"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Taiga, stop it." Saeko nudged Taiga, who had doubled over from crazed laughter. She smiled embarrassedly at Seki and James, who glared at the laughing teen. Judging from the twitches at the corner of her lips, the young woman was suppressing an urge to laugh.
"Oh. See!? I told you guys..." Taiga wheezed, struggling to speak between bursts of laughter. "You shouldn't underestimate that crazy bastard!"
Seki frowned, recalling the technician's warning at the start of the test. Connecting to the supervisors, he asked, "What did Suzuki purchase?"
"Mato Suzuki bought a stock Infiltrator, a Rapid-Defense-Kit, a winged-suit module, and a basic sword for roughly 2.5 million and donated 10 million to the mission funds to purchase the daemon. Then, he bought two custom Berserkers with a tungsten glaive, twin electric-buzzsaw hoops and two Razorclip SMGs for 30 million with an extra 5 million for storage. Finally, he purchased a Grade 3 Neutron Bomb for 120 million. At Grade 3, the Neutron Bomb is similar to a small nuke, capable of wiping out a small town. We believe it is what was used to cause the recent explosion." The voice in Seki's ear paused and then said, "Apologies, Sir. We did not think they had the funds to purchase this level of weaponry."
"No. It is not your fault." Seki shook his head with a long sigh. "It was a calculated risk. We left it in the options for a reason. According to our analysis, they would use it to blow up Cassia, only to realize he could protect himself with his will shield. It's Suzuki who's weird. Why did he target the space station?"
James chuckled. "It makes sense that you can't understand his reasoning. There's a fundamental difference in reasoning between a regular human and that child." His smile widened as he observed the calamitous winds threatening to blow the trainees off their feet. "You all see this as a training mission, but to Suzuki, the second he received the mission, he was trying to save the earth from invading aliens. He will do anything to accomplish that task, no matter the cost.."
"Essentially, you got beat by a dedicated roleplayer," teased Taiga as he smirked at Seki. "You never should have called this a mission. You're dealing with a madman who goes as far as creating new personalities to deepen roleplay. Did you think he would play by your rules? While the rest of us focused on defeating Cassia, he instead was thinking about how to reduce the alien threat as much as possible. He would have blown the entire thing to hell and back if not for the station's defences."
Seki's eyelids twitched as he adjusted his glasses. "Are you having fun calling someone else a madman for once?"
"Wow." Taiga grabbed Saeko's hand and placed it on his chest. "Feel that, Saeko? My heart's hurt. My middle-aged handler's getting cynical and mean with age." Chuckling as Saeko yanked away her hand, he added, "Just don't forget our bet, Seki-tan."
Noticing Seki's flaming eyes, James came to his old friend's rescue. "Don't be too confident, Taiga. Suzuki may have gotten rid of the Decanus mechs, but he still needs to kill the ace pilot. I shouldn't have to tell you that is impossible for the current him, right?"
Taiga's smile froze. "Yeah." His gaze turned solemn as he looked at the screen. "But only the current him."
***
Huuu~
Violent winds gradually subsided over the flooded compound, clearing smoke and ash that temporarily covered the base. As the tempest ebbed, drones picked up a massive crater where the elevator once stood. Without its foundation, the elevator was beyond repair. The aliens would have to build a brand new set before they could resume operations. While not exactly what he intended, Suzuki's bomb altered the face of the war for the near future.
No one knew this more than Cassia, who stared at the crumbling ruin in disbelief. "Ma—Malun." The alien ace pilot called out a lone name even as he watched the desolate grey wasteland. The mind of an ace pilot of incomparably firm. He could not even deceive himself with false hope. She was dead. Only an ace pilot could survive that kind of explosion. Malun was dead.
...Malun was dead!
Grief threatened to consume the ace pilot, but his incomparable firm will ground him. With a clenched fist and burning rage in his eyes, Cassia transformed his grief into a formidable force, a driving power that fueled his determination to tear Suzuki to pieces.
Turning to Suzuki with bloodshot eyes, he solemnly swore, "I will end you."
The ground rumbled as a torrential aura burst out of the enraged alien. The boosters at his back burned bright blue before he disappeared from the spot.
BOOM!
Shockwaves spread, but Cassia's fist struck an unlikely figure mere inches from Suzuki's head. "Hey, did you forget?" questioned Kimuri as the rockets on the back of his legs blew hot. "I'm here too."
Cassia glared at the young man. "I did not forget. You will all die!" With a roar, the gravity around him increased by over ten times, sending Suzuki and Kimuri crashing. Cassia nearly fell but, with his more formidable frame, barely managed to stay upright. He stepped forward, the earth cracking beneath his weight, and punched the temporarily frozen Kimuri.
