Ito Ai: A New Dawn

Chapter 102: All Out Defense

"Ai!?" Mai yelled out seeing the familiar face in front of her. "What how!? The rain!"

"Ahaha! It's fine, don't worry. Well, I suggest you do not go out there. But for Eiji and I, it is fine." Ai let out a laugh while she knelt down letting Mio who was still on her back, off. "Mai go get this girl a set of military duds and nine-millimeter ammo. Do not get near her. This suit is highly radioactive and so are me and Eiji at the moment."

"Huh? Yeah!" Mai always took Ai's orders as absolute, so if she said so, she would do it. She hurried off to go do Ai's task. 

"Leave all questions for later, for now, we got to go on absolute defense. Eiji and I will be your front line. You take out what melee ones you can. Later I will need to make new weapons using the machina's new tech. When Mai and Mio get back have them join in taking out melee machina." Ai finished yelling out orders before grabbing Eiji's hand with a smile and said: "Let's go Eiji, time to give them hell!" 

Ai was loving the fact that she could easily wipe out these machinas. On the way here they had destroyed so many machina she had lost count. But she knew one thing was for sure, she was already catching up to the number of machina she had destroyed in her past life. 

Eiji and Ai split up and jumped into the fray. They were instantly targeted by the machina. Ten first type machina charged at Ai from all sides, Ai reached out and grabbed the closest one by its leg and began using it to smash the others to the ground. Eiji Charged right into the backline ignoring the first types that were attacking him and smashed a type two machina into a pancake. 

Yoshi and Shogo who were watching the whole scene stared at the two in disbelief. "Hey Shogo, are we even needed any more? The machines seem to not care about us anymore and are only focusing on those two."

"I-I'm not sure..." Shogo was too shocked at the scene in front of him to even understand what he was seeing.

Mai came back up from inside the base with clothes and more ammo. She placed it behind a broken cement wall that could be used for cover before joining the rest. "Mio, was it? Your clothes and ammo are behind the wall over there. Careful when taking off the suit. Do not let it touch your skin." 

"Yes, thank you." Mio quickly went to go change. She had been sweating nonstop since she put the suit on. But luckily Ai and Eiji were careful and stopped a few times so she could rehydrate.

"Where are Ai and Eiji?" Mai asked as she rejoined Yoshi and the rest.

"Over there..." Yoshi pointed off into the distance. Mai turned and looked where he was pointing and her eyes opened wide as she looked at the scene in front of her. 

"How!? Ai, I can understand, but Eiji too!?" Mai was just as shocked as the others as they watched the two going on a rampage in a mass of machina. They were not just using their fist either. Ai was using a broken machina as a shield and her howa at the same time. She would block incoming ranged attacks from the front with a type two machina who had a shield and then use her howa to disable or destroy any melee types trying to attack her from the side. 

The most comical thing of all was Eiji running around with a first type machina attached to his back. Mai and the rest almost felt bad for it since it was still trying to stab through Eiji's skin even with its front claws bent out of proportion from its first attack. They were not sure if Eiji was leaving it there on purpose or had forgotten it was even there in the first place as he continued to smash any ranged machina he could find. 

"Is it just me or are the machina numbers not reducing at all, or more like they are gaining?" Mai suddenly asked. Mainly due to the fact that Eiji and Ai were destroying machina's at great speed but their numbers were not decreasing. 

"Shit! Those damn robots are calling in reinforcements! Everyone stop staring and fire! Cover those two!" Yoshi yelled out. Everyone had been so caught up in watching Ai and Eiji's rampage that they stopped providing cover. At Yoshi's words, everyone quickly went back to work. 

"What should I do?" Mio who had just finished getting dressed asked. 

"Kill the melee ones and try not to hit Eiji and Ai." Mai answered, not even looking up as she continued firing. 

They were all huddled under an overhang, crouching behind a pile of rubble from the building. The whole area was filled with the smell of gunpowder as each of their weapons lit up the darkness of night. This was not a losing battle because in front of them was the most absolute defense. Two humans, who could withstand the machina's attacks and were not affected by the inhabitable conditions of the radiation storm. What made things easier for Mai and the others was the fact that the machina deemed Eiji and Ai more of a threat than them. So they were able to easily provide backup without worrying too much about defending themselves like they were earlier.

This was no longer a simple battle, this was an all out war.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

The ground underfoot began to tremble...

***

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