Rebuild World (WN)

by that jamming!? But even without the support system, it should still function as a normal augmented suit, right!? What the heck is going on?!]

 

Katsuya ended up unconsciously looking for the reasons he was having difficulty.
This divided his attention, which caused him to slow down even more.
But that was enough to cause a fatal opening in that battle.
Akira and Tiol did not let that chance slide as both of them simultaneously aimed their rifles at Katsuya.

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But this was where Akira’s slightly late response spared Katsuya’s life.
If Akira had committed to the battle a few seconds sooner and stepped closer to the death door to sharpen his senses, Katsuya would have died there.

 

Inside the compressed time perception, Akira aimed his rifle at Katsuya while fixing his gaze at him.
He then realized that Katsuya noticed him and took a defensive stance instead of jumping out of the way.
A barrage of anti-forcefield armour rounds at close-range would be able to easily break through that level of defence.

 

Akira knew that Katsuya would understand that as well, so right at the next moment, Akira jumped away following his instinct.

 

A split second later, a storm of bullets enveloped the top of the APC.
Akira was barely able to evade it while Tiol, who was not able to evade, took the barrage head-on and was thrown flying before landing on the ground.
He rolled over a few times, before being run over by the vehicles chasing after Akira’s APC from behind.

 

That attack just now came from Katsuya’s team.
After Akira’s APC broke through their formation, they immediately turned around and started chasing the APC.
Then the moment they felt that Katsuya was in danger, they immediately took action to provide supporting fire to him.
Both the ones that were peeking out from the vehicles as well as the ones driving the vehicles were all moving in a quick organized manner, without exchanging any information in between them.
Moreover, they sprayed the bullets in such a fashion that it covered the whole top, except for where Katsuya was standing.

 

Of course, Katsuya also got hit by some of the bullets, but he was unscathed.
Akira then thought, while hiding himself around the edge of the rooftop.

 

[Low powered bullets, huh? Did they use that only to provide suppressing fire? No, that’s not right, if all of them were low powered bullets, it should have been impossible to send Tiol flying like that.
I bet they’re only using that type of bullet around the area where they might hit Katsuya and used different bullets elsewhere.]

 

Akira’s guess was mostly correct, but the implication of his guess was something that was really worrying for him.

 

[The jamming is still in effect.
So how were they able to execute that without speaking to each other? That level of teamwork is not normal, you know?]

 

Katsuya jumped backwards to join up with the rest of his team.
Akira did try to shoot Katsuya down when he was up in the air, but the suppression fire from his team made that difficult.

 

[As I thought, their timing is just too good! Is it because of that coordination support system!? Is that thing still working even in this situation!?]

 

But Akira quickly realized that he was about to pursue something unimportant right now.
So, he immediately stopped his thoughts there.
With both Katsuya and Tiol off the APC now, Akira went back to the back door of the APC.

 

“Nelia! They’re gaining on us! Can we run away from them?!”

 

“I’ll try my best, but to be honest, I think our chance of running away is small.
This APC is already in very bad shape and there’s not much ammo left in the machine gun.
While on the other hand, they are using faster and smaller vehicles with greater mobility.
Not to mention, they seem hell-bent on killing a certain someone who is on this APC right now.
As I thought, we won’t be able to get away from them.”

 

The APC was already close to its limit.
Although Akira used a lot of expensive armour tiles to protect it, it had already lost more than half of them.
After all those intense fights, the APC was already badly damaged.
It was only thanks to Nelia’s skill that it was still barely able to somehow avoid the enemy’s attacks.

 

Since it was originally a transport vehicle to be used in the wasteland, it had a powerful engine.
However, its capability was vastly different compared to the vehicles made for battles.
With Katsuya’s team’s vehicles being specialized for combat in terms of specs, Akira’s APC had no chance of winning.

 

There was also a big difference in their remaining ammo.
Moreover, he still had to keep using the machine gun to clear up the monsters blocking the APC.
So, they were still using what little they had left.

 

Katsuya’s team would catch up with them at this rate.
There was a good chance of death.
Although Akira said so, Nelia replied back with an amused smile.
She was not joking, nor was she exaggerating, she was simply enjoying the situation.

 

Akira knitted his eyebrows.
He understood why Nelia was acting like that, but at the same time, he could not just completely ignore it nor just enjoy the situation like Nelia.

 

“For now, I’ll try my best to slow them down.”

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“Alright.”

 

Endless explosions could be heard from behind.
But even so, Nelia smiled and did not seem to be bothered at all.
Akira could feel a strange feeling of reliability from that reply as he hurried up to finish his preparation.
He immediately replenished his ammo and energy packs and did not forget to take extra medicines as well.
In the middle of that, Akira spotted something inside the APC and stopped.
It was his bike.

 

Katsuya landed on one of the moving vehicles from his team.
Despite the jamming, they were able to communicate with each other since they were within close-range communication.
The moment Katsuya got into communication range, he was welcomed with a scolding.

