Chapter 50 - Operation (2)

The vehicle pushed the Mad Buffalo back. For a moment, at least. In that instant when the engine's thrust sent us bursting out of the Breath.

But it soon became clear that things wouldn't be so easy.

Creatures filled the windows.

THUD! BOOM!

The vehicle rocked under the impacts. Creatures hemmed us in like a crowd of people.

THUD!

The vehicle slammed heavily into the buffalo herd and stopped. Trapped by the dense ring of creatures, the engine could do nothing.

"Air support!" Ami shouted beside me as I kept the accelerator pressed down hard. "Requesting air support!"

["Air support inbound."]

Sylvia's flat voice came over the radio.

["Deploying all drones."]

Propellers whirred overhead.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOOM!

A powerful shock wave struck the side of the vehicle. Drone strikes exploded all around us. A three-eyed goat burst over the window. Bones crunched, organs ruptured.

The varied sounds of death were drowned out by the sharp explosions that followed.

A sliver of the view cleared. Between flashes of explosions and hide and bone torn airborne, a road through the wasteland appeared.

I floored it.

VROOOM!

"There's our opening!"

Ami laughed gleefully over the roaring exhaust.

"Let's go! To the cliff!"

BOOM!

A heavy footstep sounded right beside the vehicle. An enormous creature's leg filled the rearview mirror. The unclassified creature was huge. A body two stories tall meant its ash-gray-furred legs were absurdly big, too.

We'd be flattened if it stepped on us.

"Two o'clock!"

SCREEECH!

"Eleven o'clock!"

SCREEEECH!

I wrenched the wheel like mad at Ami's directions.

BOOM! BOOOM!

I could feel the gigantic creature pursuing us. Its shadow swallowed the vehicle again and again, and each time we barely escaped it.

Diagonally, then straight. Brake. Accelerator. Slam on the brakes.

Flooooor it!

BOOOM!

We never went backward.

"We're getting clear," Ami murmured, twisting around to look behind us. "Open the roof once we're through the ring of creatures."

"Yes, ma'am."

I kept my foot on the accelerator.

"Opening it in three seconds."

The view opens up.

An immense wasteland stretched before us, a place slowly crumbling under the wind's erosion.

We'd broken through the ring of creatures. The gigantic unclassified creature was still right on our heels, but at least we were through the ring.

I reached out and pressed the button.

WHIRR

The roof opened. At the same moment, an enormous explosion erupted far behind us.

KABOOOM!

"What was that?"

"Richard."

My hair whipped wildly in the wind. White strands kept obscuring my vision. Squinting, I glanced at the rearview mirror.

An enormous blast cloud hung where the ring of creatures had been. The menacing roar of motorcycle engines came from within the smoke.

The seniors seemed to be coming out after us. They would kill creatures from their individual motorcycles and eventually regroup with us.

Creatures flew through the air in the hazy cloud, defying gravity.

I suspected Walker was grabbing them and throwing them.

"Two o'clock!"

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The thunderous noise battered my eardrums. I looked back toward the side mirror. The gigantic creature's limbs were moving rapidly.

It scuttled over the ground on limbs so long they looked liable to tangle with one another. It was almost as fast as the vehicle. Something that huge had no business being so sickeningly fast.

CRASH!

An ash-gray hand smashed the left side mirror off.

I clicked my tongue and hastily swerved.

"Hilde, I'm firing a missile."

"Yes, ma'am."

Ami hoisted a shoulder-fired missile launcher as long as she was tall onto her shoulder. Its muzzle pointed at the black-sclera-eyed creature blocking half the rearview mirror.

She called out in a clear voice.

"Bang!"

An explosion.

With the roof open, the sound battered my eardrums even harder. A blast erupted against the creature's ash-gray leg.

THUD!

It dropped to one knee. Whitish smoke rose.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have taken much damage.

"No luck. It's going to get back up."

"I'll keep driving."

"Yeah."

Ami calmly prepared the next shot.

"Let's get to the bridge."

I'd memorized the entire map before dawn.

Beyond the wasteland surrounding the safe point lay a ruined city. Following the cracked asphalt through it would bring us to a footbridge, built for tourists to connect two sheer cliffs. The gorge was deep. Anything that fell would have a hard time making it back up alive.

Once we crossed and brought the bridge down, the operation would be over.

So far, things were going smoothly. Four successive shots had put some distance between us and the unclassified creature. Drones were shooting down the airborne creatures, while Aki picked off those with ranged attacks, like Witches, one after another.

In the rearview mirror, creatures are still defying gravity and shooting skyward. Shock waves strike the back of my head as they pass. The noise pounds my eardrums numb.

Not much farther now. At last, the bridge began to appear in the distance.

If we could just keep this up.

We'd reach the bridge without any...

BZZZZT!

KABOOM!

The back of the vehicle flew skyward. My view plunged toward the ground.

"Aagh!"

Ami's reflexive scream. The sound of the launcher hitting the ground and rolling away.

Everything tumbled through my vision as the vehicle rolled over and over down the road.

The vehicle slammed into a building with its rusted framework fully exposed.

BOOM!

Agony shot through my entire body.

"Ugh..."

"Hilde."

Ami's voice was grave.

We were inside the overturned vehicle. Hanging from my seat belt, I was wedged between the shattered window and the seat.

Ami, who'd unfastened her seat belt to fire the missiles, had already righted herself inside the crushed vehicle. I could see the wounds on her face and body slowly closing.

The scent of blood. The smell of something burning. Liquid ran down between my eyebrows, obscuring my vision. I seemed to have a wound somewhere on my head.

My body wouldn't obey me.

"We have to get out. It's going to blow."

