Smoke and fire swallowed the base, alarms shrieking like dying birds.
Ryuuto flicked rubble off his shoulder, already bored. "Hold on tighter? Counterattack? Man, you sound like a broken arcade machine."
A volley of bullets ricocheted off his chakra field, zipped past him, and slammed straight into the Garbage Worm's armored hide.
"Are you kidding me!?" the mutant howled as he skidded across the floor, armor smoking like he'd face-planted into a coal furnace. Even his teeth puffed out black fumes.
Ryuuto snorted. "You… you're actually kind of funny."
He gave the mutant a slow, mocking once-over. "Shame you're dying today. Even the gods of this world couldn't bail you out now."
The battlefield was a mechanical graveyard. Most of the guard robots had blown themselves up with their own stray shots, their voice modules glitching on repeat:
"Foll… follow instructions… continue firing…"
A ruined bot twitched beside Garbage Worm. The mutant stamped down with a hiss, crushing its skull in frustration.
The moment his gaze met Ryuuto's playful smirk, humiliation twisted his face.
"That's it! I'm taking your blood today! I'm not called Garbage Worm for nothing!"
"That's the problem," Ryuuto said. "Your name fits you a little too well."
With a lazy gesture, he swept a wave of chakra-forged sand through the remaining robots, shredding their chassis. Then he blurred forward.
Garbage Worm roared, muscles bulging beneath his armored skin. His eyes sealed under hardened carapace, immune to sand at last.
They collided with a shockwave that cracked the floor.
Garbage Worm's brute strength surged, pushing Ryuuto back inch by inch. "Ha! I got you now!"
"Oh, relax. I've seen grandmas in rural Japan plowing rice fields with more force than this."
"Keep running your mouth! I know you can't hold this for long!"
Garbage Worm's grin twisted wide as he poured every ounce of strength into the clash, claws grinding against Ryuuto's palms.
"Die! You don't get to breathe again!"
"You seriously don't think things through, do you?" Ryuuto sighed.
He let chakra explode through his limbs, channeling Tsunade-style monstrous strength. His grip tightened with a bone-snapping crack.
Garbage Worm screamed.
Too late.
Ryuuto seized him by the arm, swung him overhead, and spun so fast the air whistled.
"Go, Pikachu."
He slammed the mutant into the ground hard enough to level the base. Dust clouds erupted like a volcanic blast, steel beams snapping like matchsticks.
When the smoke cleared, Garbage Worm lay half-dead in a crater, green fluid leaking from his mouth, bone armor fractured like sun-baked clay.
"You… you really pissed me off…"
Even on death's door, hatred boiled in his voice.
Then something changed. His eyes gleamed with a hideous glint.
"You think I hid underground for years just to let it end here? Hah! Now die with no grave left for your ashes!"
He yanked out a custom-built controller—ugly, jagged, definitely illegal.
The moment he smashed the button, a deep buzz shook the ruins.
From the debris, a massive shadow rose.
A giant alloy war-machine—an oversized, heavily armored kill-bot—stood tall, bristling with weapons meant to end nations. The air thickened under its presence, the atmosphere dropping into suffocating silence.
Ryuuto tilted his head. "Wow. You built an ugly big one. Props for effort, I guess."
Garbage Worm cackled, spittle flying.
"You ignorant brat! Not even the military's old fossils have seen this masterpiece! I poured my entire life into this weapon!"
Ryuuto's expression stayed painfully unimpressed.
"Go on, then. Show me your grand finale."
"Gladly! Today, my perfect weapon ends your pathetic little life!"
The kill-bot swung its massive axe downward.
Ryuuto kicked off the ground, flipping away as the impact split the earth like a meteor strike.
"Hahaha! Run! Run for me!" Garbage Worm hopped onto the machine's head, shrieking triumphantly. "I'll chase you to the ends of the world and grind you into the dirt!"
Ryuuto exhaled sharply.
Typical. Another overgrown tin can and a loud idiot riding it.
Shion's voice yawned inside his mind.
[Host… can you hurry up? I'm getting secondhand embarrassment from this clown.]
"Yeah, yeah. I'll clean this up," Ryuuto muttered, eyes sharpening.
Time to erase this whole circus.