[#1: What is this bastard doing?]
#1 wondered as he looked at the movement of the target. He could see that the one they were chasing was moving toward one of the Mechas.
But for what? Mecha were not things that could be activated or used just because one wanted to. There were many protocols for defense and anti-theft installed and unless the man knew of them then it would be useless even if he entered.
[#2: What do we do? Should we bomb the Mecha just in case?]
[ #18: Are you crazy? I am not paying the price for this shit.]
[ #4: I say we let him enter fully and find out it’s useless. This will waste enough time. We should also contact the boss now. Whatever he is doing, he should come back quickly with that info.]
[#1: You think I didn’t try? But the boss seems like he is in a trance. He is not responding to anything.]
A chorus of fucks sounded in the intercom. None of them knew what they should do. Or rather, they knew. Since they did not know the objective of the target, it was better to actually destroy the Mecha and stop him rather than wait and observe things moving beyond their control.
But the reality was that Knightframe type Mecha were extremely expensive and not something they could take responsibility for in case of destruction.
The one responding under the moniker of #1 hesitated, his finger hovering above the trigger for the rifle to shoot. The target was extremely close now to the Frame.
Should he shoot or not?
Was it a bait or not?
Would the man immediately counterattack if he did? All those questions moved in his mind but he knew one thing. Too many variables already appeared in this fight. Adding even more variables could only lead to true chaos and make them lose complete control of the situation or rather, lose the little control they still had.
‘Life is more important.’
His mind was finally made. Only by staying alive could they worry about being punished. Only by staying alive could he see a new day.
[ #1: I will take responsibility. All units fire, avoid missiles, and be careful of friendly fire.]
The pirates all lifted their weapons. They were not hesitating. All of them thought the same as #1. But none of them had the guts to bear the burden. Now that this was taken care of, they had nothing to worry about.
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***
The moment they readied their weapon, Noah immediately felt his senses tingling and he realized the pirates were finally doing something smart. Even if it was already too late.
—Distance is more than enough.
His armor bubbled and crimson eyes appeared all over the right side of his body before a black snake-like monster, with its maw wide open, extended from his body and rushed at one of the Mechas.
***
The others also fired, the roar of rifles filling the air and they watched as the man seemed to show no care for the bullets whistling past his eyes, watched even as his left arm was blasted, followed by his legs and a few parts of his body.
Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.
[#1: Fire your missile now! He cannot fight back! Unload everything!]
He immediately gave the order while doing the same himself. Something was definitely going to happen and he would not let it be so.
He acted without even waiting for them, blasting all his reserve of rounds, uncaring about the damages it would bring. The others, realizing the situation, did the same.
All of them launched their missiles, causing a trail of smoke as more than a dozen powerful missiles were sent at the same time.
For #1, everything seemed to happen in slow motion, even if he definitely did not have such capacity.
He could see that, even though the man had more than half of his body destroyed, his face was still covered with a large smile of victory.
He could also see that the black snake with numerous red eyes had already reached one of the Mechas and bit down powerfully around the place where the core would be.
Finally — The missiles landed and all hell broke loose.
An almost blinding light followed, as the explosion finally happened. Even while staying in the cockpit of his Mecha, he had a feeling that his ears were about to bleed because of the resulting shockwave.
Fire and dust followed, tremendously increasing the heat all around and causing all of them to step backward. An instinctual response to their fears.
The radius covered continued to climb, reaching more than 400 meters. From afar, one would think that this was a judgment sent by the gods themselves. However, the pilot of #1 had no time to care for this display.
The heat and shockwave were messing with his radars, hiding the information he so wished to have.
Was the target still alive?
It was logically impossible, right?
How could anything stay alive after such a bombardment? Even prior to this, the body of the target had been destroyed into many parts.
He should be dead.
At least — This was what he hoped.
Reality had a different plan for him. One that he could do nothing about.
One moment, there was nothing on the radar. But the next moment.
[Warning! Extreme increase in Dark Matter concentration.]
[Warning! Spacetime fluctuation of unknown origin detected.]
[Caution: It’s advised to leave the immediate area!]
He heard the warning. But by then, it was already too late.
The wind stirred, the flames vanished and at the center of all of this was a crimson giant of steel with one knee on the ground.
It showed clear signs of extreme damage. But for all this, the pressure it emanated was intense.
After all, even while kneeling, the machine towered above their own Mechas.
“What is this..?”