Capítulo 27: Solidified Partnership
Two wanted criminals were now on board the speeding Hanns. Turn after turn they try to lose the violent eight-headed snake searching for them, easily leaving large trenches of destroyed asphalt on the ground underneath it.
"So any bright ideas, Lunchbox?" Torchwick was currently firing flares on the creature while holding on to Hanns' cupola while Neo was on the back of the tank casually smiling while Hanns and Torchwick conversed.
"That thing just regenerated its head in a matter of seconds, we need to make my rounds do a bit more damage." Hanns ascertained.
"A bit more damage? Lunchbox, your round just split open one of its heads in a single shot. What more can you do?" Torchwick says while reloading his melodic cudgel.
Torchwick had a point. While Hanns' dust round was intensely powerful, it was not enough to defeat the merged taijitu. If he couldn't kill every head in one shot then the other heads would just revive their fallen body part by cannibalizing themselves.
Hanns went into his memories, he recalled a story where someone killed something similar by cauterizing the heads and burying the last head under a rock.
'It would just eat itself if it's smart enough to know what we were doing.' He looks toward the cityscapes to see a large office building that towered over the surrounding area.
'Although maybe burying it under something would work.'
Hanns had a plan in mind. If one shot couldn't kill the heads fast enough then he just needed a lot of shells that detonated all at once. He was going to simulate ammo racking but he needed the merged taijitu to stay still.
"Torchwick! Neo! I have a plan. Neo you need to distract it using your semblance, we're going to split off and get Torchwick up to speed as to what we're going to do." After hearing the plan, Neo looked towards Torchwick and motioned her head as if to ask if they were going with what Hanns had in his mind.
Torchwick had to think, he didn't really trust the sentient machine at all. Let alone one that almost killed him over dust.
'I cannot believe I'm depending on a hunk of metal to get Cinder off my back. Although, I can use this to my advantage. Technically, she's the one who wanted the dust, not me.'
Torchwick wasn't sure if he could make the tank turn its sights towards Cinder and the one who held command over her. He found it hard to believe that Cinder followed someone that powerful when she didn't even let him meet her "powerful" boss, which led him to ditch her in favor of not getting hunted down by something who had the power he saw firsthand, which was Hanns. The same Hanns who was willing to work together with him.
'Risky as it is, there's always a gamble I am willing to take.' Torchwick spits out his used-up cigar and informs the rest of the group of his decision.
"Alright, Lunchbox. Lead the way."
The merged taijitu tracks its prey down, following its movements as it suddenly turns. The monstrous creature predicts and lunges, aiming straight at the tank. One of the heads clamps down using its mouth riddled with multiple razor-sharp fangs before it feels nothing between its jaws.
Glass shatters as it reveals a smiling Neo jumping over the strike and landing on top of the head that attacked. Another head tries to strike her before swiftly moving her body to the side and using Hush's hidden blade to stick herself onto the neck of the head, lifting her up to the air where she continues to evade them.
Hanns had stopped in front of the office building before elaborating on his plan.
"I need you to take out DI-APCBC rounds in me along with some dust and strap it entirely within one side of the bottom floor."
Hanns would demolish the supports on one side making it tilt and crash into the street right next to where the building is. He would lead the oversized snake towards the building before shooting the rounds that were set up by Torchwick to bring it down on the beast.
"I trust you know where to plant dust, you also need to stay near the upper floors and be ready to jump and throw down the rest of the shells below both you and Neo."
"Pah! Lunchbox, I'm called a mastermind criminal for a reason. Give me 5 minutes and get back here with Neo."
It took a good few minutes to take the dust and DI-APCBC shells out of Hanns but as soon as Torchwick waves him off, Hanns turned towards the merged taijitu in the distance.
Hanns drove towards the battle while leaving Torchwick to let him do what he does best. Arriving at the scene he uses regular APCBC rounds to take shots at the distracted merged taijitu.
He sends a single shell towards the head of one of the merged taijitu. The round caved in its skin before it blew out a part of its face. It hissed in pain before the rest of its head now turned its attention to Hanns.
Neo saw that she couldn't get their attention anymore so she jumped towards Hanns, opening her umbrella and gliding gracefully to the top of Hanns.
"Get in! How long can you hold an illusion of us for?"
She raised up three fingers as a rough estimate of how much energy she still had to keep her semblance on the entire tank.
Hanns drives away while Neo creates an illusion of them heading towards the merged taijitu. The heads all go for the illusion before shattering the illusion on impact. The agitated heads turn towards the real position of Neo and Hanns before one of its heads is blinded by a shell landing right inside one of its eyes.
Hanns takes another shot as it gets closer to the tank before it sways to the right. The shot misses and lands behind the massive grimm without doing any substantial damage to it.
The cycle goes on where Neo used her semblance to trick the merged taijitu to go in another direction while Hanns sent out shot after shot of normal APCBC rounds toward the merged taijitu's heads.
Hanns quickly speeds off towards another street, intending to keep circling around it. The building in front of him suddenly gets destroyed. The merged taijitu shows itself from the opening it created before one of its forward heads lunges for Hanns.
'Shit!'
He quickly angled his tank to make it hit the side. He needed to be careful at taking hits since Neo was inside. The worst thing to happen was for her to get knocked out while she was inside.
