Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===

The Port of Kobe in Hyogo had received an evacuation order.

But some workers had remained because the fuel pipelines running through the port continued to transport 20 tons of flammable material every minute. The pipelines could not be shut down so quickly and the flammable materials had to be removed from the pipes or else damage to the pipes could trigger a largescale oil fire. The many safety checks built into the usual auto-controlled system were not going to finish in time, so workers in jumpsuits were relying on the old-fashioned methods. Their only option was to run all over the port and forcibly turn the giant metal wheels to complete the emergency shutdown.

“Pant, pant.”

One large man gasped for breath while pressing his back against a metal wheel taller than he was at the foot of a gantry crane.

(The oil refinery section’s sea berth was shut down. That just leaves the LNG storage section’s pipe that cuts through here.)

He stared at a notebook-sized tablet and operated it with trembling fingers.

A flat four-wheel drive vehicle began to move a short distance away. It was as long and wide as a large bus, but it was only about a meter tall. It was an automatic transport vehicle meant to carry containers around the port. Designate a location and it would carry a container there with a margin of error of only 2cm, so it could be used as a decoy or a shield.

However.

He heard several deep metallic crashing sounds in a row.

A nearby stack of containers had collapsed. Worse, a young worker was caught below one of the rolling metal containers.

The large man stuck his head out from behind the metal wheel taller than an adult and his face immediately stiffened. He pressed his back against the wheel, squeezed his eyes shut, and clicked his tongue.

He felt a powerful pressure from directly above. From above the roof of the simple prefab three-story office/breakroom. Something was up there and staring down at the ground. It was like a thick and invisible wall that left less room for escape than the falling ceiling in some ancient ruins. It was not actually staring at the large man, though. If it had spotted him, he would be dead already. That thing was staring at the young man pinned below the container.

It was a monster.

A monster simply known as the Threat. He had never seen the Threat before and no one had told him that was indeed what this was, but the large man had known at a glance. What else could you call that thing?

“…”

The shape alone was something like a tadpole with legs.

But it was not.

Tadpoles were not so large they could easily step over a 20-ton truck.

Tadpoles could not knock over a pyramid of metal containers by tackling it.

Tadpoles would not form a group to block off all escape for the humans.

And tadpoles did not split apart their round body made of black metal to reveal a horrific array of crocodile-like teeth. Nor did they have plasma jets more terrifying than a welding torch crackling in their mouths.

It did not have an obviously fearsome appearance like a tiger or T-rex. Slaughter by an almost humorous-looking creature was a brand new sort of fear.

There was no dignity in death here.

Dying to that would feel as pathetic as being drugged and placed on the ground so you could not resist as pigs devoured you, starting from the extremities.

The large man felt entirely helpless.

The automatic transport vehicle he had hoped to use as a decoy or shield had been flipped over as a mere side effect of the collapsing containers.

During his brief glimpse earlier, the younger man had been shaking his head while crushed below the metal container. The younger man’s face had been pale with terror, but he had desperately pleaded the large man not to come out and try to rescue him.

(Dammit.)

He heard a noise.

That sound of strength gathering in metal somewhat reminded him of straining muscles. After an ominous silence similar to a bowstring being drawn, a heavy crash destroyed the prefab roof.

The legged tadpole had leaped from the roof toward its prey.

“Dammit!!”

A dull sound soon followed.

Yes.

The automatic transport vehicle had flown in from the side and knocked the airborne tadpole away.

Meanwhile, something was heard whizzing through the air. It was Natlena Blast’s legs. Her ski-like armor had fanned out and ultra-thin wires emerged from each piece.

Those were the scales of Anubis, Egyptian god of judgment.

With every roundhouse kick, side flip, and breakdance-like rotation of her body, the metal flowers at the end of the wires opened up and those grab buckets “grabbed” various obstacles. They grabbed them and swung them around. The 12-year-old girl wielded a storm of metal to make an additional fierce attack against the legged tadpole.

“Aine,” said a boy’s voice.

A much cleaner sound of destruction followed. It came from a sword. Several lines ran through the metal container pinning the younger man down so solidly, orange sparks flew, and the container fell apart. It happened so cleanly the rescued younger man was taken aback.

The boy who had commanded the pale-skinned crystal girl walked calmly up from a short distance away.

He walked toward the large man hiding behind the gantry crane’s metal wheel.

“You need to evacuate. More Grimnoah students are at the northern gate, so they will guide you out.”

“I…”

The large man shrank down like a scolded child even as the rain hit him.

But not because of fear.

“I was in charge of keeping him safe. And yet…”

Utagai Karuta sighed.

Karuta too had failed to save people when the first ship met its doom. His pride had been left in tatters and he had felt like his entire being had been denied, but he had still clenched his teeth in the depths of incompetence and figured out how to crawl back up again.

But this man could redo things without needing to rely on revenge.

Revenge had been the only option for the boy, so he crouched down to match the seated man’s eye level.

“I just saved one life. There is no denying that.”

“…”

He peeled back the mask of his public mode. Or ''he made it look like he had.

“So you only have to save three lives over the rest of your life. You can easily outdo the world’s strongest that way. But to do that, you can’t let yourself die here. So get out of here. Hurry!!”

He slapped the man on the back to urge him on and the large man ran from the collapsed container yard while lending a shoulder to the injured younger man. He looked back several times to lower his head in thanks as he did so.

Aine approached with sword in hand and whispered too quietly for the men to hear.

“That math does not add up.”

“It doesn’t have to.”

A pyramid scheme did not have to be a bad thing. If someone saved three people, those three people saved three more each, and so on like that, it was bound to improve this shitty world more than all the efforts of a single world’s strongest.

Karuta brushed up his wet bangs in an irritated way and turned around.

He and Aine faced the battlefield. Visibility was poor with several of the container piles collapsed, but the scent of the sea was strong. They were not far from the Second Grimnoah academy ship now.

He flicked the Crystal Blossom on his chest and gave an order using its communication function.

“Send a few people to make sure the LNG pipeline is shut down!”

He heard several heavy clanging sounds.

Clear drops of water scattered from the short skirt of Natlena’s uniform while she used the wires on her legs to “grab” and swing around containers, trucks, water, and even the air itself. Rapid-fire attacks sounded good, but they also meant a single hit was not enough to finish off your enemy.

This was the real Threat.

''As expected,'' they would not die so easily.

And if they could do the same thing the decoys at the Crystal Beach had done, then any that did die would only have their remains taken in by the others to create even more formidable monsters. Karuta was beyond being surprised by things not going as planned. After surviving two intense battles, he had learned that god was not going to grant you divine salvation no matter how much you pleaded for it. That was a lesson he would much rather not have learned.

He breathed in and out while gathering his resolve.

“We can’t leave this to Natlena alone. I’ll need your help here, Aine.”

“All that leadup is unnecessary. Simply give me my orders.”