Chapter 161
Translator: Athena13
Editor: Silavin
Proofreader: p4553r
Rogelt used the chainsaw equipped on his black powered suit to sever Katsuya’s vehicle and raised it up. The spinning blade of the chainsaw spat fire sparks through Katsuya’s vehicle.
After Katsuya chased Akira with his vehicle, it had sustained a considerable amount of damage from all the shootings. So he decided to retreat. He ran away from the war zone, then moved his badly damaged and slow-moving vehicle to the yard and went to look for Alna. But unfortunately, Rogelt found him first after he defeated the enemy’s powered suits.
Rogelt’s powered suit was able to make short work of Katsuya’s vehicle. He went straight for Katsuya’s vehicle and cleaved it open through its ceiling.
Katsuya was barely able to get out of his vehicle in time. Although he lost his vehicle, he still had all of his equipment while he was lying on the ground, glaring at the black powered suit.
The black powered suit waved its arm with Katsuya’s vehicle still stuck on its chainsaw blade. It then ripped the vehicle into two and threw them away as a display of power. The split parts landed with a loud bang and rolled over the ground.
Rogelt used the external speaker to let Katsuya hear him.
“You damn brat!! Did you really think that you can do something by working together with Haurias? Or did you think that by coming in a Drankam vehicle we would be scared of you?! Hah, that’s so unfortunate for you.”
Although Katsuya was absolutely at disadvantage, he still managed to speak back.
“Where’s Alna?!!”
Rogelt mockingly replied.
“What’s the point even if I tell you? You’ll die here. It’s too much trouble capturing you alive. I’ll crush you with this powered suit.”
Rogelt showed off his melee weapons. It had enough power to easily rip Katsuya’s vehicle into two. If Katsuya got hit by it, there was no questioning that he would be squashed.
Katsuya imagined that scene and twitched, then yelled back.
“I’m asking where’s Alna?!!”
“Goddammit, just shut up! I won’t spare you even if you beg, or do you think that it’s cool to die while thinking about the girl you love? In the first place, that girl is just an excuse for you to attack us, isn’t it? I don’t know what kind of deal you made with Haurias, but it’s stupid for you to come and join this battle too. You can go ahead and regret your foolishness when I squash you into minced meat.”
The black powered suit swung its melee weapons. The spinning chainsaw let out a deafening ring. If Rogelt swung it down, Katsuya would be minced to smithereens.
Rather than fearing for his own death, Katsuya was more reeled up for being mocked. He let his emotion take over as he loudly yelled.
“Like hell if I know about Haurias!! And this has nothing to do with Drankam!! I want to save Alna and that’s why I’m here!!”
Rogelt stopped the chainsaw that he was swinging downward. He sounded rather surprised as he asked.
“…You’re saying that you don’t know them? You didn’t come here with Akira after Viola introduced you to Haurias?”
“I don’t even know who is this Viola you’re talking about?! You’re trying to kill Alna and that’s enough of a reason for me to come here!!”
Rogelt reeled back. As the boss of the gang, he was used to reading between the lines. He was confident that he could see through lies. Of course, there were exceptions like Viola, but the little boy in front of him was not a part of that exception.
[…This boy really doesn’t know about them, huh? He doesn’t know Viola nor Haurias, does that mean that he’s not working together with Akira either? And it doesn’t seem he’s lying…]
Rogelt then continued, he obviously sounded slightly confused and troubled.
“Let me get this straight. So basically you have nothing to do with those Haurias, you have nothing to do with that Akira, and you came here all on your own decision, correct? Although you came here in order to save Alna, you did not even try to sneak in. Did you really think that you can save her by doing something like this? Are you sane?”
“T-that is…”
Katsuya wavered. Rogelt was clearly able to see that through the camera on his powered suit and confirmed that it was not a fake reaction and that he was not trying to hide something.
Rogelt’s laugh could be heard through the speakers of his powered suit.
