d mines.

Akira shot down the Yarata scorpions one by one. The piercing ammo that he used, pierced through their strong exoskeleton and destroyed their nervous system. It then either killed them on spot or at least rendered them paralyzed. But there were still a lot of Yarata scorpions there. Akira thought that there was no end to them as he shifted his aim to his next target. But Alpha suddenly said to him.

“Akira, that was your last bullet.”

“...Do you mean I’ve already run out of piercing ammo?!”

“Unfortunately so. Change your gun.”

Akira quickly changed into his AAH assault rifle while making a grim face. He knew that his rifle was only loaded with normal ammo, so it would be difficult to kill a Yarata scorpion using this ammo.

He suddenly heard a scream from the Hunters. When he quickly glanced at the direction of that scream, he saw Yarata scorpions standing in front of the Hunters.

“Hold on!”

As Alpha said that, she controlled Akira’s augmented suit and moved his body to grab onto the bike. At the same time, his bike suddenly accelerated, passed beside the Hunters in front of him, and headed straight to those Yarata scorpions.

Akira tried to follow the movement of his augmented suit. When Alpha gave him the signal, he quickly leaned his body sideway to make the bike slide on its wheel. He used one of his legs to prevent him from falling over, as he slid on his bike and slammed its wheels onto the Yarata scorpions. Alpha accelerated the bike when its wheels got in contact with the scorpions and sent the scorpions flying into the air.

One of the scorpions that were sent flying crashed into wreckage not too far from Akira. Although it did not kill it, it was enough to stop it from moving for the time being. While the other scorpion was sent flying upward. Akira got off his bike and kicked the scorpion as it fell back to the ground with his augmented suit enhanced strength. That scorpion was blown away on its side and bounced further away as it landed onto a wreckage.

The other Hunters were dumbfounded watching such a scene unfolding right in front of their eyes. Akira then shouted at them.

“Go!! Now!!”

The Hunters got back to their senses and started running again.

More and more scorpions joined the swarm that was chasing Akira and the Hunters. As the other Hunters were running away, Akira protected their back as he carried two AAH rifles and showered the monsters with bullets. But as expected, the normal bullet could not do much damage on the scorpion’s exoskeleton.

Due to Alpha’s accuracy support, Akira was able to land multiple shots at the same spot on Yarata scorpion’s hard exoskeleton which eventually destroyed that exoskeleton and injured them, thus slowing the scorpions down. But even if he managed to kill some of them, it was only enough to slow down the whole swarm.

“That thing is freaking hard!! And there is no end to them!! This is getting pretty bad!!”

In contrast to Akira who started panicking, Alpha was still calm. But even so, she suddenly made a decision that fit the situation.

“It might be a good idea to consider abandoning the other Hunters behind and heading to the temporary base soon.”

“T-that’s a little bit... You know... Can we ask for rescue from the HQ instead?”

“Those Hunters already did that while running, you see. And it seems that the reply was not positive at all.”

“...I’ll try to hold on until the last moment.”

Since he had worked so hard to help them, Akira wanted to save these Hunters. But he had no plan to die with them. That was his thoughts as he kept on shooting at the scorpions while making a grim face.

The situation just kept getting worse as the Hunters started to reach their physical limits. The Hunters pushed themselves to keep running although they were already short on breath. While on the other hand, the scorpions did not show any sign of exhaustion as they kept closing in. It was only a matter of time before the scorpions reached them.

“This is not good at all.”

“Tell the Hunters to hole up in the building near them and wait for rescue from the HQ. If we’re lucky, we might be able to survive this swarm.”

“There’s no other way, huh? Do you have any recommendation about which building should we pick?”

“Let’s see, how about that... Oh, there’s no need to do that anymore.”

When Alpha was about to point at a building near them, she suddenly turned and pointed at the direction of the temporary HQ. As Akira turned to that direction, he could see multiple armed vehicles heading towards him.

Akira then moved his bike aside to make a way for them. After those vehicles passed Akira, they scattered the scorpions away with their huge guns. Explosive warheads showered the scorpions and quickly turned the whole swarm into minced meat.

The armed vehicles then continued to decimate the rest of the scorpions as they headed straight to the deeper part of the ruin. One of the armed vehicles stopped beside Akira, a guy then came out from it and said to Akira.

“Are you number 14?”

“Yes, why...?”

“I’m the Captain of Kugamayama defense squad. We’re here by the request from HQ. Give me your rental terminal.”

Akira handed his rental terminal to that man.

“Alright. With this, your job has ended. You can go back home now.”

“Wait for a second. What’s happening here?”

“The ruin is flooded with Yarata Scorpions. So we’re here to eradicate those scorpions. There’s a good chance that a big nest is around here somewhere and it seems that the exploration around this area has stirred up the nest. I heard that they’re re-sweeping the area around the construction site now. The HQ is trying to identify the location of that nest from the information terminals that they lent to the Hunters, but it seems that a lot of Hunters were killed, you see. So it seems like they’re having a hard time pinpointing the number and the locations of the nests because of the lack of information. They also told us to retrieve the terminals from the dead Hunters too. Ahh, in any case, do you want to help us collect the terminals? You came all the way here escorting those Hunters, so you’re a pretty good Hunter, aren’t you?”

Akira shook his head and refused.

“No thanks. I thought I came here with plenty enough bullets but I’m all dry now. I simply don’t have enough resources right now. I’m not even sure they would cover for the ammo that I spent, you know.”

That man laughed lightly at Akira’s complaint.

“That’s too bad. You should at least make a contract to make sure that they would cover for your ammo next time. Later then, kiddo.”

After he said that, the man went and joined with the rest of the armed vehicles.

Akira looked at the other Hunters. It seemed that they were talking with the people from the other armed vehicles. Akira could not hear what they were talking about, but Alpha could as she used the information-gathering device to analyze the faint voice that reached it.

“It seems that they asked for a ride to the temporary base but got refused. It has nothing to do with us, so let’s just go ahead and go back home.”

“Alright.”

Akira then got on his bike and drove past the other Hunters. Some of them tried to call him but he just ignored them.

The other armed vehicles continued deeper into the ruin after taking the rental terminals from the Hunters. The Hunters that were left behind could not help but grumble.

“That boy and the defense squad won’t even give us a ride...”

“There’s no helping it. Let’s just go back home now. Although the defense squad had cleared the way to the temporary base, it’s not like it will stay safe forever, you know.”

“You’re right. Let’s go then... But still, who was that boy? He is really strong.”

“No idea. But all I know is that he’s strong enough to charge at that swarm all by himself. I heard that there’s a strong boy in Drankam, that boy might be him. I also heard that boy from Drankam did well in that big battle not too long ago.”

“Ahh, right, I heard about that too. But I heard that he’s just an above-average but a little arrogant boy with some good equipment though. I don’t really remember what his name was, was it Ka... Ka... Ka... Kazuya?”

“I don’t care about that. Let’s just hurry up and return back.”

The Hunters sounded dead tired as they were talking. But even so, they managed to drag their feet back to the temporary base.