People say from time to time that they feel like birds trapped in a cage. If those two feelings are truly the same, then Tanuki must’ve felt like a whole chimpanzee trapped inside a bird-sized cage.

Drones surrounded him from all sides, punching him like he was a fleshy pinata.

Some tried to tear the rope apart or untie it from his leg but to no avail. It was too thick for their small mechanic arms.

That didn’t mean their attacks couldn’t be lethal. If they were to break through Tanuki’s defense, they could rupture his skull or at least make him bleed out.

But Tanuki resisted. He covered his head and prayed for Maduka’s success.

“Useless, simply useless.”

He heard a voice, though it was coming from inside of him. No, it was him.

“No wonder you can’t defend anyone, you’re too weak to defend yourself!”

The voice was right. Once again, Tanuki was powerless to defend the ones he cared for. Even worse, Maduka was risking her life to defend him. Not only was he useless, but now a burden too.

These inner thoughts would’ve been enough for him to give up hope and spiral further down the path of hating himself. However, he has changed since arriving in this world. This Tanuki wasn’t the same who would’ve backed down in the face of evil.

Suddenly, he bashed his fist into one of the drones.

“Take this!”

The drone remained mostly unscratched while Tanuki’s fist was pulsating with pain. Still, that sensation was nothing compared to the fire in his heart.

Another drone tried to attack him, but he welcomed it with a fist in its face. Then came a third, who tried to grab Tanuki’s hair. It was met with a powerful headbutt.

“Know your place!”

The drones attacked one after another. Some of their attacks landed, but Tanuki retaliated each with his own.

His tears weren’t that of sadness anymore, but of a raging heart determined to live.

Meanwhile, Maduka climbed the ladder with full force. Seeing how ferociously her friend fought, a wind of inspiration overcame her limbs. She climbed even faster than before, racing with the metallic snake inside the crane.

“In the name of the Creators, die!”

Suddenly, Exhibition broke through the wall. She attacked from above with her fangs.

Maduka dropped down a few steps and grabbed the ladder, evading the attack.

Exhibition stood above Maduka, cautiously waiting.

“You have two choices. Either you fight me and lose with grace or run away before my drones deal with your friend. The choice is yours!”

Maduka growled with anger. The snake was too large to get through and fighting it would surely result in her death.

“Ya dumb worm! Let Maduka go or she’s gonna’ tear you up!”

“I’d love to see that! I might even get myself a massage while you’re at it. Care to explain how you wish to finish me off? With your extremely poor magic capabilities or your fragile spear? Oh, the choice is yours!”

Despite acting though, even she knew that her arsenal couldn’t defeat the snake. Yet, when she looked over at Tanuki and saw how savagely he fought the waves of opponents, she noticed something.

The boy’s knuckles were bleeding from open wounds but even then he didn’t stop fighting back. Those gaping wounds weren’t slowing him down, in fact, they were only empowering his attacks!

“Nuki…”

Maduka knew what she had to do. She took the Heifers’ Mask from her side and put it on her face.

Exhibition observed her attempt with cynicism.

“Oh? Do you plan to go the magic route? Let me tell you this, Intruder Maduka, you possess neither the required mana nor the right item to use that mask! My calculators are incredibly precise and even after running twenty different calculations, I still don’t see a world where that mask would hurt me more than it would hurt you!

“Shut up, worm…”

Maduka stationed her legs behind the ladder and bent back. Her back formed a straight line as if she was standing on the wall despite the gravitational force.

The mask shone with crimson light. Maduka pointed at the metallic snake.

“Horn Mask, do your thing!”

As she said that, a small red horn shot out of the mask. Exhibition took the attack without a word, suffering just one point of damage.

[ Exhibition ]

[ HP: 20/25 ]

“Pathetic! Utterly, unquestionably pathetic! Your attack had a little effect on me, but look at you! Your mask is oozing with built-up energy! Your use of magic is so unrefined that the surplus mana is about to blow up your mask! What will you do now? Even if you were to throw it away, it’s already too late! You’ll get caught in the blast!”

