Wait, did Shizu just obliterate whoever she fought earlier? "Come now. Don't feel happiness out of killing. You might end up becoming a Bloody Princess or something."
"Who cares?" she coldly replied, her golden eyes glinting with unfulfilled radiance as she grimaced. "These are heathens. They dared attack Imperial sovereign territory. Their lives are forfeit anyway."
Okay? That was far from the Shizu I know. "I think you're being too serious right now."
"Huh? What for?"
Once again, I blinked at the expression she just flashed me. Seriously, she was giving me chills just from that murderous smile alone! "Uhh... Can you relax a bit?"
"Why? I'm perfectly calm right now, Moriya," she sweetly smiled, said smile being far from her usual happy-go-lucky one. "We're ridding this world of heathens that are ruining this beautiful world!"
[*BANG! BANG!*]
What the- "Cannon fire?!"
Diving towards Shizu, I forced her to duck down below as two cannon balls soared right on top of us. The ensuing hit against our [Rig] then launched shrapnel and debris right on top of us, hitting our backs as metal shards dug themselves onto my back.
[*CRASH! CRASH!*]
"Khh..."
[HP: 239/275]
"M-Moriya?"
[*"Hey?! How are there cannonballs still hitting us?!"*]
I clicked my tongue as I forced myself up, ignoring Shade's annoyed tone coming out of the speakers as I gave Shizu some space below me. Her... admittedly beautiful face was blushing red as she worriedly stared at me. "I'm fine. It's nothing too bad."
Thankfully, whatever murderous intent she had earlier had seemingly dissipated the moment I put her under my cover. And before any sort of misunderstandings could form in her head, I stood up and aimed my pistol at the offending cannons to the side of our [Rig].
"[Blood Shot]"
[*BANG! BANG!*]
[HP: 199/275]
[MP: 215/225]
Firing off two thick shots, my enlarged bullets hit both of my respective targets, the two cannons quickly being taken care of as an eruption of blood made their turrets flare out like sunflowers.
"Damn," I cursed out. "If they're still willing to fire those cannons at us at this close a range, we should destroy them before they gut the [Rig]."
"R-Right..."
Looking down, I promptly offered a hand to Shizu as she stood back up, her gaze falling to the damage that those two shots caused to the main... structure, I think? of the [Rig].
"This is... This is bad... isn't it?"
"I suppose so," I sighed. "Still, I think that Shen can fix that, seeing as she managed to fix the hull without her even complaining."
[*"Hey, Moriya! I know you can hear me!"*] Shade called out once more from the nearest speaker. [*"What happened back there?!"*]
Walking towards the nearest comms unit, I took in a breath as I reported, "These guys can still use the cannons to shoot us from this close range. We need to disable these things before they decide that it's a good idea to sink us while we're both still attached."
[*"That's not good."*]
"You think?" I rolled my eyes as I quickly took a glance around our position, only to find that Shizu was already taking care of our safety by vaporizing any person that went near us with a single punch. "What's the situation on the others?"
[*"Lady Guidance and Maruki seem to have things under control. The shower of blood that erupted on the front deck saw to that, at least,"*] Shade relayed, much to my morbid confusion even as he continued. [*"As for Shen, she hasn't reported back yet, but seeing as we haven't sunk yet- Oh."*]
"Oh, what, Shade?"
[*"Shen's coming up there,"*] Shade relayed. [*"Says she's done all that she can below deck for now. She's going to fix whatever it was that got hit by those cannons you just destroyed."*]
I nodded at the news. "Nice. At least this didn't turn out as badly as I thought it would."
[*"Hey, don't breathe easy yet-"*]
[*BANG!*]
[*CRASH!*]
I flinched, "What the-"
"Moriya! They're firing along the length of the [Rig]!" I heard Shizu yell out in alarm. "We should destroy them before they sink us!"
[*"Yep, that's still a problem,"*] Shade weakly chuckled. [*"Look, I'll do my best to keep these dashing young men and women distracted while you all sort out the problem. And yes, Guidance, I'm telling him that you two are making your way to the side of the [RIg] to meet up."*]
"I take it that we're going to be storming this thing together then," I voiced aloud.
[*"That seems to be the case,"*] Shade inferred. [*"Frankly, I didn't expect them to fall this easily. I expected us to be fighting tooth and nail to keep this [Rig] afloat, but it seems that we have a few powerful individuals on the ship in the form of you, Lady Guidance, and Shizu."*]
Huh... Wait...
Taking a glance at Shizu, the slow realization of the fact that she was still level 80 made the instant pulverizing and killing made much more sense as I let out a sigh of relief. I guess on that, I could only assume that Guidance was also still at max level, lending credence to the pool of blood that Shade just described earlier.
"Yeah," I sighed. "Well, tell Guidance that we'll meet up then. We still have a [Rig] to sink."
[*Of course.*]
And with that, the line cut itself off, leaving me to stare at the carnage that Shizu had created while defending me.
Truly, she was too overpowered for our current adversaries.
"I... kind of feel bad now," Shizu sighed, her hands still dripping with blood as she shook a few drops of red off her feet. "They didn't even stand a chance..."
"That's what you get for being powerful, Shizu," I weakly chuckled. "Either way, we now have something else to do, which is to sink this thing before it sinks us."
"Which means we get to board it, right?"
I almost shook my head as I chuckled, "Yes, Shizu. We're going to board the enemy [Rig]."
Shizu's smile stood in contrast to the number of bodies she just racked up on her kill count. Truly, she was the textbook definition of an innocent killer.