========== Moments later, back at Training Hall Seven’s arena ==========
The trio breathes heavily as they hold their respective stances, looking at the mildly-damaged Golem still keeping a firm stance while preparing to counter any surprise attacks.
“This thing just won’t die…” Tsurugi mumbles, noticing several slash marks on its unarmored abdomen along with a few deep cuts revealing a bit of its internal machinery.
“Damn it… If only Ichika was here… What should we do, Shizune?” Asks Kiyoka, who then looks over to Shizune at her side.
“I don’t know… Only thing we can do now is to bring it down.”
“Can’t we call for help?”
“Almost the whole school is out for the summer… I don’t know about Orimura-sensei though. Maybe we could—”
“Look out! It’s engaging!” Tsurugi alerts them as the drone begins to lift up its arm while charging its particle cannons.
The girls break off as the drone begins to open fire on the Uchiganes scattering around the arena.
Tsurugi exploits the confusion and charges towards the Golem, holding up her katana as she prepares to stab it.
As she lunges her katana, the drone turns around and grabs her katana by the blade, lifting it up while swinging the other arm towards the weapon, breaking the blade off its hilt.
“No way…” She utters, stunned at her katana being shattered.
The drone throws the shattered blade away and attempts to punch her.
She quickly puts up her forearms to block the blow but the force of the close punch knocks her backwards, causing her to lose her foothold and fall to the ground.
“Tsurugi!” Kiyoka calls out to her and sees the drone aiming its cannons at her.
“Not so fast!”
Shizune closes in and pushes the arm away while Kiyoka dashes in and slashes its abdomen.
The duo turns around and goes for another strike, only to have their blades parried by the Golem’s armored forearms.
The hulking monstrosity pushes their blades away and throws a punch at Kiyoka who deploys a barrier just as its fist makes contact, sending her stepping back and crash into a concrete wall.
“
Geerrgh…!”
“Kiyoka!” Yells Shizune as she then notices the drone aiming its charged cannons at her.
“
Tch!”
*BSHUU*
Barely any chance to avoid, Shizune puts up both her forearms and deploys a quick, weak barrier.
The charged shot strikes the barrier, causing it to overload and break, sending Shizune falling backwards and losing grip on her katana.
“Gyaah!”
The katana stabs the ground next to her as she tries to get back on her feet.
‘It became so responsive all of a sudden… We can’t even get close to it!’
Tsurugi cringes while watching the Golem slowly turning to look at her and aims its cannons, charging up for another shot.
‘No… I won’t let it end this easily…!’
She maxes out the verniers’ thrust just as the cannon muzzle flashes.
Boosting off the ground as the beam shot misses, Tsurugi lands on her feet and charges towards the Golem again.
“Tsurugi! Catch!” Shizune calls out to her and tosses her katana ahead of Tsurugi, who then manages to grab hold of the weapon’s hilt.
“Thanks!”
She resumes boosting from side to side to avoid more beam shots from the Golem as it then prepares to swing its forearm at her.
The drone ceases firing and swings its arm but Tsurugi ducks, dodging the huge arm as it goes above her head.
“Not this time…!” She does a horizontal slash onto its abdomen, scoring another cut on its body.
The Golem slowly turns around and spots her already holding a stance to lunge the katana.
“Too slow!”
*SHOOM*
She thrusts the katana’s sharp tip into the Golem’s unarmored chest as it lifts up its arm to deliver a punch.
The katana penetrates through one of the open slash marks and into its body, which then strikes a central connection cable that’s connected to its core unit.
As the drone slowly goes offline, Tsurugi keeps the katana wedged into its chest, frowning with a smirk as she sees the drones’ eyes losing its menacing red glow.