Chapter-23: The Go Signal was Sent & Attacking the Aldebaran

Chapter-23: The Go Signal was sent & Attacking the Swarm

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3rd POV | Promoter Camp |

A few days have passed uneventfully and they came back to their campsite. The Promoters were preparing for what they know is what was to come.

It was a peaceful day when suddenly, green flares were fired up in the bright sky with green smoke trailing behind.

[A/N: Like the flares they used in Attack on Titan against the Beast Titan]

"The signal is here!" A man shouted as the alarms started blaring.

Crowds of Promoters and their Initiators started moving out of their tents and embarked in their vehicles.

『Ren: Guys, It's time! the attack signal was fired, let's go!

Kanesada: We're coming

Toka: I'm already at the car, starting it up

Lucien: Owh, it's starting already? good luck guys! be careful! I don't want to see anyone dying!

Ren: Same, be careful everybody』

"Damn, we gotta go" Ren muttered under his breath as he slide his arm through the sleeves of his coat.

Kanesada who was watching this couldn't help but think, "Is he becoming more expressive, or is it just me?".

"You're right degozaru, he seems more emotional now degozaru" Ichika also chided him as she rubbed her little chin.

'When I saw him chatting at the Chat Group, he was definitely more expressive, but when Sajuna was attacked and the things that happened to the children of this world, he became more serious and cool'

"Well whatever is happening, I'm glad he's finally easing up" Kanesada said as he started heading for the car with Ichika behind him.

"That's good degozaru, hum! hum! indeed" Ichika cutely nodded as she was following Kanesada.

The team boarded the Humvee and prepared their weapons, Akari made sure that her sniper would not jam in the middle of the fight or something. Ichika polished her katana, and Honoka just strapped her Varanium greaves in.

Vrooom—!

The sound of the engine running as their Humvee follows the long convoy in front of them. A sense of seriousness washes the whole team as they head towards a strong enemy, a war.

They had long prepared for this as Ren had remembered the Gastrea that was leading the swarm, Aldebaran, the Right Hand of Taurus the Level 5 Gastrea, or the 'Zodiac Gastrea'.

He had remembered about Aldebaran having pseudo-immortality and the only thing that killed it was a Varanium bomb inside its mouth.

So they had devised a great tactic of creating a Varanium pillar array to isolate Aldebaran and single it out from its swarm to get better odds at killing it.

Ren had the idea to create Varanium chains to chain Aldebaran up, thankfully, the Varanium chains cost nothing as it was from the Seitenshi, but the Varanium pillars on the other, hand are expensive as hell.

The Varanium pillars cost about 50 million Yen or approximately $389,209, which was more than half of what they'd earned by doing missions and killing Gastreas for 8 months.

Toka and Ren were both sad about the loss of their hard-earned money. 'It's for the greater good', They just told themselves that mentally.

"Because the Promoters were like mercenaries, their aim is to get as much kills as possible and also probably take Aldebaran for better rewards, they were like a bounty hunter in a sense and this is an event where many pots of gold will be appearing.

So while they are focused on the swarm, we'll immediately attack Aldebaran as fast as we could" Ren explained the plan that he had cooked up.

"What happens if others try and steal our prey?" Toka began to have this kind of mindset while experiencing the life on this world.

"We'll just crush 'em" Sajuna has become quite cold-blooded toward these disgusting human beings that treat and use children as tools, so she has no qualms about killing them.

"If possible just subdue them, they're our fellow Promoters too" Kanesada sweat dropped at the viciousness of his team members.

"If it were up to me I would hang them from a bridge with hundreds of Gastrea below " Toka said a scary thing very casually without any change in her emotions.

Everybody just looked at her wordlessly at her display of cruelty, she looked back at them as she observed their reactions.

"Why isn't anyone laughing? Didn't you get it?"

"It was a Yakuza-type joke get it?" Toka said as everybody face slapped the moment they heard what she said

Akari looked up at Toka and said, "To be fair, it indeed was a yakuza joke, like the ones I read where they said they would throw somebody at Tokyo Bay and feed them to the fishes..". Toka gave her Promoter a thumbs up and a pat as if she was saying 'Good job'.

Everybody else thought else though. Kanesada sighed and muttered under his breath while Ren just chuckled slightly. The situation relieved some of their tension to a comfortable silence.

"These two..."

* * *

"Magical Splash Flare!" A shout resounded as a pink explosion appeared over the desolate wasteland. Sajuna was in her Magical Slayer form as she flew over the battlefield with great speed while spamming Magical Splash Flare at the Gastrea below her.

She was like a human mobile bomber shaped like a magical girl and also uses magic.

Whooosh-! Paaaaaang-! Swish-! Swish-!

Kanesada and Ichika were teaming up on a huge Level 3 Gastrea, it was a huge silverback gorilla that mutated from the Gastrea Virus. They both used their agility to dodge and slice the Gastrea with various maneuvers that were difficult for normal humans to perform, in it's huge glaring weaknesses.

"On your left!" Toka said loudly as she dashed in front of her while drawing her sword in an Iai position.

Shiiiiinnngg-!!

The Gastrea split in two as a neat and thin cut appeared with no imperfections whatsoever, it was a perfect cut. The one who made this cut was Toka with her improved Kenjutsu.

"Your Kenjutsu has vastly improved since last time" Ren said as he flew low beside Toka, praising her.

"I know right, it's just to be expected" Toka arrogantly said with a deadpan face as she flicked her wrist and pointed her blood blade to Aldebaran that was in the middle of the swarm.