“You’re really stupid. So you came here without even giving it a proper thought first, huh! Stupid people like you are usually just small fries who die after doing something equally stupid. So basically you’re just lucky to stay alive until now, huh!”
Rogelt’s anger mostly died down after he laughed hard. He regained some of his calm and cleared up his mind. He had no plans to fight Katsuya if it could be helped. If he had another choice for the benefit of his gang, he would definitely pick that choice. He then changed his communication line to call his men.
“It’s me. How’s that Alna? Is she alive?”
The men that he told to keep Alna hostage replied.
“She’s with me right now and she’s still alive. At first, we were planning to take her near Katsuya and use her to threaten him, but since we can’t contact him, we don’t know where he is right now. At the moment, we’re in the middle of fighting Haurias while looking for that Katsuya.”
“If it’s about Katsuya, he’s right here with me. Tell her that this call is connected to Katsuya and make her scream for help and make sure it could be heard from this call.”
Alna’s voice could be heard coming out from the powered suit’s speakers.
“K-Katsuya? Are you there?”
Katsuya immediately reacted to Alna’s voice.
“Alna! Are you alright?!”
“You… Really came to save me… Thank you… I… I…”
Alna’s voice was cut short by Rogelt.
“Just like you heard, that girl is alive. You came here to save that girl, right? Aren’t you glad? So, here’s a deal. You follow my orders from here and on, and I’ll guarantee the safety of this girl. I also won’t kill you here. This way, you and that girl will survive, isn’t that great?”
“…What do you want me to do?”
“First of all, I’ll have you kill those Haurias guys.”
“…Like hell I can tell which one of them is which!”
“Set your information terminal to catch the signal from our broadcast frequency. We’ll tell you where to go and what’s your target from there.”
Katsuya frowned and had a pained look.
“…If I kill them, you’ll return Alna back to me, right?”
“No, that’s not everything yet. I’ll have you do other things too. From what I heard about you, you’re earning a lot of money, right? So I’ll have you pay me a lot of money too.”
“What!?”
Rogelt added more intimidation in his voice when he saw Katsuya reel back.
“How many of my men do you think you have killed? I won’t let that slide unless you kill 100 people for every one of our men that you’ve killed! And money too!! How much money do you think I spent on this battle?! So don’t think that I’ll accept just a small amount of money!! And if you refuse, we’ll kill that girl!! That girl is only worthy for making you obey us! If you won’t obey us, then she’s good as dead to us!! That’s for you too! We can kill you anytime, you know!! And don’t ever think that you’re safe just by running back to Drankam, okay? Leaving those Hunters from the frontline aside, common Hunters around this parts are no threat against this kind of powered suit.”
Most of what he said were bluff, but threatening was important for successful intimidation. Putting the result aside, presenting a realistic possibility of causing damage was more than enough as a threat. In order to not give Katsuya any time to think, Rogelt thrust the chainsaw on his powered suit at Katsuya. The big spinning blade went past right in front of Katsuya.
“Either you obey me, or die here! You have 5 seconds! If you don’t give me any answer, I’ll kill you here! 5… 4… 3… 2…”
“…Alright!”
Katsuya had an extremely pained look, Rogelt pulled his chainsaw away from Katsuya.
“You’ve made the right choice. Go back to the mansion and kill those Haurias. Don’t forget to open your channel for our signals too. Now go, make sure to work hard out there. Otherwise, consider that girl dead.”
Katsuya still had a pained face as he went back to the mansion. He was also thinking of saving Alna if she could spot her somewhere, or more like, he used that as an excuse to tell himself to return back to the death zone.
Rogelt then said to his men.
“It’s me, as you just heard, don’t kill that girl. Or at least, make sure that she’s alive as long as Katsuya is still alive. Don’t try anything funny, it would be bad if you kill her by mistake. Treat her like a guest. And send some people to accompany Katsuya to make sure that he fights Haurias.”
“Roger that!”
When Rogelt was about to disconnect, he remembered something and asked.
