She gasped as it grabbed the ribbon on her chest, realizing that it was going to pull her in. Kaname felt all the air wrest from her lungs in the form of a desperate scream.
“Chidori!!” Another gunshot; this time, the bullet hit the Alastor’s left side. She was released from its glare as its head turned sharply to the right.
The shot had come from Sousuke. He had run in from the bow-side entrance, trailed by two allies in fatigues. He fired again and again, one after another, and the bullets continued to hit the Alastor’s left side. Shredded fabric went flying as plastic fragments sparked off of it.
While Kaname yelped at the sight of the bullets hitting so nearby, the robot cast her aside and pointed its left arm straight at Sousuke. Then, it fired its internal rifle—the bullet missed and hit the pillar behind him. The shots it had taken seemed to have affected its targeting sensors, but no more.
The Alastor hunched over and began to move in a zig-zag fashion. Its movements were faster than its massive body seemed capable of.
“Sousuke?!” Kaname cried from where she’d fallen on her backside.
The Alastor closed in on Sousuke, and sliced its hand through the air in a powerful chop. While dodging the blow by a hair, Sousuke readied his gun at hip-level and let loose, at close range, on full automatic. The shots barked out, and the robot’s upper half trembled.
It wasn’t working. The Alastor’s movements were crude, yet nimble, and it was terrifyingly bulletproof. It took a light step with its right foot and then whipped around, causing its coat to unfurl like a whirling umbrella as it threw a back kick like a freight train at Sousuke.
Sousuke immediately brought up his gun to block, but the impact still sent him flying. Kurz charged on past him, unleashing more fury with his submachine gun. The shots hit their mark, but the Alastor rocketed off the floor, jumping higher than any human was capable of. It was almost like a third-generation AS—no, not almost: these things were miniature ASes in every respect. Their maneuverability and power simply weren’t subject to human limitations.
In standard AS terms, the power balance here was like fighting an M9 with four Rk-92 Savages. It would be hard to put it down without suffering heavy losses.
The enemy fired its internal gun. The shot rang out, and one of Sousuke’s allies fell back, having taken the blow square in the chest. He didn’t even manage a scream.
“Don’t rest! Keep firing!” Sousuke cried, casting aside his broken submachine gun and pulling out a pistol. Kurz and the others didn’t hesitate to bathe the Alastor in bullets. Fragments went flying as the bullets plinked off of it, the ricochets shattering tableware all around. Yet, the enemy kept moving, making it impossible to precision-target its joints.
“Dammit!” Sousuke went down on one knee and fired desperately with his pistol. Kurz swapped his submachine gun’s clip and kept shooting. Dodge the opponent’s charge, then strike it from close range—they were like bullfighters, patient and persistent.
Kaname could only hide behind a toppled table, cradling her head.
After taking at least a hundred rounds, at last, the Alastor finally began to slow. Then, a hard shot to a knee joint forced it to the floor. Sousuke and the others fanned out and began to unload mercilessly into their enemy, as if they were putting down a wild beast.
Kaname had seen her share of gunfights in the past, and this one was anything but elegant. The brute force at play here, the way they just soaked it in firepower—it was unsightly. But it wasn’t a sign of weakness, not by any means; the enemy was just so powerful that this was what it took to put it down.
Once the robot had finally stopped moving, Kaname was able to think again, and it was then that she realized that the ballroom had emptied. The students must have all evacuated, including the girl she’d shoved away before. She relaxed in relief—but she was the only one doing so.
“Get away!” Kurz shouted. “It’s going to explode!”
“E-Explode...?” she questioned nervously.
“Chidori! Why are you still here? Run!” Kaname was trying to stand up when Sousuke grabbed her hand and took off, his manner shockingly rough. Kurz and another soldier got on either side of the comrade who’d been shot earlier, helped him to his feet and took off in a panic.
“Get down!” Kurz screamed, and Sousuke pulled Kaname to the ground and covered her. A moment later, the Alastor exploded. Shrapnel blasted holes in the walls, the ceiling, and the light fixtures, and Kaname felt a dull pain in her eardrums as the shockwave slammed through her skull. Smoke hung in the air afterwards; the sprinkler system activated and began to rain down on them.
“Were you hurt, Chidori?” Sousuke asked her anxiously.
“Mm,” she managed at last. “You’re crushing me.”
“Sorry.” Sousuke pulled himself off of Kaname and helped her into a sitting position. Water dripped from her bangs as the sprinklers showered down. “Can you stand?”
“Yeah... thanks,” Kaname affirmed. She made an attempt, but it was hard, with her knees trembling like this. As Sousuke silently helped her, she could smell his sweat. “Is Kurz okay?!”
“Yeah,” he told her. “Howard is alive, too. The body armor stopped the shot... though he might have some cracked ribs.”
“I... I’m fine, Sergeant,” said the ally who took the shot before. Beyond the clearing smoke, she could see someone standing up and coughing. From the kitchen came a sound of dishes crashing to the floor. It was followed by the faint stomp of heavy footsteps. Multiple sets of them. Two people, maybe three—
“Reinforcements, huh?” Kurz commented.
“No