The strike impacted the side armor but thankfully it only headbutted the armor instead of biting down. They could still buy time without exhausting Neo so he used another option.
"Neo! Don't use your semblance yet, we need it for emergencies." Hanns launches smoke grenades at the front.
Smoke lands in between the merged taijitu and Hanns, blanketing the area in thick smoke. They quickly drove away while the merged taijitu tried to recover from the sudden blocking of its sight.
Hanns takes another shot at the confused merged taijitu directly hitting one of its heads and killing it as it strikes the brain.
The others now follow where the shot came from while one of its heads ate the dead appendage, swallowing it whole before it grew back a second later.
"Neo! Torchwick should be done with setting up the dust, meet him up to the upper floors and get ready to jump and throw down my rounds."
Neo nods as Hanns follows the street with the enraged grimm hot on his tail. He saw the tall office building before looking behind him by using one of his viewports and determined when he should shoot.
Neo got out quickly from the tank and raced upwards as Hanns awaited the merged taijitu. A short moment later and the oversized snake shows itself from the corner.
Hanns drove towards the building and prepared to fire. He counted down before reaching the desired moment and fired.
'Now!'
The bottom floor explodes as the office building leans towards the speeding taijitu. The glass from the building shatters as it bears down towards the merged taijitu who was now trying to move out of the way.
The building lands directly on its main body, making the heads squirm and desperately trying to slither their way out. Neo and Roman jump out and scatter dozens of DI-APCBC rounds along the eight heads of the merged taijitu before landing and bolting it towards Hanns who was now loading in his DI-APCBC round.
Torchwick and Neo rush past Hanns and cover their ears before Hanns fires off a single round that was now traveling to the panicked head of the merged taijitu. The round creates a massive explosion.
Each shell that was laid across the ground detonated one after the other. Each of the heads cried out in agony before replacing its pained screams with an explosion that ripped its insides.
Torchwick and Neo watch on as the slaughter happens, the gigantic grimm getting reduced to nothing more than ash in the air. As the dust settles and the building fully collapses, there's only one thought in the mind of Torchwick.
'Glad I picked its side.' Torchwick thought.
[Giant Slayer: Defeat Merged Taijitus 1/1]
[Through the Fire: Destroy medium level grimm 22/22]
SL = 1,302,287 → 2,102,287 SL
VEHICLE RP = 349,832 → 599,832 RP
CONVERTIBLE RP = 472, 839 → 662,934RP
'Holy crap! How much was that thing worth?!' Hanns was in awe at how much he got.
Hanns quickly checked the battle results and saw what made him so much SL and RP.
'So it counts the heads as separate enemies while its whole body is considered another? I'm not going to complain, thank you moderator.'
The rewards were a boost, he could probably just spend a few days of farming rather than an entire month or weeks. Hanns still needed to make more SL and RP by clearing the rest of the area.
'Speaking of which…'
Hanns turned his turret around to see both Torchwick and Neo idling away.
"Why are you two here?" He questioned.
The gun barrel pointing directly at him and the fact that Neo pretty much had been exhausted from using her semblance on a whole vehicle continuously over the entire fight made Torchwick a bit nervous.
Hanns definitely would melt them in an instant but he knew what to expect now so he just confidently answered just like how he used to do business in his line of work as a criminal.
"Well, as our cooperation was fruitful in terms of our survival. It wouldn't be fair to turn against your allies right now. I say we extend this partnership further down the line."
"Why should I do that? I have every reason to just outright end your lives right here and now, so tell me what you can offer to our supposed partnership." Torchwick flinched on the inside but kept his charm while walking towards Hanns, twirling his cane around as he got closer.
"Trust me in what I say because I was threatened by someone named Cinder to follow through with her plans. We were kept in the dark until we could finish her demands first." Torchwick used every ounce of charisma he had to make the machine believe him. Torchwick continued.
"So, seeing as you hold something against us stealing dust, why don't you take it up to the one who pulled the strings? I offer you our cooperation and we reveal some of her plans to you?" Torchwick stopped and held his hand towards the barrel. Sweating when the barrel was inches to his face.
"Do we have an accord?"
Hanns already knew Torchwick was being threatened but what caught his ears was the fact that Torchwick was willing to work with him just to take care of his Cinder problem. Hanns doesn't really care if they ally with him seriously or not but if it keeps them out of Cinder's machinations then Hanns is all for it.
'So he still fears Cinder but not as much as me. I'll make sure he knows that.'
Considering that Hanns flattened even more buildings, maybe Torchwick was right, assuming that Cinder was probably a better opponent to fight than Hanns' war machine.
"Alright but first, do you mind me going around here killing the grimm?" Torchwick relaxed before nodding at the tank. He wasn't going to complain when this thing was going to be exterminating grimm nearby.
It's not like Torchwick would be able to get out any time sooner since the bullhead they brought was up in flames now. The stuff they brought with them; like a large amount of funds, dust and a ton of ice cream, was probably fine since they hid everything important in various other empty buildings.
Torchwick flicked on his lighter and brought up a cigar to his mouth before replying to the tank.
"Consider this place as our shared abode, Lunchbox."
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