He was dressed like a corporate drone from the bottom of the ladder, wearing a suit and carrying an umbrella. But he had no facial features or hair. Some were dressed in office wear, holding a red, tattered umbrella with a slender, feminine figure. They also had no facial features. There were also various others dressed as security guards or low-level company managers. Behind their formation were headless figures wearing sailor uniforms and male student uniforms. All in all, they had human-like physiques, but none of them looked human.
"Taichi, this is a rare chance for real combat training—a double-whammy of physical and mental tempering!" Mordred said, patting his shoulder to comfort him. "Do you want me to lend you my armor, too?"
"Forget the armor. It's too heavy and time-consuming for a normal person like me to put on. The most important thing is, I'm not used to it." Taichi licked his lips, gripping the hilt of Mordred's royal sword with both hands. "For the sake of our deep-seated bond, if I can't hold on, you have to remember to pull me out and save me."
Mordred's eyes narrowed slightly. He didn't look scared or about to make a strategic retreat; instead, he was showing a readiness to face the enemy, as if he had already come to a decision. Mordred felt that Taichi had courage; he just lacked confidence in himself.
"What the hell is this 'deep-seated bond' crap... Wait, what does that even mean?" Mordred said, kicking Taichi's rear and pushing him into the pile of monsters.
"Taichi, I'll only assist you with my telekinesis at the right time. Don't rely on me too much in this fight," Ultraman X warned. Both Mordred and X wanted Taichi to find his courage.
"A dead person's face points to the sky; an alive one lives forever! You monsters, here I come!" Taichi tried to hype himself up with a battle cry, though his voice wavered a bit.
"Idiot! Don't make such big movements! Don't do anything flashy. You have only one goal: kill every enemy in your line of sight that your sword tip points to!" Mordred punched a headless student monster into a pile of dust, yelling her advice.
"I know!" Taichi waved the royal sword erratically, letting his instincts guide him as he brought it down. The umbrella-wielding monsters tried to block with their umbrellas, but their umbrellas and bodies were instantly sliced apart. In terms of personal combat ability, Taichi, armed with the royal sword, was undoubtedly superior to the umbrella monsters. Not a single one of them could withstand the sword.
"Taichi! Look out at three o'clock! Move now!" Ultraman X's anxious voice rang in his ear.
Taichi could only give a wry smile. He could see through the gaps between the monsters' shoulders. A few monsters dressed as office ladies, who weren't holding umbrellas, were gathering a fire-ball-like attack. These monsters had no sense of camaraderie; as long as they could attack Taichi, they wouldn't hesitate to hit their own kind. The headless students were doing the same thing, performing flying kicks and whirlwind kicks like martial arts masters, using the umbrella monsters in front of them as soccer balls to kick at Taichi.
"Can I use Mana Burst?" Taichi yelled, his voice strained. If he didn't have a long-range attack, he wouldn't be able to dodge those office ladies' magic. He was packed in so tightly with monsters that he had no room to move. The only option was to use Mana Burst to sweep away a whole line of enemies.
"You don't have any mana! How are you going to use Mana Burst?" Mordred yelled back in a fit of rage. "Use those monsters as shields! If one isn't enough, use a few more!"
"There are too many of these cannon fodder! Damn it! These things aren't even good for practice," Mordred complained with a look of disgust after confirming the monsters' fragile bodies.
"Whoa! Do they have friendly fire immunity?" Taichi broke out in a cold sweat as he watched the fireball pass right through the monster he was using as a shield without harming it. Thankfully, Ultraman X's telekinesis stopped the fireball just outside Taichi's body. He quickly dodged. The fireball, now unimpeded, slammed directly into the building behind where Taichi had been standing. Several foul-smelling craters appeared on the wall.
"Taichi! These monsters don't have real bodies! They're in a state between spiritrons and physical matter—an extremely ambiguous and uncertain existence! The reason you can hit them is that Mordred's sword is in a very similar state to them," X warned. "This must be an effect of the earlier fog, including Mordred's materialization."
The fog was gradually thinning now, and the visibility was increasing.
"Then I guess I'm glad I didn't get a chance to kick them," Taichi said, swinging the royal sword and killing the surrounding umbrella and headless student monsters.
"Give me the sword!" Mordred had suddenly rushed in and was holding out her hand for the sword. "These things' bodies are already pathetically weak compared to monsters, and you can't even hit them with your body. They're completely useless for training."
Mordred was about to show what she could do! Taichi obediently handed the sword over.
"By the way, I also confirmed something else," Mordred said, and the sword's blade began to flicker with electricity. "The combination of the fog and the barrier has turned the inside of this space into a realm more suitable for 'non-human' existence."
Mana Burst—!
A crimson torrent surged forward from Mordred's sword. Dozens of the remaining monsters were instantly turned into glowing blue particles.
"My condition is getting better and better," Mordred said, dissipating her sword and armor and turning to Taichi. "But at the same time, you living people in this space will gradually wither away and die."
"That's just great," Taichi sighed helplessly. "I have X to help me, but what about Yukino and Akane?"
"Wait, what is this..." Mordred's eyes widened. She spun around to look at her surroundings.
From the clothes of the vanished people, glowing figures with human outlines slowly emerged.
"...They're souls!" After several cube-shaped objects with the character for "Seal" appeared and trapped the glowing figures, Mordred's expression became even more ferocious. "That damn bastard who cast this spell is a complete psychopath!"
"...While I can't understand this energy system, it feels really bad," X's voice turned grim. "However, as long as we can find their physical bodies, there's still a way to save them. I have a skill that can purify this kind of negative effect."
"Then there's nothing more to say. Let's get Yukino and go find these people's bodies and the mastermind hiding in the shadows!" Taichi said, his eyes darkening as he stared at the cubes floating in the air.