A... light disc?

"Gipsy Danger has deployed?"

"Good."

Inside Shaolin Rogue's cockpit, Natsuki listened to the comms and spoke with a smile.

It seemed what he had told Marshal Stacker hadn't been wasted.

Shaolin Rogue had just sent the charging Leatherback flying with a punch. Now he was gripping Raijin's tail, ready to give him a giant swing.

Beneath the curtain of rain, violence erupted across the wave-churned battlefield. The dance between Jaegers and Kaiju set the pilots' hearts ablaze.

"God, compared to those two, I think he's more of a monster." Inside the badly damaged Cherno Alpha, Sasha watched the enormous Jaeger haul Raijin into the air by his tail, her eyes filled with shock.

"That's already beyond a Jaeger's limits," Alexis said.

They had never seen a battle between Jaegers and Kaiju like this!

Raijin's swinging body whipped up a towering wave, sweeping through the dark curtain of rain like a meteor hammer. Once released, he hurtled like a cannonball straight at Leatherback!

"ROOOAR!"

Leatherback, who had been preparing to unleash an EMP attack, had no time to react. The incoming mosasaur struck him head-on, and the two enormous beasts collided, throwing up even higher waves as a roar rang out.

"Nice hit, Mr. Natsuki!"

"We're coming to help!" Thrilled by Shaolin Rogue's godlike performance, Tang Wei Hu shouted, then worked with his two brothers to get Crimson Typhoon back into fighting shape and stride through the seawater to provide support.

Seeing the two Kaiju struggle to their feet, they figured a two-on-two fight would end things faster.

"All right. Buy me a few seconds."

"My next attack will end this fight," Natsuki's voice came over the comms.

The three brothers were puzzled. As far as they remembered, Shaolin Rogue's weapons shouldn't have been powerful enough to kill two thick-skinned Kaiju outright.

Still, they piloted Crimson Typhoon toward the two Kaiju.

"Thundercloud formation!"

"Let's go!" the three brothers shouted together. The alloy discs on Crimson Typhoon's arms spun rapidly, their edges looking razor-sharp.

"ROOOAR!"

"ROOOAR!"

The two Kaiju burst through the seawater again, lunging at Crimson Typhoon from two directions.

Meanwhile, behind them.

Driven by an invisible force, Shaolin Rogue's pieced-together right fist broke apart again, turning into sharp metal components that floated in midair.

Then the components along his entire arm began shifting, as though subjected to an intense force.

"Shaolin Rogue, we've detected damage to your frame. What's happening!?" The command center detected the anomaly and immediately demanded an explanation over the comms.

With the combat power Shaolin Rogue had displayed, fighting two Kaiju shouldn't have caused damage on such a large scale.

Natsuki didn't reply.

He merely increased his psychokinesis output slightly and mixed a trace of energy into it.

Soon, both the battling Kaiju and Crimson Typhoon noticed something unusual.

They noticed... a brilliant light had suddenly appeared on the dark ocean battlefield, a dazzling radiance impossible to ignore!

"What is that...?" Sasha and Alexis watched with their mouths slightly open.

Before their eyes, Shaolin Rogue's right hand broke down into countless fragments suspended in midair. Under the control of an unknown force, they spun faster and faster, forming a vortex... no, a spinning disc was a better description!

The instant the disc formed, dazzling white light appeared between the fragments, connecting them and even forming a serrated edge!

It looked like a disc made of machinery and light!

"Fall back!" Natsuki's voice rang out directly in Tang Wei Hu's mind, faster than the comms!

Upon receiving the order, the three pilots inside Crimson Typhoon reacted immediately, making the same movement. They grabbed Leatherback in front of them with the Jaeger's arms, then drove power into its legs.

Whoosh-

With help from the thrusters on its back, they held on to Leatherback and vaulted forward. Using Leatherback as a pivot, the enormous machine flipped over him and landed behind him with another splash.

Raijin, who had been attempting to attack Crimson Typhoon, lunged at empty air and collided with Leatherback again.

"High-intensity energy signature detected. It's very similar to the previous incident!" The command center's voice came over the comms again.

In that split second, while Leatherback and Raijin were tangled together.

BZZZZ!!!

The light disc formed from Shaolin Rogue's right hand shone even brighter and flew out with a thunderous sound. His entire arm broke down into components and joined the mechanical light disc!

It instantly carved a gash through the sea. Before the spray could even rise, the mechanical light disc had reached the two Kaiju!

SHING!!!

The mechanical light disc sliced through both Kaiju, then immediately shot skyward, becoming a dazzling meteor streaking into the heavens!

It all happened too fast!

Only afterward did a surging rift open across the sea's surface. The two Kaiju's bodies then split in half, spilling vast amounts of blue blood and organs into the seawater with great splashes.

"Holy shit!"

"What kind of move was that!?" Watching the light disc fly past, Tang Wei Hu couldn't help blurting out a curse.

Then he looked at the Kaiju, split in half and utterly dead, before glancing at the light disc soaring higher into the sky. His heart was filled with shock.

What the hell was that!?

How could it be that powerful!?

Was that really a move Shaolin Rogue was supposed to be capable of!?

"Ultra Slash-low-energy mechanical version," Natsuki said with a chuckle over the comms as he made Shaolin Rogue straighten up again.

Although this move wasn't as powerful as the genuine Ultra Slash, it consumed less energy, and slaughtering two Kaiju with it was still effortless.

Elsewhere.

From beneath the pitch-black waters outside Shatterdome Base, a Kaiju bearing obvious signs of modification slowly surfaced.

His jet-black skin resembled a goblin shark's. With two pairs of arms and a pair of thick, powerful legs, he stood a hundred meters tall!

"GRRROAR!" Knifehead let out a roar laced with mechanical noise amid the surging waves. Reaching the shallows, he trampled over the reefs and advanced toward Shatterdome Base, step by step.

"All the Jaegers should have deployed to deal with the Kaiju. In that case... I'll gladly take this base." Thousands of miles away, a man with neatly slicked-back brown hair watched the base on alert through a screen, his gaze cold.

As Knifehead approached the base.

Suddenly.

BWOOO-

A deafening siren echoed through the night sky.

Shatterdome Base's gate slowly opened, revealing a deep-blue Jaeger poised for battle in full. Facing the approaching Kaiju, he slammed his fist into his palm.

"We won't let him down," Raleigh and Mako Mori said in unison.