Ultima Ratio

Chapter 39: Great Escape

The collective gasp that emerged from the audience after Danya's admission sounded almost comically exaggerated, but that didn't make it any more comforting.

"What are you doing?" Akira hissed, seizing Danya's right arm as she used it to wave with pageantry.

"My backup plan," Danya said, not missing a beat as she continued to wave with her left.

It was a terrible plan. At this rate, Danya would get into Concordia, but she'd be completely alone. Even with her superior strength and unnatural healing, if she were to go up against Verus Rex, the man that knew all of her weaknesses, she would never make it out of there alive.

Before Akira could protest any further, the door behind them burst open, and dozens of armed guards poured onto the stage with their guns pointed at them—at Danya.

"And that's my cue," Danya said.

Without warning, Danya pushed Akira to the side, sending her stumbling backwards and tumbling onto the floor. By the time Akira could comprehend what just happened, Danya was rushing towards the center of the group, easily dodging the volley of red lasers that tried to slow her approach.

Once she was in close range of the guards, she began to pick them off like flies. The first two she held by their heads, one hand each, and pummeled them into each other before throwing them to her sides, knocking over three more in the process. Once she discarded them, she targeted the nearest gun to her left, narrowly avoiding their shot before seizing the barrel and pulling it past her. The wielder was dragged helplessly along with their weapon, up until they were halted by Danya's hand wrapped around their throat. For a split second, she held them face to face, letting them witness her innocent smile before smashing their back into the ground with a sharp crack.

Belatedly, Akira realized she had been staring at the scene in blank awe, and she quickly scrambled to her feet when she noticed Danya winding up to toss the retrieved gun to her. Before she could, a small, disc-like drone, no more than fifteen centimeters in diameter, suddenly darted through the air around Danya. And before Akira could yell out a warning, the drone zipped towards Danya's back and latched onto her neck.

The spark of electricity from the drone was clearly audible, and Akira knew that Danya's pained grunt that followed was far from feigned.

"No!"

At first, Akira hadn't realized she had yelled, and even after she did, she barely recognized the vicious growl to be her own. Regardless, her confusion didn't stop her from running mindlessly towards the fray, towards Danya as she was hunched over on her hands and knees, panting heavily through gritted teeth.

Evidently, the guards didn't think of Akira as much of a relative threat, and the only one that approached her paid for that by getting stabbed in the stomach with the sword in Akira's right arm. She kept the blade drawn as she sprinted for the next closest guard, the smell of iron trailing her as she ran.

When she saw the next guard's hand flex over their gun's grip, she sidestepped a moment later, and their shot narrowly missed her head. That would also be their only shot, and Akira swept her blade diagonally in front of her before continuing on her way. She didn't bother to stick around to see what she hit, only knowing from the smell of blood and the screams of agony that she did enough damage.

Unfortunately, that was where Akira's luck ended. Just after she drove her sword through the next guard's gun and down their arm, she felt a set of metal claws dig into her back, and her body seized in place. Before she knew it, she was sprawled on the ground, and multiple sets of hands were busy dragging her arm's sword out of its latest bloody sheathe. Even when Akira tried to struggle, her limbs felt lethargic and were easily held in place by the goons around her.