Zip! Just before impact, a pair of whips wrapped around his outstretched arm and pulled him to the side, causing him to miss. "Who!?" Enraged, Cassia looked to the side to see Natsu desperately flying away in an attempt to pull him along. Unfortunately, the increased gravity multiplied his weight by a factor of ten. Even with all engines firing, Natsu could not pull the immense weight.
Cassia snorted as he grabbed the whips, ignoring their desperate attempts to cut through his armour. These toys could not break his defence! With a grunt, he pulled, yanking Natsu toward him. But just then, a terrible sense of danger caused the alien's eyes to widen. He attempted to move but found his legs weighed more than they should.
Cassia looked down and was stunned to see Suzuki, who could barely move, wrapped around his foot, adding hundreds of kilograms of weight. "Honorless!" Enraged, the warrior eliminated the gravity well, giving him enough time to leap backwards.
ZIU! BOOM!
Accompanied by a sharp whistle, a gigantic arrow exploded after it shattered the ground behind Cassia. After that, a burst of wind exploded alongside a magnificent sonic boom, revealing the projectile's supersonic nature. Cassia followed the flight path to see a Lightbringer holding a massive bow hundreds of meters away. 'A Sharpshooter!'
Before Cassia could move, he was forced to retreat after a blade threatened to cut his neck. Suzuki, who had rolled away from Cassia after he lifted the gravity well, immediately picked up his glaive and began pressuring the irritated ace pilot.
Cassia sought to counterattack, but Kimuri and Natsu quickly joined, intensely pressuring the ace pilot. Suzuki acted as the team's off-tank, facing Cassia in a direct confrontation. He delivered powerful thrusts with his glaive, forcing Cassia to deflect or punch the blows. Furthermore, Cassia could not quickly close the distance to punish Suzuki due to the glaive's length.
While Suzuki occupied Cassia, Kimuri blitzed around the alien with insane speed, delivering shallow but numerous cuts across the ace pilot. From afar, Natsu irritated Cassia the most. The young woman used her whips to disrupt his movements. Sometimes she bound his arms; other times, she targeted his legs, waist, and neck. She would not forget to send a few volts to annoy the ace pilot each time.
Cassia ultimately broke out of all restraints, but Suzuki and Kimuri utilized the distractions to deliver punishing strikes. If all that was not enough, Ayumi regularly targeted Cassia's shield with deadly precision. Of all the attacks, Ayumi's was the only one Cassia honestly dreaded. The rest whittled away at his shields, but each arrow was like a mini concentrated bomb. Its destructive force could not be discounted.
Keeping that in mind, Cassia desperately tried to keep Suzuki between himself and Ayumi's Lightbringer. Unfortunately, that plan did not work so well.
"4-5."
Despite being embroiled in brutal close combat, Suzuki inexplicably released his glaive and raised his right hand. Thinking Suzuki had lost his mind, Cassia pushed forward, but then the dreaded arrow zipped under the young man's armpit and exploded against the ace pilot, knocking him back.
Suzuki, meanwhile, kicked up the glaive before it hit the ground, caught it midair and continued his assault like nothing happened. Occasionally, Ayumi would call out a number between 1 and 100. Once she did, he would use the littlest of movements to move out of the way of a deadly arrow.
The combined assault proved overwhelming even for Cassia. His energy shield flickered, strained under the onslaught from Ayumi's arrows. Each strike excavated his last line of defence, leaving him increasingly vulnerable to the other's relentless attacks. Over time, Cassia's movements grew sluggish, his once-imposing aura rapidly diminishing.
Cassia could not understand. Even if the orbital elevator had fallen, the aliens had forces spread across Terra. Reinforcements should have arrived! An ace pilot was worth ten thousand nukes! His people would never let him perish here.
Unfortunately, Cassia had no idea that the thought of losing Suzuki had enraged a particular hacker. She devoted all her efforts to destroying the space stations' communication protocols. While the aliens fought against her, they could not send out any signals to their forces on Terra.
The Terran Occupation forces might have found the situation odd. Still, without orders, they could not leave their post to check on the station. What if it was malfunctioning, and they gave up a strategic location due to overeagerness? The units needed to have a meeting to come to a decision.
Unfortunately for Cassia, without his mech, even he could not survive long enough to await their decision. The reality of his impending loss threatened to crush him, and his once-unyielding resolve wavered.
The battlefield became a stage of desperation, where every strike, kick, and whip crack held the weight of their shared determination. The bond between Suzuki, Kimuri, Natsu, and Ayumi grew stronger with each passing moment, their coordinated efforts flowing seamlessly, like a symphony of combat.
