CHAPTER 20: CREATIVE WEAPONS

Screaming and shouting rang out in the evening air, and the bright lights of explosions gave it illumination.

Mine quickly took cover behind the water tower outside the warehouse, keeping her sights ahead at the scene. The enemy wasn't going to be happy after she blasted a hole in their building. Before all the smoke had even cleared, she opened fire again, taking out a couple more soldiers.

"Please do not shoot me in the back," Sanfred said from off to the side.

"I won't," she assured him. "Move in. I'll cover you."

She'd barely even finished saying it when he dove in, headed to the right. Sanfred was sprinting this time, and he covered the distance to the center of the warehouse in seconds. Just as he reached the crates with the Imperial Arms, three soldiers armed with machine guns opened fire, showering bullets his way. Sanfred had to leap backwards to avoid the blasts. He sighed, realizing he simply hadn't been fast enough to reach his target.

"You goddamn traitor!" General Nodham exclaimed furiously. His attention was on Minister Dorin specifically. "This will end terribly for you!"

"It was not my doing," Dorin insisted, although his own soldiers were still swarming in to cover him. "Either way, your incompetence is to blame for this. You failed to prevent spies from acquiring information on this meeting!"

"Like hell!" Nodham went for the crates, quickly seizing the Imperial Arms sword for himself. "My men were counting on me. I'm holding you accountable for those who lost their lives here tonight!"

Sanfred managed to observe the interaction. Apparently, his theory of a double-cross amidst the insurgents still looked plausible. That also gave him the opportunity to move in while they were engaged in conflict. He kept low, racing toward Minister Dorin, since the soldiers were currently covering him in the front. That one vulnerability allowed Sanfred to take his scimitar to the first soldier he reached. From there, he brought additional thrusts to other targets, aiming for the neck and shoulders, delivering wounds that would at least incapacitate each enemy.

"The rear!" Dorin shouted, sounding desperate this time. "Cover me!"

Elsewhere, Akame was killing off multiple targets as well. Thanks to Lubbock, most of the machine guns got caught up in the webs of threads from his Imperial Arms. That allowed the members of Night Raid to avoid the long-range weapons of the enemies. Now forced to engage in close combat, the soldiers were not faring well.

Tatsumi, Leone, Sheele, and Bulat were battling against the soldiers. They managed to cover each other along the way, seizing every opportunity that arose. Their precision was paying off because they had the numbers to cover each other, and thus they avoided giving up mistakes of their own.

General Najenda hurried over toward the Imperial Arms, sensing that Sanfred was in the toughest spot. She leaped in the air and delivered a fierce kick to Minister Dorin, knocking him to the ground.

"What?" he shouted in surprise as he crashed to the floor, his black fedora rolling off, revealing his bald head.

Several of the bodyguards turned their attention from Sanfred and went for the General. She blocked a sword strike with her right arm, then confiscated the weapon and used it to kill the man. From there, she fought them off, engaging with them to give Sanfred the chance to take care of the mission. "The Imperial Arms!" she said, making sure Sanfred overheard her.

"Aye," he replied, then he darted back toward the crates. The three soldiers with machine guns were still there, but this time, Sanfred was expecting them. When he got close, they opened fire, but he rushed back toward the side of a steel structure. The gunners hurried after him, continuing to unleash torrents of bullets.

But Mine was watching, and Sanfred's trap had led them into range of her weapon. She unleashed a single blast, which connected with all three soldiers at the same time. "Triple kill," she announced with a sadistic grin. After taking a look around, she let out a low growl. "Dammit. Someone should have been here to see that."

Thanks to the assist, Sanfred resumed his efforts to secure the precious weapons. Once he rushed back over there, General Nodham had the Imperial Arms sword in his hands. "You must be Night Raid. Then you, too, must accept responsibility for this outrage."

"You!" Dorin shouted from the floor. "Sanfred? You're still alive?"

He couldn't resist glancing back at the fallen minister. "Did you really give me so little hope of surviving on my own?"

Dorin paid it little mind and climbed back to his feet. "Listen to me, Nodham. This man is responsible for all of this! Let's take him out together. We can still salvage our visions."

Apparently, General Nodham was strangely easy to convince. He picked up the Imperial Arms cap and tossed it over to Minister Dorin. "We'll kill them all together. Then we'll discuss the terms of resolving our issues."

