Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter7 (section)

===Part 2===

Alfred used the force of his landing to attack the old man standing in the center of the ceiling barrier.

Rein König’s blade cleaved him in two, from head to groin. It met no resistance and even the sound of the cut was drowned out by the wind created by his landing.

Everyone’s eyes were on him as he leisurely stood up at the barrier’s center.

“…”

The corpse thudded onto the barrier and the blood sprayed out.

The liquid sounded more solid than liquid as it hit the barrier, burst, and spread out into a puddle. The new color blotted out the Tune Emblem below it.

The Glossolalian elites did not move an inch in response.

The only movement came from the one human. Alfred finished standing up and rested Rein König on his shoulder.

He brushed his hair up with his left hand and spoke without even giving the corpse a glance.

“Let’s have some fun, shall we?”

He took a look around him just as the ether shield vanished.

The Emblem Masters fell back while the soldiers they had been protecting advanced. They were large, but they were more than just hulking muscle – they were well-trained soldiers.

The six of them faced Alfred, each with a submachinegun in their left arm.

He could see their killer intent.

“Ooh, I like the color of your killer intent. That’s what I’m looking for in a Heidengeist.” He smiled. “Did your Emblem Masters fall back to begin on Plan B? Securing an escape route, perhaps? …You thought this through. But I have just one thing to say to that.” He lowered Rein König from his shoulder and relaxed his right arm, letting it fall limply at his side. “Die.”

He turned his body to the left and suddenly swung his right hand.

The result was more a groan of agony than a scream. Something strange was sticking into the mouth of the soldier he was now facing: a sword’s hilt.

And something strange had grown from the back of the soldier’s head: a sword’s blade.

“A little prick from Rein König isn’t enough to slay a big, strong Heidengeist like you, so don’t act so surprised.”

Alfred shifted his gaze further left and took off running. He sprinted not toward the soldier stabbed with Rein König, but toward the one standing to that soldier’s left.

He was fast and his feet pounded loud on the metal barrier as they carried him forward. He bent like a bow, and…

“!”

He accelerated to reach his opponent in the blink of an eye.

The soldier had been briefly distracted by the sword thrown to his left.

That proved fatal.

He noticed Alfred’s approach and attempted to aim the submachinegun in his left hand, but Alfred grabbed the barrel before he could.

Realizing the gun was now aimed at a distant ally well behind Alfred, the soldier chose not to pull the trigger, let go of the gun altogether, and leaped backwards.

Alfred tossed the submachinegun into the air and pursued his enemy.

He tapped the bottom of his vest and a dagger wrapped in a sticky light dropped blade first.

He snatched it from the air and ran forward.

While the soldier leaped back, he formed a symbol with his right hand’s fingers, pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket with his left hand, and opened his mouth.

Alfred swung his dagger first.

It sliced through the air, but the soldier holding the parchment was uninjured. The momentum of swinging the dagger spun Alfred around, showing his back, so the soldier pointed his right hand’s symbol toward him and shouted the text on the parchment.

“–––––!”

Except his voice would not come. Noticing something was wrong, he held his throat.

Alfred completed a full rotation and extended his left hand toward his foe.

“Here, you can have your throat’s Horn back.”

He tossed over a small bone resembling a spiral shell.

While it was in the air, he threw a left roundhouse kick into the soldier’s right knee.

The soldier’s knee bent the wrong way with a sickening crunch.

The thrown Horn hit the collapsed soldier in the chest and bounced off.

“What, you don’t want it?”

Alfred sounded a bit surprised as he put the dagger back below his vest and pulled out something else. It was a metal tube measuring about a foot long.

“This is a new invention of ours. It launches a piece of sacred wood. We call it a Panzer Reinigung.”

He pressed it against his collapsing opponent’s chest and pressed the button on the side.

A sound of bursting gunpowder and a puff of smoke burst from the back end and the soldier’s body convulsed. His body was even larger than Alfred’s, but it arched back and shook.

There was no scream. He simply broke.

His entire body trembled and turned to layers of bluish-white ether light, leaving his clothing behind.

It was like a humanoid pile of papers.

Before he could take another breath, he burned away, starting from the feet.

This process of Ashing was unique to Heidengeists.

But Alfred did not bother watching his opponent’s annihilation.

He simply moved to the right. He made a quick side jump to approach the soldier with Rein König’s hilt growing from his mouth.

He ducked below the weak punch thrown by the soldier’s right arm and looked up to see his opponent’s face with his weapon’s hilt extending from the mouth. He sent his right leg up while he stood up.

He struck with his heel, but not straight at his opponent’s face. His heel swung down and to the right like a battle axe to kick the hilt sticking out.

The soldier was spun to the right by his face.

Alfred used that motion to circle behind his opponent, grabbed the bandolier at his opponent’s waist with his left hand, and raised his right hand.

The submachinegun he had stolen and thrown skyward earlier landed in his right hand. And…

“Here’s a lesson for you.”

He looked forward to see a third enemy aiming a submachinegun his way.

The enemy fired.

“Heidengeists are greatly superior to humans when it comes to reflexes, endurance, cunning, and attachment to life.”

He used the soldier in front of him as a shield against the incoming bullets.

“Gah!”

The soldier cried in agony as his body repeatedly shook.

Alfred stuck his submachinegun out from behind him and fired.

He also advanced. He lifted his meat shield ever so slightly and charged at the third enemy.

“–––––!”

“Hey, shields aren’t supposed to scream. You should rejoice that I’ve found a use for you.”

The soldier’s body shook.

Alfred fired while rushing the third enemy. His uniform was shredded and blood and flesh flew through the heated air, but the man’s body would not break.

Alfred’s gun ran out of ammo.

