Chapter 385: Cunning Hares Join the Fray
"Proxy! We're here to help!" Nicole's voice rang out, clear and spirited. She pitched her tone perfectly, aiming for that dramatic, ultra-reliable flair of a savior arriving at the exact right moment.
Before the echoes of her shout could even fade into the Hollow's oppressive atmosphere, the Cunning Hares descended upon the battlefield.
A hulking Apeka Ethereal, its muscles coiled to ambush Wise from the blind spot, was mere milliseconds away from bringing its heavy bone blade down. Suddenly, a flash of blinding light, crackling with violent blue electrical arcs, tore through the gloom. It arrived a fraction of a second later but struck first, slamming into the bone blade with surgical precision and parrying the lethal thrust.
It was Anby. Her lithe figure slid into the chaotic center of the fray without a wasted motion. With a sharp flick of her wrist, a high-voltage current surged along the edge of her sword. The shockwave not only violently deflected the monster's weapon but also sent a massive jolt of electricity straight into the Apeka's nervous system, locking its massive body in a state of rigid paralysis.
Riding the kinetic momentum of her parry, Anby spun on her heel. Her blade carved a swift, lethal arc through the air, biting deeply into the Ethereal's exposed core. Her strikes were concise, brutal, and fiercely efficient—a stark contrast to her usually quiet, burger-munching demeanor.
Almost simultaneously, two faint, whistling streaks pierced the stagnant air.
Nekomata darted from the shadows, her petite frame moving with the terrifying agility of a hunting predator. The twin daggers clutched in her reverse grip caught the dim ambient light, flashing with an eerie, lethal green glow. She completely ignored the Apeka tangled up with Anby. Instead, her predatory gaze locked onto a Thanatos preparing to ambush Belle from the rear.
With a vicious downward strike, her blades punctured the glowing energy node right behind the Thanatos's knee joint. While not an outright fatal blow, the crippling strike completely shattered its stance, violently interrupting its sneak attack. Nekomata landed without a single sound, her boots barely disturbing the dust. She crouched low, her feline eyes calmly sweeping the chaotic environment as she calculated her next angle of attack.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Deafening gunshots shattered the remaining silence. Billy Kid strode into view, his custom revolvers continuously spitting blinding jets of muzzle flash. A relentless torrent of high-caliber bullets swept across the field, suppressing the advancing Ethereals. The sheer volume of fire forced the lesser monsters back, shredding the weaker ones into dissipating ether before they could even scream.
Acting as the tactical commander and the heavy artillery core, Nicole maneuvered around the perimeter with practiced ease.
She deliberately kept her distance from the messy close-quarters brawl. Gripping her signature briefcase tightly in one hand, her fingers danced across a hidden control panel on the side.
Click... Buzz—
A heavy, mechanical whirring sound vibrated through the air. The front plating of the briefcase snapped open, folding back to reveal a thick alloy cannon barrel pulsing with a faint, dangerous blue energy pattern. The muzzle flared to life, rapidly drawing in ambient particles to condense a highly compressed, violently unstable sphere of purple Aether.
"Anby, clear the firing line!" Nicole barked.
Hearing the command, Anby didn't waste a single breath confirming it. She disengaged from her target and slid sharply to the left. The very microsecond she cleared the zone—
Hiss—Boom!
A blinding, crimson-purple beam of pure Aether energy, thick as a tree trunk, erupted from Nicole's heavy cannon. The blast tore through the Hollow with a deafening roar, ripping past the exact spot Anby had occupied a heartbeat prior. It slammed directly into the paralyzed Apeka with devastating accuracy.
The hyper-concentrated Aether payload detonated upon impact, creating a shockwave equivalent to a high-yield explosive. The blast didn't just deal catastrophic damage; it generated a violent gravitational singularity. A localized black hole effect dragged the surrounding Ethereals helplessly toward the epicenter of the explosion, crushing them together in a tangled mass of limbs and corrupted energy.
From the instant the Cunning Hares breached the battlefield to the final, echoing boom of the Ethereal wipeout, barely eight seconds had passed.
Their unspoken coordination, ruthless decisiveness, and terrifyingly precise firepower stood in stark, almost comical contrast to the bumbling, perpetually broke image they usually presented at the video store.
Wise and Belle stared at the rapidly dissipating smoke, momentarily stunned into silence by the sheer efficiency of the slaughter. This was the very first time they had ever witnessed the Cunning Hares operate at maximum capacity, unleashing their full, unadulterated combat prowess purely for the sake of putting on a good performance.
It felt utterly surreal. It was as if their chronically unreliable neighbors—the ones who always conveniently showed up right around dinnertime to mooch a free meal—had suddenly kicked down their door in full tactical gear the moment a grease fire started, extinguished the flames with military precision, and then politely replaced the ruined frying pan with a brand-new one before dusting off their hands.