Sanfred raised an eyebrow. "Do I really give off that vibe of everyone teaming up against me? I've been told that I'm a good man, though. Perhaps she was just saying that to make me feel good."

Outside the warehouse, Mine was staring at him. "Fuck you! I was speaking from the heart!"

Even with all the commotion around them, Sanfred managed to hear her words. "Never doubted you for a second, Rosa."

"Yeah right!" She fired another blast, this time aiming for Minister Dorin. However, it simply struck a few soldiers who got in the way. "Huh?" she muttered, looking through the scope again, wondering what just happened.

Minister Dorin's eyes were glowing red, and his newly acquired Imperial Arms cap was giving off a crimson aura as well. "I now have the power to bring my fellow soldiers back to life. They can serve me even after death!" Sure enough, the downed soldiers were respawned, although now their eyes were pale. They moved in awkward fashion, but they still had purpose in their drive. That purpose was to serve.

"Reanimated moving targets are fine with me!" Mine opened fired rapidly, delivering a barrage upon the zombie soldiers. Her accuracy was superb, hitting them in the legs, chests, even heads. The zombie soldiers suffered grave wounds, but they weren't going down. In fact, the wounds quickly healed up, enough for them to press on with their master's agenda.

Meanwhile, General Nodham confronted Sanfred. "So, you decided to instigate this uprising? I shall kill you in cruel fashion."

"For a high-ranking general," Sanfred said, holding his scimitar over his shoulder calmly, "You sure do talk a lot."

"I can kill as fast as I talk!" he shouted, charging into attack.

"That doesn't make sense…" Sanfred quickly parried the blows and stepped aside, commencing the process of studying his opponent's movements. This was no ordinary swordfight. After all, General Nodham was equipped with an Imperial Arms sword. It was imperative that Sanfred discovered what kind of ability his enemy possessed.

Mine was trying to make sense of everything going on inside when suddenly some soldiers ambushed her from the side of the building. She leaped away just in time to avoid the slash from a guntō. "Too slow!" she shouted with a laugh as she spun around and fired a quick shot. Her blast hit the soldier in the stomach, killing him instantly.

The others rushed in, hoping to move quick enough to prevent Mine from shooting. Sure enough, they surrounded her and attacked viciously with their swords. Mine swatted off some attacks with her sniper, but the weapon was too large to deal with these numbers. With a growl, she already knew what she needed to do.

Mine set the Pumpkin down and withdrew her own sword. She took one clean breath of air, and then began to move. The nearest soldier sent out constant heavy attacks, and Mine felt his strength. She parried the blows, making sure to let the brunt of the energy go more to the side, rather than directly into her sword. Along the way, she was breathing with rhythm, just as Sanfred had trained her. For a moment, she was sort of amazed that it was happening. But there was no time to lose focus, and she wouldn't make that mistake.

The soldiers pressed on with their attacks. Eventually, Mine saw the first blunder and capitalized. Her foe used both hands for his single-handed guntō, leaving himself off-balance after overcommitting. Mine delivered a single clean thrust to the soldier's chest, getting him just above the heart. It wasn't even a deep stab since she needed to withdraw immediately after to evade attacks from the others. The injury was enough to down the soldier.

Three more of them kept on going for the kill. Mine had to keep her back constantly free, since they repeatedly attempted to flank her. Each time, Mine calmly stepped in the direction they were covering the weakest, and thus she constantly avoided being pinned down.

At one point, one of the soldiers turned away and went for the sniper rifle. Mine took a few long steps after him, landing a blow to the man's kneecap. He screamed in pain and fell to the ground, several feet away from the gun. The other two soldiers rushed in to make her pay for it, but Mine gracefully hopped over the fallen soldier, now using his body to disrupt their approach. The remaining two soldiers tried to navigate around their fallen comrade, but that distanced them more than before. Mine lunged forward to one, landing a vicious strike to his stomach. With an angry shout, the fourth soldier rushed in, but in his rage, he lost focus on the bodies by his feet and tripped to the ground. Mine brought the sword to the back of his neck before he could return to his feet.

The immediate danger was dealt with. Mine paused for a moment and realized she was calm. Her breathing had gone uninterrupted, even now that she'd killed the four men. "I've gotten better," she said, unable to resist taking pride in her feat.

