Chapter 84: Chapter 84
Author's Notes:
Attention
Major Moore genuinely intends to do his best. It's true that he might be a bit excited about the upcoming encounter with his idol, but he is still approaching the situation seriously. Please believe in him.
(Tl Notes: NO, HE DOESN'T!)
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The special operations team, who had safely disembarked through an emergency escape, confirmed the absence of any damage upon landing. Heretic, the objective, was just 2 km away in a straight line—not too close, but not too far either. Nevertheless, they were almost there.
Leading the squad, Rapi sprinted towards the last remnants of a village on their way to the destination, her submachine gun aimed at the numerous dilapidated houses.
No signs of enemies were detected.
[Wait! This response is...! The Chatterbox is coming!]
Just as they were about to press forward at full speed, a specific noun resonated in the depths of the housing. It must have reached their ears as well, including Rapi's. Everyone came to a halt, alert to their surroundings. Anis' sharp clicking of tounge reverberated noticeably.
"Oh, look who it is! That guy just loves the commander, doesn't he!?"
"Hahaha... That's quite an honor. I... also love him!!"
Moore's delighted voice echoed. Anis glanced in his direction, only to find his lips curled into a grin that would likely reveal his fangs if he had any.
"...Looks like he's switched on."
Normally composed, Anis couldn't help but wonder why he acted this way. Nevertheless, it was not hard to imagine that the incident from their first encounter was the cause.
His right leg and right eye—both were offered to that chatty Chatterbox bastard.
Despite this fact, not only had he unceremoniously left the scene midway, but he had also allowed the foe to escape during their previous mission up north after engaging in combat. It was a delicate balance between one win and one loss. This might be his third and final chance.
Suddenly, something fell from the sky.
It landed with a deafening noise, raising a cloud of dust that obscured the view. Beyond the swirling sand, a figure rose to its feet.
"...Long time no see."
Peeking through the dust, it revealed sharp, bared teeth and an imposing figure.
"Now... shall I try imitating your words?"
A growling, low voice echoed. With each step, the grotesque Rapture moved forward. Rapi's assault rifle, Anis' grenade launcher, and Neon's shotgun were all aimed at the approaching enemy, ready for combat.
"Encou—"
—It was supposed to be a declaration of battle, but it was interrupted by the sound of gunfire.
The gunshots didn't stop.
Rapi hadn't pulled the trigger. If that was the case—
"—Gah!? W-Wait!!"
"—Who's gonna wait?! We can finally kill each other! Why the preamble!! I can't wait any longer!!"
Moore, who had quickly emptied one magazine, spat out his words as he replaced it with a new one.
Normally, they should have waited. Even in TV shows like the "Goddess Squadron ArkRanger," the villains' lines were always heard until the end. However, Moore didn't even wait; he started shooting right away.
Multiple shots hit Chatterbox directly in the face, even in his mouth. It seemed to have caused a system error, as Chatterbox planted his thick arm on the ground, letting out rough breaths. His movements resembled someone experiencing a concussion.
When he finally stopped moving—Moore pulled the trigger of the grenade launcher attached to the lower part of his assault rifle.
With a "shpon" sound and a feeling of relief, the impact fuse of the warhead, which had reached a safe distance, was disengaged. The grenade exploded upon hitting Chatterbox's head.
Even with this explosion causing Chatterbox's head to jerk back, he wouldn't die from this level of attack.
"Get back in the game, Chatterbox bastard! I brought more ammo than usual just for this! Get up already! Let's settle this today! Let's fight to the death!"
Was he looking forward to this battle that much? His loud voice was mixed with the excitement. Moore ejected the spent casing of the grenade he had fired, loading a new one. The transformation in him, from his usual demeanor, left the girls stunned.
"I longed for you so much...! I felt like a love-struck maiden! So get up already! You are my prey! I won't let anyone take you away from me!!"
His mouth curled into a wide grin, and Moore confessed his feelings.
(Tl Notes:....Scary.)
—What's with the 'love-struck maiden' thing?
Anis raised an eyebrow, puzzled by his choice of words. His expression and the expressions he described didn't match at all. What kind of love-struck maiden was he talking about?
"Don't get carried away!!"
"Scatter!!"
