16 Ancient One

Golden stepped back.

It was the first move.

Meaning it had begun to regard them as a threat.

At last, the opponent acknowledged Jin and the others as enemies.

No chaotic assault—instead, it began to scout for openings.

Jin clicked his tongue. Troublesome.

Until just moments ago, there had still been carelessness.

But with Kou and Yuria joining the fray—the number of enemy forces capable of opposing Golden had increased. The opponent had erased even the slightest lapse.

Cut where necessary. Tighten where required.

The rhythm of attack and retreat was so precise it could be called the work of a veteran warrior.

Jin smiled, as if facing a human opponent.

Thinking such thoughts before ASID.

The reason would come later.

For now—

"Flank him from the blind spot, Sasamori Lieutenant! Nastin Lieutenant!"

That was all.

No further orders needed. A silent challenge, implying that now, more than ever, such instructions were unnecessary.

Jin’s Raven moved first.

The Reactor reloaded again.

It kicked the expelled energy like a ball.

Golden deflected it as it approached.

To the opponent, the nature of the weapon remained unknown.

A logical assumption.

But too late to realize it had become worthless debris.

Jin’s unit charged straight ahead, chasing the Reactor.

To Golden, it should have appeared as if materializing directly in front upon deflection.

It avoided the slash by crouching—possible only due to its small frame.

As it raised an uppercut from below, Jin instead used its fist as a catapult.

Jin’s skill, reading one second ahead.

Their feet aligned perfectly, like a synchronized signal, and Jin’s unit leapt.

In the instant its form vanished, Kou’s unit launched from behind Jin’s position.

No coordination even in a glance.

That level of performance is to be expected.

Above all, these two had spent three full years meticulously cultivating their ability to anticipate each other’s intentions.

As an opponent in the simulation exercise.

Countless times, countless battles—reading the rhythm of the opponent’s breath had become second nature.

Thus, Kou could vaguely sense what Jin was attempting, and thus align his own movements accordingly.

Kou extends a serpent-like blade stroke toward the Golden, still exposed to pursuit by Jin's machine.

Technique defying human joint mechanics—only possible with an assault frame.

A weapon unique to Kōu—something even Jin could not replicate.

The Golden Eye cannot keep pace with the irregular orbit.

A shallow wound etched into the Golden chest.

As if in return, she lunged forward with a straight punch toward the Kō unit.

A straight punch aimed at the abdomen. Kou dodges it—tilting the机体 backward.

Her back nearly grazing the ground, the fist shot past her upper body.

Even in that unstable stance, she did not feign a fall, instead pivoting from the ankles and launching forward in a low crouch.

The movement, impossible for a human, left onlookers breathless.

An unpredictable motion, seemingly beyond calculation.

Yet one person matched it.

At the exact moment Kou tipped the机体, the bullet had already been fired.

If Jin and Kou had spent three years reading each other’s breath in silent confrontation,

then Kou and Yuriya had spent eleven years syncing their breaths, backs to each other.

Their默契 was so deep it made Kou’s wife jealous.

This was nothing extraordinary.

Kou played decoy; Yuriya struck the target.

One of countless repetitions of a coordination perfected over time.

From the Golden ASID’s perspective, the Kou unit appeared to have been struck instantly from behind, as if bullets had suddenly emerged from its back—such was the precision of the blind technique.

Even the Golden, who had deflected the trajectory, could not evade bullets it could not see.

A second direct hit. Penetrating the abdomen.

‘Hit! We did it!’

‘Good work!’

‘Not yet!’

Normally, this would have been the end.

That size—there could only be an Ether Reactor in the abdomen.

But this Golden was not an ordinary ASID.

With the abdomen pierced, it leapt backward sharply.

Kneeling, it drove its fist into the ground. Damage repaired itself rapidly.

‘What the hell…’

‘Those inside are directly receiving the Ether of this super-large variant. That’s why they don’t have a Reactor.’

‘Troublesome fellow.’

So this time, they’d have to dismantle it piece by piece.

