Editing City Series:Volume8a Chapter7 (section)

===DT Yard Captain’s Sight Mode: Inside DT Castle===

'''<Yard Captain’s Over Reload>

Their chance arrived when the metal staff man finished retying his hair and turned toward the two behind him.

A wind blew through.

Someone had broken through the blue tear gas smoke with his shoulders while charging toward the enemy.

It was an elderly Yard member with a sword raised to shoulder height.

His hard boots rang loud on the stone floor, propelling him forward.

He saw the six still holding their submachineguns turn toward him.

“Captain!”

He did not respond. He kept his focus forward, on the enemy. With every new footstep, the distance between them shrank.

He ran through the gun smoke, scraped at the floor with his sword tip, and raised his voice.

“I am Carl Asb! I am the Yard Castle Station Commander! I challenge you to a duel!”

The metal staff man turned toward the rapidly approaching voice.

His eyes remained closed, but his expression did change. His eyebrows rose slightly and his mouth opened.

It was an expression of mild surprise.

“Oh?” he sighed as the Yard Captain approached.

The Yard Captain shouted like he wanted to destroy that breath.

[[Image:DT01_315.jpg|thumb]]

“Name yourself!”

“Daikatana Uriel. I will define my Word Race soon.”

The distance between them shrank to 5 yards.

Carl opened a window.

'''<Carl: ASB Word Race Special Ability: Limiter Off: Activating High-Speed Movement Resistance>

He sped up.

Daikatana responded with his own movement.

'''<Daikatana: Uriel Word Race Conversion: Switching to C Word Race Traits: Limiter Off: Movement Stability>

Daikatana had lowered his staff to the bottom right and he swung it behind him. He performed the swing with only his right wrist and fingers, spinning it around to his back.

He raised the staff from his side to his shoulder and rotated it against his collarbone.

Then inertia sent the staff past his shoulder and around to the front.

He raised both hands toward his right shoulder and the staff spun over his shoulder and fell into them.

He grabbed it tight.

'''“No mercy.”

A sound like splitting stone came from the staff and an emblem appeared from its end.

Carl shouted in surprise when he saw that.

“I thought you were an NPC Body!?”

“Experience the answer for yourself.”

Daikatana lowered his hips and swung down the staff in his hands.

It took a rapid, straight line path.

Carl swung his sword up toward the descending attack.

Both lights intersected.

The battle was over in an instant.

Carl’s sword was shattered by the staff’s momentum.

“Kh!”

With a shattering glass sound, metal fragments scattered like sparks.

Daikatana’s staff sliced through even the loud noise as it continued down.

Then Carl’s hand reached his hip, where he wore a program control panel.

He hit a button there.

'''<Carl: Clothing: Data Conversion Program: Gravity Direction Change: Run>

'''<Changing gravity direction in the effected space: 90 degrees behind>

Carl’s body slid 2 yards backwards.

It was a short distance. It did not bring him out of the metal staff’s range.

So he took a defensive stance.

He raised his left hand overhead and lowered his right hand to the submachinegun at his hip.

Daikatana’s staff was a striking weapon. It might break Carl’s arm, but as long as his shoulder stopped it, he could still fire.

Carl held his breath to endure the impact.

That was when Daikatana spoke.

He spoke the powerful Text that surpassed a Download.



'''<Carl’s Over Reload>

Daikatana’s voice rang out.

“I am not entertained.”

'''“Nor am I bored.

'''“I am destined to dispassionately cut down foe after foe forever.”

A metal gray light arrived in the staff.

'''<Pseudo Grandload: Running Pseudo Load Emblem: Moebius: Preparing>

The emblem at the end of the staff made noise. The deep, loud noise was like a stone being split.

Several windows opened in quick succession and surrounded him in no time.

'''<Activation authorized for 30M Lives within the virtual space.>

'''<Activating Pseudo Load Emblem: Run>

A string of text ran down from the emblem at the end of the staff. The 2D string drew out a spiral just once.

'''●Type-XX049: Imperial-class: Moebius●

'''<Activating Pseudo Grandload of Daikatana’s center of gravity: Removing limiter for all advanced subprogram loading and for blade strength.>

In an instant, the character string surrounded the top half of the staff.

The staff now had a 1.5yd hilt and a 1.5yd text blade.

This was not a standard Japanese or Western sword. It was a giant nagamaki.

Daikatana took a large step forward and swung the nagamaki.

The character string attack reached Karl’s raised left arm.

The character string itself passed through his arm. The Grandload text was only the sign of a load, so it had no mass.

