Tech Hero in Another World
Chapter 109: [108] Cooperation in ending the battle (2)

Chapter 109: [108] Cooperation in ending the battle (2)

Khan hurled a sand spear straight into Malik’s eye. A blast of grit smashed into the giant’s face, and the colossal sand form let out a growl of irritation.

"Aaah..." Malik staggered backward, his massive sandy fist driving the pressure away and loosening his grip on Khan.

Without hesitation, Khan turned and lifted the trembling old woman from beneath him. He supported her gently, then pointed toward a nearby alley behind a house. "Go! Don’t stop—get far away from here!"

The old woman nodded, her steps shaky but resolute. Khan watched her retreating form for a moment, then refocused on the towering enemy ahead.

"Your attacks are weak!" Malik roared from a distance, his voice booming like thunder against the city walls. His sandy form reknit itself, and both massive arms lifted ominously into the sky.

Khan narrowed his eyes. He recognized the move—Malik was about to bring down a crushing blow capable of leveling everything within a hundred-meter radius.

"Ugh..." Khan ground out, knowing he couldn’t withstand that force alone. "You really don’t care about the civilians."

Malik laughed—wild and unhinged. "They’ll only reject the new future! I am merely trimming the excess weight of a revolution!"

But as he prepared to strike, a sharp hiss sounded from behind Malik’s sandy form, slicing through the dust like a whip.

A streak of white vapor shot forward and struck the back of the massive form. A small explosion erupted, sparks flying and pressure bursting out, jolting Malik off-balance.

The giant’s head tilted slightly—its expression distorted in surprise. Malik howled, not in pain... but shock.

"W-what!?" he shouted, teetering unsteadily.

Khan looked up and, in that moment, realized—he wasn’t alone. Reinforcements had arrived.

A loud repulsor blast broke through the dust-choked sky. Ren swooped in above Khan, hovering smoothly in the blue-throated glow from his Mark II armor.

Malik, already beginning to mend his sandy form, glared up at the flying intruder. "You again, iron man!"

"Oh, don’t call me that, darling... that’s copyright," Ren replied, his voice amplified through the armor. "Call me... Techno. In this version."

Khan squinted, then shouted upward. "Hey, Nico!"

Ren glanced down while boosting his hover—he hovered just above Malik’s shoulder height. "Good to see you’re still in one piece, Khan."

"Well?" Khan called up urgently, nearly drowned by howling wind and raging sand around Malik.

"The palace emerald was fake. The others are still looking for the real one," Ren replied tersely, tension in his tone.

"What are you talking about in the middle of all this?!" Malik bellowed, furious at being ignored. His sandy form bulged, then both massive arms crashed into the air.

Ren whipped to the side, dodging the blow with near-impossible speed. Clouds of sand blew out with Malik’s swing, smashing nearby buildings under the square’s archways.

Khan leaped across debris and low rooftops with agile flips, landing behind Ren in mid-air, ready to strike.

"Hey, don’t turn me into a surfboard!" Ren shouted over his shoulder as he zig-zagged through the debris.

"I need a ride. Can’t fly on my own," Khan replied, half out of breath as he adjusted his grip on the Mark II armor’s back plating.

"Then enjoy your economy-class ticket!" Ren replied, boosting the thrusters as they weaved between drifting rubble.

Malik’s attacks grew increasingly savage. He pounded the ground in all directions, forming walls of sand like tsunamis crashing through the air. In the distance, terrified civilians fled for cover.

"If we don’t end this fast," Khan muttered, "he’s going to bury half the city."

"Yeah, and we’ll be written off as tragic ruins," Ren quipped, eyes locked on his HUD’s quick-read overlay tracking energy fissures across Malik’s sand form.

『Critical stress detected at central dorsal structure. Abnormal energy support.』Ultro’s report chimed.

"Heard that?" Ren asked.

Khan nodded. "Shoot his back. I’ll create the opening!"

Without breaking rhythm, Khan leapt from Ren’s armor onto Malik’s raised sandy arm, sprinting along its shifting surface like someone running on living stone.

Malik grunted at the pressure, swinging his massive arm to knock Khan off—but Khan was faster, flipping from one sandy contour to the next.

"Now, Nico!" Khan shouted, perched atop the malformed sand spine.

Ren didn’t need a second cue. He spun midair, opened the shoulder repulsors—and two sleek missiles slid out from the Mark II armor.

"Say goodbye to your spinal support, buddy," he said, voice focused as he fired.

In an instant, the missiles shot forward. They struck the exact weak point identified by Ultro—Malik’s back.

The detonation was blinding: a burst of light like lightning striking the sky. Malik staggered forward, his sandy form collapsing in parts, missing chunks of spine as cascades of granules poured down.

