Blood Haze (II)

To tell the truth, the first time he saw that thing, a feeling of contempt pierced straight into Iron Axle's bones.

It was not as if he had never seen a Morkanaut. He even often went to admire that enormous white Diamond and marveled at its grandeur.

But he had never seen anything so contemptibly ugly.

Although Ork walkers resembled human mechs, they looked completely powerless, with only slender limbs and torsos. To an Ork, flexible joints were a sign of fragility.

More importantly, the Speed Freeks had always despised machines that relied on legs to move.

Even Morkanauts were, in their eyes, merely bloated lumps of scrap metal. Dangerous machines, perhaps, but still scrap metal.

Rat-a-tat-tat~~!

More gunfire plowed toward Iron Axle's position from the enemy side of the clearing, forcing him to stop and take cover behind the thick trunk of a large tree.

Rounds from automatic weapons punched into the trunk, spraying him from head to toe with flying bark.

He might look down on them, but bullets were real enough. Even scrap metal capable of killing needed to be treated carefully.

"Jumpy's Shrimp..."

When the enemy ceased fire to reload, Iron Axle burst from behind cover. He circled around while drawing his pistol and firing back at them.

One soldier screamed. The entire left half of his body was blasted apart, and the stench of scorched blood and flesh immediately filled the clearing.

The remaining soldiers concentrated all their fire on Iron Axle, buying the other two bikes time to charge toward the far side of the clearing.

But then, a soldier wielding twin blades leaped out from behind cover. Moving with lightning speed, he tore a huge hole through Iron Axle's adjutant's breastplate in a howling flash of electricity.

The frenzied Ork wrestled his bike