-Tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tung!
Carbel unleashed all the bullets from the guns in both hands.
The bullets, far exceeding normal caliber, caused everything in sight to explode.
Solid outer walls, ground, and sturdy streetlights were no exception.
It was an overwhelming display of destruction and the attack paid no heed even to the Crow minions getting hit.
In reality, several Crow assassins were caught in it and had their arms or legs shattered, but even those who were hit had nothing to say about it.
Though Carbel seemed to be firing indiscriminately, he was actually aiming, and if someone got hit, it meant they were inexperienced.
[How long are you going to run away like rats?]
Carbel mockingly asked Malina and Kudan but bullets eventually ran out.
With a click sound indicating no more bullets, Kudan took that chance to charge in.The Crow unit stood in Kudan's way but it was useless.
"Move."
Kudan charged in brutally.
Just brushing against his shoulder caused the Crow unit's bodies to shatter as if hit by explosions.
Even though the Crow unit members' bodies were made of steel, they were no match for Kudan.
No matter how much steel plating was done to a crow's beak and claws, they couldn't hurt a naturally strong bear.
Moreover, if that bear was extremely agile and clever, the difficulty rose dramatically.
[Indeed you're strong. As expected of the Blood Brotherhood's second-in-command. Above all, that power mixed in your blood must make you even stronger.]
Even with Kudan at point-blank range, Carbel's voice showed no fluctuation.
Only his brain was human, the rest was all replaced with machinery.
This meant his emotions, commonly known as joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, were more restrained than normal people.
Since there would be no hormonal reactions that appear during excitement or danger.
Rather, drugs to intentionally maintain calmness were being injected into his neural system connected to his brain in real-time.
Instead of retrieving the empty gun, Carbel chose to throw it at Kudan.
Though throwing a gun might sound trivial, this couldn't be taken lightly. That gun alone weighed over 30kg.
Just Carbel throwing a metal mass of that weight was enough to kill a person. If anything, it was excessive.
"Hmph."
However, Kudan stretched out his fist without panic.
The oversized gun that met his fist scattered, spraying parts everywhere.
Kudan approached Carbel without stopping his steps, then stretched out his fist greatly.
His forearm muscles bulged, tearing part of his suit.
It was a long straight punch, a fist so fast even its afterimage couldn't be seen.
Twoong───!!!
There was a muffled sound as if hitting some invisible barrier.
Kudan narrowed his eyes. Just before hitting Carbel's body, a magic circle activated and blocked his fist.
[Did you think I wouldn't be prepared for something like this?]
Carbel wasn't an ordinary machine. He was the culmination of full support from his backers, a vision of the future.
The magic barrier that spread now wasn't ordinary defensive magic but [Physics Magic].
Magic that controls the flow, form, and direction of force.
Typically, gravity-based magic also belonged to this kind of physics magic.
While Kudan's fist was blocked by the physics barrier, Carbel immediately pulled out a new weapon from his backpack.
-Chiiiiik!
This time it wasn't a firearm that projected firepower, but a gun that sprayed green liquid.
Kudan covered his face with his arm, thinking it might be poison.
The green liquid that drenched his body had a chemical reaction upon contact with the air and swelled up like a sponge.
"Hmm. This is......"
Kudan tried to tear off the green mass by applying force to his arm but it wasn't easy. Whatever it was made of, it had durability surpassing amazingly strong synthetic rubber.
It was elastic yet sticky, and tremendous pressure could be felt on his bound arms.
"Hup!"
As Kudan applied force, the hardened green mass started to break with cracking sounds.
It was something that could immobilize even a huge beast, but Kudan was trying to tear it apart with pure strength.
However it could buy time, and that's what Carbel wanted.
Carbel immediately pulled out a sharp blade from the back of his right hand.
-Kiiiing.
Electric current flowed through the blade and turned it bright red.
It was a vicious weapon that would melt beyond cutting when it touched metal heated to extreme temperatures.
[I'll eliminate you first, the most troublesome one.]
Carbel's heat blade aimed for Kudan's neck.
Currently, Kudan was in no position to defend against it.
-Srrrrrk.
A shadow appeared beneath Kudan's feet and Malina jumped out from it.
She hugged Kudan's legs with both arms and pulled him down into the shadow.
As Kudan's body sank down sharply, the heat blade passed over his head.
[What an annoying thing to do. Though I was going to send you along with him anyway.]
Carbel glared at Malina with his red eye light.
Malina had already hidden between shadows, but Carbel didn't lose track of her.
He too was trained at Dead Dagger.
Though his body was now replaced with machinery, he knew well how to counter these kinds of techniques.
-Twoong!
Something shot up high from Carbel's backpack.
What soared into the air soon exploded brilliantly, scattering tremendous flashes of light around.
In the sight that suddenly brightened as if day had come, the shadow moving along the ground could be seen flinching.
Carbel's long arm quickly grabbed that shadow.
Malina, who was hiding in the shadows, was dragged out.
"Kugh!"
[Did you think I wouldn't be prepared even for this?]
It was a special flash bomb that could momentarily see through a thief's stealth made by Dead Dagger specifically to catch Malina.
Malina, whose neck was caught, swung her shadow dagger trying to shake off the arm, but Carbel's arm was much sturdier than it looked.
[Hahaha. How cute. You who I could only look up to before, now caught by my hand and struggling like this. It's almost sad I won't be able to see this moment for long.]
Carbel applied force to his arm, intending to twist and kill Malina’s neck.
At that moment, a white flash cut through his wrist and passed.
The robot arm was cut off with a clean cross section, and Malina was finally freed.
Next to Malina who barely landed on the ground, Osian approached with heavy footsteps.
"......Thank you."
With those words, Malina hid back into the shadows, stealthier and quieter than before.
