"Nanaba!" Gelgar blanched at the sight and pressed the trigger all the way down, but his Vertical Maneuvering Equipment released only a thin puff of vapor.
"It's over!"
"Nanaba! Aaah!" Mike roared, his eyes blazing with anguish.
Nanaba had fought beside him for more than a decade. Mike pushed his remaining gas output to the limit, trailing a long plume as he sliced through the napes of the Titans along his path and lunged toward Nanaba.
Crack! Unable to endure the strain of the relentless fighting any longer, both of Mike's blades snapped. At the same time, the gas at his waist ran out completely, and he dropped straight from the sky.
"Damn it!" Mike drew his sole remaining blade, performed a backflip in midair, and landed steadily. He looked up at the dozen or so ten-meter Titans surrounding him, their faces twisted into bizarre expressions.
"Humanity hasn't lost yet! Aaah!" Mike roared, gripping his blade with both hands as he charged toward the Titans before him, ready to fight to the death.
"Mike... Nanaba... I'll join you today! Aaah!" Tears spilled from Gelgar's eyes onto the battlefield as he roared and hurled himself at the remaining Titans.
"Thunderclap!" A sacred voice, carrying the boundless might of the heavens, rang out from deep within the woods.
A blinding, towering pillar of lightning suddenly appeared before their eyes and slammed straight into the heart of the Titan tide. Dozens of Titans at its center were instantly reduced to dust, while those around the edges exploded into chunks.
"Thunder, fifty strikes!"
Chen Si became dozens of lightning afterimages, moving so fast that he seemed to have split into copies. Every Titan surrounding Mike, Nanaba, Gelgar, and the others died instantly, and dense, billowing Titan steam swallowed everyone's vision.
"Father..." Through tear-filled eyes,