“…By the way, I wonder how about that Sheryl?”
“My call was cut off midway. Should we try to look for her?”
“Only if you have the leeway to do so. Taking out the Haurias comes first. There’s no need to go out of your way to look for her. I’ll continue killing the Haurias outside. If you can’t handle any of them, just bait them to the courtyard or any other places where my powered suit can reach you like outside the mansion or just outside the hangar. Pass this on to the other men outside the base too.”
Rogelt cut the call and returned back to the courtyard to continue killing Haurias. It might be because Haurias was prioritizing the battle outside the base that it seemed they were pulling their men back from the mansion. Of course, Rogelt’s men did not let that chance slip away and targeted those retreating soldiers.
The black powered suit once again prowled the dark night as it returned back to the courtyard. Not too long after that, a scream could be heard from one of the enemy’s soldiers.
“N-No one told me that we’re going to be facing something like this!?”
That man was shooting at the black powered suit, but all of his bullets just bounced off from its armour.
The black powered suit swung its chainsaw and turned that man into a blob of meat in one go.
“Idiots. I don’t know if they’re here because Haurias paid them or something, but do they really think that they can fight quality with quantity alone? Or these people are basically like that stupid boy, coming here without giving it any thoughts first?”
Rogelt continued killing his enemies there while thinking if Akira was also one of those stupid people.
—*—*—*—
Akira was running through the mansion when Alpha suddenly said to him.
“Akira, you sometimes act like a foolish small fry, don’t you?”
He twitched and looked a little surprised since he did not see that coming at all.
“That was out of the blue.”
“The thought just suddenly crossed my mind, you didn’t realize it yourself?”
“Small fry usually refers to those weak people who love to pick a fight, right? To be honest, I’m more on the side who usually gets picked to a fight though. It’s not like I proactively pick fights against other people after all. That’s why I don’t think that’s the right description for me.”
“Then how about the foolish part?”
Akira looked away. He knew that Alpha was correct. He himself understood that it was not an exaggeration to call him a fool for raiding Ezont Family’s base by himself like this.
But another side of him was urging him not to accept it. If he retreated now, he felt like he would be pushed back to the state when he was still living in the slum alley. That fear and feeling of insecurity pushed him to come to this place.
Alpha silently stared at Akira before saying.
“Well, I guess it’s way too late for me to say it, huh? That aside, I found Alna. Let’s go and finish this fast.”
“Oh, you found her? Alright then, let’s go.”
“This way.”
Akira thought something was a bit strange as he followed Alpha’s guide.
“Alpha, for some reason, I feel like you’re suddenly rather supportive, or is it only my imagination?”
“You won’t return back home unless you kill Alna, right? So I guess I have no other choice but to get you to finish her and get away from this place as soon as possible… Of course, if you decide to retreat here, that would be for the best though.”
Alpha was smiling at Akira as if she was pressuring him. Akira’s frowned a bit.
“I-I see, I’ll hurry up too.”
Just like Alpha, Akira also wanted to finish his business there as fast as possible. Since he felt like it would only get him in more trouble if he said something there, Akira just shut up and started running.
—*—*—*—
Alna was held in one of the Ezont Family’s hangar. The hangar was built large enough to house several powered suits, there was also maintenance equipment inside the hangar to do maintenance for those powered suits. Alna was shoved behind those equipment and there were several men around her guarding the area.
One of the men guarding the hangar looked at Alna, who was hanging her head down, and said.
“But still, I didn’t expect this girl could be used as a hostage. That Katsuya guy is a famous Hunter from Drankam, right? I heard that the City Management also recognized his contribution to the city and he even got invited to some parties in the inner wall as well. I know that Drankam is using him for publicity, but he’s basically not your usual Hunter, right? So why would such a Hunter come to this place just to rescue this slum girl?”
“Like hell if I know, something might have happened between them.”