So did the enemy’s.

Bloody, the enemy loaded a new magazine and resumed firing.

Alfred did not hesitate to abandon his gun and use his freed-up hand to spin his shield around the other way. Instead of the bandolier, he grabbed Rein König’s hilt sticking out of the man’s mouth and pushed forward.

His shield shook as it took more gunfire, but he did not care. He held Rein König with both hands now and lifted up the shield as he ran.

He was now right up on his third opponent. The submachinegun had stopped firing. It was out of ammo.

Alfred smiled and then shouted.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He made a Bust attack.

Rein König emitted a white light and his shield was blown away. The third enemy was eliminated a moment later.

Alfred ran through the explosion of light he had created, seeing the lower half of his shield falling away.

“I needed some cushioning to keep that from destroying the barrier. Great work.”

With that, he picked up speed. He ran, took a step, and flipped to the side.

Instead of planting his hands on the barrier, he used the inertia of his legs for a full midair side flip.

A clawed attack slammed into the spot he had just vacated.

A fourth enemy had Flektierened into a humanoid wolf with silver fur.

“Oh? That English Frühmond stuff?”

After landing, Alfred glanced around to see a fifth and sixth enemies injecting their arms with a drug also known as moon opium.

“!”

Two empty aluminum containers clanked against the barrier.

The fifth and sixth made their next move before the sound had even faded. They jumped back to avoid Alfred, but their jumps easily cleared 10 yards.

As soon as they landed, they were engulfed by explosions of white steam.

The steam spread out from the center and was blown away as their bodies Flektierened.

They were Hard Wolves – bipedal wolves who retained a lot of their human forms.

They prepared for a fight and howled into the sky.

A trio of war cries echoed into the heavens, surrounding Alfred.

Hearing that, he lowered Rein König and pressed the tip against the barrier.

“I never finished my lesson, did I? It’s true you Heidengeists are superior to us humans…but there’s one thing we have on you.” He moved the tip to draw a semicircle in front of him. “None of you is named Maldrick.”

His line acted as a cue for the triangle formation of enemies to rush toward him in the center.

They sprinted in, but he did not stay still. He leaped backwards.

One of the Hard Wolves was charging in toward there.

With his back to that enemy, Alfred shrunk down a little in the air.

“!”

And he spun around in an instant.

He also threw the dagger he had used before. The white blade flew toward the Hard Wolf’s forehead.

His Heidengeist reflexes easily saw the throw coming. At his speed, dodging it would throw off his balance, so he reached out a clawed hand to grab the flying dagger.

He caught it and his thick fur kept the blade from cutting his hand. But…

“Those reflexes will be your undoing.”

Alfred ran in.

“!?”

He flew through the air before the Hard Wolf could show his surprise. He extended his leg straight out to kick the haft of the dagger forward like a hammer.

The impact pushed the blade into the Hard Wolf’s forehead. All the way in.

A moment later, Alfred kicked the dagger’s haft again and stretched out his body.

He leaped backwards.

His long brown hair fluttered in the heated night air as he flew more than 5 yards back.

He passed above the heads of the two Hard Wolves running in toward him.

He landed behind them and immediately placed his hands on the ground in front of him and flipped to the side.

The Hard Wolves attacked behind themselves without even looking back.

After two side flips, he straightened up again.

The one enemy was flat on the ground while holding his forehead. The dagger had reached his brain. Not even a Heidengeist could keep fighting after that. Two remained.

Those two were nowhere to be seen, so he moved forward, throwing on his full speed from step one. The wind he felt behind him told him the enemy had been charging him from the left and right. And that they were now pursuing from behind him.

He immediately ducked and rapidly braked by practically lying down on the ground.

A beat later, two sets of claws swept by overhead and the two enemies moved out ahead.

“That uncontrollable speed will be your undoing too.”

Alfred stood up and swept the feet out from under the staggering figure on the right.

He successfully tripped that Hard Wolf.

At the same time, the left one finished braking, spun around, and raised his claws. He jabbed the five sparkling claws straight forward. That was a move learned through martial arts training, not an animal’s attack.

“–––––!”

Hearing an animal roar, Alfred struck the tripping Hard Wolf in the head with Rein König.

With the sound of a juicy fruit splitting open, the head burst, the body tilted, and the claws coming from the left stabbed into the right one’s chest.

The right Hard Wolf instantly turned to ashes.

The final one frantically pulled back his ashy left arm, but Alfred’s Rein König stabbed through his gut before he could, breaking his spine.

“!?”

His body bent forward from the impact and Alfred pulled out a Panzer Reinigung and pressed it against the Hard Wolf’s jaw.

“Poor thing.”

With that, he skewered the Hard Wolf’s face bottom to top with the sacred wood stake.

The sound of gunpowder echoed out and Alfred pulled Rein König from the enemy’s gut, further breaking his body before it Ashed.

The sound of falling ash was just like that of spilling sand.

Alfred emotionlessly glanced down. Five paces past the blowing ash, another Hard Wolf was convulsing on the ground with a dagger still stabbed into his forehead.

“…”

Alfred wordlessly approached and then heard a shout.

A human shout.

“Alfred!!”

Alfred recognized the voice.

But he did not look back. He instead used his sword to split the head of the agonized Hard Wolf at his feet.

Precisely two seconds later, he heard footsteps from behind him.

First two steps and then a third, more solid step.

“Did he jump?”

Alfred looked back, twisting his body around and raising Rein König overhead.

He raised his voice for a full-power Bust despite being atop the barrier.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Rein König amplified his Ton and let it burst out as a white light.

But the incoming attack split the white light.

The attack was composed of darkness and it was swung down by a figure in a black coat: Dog Berger.