WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
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◈ Cyberpunk Chivalry ◈
Chapter 15: [00:04:47]
──────
Somewhere in the ruins, a great slaughter unfolded beneath rapidly flashing red emergency lights.
[00:00:01]
As a chronometer appeared at the bottom of his optical sensor view, Ash swung his sword.
The straight line traced by his blade split the front of the wave of flesh.
The leading Grotesque's head flew into the air. The next one charging in was cut diagonally in two.
The Grotesques surged forward as if they would crush everything in their path, only to be chopped into mincemeat where they met Ash.
Dark red fluid burst from their bodies.
Severed limbs tumbled across the floor.
[POWER LEVEL: 16%]
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[CRITICAL ENERGY RESERVES!]
His rapid movements had sharply increased his power consumption. His internal system sent out warnings.
Sixteen percent.
After exploring the ruins and fighting so often, that was all the power he had left.
Electrical power was a truly curious thing to Ash. It was both the resource that drove his steel body and, once transformed through the Neuro Mind Art, the internal energy he used.
Was this what it would feel like to combine internal power (內功) with innate true qi (先天眞氣)?
It would be fair to say that everything about this steel body he had been given depended on electricity.
And now he was running short of it.
From this point on, he had to make every move with care.
If his power ran out and he stopped functioning, Ifrit and Akina behind him would be swept away by that wave of flesh, reduced to a handful of bloody remains.
As that thought crossed his mind, Ash suddenly remembered his past self.
'Have I ever swung this sword with someone standing behind me?'
In his memories, he had always wielded his sword for revenge and destruction. A bitter, relentless hatred had driven his thirst for blood.
But now, there were people behind him whom he had to protect. Akina, and perhaps even that noisy lady warrior.
It was an unfamiliar feeling.
But it wasn't unpleasant.
If anything, something that had long gone cold in a corner of his heart seemed to beat faintly again.
That brief moment of reflection ended there.
Ash adjusted his grip on his sword.
Once again, his blade drew a straight line through the air. Grotesquely twisted hands and feet split apart with a Rip!
Like a living creature, his sword found the most suitable path and struck precisely at their vital points.
[00:01:13]
[POWER LEVEL: 15%]
He had to be efficient.
He could neither scatter sword aura (劍罡) with his old boldness nor unleash the Linked Sword (連環劍) like a raging storm.
His goal was to survive and buy time.
Only refined, concentrated strikes were allowed.
"Kyahahaha!! Die, all of you!"
A madwoman's laughter rang out.
A string of gunshots followed.
Ifrit's bullets targeted the Grotesques beyond his sword's reach.
Her attacks were certainly full of overwhelming force, but they were growing less frequent.
She was clearly running out of ammunition.
The longer the gaps between her shots, the greater the burden on Ash became.
He could almost feel Ifrit's growing anxiety behind him.
"Last magazine!"
Announcing her situation, Ifrit finished reloading. Bloody Heart Mk.7 spat its final flames.
Bang! Baaang!
Several Grotesques that had raised their heads between the movements of Ash's sword dance burst apart and fell to the floor.
An empty Click! followed.
"Damn it!"
Ifrit threw her pistol to the ground and swore. She was out of ammunition.
Ash moved even faster.
[00:02:03]
[POWER LEVEL: 13%]
After sweeping away the Grotesques charging toward him, he threw his blade toward Ifrit, who stood with her fists awkwardly clenched.
"Catch!"
The sword flew like lightning, piercing the open jaws of a Grotesque roaring right in front of her and passing through the back of its head.
As the creature fell backward, killed in a single blow, the steel blade buried itself at Ifrit's feet.
"Whoa!"
Startled by the blade lodged right beneath her, Ifrit grabbed its hilt on instinct.
"Oh, screw it!"
She pulled the sword free with an awkward movement, then approached Ash while swinging it wildly, as if chopping wood with an axe.
Coming up beside him, Ifrit brought the blade down on a Grotesque's head and shouted.
"What about you?"
Ash didn't answer.
Instead, his stance changed.
