Chapter 99
"Irene, you...!"
Yaan wasn't the only one shocked by Irene's sudden strike.
- You hid a knight among the soldiers?!
Duunkel's Fra, unable to hide its panic, belatedly fired its machine gun, but the colossus Irene piloted blocked it with its hand.
- Urgh...!
- No, no. She hasn't awakened her mana long at all.
A freshly awakened knight handling a colossus right away-preposterous talent.
But Duunkel had no ti to admire it; he charged Irene's colossus and began pressing it down with sheer output.
- Aaaah?!
- Nice entrance, but your Fra's skill and experience are still green!
As he spoke, Yaan-eyes blazing-and Ren, who had just arrived, plunged into Duunkel's colossus.
"Ren!"
"I know. I'll rip off the hatch-just grab the pilot...!"
While the two exchanged hand signals, Duunkel's lips curved; he'd grasped their intent.
- Think bare hands can beat ?
Duunkel's voice rang through the loudspeaker as his Fra reached for Irene's cockpit.
- Wh-what?!
Duunkel blocked the cockpit entrance with his palm, opened the hatch, and stepped out.
The colossi's joints were locked together, immobilizing both.
"Abandoning your colossus to co out yourself?"
Frowning at the unexpected move, Yaan watched Duunkel land lightly and shake his head at them.
"It's been a while since I fought hand to hand-ti to stretch."
At those words Ren rushed Duunkel first.
Pang-!
Ren's fist tore the air.
When Duunkel evaded it easily, Ren's face lit with surprise.
"Your movent...!"
"Incredible strength. Without warning I'd be dead."
Grinning beneath goggles and hood, Duunkel caught Ren's fist and hurled her rightward.
"What?!"
"Your power's monstrous, but you're far too light!"
Whoosh-!
As Ren's body flew, Duunkel imdiately lunged at Yaan and threw a punch.
[Attack pattern analysis beginning. Arrival in...!]
"No, too late!"
Fwoosh!
Trusting only instinct, Yaan evaded the attack before Nill's calculation finished, cold sweat running.
'Shit, he's a beat faster than Nill's forecast.'
"Oh? You're quite the fighter. I like you more and more."
Even as he spoke, Duunkel's foot shot upward.
Yaan barely dodged the leg trying to entwine his arm; his left hand flashed toward his holster.
"Where do you think you're going!"
But Duunkel's rising knee targeted Yaan's solar plexus; Yaan jerked back and Duunkel leveled a pistol at him.
A revolver common in the Settlents.
[Trajectory prediction. Inertial control. Auto-evade.]
Bang! Bang-!
Manipulating neural signals and nanomachines, Yaan barely dodged two shots, but the sudden strain crashed over his body.
"Guh?!"
"You dodged that without mana? Astounding!"
Duunkel-overwhelming Yaan and Ren with reflexes and sheer ability.
Spitting a curse, Yaan fought to steady his trembling fra and locked eyes on Duunkel.
'Mana-boosted body, plus experience and skill beyond imagination.'
The only reason Yaan could face a mana-wielding knight was simple.
In a doctrine where infantry handles lee, Imperial and Alfraian knights-focused on colossus warfare-don't train for it.
At most, swordplay for duels or practice.
Duunkel was the first mana user Yaan had t who specialized in hand-to-hand.
'Only Irene can match him, and she's trapped in a colossus...'
aning they'd forced Irene into the Fra from the start as part of the plan.
"Let ask one thing."
"A question?"
Duunkel-face hidden by goggles and hood-addressed Yaan.
On guard, Yaan answered; Duunkel continued.
"Threatening civilians with live rounds from the start could've tarnished the Liberation Army's fa-why the blanks?"
At that, Yaan grimaced.
"Live rounds in that situation would've played right into your hands, right?"
The colonists' sentint toward the Empire had already hit rock bottom.
News of indiscriminate slaughter would have predictable fallout.
"You thought that far in so short a ti?"
"Originally ant to intimidate while we moved the target. You ruined everything."
Yaan glanced toward the corner of the port where Zurk's corpse lay.
"You're... different from every Imperial force that's passed through this colony."
As Duunkel took a step toward Yaan-
- Sir Verkut! Are you alive?!
"Prince Veric. Reinforcents aren't late after all."
Duunkel's stride halted at the coarse voice over the loudspeaker.
"Filthy traitor interfering...!"
"Traitor?"
Prince Veric, a traitor?
While Yaan echoed Duunkel's word, three colossi appeared on the road and sealed the southern port.
- That's far enough, rebels!
- Surrender quietly!
With the colonial knights escorting him, Prince Veric's Equites appeared.
- Sir Verkut! Thank heavens you're safe. Are all your n...?
