Garuma charged at me, completely ignoring Melissa.
I dodged the lunge with a graceful display of G-style Tactics while simultaneously plunging my sword into a gap in his armor at the base of his neck.
Wait, it actually went in!
"Gu—guoooooooooooo!"
Garuma thrashed in agony.
Between him and the Grand Chamberlain, it seemed combat-type Zorks always ended up looking like some kind of masked rider. They looked remarkably cool.
By contrast, my ESP turned everything into a gag and avoided despair only by making the situation absurd. It was an ability that had abandoned all pretenses of style or elegance from its very inception.
Just trying to describe it in words made it sound pathetic. What was this moisture...? Tears...? No, just sweat from my eyes...
With my power, I didn't have to worry about things like the "anguish of a modified human"!
"I won't forgive youuuuuuu!"
Garuma swung a heavy fist.
I slashed at his reaching arm and attempted to drive my elbow upward into his.
Time to see just how hard this combat suit really is!
"Oraaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Crack. Snap.
"That hurts so muchhhhhhh!"
As I uppercutted his jaw, I heard the distinct sound of my own combat suit fracturing.
[Warning: Combat suit arm section damaged!]
The automated voice alert blared in my ear.
You’ve got to be kidding me!
And to make matters worse, I had another problem.
...My sword had snapped.
"Oof..."
"Uoooooooooooo!"
Garuma was desperate now, swinging his arms around with reckless abandon.
In response, I went unarmed. I ducked beneath his reach, dodging the flailing limbs. He was incredibly fast, but his weight distribution was sloppy. The moment his center of gravity shifted forward, I swept his leg and delivered a knife-hand strike to his throat!
With a dull thud, Garuma lost his balance and landed hard on his backside. I immediately backed off to create some distance.
Hammer! Give me a hammer!
"Captain! Use this!"
Melissa threw a katana toward me. I didn't have the confidence to wield a katana with any real skill, so I resorted to Satsuma Martial Arts.
"Uooooooooooo!"
I sprinted forward at full speed. Garuma was finally scrambling back to his feet; his body seemed sluggish, likely the trade-off for his abnormal durability.
I brought the blade down on Garuma’s head. Being a mere mortal, I lacked the confidence to cleave him in two with a single strike, so I simply hammered him with blow after blow. I didn't give him an opening to counter. I just kept pummelling him one-sidedly.
Crunch.
...Wait.
This one bent too!
"Uooooooooo!"
But I didn't give up. I mounted him and began whaling on him with my knuckles. I didn't care if people called it Gorilla Tactics. Winning was all that mattered!
Keep moving as long as I have breath! Move, my fists!
I punched him over and over and over again. My breath tasted of blood, and it felt as though my heart might burst from the exertion. Still, I didn't stop.
"Ha... ha... ha... Oraaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"Captain! Stop!"
"Leo!"
Claire hugged me from behind, and Melissa grabbed my arm to pull me back.
"It's over..."
Garuma wasn't moving. He wasn't twitching, so he probably wasn't dead. Most likely.
"Ahahaha! Garuma probably never imagined the Lord Groom would fight such a mud-slinging battle!"
Looking closely, Garuma’s head armor was dented and cracked in multiple places.
...I had won.
"Ha... ha... ha..."
I was completely winded. Unable to bear it any longer, I pulled off my helmet. Oxygen! I needed oxygen!
"Phew..."
The air tasted delicious. The inside of my helmet had been entirely fogged up by my heavy breathing. I set the helmet, which had automatically entered maintenance mode, down on the floor. I was drenched in sweat inside the combat suit.
"Leo, you've reached the point where you can win even in the flesh."
"Ha... ha... but... the efficiency... ha... is terrible..."
At the very least, I needed a gun. Though, using a light machine gun in an enclosed space was its own kind of difficult. And with an assault rifle, the concern was always whether it had enough stopping power to finish the job.
I suppose slamming them with a hammer and then finishing with a beam weapon was the least taxing on my stamina. Though I’d die if I messed that up.
As my breathing finally began to steady, a transmission came in. It was Tatiana.
"Captain! I... I have a really bad feeling!"
A chill ran down my spine. I didn't know exactly what was coming, but I instinctively dove to the side.
Something grazed the side of my head. I felt the sting as something gouged a shallow track in my scalp.
In the next instant, I realized a tentacle had burst through the wall, lunging for me. I felt sticky blood beginning to flow. I took a fall, rolling with the momentum before springing back to my feet.
"Fool! Fool! Fooool!"
A voice emanated from the mangled Garuma.
"I am a combat type! I will not fall to a mere pittance like this!"
The walls of the base began to liquefy.
"I have brought this entire facility under my control. I shall consume you all and offer your souls to God!"
The molten walls began to close in around us. There was no gap to escape through... This was bad.
In that moment of burgeoning regret, another transmission came from Tatiana.
"Captain! Massacre Night says 'Send me'!"
"Huh?"
"I'm releasing the locks now, so just wait!"
How? How was she doing that?
Then a transmission came from the Fairy.
"What?! Massacre Night is initiating launch processing on its own! I don't understand anything anymore! Ah, jeez! Fine, I'll help!"
Wifey joined the comms as well.
"Lord Groom! Massacre Night took off by itself! I have no idea what is happening... but it seems to be coming to your rescue! Stay alive until it gets there!"
Whaat?!
Did that machine have a will of its own? Or was this Tatiana’s ability?
I couldn't make sense of anything anymore. Even among Jesters, was there really this much of a difference? Come to think of it, Alyssa did say she couldn't do the same things I did. The individual variations among Jesters were way too extreme!
Whatever! I just had to focus on surviving!
"Melissa! Grenade!"
"Yes, sir!"
Melissa hurled a grenade. For a split second, the tentacles ceased their movement.
"Claire! What about the remaining explosives?"
"I still have them! I'm detonating them now!"
Claire threw a bomb that detonated a second later. The proximity of the blast knocked us off our feet, but the tentacles sprouting from the walls also ground to a halt. Explosives were definitely effective.
...Wait, that meant there were only about forty seconds left until the charges Claire had previously set went off. Massacre Night might not make it in time...
[Massacre Night has warped!]
What?
In the blink of an eye, Massacre Night appeared right before us.
No way.
But it wasn't just Massacre Night. Melissa's Samurai Custom, Claire's Fighter, and even Ren's Sniper—all developed as sister machines—appeared as well. More accurately, they smashed through the building and the tentacles to reach us.
"Get in!"
We scrambled into the cockpits with more haste than we had ever shown in our lives. The moment we were secure, the explosives Claire had rigged throughout the facility detonated.
That was a close one. We nearly blew ourselves up.
I really hope Garuma-pon stayed down after that explosion. (Flag)