"But we need to get to that guy fast" Toka said as Ren brought out the Varanium pillars from his Space pocket.

"Don't rush or else we'll end up like those idiots" Honoka said as she pointed at a reckless Promoter group eager to get the reward for Aldebaran.

"Get iiitttt!!" One of them shouted as he started blasting Aldebaran with his machine gun while his Initiator attacked in close range with blades.

Dadadadadadadada-!!

They watched as he unleashed hot Varanium bullets at Aldebaran.

"Ora! Ora! Ora! Hahahahaha! Die! Die! Die!"

Another duo, most probably of the same group as the machine gun guy, lunged behind Aldebaran.

Graaaa-!! Screeech-!

The long head of Aldebaran swung left and right as it let out an unnatural ear-piercing screech that stopped all attacking Promoters and Initiators right in their tracks.

"AaAaah Shit! My eardrums burst!" The machine gunner guy immediately fell to the ground, screaming in agony while holding his ears that leaked out blood.

Aldebaran took this opportunity as it bit down the unfortunate Promoter with it's long head filled with razor blade-like teeth. The unlucky Promoter popped like a balloon with blood coming out of every orifice of his body and the new hole that Aldebaran created.

"I love the smell of blood in the morning" Toka said as she wiped the blood off her face.

"Are you a psychopath?" Sajuna asked Toka

"Not really" Toka said with no change in her voice.

Sajuna raised an eyebrow as Toka sighed as she resigned.

"Maybe a little bit"

Sajuna nodded as if saying, 'Yep, Yep, Indeed'.

"Let's move" Ren said resolutely as he unsheathed his Tang Dao, his sword glowing a cold frosty glow.

He dashed as his body became a blur from his sheer speed. He unfolded his wings high-speed as he parried the steel teeth of Aldebaran.

Shiiiing-!!

The sound of metal grinding sounded as he deflected the force of Aldebaran's attack to his right with his sword. After the head of Aldebaran went by his side, fully exposing it's neck, Ren quickly unleashed a counter from his lower side cutting into Aldebaran's neck.

Screeeeekkk-!!

"That was too shallow.." Ren said under his breath as he jumped away from Aldebaran. His cut didn't have much effect as it only cut skin deep. Smoke rose from the wound as it disappeared without a trace. The self-regeneration ability of Aldebaran was truly astounding as it was like a BUG.

Graaaaahhh--!! Gurgle-! Gurgle-!

Aldebaran roared as his throat filled with acid, the body of Aldebaran contracted in itself as it gathered all of the air inside of it to one point of the body, the throat, with a horrible gurgling sound ensuing as he continued to roar.

"Uh oh, I do not like where this is going" Kanesada voiced out with a bad premonition in his heart.

"Indeed degozaru" Ichika said alongside him with a dire look.

Raaaaaaahhhh-!!

Aldebaran sprayed Varanium destroying acid that could melt metal at his enemies, surprisingly even the enemies behind him, as his long neck can perform a 360 degree turn. And also if it's acid can melt Varanium, then it would most certainly burn through humans too.

"Get out of the way!" Ren said as he ducked under the acid while he was flying, his control was incredible as he managed to maneuver around all the acid that was sprayed towards him.

Sajuna performed a feat of miracle as she picked Honoka up with her small frame as she hovered over the air while she was in her Magical Slayer mode.

"Magical Splash!" Sajuna casted Magical Splash, a more tame version of Magical Splash Flare. Magical Splash doesn't open up before contact is made, therefore it does not explode in a huge, pink radius.

Phoooooo--!!

The huge pink heart hit Aldebaran square in the center. It got knocked back slightly as the ground below it trembled from it's sheer weight and size.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Toka's side, She jumped far enough that she wasn't affected by the acid spray but she was instead attacked by Aldebaran's minions.

Pshaaak-! Shiiiinnggg-!

The sound of meat getting cut and metal grinding was heard as Toka pulled her longsword made out of blood from a dead Gastrea laying on the ground. When the whole area around Toka was revealed, everyone can see the ground littered with corpses of various Gastrea and also the lake of green blood pooling together that was the result of the slaughter.

At this moment, Toka was like a God of Destruction, butchering every enemy she comes across.

"That's 12 now" Toka said as she wiped green blood off her cheek with her wrist..

Bang-!

A gunshot sounded near Toka, She looked back and saw a Gastrea was shot and killed behind her. Her radio came to life as Akari's voice spoke.

"{13}" Akari said through the radio as Toka saw the glint of her scope shining in the sun from a big tree.

"{I heard you count it, so I added mine to yours}"

Toka knew were Akari was positioned, so she put a thumbs up in the air.

* * *

Back to Ren and the others..

Ren was single-handedly fighting against Aldebaran while Kanesada and Ichika were dragging and carrying the injured Initiators away from the war that was being fought against the Gastrea., unfortunately though, all of their reckless and dumb Promoters were dead on the spot.

"Thank you, heroes" A medic who came together with them to the battlefield spoke gratefully.

"No, you doctors who came to the frontlines are the real heroes" Kanesada replied as he laid the injured girl down on a bed.

'Let's head back, Ichika" Kanesada told his Initiator.

"Um!" Ichika replied to him.

* * *

Ren was deflecting each strike from Aldebaran, dodging with great agility as he does so. With his wings, he was able to step on air like it was a solid wall, propelling and turning in mid-air, giving him an edge against the onslaught of Aldebaran.

'This can't go on..' Ren thought gravely, which he was right, if it continued at this pace, it will end up as an endless game of cat and dog.

'What do I do?'

-(End)-

Word Count: 2080

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