However, how could Mole ever give Jane Doe such an opening? In the next instant a towering mechanized soldier came plummeting from the sky and slammed down between Jane Doe and Mole, cutting straight across her line of advance.
Then she saw Mole leap straight up, vault into the interior of the mech, and immediately seize the controls.
"Didn't see this coming, huh? Your uncle here came fully prepared! After all, of all things, I'm the most afraid of dying~ Yeeheeheehee!!!"
Mole cackled with brazen arrogance. He absolutely adored this feeling of holding his opponent in the palm of his hand—the lofty, looking-down-from-on-high sensation truly enchanted him.
"This really is just terrible. But—what makes you think I don't have backup of my own?"
"Huh?!"
Watching Jane Doe still showing no signs of panic despite the shift in circumstances, Mole realized that something wasn't quite right here.
His gaze swiveled, and he saw that beat-up little Bangboo he'd dismissed as no threat at all suddenly come charging forward.
"This is your rescue squad?! Hahaha! Just a Bangboo!!"
Faced with Geno's charge, Mole didn't take it the slightest bit seriously—on the contrary, he was downright contemptuous.
Jane Doe, meanwhile, wore a subtle expression as she watched him, and kindly offered up a warning.
"Don't underestimate him, okay~? He's actually really strong."
At what he took to be Jane Doe's bluffing, Mole gave a disdainful snort.
"Tch~ How strong could he possibly be?!"
Then he had the mech extend both arms outward, intending to intercept Geno cold.
But the next moment, Mole's vision went black, and inside the cockpit he felt an enormous shockwave slam through him with searing pain.
On pure instinct he popped open the hatch and squeezed his way out of the now half-crumpled cockpit, tumbling to the ground.
By the time he'd pulled himself back together, he was confronted with a sight that made his jaw drop.
The originally tiny, adorable Bangboo had suddenly transformed into a massive Ethereal—he had seen this very Ethereal in the Hollow Bestiary; it was the Dead-End Butcher!
"Eeee——!!!"
"?"
Forget Mole—even Jane Doe herself had never imagined Geno had this kind of trick up his sleeve.
A shape-shifting Bangboo was already absurd enough; now he could transform into an infamous Ethereal as well?!
This wasn't in the intel report at all!
The sheer absurdity of the scene practically left Jane Doe cross-eyed.
Still, although Jane Doe was utterly astonished, at least Geno was on her side.
So she wasn't all that panicked—it took only a brief moment before she got herself back together.
Then, eyeing the automated mechs that had surrounded the two of them, Jane Doe posed the soul-searching question.
"Can we take 'em?"
"We can take 'em!"
When it came to throwing down, Big Bro Geno hadn't backed away from anyone yet!
A few ragtag mechs? He didn't even consider them worth a second glance!
"Gaaah!! How is this possible?! How can you people have this kind of technology too?! Impossible! Absolutely impossible! The boss said only we were supposed to have this kind of tech!"
In his panicked frenzy, Mole seemed to have blurted out some earth-shattering secret, instantly catching the attention of both of them.
"I'll go grab him. You handle these iron lumps."
"No problem!"
As Geno spoke, Ether gathered around his body, and a dazzling radiance burst from his back.
Dead-End Butcher · Feasting Form.
Geno preferred to call this form the Four-Armed Overlord.
This was also exactly why he chose to transform into the Dead-End Butcher in the first place.
Two fists can't beat four hands, they say—so why not just be the one with four hands?
For brawling against a crowd, this form really was the most useful.
Next he conjured four long swords as well, cosplaying a teenage edition of Nezha in one fell swoop.
And while Geno was tangled up in battle with the swarm of automated mechs, Jane Doe had made her way right up in front of Mole.
"All right, Mister Mole—now, why don't you come home with me for a little sit-down? I promise to show you the warmest hospitality~"
Jane Doe's expression was as unchanged as ever, but it now carried a hint of dangerous gleam.
"Eeek!!!"
The Mole at this moment had utterly lost the smug, swaggering air from before, looking every bit the part of a rat scared out of its wits.
"Mister Mole, I much preferred the unruly, untamed look you had on a moment ago."
Jane Doe's face brimmed with savage intent, her finger twirling endlessly through the ring at the hilt of her Lumiceramic Dagger.
For Mole, this radiated pure, unadulterated menace.
"Wait! Calm down a moment! You beautiful young lady! With such a kind heart, you surely wouldn't do anything too rough to me, right?"
Mole's survival instincts were cranked up to maximum—just as he'd said himself, he treasured his own life dearly.
"Don't you worry. My technique is excellent—I absolutely won't let you feel a thing."
As Jane Doe spoke, the motion of her hand froze abruptly—and then it slashed toward Mole, gleaming with cold light.
"Eeek!!"
Mole threw both hands up in front of his body and twisted his head away, not daring to look in Jane Doe's direction.
But before Jane Doe's strike could land, a flash of cold light came lancing in from the shadows.
Jane Doe caught it all from the corner of her eye, her reflexes pushed to their absolute limit, and she narrowly evaded that perilous blow by the slimmest of margins.
"Sir! We've come to rescue you!"
"Well done! Quick! Get me out of here, now!!"
A rebel soldier wearing the same uniform as Mole, military-issue saber in hand, charged into the space between the two of them—he was the one behind the strike just now.
Right behind him, two more soldiers carrying riot shields moved in to guard Mole from behind, and they promptly began withdrawing from the area.
"You're not getting away!"
Jane Doe still wanted to give chase, but that soldier kept doggedly planting himself in her path.
The saber in his hand moved as quick as lightning, fast enough that even Jane Doe—herself a specialist in rapid offense—felt something was off.
Something's wrong! This guy's reaction speed is downright strange!
Realizing something was amiss, Jane Doe swiftly opened up distance—and then she saw that soldier raise his long blade pointing straight at her, his body beginning to convulse with unnatural movements.
"Gaaah!! The power! It's welling up inside me!!"
The rebel's body, wrapped beneath his uniform, gradually swelled outward, and then one arm violently bulged in size—a pale white arm came into Jane Doe's line of sight.
This is—! Could it be—!
That white arm bore the very same characteristics as the Beast Demon described in that intel report she'd received recently.
But the person before her still maintained a humanoid form, which meant this power had been brought under control—there were unmistakable traces of human engineering at work.
Having swiftly deduced the crux of the matter, Jane Doe knew she had not the slightest chance of victory against this Half-Beast Demon-form soldier.
Going up against a physically enhanced warrior who knew neither fatigue nor pain—she, a glass-cannon assassin built for high damage and low defense, what was she supposed to fight him with? Her bare head?!
With no means to deal with him, Jane Doe could only do her utmost to evade combat—but her opponent's movements far exceeded anything she could have imagined.
In the blink of an eye the long blade was upon her; Jane Doe's extraordinary reflexes could only let her angle her vitals away from harm, but she couldn't dodge the strike entirely.
"Ngh!"
Blood sprayed into the air. Clutching her wounded arm, Jane Doe stepped backward to open up some distance once again.
The rebel soldier across from her didn't slow his attack for a moment, pressing relentlessly toward Jane Doe once more.
Already hard-pressed to cope, Jane Doe found things even harder to handle after losing the use of one arm. Finally, with nowhere left to retreat, she backed herself into a dead-end corner and could only watch in despair as the blade hung before her eyes and came swinging down toward her.
'So this is where it ends...'
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: COTE: Counterattack System
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