weren't lost. Nadia truly believed that.
'What was I to you?'
She tried to recall. Past memories came back vividly as if by magic. From the moment she first opened her eyes until now. Nadia saw herself smiling more and more as she spent time by Hyun-woo's side.
She was grateful. At least she had lived a better life than before.
So, this act wasn't wrong. In fact, it was what she had to do.
【Gravity chain connected. Gravity field will form at designated point.】
"... Crush it."
Nadia's voice was so faint it nearly faded away. But those words twisted reality.
【Command recognized. Crushing.】
The air above the infected power loader shimmered, then a mighty force crushed the giant. As if it would compress it endlessly, with overwhelming force.
There was no time to rejoice at the opening she had created. Nadia, feeling the rebound hit belatedly, lost consciousness completely.
She sank. Down below the surface, deeper and deeper into the abyss.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Hyun-woo and Carry both getting power ups.
Carry now, Hyun-woo later.
【(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─】