An azure glow erupted. The Knight-class Honkai beast stumbled, staggering back several steps. The resulting tremors caused the airport runway to crack.
The commotion attracted the Chariot-class Honkai beast, which hadn't wandered far. It turned around, no longer needing to strain to find its target. The dazzling blue light and the massive Honkai energy reaction had already pinpointed it.
"Chariot!"
"Knight!"
The two colossal Honkai beasts charged, one after the other—towards the sa target.
The concrete runway no longer just cracked; fragnts of concrete bounced like beans scattered on a drum.
Mikael simply extended his hands, seemingly unfazed, glancing at the even larger Knight...
"Ah!"
Carole's scream was drowned out by the deafening roar of the impact. Light flared. Hua instinctively raised her arms to shield her eyes, but she suppressed the urge and looked to the sides instead.
Two enormous chanical arms extended from Mikael's gauntlets, halting the two Honkai beasts' charge. The chanical arms weren't solid, but semi-transparent, glowing with a faint blue light. Yet, under the imnse pressure from the Honkai beasts, Hua could clearly hear the groaning of twisting tal.
"Get back!"
Mikael only had ti to shout these two words.
Then, the chanical hands shifted from blocking to grabbing. Taking advantage of the Honkai beasts' montum, he pulled them towards each other, slamming them together.
Even with the warning, Hua and Carole, despite stepping back, were nearly sent flying by the force of the impact.
When the dust settled, a colossal figure stood before the two girls, radiating a blue light bright enough to illuminate the entire airport. It was—
Like the chanical arms, a gigantic, semi-real humanoid cha.
No, not quite humanoid. The figure, over twenty ters tall, seed to be only the upper torso of the cha.
The two chanical arms each gripped a foreleg of the Honkai beasts. As Mikael made a hugging motion, the chanical arms simultaneously dragged the beasts towards the cha's chest.
In the center of the cha's semi-transparent chest, a partially exposed turbine engine spun rapidly, spewing scorching flas that incinerated the Chariot in an instant.
Hua slled a faint acidic odor and covered her nose and mouth.
The Knight, unwilling to be passively incinerated, thrashed its hind legs, trying to break free from the chanical arm's grip. When it realized its struggles only caused more pain to its captured foreleg, it wisely changed tactics, thrusting its massive lance at the cha.
Clang!
A large dent appeared on the cha's surface. Mikael stepped back to absorb the impact, which gave the Knight a false sense of advantage. It raised its lance again, aiming a sweeping blow at the cha's head.
Mikael reacted swiftly. Releasing the now-lifeless Chariot, his left arm shot back, the back of the chanical hand intercepting the lance just as it was about to strike the cha's face.
At the sa ti, the right chanical hand tightened its grip, cracking the Knight's white exoskeleton with a crunching sound.
Finally, the Knight, howling in pain, tried to retract its lance, but the tip was caught firmly in the chanical hand.
"Hey... Hua, have you ever heard of the Thousand-Ard Guanyin?" [Guanyin is a Buddhist Bodhisattva associated with compassion]
"?"
Hua couldn't understand why Mikael had the ti to ask such a question in the middle of a fierce battle.
It was simply a habit he'd developed from interacting with Elysia. She often used elegant (and chuuni) phrases during combat, and Mikael would respond in kind.
It was their little thing. Nothing more.
But Hua still caught a glimpse of Mikael's upturned lips, a look of triumph. But what was he so triumphant about?
No, it wasn't exactly triumph, but rather a sense of relief, a release after long suppression.
It truly was relief. For the first ti in years, Mikael could fight without worrying about exposing his powers, or the abnormal Honkai energy reactions. He could just let loose.
Shing!
Countless chanical arms unfolded from the back of the half-humanoid cha, fanning out in a semicircle.
"Wood..." Out of copyright concerns, Mikael almost shouted the na of the technique's inspiration. [Reference to the Wood Style: Shin Sūsenju from Naruto]
But it didn't matter whether he shouted it or not. Mikael had even equipped the elbows of the chanical arms with rocket boosters. With bursts of fiery light, one iron fist after another slamd into the Knight-class Honkai beast, echoing with dull thuds.
The barely-alive Chariot, having caught its breath, thought it had a chance again. Seeing such a brutal display of force, it wisely played dead, collapsing back onto the ground.
"997, 998, 999, 1000! Stop!"
"Hah... This thousand fists, 0.1 years in the making! Can you withstand it?! Hahaha!"
Mikael stopped his attack, counting the blows. Not only was the Knight-class Honkai beast reduced to a puddle of silicone, but the dozens of chanical arms he had constructed were also wrecked from the intense combat.
He glanced at the still-playing-dead Chariot. One of the remaining functional chanical arms lifted, charging for a few seconds before firing a blue beam from its plasma cannon, piercing straight through the Chariot's body.
"Over!"
Mikael turned around to et Hua and Carole's stunned gazes.
Dozens of flashlights flickered in the distance. mbers of the support team had caught up, ready to take charge of the two survivors behind Mikael.
For so reason, during the handover, Mikael felt everyone looking at him strangely...
"Uh... are they already starting to see as different?"
Mikael chuckled wryly, feeling a pang of disappointnt.
Especially when he looked at Hua, who seed to avoid his gaze...
Mikael waved his hand. "If there's nothing else, I'll continue."
He didn't expect any surprising responses.
But sotis, the unexpected happens precisely when you least expect it.
"That... um, Big Brother Mikael!"
"What is it?"
He turned to Carole.
"You're so amazing... Can I learn that move?"
Before he could answer, Hua shook her arm. "Carole... that kind of power, you can't just learn it, can you?"
In the flashlight beams, Mikael saw Hua glance at him quickly. When he t her gaze, she quickly lowered her eyelids, looking away.
"Ah! Ah! Sorry, I got too excited, hehehe..."
Carole was taken away by the support team. Her ntal state seed unstable, requiring the attention of a psychological counselor (hopefully not Elvin).
As she left, Mikael overheard two young support team soldiers explaining to Carole: "Did you see the gauntlets on Squad Leader Mikael's arms? Those are called Void Archives. It's said that the power he just used ca from them!"
The other quickly retorted, "Hey! Saying that is like questioning Squad Leader Mikael's strength! Look at his scores in the simulation training room. I'm telling you, even without Void Archives, he could easily crush those two Honkai beasts!"
"You're such a fanboy! Although Squad Leader Mikael's physical abilities and Honkai adaptability are monstrously high..."
Mikael silently turned and walked towards the darkness.
So... it wasn't exclusion of the different, but simply envy and admiration for this power? This kind of misunderstanding... was fine...
But the truth would eventually co out.
"Um..."
"Hmm?"
Hua lowered her head, biting her lip, hands clasped behind her back. Watching Mikael's disappearing figure, under the strange gazes of the surrounding soldiers, she finally managed to whisper:
"Be careful..."
The voice was so soft that even the soldiers next to her didn't hear it clearly, but Hua felt Mikael had heard.
Because she clearly saw him, before vanishing in a flash of blue light, raise his arm without turning back and give her a thumbs-up.
His movent was equally subtle, so subtle that no one but Hua noticed.
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