When he had held the sword, there had been a heavy presence about him. His movements had contained the principle of Mount Tai Crushes the Crown (泰山壓頂), as though a vast mountain were bearing down from overhead.
But now he was different.
He stretched one hand straight ahead.
It was a pose that seemed to point toward something.
A keen, piercing edge lay hidden within it.
The Immortal Points the Way (仙人指路).
A form like an immortal showing someone the path.
"I have another."
[LEFT ARM CYBER-CLAW ARRAY. . .]
[DEPLOYING. . . NOW<<<]
With a Clack!, his left arm opened and a blade sprang out. It was sharp and menacing, like the claw of a wild beast.
His arm blade.
From that moment on, Ash's fighting style changed completely. A blade deployed over his forearm had to be used differently from a sword held in his hand.
It was closer to a claw (爪) than a sword (劍).
So Ash switched from sword techniques to claw techniques.
He no longer cut his enemies down. With each punch and palm strike, he pierced Grotesque skulls, twisted their joints, and tore away flesh.
He looked like a dragon roaming the heavens, snatching up the lowly creatures on the ground below.
It was a martial art of Kunlun.
The Cloud Dragon Claw (雲龍爪).
[00:03:28]
[POWER LEVEL: 12%]
His attacks continued, precise and merciless.
He knocked aside a Grotesque's outstretched arm and shattered its skull. At times, he gouged into their vital points from unpredictable angles.
His movements were so graceful and flowing that, if not for the Grotesques bursting apart, they could have passed for a beautiful dance.
"Take that, fucker!"
Ifrit's attacks, on the other hand, were utterly primitive. Like a monkey holding a club, the dazzling idol swung the steel blade any way she could.
Sometimes she failed to align the edge and sent an enemy flying instead of cutting it. Seen another way, though, that showed her raw strength was no less than Ash's.
[00:04:13]
[POWER LEVEL: 11%]
At some point, the two found themselves back to back.
The warning lights overhead kept flashing, washing everything in the passage red.
Bodies piled up.
The corpses of the hideous creatures piled higher and higher.
Yet even more Grotesques were pouring into the passage at that very moment.
"Goddamn it! They just keep coming!"
Ifrit's voice was rough.
Fighting an unfamiliar battle with an unfamiliar weapon seemed to be wearing her down.
"Hold on a little longer! Miss Akina will surely open the door!"
"Shit, but when is that..."
It happened right then.
Ash's qi sense detected a chilling danger.
This was no ordinary Grotesque.
He felt an overwhelming presence on an entirely different level.
"My lady!"
With that shout, Ash grabbed Ifrit in the middle of a sword swing and leaped backward. Almost at the same instant, an enormous, unidentified arm slammed into the spot where they had been standing.
Kraaaash!
The floor broke apart, sending fragments flying.
Ash quickly regained his stance and stared ahead.
He saw a massive figure.
It was horrifying.
It looked as though countless corpses had been mixed together and pressed into a human-shaped mold, creating something strange beyond belief.
Its whole body was twisted, with bones exposed in places. Ifrit let out a stunned cry at the sight.
"...A mutant?"
A mutant.
Ash didn't know what that was.
He could probably find out by searching his database, but that wasn't what mattered now.
Then the creature called a mutant roared.
Rooooaaar!
At that sound, the wildly rampaging Grotesques stopped moving. Then, as if welcoming a king, they slowly lowered their heads in fear.
Having let out its great roar, the creature strode forward with pride. The Grotesques moved aside to make way.
Watching this, Ash retracted his arm blade. Then he spoke to Ifrit.
"My lady. The sword."
Ifrit glanced between the two of them for a moment. Then she came to her senses and handed over the steel blade.
"...Can you do this?"
Taking the sword, Ash stepped forward.
He answered quietly.
"I must, mustn't I?"
As he spoke, blue arcs of electricity flowed from various parts of his body with a Crackle.
The Neuro Mind Art had come to life.
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[POWER LEVEL: 10. . . 9. . .]
The battery power he had guarded so carefully began to drain in an instant. Lightning energy circulated through his artificial neural matrix, overloading everything in his body, including his main core.
'At this rate of consumption, I can use it only once.'
