“I never could have imagined having to use this against a human. But since you surpass reason, I've decided to use the pride of our corporation”
“You were the CEO, right?”
”Yeah. But rest easy, Neanderthal-kun. If you can defeat this, I won't be laying a hand on you for a while”
“You won't make any business you'd lose out on... is it?”
“Precisely!”
Koutarou and Elexis smiled at each other.
That was when the booster on the giant's body suddenly activated, and the giant came flying towards Koutarou. With its size, the giant wasn't suited for walking. Instead, it would fly in the sky by manipulating gravity. And when rapid acceleration was necessary, it would use boosters. It worked the same way Koutarou's armor did.
“I'm happy to hear that! You really haven't changed at all!”
Koutarou rushed with his sword in hand. His speed wasn't comparable to the giant, but it was exceptionally fast for a human. This was all thanks to the spiritual energy and magic power he was using.
“How about this!?”
While moving rapidly, the giant fired the large gun on its left arm.
The giant fired a canister shot that spread into small bullets covering about a meter in area, and assaulted Koutarou.
“Oh!”
Koutarou rolled forward and passed under the bullets. At that time, a few bullets grazed Koutarou, but the sword’s magic protected him and reflected them.
It looks like he can dodge canister shots. However—!
Koutarou swiftly got up and rushed towards the giant again. He wasn't as good at controlling the sword’s magic power as Alaia was, so relying on the sword to protect him was dangerous. In order to not get shot, he had to get in closer.
“Exceptionally dodged! Very impressive!”
After firing a couple of canister shots at Koutarou, Elexis determined that he wouldn't be able to hit him and swiftly changed his method of attack. His next weapon was an axe for melee combat. To Koutarou, it looked like a huge axe, but to the giant it was but a small weapon. As a result, the giant would be able to swing it around swiftly. And the area it could strike was wide. Combined with the length of its arms, it could reach up to three meters. Elexis assumed that he would be able to hit Koutarou with this.
“It is an honor to be praised!!”
Koutarou accepted his challenge. Since he wanted to attack with his sword, this was his big chance.
The giant set the boosters thrust to max and charged while Koutarou braced himself. The distance between the two shortened in a moment. The giant's attack reached Koutarou first.
“Take thiiiis!!”
The giant swung its long right arm horizontally and the axe quickly approached Koutarou. With its heavy weight and speed, Koutarou would be dead even if something other than the axe hit him. It was an incredibly dangerous attack to Koutarou who wasn't wearing any protection.
“I won't get hit by something like this!”
Koutarou quickly jumped to escape and the axe passed under his feet. And using his momentum from jumping, Koutarou moved to attack the giant.
“I thought you'd do that, Neanderthal-kun!”
However, that's what Elexis had wanted. The giant pointed the gun on its left arm at Koutarou in the air. In the air there was no way he could dodge the canister shot. This was all according to Elexis' plan.
“Oh crap! Signaltin, I'm counting on you!”
The giant fired. And at the same time, Signaltin began glowing. Koutarou unleashed Signaltin's magic power. He created a barrier and kicked it. Through that, Koutarou was able to change the direction he was moving and just barely dodged the canister shot. The next moment, the canister shot crushed the barrier Signaltin had created.
“Really, you just do the unimaginable. You just jumped mid-air, didn't you?”
“Yeah. Despite my looks, I can move my body around quite well”
In contrast to its looks, the giant quickly changed its direction. By the time Koutarou landed and readied his sword, the giant already had its weapon pointed at him.
“However it's about time I use a more powerful attack. Besides, I've completed my goal”
“Your goal?”
“Satomi-sama! The soldiers!”
It wasn't until Koutarou heard Ruth's voice that he finalize caught on to Elexis's real goal.
I see, so he did it to let his subordinates escape! I got tricked by Dextro's face!
Two additional soldiers that had been hiding somewhere had carried the other five into the spaceship. Elexis had attacked to buy time for his subordinates.
“So you're buying time again... you're surprisingly caring for your subordinates”
“I don't know about that. The most important thing for us is to not leave any evidence that we were involved behind. It's not to kill you or capture the ladies”
While Elexis was distracting Koutarou, his subordinates were making preparations to retreat. But that would be meaningless if they left any evidence behind.
Well played... With this, even if I defeat him, we'll only escape the danger for a moment...
The systems on the Blue Knight, including the bracelets, were being scrambled, leaving behind no recordings that could be used as proof. The devices on the ship would self-destruct, and the soldiers that could serve as witnesses had been carried onboard the spaceship.
The only proof that would remain were the recordings on Koutarou's bracelet, but unskillfully announcing that would only put Clan in a difficult position. Clan was personally cooperating with Koutarou, but her Schweiger family were hostile with Theia's Mastir family. So Clan couldn't make any decisions that would have a negative impact on her family, and Koutarou didn't want to force that on her.
“My only miscalculation was not taking into the account the existence of an irregular like you”
The weapons on the giant's shoulders were pointed towards Koutarou. On its right shoulder was a large beam cannon and on its left shoulder was a multi-purpose missile launcher that could fire up to eight shots at once. They were the most destructive weapons on this giant.
“If possible, I'd like to get rid of that irregular right here”
“Aren't I an irregular because you can't get rid of me?”
“That certainly might be the reason!”
While Elexis was still speaking he fired the missiles. These missiles were guided using the targets heat signature and by camera. Having been fixed on their target, the missiles chased after Koutarou as if they were alive.
“Damnit!”
Koutarou was planning on getting as close to the missiles as possible before dodging, but they exploded a few meters before they reached him.
This method of attack was known as a proximity fuze. The missile exploded as it was still approaching the target and was intended to deal damage over a wider area. Not even Koutarou could dodge that attack.
“Satomi-sama!!”
Ruth let out a scream. Koutarou had been caught in the missiles explosion. It was a wide area attack that Ruth had been fearing. Not even Koutarou would be in one piece after that. Ruth was protecting Theia from the blast while feeling something similar to despair.
“Satomi-sama! Satomi-sama!!”
A cloud of dust shrouded the area where Koutarou had been. Since the explosion had been so close to the ground, a large part of it had been scooped out and thrown into the air, blocking all sight. However, the cold winter wind slowly blew it away.
And once the cloud of dust had been blown away, Ruth could see Koutarou lying wounded at the bottom of the hole that had been carved into the ground.
“Noooooooooooo!! Satomi-sama!!”