What mattered was the power that Load Emblem had loaded. The staff’s power activated when it struck Carl’s arm.

The corners of the staff had their sharpness increased. That right angle line possessed the sharpness of a thick blade carrying the full power of the metal.

The nagamaki swung on through.

The staff’s corner never should have functioned like a blade, yet it formed a rapid slash.

The thick and short blade swept right through Carl with the character string still surrounding it.

The staff sliced through the raised arm and straight on down to the man’s crotch.

It sliced into 3 inches deep and continued down the entire way.

Carl’s left arm flew through the air and the staff passed through his flesh, slicing through his left lung’s ribs all at once.

The somewhat diagonal slash left through his side at crotch height.

Daikatana had lowered his hips to bear the full weight and inertial force of the nagamaki formed from text. The muscles of his arms bulged and the metal staff bent.

“Mh.”

A low grunt escaped his mouth for the first time.

A window opened above Carl’s head after he was sliced from shoulder to crotch.

<So it was a draw.>

He raised his right hand, lifting his submachinegun.

Just as he was about to get the muzzle up, Daikatana let go of the nagamaki.

The simple action caused the nagamaki to float in the air.

Daikatana leaped forward.

He placed his foot on the back of the airborne nagamaki, near the tip of the text blade.

The nagamaki’s weight supported Daikatana’s step and then spun downwards.

Carl saw something then.

'''<Yard Captain’s Over Zoom>

He saw Daikatana drawing his wakizashi while leaping toward him.

He wasn’t going to get his submachinegun up in time for the glinting wakizashi.

The blade was only a bit over a foot and a half and it jabbed toward Carl’s right side as he attempted to raise the gun.

It caught him on the side at the height of the solar plexus.

It stabbed in all the way to the guard.

His strength drained away.

The gun fell from his hand and his voice escaped his mouth.

The position of his body and arm made it look like he was embracing Daikatana.

Daikatana responded by placing his right arm around Carl’s back.

He moved without ever opening his eyes.

He grabbed the hilt in a backhand grip and twisted it.

That twist loosened the muscles that had tensed around the blade.

A breath left Carl’s lungs.

The blade slowly pulled out.

Blood spilled from the gaping hole in his side.

Blood also leaked from the split running down the front of his body.

Daikatana stood up to avoid the blood.

Carl tried to step forward and pursue.

'''<Carl’s Over Zoom>

He saw Daikatana take a step back and bend his back.

Daikatana spread his right hand’s fingers and raised it back behind his shoulder.

The nagamaki he had kicked downwards from the tip had completed a single rotation there.

The hilt spun upwards and right into his waiting hand.

He grabbed it by the pommel.

His next action was simple.

He used his shoulder as a pivot point to pull the hilt down with the principle of leverage.

The nagamaki’s blade accelerated and flew forward.

With just his right hand, the sent the metal staff flying forward in whip-like arc.

It whipped up the wind.

For a second slash, the blade surrounded by a 2D character string struck Carl.

The blade caught him in the exact same spot as before and it left through the exact same spot too.

The blade easily pierced through to his back.

The nagamaki passed through without a speck of blood or fat on it and Daikatana swung it around behind him.

It spun through a second rotation and then he caught the hilt under his arm to stop it.

His Load Emblem turned to light and scattered.

The laurel wreath symbol expanded into the space around him and then disappeared.



'''<Carl’s Over Zoom>

Daikatana turned to face Carl just as the emblem vanished.

Carl stared back into Daikatana’s closed eyes.

But then Carl’s vision began to tilt to the right.

He looked left to figure out why.

He saw a red cross section there.

That was the left half of his own body.

He saw various bumps with white or light pink tissue surrounding them. In the cross sections of his bones, he even saw the brown marrow wrapped in the more familiar white.

His left half collapsed in the opposite direction.

He tried to reach out and pull it back, but he lacked even a left shoulder.

So he looked to Daikatana as he fell to the right.

Daikatana spoke with his expressionless face turned Carl’s way.

“I have eliminated all sight programs from my blade and staff techniques. The speed of assembly is too great for the eye to follow.”

Carl could not say anything in response with his lungs already split.

His eyes saw Daikatana moving.

The man took a step toward Carl.

“It has been 4000 years, yet I have yet to find an opponent who can elevate me to the highest level.”

With that, he ran into Carl’s collapsing body.

Except he did not physically contact Carl.

His hair swaying behind him, he passed through Carl on his way to deal with his remaining enemies.

That was when Carl realized his body was already starting to disappear.

He flashed and vanished just before his two halves hit the floor.

'''<Carl has been fully destroyed>

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