"How many vehicles?"
"I'm counting at least ten Humvees."
"And the rest are on foot?"
"Yes."
Shana signaled the retreat. "Fall back five hundred meters! Draw them out."
"Understood. What's the plan?" Tarako asked.
"Sinon and I will take out the lead vehicle the moment it exits the narrow gate. If we blow the tires there, we block the exit for the rest. They're practically asking for it by bottlenecking themselves. Once they're stuck, the rest of you charge in and dump every grenade you have into the pile. We can reach them in twenty seconds from here. Let's blow the whole lot of them to hell."
Tarako stared at Shana. "You're a demon."
"No," Shana smirked. "I'm a Tengu. Our home base is Mount Kurama, after all."
Tarako chuckled. "With a win streak like this, I guess you can afford to have a long nose."
Shana and Sinon took their positions. The moment the lead Humvee poked its nose out, two high-caliber rounds found the front tires simultaneously. The vehicle lurched and died, blocking the path.
"All units, charge!"
The remaining nine Genji Humvees roared to life, racing toward the bottleneck. But suddenly, Nyangoro shouted from the driver's seat of the Black.
"Shana! Enemy in the rearview! It's the Heike Army!"
"What? Someone actually had the guts to flank us?"
"Is that... a portable grenade launcher?" Nyangoro asked, his voice tight.
"Tch. Taking a direct hit from that would be bad. Nyangoro, floor it! We'll break off and circle clockwise!"
As they pulled away, Shana laid down suppressive fire with the minigun. Sinon peered through the scope of her Hecate II.
"Wait, Shana... the player in that car. Isn't that XeXeeD?"
"XeXeeD? Figures he'd be the one to try something this bold."
"You actually respect him a little, don't you?" Sinon teased.
"He's still an idiot," Shana grumbled.
Sinon laughed but stayed focused. She tried to line up a shot on the driver, but the vehicle was weaving violently. The driver—Haruka—had been training specifically for this.
"Damn it, I can't get a lock!" XeXeeD cursed from the passenger seat.
"Should I drive straight?" Haruka asked.
"No! If you do, Sinon will take our heads off. Just stay on their tail and wait for an opening!"
Back at May Queen, Feyris and Daru were gripping the edges of their seats.
"Daru-nyan, are they going to be okay-nya?"
"We have to believe in them-o!"
"Wait, Daru-nyan! Look at that!"
A lone jeep appeared on the monitor, racing across the field from the opposite direction.
"Another enemy?" Shana muttered, gripping his gun.
"No... Shana, look at the flag! It's an ally!" Nyangoro shouted.
The player in the jeep gave Shana a thumbs-up as they sped past, slamming into the side of XeXeeD's vehicle and spraying it with gunfire. XeXeeD and Haruka were forced to dive for cover.
"Crap! That was too close!" XeXeeD yelled. "Haruka, break off! We can't take them two-on-one!"
"Understood!"
On the other side, the player in the intercepting jeep—Comike—grumbled. "Tch. Missed 'em."
"It's fine," his teammate Tommy said. "They were weaving too much. What now?"
"We join up with that black Humvee. That's got to be Shana."
"Our first time meeting the big boss!" Kemoner cheered.
The other Genji units finished cleaning up the bottlenecked enemies and began rallying around the Black.
Comike pulled his jeep alongside. "I'm Comike. Good to finally meet you, Boss."
"I'm Shana. Thanks for the assist."
"I'm Tommy."
"Kemoner here!"
"There's only three of us," Comike said, "but we're joining the Genji Army starting today. Hope you'll have us."
Shana nodded. "The more the merrier. You're more than welcome."
Shana then keyed the wide-band radio. "Alright, that's enough for today. Everyone load up! We're heading back to the Yggdrasil Fortress!"
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