Chapter 259 : Chapter 259
Chapter 259. Overloading (14)
Enoch had been sensing the presence of the drone flying above the shelter for a while and glanced up at it.
Perhaps Nano had been watching the situation through the drone this entire time.
But he couldn't hope for support from his squadmates.
Lily and Nano, who had no direct combat capability, were out of the question. And since this was a sealed space with not a single decent piece of cover, it was also a battlefield where a sniper like April couldn't perform.
Alicia's bombardment, capable of sweeping wide areas, also carried the risk of collapsing the underground structure.
That was precisely why he had assigned the rest of the squad to evacuation instead of a coordinated assault.
Lien might also be on her way here after finishing the 'favor he had asked,' but there was no guarantee the timing would line up.
Yet even in this hopeless situation, Enoch was fortunately not alone.
He glanced to his side.
There stood the wolf-eared girl, her bare feet planted on the ground brimming with fighting spirit, eyes locked on the enemy.
He couldn't use the sword right now, but another blade he could wield was standing right here.
Pressing the wound on his abdomen with one arm, Enoch whispered coolly.
"Sirocco, I need you to support my defense. Can you do it?"
"Hmph, obviously. I'm more than enough on my own! The injured guy should sit this out!"
Sirocco shot him a sidelong glance and stubbornly shook her head.
But before he could even reply, the enemy moved first. As if bursting the suffocating tension that had swelled to its limit, the beast gripped its half-broken lance in a long reverse hold and charged.
With an ear-splitting whistle of split air, the lance swung down in a full-power overhead strike.
Sirocco and Enoch simultaneously threw themselves to either side, and the lance detonated between them. With a roar like an artillery shell burying itself, the steel floor was torn to shreds and sent flying in all directions.
WHOOOOOM—!
The lance had always boasted an enormous size, so even cut in half, its reach was still long. If anything, it had become much faster and more agile.
The instant Enoch rolled and landed, realizing this fact, Sirocco was already kicking off the ground beside him and charging forward.
"Let's go!"
The moment Sirocco shouted, lunging at the enemy with the ferocity of a wolf, Enoch kicked off the ground simultaneously.
Against the boy and girl sprinting forward side by side, the enemy launched its counter. Drawing its arm far back, it swept the Carapace Lance in a massive swing.
An enemy whose strikes matched Enoch's reaction speed and didn't yield to Sirocco's muscle strength enhanced by body-strengthening magic — its invisible-speed blow tore a whirlwind through the air as it charged.
But in the instant the jet-black trajectory was about to sweep Sirocco away, Enoch slid rapidly in front of her, braced the axe diagonally against the ground, and deflected the lance.
His condition was no longer good enough to turn the enemy's attacks against it, but that alone was sufficient.
Sirocco, seizing the split-second opening created when Enoch deflected the attack, sprinted up the enemy's massive lance shaft. She drove an upward kick straight into the beast's carapace-encased jaw.
WHOOOOOM—!
SCREEEEE—!
Head snapped back, the beast staggered through the air from the tremendous impact. Yet even as it was forced backward, it swept its wings forward and fired carapace feathers at the front.
Its target was the wounded Enoch. Gritting his teeth, he pressed his wound and dove behind a nearby pillar for cover. The pillar's surface immediately shattered, spraying fragments against his cheek.
Enoch peeked out to assess the enemy.
Carapace bullets at range, Carapace Lance up close — the seamless chain of attacks was enough to send chills down even Enoch's spine.
But Sirocco wasn't one to back down from that.
While the beast was focused on firing feather-bullets at Enoch, she leapt, kicking off the L-shaped corner's steel railing twice in rapid succession to accelerate. She began her descent from the sky.
The girl's fair thighs — slender yet shapely — were fully exposed beneath her short skirt, billowing in the wind.
Sirocco soared across the sky and raised one leg high above her head. Like a pitcher's distinctive windup, her delicate ankle stretched straight upward at a 180-degree angle — then locked in place.
The beast on the ground must have sensed her devastating power, because it took a step back.
But it was already too late to dodge.
"Hmph, pa~thetic. Eat this!"
A ring of crimson light flashed at Sirocco's ankle, and with a full rotation, she drove it straight down at the enemy in a single line.