Veric's words cut off midway.
He'd recognized who stood opposite Yaan.
- Duunkel...?
"Ha, that voice."
A voice dripping disgust slipped past the mask.
"Long ti no see, Sixth Prince."
No longer the friendly, battle-hungry tone-soone entirely different.
- You bastard!
- How dare you speak so to His Imperial Highness!
- No, stop! Don't attack! He's-!
Enraged knights closed in at the informal address, but Prince Veric held them back.
- Y-Your Highness...?
- That man is Liberation Army. Yet you tell us not to attack?
Not just the escort knights-Yaan too grimaced at the seeming protection of a rebel leader.
With utter disbelief, Yaan looked from Duunkel to Veric.
"Why stop them-let them kill him!"
Ignoring Yaan's glare, Duunkel shouted defiantly at Veric.
"The very man who turned Rubra into hell is now showing rcy?!"
- Ah, no, Duunkel! I...!
"The seeds of Belkuth you summoned have taken root across this entire nation, yet you sit holed up in your lofty keep playing puppet, do you not!"
Belkuth.
When that na was spoken, Yaan's gaze hardened.
The Belkuth personnel inciting rebellion in the colony. And Prince Veric, fidgeting under Duunkel's interrogation.
'Could Prince Veric also have so sort of deal with Belkuth?'
- A rebel mongrel dares address the Imperial Prince...!
- Today I shall grind your bones...!
While Yaan was thinking that as he watched Prince Veric, knights infuriated by Duunkel's taunts growled and prepared to move their colossi.
"People of Rubra! The Bisk butcher, Veric, has appeared in this city!"
Duunkel's voice bood so loudly the entire city rang.
After that voice covered the entire port, the two colossi that had stepped forward in anger could no longer advance.
Rumble rumble!
The footsteps of tens, hundreds, thousands.
From the residential districts encircling the open port, countless people began to pour out.
"Wh-what is this...?"
"Why are the city's civilians suddenly...?"
Unable to hide his bewildernt, Yaan sighed as he watched the knights.
"Damn. We can't stop that."
Now gathered into a single mass, the colonists surrounded the two knights' colossi and the one Veric had spoken of, and began shouting at them.
"Imperial Army, get out at once!"
"This is Rubra's autonomous territory! Withdraw imdiately!"
"Butcher Prince Veric, leave this city at once!"
The wave of people blocking the path of the advancing colossi eventually grew into a fearso throng that filled the entire port.
"Butcher? Prince Veric?"
Prince Veric was the focus of the colonists' jeers and curses.
The butcher of Vailsar. In the eyes of the colonists shouting at him was an indescribable fury.
"I heard it was Belkuth knights who massacred civilians during the colony suppression, so why are they calling Prince Veric the butcher?"
"Prince Veric is the one who brought the Belkuth family into the colony suppression war."
After hearing Ren's explanation, Yaan's sigh grew deeper.
He'd finally found an officer he could talk to, but this was a minefield if ever there was one.
- Wh-what is this...!
- You scoundrels! What you're doing is treason! Withdraw at once!
Despite the knights' shouts, the colonists blocking the colossi did not stop their jeering.
"Treason my ass, have you forgotten what you did to us?!"
Splatter!
Soone in the crowd hurled filth at the bewildered knights.
It was a long-rotted egg that had gone putrid.
"Drive out the butcher of Vailsar!"
"Get lost! Get lost, I said!"
Soon all manner of debris was flying at the colossi, soiling the knights' machines.
"Rember Bisk!"
"Do you even know how many Rubrans you killed?!"
"Get out! Vailsar must leave this city at once!"
In an instant Yaan and Ren were engulfed by the crowd filling the streets, trying to push through to Duunkel.
"This one's Imperial Army too!"
"Get out now! Get out, I said!"
But as the angry crowd's jeers continued to block his path, Yaan had no choice.
'Shit, can't exactly spray machine guns into this crowd...!'
While thinking this, the AI implanted in Yaan's left eye by Nill caught sight of Duunkel.
He had already returned to his Fra that had been pressuring Irene's colossus.
- I won't hand over the Fra. Naless commander. If fate allows, we'll et again.
After saying that, Duunkel grabbed his subordinate's colossus that had just awakened from the shock, and disappeared beneath the harbor waters.
- He's fleeing!
- Damn it, then by force...!
As the Liberation Army began to flee before their eyes, the knights couldn't bear it and raised their colossus feet.
- No! If we pursue further there will be casualties among the civilians.
Prince Veric restrained the knights and shouted firmly at them.
- Rubra-Vailsar Governor-General Veric van Vailsar commands! All units, return to Central Command!
To be continued in the next chapter
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