The Confident Can Shakes

48. The Confident Can Shakes

Endurance, Seventh Company Solo Training Chamber.

Now.

.

Hades gripped his war scythe, rapidly dodging the strikes of the Combat Servitor before him.

The massive six-bladed Combat Servitor unleashed a storm of slashes. Its chainsaws roared to life, mercilessly cutting toward Hades!

Hades swiftly used his scythe to knock aside the incoming chainsaws. The sweep of the scythe flashed through the air like lightning, and countless tiny sparks burst from where blade met chainsaw before vanishing amid the raging gusts of steel.

For a time, man and machine were locked in a stalemate, afterimages flickering across the field.

One moment, the Combat Servitor held the advantage, forcing Hades back again and again. The next, Hades saw through its next several moves, swung his scythe in a broad arc, and seized control once more.

At this moment, the entire room held no sound but blades tearing through the air and weapons clashing at close quarters.

Hades's pupils dilated. His mind was utterly clear, holding nothing but the six roaring chainsaw blades before him.

The scene he had witnessed in the Duel Cage a few days ago seemed to rise before his eyes.

As if in slow motion, Hades saw the Combat Servitor's entire sequence of attacks!

That was it!

Hades made a slight adjustment to his center of gravity and took a small step to the right. A swift slash instantly brushed past him.

A confident smile quietly bloomed across Hades's face—

To his eyes, the attack frequency that had once seemed incredibly fast now unfolded before him as though in slow motion.

Easy to dodge, riddled with openings!

Imitating the veteran's flashy greatsword move from the Duel Cage, Hades twisted aside to evade the next strike, switched his heavy scythe to his other hand, and spun it through a beautiful flourish!

Then he leaned forward and hooked out, disrupting the enemy's rhythm of attack. His enormous modified body was completely exposed to the enemy's striking range, yet Hades felt no fear at all.

Because your next strike will be your death!

As if it understood Hades's thoughts, the six chainsaw blades roared as they swung down, as though they meant to embrace Hades within their arms—

The silent war scythe split through the roar.

"Hiss—clang!"

The chainsaw blades' roar faded weakly. The chainsaws that had been spinning at high speed gradually lost power and slowed to a stop.

The red light atop the Combat Servitor blinked urgently, like a silent plea for help. But after only a few seconds, its flashing began to slow.

Finally, it went dark.

Hades stood in the middle of the training cage, his scythe blade hanging low.

Less than three steps away from him, the Combat Servitor stood motionless.

Then the top of the Combat Servitor swayed several times.

"Bang!"

A split at the Combat Servitor's waist tore fully through it, cleanly bisecting the giant machine!

Seeing that the Combat Servitor which had beaten him up for over a week had finally kicked the bucket, Hades could not stop a breath of pent-up anger from pouring out of his chest.

Awesome!

From being completely unable to fight back and getting chased around the entire training cage, to being able to hold out for a few moves, then to completely seeing through the Combat Servitor's attack patterns and even pulling off a flashy scythe flourish, Hades had spent an entire week!

He had been chased down and beaten for four of those days!

Looking at the Combat Servitor's body lying on the ground, Hades felt that the hazing assignment veteran Blanca had deliberately set for him was finally complete. He could go find Blanca and begin the next stage of training.

Hades casually shook his scythe, instinctively wanting to fling off the flesh and blood stuck to it. Only then did he realize that he had been fighting a Combat Servitor. There was nothing to shake off.

However, as Hades shook the scythe, a crack appeared in this reinforced training scythe. Like ice about to shatter, fractures spread layer upon layer across its surface.

What Hades did not know was that an ordinary training scythe could not cut through a Type 3 Combat Servitor at all. Just now, relying on instinctive intuition, Hades had found a weakness in the Combat Servitor, then forcibly cleaved it apart with brute strength and incredible speed.

The door to the solo training chamber was flung open, and Blanca strode inside. Behind him followed a Tech-Sergeant carrying a multifunctional backpack.

As they entered, the door gave a violent shake, and the blade of Hades's scythe honorably reached the end of its life, shattering into fragments that fell to the floor.

"Clatter."

Ah. This.

Hades suddenly felt that perhaps he should not have simply chopped apart the machine that had beaten him up for a week.

The Tech-Sergeant saw the Combat Servitor split in half inside the training cage, and the red light on his helmet began flashing rapidly.

He reached out and placed a hand on Blanca's shoulder.

[Care to explain?]

It was the first time Hades had seen Blanca freeze up.

So. This was the situation now.

Hades sat carefully beside Blanca. The two burly men sat in a row of chairs beneath the training cage, looking somewhat constrained.

The red light on the Tech-Sergeant's helmet flashed madly as he stood before them, pacing back and forth without pause.

Rapid Low Gothic that Hades could not understand poured from the Tech-Sergeant's helmet.

At first, Blanca still stubbornly held his head high and argued with the Tech-Sergeant. But later, all that remained were weak, listless sounds of "Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm."

[This is how you assign tasks to recruits? You put him straight up against a Type 3, and then let the recruit break it???]

[Blanca, I know you're stubborn, but assessing each recruit's combat ability shouldn't be difficult, should it?]

[You only lead two soldiers. You can't even manage that properly???]

[I know you think a recruit shouldn't be able to match a Type 3. Honestly, I think it's absurd too, but that isn't an excuse for not paying attention to the recruit's training progress for an entire week.]

[No way. No way, Blanca, you really never checked on the recruit's progress?]

[The Legion is expanding. Equipment production is already busy enough, and now you're telling me I have to step down from supervising the assembly line to repair a Combat Servitor for you?]

Blanca had none of his former toughness. At first, he had wanted to stubbornly argue a few more points. But then he looked at the Combat Servitor lying on the ground, split in two.

Besides, the Tech-Sergeant opposite him—Alberto—was a veteran who had enlisted alongside Blanca. Because he had taken the path of a Tech-Sergeant, his military promotion had been delayed. Otherwise, Alberto would probably not have ranked far below Blanca by now.

What was more, during battlefield repair missions, Alberto had casually dug Blanca out of piles of corpses twice.

Yeah. He truly had not expected the recruit to be this capable.

Blanca resentfully fired a bolt round at a tiny Hades in his mind.

Then he obediently sat still and listened to Alberto's reprimand.

Just as Hades felt that dinner time was about to arrive, the training chamber door opened once more, saving both Blanca and Hades.

Forge Master Enrique marched in. Seeing that his teacher had arrived, Alberto immediately stopped complaining, stood at attention, and saluted.

[My apologies, Teacher. Alberto will return to his post immediately.]

Enrique glanced over the training cage and instantly understood what had happened.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. To cut a Type 3 up this badly... the younger generation was truly formidable.

Earlier, Alberto had been angered by the sudden repair assignment, while Blanca had been busy dealing with Alberto. Both had unconsciously downplayed just how difficult Hades's achievement had been.

But Enrique thought that although it was somewhat regrettable for a Type 3 to break down at this time, now—

Praise the Omnissiah!

Enrique looked at Hades.

"Hades, you must provide appropriate compensation for the damage you caused."

"However, given your superior's negligence, this was not entirely your fault."

"Therefore, I have decided to show leniency. On every even-numbered Terran day, you will spend your free time helping out in the Forge Hall for two months."

Hades looked at Enrique across from him. Why did this feel so wrong?

Happy reading. (σ′▽‵)′▽‵)σ