The sledgehammer-like axe kick scored a clean hit on the enemy. The entire floor shook with the tremor. The ground immediately caved in and was punched through.
CRAAASH—!
But the next instant, Sirocco's eyes went round.
What she heard was not the satisfying sound of the enemy being sent flying, but a booming thud like striking a steel wall. Only then, looking down, did she realize that a jet-black shield had suddenly materialized on the enemy's arm.
"Grr, what the—!"
Sirocco shouted in alarm, but the enemy merely flashed its gleaming eyes from behind the massive circular shield, whose origin was impossible to fathom.
The next instant, the beast swept its arm wide in the stance that had just caught Sirocco's kick, flinging her backward.
The shield it had swung immediately scattered into jet-black powder like iron filings, dissolving naturally.
The sight of that shield — reconstructing and forming at will as if responding to the enemy's intent — left him wondering what had just happened. But the answer came quickly.
Hiss, hiss, hiss—!
When the beast extended its arm to the side, jet-black ash rising from the corpses of other Magical Beasts began flowing toward the hand holding the broken Carapace Lance, as if drawn by a magnet.
Enoch took several steps back from the enemy at the sight of that reality-defying spectacle.
It was repairing the broken lance. The Magical Beast was.
Not only that, but its destroyed wings and damaged carapace were also being restored as the surrounding ash adhered to them like magnets. Had it created the shield that way as well?
By anyone's measure, this transcended the laws of nature.
The Experimental Subject was absorbing the corpses of all its dead allies in real time, reconstructing its weapons.
Regeneration unique to Experimental Magical Beasts? No, Enoch shook his head inwardly. This was nothing so simple.
In essence, it was closer to reconstruction using the bodies of allied beasts as raw material.
Apparently thinking the same thing, Sirocco, who had landed beside him and was glaring at the enemy, murmured quietly.
"......Hey, doesn't that look familiar?"
"Yeah, it's probably a form of black magic."
Enoch nodded without taking his eyes off the enemy.
The instant he saw the enemy's hidden ace, what flashed through his mind was Ixion's Unique Magic, [Life Creation].
Nothing else came to mind when watching something freely transform living matter like that.
Come to think of it, Indiviltal and Anarchilon had been the same. Both had used magic that jammed communications, and magic that fired powerful piercing lasers, respectively.
Enoch, who had been gripping the axe with all his strength, noticed that his fingertips were trembling faintly — his body acknowledging the enemy's strength.
Right now, this nameless Master Class Magical Beast before him was also evolving beyond a mere Experimental Magical Beast, ascending to another level — one that wielded magic.
Perhaps by the time the original story's timeline arrived, it might have become a named entity, an individual of immense power.
He was now certain this was an enemy he might not be able to defeat even at full condition.
Could this, too, be one of Ixion's machinations, having meddled with Tantalus's Experimental Subjects?
Enoch clenched his teeth, shook off the thoughts trying to multiply needlessly, and immediately lowered his stance.
He cleared his mind and focused only on the enemy before him.
Last time, Sirocco had been grievously wounded by a weapon created through Ixion's [Life Creation].
If that was the case, the power of the carapace on these Experimental Magical Beasts he had modified with his Unique Magic must surpass even the body-strengthening magic of the Beast-kin, famed for their indestructibility.
If either Sirocco or Enoch were even grazed by a carapace-based attack, a critical wound was certain.
Just then, Sirocco stomped the ground beside him with a heavy THUD—, scattering bright red light from her ankle.
"Hmph, you think I'll let it finish recovering?"
Sirocco's eyes flashed cold as she kicked off the ground and broke into an explosive sprint.
The beast also spread its wings and began to rise into the air once more.
Sirocco zigzagged across the ground, charging at the enemy, but the beast had already read every move a step ahead and launched its counter.
The instant Sirocco's bare foot deftly kicked away the side of the Carapace Lance, the beast twisted its body and slammed its massive shoulder into the wolf-eared girl.
"Ngh!"
The stance Sirocco had been maintaining on one leg crumbled helplessly.
The beast grabbed Sirocco's leg and swung her around like a giant swing, then hurled her straight at Enoch.
Immediately after, seeing the beast spread its wings and sweep them toward him, Enoch flinched.
He knew from the earlier attack. That wasn't just a movement for flying—
It was the firing motion for its carapace feathers.