"Arrrgh!" Malik roared, a sound like boulders grinding in an avalanche. He stumbled, one massive knee driven into the cracked ground.

Amid the collapse of sandy rubble, something green glimmered—an orb like a faintly beating heart, nestled in the shattered cavity of Malik’s form.

"Bingo," Ren said softly, voice taut with focus. Through the visor, his vision zoomed in like a hunter locking onto prey.

Khan seized the moment. He plunged his blade into the sand to steady himself, then slid down the fractured sandy wall, carving a path to slow the crumbling structure.

The collapsing sand slowly followed his footsteps, channeling like water. Khan reached the green orb—its white stone shell shattered in Ren’s blast—just as his blade closed around it.

His hand reached for the orb in one swift motion, then he pushed off from Malik’s back just before the sand structure completely collapsed.

Ren saw him from the air and immediately adjusted his flight path. "Gotcha!" he shouted, catching Khan with one hand and steadying the landing with a quick jet burst.

Their feet hit the ground hard—but stable. Ren released his grip, letting Khan stand on his own, the green orb still in his hand.

"Nice work, Prince," Ren said with a breath, a hint of sarcasm cutting through the tense moment. "Didn’t even need a seatbelt."

Khan gently tossed the orb into his other hand. He stared at the Emerald Marbel, then looked at Malik’s body, which was slowly beginning to reform.

"This is the source," Khan muttered. "Without it... he’s just a man consumed by rage."

Ren raised his right hand, the repulsor softly glowing. "You know what to do."

Khan nodded. He glanced at the orb one last time, then clenched it tightly. The first crack appeared on its surface—like ice shattering in the grip of a god.

With one determined push, the orb shattered in a burst of soft green light. Its energy drifted into the air, then vanished like dew swept away by the desert’s heat.

"There, now he won’t—" Ren turned to confirm the results. But his eyes widened when he saw the sand giant Malik... still standing.

Worse, his body was starting to regenerate. Clumps of sand floated back into place, reconnecting the shattered parts.

"What?" Khan gasped, his breath catching in his throat.

From within the giant’s body, a low laugh echoed. "Gehehehe..."

The sand on the giant’s chest parted slightly, revealing a shadowy figure inside—Malik’s fused body, like the core of a golem creature.

"That thing was just a tool, a booster!" Malik’s voice rang out, full of madness. "I can hold this form... for a while... by sacrificing my own life force!"

"No, Malik!" Khan stepped forward, frustration clear in his voice. "If you do that, you’ll die!"

"Hahaha... So what’s the difference!?" Malik roared, his eyes glowing red from within the swirling sand. "If I win, I die anyway. And if I lose... I refuse to accept defeat!"

Ren clenched his jaw, both repulsors flaring to life. "He’s past reasoning. Now he’s just a ticking time bomb with a god complex."

Malik’s sand body began to swell, growing even larger than before. His massive footing shook the buildings around them, debris starting to rain down into the streets.

"Then..." Khan stepped forward, his eyes cold and resolute. "Let’s make him understand what it really means to choose your own end."

Ren nodded. "Let’s finish this—right now."

Sand began to rage around Malik, swirling like a storm that pulled everything into his body. The wind shifted, and the once-clear sky turned dark, filled with violent vortexes.

Ren dove from the air, unleashing a barrage of plasma energy rounds at the vulnerable-looking joints in Malik’s massive form. Meanwhile, Khan charged from the ground, manipulating the sand beneath to form dense spears that pierced up toward the giant’s feet.

But Khan’s steps were starting to falter. His vision blurred, and his heartbeat pounded in his temples like war drums. He knew his body was at its limit.

’Not now... just a little more...’ he thought, teeth clenched, but his stride was starting to drag.

As Malik launched a sand fist the size of a house straight at him, Khan tried to dodge like always. But this time—his legs didn’t respond.

His body froze for a moment, and all his muscles seemed to shut down. He couldn’t scream, couldn’t cry—only watch as that colossal punch came down on him like a wall of death.

Khan’s body was sent flying. He soared like a ragdoll, slammed into the roof of a building, then tumbled down to the stone-paved street.

"Khan!!" Ren shouted, instantly halting his assault and diving down. In a split second, he caught Khan’s body before it smashed into the sharp rubble below.

Ren landed on one knee, Khan limp in his arms. Khan’s breathing was shallow, his face pale, eyes half-lidded.

"Idiot... you pushed too hard," Ren muttered, his voice trembling with anger—not at Khan, but at a situation that left him no choice.

Khan gave a faint, weary smile. "I just... didn’t want this to all be for nothing."

Ren gently laid him down behind a collapsed wall, then stood up again. His eyes locked onto Malik, now approaching—still unstable, but no less deadly.

"In that case," Ren said quietly, his helmet interface lighting up once more, "I’ll take it from here."