With Cassia's energy shield teetering on the edge of collapse, the final blows drew near. His glaive gleaming with purpose, Suzuki took advantage of a break in Cassia's shield to deliver a devasting strike, cleaving through the ace pilot's chest. The force of the blow and the faint dripping of blue blood sent shudders through the battlefield as Cassia staggered and almost lost control.
In that pivotal moment, Cassia's eyes suddenly dimmed. Fine, he was going to die here. But, he would not go alone. Ignoring Suzuki's incoming glaive, Cassia roared as he pushed his gravity well to the max!
Puchi! Suzuki's glaive pierced Cassia's exposed chest, but the ace pilot only grabbed the shaft with an eerily serene gaze. Just then, Suzuki felt like a giant slapped his back, nearly sending him flying into Cassia's chest.
"Suzuki, watch out!" Kashi desperately shouted as he controlled the boosters, overclocking the rockets to get as far away from Cassia as possible. "This bastard wants to self-destruct!"
"What!?" Suzuki, who did not expect Cassia to go that far, turned to the alien. "Kimuri." Not everyone had Kashi to control their systems.
Kimuri did not react in time and had already been pulled within inches of Cassia. The speed demon only lay prone on the ground, kukris buried deep into the ground to prevent himself from being drawn any closer. Unfortunately, while he did not get pulled any closer, he dared not attempt to run away, or he would most likely get sucked in!
VIU! Several arrows flew past, striking Cassia's chest, but a three-inch thick aura caked around the monster bounced off all projectiles.
"This won't work," called Ayumi as she looked at the scene with a bitter expression. "It's his final stand. He has pooled what's left of his will into a short-term shield. We don't have the firepower to break that down in the short term." As the general, Ayumi bit her lip as she looked at the trapped Kimuri. "Everyone retreat."
"You're just going to leave them there!?"
"Go already!" Someone shouted, but Kimuri spoke before anyone else spoke. "Adachi is our general for this mission. This is not a game. When your general speaks, you obey without question." The young man sighed and said, "Besides, I'll get to take out an ace pilot with my death. They should erect my statue somewhere, right?"
With those words, Kimuri let go of his daggers. He knew his teammates would not agree to leave as long as he was alive. Thinking of the bigger picture, it was best not to delay the inevitable. As he flew towards the grinding vortex surrounding Cassia, he chuckled, "Heh. I almost forgot this is a training mission. It's not a bad way to—"
"—Like hell you're dying!" A cold voice cut off Kimuri's soliloquy.
Kimuri looked to his left, shocked to see a terrible black and blue aura bursting out of Suzuki's body. 'Am I hallucinating? Doesn't that look like—"
***
Seki removed his glasses, tears pooling as he stared at the incredulous sight. "He. He actually did it!"
"No one's dying!" Something within Suzuki shifted when he saw Kimuri let go of the daggers. Why did he get strong? Was it not so no one else dies on his watch? Did this bastard alien think he was worthy of killing someone on his watch!?
Suzuzki's fury and pride ignited something deep within him, tapping into a wellspring of hidden potential. With a surge of determination, his aura exploded as he pushed past his human limitations. Thousands of wild concepts floated around Suzuki, demanding he chooses a path. He touched upon concepts such as gravity, speed, flames, and so much more in that brief moment. He did not know if it was by chance, but everything he sensed was concepts Razznik or Kashi had spent time mastering.
Still, all these were too fancy for Suzuki. From the beginning, he only had one thing in mind. CUT. No matter the enemy, they would die if you cut off their head. He only wanted to cut through everything that threatened himself and those under his protection.
As Suzuki finalized his concept, he grabbed a gigantic glaive that materialized from his aura and burst toward Cassia. The vortex cut at Suzuki, but like Cassia earlier, a dense aura shield protected Suzuki from damage. With a loud roar, he stabbed Cassia's skull. Chii!!! Sparks flew as Suzuki's spear slowly but surely cut through Cassia's shield like a hot knife through butter.
Unfortunately, even Suzuki was not fast enough. Out of his eye, he saw the vortex slowly tearing through Kimuri's leg like a blender. Enraged, his aura exploded as he roared, "MORE!"
Just then, Kashi's eyes appeared in Suzuki's mind. The dragon's eyes pulsed with electricity as he roared. "I don't care where you are. I'll reach you!" Following Kashi's roar, the tiniest wormhole opened before Suzuki's blade. The blade slid through the wormhole and appeared a millimetre off Cassia's neck.
Puchi! Without any suspense, the blade cut through Cassia's neck, causing the headless body to topple to the ground.
An ankleless Kimuri dropped to the ground, eyes wide in shock as he stared at the rapidly panting Suzuki. What in the fuck was even that!?
***
"A DOUBLE AWAKENING!" Seki lost all composure in the hall, grabbing the screen as if he would enter the world and see it for himself.