The skirmish, which had barely even started, was already over. The few straggling Ethereals that survived the initial onslaught quickly disintegrated into dust under the relentless, coordinated strikes of the quartet.
Nicole didn't even let the dust settle. She casually leveled her briefcase cannon and fired a brutal finishing shot, completely vaporizing a heavily armored Dullahan that was desperately trying to drag itself back to its feet.
Before the acrid smoke of burnt Aether could fully disperse, Nicole was already retracting the heavy cannon barrel. With a series of sharp clicks, the weapon folded back into the unassuming shape of a standard briefcase. Her face immediately morphed into a mask of exaggerated, overwhelming concern. She practically sprinted over to the Bangboo controlled by Wise and Belle, her eyes wide as she frantically inspected it from top to bottom.
"Proxy! You're not hurt, are you? Oh my goodness, I was so worried we wouldn't make it in time!" Nicole's voice dripped with exaggerated relief, laced with just a hint of playful scolding.
"You really shouldn't be taking risks like this! Battles against these trash mobs should be left entirely to us, the Cunning Hares! You two are precious Proxies, the absolute technical core of the operation! What if your Bangboo got damaged by these filthy Ethereals? Even a tiny scratch or a dent is a massive loss!"
She paused, pressing a hand to her chest as her tone shifted into something painfully sincere. "I mean... even if this Bangboo is just a remote-controlled proxy unit, repairs definitely wouldn't be cheap, right?"
"This is high-end precision equipment! Spare parts, Aether batteries, program debugging—every single step burns through Dennies! It's time-consuming, labor-intensive, and just plain stressful! If you ever run into trouble, just call us. We guarantee to handle everything quickly, cleanly, and with the absolute highest cost-effectiveness! We won't cause you a single ounce of trouble, and we definitely won't waste your precious resources!"
Nicole's pitch was incredibly passionate and cleverly angled, framing her desperation for a paycheck as deep concern for their maintenance budget. Coupled with her wide, sparkling eyes—which practically had the words 'Please hire us, we are super useful and very broke'flashing across her pupils—the siblings sitting safely in the HDD room back at Random Play were initially stunned. Then, the realization hit them.'So that's what this is about.'
Wise and Belle exchanged a long glance across the control monitors. They both saw the exact same exasperated amusement dancing in each other's eyes.
No wonder the Cunning Hares were so incredibly pumped up today. Their combat power was completely off the charts, and their attitude was bordering on sycophantic. The Hares had clearly noticed Eous demonstrating a bit too much independent combat capability lately. Terrified that their lucrative muscle-for-hire business was about to go bankrupt, and deeply afraid of losing their most stable, high-paying clients, Nicole and her crew were desperately overperforming to prove they were utterly irreplaceable.
Through the Bangboo's visual feed, they watched Nicole, Anby, Nekomata, and Billy. All four of them were secretly shooting nervous, highly anticipatory glances at Eous out of the corners of their eyes.
Sitting comfortably in her gaming chair outside the Hollow, Belle finally couldn't hold back a soft giggle. She leaned over and whispered to Wise, "Brother, Nicole and the others... I think they're massively overthinking this. Why is it so cute, but also a little pitiful?"
Wise shook his head, a helpless smile tugging at his lips. He keyed the microphone. "Nicole, thank you for your concern. We're perfectly fine." He offered the reassurance first, letting the tension bleed out of the air before pausing slightly to organize his next words.
Belle smoothly picked up the thread, her voice carrying its usual bright gentleness, though layered with a hint of imperceptible, teasing cunning.
"Don't worry, Nicole. We've worked together for so long now, we've always considered you to be our most reliable partners. In the future, there will still be plenty of dangerous commissions we'll have to trouble the Cunning Hares with, of course."
The moment the magical keywords 'partners'and'have to trouble' echoed from the Bangboo's speakers, Nicole's eyes visibly lit up like neon signs. Beside her, Anby quietly let out a long, subtle sigh of relief, while Nekomata's twin tail tips began to sway back and forth in rapid, happy arcs.
But Belle wasn't quite finished. She feigned a brief hesitation, acting as if she were carefully searching for the right words to explain Eous's sudden spike in combat efficiency. "As for our Bangboo... well, it's actually..."
Catching her drift instantly, Wise smoothly took over the lie without missing a beat. "The Bangboo's combat module is currently in a highly unstable testing phase. Its offensive functions are strictly limited."
"Exactly," Belle chimed back in. "Like right now, it's only due to some very specific environmental factors and prior technical arrangements that we can even maintain a stable remote connection to perform basic actions in this particular sector of the Epis Port Hollow."
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