 

“Katsuya!! What the heck were you thinking? Jumping out all by yourself like that again!? I’ll deck you if you don’t stop doing that, okay!?”

 

“I-I’m sorry, alright? It just happened.”

 

“Just happened? That’s not something that you should do out of a whim, you know?!”

 

Airi’s calm voice followed afterwards.

 

“Katsuya.
I know that you would do that since you were able to save some people in the past by doing so.
But we’re a team right now.
It’s better to move as a team instead of moving alone.”

 

“…You’re right, that was a close call as well, thanks for the help.”

 

“Good.”

 

Katsuya regained his calm after talking with Yumina and Airi.
But even so, he was still relatively excited.

 

“Alright then! Let’s go!!”

 

The team increased the intensity of its attack with that command from Katsuya.
The bullet storm consumed Akira’s APC while grenades and warheads were raining down on him.

 

Normally, Yumina would have recommended the team to withdraw.
She indeed also wanted to avenge her dead comrades.
She did not believe that it was worth the risk of pursuing a goal if it meant staying in an area where no long-range communication was working.
She normally would have prioritized the safety of the team and convinced them to retreat even if she had to do it forcefully.

 

Normally, Airi would have been suspicious of the situation.
There was no evidence showing that Akira was on Tiol’s side.
As long as there was no evidence, there was no need to add more enemies into the mix unnecessarily.
Akira was too strong to handle.
A moment of doubt when against him would result in death.
Even if Akira was really working with Tiol, the current Katsuya would not have a high chance of victory even if he worked together with the team.
At the very least, she would have notified Katsuya of this if she was in her normal state of mind.

 

But both Yumina and Airi did not think about it at all.
The impression sent from Katsuya had overwhelmed their rational judgment so much that they simply believed that the course of events so far as normal.
In exchange for their level of teamwork, their individuality had been suppressed.
Even though it was a decision made by majority votes, Katsuya’s line of thinking basically always vetoed as the final decision.

 

After multiple long intense battles, Akira’s APC finally gave out.
The moment the forcefield armour on the tire ran out of energy, the whole APC immediately rolled over on the ground violently.
The impact caused its already hole-riddled body to bend greatly.
It was then dragged by its momentum and crashed into a building before finally stopping.

 

Katsuya’s team surrounded the APC and emptied their magazines on it.
The bullets pierced through the APC’s armour and made a mess of its inside.
There was no response when they were done.
After making sure that the enemy had been rendered unable to fight, they blew the back door to secure the inside, that was when they found something that they did not expect at all.

 

“…He’s not here!? How!?”

 

The only thing left inside the APC was the dead girls who Tiol threw inside that APC.

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Akira had a grim face as he rode his bike on the sidewall of a building.

 

“Goddammit… What a huge loss!”

 

A few relic rucksacks were dangling from the bike.
Nelia was inside of one of those rucksacks.
She had her head and her arm peeking out the rucksack as she smiled amusedly and commented.

 

“Well, nothing is more expensive than life.
Aren’t you glad that you’re still alive right now?”

 

“And I have to pay in money in exchange for that, you know?”

 

Akira judged that it was impossible to get away with his APC.
Thus, he decided to abandon his expensive APC.
He then brought as many supplies as possible with him before trying to escape with Nelia on his bike.

 

Nelia was able to conceal the moment the bike leapt outside the APC thanks to her advanced driving skill.
Moreover, the explosions that surrounded them threw off the accuracy of the information gathering device in that area.
They used that chance to get away from the APC before setting the APC to just drive about randomly.

 

Although the APC was already almost empty, there were still some supplies left inside it.
Of course, Akira lost all those supplies the moment he lost his APC.
He knew that his life was much more valuable than that, but even so, he still regretted losing his APC and supplies.
It was obvious from his frustrated expression.

 

“So then, why are we doing this right now?”

 

“We need to take a route where normal vehicles can’t follow us.
Otherwise, they will only chase us again.”

 

Nelia then replied casually.

 

“I see, you have a good point there.”

 

Nelia had no reason to argue with Akira’s reasoning there.
She also thought that it was strange how Akira would come up with the idea of driving through the sidewall of the buildings.
Nelia found it amusing that Akira replied as if it was common sense to do that.

 

“But still, stuffing me in a rucksack like this, you really don’t know how to treat a girl, do you?”

 

“Just shut up and get back in! I won’t stop to pick you up if you fall, you know!”

 

The bike’s control device was modified by Alpha to increase its performance, thanks to that, Akira was able to drive horizontally on the sidewall of the building even when he was not that good at driving.
The tires of the bike were properly stuck on the wall as Akira drove.
It was as though he was normally driving on the ground.

 

But as expected, he could not control the bike as well as he was on the ground.
His face made a strange expression as gravity pulled him not down but to his side due to his position.
Therefore, he drove desperately to maintain the bike.

 

“Yeah yeah, I’m just a dead weight at the moment so I’ll just do as you say.”

 

Akira left the area in order to get away from more battles through the route that vehicles would not be able to go through.
Though, even a normal bike would not be able to go through that route as well.