There wasn't time to dwell on it, though. Mine sheathed her sword and retrieved her Imperial Arms. The battle was raging on inside and she needed to go help. Once she returned to the entrance, she saw Sanfred clashing swords with General Nodham, as well as more zombie soldiers being summoned by Minister Dorin. "Damn," she muttered, taking aim. "That's a creepy special ability."

Suddenly, Akame joined the fray, slicing through some of the arms of the zombie soldiers. Even when they were struck, they didn't utter any vocal responses. No doubt, they were unaffected by pain or feeling since they were already dead.

"You're wasting your time," Minister Dorin announced smugly. "You can't cut them down fast enough. They'll just regenerate endlessly."

"You sure do know a lot about this special ability," Akame brought up. "Perhaps you were expecting to acquire it before today."

"You are correct," he acknowledged. "I am an Imperial Minister after all. It would be irresponsible for me to be lacking in researching all the domains of the Empire!" With that, he pointed toward Akame, his cap glowing crimson red once again. "Let's show these fools what we've learned!"

The zombie soldiers picked up speed and homed in on Akame. She quickly leaped out of range, but more of them were crowded where she was landing. Before they could overwhelm her, she sliced through some limbs and rolled beneath them. She came out on the other side and leaped again, just as they tried to close in. The attacks were essentially endless, but Akame kept on moving. Whatever it took to outlast this enemy, she was going to achieve it.

Elsewhere, Sanfred parried more strikes from Nodham's new sword. "You sure you're not from Spain?" Sanfred asked with a grin.

"Do I look like scum to you?" Nodham replied, putting extra force with his next swipe.

"One could find that offensive." Sanfred slid neatly backwards, then backflipped so that he landed atop a section of storage steel. "But I am not so easily rattled."

Nodham shook his head, tired of chasing his foe. "Why will you not engage? Do you wish to draw this out all day? I am eager to kill you."

"I'm sure you are." With that, Sanfred released the steel bar and fell toward the ground. As he fell, Nodham burst toward him, aiming a swift thrust. Apparently, Sanfred had wished to draw that out because he grabbed another steel bar from above to make sure he didn't go all the way to the ground. He ended up just above Nodham, and then he leaped past him, landing behind him. From there, Sanfred delivered a thrust of his own, aimed for Nodham's heart as he spun around.

Instead, Nodham's sword did something unusual. It morphed, becoming something of a carapace. That shielded him from Sanfred's scimitar.

"A shape-shifting sword?" He stared at it, in what could only be described as disappointment. "That's so underwhelming."

"Pity you fail to see that it shall be your undoing." The sword shifted again, turning into a double-headed axe. The scimitar was stuck between the axe's head, and Nodham pulled it back, removing the sword from Sanfred's hand.

"Oh. I get it now." Sanfred grinned and held up both hands. "It's so you don't have to master other weapons. You just get a nice freebie thrown your way."

General Najenda arrived to provide the assist. She had two swords that she'd procured from her fallen foes. "Looks like you could use some steel."

"Keep it," Sanfred mentioned calmly, to her surprise. "This guy eats swords with his Imperial Arms."

"Interesting." Najenda prepared for battle, raising both blades up high. "Well then, I have a two-piece combo here for you, sword-eater." She went to attack, causing Nodham to revert his shifting weapon into a halberd. With such a long weapon, he was able to keep her at bay.

However, that released the grasp on Sanfred's scimitar, which fell to the floor across the room. "Hmm," he said, subtly making his way in that direction. Before he reached it, more soldiers serving Dorin appeared, reanimated with his magic. Even though they were lifeless zombies, they were armed with swords. "Do these guys even follow any rules?" One by one, they moved in on the attack. Sanfred leaped aside, then dove between two others, getting bold with his movements. Even though he didn't like taking unnecessary risks, he was eager to reclaim his sword, especially considering the number of foes he was up against.

One of them managed to nick his left arm. A spurt of blood oozed out, and Sanfred rolled his eyes. "Another scar for the collection," he muttered, kicking up a fallen soldier's helmet in the direction of the zombie that landed the strike. It collided with the enemy's head, stunning it so that it fell against two other zombie soldiers, resulting in three of them falling to the ground.

After that, Sanfred rolled along the floor, retrieving his scimitar in the process. He glanced back out toward the entrance, searching for Mine. "Were you going to provide some cover fire?" he called out.

She reappeared at the opening, shaking her head irritably. "They keep on recovering even after I vape them!"