Ami quickly sliced through the seat belt supporting me with a knife.

"Either that, or the creature will crush us with its arm."

No sooner had she spoken than the creature's footsteps stopped.

But I couldn't move at all. I tried, but not even a finger would budge. I watched Ami deftly kick an opening in the crushed vehicle. She climbed out, reached an arm back in, grabbed me, and dragged me outside.

Cold wind struck my body.

Before me stood the enormous creature, looking down at us.

"I'll keep it busy. Pull yourself together, get up, and head for the bridge."

Ami tossed out the words lightly as she shot into the air.

The creature filled my vision, raising an arm to strike her down. Blue light shimmered through its gray fur. Blue electricity.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

The current enveloping its body made an ominous sound.

CRACKLE! SNAP!

That thing uses electricity?

We hadn't known because it was unclassified. That had troubled the seniors most when they devised the operation. We didn't know what that gigantic creature was. We couldn't know how powerful its attacks were, or what kind it would use, until we faced it.

In fact, we still didn't know exactly.

Ami kicked off the ground and flew into the air.

KABOOM!

For a while, I could only watch the fight helplessly.

Until my body obeyed me, there was nothing I could do but watch in misery. I realized just how fatal impaired healing could be out here.

Worse still, I was the root cause of all this. Ami was almost too fast to follow with my eyes, but she was outmatched in strength. Gritting my teeth, I struggled to get up.

'Get up. Get up.'

'Get up and pick up your sword!'

BOOM!

Ami was slammed hard into the ground.

"Ami!"

My heart sank.

At last, my limbs barely began to obey. Gritting my teeth, I pressed my palms against the ground and pushed myself up. The creature slowly turned its head to look at me as I stood.

That right arm was what had swatted Ami to the ground like a fly.

As I bit my lip and put a hand on my sword hilt, gleaming wire bound its arm tight.

"Hilde!"

Ami sprang into the air as though she had springs on her feet.

The wire extended from her gloves. I watched her soar up to the creature's head, then dive as swiftly as a hawk, pulling the wire taut.

Blood burst from the bound arm.

"Go!"

"Together..."

"If you don't get to the bridge, the operation falls apart!"

Flesh burst out, but the arm wasn't severed. Was the force of her dive not enough? That wire must have easily shredded the Mad Buffalo back then.

This creature held up sickeningly well, and Ami cut away the wire binding its arm.

Back to square one.

The creature twisted and swung its electrified right arm.

BZZZT! BOOM!

Its arm struck the asphalt, sending a powerful current through the area right beside me. If I hadn't dodged, I would have burned. I rolled clear of the current and scrambled to my feet.

The lingering pain still hampered my movements. But I was slowly improving.

Ami bounded in between the creature's limbs.

"The bridge is just ahead. Run!"

I bit my lip until it bled.

I couldn't bring myself to leave. But I knew I had to go. Toward the bridge. To lure the other creatures to our original destination.

Even as I turned, though, I couldn't stop myself from looking back at Ami.

Soaring into the sky, she met my eyes and faintly furrowed her brow.

"Hilde!"

She wrapped her wire around the creature's neck and shouted.

"You should have been prepared to stake your comrades' lives when you came out here!"

Blood burst from the creature's neck.

The sound of flesh tearing, a scream like scraping sheet metal. I didn't see the blood spray. The moment I heard Ami's words, I had broken into a sprint.

She was right in every respect. The operation had to succeed. The bridge had to come down. And I had to trust that my comrade would win and come back.

I ran toward the bridge.

Apparently, its neck hadn't been severed. The creature's furious cry and an electrical explosion shook the air. This blast was so powerful that its shock wave struck my back hard as it passed.

The roar of motorcycle engines grows louder, too.

I thought I heard Aki calling Ami's name behind me. Concern colored the seniors' voices as they called to her. I ran, ignoring the worry squeezing my heart.

I could feel the ground shaking. The horde pursuing me seemed to have closed the distance. The reasons were obvious. First, I had slowed down considerably. Second, the seniors who'd been slaughtering the horde seemed to have joined Ami.

Level seven, my ass. That thing had to be at least level eight.

"Why are you coming here?"

Ami's desperate shouts grew more distant.

"Richard, Richard! Help Hilde! There are still too many left!"

"Ami, come over here!"

The seniors' urgent voices were fading beneath the horde's footsteps.

"You've lost too much blood!"

"Richard! Go to Hilde!"

"When you get down to it, that bastard caused this! Let him take responsibility himself!"

Jason Tvein's furious voice rang through the air, loud enough to carry even over the massive electrical explosions.

"What the hell did he lure here?"

The bridge.

A broad bridge stretched before me, spanning the gorge. I gritted my teeth and ran, pouring all my strength into my legs. Biting my lip, I raced across without looking back.

They were truly close now. I could feel the creatures' heavy presence behind me.

But they never caught me. With some distance still between me and the targets, I finally complete the operation. I sprinted the length of the bridge and spun around as soon as I reached the other side. The bridge, broad enough for ten people to cross abreast with ease, teemed with creatures. Mad Buffalo. Young Goats. At some point, Plague Gods had joined them.

We were supposed to blow it up with a bomb, but the bomb had been flung away and lost when the vehicle overturned.

Still, it wasn't as though I had no weapon.

KRRRASH!

I drew my sword.

I cut without hesitation. The sword fit my hand. And my body now had the stamina to execute the technique I remembered.

The end of the bridge was severed cleanly along the arc of the enormous sword Yun had placed in my hands.

Cleanly cut, it plunged helplessly downward.

The bridge and the creatures dropped away.

I closed my eyes and opened them. They were gone from sight.