n opportunity to take down their competitor. However, the scream took him by surprise. His enemy was not the one he had imagined it to be.

“They’re from the Lion Steel company!”

Takt immediately turned toward Latis and Pamela, but seeing that they were equally surprised, Takt understood that they had nothing to do with this attack.

Suddenly, a canister exploded that filled the room with nanoparticles. These particles had a powerful speed filter effect. Now, rifles were useless inside that room. From another point of view, it also protected the people inside the room from bullets.

At the same time, it forced anyone inside that room to only resort to close combat. Two women who specialized in close-range combat quickly jumped inside the room.

One of them swung her blade at Latis while the other one launched a powerful punch at Pamela. They rapidly closed the distance between them in a blink of an eye. The face of the one with the blade was filled with killing intent and a sense of loyalty. Meanwhile, the other one had a similar face. One filled with the same killing intent but with insanity in her smile.

Latis evaded that slash and frowned.

“..You-!!”

“Long time no see!”

Pamela blocked the punch, deflecting it to the side and frowned.

“..You!”

“We meet again!”

It was Shiori and Kanae.

Latis deflected Shiori’s next attack with a knife. Sparks flew from the contact point between the blade and the knife. They were glaring at each other as they forced their weapon forward, toward their opponent.

“What is the meaning of this!? What are you scheming this time!?”

“Scheming? You endangered my master’s life. Isn’t that enough of a reason?”

“..I see. Then, it was indeed stupid of me to ask!”

Latis extended the blade of his knife, negating the advantage of Shiori’s reach. As they jumped backwards, opening space between them, they swung at each other. They released a flurry of strikes before they even landed. The floor and wall in between them were filled with countless slash marks.

Although Latis and Shiori were mostly even, Kanae was pushing Pamela back. Since her speciality was commanding a group of maids using long-range control, she was unable to match Kanae’s ferocity.

“It was a mistake not to take your beloved long-range control terminal with you here.”

“Oh shut up!”

“Well, I have no plans on wasting my time with pointless chatter too. So..”

Kanae’s presence suddenly changed. She pushed aside the part of her that wanted to savour the fight, even in this situation.

“Just die.”

As her usual smile vanished, Kanae’s single strike broke through Pamela’s defence and blew her body away like a rag doll.