Skadi held the iron door in one hand. It was taller and thicker than she was, yet she carried it as casually as if it were a cardboard shield. She looked back at Takao, her gaze seeming to ask, "Like this?"
Takao forced down the shock in his heart and nodded hard.
"Yeah! Exactly like that! Tony, stay close! Skadi, you take point!"
"Understood."
Skadi turned back around, raised the massive iron-door shield slightly in front of her, and locked her crimson eyes onto the passage where the noisy footsteps and shouts were echoing from outside the cave.
The first armed member of the Ten Rings to rush over reached the entrance and hadn't even had time to see what was going on inside. All he saw was the huge iron door that had once been part of their prison, now swinging toward him like it was being driven by a battering ram, bringing with it an irresistible, deadly gust of wind.
"Bang!!"
A dull, heavy crash.
The man didn't even manage a scream before he was hit as if by a speeding truck. His body warped from the impact, then flew backward and smashed into the wall on the opposite side of the passage. He slid down limply and never moved again.
Skadi's footsteps didn't pause for even a moment. Holding the door like a shield, she strode forward with steady, swift steps, beginning her "steamroller" advance.
"Enemy attack! Open fire!!"
More gunmen from the Ten Rings poured in, panicking as they emptied their bullets at the white figure holding the door in the passage.
Rat-tat-tat-tat—!
Bullets hammered the iron door like a rainstorm, throwing off a spray of sparks and clanging noisily. But in Skadi's hand, the door was as solid and unmoving as bedrock, not even trembling. Every bullet was stopped by this wall of absolute defense, leaving the two people behind her completely unharmed.
Occasionally a stray round came in from the side, but Skadi would just casually tilt or swing the door, batting it away like she was shooing a fly.
Step by step, she pressed forward.
A corner in the passage? She just slammed into it with the door, shattering stone and brick.
An obstacle in the way? She took it and whoever was behind it and swatted them both out of the way together.
Enemies trying to flank from the side? She didn't even need to change her stance—one horizontal sweep of the "door-shield" like a fan, and everything in that direction was cleared out.
This wasn't a fight. This was a one-sided, violent demolition job.
Tony followed behind, clutching his car battery. Watching Skadi carve a straight path through the enemy stronghold like Moses parting the sea, he saw only crushed walls, flattened weapons, and unconscious (or worse) enemies left in their wake. Carefully stepping over the rubble and the "obstacles" on the ground, he couldn't help muttering to Takao:
"Hey, buddy, I've gotta say… your 'magic' is a bit too hardcore. I was expecting energy beams, glowing runes, maybe some chanting. But you went straight to summoning a humanoid battering ram with a built-in, absolute defense field?"
Takao looked at Skadi's unstoppable back and smiled.
"As long as it works, that's what matters, right?"
"Works? This is art!" Tony stared in awe as Skadi smashed an entire machine-gun nest—gun and gunners together—into the wall with the door. "Brutal, but beautifully efficient! I'm starting to really like your 'magic'!"
From the end of the passage came denser footsteps and panicked shouting, as if the remaining forces were gathering for one last stand.
Skadi never slowed. She simply gripped the iron-door shield a little more tightly. There was no emotion in her crimson eyes, only absolute focus on carrying out Takao's orders.
She didn't need to think.
She just needed to charge.
The deep, winding tunnel finally ended. Ahead, harsh sunlight and the hot wind of the desert poured in. Takao signaled Skadi to stop, then carefully pressed himself against the rock at the cave mouth and peered outside through a narrow gap.
What he saw made his heart sink.
On the open ground outside the cave, dozens of armed men from the Ten Rings were massed together in a dark, dense crowd. Clearly alarmed by the chaos inside, they were now on full alert.
It wasn't just assault rifles. Two heavy machine guns were already set up behind sandbag bunkers, their dark muzzles aimed straight at the cave entrance. Worse yet, Takao spotted at least three men with shoulder-launched RPGs moving through the crowd, trying to find firing positions.
