The heavy cannon fire almost exploded in his ears.
Mitsuhide felt the entire car shaking, and his body was like being tied to a runaway horse, almost smashing out the window.
Panam was even more nervous, her eyes fully focused on the armored vehicles ahead and the road.
She desperately twisted the steering wheel, using all her skill and experience, making the vehicle, fooled by inertia and speed, narrowly avoid the close-range, pomegranate-sized cannon shells.
"Damn it, no good! Like this, let alone catching the target, these armored vehicles alone could kill us!"
Panam gritted her teeth, feeling the heat blast from the cannon explosions spraying in through the window, her hands gripping the steering wheel so hard she almost tore off its rubber cover.
"Damn it!"
Inside the car, Mitsuhide, who had been tossed around like a canned sardine for half a day, was also furious.
He looked at the increasingly distant target on the navigation system, gritted his teeth, and made a decision.
"You just drive; I'll handle the armored vehicles!"
With that said, without waiting for Panam's reaction, he twisted open the car door and, with an agility unsuited for his heavy armor, like a dolphin leaping from water, grabbed the car shell and back-flipped onto the roof.
"What the hell is this guy doing!?"
Panam hadn't even reacted when she saw the empty seat beside her and heard footsteps stomping on the roof, feeling a bit surreal.
But there was no other way now, so she gritted her teeth and decided to do as Mitsuhide said.
She gripped the steering wheel even harder, making the car sway like a snake, trying to find an opportunity to overtake the armored vehicles blocking the way ahead.
Just as she decided this, she saw a massive black shadow, like a cannonball, smash against the armored vehicle in front of the car window. A dull metallic crash sounded, making Panam almost think there had been an explosion.
Mitsuhide almost immediately disabled the automatic turret on the armored vehicle's roof as he leaped down. The pure white blade of'Satori' sliced into the turret from top to bottom with almost no resistance. Mitsuhide crouched on the roof, pulled out his sword, and then chopped down again.
This strike was even more powerful; two rows of metal barrels, along with half of the turret, were cleanly severed, tumbling twice in the air before smashing onto the asphalt road.
"Someone's on the roof!"
"Fire!"
At this moment, the people inside the armored vehicle belatedly realized that someone had jumped onto the roof to cause trouble. Instantly, two Agents wearing yellow and white bulletproof vests emerged from the front cockpit, their technical submachine guns separating their barrels and spitting fire onto the roof.
Kang Tao's smart weapons are exceptionally famous.
Naturally, they equipped their Agents with their own top-tier products.
As soon as they drew their guns, Mitsuhide recognized that the weapons firing at him were Kang Tao Corporation's G-58 Classic Smart Submachine Guns, part of their arms series.
Truly a classic among classics.
Fully automatic aiming, fully automatic ballistic tracking, fully automatic reloading—all fully automatic.
These smart weapons were so fully automatic that all they ultimately required was a person holding the gun and a finger to pull the trigger.
Thus, Mitsuhide clearly saw the bullets, flashing with white electric light, curving and flying towards him on the roof as soon as they left the barrel, as if they had eyes.
You're eating shit, my lord. This era is no longer about wielding swords and sticks.
Mitsuhide felt that the incoming curved bullet barrage was silently conveying this message to him.
But, even so, he still wanted to say:
Sorry.
The times have changed back again.
How can swords be so inconvenient?
The moment the tracking bullet rain struck, Mitsuhide on the roof moved.
Almost the instant he moved, his figure transformed into a blurred afterimage.
All that could be seen was a lightning-like white light flashing around him. If time were slowed down at this moment, it would be clear that it wasn't electric light, but the overlapping afterimages of countless sword slashes.
One slash, one slash, then another slash.
Mitsuhide wasn't slashing the air; he was slashing the bullets in the air.
These bullets, fired from all directions, were all split apart by his katana, one by one. When these dozens, or even hundreds, of actions were superimposed, all one could see was a flash of white light.
And the next second, with a crackling sound like a metallic rain, shattered bullet casings fell through the air, scattering like raindrops across the roof and the road.
Holy shit.
Although they didn't say it aloud, the expressions of those Kang Tao Agents revealed their innermost thoughts.
Their fingers were still on the triggers, but their minds were completely awed by Mitsuhide's god-like operation, mouths agape, unsure whether to speak in this tense moment.
But Mitsuhide had no time to get entangled with them.
Having cleared the surrounding bullet rain, he didn't stop for a moment.
Bending his legs to gather strength, he leaped, jumping onto another armored vehicle.
He repeated the process, and the automatic machine gun on the roof was hacked to pieces.
So shattered that it could only be sold as scrap.
Then, one by one, Mitsuhide leaped across several vehicles, disarming all the armored vehicles in front.
In the early twelfth century, during the Battle of Dan-no-ura, Minamoto no Yoshitsune leaped across eight ships, ultimately annihilating the Taira clan. Now, in 2077, Akechi Mitsuhide leaps across ten vehicles, furiously dismantling turrets.
Truly cause for celebration, cause for celebration (truly).
In short, with the heavy armament of the armored vehicles silenced, the veteran driver Panam finally found an opportunity. Driving her beloved vehicle like a slippery loach in the mud, she squeezed through the gaps between the armored vehicles, then, like Pleasant Goat shaking off Lazy Goat, she sped away relentlessly, leaving the armored vehicles behind.
And at the last moment, Mitsuhide, on the foremost armored vehicle, leaped, flying towards Panam's vehicle.
In Berry's future memoirs, this was described as "a perilous leap in the dark."
Even Panam herself later described how Mitsuhide cleanly grabbed the car's rear wing and safely tumbled into the car.
But the truth of history often lacks the sacredness of legend.
In reality, Mitsuhide didn't grab on at all.
In mid-air, he waved his hand futilely, his fingertips a full centimeter away from Panam's car body.
The result was obvious.
He slammed onto the ground with a thud, like a fish out of water under the force of gravity, even rolling several times embarrassingly on the dusty asphalt road.
"Damn it!"
Panam slammed on the brakes, the enormous impact almost sending her head into the steering wheel, barely avoiding deploying the airbag.
Seizing the opportunity of Panam stopping, Mitsuhide, almost scrambling, used both hands and feet, like a brave charging lion scurrying on all fours, opening the passenger door and, with a gust of wind, darting into the car.
The vehicle started again, narrowly dodging the pursuing armored vehicles and the bullet rain firing from within.
"Phew, that was truly thrilling!"
Mitsuhide sat in the passenger seat, looking at the gradually receding armored vehicles in the rearview mirror, and clapped his hands in relief.
"Yeah…"
Looking at Mitsuhide, who looked relaxed, and then thinking of his earlier disheveled state, using both hands and feet like a cow escaping for its life, the frank and straightforward Panam's gaze became complex.
She didn't even know how to retort.
"Hey, Panam, look, those are solar windmills!"
As if discovering some wondrous treasure, Mitsuhide earnestly pointed to the giant solar power windmills standing in the wilderness for Panam.
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