Jin reloaded the Reactor once more.

Already the third time.

Three Reactors remain.

The Golden re-entered the embrace once more.

Jin and his team favored a slightly wider range—pushing back toward that position.

A scene resembling territorial control.

Aiming for the opponent’s most unfavorable stance.

Mid-motion, Jin glimpsed one second ahead.

(——White?)

Before thought could form, the机体 moved.

The tilted机体. Something raced through the space where the torso had just been.

"Grk!"

His half-body caught in the shockwave.

Arm torn from the shoulder. Legs buckling at the knees.

Before shock could register at the sight of his shattered machine, Jin trembled.

That one second ahead. Was that the moment of death?

If he had not evaded, and taken the hit directly.

The机体 would have disintegrated at the core.

The culprit: a cannon port opened in the Golden’s abdomen.

The sensation was incomprehensible—like space itself had been compressed and expelled.

Not a projectile, certainly. No etheric reaction either.

A lethal, invisible long-range attack.

Perhaps it should be called a Spatial Cannon.

A hidden weapon, revealed at last.

『Instructor!』

"Stand clear of its front! It has a ranged weapon!"

Jin shouts, leaping with only one leg remaining, Raven still intact.

Red alerts flash across the frame.

The AI suggests immediate system deactivation and ejection.

All warnings are suppressed.

No time for thorough assessment.

He estimates damage by instinct, isolating intact sections from destroyed ones.

He improvises the optimal combat maneuver—executable only through movable components—and executes it.

He severs increasingly nonfunctional sections, lightening the frame.

Perhaps this will hold for a little longer.

But mobility and attack power are halved.

"Mark points one through six on processor one to six! Assign the unentered assault units! Provide support to each processor assault team!"

"Processor one is destroyed! But regeneration has begun! Defense mechanisms are also regenerating... won't last long!"

"Three is the same! Estimated—destroying other processors has slowed the regeneration rate!"

Similar reports from four, five, and six.

Meaning only this processor remains.

And the others, though destroyed, are regenerating. We're crushing them again, but the enemy is reinforcing defenses.

A desperate cry—this state cannot be sustained for long.

Thus, the Golden must be secured in a short time.

Jin sighs, as if always pushed to act too quickly.

The current configuration was accidental—but fortunate.

Had Jin or Kou been directed toward a different processor—

would the Golden have resisted then?

"Let's go, Captain Sasamori. You're the main focus."

Jin's Raven cannot deliver the kind of decisive blow needed to destroy the enemy.

Jin will cover, Kou will deliver the final strike.

That is the only option.

Above all, Kou's close-combat style appears to be particularly ineffective against opponents.

Their attacks consistently find openings.

"Relax, Captain. Leave it to me."

Calmly, Kou speaks.

A renewed charge.

Facing forward, the previous attack—the Spatial Cannon—will come.

Yuria maneuvers into a blind spot, redirecting the enemy's attention.

If other units could do the same, it would be effective support. But their skill level makes this friendly fire a liability.

In contrast, Golden targets Jin.

Jin also thinks it goes without saying.

The one currently weakest is oneself.

Eliminate the weakest first. Standard procedure in multi-target combat.

I would do the same.

Yet Jin—despite being a figure seemingly easy to catch—skillfully dodged the enemy's attack on one leg.

Jumping on one leg and immediately kicking away the opponent's punch with the flying leg is not sane behavior.

If Jin's Raven loses a leg and the remaining one is destroyed, it will no longer function properly.

Even if that were to happen, Jin would not have cared.

Maximizing the use of a机体 that barely functions is best achieved this way.

The moment of piercing oneself, now a perfect target.

It must be an ideal hunting opportunity for Kou.

At the end of yet another round of defense and counterattack.

Jin's Raven toppled over.

It was Jin's invitation.

From an outside view, the machine’s balance should have appeared hopelessly unstable.

Golden hesitated not. Aiming the Spatial Cannon at the chest of the fallen Jin, it delivered the final blow without uncertainty.

In that opening, Kou did not falter.