Chapter 207 : Duet in a Steel Hell

"Looks like this party isn't over yet, Dragon Boy."

Leone's whisper, filled with the wild anticipation of battle, was barely audible over the increasingly loud whirring of the spinning gatling cannons on the PLF Lieutenant's arms. The air in the maintenance hub, which had been merely hot and humid, now seemed to vibrate, filled with the promise of imminent mechanical violence. The man, who called himself Gatling, grinned, a horrifying sight on his scarred face. He and his squad of a dozen men had blockaded the only exit, turning the corridor before them into a perfect kill zone.

There was no warning. No war cry. Just a deafening explosion of sound.

The world seemed to explode in a torrent of fire and metal. Gatling opened fire, not with the pull of a trigger, but with the will of his mind. Both his cannons spewed hundreds of high-caliber rounds in a matter of seconds. This wasn't ordinary gunfire; it was a wall of hot lead designed to shred steel. The bullets slammed into the floor and walls around Tatsumi and Leone, creating a shower of sparks and concrete shrapnel.

Tatsumi's reaction was pure instinct forged by endless training. He didn't try to parry or dodge. The attack was too massive, too widespread. Instead, he did the only thing possible: he became a shield. With a roar, he leaped in front of Leone, extending his sturdy dragon wings not to fly, but as a makeshift barricade. Simultaneously, he manifested the thickest layer of Incursio's armor on his back and wings.

TRATATATATATATANG!

The sound of the bullets impacting his armor was like a hailstorm hitting a metal roof. Each impact sent a painful shockwave through his entire body, forcing him back step by step. His visor displayed dozens of minor damage warnings. His armor was strong, but no armor could withstand an assault like this forever.

"Dammit! We can't get close to him!" Leone roared from behind Tatsumi's living shield, her frustration evident. She was a close-quarters fighter; in this situation, she was like a lion locked in a small cage.

At the Command Post

"He's funneling them into a kill zone!" Hawks exclaimed, his eyes glued to the now violently shaking video feed from a security camera he had managed to hack. "Standard anti-personnel strategy in a confined space. He'll suppress them with non-stop fire until they run out of places to hide!"

He quickly analyzed the layout of the room they were trapped in. "Tatsumi, Leone, listen to me! You have to separate him from his squad! And use the environment! That room is filled with high-pressure steam pipes! Use the steam to blind them!"

Inside the Steel Labyrinth

Akame moved through the dark service tunnels like an avenging ghost. She could hear the faint rumble of the battle happening several levels below her. Every second that passed was a second where her friends could die. She didn't let emotion take over. Instead, she channeled her worry into a cold, deadly focus. She moved faster, every step silent, her red eyes scanning every corner, looking for the quickest path to the source of the battle.

Changing the Battlefield

Inside the maintenance hub, Tatsumi knew they couldn't hold out much longer. His armor was starting to show small cracks under the relentless assault.

"I have an idea!" he shouted to Leone over the noise. "I'll draw all his fire! You, get up high! Find the biggest pressure valve you can find! Create a steam hell for us!"

Leone grinned widely. "A plan I can get behind!"

Tatsumi waited for a brief pause as Gatling reloaded. "NOW!"

He shot out from behind his cover. He didn't run straight at Gatling. He moved laterally, using his wings to make explosive leaps from wall to wall, making himself an unpredictable target. "HEY, JUNK HEAP! YOU MISSED ME!" he shouted, a pure taunt to ensure all eyes were on him.

Gatling growled and opened fire again, his cannons tracking Tatsumi's erratic movements, shredding the walls and machinery behind him.

That's when Leone moved. While all attention was focused on Tatsumi, she darted to the other side of the room. With her sharp claws digging into the steel walls, she began to climb the giant network of pipes that lined the walls and ceiling like an industrial spiderweb. Her movements were fast and acrobatic, a combination of raw power and the agility of a great cat.

She found what she was looking for: a giant, red-painted wheel valve, labeled with multiple extreme pressure warnings. The valve looked like it hadn't been turned in years, covered in rust and corrosion.

Leone dug her claws around the valve and pulled with all her might. At first, nothing happened. She summoned all of her Lionel strength, her muscles tensing to their absolute limit. There was a protesting groan of metal, then with a loud CRACK, the rust finally gave way. The valve began to turn.

The result was instant and dramatic.

With a deafening hiss, pressure release valves all over the room burst open. Thick, white blasts of hot steam shot out, filling the entire room in a matter of seconds. Visibility immediately dropped to less than a meter. The battlefield had been reset.

The Hunt in the Fog

Inside the hot, suffocating sea of steam, the battle turned into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Gatling roared in frustration. He activated his thermal and infrared sensors, but the incredible heat from the steam and the surrounding machinery rendered them nearly useless, displaying only a blurry, pulsing image. He began to fire blindly into the fog, his bullets whizzing in all directions.

But now, this environment belonged to Leone and Tatsumi.

Leone, with her superhuman sense of smell and hearing, could navigate the fog perfectly. She was a predator in her natural habitat. She shot out of the fog, slamming into a PLF soldier from the side, her claws tearing through their armor, then disappeared back into the steam before his comrades could even react. One by one, Gatling's squad began to fall, attacked by a blonde phantom they couldn't see.

Meanwhile, Tatsumi had a different task. He used his Incursio's sensors, which, though disrupted, could still detect the massive energy signature of Gatling's cybernetic power core. He was no longer trying to fight Gatling's firepower; he was hunting its source.

He moved silently through the steam, approaching Gatling from his blind side. Gatling, frustrated at having lost his targets, kept spinning around. "SHOW YOURSELVES, YOU COWARDS!"

As Gatling turned his back, Tatsumi struck. He didn't punch Gatling's body. He leaped and grabbed one of the still-hot, spinning gatling cannon barrels. With a roar, he channeled a wave of draconic energy directly from his palm into the weapon's mechanism.

The internally superheated metal couldn't withstand the pressure. There was a series of loud pops as the gears inside the cannon melted and seized. One weapon was disabled.

Gatling roared in pain and rage as his systems short-circuited, and swung his damaged arm to hit Tatsumi. But before he could, a third shadow emerged from a service hatch in the ceiling, landing silently behind him.

The cavalry had arrived.

Akame, having followed the sounds of battle, had finally found them.

"A fun party," she said in her flat tone.

Seeing the new threat, Gatling tried to turn his body and fire with his remaining weapon. But it was too late.

This was a perfect three-pronged attack. Leone charged from the front, forcing Gatling to focus on her. Tatsumi, from the side, used his strength to grab and crush the second cannon. And Akame, from behind, moved with lightning speed. Her sword didn't aim for flesh. Its sharp blade sliced through the thick power cables connecting Gatling's cybernetic arms to his back.

With a massive shower of sparks, both of Gatling's cannon arms fell to the floor with a loud clang, useless. The giant man was now unarmed, with only his exhausted body remaining. He looked at the three figures surrounding him in the thinning fog, and for the first time, he felt fear.

He collapsed to his knees, defeated.

Tatsumi, Akame, and Leone stood together amidst the destruction, surrounded by steam and the enemies they had defeated. They were panting, their bodies bruised and tired, but they stood tall. They had won.

Suddenly, a different, shriller, more panicked alarm began to sound throughout the sublevel. The emergency lights began to flash red.

"Team! Get out of there now!" Hawks' voice came through, filled with a new urgency. "Your fight damaged several main cooling pipes! Sensors show the temperature around the reactor core is rising unstably! This entire sublevel is about to have a structural collapse!"

Leone looked up at the now-vibrating ceiling, flakes of dust falling down. "I think..." she said, panting. "...we made a little too much noise."