Ash took his opening stance.
'But once will be enough!'
It was completely different from the stance he had shown when facing Santa. It looked as though something might explode at any moment.
Intense sparks kept flashing around his tightly crouched body.
Rooooaaaar!!
Sensing something unusual, the mutant roared.
At the same time, it charged at Ash.
Its heavy body shook the floor.
But Ash remained in his original stance, not moving an inch.
The mutant closed in.
It raised one hand and brought it down as if to crush him. At the very moment it struck with enough savage force to turn him into a bloody pulp, Ash's teal optical sensor flashed.
He made a vertical cut with his sword.
Great Void Dragon-Slaying Sword (太虛屠龍劍).
Dragon Rising Thunderbolt (龍騰霹靂).
Krrrroooom!!
Blue lightning erupted along the path of Ash's sword. Like a great dragon waking and ascending into the sky, a fierce wave of energy spread in every direction.
For a single instant, the ruins, dyed red by the emergency lights, were engulfed in blue.
The giant mutant was swallowed by the blue lightning before it could even resist. Its hideous body began to burn from one end, then shattered in a blue flash and turned to a handful of ash.
As if its very existence had been erased, its enormous body was nowhere to be seen a moment later.
"...Huh?"
Having watched it all, Ifrit let out a breathless sound, looking utterly dazed. Her red lips remained half open.
Her heart-shaped pupils trembled faintly with shock.
"What the fuck did I just see?"
A mutant, famous for its stubborn ability to stay alive, had been reduced to ash in a single strike.
It was unreal. Ifrit felt as though she had witnessed a scene from a myth.
Her gaze remained fixed on Ash, who had just done something that defied all reason.
[WARNING!]
[WARNING!]
[POWER LEVEL: 3%]
A brief silence fell.
Ash's body jerked.
His optical sensor glowed dimly, and the artificial neural matrix running through his body burned, giving off tiny sparks.
Amid all this, the Grotesques that had lost their leader let out savage cries.
He had succeeded in killing the mutant, but it wasn't over yet.
Staggering, Ash raised his blade into position. Ifrit, who had stepped back, came to his side and clenched her fists.
"Come on! Come on, you bastards! Bring it on! Bring..."
A dull noise and a mechanical sound cut through Ifrit's shouts. It was surely the sound they had been waiting for.
"I did it!"
Akina's cry was urgent and full of joy.
The blue haze around her faded, and her floating body descended through the air to settle on the floor.
"It'll close in five seconds! Hurry!"
They turned their heads. The barrier door that had trapped them was nowhere to be seen.
Ash and Ifrit exchanged a brief glance, then turned and ran toward Akina.
[00:04:44]
The Grotesques shrieked and pursued them, as if refusing to let them escape.
[00:04:45]
Akina picked up the backpack, and Ash ran with her in his arms. Ifrit held off their pursuers, then rolled across the floor to get clear.
[00:04:46]
A few swift Grotesques caught up right behind them. Ash's sword and Ifrit's fists took off the heads of the nearest ones.
[00:04:47]
The moment the chronometer in Ash's system reached four minutes and forty-seven seconds, the briefly opened barrier door dropped with terrifying speed.
Kraaaash!!
With a tremendous crash, the barrier door sealed off the passage.
Several Grotesques caught beneath it were crushed flat.
That was the end of it.
There was no more danger.
"Haaaaah..."
After staring at the barrier door for a while, Ifrit collapsed, her limbs spread out on the dusty floor.
A moment later, her deep sigh turned into hollow laughter.
"Hahaha. Haha. Hahahaha."
It was laughter filled with both disbelief and the relief of having survived.
Still sprawled on the floor, she turned only her head to look between Ash and Akina.
Then she broke into a broad smile.
"Wow. We actually lived through that?"
Ifrit gave them a thumbs-up.
Akina blinked a couple of times, then smiled brightly, as though all her tension had finally drained away, and raised her own thumb.
Then the girl and the woman turned their eyes toward Ash.
"..."
Naturally, Ash showed no particular change in expression. But Akina and Ifrit laughed aloud.
Because, just like them, Ash had raised his thumb.
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