“I can understand it in Sheryl’s case. That girl’s dress and outward appearance are not on the same level as those girls that you can find in the slum city. That dress, although she might have gotten that from a Hunter, with that outward appearance, it would not be strange for some people to get so invested in her. But this one here is just a slum girl. If it was me, I would have just abandoned her, no question about it.”
“Well, different people have different tastes for women. That Katsuya might be just a very earnest person and something happened in the past that made him owe something big to this girl here.”
“Is it that big to the point that he’s willing to antagonize us?”
“No idea. It’s just a guess, honestly speaking, I have no idea why either.”
Alna was listening to their talk while hanging her head low. She felt guilty for making Katsuya come to rescue her, but at the same time, she also felt happy for that. Then suddenly a question came up in her mind.
“Why would Katsuya even go that far for me? Just like these guys said, he has no reason to go that far for me. So why…”
Alna kept her head low while thinking, the guys guarding her did not pay her much attention since it was also helpful to them if she would just obediently sit there.
—*—*—*—
Akira was aiming through his CWH anti-material rifle from the rooftop of the mansion. He loaded a special bullet with high piercing power beforehand as he aimed straight at one of the hangars, or to be more precise, at Alna who was inside that particular hangar. Thanks to Alpha’s support, he could see the interior of the hangar together with the predicted trajectory line of his bullet.
Alpha was right beside Akira, she then said with a serious face.
“I’ll watch out for enemies, so you can focus on finishing your job here.”
“Alright, I’ll be counting on you.”
“Don’t expect too much from my aiming correction support, okay? Like I’ve explained before, the control software in your augmented suit is still a crude one. Just aim carefully with your own skill as if you don’t have my support at all. If you miss your shot, the enemies would discover your position and it would be a huge pain in the neck.”
“I know this is where I need to get super serious.”
Akira gathered his focus and used all of his senses for aiming as he was slowly adjusting his aim that swayed greatly with a slight move. The moment before he pulled the trigger, he compressed his time perception to its limit, extending and distorting the banging sound coming from his CWH anti-material rifle.
In that slow-motion world where he compressed his time perception to its limit, he could hear the sound of his heartbeat stretched to infinity. In that strange silence, a bullet flew out from the muzzle at high speed and a flash of light sparkled accompanying that bullet.
The bullet ripped through the air, straight into the hangar wall, and passed through some equipment inside that hangar as it sought its target, Alna. But it went about 30 cm beside her.
Akira made a stern face as he inadvertently said.
“Dammit, I missed!”
“Next shot, quickly!”
“I know!”
Akira immediately released the next shot. Each bullet that he released left a hole on the hangar’s wall at the same time it illuminated the dark courtyard with a flash of light.
—*—*—*—
Alna was frozen in shock when a bullet just passed close by her. But the other men there immediately reacted to it, one of them grabbed Alna by her dress and pulled her down to the floor.
The guards immediately reconfirmed their current situation.
“An attack?! Did someone slip into the hangar?!”
Another guy checked his information-gathering device for any signal.
“No signals nearby!! It’s from outside!!”
“A stray bullet then? But the wall is pretty thick, you know…?”
Another bullet flew right past Alna. Alna inadvertently shrieked. Then another bullet flew by, hit one of the equipment, and left a fire spark.
One of the guards immediately grabbed Alna and urged her to move. The incoming bullets landed one after another as it chased them while they were relocating themselves.
“It’s an enemy attack!! And they can see us inside the hangar!!”
One of the guards grabbed his hand grenade and threw it. It blew up and filled the hangar with smoke, but that smoke was cleared right away.
But right after that, Akira’s shots started to miss by a large margin. That hand grenade was actually a cheap jamming smoke grenade. Although it could not inflict much direct damage, it was enough to disturb the enemy’s information-gathering devices outside the hangar’s wall.
Akira had a stern expression plastered on his face. The interior of the hangar that was visible to him until now suddenly went blurry.
“Dammit!! Did they do something inside there?”
Alpha calmly explained.
“It’s the effect from the jamming smoke inside that hangar. You should be able to have a clear vision inside, but it’s impossible to check the interior of the hangar from outside.”
