"Anti-Entropy... that did make things a little troublesome..." The North American Branch Director pondered with a grim expression. Suddenly, she stood up and pointed at a marker on the floating screen before her. "Since the survivor is someone the Far East Branch wants, send that A-Rank Valkyrie from the Far East Branch! She isn't far away anyway!"
"Wise decision, Minister!" The On-Duty Valkyrie nodded in wholehearted agreement and contacted Fu Hua, who had just finished her mission and was returning, through the internal channel. "Valkyrie Fu Hua, this is the New North American Branch command center. Can you hear me?"
"I can. What is it?" Fu Hua tapped her earpiece a few times with her index finger and asked in confusion.
"It's like this. That little girl your Far East Branch asked us to rescue, I think her name was Xina, has been attacked by Anti-Entropy. At present, the nearest friendly unit to her is you..."
"Understood." Fu Hua cut off the On-Duty Valkyrie's rambling nonsense and said directly, "Send me the coordinates. I'll head over now."
"Got it!"
Seeing that Fu Hua had really taken the job, the On-Duty Valkyrie was overjoyed and hurriedly sent her the approximate coordinates calculated by the computer.
"Fifteen kilometers away? I should make it in time!" Fu Hua estimated the distance between herself and Xina, mounted the Black Off-Road Motorcycle she had casually driven out of some Anti-Entropy research facility, and sped down a sixty-mile-per-hour road at one hundred and eighty...
Meanwhile, Xina was idly pacing around several Anti-Entropy Mecha she had frozen into amber.
Whether Anti-Entropy reinforcements or Schicksal reinforcements arrived first, she had already made every possible preparation. All she needed to do was wait...
"Should I say Anti-Entropy really deserved its reputation as the local snake? They got here fast, didn't they?!"
Xina sensed the direction in which the ice sheet covering the ground had shattered and determined the newcomers' location. At an appropriate distance, she dispelled the ice coating several nearby mecha.
"Who are you? Why are you here!?"
More than ten seconds later, the restored Anti-Entropy Mecha turned around and interrogated Xina, who stood in their midst, in cold mechanical voices.
To Anti-Entropy, it was strange enough that their mecha had all suddenly shut down, only to inexplicably return to normal afterward.
And at that exact time, on such a remote back road, a smiling young girl had suddenly appeared beside them.
No matter how one looked at it, that was not normal!
"Wait, you fired missiles at me, yet you don't even know who I am? Is something wrong with you Anti-Entropy people's brains?"
Hearing Anti-Entropy ask who she was, Xina, who had been inexplicably blasted into the air by a missile, felt terrible through her entire Herrscher self.
So they had used missiles without even knowing who she was?
That was just damn ridiculous!
"What do you mean, who are you and who are we? We're asking why you're here!" The mecha squad captain who had come to provide support was equally baffled as he looked at the puffed-up girl below. His orders had been to investigate why this suddenly disconnected mecha squad had gone silent. Naturally, he had to question any suspicious individual he encountered.
"Why am I here? Shouldn't you bastards know better than I do? You were the ones who fired missiles at my vehicle first!"
"Utter nonsense. I have no idea what you're talking about. Since you refuse to cooperate, don't blame me for what comes next. All units! Prepare for combat!"
For some reason, the mecha squad captain sensed an icy aura from this girl. No matter who she was, she definitely was not simple!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four Titan Mech disengaged their camouflage and marched toward the girl in perfect unison. Yet she did not panic in the slightest, because that familiar feeling had returned...
It was time to show them some real acting!
Listening to the roar of an engine growing ever closer, Xina had already fallen to the ground before the Titan Mech could bring down their fists. Lying on her side, she watched the motorcycle's dazzling headlight grow larger and larger before it passed over her head and slammed into the cockpit of one Titan Mech.
"Xina, are you all right?"
Fu Hua descended from the sky and landed before Xina with a spectacular backflip. Perhaps it was because of the lighting and angle, but Fu Hua's figure, which was not especially tall or imposing, seemed incredibly towering in Xina's eyes.
"Fu Hua... Class Monitor, I'm fine. It's just that these awful things weren't satisfied with firing missiles at me. They even tried to bully me with their mecha. If you hadn't come, I might have..."
As she spoke, Xina squeezed several drops of Honkai energy solution from her eyes and lowered her head with a pitiful sob.
Perfect. Let these trash mecha show me what Fu Hua is capable of! I wanted to see just how powerful this Valkyrie who made my hair stand on end really was.
The unfairly blamed mecha squad captain was displeased as well. Annoyed, he switched his voice channel to broadcast and roared at Xina, the hit-and-run scammer, "Hey, hey, hey! What nonsense are you spouting, brat? My fist hadn't even touched you, and you were already lying on the ground! Are you Valkyries really so brazen when it comes to faking accidents?"
"It doesn't matter. My mission is to deal with you anyway. If you run now, I can spare you."
As soon as she finished speaking, a black mask appeared over Fu Hua's face, and her gray standard combat uniform shifted into the prototype fourth-generation Valkyrie God-Slaying Armor—Shadow Knight: Moonbeam.
After assuming the opening stance of a certain fist technique, the Shadow Knight: Moonbeam armor emitted a faint orange glow.
"Oh, it's finally starting!" Xina excitedly shifted into a more comfortable lying position and watched Fu Hua, who faced eight mecha alone, with anticipation. She hoped to witness an extraordinary battle.
But... things did not go as she had hoped. This battle, which had appeared terribly uneven, ended very quickly—so quickly that Xina began to doubt her entire worldview. Could someone in this world really dismantle mecha with their bare hands?
Inch Punch: Mountain Shatter!
As Fu Hua blew apart the cockpit of the final mecha, Xina felt, for the first time since becoming a Herrscher, that the clothing on her back had stuck to her skin.
"Is it raining? No... it's Honkai energy solution..."
The orange glow gradually faded, and the faceplate that had covered Fu Hua's face vanished with it. She bent down and crouched beside Xina, asking with concern, "Xina, why are you sweating so much? Are you injured?"
"I-I-I... yes, I feel a little weak in the legs..." Xina stared fixedly at the hand Fu Hua had placed on her shoulder.
That was the hand that had punched through a mecha cockpit just moments ago.
Imagining the terrifying scene of that fist landing on her own head, Xina felt that the Serenity Gem inside her could only serve one purpose: letting her take a few more of Fu Hua's punches...
"Weak in the legs..." Fu Hua thought for a moment, then extended both hands. She supported the bend of Xina's knees with her right arm while gently lifting Xina's waist and back with her left.
"Eh? Eh? Eh?!" Xina raised her head in surprise as Fu Hua effortlessly picked her up.
At this distance, she could see Fu Hua's heroic, sharply defined profile with perfect clarity.
Before you continue