8 Lupus Hoffmann

"Stay here!" The Olympian mage raised her hand, halting the group. They stopped, looking at her, then exchanged confused glances.

She pressed a finger to her lips and motioned for them to lie low.

"Miss Hoffmann!" An injured man spoke up quietly, his face etched with concern. She turned to look at him, tilting her head slightly.

"Please, be safe!" He mouthed the words with deliberate care, ensuring she could read his lips.

Lupus didn't answer, but she gave him a reassuring smile.

A mystical light began to pulse from her golden arc boots, their design reminiscent of 15th-century knightly armour.

With a powerful leap, she launched herself into the air, soaring fifty metres before landing silently on a rooftop. Thanks to her arcane equipment, not a single shuffle of sound betrayed the force of her momentum.

Her silver hair, styled in a hime cut, fluttered in the wind. Her large golden eyes, bright like the summer sun, sparkled with an otherworldly light. Against her immaculate ashen skin, her lips were a startling pink, with small, sharp fangs peeking out to add a dangerous allure. Her prominent nose and slightly flaring nostrils were the sort most would dream of.

Atop her head, a pair of white bunny ears flickered, straining to amplify her senses. She wore a black corset with matching arm and leg garters, a stark contrast to her gleaming golden arc boots.

As Lupus crouched, her keen eyes scanned the street below. Two mobile suits were huddled together, both painted a drab, military green and armed with standard weaponry: ionised blades and built-in plasma cannons.

The absence of missile launchers on their backs marked them as lower-ranked models.

From their clipped, back-and-forth chatter, she identified them as bronze-rank Armatus knights, operating independently rather than being controlled by a single pilot.

Fufufu, Lupus chuckled to herself. They're no match for the Olympian me!

From her vantage point, she saw a woman and a child huddled between the steel giants. Their simple tunics and linen pants marked them as Arcanii citizens of Germund. They were clearly prisoners.

"Keep walking!" one of the steel giants barked.

The terrified child flinched, clutching her mother's arm tightly. In response, she squeezed his hand in silent reassurance.

"Where's the refugee camp?" the other giant demanded, his voice final and absolute.

The woman's face turned pale. She slowly raised a trembling finger, pointing north.

The knight's massive plasma cannon lifted, its nozzle dwarfing the mother's entire torso as it aimed directly at her. "Are you sure?! You'd better not be lying!" he threatened.

Before he could finish, his plasma cannon arm was severed in a flash of light.

Clank!

The arm, weighing tonnes, crashed to the ground, showering the street in a gritty cloud of dust and debris.

The knight's sensors flared in shock as he scanned for the enemy. "Sniper?" he muttered, his training kicking in. Instinctively, he formulated a plan: activate defensive measures and reposition.

"James! Activate Shield Protocol!" he shouted to his comrade. With a flicker of a finger, a translucent blue shield materialised, enveloping each mobile suit.

"Sniper!" he yelled again as his thrusters roared to life, launching his giant into the air in a panicked ascent. His ally followed, equally frantic.

Suddenly, a hazy figure appeared above the one-armed Armatus.

Golden boots gleamed in the sunlight, their etched sigils glowing with mystical power. Without missing a beat, Lupus slammed one heel onto the Armatus's head, crushing it into a messy pile of twisted metal, gears, and shafts.

A shower of blue sparks erupted from exposed wires.

"James! Shoot her! Shoot the witch!" the knight screamed over the comm, his primary visual feed gone. His sensors, however, still detected her physical presence on his Armatus's shoulder.

Without hesitation, James fired three plasma rounds in quick succession. But Lupus merely smiled, her cheeks twitching with amusement as her voice echoed with a divine chant.

"Phoros!"

Simultaneously, she stomped her metal heel down, causing the mobile suit to vibrate violently. The plasma rounds tore through the chaos, striking both Lupus and the headless suit and sending them hurtling into a nearby building.

The structure collapsed instantly in a thunderous explosion, its shockwave ripping through the air.

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As the dust settled, the upper torso of the Armatus was buried deep within the rubble, its legs jutting out motionlessly. A deafening silence fell over the street.

"Is… is she dead? Boss, do you read?" James spoke urgently into his comm, but only static replied.

He proceeded cautiously toward the collapsed building, his sweaty fingers gripping his weapon. His peripheral vision caught a figure moving casually to his left.

Lupus emerged from the dust, her steps light and almost joyful as she tiptoed toward him.

The bronze knight studied her, noting how her black corset remained pristine, without a speck of dirt. Her golden eyes locked onto him with a mocking gleam before she did the unthinkable.

With a playful flutter of her eyelashes, Lupus stuck out her pink tongue and taunted, "Brrrrh!"

Anger surged through him. "You cheeky Wildren!" he spat, launching his mobile suit toward her, the ionised blade igniting in a blaze of fury.

Despite her frivolous attitude, Lupus was exceedingly cautious. One of her bunny ears twitched.