In his current condition, unable to fight directly, he couldn't afford to lose Sirocco — his only remaining combat asset.
"Sirocco!"
Without a moment to think, he leapt into the air. Catching the incoming Sirocco from above, Enoch immediately half-rotated his body.
WHEEEEN—!
The next instant, carapace feather bullets the size of .45 caliber pistol rounds stormed into Enoch's back. His body convulsed violently, as if struck by an electric shock.
"Hey, you......"
Sirocco's trembling, moisture-laden voice rang faintly in his ears from within his arms.
In the instant they fell, Enoch pressed Sirocco's head down with his arm, desperately shielding her.
He clenched his teeth against the searing agony. Alive. He had survived. Enoch reached into the breast of his jacket and pulled out a plastic ampoule. He bit off the cap and spat it out, then tilted his head back and swallowed the contents in one gulp. He drank every last ampoule remaining from the previous mission.
His heart gave a single heavy THUMP, and a sensation like fierce heat surging through his entire body washed over him.
Even in this moment, his knowledge of the original work did not fail him.
The Emergency Medical Ampoule's most distinctive property was that it was a compound formulated to rapidly heal wounded bodies — even extracting foreign objects in order to mend them.
With a sizzling hiss like burning flesh, Enoch's wounds began regenerating, and the bullets embedded in his body were all forced out.
It couldn't restore lost blood, but the dramatic effect of the ampoule — freeing the body and rapidly healing it — more than compensated for that drawback.
As expected, Enoch's knowledge of the original work proved correct once again.
After sliding to a long landing on the ground, he flexed his hand open and closed with one knee bent — no problems.
Holding Sirocco in his left arm, he eyed the enemy from the side.
The beast immediately swept its wings again and unleashed a barrage of feather bullets.
Enoch turned the axe in his right hand sideways, shielding his head and heart while becoming Sirocco's shield.
Once more, searing impacts that pierced flesh struck his entire body, scattering blood. Nearly every bullet hit, but those embedded in his body were immediately expelled and regeneration began.
Enoch suppressed the pain, rose to his feet, and allowed himself a faint inner smile. This works. With just this—
But that confidence didn't last even seconds.
The wavering of his vision from the inheritance's aftereffects had kept him from detecting the Master Class Magical Beast's approach in time.
The enemy drew its lance arm far back and unleashed a lethal strike aimed straight at him.
Enoch instinctively angled the axe and began deflecting the enemy's lightning-fast thrust at a slant.
The long-reach weapon shafts ground against each other, throwing cherry-red sparks, and the metallic resonance detonated — in that very instant——
——the beast simply let go of its lance.
"......?!"
A razor-sharp question pierced through. It had closed to point-blank range and abandoned its own weapon? Why?
With a soft thunk — almost as if deliberately — the beast's massive, empty hand slowly reached for Enoch's waist.
The instant the enemy's green gleam flashed—
From the crown of his head to the tips of his toes, a staggering impact swept through his entire body in the blink of an eye, and his body was lifted into the air.
The jet-black ash that had been drifting in the air around the beast coalesced in its hand, transforming into a massive lance that punched clean through Enoch's waist.
As the lance was ripped free, Enoch staggered a few steps. His right flank was gone. It was as if a giant compass had drawn a perfect circle and cleanly scooped away one side of his waist.
If he looked in a mirror, the cross-section of his ribs would surely be visible, his organs laid bare for all to see.
Enoch hesitantly brought his left hand to where his waist had been and tried to grasp it. But no matter how many times he clenched and unclenched, the only thing his empty hand caught was the thick, wet blood streaming down.
As if only now remembering, blood gushed forth, and in proportion, his thoughts blurred at a terrifying pace.
"This, can't be."
Enoch collapsed to his knees, bleeding.
No matter how long he waited, the damaged flesh did not regenerate. It seemed the efficacy of Holy Sejour's vaunted Emergency Medical Ampoule couldn't fully cope with a wound this severe.
Unable to endure the agony, Enoch's cells had long since given up on their host, abandoning even pain itself.
Darkness surged from every direction, and an absurd, bottomless loneliness descended.
And when he opened his eyes, the sight before him made Enoch stop breathing without meaning to.
Atop the snow-white stone sparring arena of Rhodes.
There, the Sword Saint of the Waves lay facedown, drenched in blood.