Maduka remained silent.

She closed her eyes and let go of the ladder.

Exhibition utterly was shocked.

“What?!”

Maduka turned towards the depths and let out a sigh.

“Maduka is pretty cool, huh?”

The mask blew up with an incredible force!

The entire mountain trembled as red light erupted amidst the mine. Even Tanuki was shocked by the incredible explosion.

The Heifers’ Mask was destroyed. However, Maduka survived.

Her body got launched by the explosion, high above Exhibition. Her cape was burning by its tail, but Maduka cared little about it. As soon as the ladder was in her reach, she took it and continued climbing it with speed.

Tanuki was incredibly proud of Maduka. She wanted to become a true warrior and this act of bravery cemented her in Tanuki’s heart as one with true potential.

However, this act of celebration was cut short when Tanuki realized the drones were all looking at Maduka. Since Exhibition must’ve been too shocked to react, the drones have also withdrawn to help her recollect herself.

This was his chance to escape.

He reached under his hoodie and took the Lazuli Tear. This was one of the many goods he got from Samarah, the sati. He wore it as a necklace, always close to his skin for some extra mana.

“This explosion from the surplus mana gave me an idea…”

If too much mana has the power to manifest itself physically, like in an explosion, is it possible to use it without the help of a magical item?

There was only one way to find out.

Tanuki searched for the drone that took Kurohyou. When he found it, he put his hand close to the drone and focused all his might.

“I wore this thing for days, I must’ve built up at least a bit of surplus mana…”

To his surprise, he could actually feel something move through his arm. It was the unused, useless mana.

When it reached his fingertips, Tanuki grabbed the drone and shook it, as if he was trying to get something off of his hand.

At that moment, sparks of purple energy shot through the robot’s back, and the light escaped from its eyes. The shock of mana overclocked the robot and caused its processors to burn out.

“Yes!”

Tanuki took Kurohyou from the robot’s hand and cast its corpse down the depths.

Exhibition felt one of her bots go offline. When she looked over and saw Tanuki regain Kurohyou, her panic meters went to the maximum.

“Drones! Attack!”

The machines returned to Tanuki and attacked him with the same force as before, only this time they were met by attacks ten times their size. Kurohyou cut them easily like butter. In the span of a few seconds, six bots were already dead, falling into the abyss as an unrecognizable mess.

Exhibition was shocked by the power of Kurohyou. She has never seen a magical item so uniquely destructive before.

Another uncalculated mistake. If things were to continue down this path, she would lose to the intruders and be forced to flee. That cannot be allowed, not if she wishes to regain the Creators’ love.

She returned to the crane and climbed after Maduka as swiftly as she could.

Finally, she realized the true enemy in this fight.

“Drones, withdraw! New target acquired, Intruder Maduka! Kill her! Use any means necessary to stop the intruder!”

Tanuki recoiled upon hearing her words. He tried to cut the droids before they could fly away, but he was too slow. They flew out of the way and straight after Maduka.

The tides of battle have turned. As weird as it seemed, he was more safe hanging above the killer depths than Maduka, being chased by a 6-meters-long metallic snake and its drones.

There was just one thing he could do. He had to climb to the top and help his friend or else she’ll be killed by the robots.

Tanuki searched for the nearest lift with a rope attached. There was one not too far away, though it bore a minecart packed with rocks, which would most likely slow him down.

Still, Tanuki had no better choice. He swung himself like a little monkey, kicking and making swimming gestures so the rope would move. Once he gained some good momentum, it was easy to swing himself to the other platform.

“Gotcha!”

He grabbed the rope and pulled on it. The cart wasn’t as heavy as he thought, thanks to the many hoists. He could climb to the top with almost the same speed as the enemies pursuing Maduka.

Thus, he stepped onto the wooden lift and pulled himself after them.

Unbeknownst to Maduka, Tanuki had something in his pocket that could decide the battle. It all depended on him reaching her in time and the true colors of Maduka’s soul…