Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Operation (2)
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The vehicle shoved the Mad Buffalo herd straight ahead.
For an instant. The moment we burst out beyond the Breath on the accelerator's thrust.
But it quickly became clear that things wouldn't go so smoothly.
The windows filled with Creatures.
Thud! Thump!
The car shook from the impacts. Surrounded by Creatures just like being trapped in a crowd.
Thud! The car slammed to a halt, colliding heavily with the Buffalo herd. Blocked by the thick band of Creatures, the engine couldn't muster any power.
“Aerial support!”
Ami shouted from beside me, where she was flooring the accelerator.
“Requesting it!”
[Aerial support inbound.]
Sylvia's flat voice came over the radio.
[All drones launching.]
The sound of propellers whirring in the sky.
Boom, boom. Bwoom! Powerful shockwaves battered the side of the car. Drone strikes exploded from all directions. A three-eyed goat bursting atop the windows. The sound of bones crunching, organs rupturing.
The colorful sounds of death were drowned out by the sharp explosions that followed.
A sliver of visibility opened up.
Amid the flashes of explosions, between flying chunks of hide and bone, the wasteland path came into view.
I floored it.
Vroooom!
“A path opened!”
Ami burst into laughter amid the massive exhaust roar.
“Let's go! To the cliff!”
Thump!
A heavy footfall.
It echoed right next to the car. The rearview mirror filled with the Creature's enormous leg. The unclassified Creature was gigantic. Saying its body was two stories tall meant even its ash-gray fur-covered legs were absurdly massive.
If it stepped on us, we'd be flattened.
“Two o'clock!”
Screeech!
“Eleven o'clock!”
Screeeeech!
I wrenched the wheel like mad following Ami's directions. Thump! Thump thump! I could feel the massive Creature chasing us. The car kept getting swallowed by shadows only to barely escape from underneath.
Diagonally, straight. Brake. Accelerate. Hard brake.
Aaaaaccel!
Thump!
It wasn't catching up from behind.
“We're shaking it off.”
Ami twisted around to look back and muttered.
“Once we break through the Creature band, open the hatch.”
“Got it.”
I kept my foot off the accelerator—no, kept it planted.
“Opening in three seconds.”
Visibility cleared.
A vast wasteland stretched out. A place slowly crumbling away under the wind's erosion.
We'd broken free of the Creature band. A massive unclassified Creature was still hot on our heels right behind us, but we'd escaped the band at least.
I reached out and hit the button.
Whirr.
The roof hatch slid open.
At the same moment, an enormous explosion erupted behind us.
Bwoooooom!
“What's that?”
“Richard.”
The wind whipped my hair wildly. My white hair lashed at my vision. I narrowed my eyes and glanced at the rearview.
An immense explosion cloud bloomed where the Creature band had been. From the smoke-shrouded spot came the menacing roar of motorcycle exhausts.
The Seniors were starting to follow. They'd catch up with us, taking out Creatures on their bikes along the way.
Creatures defied gravity and leaped into the air from the billowing clouds.
Maybe the Walkers were grabbing them and hurling them.
“Two o'clock!”
Thud!
Thud! Thud! Thud! Ear-shattering booms. I shifted my gaze back to the side mirror. The massive Creature was rapidly flailing its limbs.
It slithered across the ground with limbs so long they tangled with each other. Its speed was nearly a match for the car. It was huge, and fast enough to make that size boring.
Boom! An ash-gray hand smashed the left side mirror.
I clicked my tongue and yanked the wheel hard.
“Hilde, firing a missile.”
“Roger.”
Ami hefted an infantry missile as long as she was tall onto her shoulder.
The launcher pointed toward the reverse-eyed Creature half-obscuring the rearview.
The Senior shouted in a clear voice.
“Bang!”
Explosion.
With the roof open, the blast hit my eardrums even harder. The Creature's ash-gray leg exploded. Thud! It dropped to one knee. Pale smoke rose.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem like a major hit.
“Not effective. It'll get back up.”
“Keep going.”
“Yeah.”
Ami calmly prepared the next shot.
“Aim for the legs.”
I'd memorized the map at dawn.
Past the wasteland encircling the Safe Point lay ruined city streets. Follow the cracked asphalt straight, and you'd reach the pedestrian bridge. A tourist bridge connecting sheer cliffs over a deep canyon. If you fell, climbing back up would be impossible.
Cross it and collapse the bridge, and the operation was done.
So far, so good. Four consecutive artillery barrages had put some distance between us and the unclassified Creature. Flying Creatures were getting shot down by drones, and those attacking from range like witches were being picked off one by one by Aki's gunfire.
Still, in the rearview, Creatures defied gravity and soared into the sky. Shockwaves slapping the back of my head. Noise stinging my eardrums.
Not much farther now. Finally, the bridge came into view in the distance.
Just hold out like this.
Reach the bridge without issue...
Crackle crackle crackle!
Bwoom! The rear of the car lifted into the air. My view plummeted straight down. Agh! Ami's reflexive scream. The cannon clattering to the ground.
My vision spun wildly. The vehicle tumbled end over end across the road.
The car smashed violently into a building with its rusted framework fully exposed.
Thud!
Agony shot through my entire body.
“Ugh...”
“Hilde.”
Ami's heavy voice.
We were inside the overturned car. I was wedged between the crumpled window and seat, dangling from my seatbelt.
Ami, who'd unbuckled to fire the missile, had already righted herself inside the mangled interior. I could see the wounds on her face and body slowly healing.
The scent of blood. Something burning. Liquid trickled from my brow, blurring my vision. Seemed I'd been cut on the forehead.