As Chatterbox rose again and jumped, Moore shouted. Obeying his command, the girls dispersed, and just as he leaped backward, Chatterbox's hefty fist slammed into the spot where Moore had stood moments ago.
"Encounter!!"
It was too late, but it was a formality. Rapi declared the start of the battle, and the three Nikkes aimed their respective firearms at Chatterbox and pulled the triggers.
Their bullets, grenades, and shotgun pellets hit Chatterbox one after another, tearing through his resilient body. However, he immediately started regenerating.
His troublesome ability remained unchanged.
"---I guess things won't go as smoothly as expected,"
Knowing he wasn't an opponent they could easily deal with, a sigh escaped Rapi's lips.
Perhaps sensing her lack of confidence, Neon's rain of shotgun pellets continued to shred his body, yet Chatterbox let out a triumphant laughter.
"---You fools! You think all your plans are going exactly as you intended!"
Chatterbox swung his tail, attempting to sweep away the bothersome Neon scattering her shotgun pellets. But she wasn't clueless. She dodged the attack, retreating behind cover and starting to reload her shotgun.
"But you're wrong! I set a trap! To take down all of you elites in one go!"
"Let's see! We'll find out which one of us gets taken down!"
"Of course, it's going to be you---!?"
Just as Anis replied with a snide remark, another grenade was lobbed into Chatterbox's face. His words were cut off abruptly, the blast smoke enveloping his massive head.
Then gunfire rained down on his head. The bullets cut through the smoke, striking Chatterbox's forehead, and the sharp impact noise resonated as they hit his armored hide.
"You sure love to talk! Aren't you cheating on me? I'm the one who should be dealing with you!!"
—Was he secretly taking some weird drugs? Anis couldn't help but be surprised by Moore's sudden change in demeanor.
"Come on, just come at me! I'm in great shape today! I'll definitely kill you here! With my own hands---"
"---That would be troubling."
Gleaming fiercely even through his sunglasses, Moore stopped his advance and provocatively challenged Chatterbox bastard. Whether he was just taunting or genuinely intending to kill him, it was hard to judge. In that moment, a quiet voice resonated, strangely audible. A beam of light streaked toward Chatterbox's torso, creating a deep hole upon impact.
Suffering obvious major damage, the monstrous figure shielded the hole in his abdomen created by the incoming beam, using his free hand while the other arm was thrust into the ground, a very human-like gesture.
Continuing, the Pilgrim landed beside Moore, raising a cloud of dust with his silver hair billowing in the wind.
"---Moore, you broke your promise. You said you would leave it to me."
"...Yeah, I did say that, but you never showed up. I was starting to wonder if I could go ahead and kill him."
"I was waiting for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack."
Standing next to him, Pilgrim, Snow White, expressed her dissatisfaction while looking up at the tall man. However, Moore, seemingly unfazed, retorted with a casual remark.
"Pilgrim...?"
"Huh!? When did you start following us!?"
"---From the beginning. Since you entered the city."
"Wow... I had no idea at all!"
Even they, especially Rapi, had no room for such awareness. Anis lamented, "It would've been nice if you had helped us a bit," but Snow White replied matter-of-factly.
"---I am helping you now."
Anis grumbled, but Snow White retorted as a matter of course, aiming his massive sniper rifle through her optical scope.
"Go, Moore. Leave this one to me."
"You mean 'leave it' instead of 'hand it over,' right?"
"No, consider the situation. Your objective is not him, is it?"
"That's true. But this is a personal matter. I've thought it over... and I just can't be satisfied unless I take him down myself."
Facing the monstrous figure, neither Moore nor Snow White showed any signs of backing down.
Ignoring the agreement from the previous night, she furrowed her brow. At that moment, the Chatterbox, who had repaired the hole in front of him and Snow White, rose again and roared. A shockwave emanated from his body, sending a cloud of dust into the air.
"Don't you dare underestimate us!! All of you will die here!! Not a single one of you will be left──!?"
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" "──You're interrupting our conversation." "
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*BANG!*
The grenades launched from Moore's underslung grenade launcher and the beams fired from Snow White's massive sniper rifle were sent toward the Chatterbox. First, her beam pierced through his abdomen again, and then Moore's grenade hit him square in the face.