“Then there’s no other choice but to storm the hangar, huh. As I thought, I need more training to be able to shoot relying only on my own skill.”
“You can train as much as you want later, but first, we need to welcome the incoming guests.”
A guy suddenly jumped out of the hangar, he was using a heavy augmented suit. Akira immediately sniped that guy. The force of the bullet threw that guy straight back into the hangar wall. But that guy, with his back still stuck on the big crater in the hangar’s wall, aimed his minigun at Akira and started shooting back.
Bullets showered the mansion and destroyed a part of the mansion, especially around Akira. Akira flusteredly got away from the barrage.
“Alpha!! That guy survived CWH anti-material rifle, you know!?”
“He knew that he could take that shot, that’s why he came out in full view. It’s not like it didn’t damage him at all, so don’t stop shooting.”
As Akira was focus firing at the guy with a heavy augmented suit, another guy came out from inside the hangar with a grenade launcher, he aimed it at the rooftop and pulled the trigger. Frag grenades drew a beautiful arc on the sky. They did not explode immediately and instead got stuck on where they landed.
Akira already slipped away in order to escape from the minigun barrage. He was hiding in the enemy’s blindside. But frag grenades suddenly started raining down on him. Alpha let Akira know where the incoming grenades would land, they landed and exploded one by one behind him, but he was able to get away from the explosions.
Some of the grenades exploded close to him. But thanks to his force-field armour equipped coat, he was able to get away uninjured. But of course, his energy reserve quickly whittled down with every explosion.
“That was dangerous!! It’s not like that guy is only randomly shooting at me!! How in the world he did that!?”
“The first few shots were not grenades, but mini information-gathering devices, those that stuck on the walls and floors.”
Akira looked around, it was true that there were small devices sticking on the rooftop. He could not help but frown when he saw that.
“So those things, huh!! Those are the things that Elena-san used during our exploration to Yonozuka station ruin, right? So basically they always know where I am, huh!!
“You’ve gone through a fight where your enemy can clearly see you during the training with Erio and the other children, remember? There’s no need to panic and just handle it calmly.”
“Don’t compare them with Erio!! Those guys are super strong, you know!! The difference in our equipment is just too big!!”
“It’s still better than having me as their commander, no? So stop complaining and get to work.”
“Basically you want to say if I’m going to complain I should just go back home, right? I got it already, geez!!”
Akira desperately evaded the explosions as he was conversing with Alpha. But Alpha did not reply to his remark there.
Akira and the soldiers from Ezont Family were engaging each other while constantly knowing each other’s location. Akira prioritized to keep moving so as not to get shot by staying in the direct firing line of the enemy’s minigun while shooting back with his A4WM automatic grenade launcher. If he could use the mansion as a cover, he could avoid getting shot by the minigun just fine. And of course, the enemies were also shooting back at him with their grenade launchers in the middle of that fight.
The more firepower they were using, the more money they spent in that battle. Since the mansion was built next to the dangerous wasteland where monsters were roaming freely, it was made with pretty strong material to withstand the attack from monsters. If it was made of common materials, the mansion would have been blown to smithereens by now. Eventually, Akira ran out of A4WM ammo first.
When Akira was about to reload a new magazine to his A4WM rifle, Alpha suddenly said to him.
“Get down!”
Right at the same time, Alpha moved his augmented suit and Akira did not fight back at all as he let his body be thrown back. When that happened, he saw a dim blue blade fly past under him. If Alpha had not moved his body, his leg would have been severed.
Thanks to Alpha’s support, Akira noticed another enemy was running towards him from the floor below. But he didn’t expect them to try to cut his leg from below. After all, it was rare to find people who had a talent for melee combat, and it was even rarer to find those people who had good enough equipment to do so.
