Geroy's reactor kicked into high gear, generating massive amounts of electricity. At the same time, he was spinning his body like mad, turning himself into a giant conductor and producing an electromagnetic effect that generated magnetic force.
At that moment, Geroy was a colossal magnet, pulling the three machines on the calamity beast's back toward him.
But don't forget: Greta and the others were still clamped onto the beast's body and refusing to let go. So the beast got dragged along and stuck to Geroy too.
The poor calamity beast hadn't even figured out what was happening before it was yanked off its feet, all four legs dangling in the air, and given a crash course in what "Fast & Furious" really meant.
Geroy never stopped spinning. With himself as the axis, he swung the beast and everything stuck to it around in a circle, whipping up a white tornado across the ice. It was downright eerie.
Ten thousand horsepower of magnetic force!!!
The one who really suffered was Geno, stuck inside the beast. As the world spun and spun, endless dizziness shot straight to the top of his skull and turned his eyes into a pair of swirling mosquito coils.
"Waaaaaaah!!! Help! I'm so dizzy! Blegh~~~"
At first Geno had only felt a little carsick, but that changed fast.
The commotion outside stopped at first, then started up again, only this time it wasn't sliding around. It was spinning.
Ever ridden the giant pendulum at an amusement park? What Geno was feeling now was easily ten times more thrilling than that.
In his daze, Geno even thought he glimpsed his own back. The out-of-body sensation made him feel completely wrecked.
"Blegh~~~ I'm never going to an amusement park again, blegh~~~"
After several rounds of this, Geno was close to his limit. It wasn't physical pain, but mental torment.
Luckily, the torture didn't last long. The turbulence outside soon ceased, and Geno could finally catch his breath.
"Phew... finally, it's over."
Geno waited for his scrambled brain to settle. If only he had a mirror, he'd have checked whether his eyes had been spun cross-eyed.
Once he'd recovered, he instinctively clenched his hand, meaning to rub his head, and felt something unfamiliar.
"What's this?"
He turned his gaze and followed his arm. At some point, Geno's hand had landed on Tailless's hilt.
After a brief moment of shock, Tailless erupted with the same frost-flame as the calamity beast, and it instantly crept over Geno's entire body.
The sudden turn made Geno flinch. He wanted to smother the flames, but his body was pinned, and apart from his right hand gripping Tailless, he had nothing else he could move. Panic set in.
Strangely, though, a good while passed and Geno felt no pain at all. If anything, it was almost comfortable.
Then the tentacles binding Geno were burned through, one by one, by the frost-flame Tailless was releasing, and he was finally free.
"What an amazing sight. Did you do this, Brother Tailless?"
Geno curiously eyed the frost-flame still burning on his body. He quickly realized Tailless might be the cause.
Tailless didn't respond and just kept releasing frost-flame. Geno didn't understand what it meant, but as the flames burned, he felt his strength slowly coming back.
"My strength is back. Did Tailless share its power with me?"
Geno flexed his left hand in the air. His strength had returned a little. Not much, but enough.
"In that case, I can't just stand around dazed in here."
With that, Geno's right hand yanked hard once more. It was as stuck as ever. Tailless stayed lodged in place without budging, no matter how much force he used.
"Damn it! It still won't come out."
Geno cursed under his breath, futile effort and all, tossing in a few greetings to the calamity beast's ancestors, and then let go of Tailless with both hands.
"If I can't pull it out, then I'll drive it in!"
So saying, Geno used his meager Ether to summon a sledgehammer once more. He was going to hammer Tailless straight down and punch through the calamity beast's body.
And the moment Geno pulled out the hammer, a flash of alarm seemed to cross Tailless's blade.
Geno raised the sledgehammer high, took a running start into a big jump, and smashed it down on Tailless's hilt.
"Eighty!!!!"
Clang!
The sound of metal on metal echoed through the beast's body. Under that blow, Geno drove Tailless straight in, leaving only half the hilt exposed.
After the strike, Geno felt the whole beast's body falter, and then he saw the spot where Tailless sat cave in a good deal.
"It works! Then one more swing! Eighty!"
Another swing.
Hearing that, Tailless's hilt visibly trembled. But Geno failed to notice a thing, his mind wholly set on delivering the perfect swing.
With another thunderous crash, not even a sliver of the hilt was left in sight. Soon the part of the calamity beast's body where Tailless was lodged began to disintegrate.
A great deal of frost-flame surged from the pale-blue flesh. It wasn't very noticeable, but it blazed all the same. Then Geno felt the floor beneath his feet cave in even further, and with a rumble, he fell through.
As he plummeted, Geno tried his best to keep his balance. At the same time, he finally escaped from inside the beast.
Breathing in the cold, fresh air outside, Geno felt like he'd been away for a lifetime. Falling alongside him was that cursed blade, glinting and trailing fire in the night sky.
"ROOOAAAR!!!"
The calamity beast's howl echoed across the empty ice.
First it had been wrung out like a piece of laundry by Geroy, then it had been battered nonstop by Geno inside its body. The calamity beast was truly miserable.
But no one was going to care about its pain right now. Everyone's attention was fixed on Geno, who had dropped out of the beast's cracked jaw.
"I see him, I see him! It's Geno! He's out!"
On the dock, Asaba Harumasa, who had already come back, looked through military binoculars at the liberated Geno and cried out with joy from the bottom of his heart.
Yanagi Tsukishiro, standing beside him, breathed a sigh of relief at the news too, but only a sigh. The woman standing in front of her gave Yanagi Tsukishiro no reason to let her guard down even slightly.
"What a touching scene. So, Deputy Section Chief Tsukishiro, can you now agree to let us at TOPS take over cleaning up your section's blunder?"
The woman wore a plastic, businesslike smile. Her expensive suit strained tight over her near-explosive figure, and above her ample curves hung a small, neat name tag.
TOPS Alliance, Chief Security Officer: Desmoulins.
____
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