High above the battlefield—
Hermes leaned forward, eyes sharp.
"That's really bad. I thought Luthar and Ryuu would fight until the beast tired. Then Bell would finish it with one heroic blow."
Asfi's voice was flat.
"Except the monster isn't tiring."
Hermes exhaled slowly.
"And Luthar… wasn't in the camp."
He scanned the basin again—and paused.
"There."
—
Below, in the burning glade—
Ryuu's footing slipped. Blood traced a line down her temple. The Black Goliath roared, claws descending.
Z-ZZRAK.
A searing beam sliced across the Goliath's forearm—hot enough to scorch skin, powerful enough to deflect its trajectory. The blow missed Ryuu by inches, slamming into the earth with a deafening crash.
A figure stepped into view, smoke curling from the muzzle of a compact Hellgun.
Luthar.
The heavy-barreled las-weapon hissed with residual heat. Its casing glinted with sacred steel, red Martian sigils etched along its flank. He stood calmly—an island of silence in a sea of violence.
The Goliath turned toward him, enraged.
Luthar stared back.
He didn't fire again.
Instead, he stepped back—slow, deliberate—his robes dragging through the moss. The servo-skull hovered beside him, scanning, whirring softly. From its grab clamp, the Power Axe dangled in wait.
Behind his mask, Luthar's eyes shifted rapidly, overlays flickering across his vision.
Observation: Lasfire caused damage but insufficient penetration.
'Should I switch to melee engagement or use an enhanced energy weapon?'
While thinking this, his gaze turned momentarily to the others.
Bell was crawling to his feet. Welf and Mikoto staggered behind him. Ryuu was wounded. Lili still crouched, helpless.
The servo-skull beeped. The Power Axe was ready.
Luthar exhaled softly, his memory surfacing—another battlefield, another monster.
"…Then we do this the old way."
He caught the axe as it dropped into his palm.
The weapon hummed into life, its head crackling with blue energy.
Luthar turned and walked ahead again, taking deliberate steps while speaking words—not to be heard, but to be recorded.
"Spirits of steel, heed my step.
By sanctified spark and machine-born wrath,
let this impurity be erased."
Hermes, looking from above, tightened his hands in fury as the script he had written collapsed in front of him. Everything was falling apart—Bell's blow had failed, Luthar had come, and the Black Goliath refused to give up. This was not a deviation. It was a total breakdown of the show he had planned.
The battleground appeared to be holding its breath.
Infuriated, the Goliath turned to face Luthar.
Luthar did not shrink from its stare.
The Hellgun stayed steady in his left palm, steam rising from its vents with each faint hum of the recharging coils. The Power Axe in his right hand, its electrified blade flashing a piercing cerulean gleam against the moss.
The servo-skull floated slightly behind him, transmitting telemetry and threat data.
Ryuu, panting heavily, managed to rise to one knee. Her quick glance detected his movements.
"Luthar…?"
He kept on moving forward. His voice sliced through the smoke, calm and steely from behind his vox-mask.
"Ryuu, launch a strike from behind."
Ryuu blinked but still obeyed. With a groan, she pushed herself to the left, her cloak flashing behind her as she sprinted at full speed.
Welf yelled from the opposite side.
"What about us?!"
Luthar did not look back.
"Stay away from this place."
He then proceeded to approach the monster step by step. He proceeded with the Hellgun in one hand and the Power Axe in the other, like an iron and fire judgment. His robes, singed at the hem, trailed behind him. The servo-skull trailed just above, its lens aglow, projecting live schematics of the beast into Luthar's optics.
He adjusted his grip.
Ryuu moved as a blur across the field. Her sword caught the light as she leaped a fallen tree and approached from behind—quickly, silently, and relentlessly. Her task was straightforward: slice and grab attention.
The Goliath screamed again and whirled toward her, but it was too late.
THRUM.
A searing beam from Luthar's Hellgun lanced into the creature's side, halting its motion mid-turn. The focused laser lasbolt burned deep into its hide, the residual heat setting the moss beneath it alight with flickering flame.
CLANK.
Ryuu's blade carved across the Goliath's ankle, drawing a line of dark blood. The beast staggered—only for a heartbeat, taken off balance.
Z-ZRAK. Z-ZRAK.
Beams of red-hot lasfire protruded from the treeline. Liliruca, little but unyielding behind a shattered stone column, launched precise attacks into the creature's flank. Each shot, calibrated by the hovering servo-skull, was delivered with perfect accuracy, scorching into exposed muscle and blistering through weak joints between the hide.
The Goliath shouted, raising one gigantic arm and swinging.
Luthar did not back down.
Instead, he moved into the action, timing his attack with frigid precision. The Power Axe arose, not in defense, but in judgment.
WHAM—
The muscle touched the edge.
The beast's momentum pushed its limb directly into the crackling blade. The axe bit deep into its forearm, causing muscle, sinew, and bone to split. The weapon's energy field erupted suddenly, breaking the limb along its length and blasting the parts to either side with crackling power.
The Goliath roared. Blood sprayed, but it did not reach Luthar because he was continually activating the Aegis Displacement Field, which was invisible but extremely powerful.
Luthar did not slow down. His grip on the axe never shifted, his stance unbroken. One arm, one action, and one wound shifted the tide.
"Ryuu—again!"
She responded without speaking, twisting around and executing a dazzling slice over its exposed shoulder.
The creature swirled furiously, attempting to track both targets.
And still—
BANG.
Liliruca's next shot hit it dead in the eye. The beast reeled back, roaring with rage.
Hermes watched in bewilderment from above.
"What kind of weapon is that?" he murmured.
Asfi failed to respond. Her imagination kept reliving the scene: the instant the Goliath's arm made contact with the axe, it began slicing through the limb with little resistance, as if the entire arm were made of butter.
Back down there—
Luthar moved forward again, his gaze fixed on the Goliath.
"This is easier than I expected," he mumbled.
"Should I hack you into bits or blast you with the cannon?"
He leveled the Hellgun.
Another explosion.
Another blast of anguish.
The monster experienced fear for the first time.
[ I want to ask this Time I used QuillBot's paragraph rewrite of whatever that thing is to change some paragraphs, so If anyone doesn't like it, You guys can point out anytime now. ]
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