Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

From within the debris blockading the cave's entrance, soft rumbling could be heard. Like a beast's talons clawing their way through rubble, the collapsed rocks stirred ominously. Cyanide and Kirika waited patiently, weapons drawn, and kept their eyes glued to the cave entrance.

Slowly, the noise grew louder and louder, until finally, a steel tiger paw with sharp metal claws tore through the rubble.

"…" Cyanide narrowed his eyes, and soon, another paw followed. And then…

BOOM!

The rest of the rubble was suddenly blown away, with the sabertooth mutant emerging behind it. As the sun was setting, its glaring red eyes weren't any less frightening as they were inside the cave. It growled in anger at the two humans who had destroyed its home, and judging from the look it had on its face, it was clear it was dead set on hunting Cyanide and Kirika down, no matter what it took.

"… Stick to the plan," Cyanide said, and Kirika gave a nod.

"GROWL!" The powerful beast roared and headed towards them, right as the two sprung into action.

Cyanide shot a couple of bullets at the beast, not to injure it but to get its attention, while Kirika turned invisible and waited for her chance. The beast, successfully lured, growled in annoyance at the hateful bullets tickling his metal scales, and leaped towards Cyanide, high in the air.

Little did it know, the two had been waiting for this to happen.

"You're mine!" Kirika grinned and slid underneath the beast as it jumped up, slicing her katana through the powerful mutant's underbelly… or at least, that's what was supposed to happen.

Unfortunately, things did not always go as planned.

"Wha-?!" Kirika's eyes widened as she heard the sound of metal clashing against metal, and she soon realized the beast's scales reached all the way down beneath its body as well, converging together as if shielding something. That must be the weakspot just like Cyanide had told her, but…

"RAGH!" The beast swiped its sharp paw downwards, and Kirika just barely dodged with a deft tumble before rising back to her feet, now in a pincer formation with Cyanide against the beast.

"The underbelly… the scales were down there too," Kirika said, gritting her teeth in pain against the sharp piece of rock lodged in her ankle, struggling to even stand without the help of her katana. "But… they appear to be protecting something down there, instead of the stationary scales on the rest of its body."

"Hm… I see," Cyanide muttered, and narrowed his eyes at the beast, who opened its mouth again in an attempt to use that laser beam attack once more. As Kirika was still invisible, Cyanide was its priority target for now.

"Hmph." Cyanide easily evaded the death ray using his skilled and precise movements, as he considered his options.

There had to be a way to get this beast to lower its guard, somehow. If doing that with normal attacks wasn't possible, then he had to resort to Soul Arts. Unfortunately, most of his lethal Soul Arts, such as [Touch of Malice] or [Toxin Air], only worked on Stage One or Two mutants below his current level. Against this beast, which was presumably a Stage Five, they would not be able to hurt it one bit.

But perhaps… he didn't necessarily need to kill it with Soul Arts. Back when he had encountered those rabid mutant dogs by chance during the first Scarlet Hour, he had slid underneath them and found that their underbellies were their weak spots. He figured since dogs and cats were anatomically similar overall, this sabertooth tiger, which belonged to the cat family, would share the same weakspot.

His guess had been right, but it wasn't necessarily a 'weakspot'—yet. This foe was stronger than those canines he fought before, and knew how to protect its one and only weakness. But something Luna told him about not long ago arose in his mind, and he smirked.

"… Status ailments, huh?"

Right as the beast dove towards him, tired of his dodging of its laser, Cyanide jumped above it and hit it with the Soul Art [Death Infusion]. This slowed the sabertooth down by a lot, and by the time Cyanide landed behind it, it was still busy trying to turn around.

Exactly what Cyanide had wanted to happen.

Raising his arm, he used a second Soul Art—one that relied on chance, which he didn't usually favor, but there was no other option. Cyanide had always been one to take everything into his own hands and not rely on something as superficial as 'luck', but in a new world, one needed to adapt—and he was well aware of that.

As a second affinity overtook his soul, he thought of the attack's name in his head, now guaranteed to hit thanks to the mutant being slowed.

'Lightning Chain'.

Instantly, a bolt of yellow lightning shot out of his fingertips and struck the mutant head-on, zapping it successfully.

"G-GURGH?!" The beast gurgled unintelligibly as Cyanide's electricity worked its way through its wires, oversurging them and causing an overflow of power. Its central processing unit was sent into overheat, disabling all other functions of the body in an attempt to cool it back down, and thus, the mutant was left completely disabled on the ground, unable to budge an inch or even perform cognitive thought.

This, was the power of status ailments. Shock, in particular.

Naturally, with all other functions ceased, the mutant's weakspot was also now revealed. The protective scales that had once blocked and defended it had now retracted, leaving its heart—a container of black mutant blood—exposed.

Of course, Kirika didn't need to be told to take this opportunity. She immediately dashed in with her katana, lifted it, and-

"No."

"… Eh?"

She blinked at Cyanide, who had stopped her actions with a mere word.

"… We wait until it wakes up."

"What…? But why?" Kirika asked, utterly bewildered.

"So we can recruit it," Luna explained, taking over with a smile. "After all… having a pet like this will make getting around a lot easier, no?"