Editing City Series:Volume8a Chapter3 (section)

===Aoe’s Sight Mode: In DT Airspace===

'''<Aoe’s Over Reload>

Aoe’s vision returned.

An artificially blue expanse was stretched out before his eyes. It took him a few seconds to recognize it as DT’s sky.

Then he felt the sensations of being thrown into the sky.

He slowly sucked in a breath and looked down to see the knight raising its right hand about 10 yards to the left.

He was now higher up than the knight’s head. He was almost directly above the top of its head.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> can only do this so openly while its head is turned the other way.>

He memorized the distance between them and where the destroyed houses were located.

He heard Yuo typing on her keyboards and some text appeared in his field of view. It provided explanations along with arrows pointing to the roads, buildings, and people fleeing in the distance.

“This is where the Yard members I can contact are located. Everyone within 500 yards has been evacuated. The Yard’s main force will arrive in about 2 minutes.”

“Too slow. Can you show me what this place will look like in 2 minutes?”

An answer to his question arrived just before he reached the peak of his jump.

He looked down and an image of destroyed houses appeared over the intact ones.

'''<Prediction: This has a 58% chance of being accurate. Is that acceptable? Y/N>

He counted 37 destroyed houses. Every one within a 100 yard radius was destroyed.

“For the number of homeless, I would need to add in the mother and children from each house.”

“So what are you going to do!?” asked Yuo.

He felt his ascent end.

He twisted his body, moving his center of gravity left, toward the knight.

That diagonally shifted his parabolic vector, bringing the knight’s head and shoulders below him.

Then he fell.

“I get us out of here fast! And I do something about this knight!”

He aimed for the knight’s right shoulder. The shoulder armor was about a yard wide.

His momentum let him land perpendicular to the slanted armor.

The edge of his sandals slammed loudly against the shoulder armor, but the impact to his knees and ankles was almost entirely erased. He used his excess inertia to hold himself against the slanted armor.

Yuo opened a window at the same time.

'''<Yuo: Target Traits: Display: Run>

A window opened listing out the knight’s stats.

“Puppy! Copy!”

Yuo’s Mouse, a ferret named Puppy, gave a cry similar to a laugh, and copied the contents of that window. Then Yuo pasted the test onto her own transparent window.

“Got it! This knight is an NPC Body! A lot of his programs and data have been corrupted, but he is definitely an NPC Body. But why is he so big?”

Aoe gave a strong “mh” that silenced Yuo.

<None of this changes the fact that the city is being destroyed.>

With that thought, he kicked off the knight’s shoulder, jumping backwards.

After the second impact, the knight turned toward Aoe.

Aoe immediately moved 5 yards away and did a flip in the air to fall feetfirst instead of back-first.

<What to do now?>

As soon as he took his landing pose, the knight jabbed his spear out.

And that attack was accompanied by a Text.

'''“Harsh Strike Release.”

A sound like striking stone came from the hand holding the spear and the movement gained much more strength.

A red transparent coin emblem appeared on the back of that hand.

“A Download!? But I thought that wasn’t possible for NPC Bodies!”

In this Minus World, Aoe’s emotion of surprise delayed his midair evasion.

A giant blade was approaching from dead ahead. It was about a yard wide and thick.

The tip was badly chipped from all the destruction it had wrought, but it still had some sharp portions left.

Aoe did not hesitate.

He threw his fist toward one of the non-sharp portions.

<Break!>

He threw his right arm forward.

He aimed for a chipped part on the upper edge of the blade.

He slammed his right fist there.

He didn’t have the support of the ground since he was in midair, so he twisted his body, swung his other arm, and sent all his movement vectors into his right fist.

He swung just that one arm.

His will produced a Text.

'''“Hit. I’ll be mad if you don’t.”

Light scattered from his right fist along with the sound of shattering glass. A black see-through emblem appeared there.

Just then, he heard Yuo shouting from the air behind him.

“All of your attacks are blocked by security!”

His fist hit the approaching blade before she was even done speaking.

Something odd happened then. The sensation of the impact vanished from his fist.

<What the-!?>

He didn’t feel the force he had expected. That meant his blow hadn’t hit its target.

He checked in a split second and found the end of his outstretched arm was stopped.

His arm was extended and motionless, almost like it had been that way all long.

<Is this what you meant by removing my attack power?>

He understood now. At the same time, the blade’s movement vector arrived at his fist and pushed it back.

That heavy metal spear was wielded by an 8yd giant. He couldn’t stop that with his powerless outstretched arm. The arm was knocked back and the giant blade jabbed into his unguarded chest.

The blade had reached him.

“Mh!”

He grunted and attempted a defensive stance. Then he noticed an odd floating sensation.

He first felt it in his stomach and then found his vision rapidly rotating to the left.

<What!?>

He was not in control of this motion.

Someone’s unseen hand was spinning him leftward through the air. He had been facing the Knight, but now the city on the horizon to the left was coming into view.

He heard Yuo’s voice in his ear while he tried to figure out what was happening.

“I’m shifting your coordinates! Please don’t try to move!”

“Mh,” he replied as the color white filled his vision.

The white was the tip of the spear.

<We dodged it!?>

Then he started to fall. He saw Yuo overhead as he fell into the Page below.

'''<Aoe’s Sight Mode has ended>