Chapter 331 - Fighting Through The Streets

Mercury ran through the streets, suddenly he jumped as Terak that was following close behind him in his active mana armor slashed out after his legs, Mercury kept up his speed by rolling forwards and quickly got onto his feet again as he continued running towards the coast, Mercury could feel it through the ground, another person in active mana armor was chasing after him too, in fact, they were trying to cut him off from the coast. Mercury dodged another slash from Terak by leaping to the side, he twisted in the air and jumped off the side of a building, landing in an alley with a roll before he quickly got on his feet and kept running, he yelled

"Detach 15 model Hound from the main force!"

Mercury jumped out of the way of another slash that passed straight through the wall on the side of the alley before he jumped into the air and kicked off a wall and jumped before he landed on the roof of a building, landing with a roll he quickly kicked off the ground again and continued running as he made a few hand signals and pointed towards Terak that landed on the roof behind him before he yelled

"Priority target!"

Then 'something' flew through the air, however just before it could hit Terak's active mana armor he raised his curved sword and deflected it, a loud clang sounded out., then he looked in the direction it came from and narrowed his eyes before he muttered

"A ballista..? There's no ballista on the walls!"

Then a shadow leaped onto the roof, Terak looked over and saw a metal dog that opened its maw and fired off a metal spike with amazing force, he quickly dodged to the side but weren't fast enough as the spike hit the shoulder of his armor, but deflected due to the high angle of impact, at once he realized his mistake and crossed his curved swords in front of him, only just managing to block Mercury's right hook

"[Forging blows]!"

The impact sent the 300-kilogram active mana armor sliding backward on the roof, when Terak looked up again he saw that several more metal dogs had landed on the rooftop, as well as the back of Mercury that continued towards the coast

"Son of a vulture! Sister Naila, he's heading in your direction, intercept him before he reaches the coast!"

Naila quickly respond over the mana powered radio

"Got it, brother!"

Naila ran through the streets in her active mana armor and quickly jumped off the ground, shattering the cobblestone below her feet, after flying through the air for a few seconds she landed in front of Mercury that came to a halt, she spoke as she sized him up

"You must be Mercury! Naila of the Wasim clan, coming at you!"

'Shit, so there was another one after all..!'

While Mercury was getting 'acquainted' with the twins from the Wasim clan a small fleet of ships were steaming towards the coast, soon they reached the docks, and groups of marines, as well as Julia and Marie, jumped off onto the coast. The two women sped ahead of the group, in front of them were a high wall, the so-called coastal wall with a heavy gate, Julia sped ahead while she loaded her heavy automatic crossbow and fired towards the wall, her shots were pinpoint accurate and hit in between the bricks when she neared the wall she jumped and grabbed onto the bolts she had fired previously, rapidly climbing up the wall, Marie that followed soon after twirled her viper spear around as she neared the heavy gate and twisted her body to gain more momentum on the spear as she yelled out

"[Forging blows]!"

A loud clang sounded out as the heavy gate was sent flying off the hinges and fell with a mighty boom, Marie was soon seen sprinting out from the dust following after a model Sparrow, above Julia jumped from roof to roof following another Sparrow, soon they found Mercury that still was engaged with Naila, Marie quickly entered the fray and she let out a low shout as she trusted the viper spear forwards

"[Forging blows]!"

The viper spear was, however, blocked by Naila that clearly didn't expect the impact so one of her heated curved swords was sent flying, she borrowed the recoil from the blow to retreat further backward as several bolts hit the ground where she had just been standing, she quickly yelled out as she felt a chill down her spine

"Brother Terak, where are you!?"

A few seconds passed before a strained voice sound out on the mana powered radio

"I am a little busy sister Naila..!"

"Fine, I'll take them on by myself!"

Clearly a proud warrior, retreat didn't seem to be in Naila's dictionary as she spun the remaining heated curved sword around while she swiftly drew a reserve dagger with her free hand and took a stance facing the three of them, and yelled

"Come at me!"

Naila kicked off the ground and crashed forwards towards Mercury, however, before she could reach him Julia fired off a couple of bolts towards her which she was forced to dodge by leaning to her left, Mercury and Marie exchanged glances before they both kicked off the ground and charged at Naila that still was off-balance from dodging the bolts Julia had fired, Marie struck first with an overhead swing of her viper spear

"[Forging blows]!"

Naila stepped back, narrowly dodging the strike that was aimed at the crown of her head, the tip of the viper spear whizzed past her face and stuck the cobblestone below blowing up pieces of debris and kicking up a dust cloud before Naila had the chance to retaliate towards Marie, Mercury came crashing through the dust cloud and stuck with a left hook right at the center of the active mana armor, Naila sacrificed her dagger to block the blow which was smashed to pieces by Mercury's full force right hook and use of [Forging blows], then after destroying the dagger Mercury pushed his advantage and followed up with a right uppercut towards the head of the activate mana armor, which completely shattered the helmet as it was blown clear off the armor, in the air Mercury kicked off the armor send it staggering backwards as he himself was sent flying back into the dust cloud, as much as Naila wanted to slash out after him whit her heated curved sword she was forced to use it to block bolts that were fired at her exposed head, this left her open to Marie that came through the dust cloud close to the ground stabbing out with her viper spear towards the chest of the active mana armor

"[Forging blows]!"

A loud bang was heard as the active mana armor was sent flying backward and came crashing into the side of a building, a few seconds later however a roar was heard as Naila came charging out from the destroyed building with her curved sword raised heated to the max as she used a skill

"[Flow acceleration]!"

The figure of Naila sped up several times as she closed the distance to Mercury that reacted at once by kicking off the ground fleeing backward, as his feet made contact with the ground walls of earth were quickly raised, not between him and Naila, but between Naila and Marie that was in Naila's path, Marie that was cut off from the fight ran towards the closet wall and ran up in a few steps before she kicked off it and landed on a nearby roof where her eyes quickly locked with Naila's curved swords that still shone with heat, then her eyes began glowing red as the heating device inside the hilt of the sword suddenly heated up several times its safety limit just as Mercury raised a wall of earth in front of himself did the hilt of the curved sword explode with a roar, Naila was blown aside with half of her arm missing and crashed heavily into a building where she coughed up blood as she lost consciousness and collapsed…

The earth wall around Mercury quickly collapsed and revealed him safely inside, he looked up towards Marie and Julia and showed a smile when he saw that they were both safe, then he walked over and confirmed that Naila was out cold before he gave a nod, then Marie asked

"What should we do with her?"

Mercury could feel the unease in her voice, she was clearly not okay with leaving her to bleed out, Mercury showed a smile and spoke

"Don't worry, I'll patch her up, but first I need to take care of her brother, Marie get her out of the armor but only if there's no shrapnel that is penetrating her skin through the armor! Otherwise, leave her in the armor!"

Mercury kicked off the ground and rushed ahead, Julia followed on the roofs and soon the two of them arrived where Terak had been fighting with the 15 model Hound's which were left over all the place in pieces, Terak was laying against the wall of a building with his active mana armor penetrated in multiple places by spikes, when he saw Mercury come running he tried to move but was unable to get up, so he spoke weakly

"Looks like… It wasn't an unfair fight… After all… I'll go ahead… Mercury..."

"Nope, I still have a use for you, you're not dying on my watch!"