Gatao rushed straight at Valkus, his mecha’s boosters flaring to push him faster.

Valkus cracked his arm bones back into place before he threw himself back into the fold, the faint strand of bronze light flickering around his body.

““Die!”” The two shouted at once as Gatao aimed a slash at Valkus, aiming to slice him in half, while Valkus pushed his speed past his limits, causing another streak of bronze to appear with his silver aura.

With Valkus’ sudden burst of speed, Gatao missed his swing and allowed the giant dwarf to close in. Valkus rolled his muscles, causing the two bronze lights around him to twist and swirl along his arm.

Feeling the danger to his life, Gatao acted on instinct and smacked Valkus away from him. Valkus took the full force of the hit and flipped through the air before he smashed into the bone floor, only coming to a halt when he cratered into another building.

Damage to Gornet's left armor and hand. Beginning healing procedures. A mechanical voice rang in Gatao’s ear.

The insect did that much damage with a mere graze?!

Gatao quickly skimmed through the damage reports and saw that a few fistfuls of his mecha’s side had been blown off from the glancing hit that missed his cockpit by a few inches. His lower left hand that previously smashed Valkus away had twisted and warped from coming into contact with the giant dwarf, and the system worked overtime to fix the damage.

That insec— no, that little monster managed to deal this much damage to a mecha…? What the fuck is he?

Despite sweating inwardly, Gatao tried to keep his cool.

“Haha! Is that all you have, vermin?! I expected more from you rats, with how much you bastards spread the blood of my brethren.”

If I had all of my hunters with me instead of these loaners, we’d have already wiped the floor with this mecha. Valkus thought as he dug himself out of a bone pile.

He trembled in agitation and spat a glob of blood on the ground. All around him fox-kin and rat-kin worked along his remaining hunters and the loaners from the 1st Magic Corps were duking it out with the skeletons.

Ice mages Acar and Rytar were working overtime to pick up the slack from Earth Mage Brick, who had been moved to the frontlines. With Emu out of commission, Blood mage Cero having been reassigned, and Reaver playing communication, Valkus really wanted to punch Ubel in the face.

He had to work with a mostly new hunting team to kill off a mecha, and the pilot was even taunting him after he kept scoring dirty hits off of him.

Truly, out of all the teams, it seemed that his was the most unlucky one.

After all of this is over I’m retraining my hunters and setting some rules about them being taken from my command. Even if it’s for a good reason.

“You know, I expected you to be spattered from those attacks. What the fuck are you made out of?” Gatao taunted as he stomped across the battlefield, twirling his massive spear for some flair.

Valkus rolled his shoulders in response, cracking his bones as his muscles twisted and reattached to one another. Smoke rose off his wounds as they healed at a rate visible to the untrained eye. His silver aura flickered with more sparks of metallic bronze that now resembled spearheads, and every last one pointed right at Gatao.

The two stared at each other for a moment as the damage on their bodies healed.

“Born different.” Valkus snorted, filled with coldness as the smoke from his wounds covered his face, causing him to appear like a demon with glowing bronze eyes.

“Oh? No matter. You’ll die all the same, you fleshy freak!” Gatao stopped twirling his spear and dashed at Valkus, intent on crushing him with a single swing.

“From vermin… to freak… Honored.”

Valkus rushed head-on, cracking and exploding the bone floor below his feet as he moved, his spear in hand.

“Rushing at me again? Fine, I've measured your speed. This time you will be cut in half, you freak!” Chuckling darkly, Gatao brought his spear back for a full-on swing.

Valkus took on the challenge and kept to his course with smoke still running off of his body, his eyes alight as he ran forth full of fury.

When Valkus came into range Gatao swang with his full might, but even though he had been warned of the swing Valkus made no move to dodge. Instead, he merely held out his left hand, holding it towards where the spear was coming from.

“You really are retarded! I’ll cut through your arm and then the rest of you. Die!”

As the spear closed the distance, time seemed to slow down for Valkus as a memory flashed through his mind.

A house burning down, his mother drenched in her own blood and clutching her stomach. All around him were corpses of men wearing metal and villagers holding pitchforks. He himself was covered in the blood of those around him, but rushed to his mother while wrapped in an aura of bronze that rolled like a sea of spears.

He held his mother's hand as she smiled at him, “You really are like your father, my son. Go live your life how you wish Valkus. I will always be with you…”

Valkus’ eyes went wide, full of fury and hatred. His silver aura which previously had only flickered with bronze, rapidly transformed. A sea of bronze overtook his aura as little spears rolled along his body, twisting around him like serpents.