Despite his massive body, his slender legs gave way, causing his body to collapse. Moore shifted his gaze back to her and opened the chamber of his grenade launcher to eject the spent shell.
"He seems tougher than before."
"Maybe he underwent an overhaul or an update."
"But he's been collapsing all this time. How about cooperating to finish him off?"
"──These fucking relics!!"
"...Not a bad idea. At this rate, it's going to be difficult to approach him after scattering the remains."
As the Chatterbox, still collapsed, planted his thick arms on the ground to stand up, Moore and Snow White exchanged words about their plan-----
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*Vroom*
"...Exhaust noise?"
"...Ah, I think I've heard this before."
It was rapidly approaching them.
The gradually growing thunderous noise was undoubtedly the exhaust note of an exhaust system.
---I wonder how many thousand cc the machine boasts.
Racing through the narrow alleyways of the desolate village, the black, glossy vehicle emerged with the thunderous noise, revealing its true identity.
No wonder it sounded familiar.
Lately, they all, including Moore, had become well acquainted with the presence of a large black motorcycle roaring along the unnecessarily long roads of the outpost base.
The rider of the glossy black motorcycle, the Black Typhoon, was Sugar.
However, her beloved bike today had a slightly different appearance than usual. It had a sidecar attached.
Suddenly, Sugar tilted her bike sideways until the sidecar was floating above the ground. Slipping and sliding, the sidecar collided with the Chatterbox's slender legs, causing him to lose his footing and fall backward onto the ground. In the midst of his fall, Sugar elegantly brought her motorcycle to a stop just inches from Moore and the others.
"Wow! It's a motorcycle!"
"Whoa! A bike!"
Moore remembered hearing similar lines just a few minutes ago. Straddling the bike that had come to a stop in front of them, Sugar, perhaps to protect her eyes from the dust, wore goggles over her silver hair, a departure from her usual attire.
"It seems I made it in time, Partner."
"...I appreciate you coming all this way, but what about Milk and the others?"
"Prim fell asleep."
"...I don't remember her properly greeting me yet..."
He couldn't recall when Sugar had started calling him "Partner." He was curious about the origin and meaning behind the nickname, but he hadn't had the chance to inquire further, leaving the matter unresolved for the time being.
The leader of the Cafe Sweetie Squad is Prim, but Moore has yet to exchange greetings with her, mainly because she always wears an eye mask and indulges in deep sleep even when tending the store at the outpost base. He really wanted to get the greeting over with soon, but when would that happen?
As the Black Typhoon came to a halt in front of him, it naturally blocked Snow White's view too. She looked at the large bike in silence and eventually let out a few words.
"...That bike looks cool."
"Thanks."
Sugar briefly responded to the petite pilgrim with a similar hair color, then turned her gaze to Moore.
"Get on. You too."
Sugar gestured for him to ride behind her, while her subordinates were encouraged to ride in the sidecar.
"...Can it carry four people?"
"The Black Typhoon is sturdy."
"...Understood. I'll get on—"
"Don't screw around! I won't let them escape—!"
"Cancel that order. We'll make sure this loudmouth stays silent forever...!"
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go, Commander."
"At least a couple more grenades...!"
"You're quite wild, Partner. I don't mind that."
Moore, who had just gotten up, fired another grenade toward the Chatterbox and tried to reload, but Anis held him back, preventing him from reloading more grenades. While glancing at the Chatterbox, who had just risen, Anis stopped Moore, who was about to reload, and said,
"Let's go, Commander."
"....Do you really want to kill him that badly?"
Snow White sighed as she watched Moore, who had been forcibly placed behind Sugar for tandem riding, and shook her head, but then Rapi spoke up.
"Pilgrim—no, Snow White. Can we leave this to you?"
"---Yeah, trust me."
Nodding silently, Rapi turned on her heel and dashed toward the Black Typhoon. Since the sidecar was already full with Anis and Neon, there was some space behind Moore. She climbed onto that spot.
"Drive safely, Sugar."
"Yeah. Let's go."
The engine roared as if it had been whipped, and the large motorcycle, demonstrating a departure that could hardly be called safe, raced away, leaving a trail of dust.
Watching it go from the corner of her eye, Snow White turned her golden eyes back to the Chatterbox and aimed her massive sniper rifle at him.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
NikkeSimp
NikkeSimp Moore......
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone