An indescribable terror made Pardo tremble. "Ahhh, run!"
She wanted to flee, but the area around the baseball stadium was far too open. There wasn't a single place to hide. As far as the eye could see, there were only a few shrubs and guard booths. Where could they possibly go...?
Mike's Gatling gun and rifle ammunition had long since run dry. After firing the last bullet from his rifle, he drew his semi-automatic pistol and began firing in controlled bursts. But the pistol rounds were too weak to have any real effect on the Honkai Beasts. Left with no choice, he switched to hacking at them with a sharper alloy saw blade.
Kevin handed the gun in his hand to Mei and picked up a metal baseball bat scattered among the ruins, engaging the undead and Honkai Beasts in close combat. Fortunately, with Mei's covering fire, dealing with these lesser enemies posed no problem for him.
Shuttle-type Honkai Beasts could summon a rain of Honkai energy. Anyone who came into contact with those droplets would immediately turn into an undead. They had to be eliminated first.
Ido flashed aside to dodge the lightning shot from a shuttle-type Honkai Beast. Her figure flickered like a phantom, weaving and shifting unpredictably. Losing sight of its target, the shuttle-type Honkai Beast hesitated in confusion—only for a crimson spear tip to appear above its head. As cherry blossom petals drifted down, the Honkai Beast was cleaved in two by flame.
Soon, the true heavyweights of the Honkai arrived.
What did a nearly twenty-meter-tall Chariot-class Honkai Beast represent? The reason they had known there were Chariot-class Honkai Beasts inside the stadium was simple—they were too tall. So tall that even the remaining high walls of the baseball stadium could not conceal them. Calling them mountains would not be an exaggeration—because they were mountains, towering into the clouds.
And now, those two mountains crushed through the stadium walls and pressed toward them. There was no retreat left.
Mei tried to start a vehicle parked near the stadium while Kevin covered her. But without proper tools, she had only managed to dismantle the outer structural panels. Cracking a modern anti-theft ignition system in time was clearly impossible.
Mike smashed aside an incoming Honkai Beast with the butt of his gun and muttered in despair, "God... maybe we're really going to die..."
Pardo chose to wrap herself in the rain tarp from the waiting area, burying herself like an ostrich in self-deception.
Watching this unfold, Ido had no intention of fleeing alone.
She could.
But she wouldn't.
"Pardo... Ido will protect you all!"
It wasn't because she believed the mission her teacher assigned outweighed her own life.
It was simply a bit of childish stubbornness.
This suspected natural Stigmata power isn't something you can control yet.
Vill-V's warning echoed in her ears.
Ido placed her hand on the Honkai-suppressing bandage.
"This is the belief that runs through my very self."
Gritting her teeth, she tore the bandage from her arm. A violent wave of dizziness surged into her head, like severe motion sickness. Somewhere in the depths of her consciousness, a familiar call seemed to beckon.
"Mom's going in."
"Warning. Please equip the Honkai suppressor immediately. Warning. Please equip the Honkai suppressor immediately." Her wristwatch-life monitor began issuing alerts. But Ido no longer cared.
She lowered the sunglasses perched atop her head onto the bridge of her nose. The tension in her expression eased considerably. They were the custom-made [Beach Bro Sunglasses ★★] crafted by Teacher Vill-V.
"Since we're going to die anyway, what difference does sooner or later make?"
With that, she kicked aside the scythe-wielding undead on both sides. A furious gale surged beneath her feet as she stepped onto a shuttle-type Honkai Beast, climbing upward step by step while shouting:
"Kevin, open your eyes and watch closely! This—is a Valkyrie!"
A violet Honkai energy shell shot toward her. Ido swept her spear in an arc, deflecting it aside.
"Roar—!"
A Chariot-class Honkai Beast lifted a leg as thick as a bridge pier, stomping down toward Ido as if crushing an ant.
Ido swung her spear and smacked a nearby shuttle-type Honkai Beast. Using the recoil, she launched herself more than ten meters away, narrowly avoiding the devastating stomp.
Rumble—
A massive crater was crushed into the ground. Shattered stones blasted apart the security booth and metal barricades.
Rolling several times across the Chariot-class Honkai Beast's arm, Ido caught her balance and flipped upright. The moment she neutralized the inertia from the tremendous impact, she sprinted along the beast's arm. Before it could retract, her speed surged abruptly—like a speeding train. In the blink of an eye, she reached its shoulder.
Her arm, gripping the spear, drew back like a fully stretched bow. A faint pink light of focus gathered in her eyes as violet-red Honkai energy erupted around her.
The Chariot-class' sluggish head turned toward her—only to be met by a howling wolf-flame.
[Wolf's Mark]
The flaming wolf exploded against the Chariot's head, branding a blazing crimson wolf sigil upon it.
The violent impact caused the massive body to tilt. Enduring the recoil, Ido thrust forward again, pressing the advantage. The corrosive patterns on her arm spread further as the spear tip transformed into a dance of butterflies.
[Phantom Butterfly]
She launched into a flying thrust. In a blink, she stood before the second Chariot-class Honkai Beast. Meanwhile, the swirling butterflies left behind stamped a violet butterfly sigil onto the skull of the first Chariot.
[Aurora]
The second Chariot-class Honkai Beast raised its leg, intending to swat the insolent fly before it. But Ido transformed into a dazzling, distorted ribbon of light. In the next instant, a radiant, multicolored halo appeared above the beast's head.
As for Ido, she now stood between the two colossal beasts. She spun her spear in a flourish and rested it behind her back. Her other hand angled downward in a poised grip. Her brows were sharp as a blade, starlight swirling within her eyes.
Honkai energy gathered across her body, making her seem as though she shone with starlight itself.
"Inherit Writing!"
Ido split into three beams of light. The blazing wolf, the violet butterfly, and the brilliant aurora manifested in succession, encircling the two Honkai Beasts completely.
One strike. Seventy strikes. One hundred and fifty strikes...
Only the attacks were visible—her figure could no longer be seen.
Mike stared at the scene, so shocked that even his movements against the Honkai Beast slowed.
That petite figure was actually suppressing two colossal monsters at once. It was as absurd as an ant taking on two tigers.
And the ant did so with ease, while the tigers were utterly powerless to retaliate. Was this something a normal human could achieve? Where had science gone?
You call this "not knowing spear techniques"? Even Odin from Norse mythology would have to applaud such mastery.
The wounds on the two Chariot-class Honkai Beasts multiplied. The frequency of the strikes grew faster and faster. From those very wounds, new wolves, butterflies, and lights erupted in succession—three total detonations.
Even Chariot-class Honkai Beasts could not endure such a torrential assault.
With two thunderous crashes, they collapsed.
Thud.
After unleashing an unbelievably flashy ultimate attack and annihilating two Chariot-class Honkai Beasts in mere moments, Ido landed lightly before the utterly stunned crowd.
She even struck a victory pose.
After all, it was her first time going all out with a full-powered ultimate. As Teacher Vill-V had once said, even a curtain call deserved a perfect sense of ceremony.
Though she only knew how to strike a pose.
It was also her way of hoping they wouldn't be afraid of the overwhelming destructive power she had just displayed.
No girl wants to become a monster in the eyes of others.