So what if your aura changes? I’ll still cut you down! I’ve accounted for your speed bursts, I won’t miss this time! Di—

Suddenly, mid swing, a feeling of overwhelming death washed over Gatao like a tidal wave. Sweat drenched his body as he felt a choking sensation, his nerves standing on end.

I NEED TO GET AWAY ! OH GOD, WHAT IS THIS?! GET AWAY FROM ME!

Gatao grew so hysterical that he stopped focusing on his spear swing and tried to get as far away as he could from Valkus, but the dwarf was ready for that. He dug his feet into the ground for another burst of speed and closed the distance as Gatao tried to turn his thrusters to the left to dodge to the right.

Eyes wide, Gatao watched as the monster reached out and grabbed his spear, at the same time sending its spear aura into the ground around it. Gatao felt so much fear that he had pulled his thrusters with his full force in an attempt to get away. Despite pushing the mecha to its limits however, he was unable to escape Valkus’s hold.

“GET AWAY GET AWAY GET AWAY, YOU MONSTER! SOMETHING LIKE YOU SHOULD’VE NEVER BEEN BORN!”

“Too bad I was.” Valkus' voice resounded as he raised his spear to the sky.

Before Gatao could even think of releasing his captured weapon, the dwarf threw his own aura cloaked spear forth.

The spear moved faster than Gatao could let go of his weapon. The spear covered in miniature bronze spears hit the mecha’s arm socket, not only severing the mecha’s arm but also exploding, eating a good chunk out of the mecha’s chest armor before Gatao finally sped away only to smash into a nearby building.

What magic would have created such a monster? Gatao thought in horror.

“Thank you.” The monster spoke loudly as it walked towards the mecha frantically digging itself out of the rubble.

“Thanks to you smacking me around, I remembered a few things.”

Unlike his usual broken speech, at this moment the large dwarf’s speech sounded clear and concise, “Now. I’m going to enjoy my time breaking you for making me remember the bad ones.”

Having dug himself out of the collapsed building at last, Gatao stared at the monster before him and couldn’t find the words for his utter fear.

Valkus was now covered in wiggling bronze spears that came together to form an armor with the appearance of muscles. The bronze spears even slowly began covering the large spear that Gatao’s Master had personally created from him.

Crunch Crunch Crunch.

The spear was being eaten by the bronze energy, turning smaller and smaller until the bronze snakes eventually receded, leaving behind a dark bronze spear with intricate engravings.

“Let me hear you scream.”

A small step towards Gatao broke the floor behind Valkus, sending massive chunks of bone and earth flying off behind him. Two such steps had launched the dwarf right on top of the mecha. With his new spear in hand the dwarf tore through the left side of the machine, his snake-like armor ripping and tearing through the bones like paper, eating the pieces and adding them to the spear.

Gatao tried to launch his escape pod only to find that his mecha had been powered down at some point in time.

What happ— N-No, no way. That’s impossible.

The snake-like spears had pulled out the mecha’s power core and began to feast, consuming all the power inside and adding it to Valkus’ spear.

“Thanks for the appetizer,” Valkus said as he licked his lips. “Now, for the main course.”

“No. NO! I CAN'T DIE LIKE THIS! WE MUST HAVE OUR REVENGE, YOU CAN’T KILL ME YOU DEMON!”

Switching to emergency power. The mecha’s voice resounded in Gatao’s ears.

Oh thank god, I can escape this demon.

He immediately clicked on his console to reveal a red button, which Gatao smashed in a flurry. In a flash, his cockpit disconnected from his mecha and launched out.

“Hm? You're not escaping that easily.”

Valkus moved faster than the pod shooting through the sky however, and grabbed out of the air before throwing it down to the ground. The cockpit exploded upon contact as pieces of it dug into the twitching, broken form of Gatao.

“This is the end. Devour.”

Valkus twisted his body a full three hundred and sixty degrees before sending his spear down from the heavens. A swarm of bronze spears eagerly followed after it to consume the trembling Gatao.

The spear impaled his chest, making him cough up black blood, before he started screaming as the snakes devoured every last piece of him and added his power to the spear.

It was a long and brutal process, yet the sound was sweet music to Valkus’ ears. Gatao’s screams didn’t stop until his head was overwhelmed by the bronze snakes. The large dwarf watched with a smile on his face as the snakes slithered back to him returning to their armor form before fading back into his body.

It was a good hunt.

Valkus turned his gaze to his men only to see that the skeletons had fallen to pieces after Gatao had died. He didn’t have much time to think of what to do next when a wolf came over and drew an X on the ground, signifying the battle here was finished.

To the main battlefield then.