She judged that in this situation, saying a few words of thanks to Osian was less important than dealing with the surrounding enemies.
Osian also didn't want unnecessary courtesy, so he just silently stared at Carbel.
[You are......]
Carbel looked at Osian then stared at the cross section of his severed left hand.
The cross section was too smooth. It was cut in an instant without any resistance.
[You swing a dangerous sword.]
Though it was partly due to being distracted by Malina, Osian's sword far exceeded common sense.
The white armor and unusual cape were one thing, but what was most disturbing was the sword with streams of white light flowing from it.
[What exactly is that? It's different from my weapons. It's not even in my data.]
"You don't need to know."
[Hahaha. That's true. There's no particular need to know. We've come this far, what's there to talk about.]
Carbel was laughing but there was a hint of anger in his voice, probably because he lost the perfect chance for revenge on Malina because of Osian.
No matter how many drugs were being injected to maintain rationality, what maintained his thoughts was still his brain containing all memories and experiences.
In there, he had the memory of being torn apart by Malina and thrown into a pit.
The anger given by that memory was a flame that wouldn't extinguish no matter how much he was soaked in drugs.
Though he claimed to carry out revenge as if it were an emotionless duty, if asked whether Carbel truly had no emotions, that certainly wasn't the case.
"Come."
As Osian took a stance holding his sword, Carbel's body quickly retreated back.
He judged it would be dangerous to engage in close combat against that dangerous sword.
His body moved surprisingly fast for his size. With the propulsion of steam spurting from his backpack, he hovered slightly with both feet off the ground.
Seeing this, Osian chose not to chase but instead swung his sword at Kudan.
More precisely, he cut off the green mass binding Kudan's arms.
Though the green mass was strong against physical impacts and strikes, it couldn't withstand the cutting power of Starlight.
"I received help unintentionally."
Kudan expressed gratitude while feeling his arms.
Meanwhile, Carbel pulled out a new weapon with his intact right hand.
Like before, it was a high-powered special weapon capable of tremendous destructive power.
"Cut off one hand so the power should be halved......"
Osian's mumbling was cut off by what Carbel showed next.
-Clank.
Two new auxiliary arms sprouted from both of Carbel's shoulders.
Not only that, but two more auxiliary arms sprouted from his waist and grabbed weapons from the backpack.
Two legs and six arms total.
That form stretched out long and truly looked like a spider.
"No wonder he seemed spider-like."
That first impression was the knight's intuition hinting at what was to come.
Six arms, now five after one was cut off by Osian, each holding weapons.
All of them were firepower-type weapons.
[Farewell.]
Carbel fired countless bullets. Osian watched this and raised the shield worn on his left arm straight ahead.
[Futile effort with such a weak shield.]
He knew the power dwelling in the sword similarly dwelled in the shield but what made that sword dangerous was that the power was concentrated in a single line.
It wasn't suitable for broadly blocking attacks of such tremendous power.
Even if it stopped them at first, if the attacks continued without pause, it would eventually crumble.
At that moment, the Starlight power dwelling in Osian's shield grew enormous and the shield's size increased.
More precisely, the Starlight power was ejected like an aurora along the shield's edges.
"Heaven Light Barrier. Deploy."
The curtain of Starlight collided with the incoming bullets.
As the bullets and Starlight power collided, they repeatedly cancelled each other out or exploded.
Of course the characteristics of Starlight, which excelled in the balance of single combat offense and defense, also had defensive characteristics like this.
The Heaven Light Barrier that extremely increased physical damage reduction was one of the very useful skills when fighting certain boss monsters.
'Using it in practice, the effect is really something.'
To think it could block head-on attacks that previously had to be avoided.
Indeed new skills were worth unlocking. He should thank Amenora again in his heart for the help.
'But it's not absolute. Though it's holding now, it won't last long.'
Though blocking this much was close to a miracle, having a limit was never a good thing.
On the contrary, Carbel's bullets, without exaggeration, seemed to have a far higher limit than this side.
He couldn't even guess how many weapons were built into the huge backpack he was carrying.
In the end, this too was just buying time.
"Can't hold long. The moment this is released, we need to move to the next operation."
"What are you planning?"
Malina, who had been eliminating Crows, seemed to sense something and quickly joined them.
"I'll land a single decisive blow that can end him."
The words were short but the implied meaning was simple.
The moment this side lowers the barrier, the two of them need to draw Carbel's attention.
"Especially you."
Osian looked at Malina.
"That guy holds deep grudges against you. If you trigger his past trauma a bit, he'll gladly have a fit."
"......That's somewhat interesting."
"You don't need to try to kill him. Just need to buy time. Of course, if such intention is felt, he'll be suspicious so give it your all."
"So in simple terms, I should fight with the determination to kill."
Kudan was indeed quick-witted, very different from his heavy appearance.
Rather, Malina who seemed like she'd be quick-witted was somewhat slow to react, perhaps due to lack of experience.
"The barrier will be released exactly 5 seconds later."
Even if told to wait here, Osian wouldn't listen.
Knowing this, Kudan and Malina immediately entered a combat stance.
3, 2, 1.
Exactly 5 seconds passed, and the Heaven Light Barrier was released.
This coincided with the timing when Carbel's bullet rain slightly ceased.
Kudan and Malina charged toward Carbel.
[This is fun.]
Carbel's red monocular light fixed on Malina.
With his revenge target approaching again, he was in a state of elation, though the built-in drugs were injected, that excitement wouldn't easily subside.
In that gap of awareness thus created.
Osian leaped back several times to create dozens of meters of distance then summoned his Starlight Horse.
"I'll destroy him in one blow. Understood?"
-Hihihihing.
The horse nodded silently and let Osian mount.
-Kiing!
Above Osian's head, a ring of Starlight rose up.