The firepower arrayed there far exceeded what had appeared in the original movie when Tony made his escape.
Takao pulled back, his brows knitting tightly.
He was confident in Skadi's defense, but he had no idea where its upper limit truly lay. Against sustained fire from heavy machine guns—especially direct hits from powerful rockets—he didn't dare gamble with her safety.
"The situation's a bit tricky. There are a lot of them outside—heavy machine guns and RPGs," Takao said quickly to the two behind him.
Tony's expression turned grim.
"Damn it! Did these guys drag out their entire arms warehouse for this?"
"Skadi," Takao turned to the girl quietly waiting for instructions, "can your defense stop a rocket?"
Skadi tilted her head slightly, as if considering it, then replied honestly, "I don't know. But if you wish, I can try."
"No. We're not trying that." Takao vetoed the idea immediately.
His gaze swept over the jagged rock walls of the cave, and a plan took shape in an instant.
"We're not going out. Skadi, use your sword to cut some big enough rocks from the ceiling and walls of the cave." Takao pointed at the stone around them. "Then you stand just inside the entrance, holding the door like a shield to block the stray bullets. With your other hand, throw those rocks out—aim for where the people are most packed together, especially the heavy machine guns and the RPG guys!"
Skadi understood. It was similar to how she usually dealt with obstacles on the battlefield—only this time, the "obstacles" were people. She nodded without hesitation, then set the massive metal door down with a heavy thud just inside the entrance, in a position that could block most lines of fire.
Next, she drew her grotesque greatsword with a backward motion. With what looked like an almost casual swing at the rock wall beside her—
"Boom!"
The blade sliced into the solid stone as easily as if it were tofu. A chunk of rock the size of a car tire tore free and crashed heavily to the ground.
Takao picked up a stone about the size of his fist, weighed it in his hand, and said to Skadi, "Use ones about this size. Too big and it'll be inconvenient to throw. Focus on speed and accuracy—aim for their weapons and the densest parts of the crowd!"
Skadi bent down and, with just one hand, easily lifted a boulder nearly half as big as Takao himself. The casual way she did it made Tony's eye twitch again.
She walked behind the iron-door shield, took a brief look outside through the gap, then her seemingly slender arm snapped forward. The boulder shot out like a pitched baseball.
"Whoosh—boom!!"
The rock tore through the air with a chilling shriek, tracing a deadly arc before it came crashing down on the nearest heavy machine gun position.
From outside, the terrorists only saw a huge dark shape fly out of the cave. Before they could react, it slammed down with crushing force.
The sandbag bunker exploded into debris, the heavy machine gun and the two gunners behind it reduced to pulp, dust and dirt erupting into the air.
And that was only the beginning.
The first boulder had just landed when the second and third followed right after it.
They were like projectiles launched from ancient siege engines—but far faster and more accurate than any machine.
"Boom! Kaboom—!"
The other heavy machine gun nest vanished under the rain of stone as well.
"It's rocks! There's someone in the cave throwing rocks!" one of the terrorists yelled in panic in the local language.
"Scatter! Spread out, now!"
But Skadi's "rock-throwing" had a huge coverage area. She didn't need to aim at every individual. She only had to hurl the stones into the thickest clusters of people and the places where their weapons were set up.
Every rock that landed wiped out a small patch of the battlefield, plunging the entire formation into chaos and terror.
One of the rocket gunners tried to shoulder his RPG and take aim at the cave, but just as he did, a roaring boulder came in and smashed him and the launcher both into the rock wall behind him, turning them into a bloody abstract painting.
"God…" Tony muttered as he watched through the gap, staring at the scene outside that looked like the ground was being pounded by a meteor shower. "I was wrong, Takao. This isn't magic. You've summoned a humanoid self-propelled catapult… with infinite ammo, built-in targeting, and firepower on par with naval guns!"
(End of Chapter)
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