The blade that extended from below the floor chased Akira. Although it only extended as far as Akira’s thigh, it was clearly aiming for Akira as if not to allow him to stay in one place for too long. Akira desperately avoided the incoming grenades and bullets as well as the blades that were chasing him, he had no leeway to reload his A4WM automatic grenade launcher.
His A4WM automatic grenade launcher was out of ammo while his DVTS minigun did not have enough piercing power to shoot through the walls. His CWH anti-material rifle was too long to aim directly below. But even so, it was not like he could just leave the enemy below him alone. So in order to open up some distance from the floor to be able to aim his CWH anti-material rifle straight below, Akira lightly jumped.
“Don’t!”
Alpha’s was too late, Akira was already off the floor and was in the middle of swapping his A4WM automatic grenade launcher to his CWH anti-material rifle.
Another enemy suddenly appeared from the other side of the rooftop and aimed his huge gun at Akira who was in midair. While the enemy under him readied his blade to welcome Akira when he landed. Akira had no way to evade both of them.
If he prioritized the enemy on the rooftop, he would be welcomed by blades the moment he landed. If he prioritized the enemy below him, he would get shot by the other enemy. Akira understood that very well as he made a grim face.
[Oh crap! If my legs get cut, I would lose my mobility! And when that happens, I would be just a sitting duck!! I have no other choice but to ignore that other guy!! But still, how much firepower does that big gun have?! Can I survive a direct hit from that gun!?]
In that deadly situation inside a slow-motion world, Akira immediately made his decision and gritted his teeth. But Alpha suddenly intervened, she controlled Akira’s augmented suit and changed his course of action.
When Akira noticed both of his arms started moving on their own, he understood that it was Alpha and was surprised by that, but he immediately matched his movement with her. As he was still floating in the air, Akira had his left hand aiming his CWH anti-material rifle right at the enemy below him. While at the same time, his left hand reached for his DVTS minigun that was dangling on his body and immediately pulled down the triggers on his both hands.
The bullet from Akira’s CWH anti-material rifle forced the enemy under him to move away from his position, while the kickback from Akira’s DVTS minigun that he wasn’t even aiming at anyone shifted his body midair, making the enemy that was aiming at him miss their shot.
A powerful shot ripped through Akira’s coat. If Akira had got hit by that, he would have been fatally wounded.
Akira did not release the trigger of his DVTS minigun as he shifted its aim to the enemy who just released that shot. That particular enemy was riddled with bullets as he was blown back and fell down from the rooftop.
The moment Akira landed, he immediately ran away from that place.
“That was dangerous!! If I took that straight, I might as well be dead! Alpha, Thanks for the help!!”
Alpha then made a suggestion to Akira with a serious face.
“Akira, the enemies are stronger than I expected. That one guy too, he must have only fallen down and not dead yet. Let’s retreat for now.”
“…Do you mean retreating from this place?”
Akira had a grim look on his face. Risking one’s life was different from doing suicidal action. His resolve was leaning towards something so reckless that it was closer to suicide. If it was a worthy gamble, then it was still acceptable, but that was not the case if it was straight suicidal. And the extreme situation there pushed Akira slightly past that line. If Alpha gave another push, Akira might actually give up the idea of killing Alna there.
But Alpha did not do that, she smiled and replied to him.
“I know you don’t want to do that no matter what, right? So I won’t pursue it any further. That’s why we’ll take the next best choice. Retreat for now and I’ll rewrite the control software to get a better control. But since your augmented suit would be rendered useless while rewriting the software, that would be a dangerous course of action. But I concluded that you will have a better winning chance that way rather than keep on fighting in this state. Since I’m not telling you to fully retreat, you won’t say no to this, right?”
Looking at Alpha, who was smiling at him, Akira could not help but to lightly smile back.
“Alright, let’s take a temporary retreat.”
“It’s great that you would listen to me.”
“I don’t want to die after all. And it’s helpful to get a better winning chance too.”
“I was planning to give you more reasons to convince you to retreat if you had said no there. Let’s hurry up then.”
Akira smiled wryly at Alpha and immediately left that place.