The firepower at the Red Ribbon Army's headquarters was on a whole different level compared to their branch outposts.
For a solid half-minute, hundreds of soldiers and rows of tanks unleashed a relentless barrage. The deafening roar of cannon fire echoed through the dense forest, loud enough to be heard miles away.
When the dust finally settled, the landscape was unrecognizable.
Under the onslaught, the nearly one-meter-thick ice wall Esdeath had hastily thrown up was battered and crumbling. Shells mixed with shards of ice rained down, cratering the ground in various sizes. Thick clouds of dust billowed up, obscuring everyone's view.
"…Did we get them?" a soldier muttered.
"No clue, but they've gotta be badly hurt, right? No way even a top-tier martial artist could survive that kind of bombardment…" another started, only to trail off.
As the dust began to clear, visibility returned to the area in front of the fortress.
Under the watchful eyes of the Red Ribbon soldiers and officers, a towering iceberg—dozens of meters high—had formed, completely encasing Hikari and Esdeath.
"Cough, cough…" Hikari covered her mouth, choking a bit on the lingering dust.
Esdeath, standing inside the iceberg, narrowed her eyes, scanning the enemy with a hint of surprise. "These guns and cannons… they can actually do this much damage?"
The world of Akame ga Kill wasn't purely medieval; it had firearms too—like Mine's Pumpkin or Minister Honest's personal handgun. But those were special weapons, crafted from rare Danger Beast materials, limited in number, and tricky to use without skill.
So, seeing these mass-produced, highly destructive weapons that even weaklings with a power level of 5 could operate left Esdeath genuinely impressed by modern tech's raw power.
"What do you think? Pretty wild, huh?" Hikari said, glancing at her.
"Not bad…" Esdeath nodded slightly. "But if this is all they've got, there's nothing to worry about. Secret Technique: Ice Storm Commander!"
With those words, Esdeath clapped her hands together. The Demon's Extract emblem on her chest flickered faintly, and cracks began to spread from within the iceberg, racing outward.
At the same time, the ice knights that had been converging from all directions appeared in the Red Ribbon Army's line of sight. Before the soldiers could turn their guns, the knights shattered, dissolving into blue-white frost that dispersed into the air. Then…
Boom!
A blinding blizzard erupted, sweeping toward the Red Ribbon headquarters like a tidal wave.
This was Hikari's first time seeing Esdeath's Ice Storm Commander in action.
In the Akame ga Kill manga, Esdeath used this technique against the Revolutionary Army, charging it for three days to unleash a blizzard that engulfed half the Empire.
Here, without that prep time, the move wasn't as apocalyptic, but for the Red Ribbon grunts, it was still a devastating blow.
The closest soldiers were quickly coated in frost, the ice spreading visibly and freezing them solid—guns and all—into glittering ice sculptures. Tanks, howitzers, and machine gun barrels seized up in the extreme cold, misfiring and exploding when forced to shoot.
The blizzard didn't stop there. It blasted through the fortress gates, flooding the base and transforming it into a frozen, snow-covered wasteland in the blink of an eye.
"What the hell is this?!" a soldier shouted.
"Quick, report to the Commander! We need reinforcements!" another yelled.
A few survivors who weren't frozen bolted toward the fortress—though some ran the opposite way, into the forest, clearly sensing the Red Ribbon's doom and deciding to ditch.
From the fortress, armed helicopters and a handful of skilled fighters emerged, ready to take on the intruders.
As the architect of this chaos, Esdeath cracked her neck casually.
Without any visible effort, the blizzard intensified, howling even fiercer than before. The temperature plummeted from a balmy 30°C to below -50°C in moments.
Even Hikari, standing nearby, shivered and pulled her collar tighter, wrapping herself in a layer of ki to ward off the cold.
"Hmph," Esdeath smirked. "Let's see how many of these guys can handle this."
She'd developed Ice Storm Commander to weed out the weak and find worthy opponents to satisfy her thirst for battle.
In other words, it was perfect for clearing out cannon fodder. Anyone who could adapt to this subzero blizzard and still have the guts to fight was no pushover.
And sure enough, most of the regular soldiers were either frozen solid or collapsed from the cold. Only a few held on, barely. The ones who'd just rushed out from the fortress, spared from the initial wave, were still in decent shape.
Among them, Hikari spotted a familiar figure—General Blue.
The guy who'd gone all out hunting Dragon Balls, single-handedly putting Goku, Bulma, Krillin, and even Roshi in danger, only to be offed by Tao Pai Pai to show off the latter's strength. In a way, he was one of the Red Ribbon Army's heavy hitters.
The moment he appeared, he unleashed his signature telekinetic binding ability.
Their eyes met, and with a flash in his gaze, Hikari felt an invisible force lock her in place, rendering her immobile.
"Interesting," she thought.
"But…"
Just interesting.
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