Chapter 178: Diversions? One fell swoop?
"Artemis!!!"
Ikaros muttered. While it went mostly unheard, the effect is quite spectacular. The sakurcolored missiles shot out from behind Ikaros and bombarded the Hounds.
Whenever the homing missiles landed, the people closest to ground zero would get blown up, they aren't getting up anytime soon that's for sure. Even when they aren't that close, they would get sent rolling and tumbling away by the ensuing shockwaves. Screams could be heard all over the place.
Compared to Ikaros, Astrea's side is more straightforward, her vibrating photon blade danced as she cut down the enemies one by one. Her efficiency is much lower than Ikaros but effective nonetheless. The evidence of her effectiveness could be seen piled up near her like tiles on a paved road.
Kihara Amata's vein popped. He is furious as hell but his expression didn't change. He saw Mugino Shizuri and the girls holding their head and he uttered a cold hmph. He motioned for the Capacity Down equipment to be turned off with a wave of his hand.
"You asshole!"
Mugino Shizuri shot up the moment the sound stopped. She grabbed a light orb and before she could launch it at Kihara Amata, he expressionless told her off.
"Are you sure this is okay? You should know the Hounds are under direct orders from the ones on top…"
Mugino Shizuri's expression changed. The light orb dimmed down, Kihara Amata turned away and looked at the two angeloids.
"Do something about the two girls, surely you don't want this mission to fail as well right?…"
She used a grim expression against Kihara Amata. She pointed her hand at Wu Yan's house and blew it up. She followed up with a few more Meltdowner before looking at Ikaros and Astrea. Her eyes had a very dangerous glint…
"Oh crap, that guy is in for it now…"
Kinuhata Saiai said in amusement, reflected in her eyes in the figure of Kihara Amata for she knows that Mugino Shizuri is not taking it personally with the two girls.
"Mugino Shizuri always remembers who had wronged her…"
Frenda rubbed her forehead and shrugged.
"Essentially, the lapdog thinks that he can tide over this by relying on the ones above, even if she didn't kill him, she has ways to make his life a living hell, what a poor fella…"
Kihara Amata didn't hear what Kinuhata Saiai and Frenda said. Even if he did, he probably wouldn't give a flying fuck. Mugino Shizuri and the other girls probably didn't get what he meant by the ones above, he didn't mean the trash sitting on the Board.
Mugino Shizuri walked to the forefront of the Hounds before declaring.
"You girls arrived at a really bad time. Or rather, just in time for I had suffered enough affront for the day…"
A few light orbs...o...b..ted her and then lasers shot towards Ikaros!
This is not because Mugino Shizuri recognized Ikaros. Rather, it's because Ikaros posed more threat to her than Astrea does. Her abilities can probably handle Astrea who looked like a close combat type.
Ikaros calculated the trajectories of the oncoming barrage and dodged them before she turned her red eyes at Mugino Shizuri.
Her master told her not to use Aegis but he didn't say anything about taking the initiative to attack…
"Artemis!!!"
The pink missiles left sakurcolored trails as they flew in a non-orthodox manner towards Mugino Shizuri. She stuck her hand out and drew a circle in front of her, a crisscrossed Meltdowner formed in front of her that destroyed every missile they touched.
Blowing up all the missiles, she looked back at Ikaros only to see an afterimage appearing rapidly in front of her as the pupils of her eyes shrunk.
Ikaros lifted a fist and hit her right in the stomach.
"Argh!"
She reflexively hugged her stomach. The moment she lowered her head she saw a knee coming up to meet her face before…
In front of everyone's eyes, Ikaros landed a knee shot in her face and sent Mugino Shizuri flying a distance away before she fell down unconscious.
"This is super impossible!"
Kinuhata Saiai couldn't believe what she is seeing, her group leader got done in with just a few moves by the enemy just like that. How can she believe anything like this, Frenda and Takitsubou Rikou were also stunned by what they were seeing as well, they couldn't recover from this shock.
Seeing that Mugino Shizuri got a swift taste of whoopass, Kihara Amata clutched his fists. The way he looked at Ikaros and Astrea also changed, there is now no more disdain and carefree on his expression.
They just defeated a lv5 like it's nothing, Kihara Amata can't possibly treat them with contempt anymore.
Actually, it's quite reasonable that Mugino Shizuri got ended so quick, she made the mistake of looking down on Ikaros close quarter combat abilities.
It's not just her, Wu Yan also almost let it slip his mind that Ikaros had ridiculous close combat prowess as well. It might not be as good as Astrea who is specialized in dealing with close quarter combat but it's not something that a normal person can hope to rival just like that.
At the very least, considering Academy City's standard, excluding Wu Yan, Hinagiku, Astrea, and outliers like Aiwass, Ikaros could be said to be the strongest fighter here.
She seemed weak because people assumed that since her long ranged game is so good, her close quarter combat prowess must be low, and that is true only when her long-range abilities were compared to her short range fighting abilities. However, she can still kick ass at close range.
Mugino Shizuri got done in because she got careless. She assumed that she can't do close combat because she didn't use it during the fight and lo and behold who's down for the count…
Granted, she never stood much chance even if she did got serious…
"Just where did these two women appear from?!"
Kihara Amata gnashed his teeth, his cards are pretty much all out on the table. His subordinates are at less than 1/3 their original number, the girls from ITEM probably won't be able to give much help given their current state. What can he do as a person who always relied on other people's help?…
His communication device rang and he flinched. Picking up, his face warped in anger.
He threw it hard against the ground and heaved in wrath. He growled in a low tone.
"damn! We got played!"
"What in the super world is going on?"
Kinuhata Saiai asked while keeping her eyes on Astrea and Ikaros some distance away from them.
Kihara Amata lowered his head and continued in a low tone.
"The research institutes got infiltrated again!"
"Infiltrated?"
Frenda gasped.
"You are saying…"
"They are allies, they lured us here and used it as a diversion with the infiltration of the research firms as their main objectives, they were just baits!"
Done with his explanation, he didn't say anything more to Kinuhata Saiai, Takitsubou Rikou, and Frenda. He yelled at the Hounds.
"Everyone, retreat!"
The Hounds stopped and retreated in two files. Alas, they didn't ask their mistresses whether or not they are dismissed…
"Artemis!!!"
Following a loud boom, the missiles started a rhapsody of explosions much to the horror of the retreating Hounds!
"Holy crap, they aren't planning on slaughtering all of us right?…"
Frenda, Kinuhata Saiai and Takitsubou Rikou rescued Mugino Shizuri and exchanged looks before promptly retreating.
The death of the Hounds didn't matter for them anyway.
"Retreat! All squad retreat nao!"
That place only had the screams of the Hounds and Kihara Amata losing his sh*t while screaming orders…