My body wouldn't respond.
“We gotta get out. It's gonna blow soon.”
Ami swiftly sliced the seatbelt holding me up with her knife.
“Or get crushed by a Creature's foot.”
No sooner had she spoken than the Creature's footsteps stopped.
But I couldn't move a muscle. I strained to, but not even a finger twitched. I watched as Ami expertly kicked through the crumpled car to make an exit. She slipped out, reached back in with one arm to grab me, and dragged me outside.
Wind battering my cold body.
Before us loomed the massive Creature staring down.
“I'll keep it busy. Pull yourself together, get up, and head to the bridge.”
Ami leaped lightly into the air as she tossed out the words.
My vision filled with the Creature raising its arm to smash her. Gray fur shimmering with blue light. Blue electricity. Crackle, crackle. Currents writhing over its body with ominous sounds. Crackle, crackle.
It uses electricity, huh.
A fact we hadn't known about the unclassified Creature. The part that had most worried the Seniors during planning. Not knowing what the massive Creature was. Not knowing its attack power or type unless we faced it.
Truth was, we still didn't know exactly.
Ami kicked off the ground and soared into the air.
Bwoom!
I watched the fight helplessly for a while.
Nothing to do but watch the battle in miserable impotence until my body obeyed me. I realized how fatal impaired regeneration was in this place.
More miserable still: I was the cause of all this. Ami was too fast to follow with the eye, but overpowered in strength. I gritted my teeth and struggled to stand.
Get up. Get up.
Get up and grab your sword!
Boom!
Ami slammed brutally into the ground.
“Ami!”
My heart dropped.
My limbs finally responded. I shoved off the ground with my palms, teeth clenched, and hauled myself up. The Creature slowly turned its head to look at me standing.
The right arm that had swatted Ami like a fly.
As I bit my lip and reached for my sword hilt, that arm was suddenly bound tight by wire glinting in the light.
“Hilde!”
Ami shot into the air like she had springs in her feet.
The wire extended from her gauntlet. I watched her soar to the Creature's head height, then dive like a falcon, yanking the wire.
Blood burst from the bound arm.
“Go!”
“Together...”
“If you don't head to the bridge, the op's screwed!”
Flesh tore free but the arm didn't sever. Not enough force from the dive? She'd shredded Mad Buffalo with that wire easily.
This Creature endured annoyingly, and Ami cut the wire binding the arm.
Back to square one.
The Creature twisted and swung its electrified right arm.
Crackle crackle, boom!
The arm crashing into asphalt unleashed a powerful current right beside me. If I hadn't dodged, I'd have burned. I rolled away from the electricity and sprang up.
Pain lingered; my movements weren't fully fluid. But I was improving, slowly.
Ami darted nimbly between the Creature's limbs.
“The bridge is right ahead. Run!”
I bit my lip until it bled.
My feet wouldn't move. But I knew I had to go. Toward the bridge. To lure the other Creatures to our original target bridge.
I couldn't help twisting back for a last look at Ami.
Ami, soaring into the sky, met my eyes and frowned faintly.
“Hilde!”
She wrapped wire around the Creature's neck and shouted.
“You should've been ready to risk your teammate's life when you came out!”
Blood burst from the Creature's neck.
The sound of flesh spraying, the Creature's scream like scraping metal. I didn't catch the blood spray; I'd bolted the moment I heard her words.
She was right, without a single flaw. The operation had to succeed. The bridge had to fall. And I had to believe my teammate would return victorious.
I ran toward the bridge.
Seemed the neck didn't sever. The Creature's enraged roar shook the air along with an electrical burst. The explosion was so fierce the shockwave slammed my back hard.
Motorcycle exhausts grew louder.
From behind, I thought I heard Aki calling Ami's name. Worry laced the Seniors' voices calling for her. I ignored my tightening heart of anxiety and ran.
The ground trembled. The pursuing Creature herd was closing the gap. Obvious reasons. First, I'd slowed considerably. Second, the Seniors who'd been carving through the herd seemed to have joined Ami.
What's a 7th rank? Feels like 8th.
“Why are you coming here!”
Ami's desperate shout faded into the distance.
“Richard, Richard! Help Hilde! There are still too many left!”
“Ami, over here!”
The Seniors' urgent voices drowned in the Creature herd's footfalls.
“You're bleeding too much!”
“Richard! Tell Hilde to go!”
“It's that bastard's fault anyway—make him take responsibility!”
Jason Tvein's furious voice echoed through the air.
Loud enough to cut through the massive electrical explosions.
“What the hell did you drag in!”
The bridge.
The broad bridge spanning the canyons stretched before me. I gritted my teeth and sprinted. Poured everything into my legs. Bit my lip and charged across the bridge without looking back.
It was right there now. The Creatures' heavy presence loomed from behind.
But they didn't catch me in the end. Keeping some distance from the target, I finally completed the mission. I crossed the bridge and spun around the moment I reached the other side. The wide bridge—broad enough for ten people abreast—swarmed with Creatures. Mad Buffalo. Baby goats. Reverse-eyes had mixed in somehow.
Should've blown it with the bomb, but it got knocked off when the car flipped.
But I wasn't out of weapons.
Bwoooooom!
One shot.
No hesitation. I slashed. Hit with the black hand. And now my body remembered the technique with enough stamina to execute it.
The bridge's end sheared off cleanly. Just as the arc of the massive sword Yoon had given me dictated.
Sliced neatly, it plummeted helplessly.
The bridge and Creatures sank away.
I blinked, and they were gone from sight.