"I can still fight." Inghild stood up and yanked out the knife jammed into his arm.

"Not yet. Get Hope somewhere safe first. Him being here will just add to that Officer's advantage. Now, go!"

Beatrice took aim at Milloula and fired her revolver. Bang! Bang! Even with the girl's much-needed acuity, Beatrice couldn't get a single hit on the enemy and bit her lip in frustration. She flicked her wrist once to reveal her revolver's empty cartridge, and loaded the bullets before continuing to shoot.

Milloula rolled into a large empty room filled with tall shelves of cardboard boxes, then casually leaped into the air as Beatrice fired. Her movements were so smooth one could mistake her as a gymnast. She landed softly on the flat surface of a near-ceiling metal shelf and grinned.

"Well, as much as I want to play some more, Lenora and Rilya need me, I'm sure." Milloula tilted her head enough to dodge two bullets piercing through the air and lifted both forearms wrapped in titanium bracers. She muttered under her breath, activating her first Iliad.

"...!" Beatrice's eyes opened wide, sweat trickling down her forehead as Milloula tore a part of the metal shelf's supporting pillar with one hand.

"Oh, don't look so shocked. This is just a basic, secondary Iliad. It's not even in the unique category like the main personal ones we have," scoffed Milloula.

The Officer tightened her grip on the metal fragment and threw it at Beatrice. Flittingly, Beatrice dashed to take cover behind another cardboard boxes-filled metal shelf and fired at three separate points on Millouala's body. However, with a mere backward lean, Milloula dropped from the shelf, flipped, and landed on the ground.

This time, Milloula charged at Beatrice with bloodshot eyes, her bracers Iliad shimmered once it connected to the entrance's wall. Beatrice ducked away from the palm thrust and ran outside, a resounding crunch sent chills down her spine.

"Hmm." Strips of metal dangled from Milloula's hand as she fidgeted it. "I don't like playing cat and mouse, really."

A bullet grazed her right titanium bracer and she squinted. "But your existence miffed me, quite a lot. And you're better than those guys anyway."

"Ggraaah!" Beatrice couldn't block a sudden thrust from Milloula and her body flew into an empty, hexagonal room. She shook her head, patted her abdomen a few times and ran a finger vertically until it reached her ribs. "Two ribs are broken..."

She couldn't afford any more mistakes after this. But how could she escape or buy enough time for reinforcements to arrive? Beatrice was well aware her only weapons against an Officer of her caliber were her revolver—and her limbs. Lose either one, and her chances would be almost non-existent.

"...What should I do?" whispered Beatrice, her eyes keeping track of Milloula's steady amble.

"Um, Beatrice... To be honest, I'm kinda jealous. I can never beat you, can I?"

A young boy about thirteen-year-old appeared in Beatrice's mind. His dark hair was cropped short and kept tidy, his hand scratching his head. Right then, Beatrice's conscious mind was pulled into a forest quite similar to the one the Le Morte's base was situated at.

"You're strong, Beatrice. Perhaps the strongest girl I know. With how you fight, you'll mow down those who try to do harm to you! So..."

Why this memory again? Beatrice shook her head and promptly returned to reality. A tinge of regret swirled in her chest when she rejected the precious memory, but it had to be done.

Fortunately, an idea on how to fight Milloula entered her mind after that, and she thanked the boy with a smile.

"...I see. Even now, you're still here with me," said Beatrice.

"Hm?"

Beatrice placed her palms on the cold floor, bent her legs, and surged toward Milloula. The Officer had stretched her hand to grab at Beatrice's arm, but it didn't reach.

Instead, her dangling hand went past Beatrice's head and Beatrice wrapped one arm over her shoulder. In the next second, Beatrice stepped into her blindspot and pushed her down the floor with her free hand.

In a sense, Milloula was stunned, veritably impressed by Beatrice. The girl's execution of jujutsu's signature grapple-and-lock was impeccable, every step flowed like water that Milloula didn't realize it until the very end.