With a sharp click of her heels, she chanted, "Magnetos!" An invisible barrier shimmered into existence, enveloping her just in time to deflect the full force of the ionised blade.

The knight's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Huh?! Im-impossible!" His blade recoiled, its reversed momentum sending his suit tumbling, losing balance and arcing backward mid-air.

Before he could regain control, Lupus hovered just above him, her shadow casting an eerie pall across his face.

Her silver hair lifted with the wind as she ascended, spreading out like a pair of celestial wings.

Each strand shimmered, cascading in ethereal waves that framed her as an angel of death descending from the heavens.

With lightning speed, she plunged her gold-clad heel directly into his suit's torso.

The heel pierced the hull effortlessly, cutting through metal like a hot knife through butter. The screech of grinding metal echoed ominously as the scent of hot iron filled the air.

Her heel came to a sudden stop, a hair's breadth from his chestplate.

Fear, confusion, and disbelief clouded the bronze knight's senses. He froze, paralysed, the only sensation the frantic throbbing in his ears.

Gravity took its toll, and the mobile suit slammed to the ground with bone-crushing force. The knight gasped, his lungs expelling all air in a painful whoosh.

"Yield or perish!" Lupus called out, her tone playful and light. A teasing smile tugged at her lips, her small fangs glinting.

In a final, desperate attempt, the knight reached out to grab her arc boots and crush her legs. But Lupus, ever cautious, was faster.

With her beast-like strength, she tapped his chestplate lightly. The sound of crushed metal echoed as the knight's body crumpled, his unconscious form collapsing into the pilot's seat.

Lupus crouched over his motionless body, tapping a finger thoughtfully against her cheek. "I wonder if I broke his ribs…" she mused, inspecting the dented and shattered armour, which revealed the exposed, bloodied skin beneath.

A moment passed. Somewhere safe from the ruckus, she crouched before the little girl, gently patting her messy hair.

The child was bawling, her small body shaking with relief, reassured that she and her mother were now in the hands of an invincible mage. Beside her, the mother nodded repeatedly in gratitude.

With a soft smile, Lupus explained her plan and motioned for the two to join the other survivors.

Before following, she took a moment to inspect herself. Her limbs felt heavy, her breathing laboured.

Her skin was slick with sweat, and a fog had settled over her mind.

The sudden, alarming realisation of mana depletion struck her.

Oh no, I've overexerted myself. I'll need to rest soon. If I'm caught in another fight without any mana left… that'd be disastrous. Certain death. She moved through the narrow street, each step cautious and deliberate.

No more showing off, she resolved. I need to use my mana more sparingly from now on.

When she rejoined the group, they waved with cheerful smiles. Despite her fatigue, she returned their warmth, grateful to see hope flicker in their weary faces.

***

Jack Squire drifted through the skies of southern Germund, his course set for his family home, roughly an hour away. Germund wasn't a large country; rectangular in shape, it measured approximately 700 kilometres wide and 1000 kilometres long.

With the standard bronze model he was piloting, he could cross the entire country in just two hours, assuming the mobile suit remained functional.

Suddenly, his HUD flickered erratically.

The engine indicators blinked red, a universal language for imminent danger.

"Oh hell, no!" Jack barked, his fingers flying across the controls to halt his descent.

It was futile. The engine had gone cold, and his fifteen-tonne hunk of metal was now plummeting toward the ground.

"Bloody hell! Get your shit together, ya cranker!" he growled, sweat trickling down his temple as he directed the two puny bots under his command.

Each bot propped itself against the Armatus's massive shoulders, their thrusters firing at full throttle to generate uplift.

His eyes darted to their charge gauges. Not much juice left.

"One!" Jack shouted, yanking the controls as the thrusters roared like a dying lion.

The hull lurched skyward, his stomach churning. A nauseating, tingling sensation stabbed at his brain as the bots managed to lift the massive suit briefly before the crushing weight dragged them down again.

"Two!" he yelled, his voice strained.

The descent slowed slightly, but tonnes of metal still screamed through the atmosphere, the veins on his neck and forehead bulging with exertion.

"Three!" Jack roared, issuing one final lift command.

This time, every system failed.

The blue HUD flashed into a crimson screen of death.

His gaze shot to the sight port. Nothing but clouds whipped past at terrifying speed. With no options left, he clenched his eyes shut, tucked his head down, and braced for impact, a desperate prayer on his lips.

Meanwhile, Lupus and her group of Arcanii travelled through the post-war wasteland. Just yesterday, this had been a bustling street.

How quickly the world had descended into chaos.

Lupus's heightened bunny ears twitched at a faint shift in the air above.

Her golden eyes scanned the sky. "What is that?!" she gasped as a steel giant hurtled down from the heavens.

Quickly composing herself, she turned to her group. "Hide now!" she commanded, her voice sharp and absolute.

The survivors didn't hesitate, dashing for the cover of crumbling buildings. From their hiding places, they poked their ashen faces out, their eyes wide as they watched the metallic monstrosity fall toward the earth.

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