Bounty Hunters - Shokin Kasegi

Six Spikes Desert Arc: Chapter 103

==A loud heart==

Back in front of Lia’s house, while Horuteph was fighting King Crimson about 100m further down the street, Erika and Zoe are facing each other.

“Can you tell me how exactly you could get out of that cell?”, Erika asks, still shocked.

A Rokuloku soldier comes out from his hiding spot and shouts: “Erika-sama! This is no time for talking! We gotta get you out of here!”

Erika replies: “No! Stay away from her! You never know how she could kill you!”

The soldier doesn’t listen and Zoe snaps her fingers. Izo-chan comes out of an alley behind her and knocks away the soldier.

Zoe explains with an evil smile: “With the help of Izo-chan. She doesn’t have her spikes anymore though… and for that guy just now, I thought for you that I wouldn’t kill him. What a lucky guy!”

Erika thinks: “Can I really trust her words? She can lie as naturally as she breathes!”

Zoe continues: “Well, for my story though: Izo-chan killed some soldiers after you were gone and chewed away the prison bars. Did you know Izo-chan has a mouth? Anyway, I went north to get some divisions under my wings and it went pretty smoothly. I wanted them because I knew where my darling went and I wanted to help him. I met Shoma, that woman who denied being his 5th wife and inheriting some of his wealth when he dies so I like her, and she helped me. She kinda seemed like she doesn’t make a difference between Rokuloku and Ashtarks just like I do.”

Erika is confused and Shurui asks: “Is she trying to scam the king to become rich?”

Zoe finishes: “Well, I made my way through a spot in the ring of fire where we broke through, a few days ago, and then walked through the Naarashi Desert. I met Hiteki just as planned and now we’re here.”

Shurui replies: “Well, if your goal was to inherit his money, then you should know that two of the others are dead. The thing is, you won’t inherit anything because we’re gonna win!”

Zoe says: “Oh you think so? You flying, little Izo fake! I’m gonna kill you first! If it weren’t for you, I could’ve escaped the fight and done so much more damage. I’m pretty sure that you might even be the reason we don’t have any advantage in this war right now!”

Zoe gets angry and Shurui asks Erika: “Isn’t she overdramatizing this a little?”

Erika: “She’s crazy and we mustn’t underestimate her. That’s for sure!”

The angry Zoe orders: “Go Izo-chan. Chew up that whatever-it-is.”

“I won’t let that happen!”, Erika shouts in response.

Erika takes out her hammer and it extends with steam engine noises. Izo-chan is already there and Shurui quickly dodges.

She asks: “Eri-chan, can I do something in this fight?

Erika swings back the flying metal ball with a maul and replies: “The only thing you could do is run away! We’d need to use that to our advantage! But even that can get difficult because this thing doesn’t have any chains anymore! It can move around freely and as far as it wants to!”

“A trap!”, Shurui interrupts, “I could try trapping this thing if you can make it stay here!”

Erika asks while swinging her hammer against Izo-chan more: “You really think you could pull that off?”

Shurui assures: “I’m one of the most intelligent computers in the galaxy! I can calculate everything that’s needed! I know that her speed reaches up to 4 meters per second and that she has a little less power than your hammer! Just make her stay here and I’ll lure her to the trap when it’s ready!”

Shurui flies off into the city and Erika thinks: “Looks like that’s the plan now.”

Zoe comments loudly: “Did you two finally finish flirting? Good. Izo-chan, it’s showtime!”

Izo-chan now attacks Erika with full force and gets hit back by her ‘Düsen Hammer’ many more times, just like in their first fight. The flames of the jets turn the fight into a spectacle.

Their heat makes Erika sweat and she thinks: “It feels like this thing can learn! Swing by swing, it gets harder to parry it!”

Zoe adds: “By the way! You don’t have the strength to smash Izo-chan into pieces! You should just give up!”

Erika runs away backwards while still defending herself.

“I have so much to improve when we leave this planet! Shurui-chan needs a lot of gadgets and my hammer needs another upgrade. I hope we can even buy the materials I need!”

Suddenly, Izo-chan gets past her hammer for once and Erika thinks: “Fuck! This is gonna hurt!”

Izo-chan then stops right in front of her stomach and confuses Erika. Sharp spikes quickly emerge from her surface and some slightly stab into Erika’s stomach. Erika screams out of pain and grabs Izo-chan by one of her spikes. She gets even louder as she pulls her out of her stomach and activates the jet on her hammer to shoot the metal ball away. She spits blood and holds her arm in front of her belly.

Her heart pounds so loudly that she almost can’t hear Zoe comment: “And suddenly, the princess loses to a spiked metal ball. Classic fairy tale right there.”

Erika gets angry and shouts: “I WON’T GIVE UP! I’LL DO IT JUST LIKE HIM! RAIDEN WOULD NEVER GIVE UP… EVEN IF SOMEONE BLEW A HOLE THROUGH HIS CHEST!! HE WOULD ALWAYS KEEP GOIN-!!”

As Erika stood up while shouting this, she sees Zoe holding Lia as a hostage and smiling and falls silent again.

A knife held to her throat, Lia shouts: “Don’t worry about me! Nyo!”

“GET BACK!! NOO!!”, you can hear from the distance and suddenly, King Crimson runs past Erika.

He says: “Nice idea, darling.”, and takes Lia as a hostage himself.

The king declares: “If any of you move a muscle, this girl right here dies!”

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Zoe lied to Erika again and now Lia is in danger! Does King Crimson suddenly have the advantage?!