"You gotta target Dorin," he pointed out. "I think if you kill him, it will sever the link between the reanimated corpses."

Mine's face glazed over, and she squinted, a tiny glare noticeable to Sanfred, even from across the room. "You're shitting me. That was all we needed to do this whole time?"

"Seems like we should at least assume the possibility," he added with a sigh.

"Next time, speak up sooner, boyfriend!" Mine fired up the Pumpkin and unleashed a great blast straight toward Minister Dorin.

Just before the shot could land, more zombie soldiers came to guard him. They formed a wall, in surprisingly swift fashion, and they absorbed the blast completely.

"What the hell is with these guys?" Mine said irritably.

Just then, a soldier got the jump on her. He threw himself at her, aiming his knife for her shoulder.

"Hey!" Mine shouted in surprise, barely able to avoid the blade. Unfortunately, she lost her grip on her rifle in the process. The soldier forced her down on the ground and began to grab at her wrists while she struggled against him.

"Your luck just ran out," he said in a sinister voice. Just then, he got both her wrists, even with his dagger in one hand.

Mine gritted her teeth as she glared up at him. "The moment you try to use that thing, I'm gonna kill you."

"Think you're quick enough?" he said confidently. Sure enough, he released his right hand, and plunged the dagger for her face. Mine managed to move her head out of range by a few inches, then she buckled her weight to her left and rolled the soldier over. She landed on top, elbowed his chin with a swift blow, then brought out her own sword. When she plunged it down, the soldier was unable to dodge, and the blade went right into his heart.

Mine pulled the blade out and shook her head. "I mean, I totally warned you. No excuses."

By now, she was worried that Sanfred would have been overwhelmed, so she hurried back to the scene. Reunited with her rifle, she took aim and fired another blast. There were more zombie soldiers now than before, and they kept on absorbing the blows. It had reached the point where they were more like meat shields than fighters.

Sanfred caught up to Najenda, who was still armed with two swords at once. The two Night Raid assassins used three swords to clash against General Nodham's shifting weapon. He was enjoying the halberd, but then he suddenly switched it to a large flail with three spiked balls. With one swing, he roped the chains around Najenda's two swords, then shifted his weapon so that it ripped the blades from her hands.

"Dammit," Najenda swore, starting to realize the creativity of this opponent.

At least, Sanfred held onto his scimitar this time. "Generals are supposed to be decisive," he brought up, slowly approaching Nodham. "Are you unable to decide on what weapon to shift to?"

"Keep on doubting my capability," Nodham replied with a rich voice. "I am all too eager to crush your arrogance."

The next weapon of choice was a two-handed long sword. Sanfred dodged the slower strikes from his foe, but he avoided parrying with his sword. After all, that was how this enemy was snatching up their weapons. But that didn't leave much in the way of openings to attack.

Seeing that the situation wasn't improving, Mine charged into the warehouse now. She dodged a few attacks from the zombie soldiers and made her way over toward Sanfred and Najenda. Once she got close enough, she aimed the rifle for General Nodham. "Let's see if he's got a weapon that can deal with this."

When Sanfred noticed Mine in the background, he came up with an idea. Instead, of getting out of the way, he advanced forward, racing straight up to Nodham.

"Fool!" he shouted, delivering a wide swipe with the sword.

Sanfred ended up running with the sword, grabbing a careful hold of the blade with both hands. Because of that, his palms were cut, but still he held on. The maneuver left Nodham spun far to his left.

That gave Mine her shot, and she took it. The blast flew uninterrupted to its target, blasting General Nodham in the chest. One was enough, and he fell face-first to the ground, no longer alive.

"Damn, you're good," Sanfred commented proudly.

Mine grinned as she lowered her gun. "What? You asked for cover fire."

"I didn't mean overkill fire." Sanfred tossed the large sword to the ground. Moments later, it transformed back to its standard sword form now that its wielder had been slain.

Despite the jokes, Mine ran over to Sanfred with haste. "I saw that. You got hurt."

"A scratch," he admitted, rolling his eyes. "Hardly worth whining about."

Even Najenda looked concerned. "Can you still fight? We have more enemies to deal with."

"Don't gang up on me," Sanfred said adamantly. "I am adequately fit for additional combat."

With that said, the three of them turned back to the small army of reanimated zombie soldiers before them, while Minister Dorin gazed with glowing red eyes of twisted delight. This battle was not over yet.