"Beatrice!"

Five members of the First Squad arrived at the scene—their feet inched into the small, hexagonal room. Archaic paintings environed the people inside and vertical lines of oak and walnut woods covered every bit of space left on the walls.

One of the five who came to Beatrice's aid—a woman with ash-blonde hair and fully-buttoned moss green military uniform narrowed her assault rifle's aim at Milloula.

"Beatrice, step back and we'll finish her off," said the woman.

"No. She's too dangerous. I mustn't let go of her," retorted Beatrice as she tightened her hold on Milloula's arm. "Just get a knife to her head, that'll do the trick."

"Yeah." The woman with ash blonde hair crouched next to the pinned down Officer and held out a knife.

"...Second Iliad," mumbled Milloula.

Suddenly, the Officer's teal-colored belt shone bright and each assault rifle the reinforcements carried let out a heart-sinking 'clunk'.

Hundreds of diminutive, magnetized A.I robots shot into the air and flew into the assault rifles' muzzle, jamming them. With the immediate danger out of the way, Milloula could finally let loose on the First Squad, by first breaking through Beatrice's grasp using her first Iliad's strength-increasing trait.

Full output out of the gate, Milloula threw Beatrice to the wall and swung her fist onto the ash-blonde girl. The rest stood little to no chance with no firearms to use, as Milloula quickly floored them in less than ten seconds.

She slid a woman's feet off the floor and slammed her arm onto her prey's throat. Using the military knife Milloula stole from her, she slashed at a man's torso twice in quick succession—too fast for his eyes to follow—and then stabbed through his heart.

A dark-haired woman thrust her knife in Milloula's direction from behind, and she jumped into the air in response, landing on the woman before taking the knife away. Stab and pull, Milloula pushed her blade into the woman's throat and blood spluttered upon yanking it out.

Immediately, she flitted to the last standing man in the room, and with her strength-enhancing Iliad—based on the injection of greatly concentrated high-density growth hormones to increase muscle strength—cut off the man's head after four swings using her military knife. The gore she incurred in a mere ten seconds bathed her in her victim's blood.

"...I used too much of the first Iliad," said Milloula, caressing her right wrist while clenching her fist every few seconds.

Inghild and four other newly-arrived members of the First Squad held their rifles at eye level, ready to take down Milloula Friegeaux. While anyone else would surrender when being pointed at with guns from every direction, Milloula cast not more than a sidelong glance at the new 'threat.'

"I assume the cute boy is being treated? Good. It's a waste for him to die too soon anyway."

Without wasting any more time, the second wave of reinforcements fired at Milloula, sending a fusillade of bullets in her direction.

"Third Iliad."

The half-inch-thick titanium chains wrapped around Milloula's abdomen split in the middle and violently swung in a whirlwind. The embedded electronic sensors in the chains responded at a moment's notice to each bullet, adjusting the direction and velocity of its swings accordingly, and deflected the bullets back. Its execution could be better, but Milloula came out almost unscathed with only a few grazes here and there, so it did the job.

"Inghild! Stop shooting!!" screamed Beatrice. The trepidation seeped into her heart turned out to be true, as the ricocheting bullets pierced through her comrades without fail.

"Ukhh!"

"Graakgh!"

One by one, the reinforcements were wiped out as quickly as they came. After a minute passed, only Inghild was left, his legs and abdomen had blood pouring out from the few bullet holes.

"This is why I hate stupid men. Their irrational decision, act without planning too much ahead." Milloula approached Inghild as her chains clicked back into place. "But don't fear. That's why I'm here, isn't it? To kill all of you."

Milloula activated her second Iliad and numerous small-sized cuboid robots went inside the remaining functional assault rifles, rendering them unusable. She then picked a knife from one of Inghild's fallen comrades and licked it.

"Let's close this show, shall we?"