"Cough... Y-you have no manners at all, what are your irresponsible parents doing?"
Despite his little provocations, he slipped his hand into his clothes to pull out a syringe.
Without hesitation, he plunged it perfectly into his thigh.
'This should prevent me from feeling pain for a while'
Yes, Gorou had doped himself.
His exoskeleton gives him abnormally high strength for a human, but he remains a mortal in his late forties.
The shock from the blow hadn't been negligible.
He'd probably have to visit a hospital after all this.
"Shut up..." Koneko frowned on her indifferent face, before charging toward him.
Kiba seemed to want to stop her, but that wasn't really important to Gorou.
'Keeping the stray devil with me is no longer a priority, I need to escape'
He threw a paralyzing grenade at the loli, before pulling a laser pistol from his belt.
This was created to simulate an effect similar to or close to Holy Power.
'Devils don't appreciate sunlight, based on my observations of Issei'
Based on this, he modified his laser gun, which looks like a bolter, to fire energy beams that mimic sunlight.
(Image)
Yes, this wasn't Holy Power.
However, it had been extremely painful and unpleasant against all the devils tested on.
As expected, the electric discharge only slowed down the angry loli.
Still, it wasn't totally sufficient.
Koneko still struck toward him despite the pained expression on her face.
Fortunately, she had slowed down and a bolt shot hit her.
Bam.
Koneko's fist connected with Gorou's mask, but he hit her again toward the hip with a casual shot due to the shock.
'Damn, what is this strength and speed?'
Fortunately, his mask wasn't ordinary.
However, Koneko had been able to damage it enormously and it had slightly frightened him.
'If I hadn't paid attention to my mask...'
Yes, he would be unconscious at best and at worst...
Gorou had never yet faced a devil this close.
He usually trapped them or attacked from afar and conducted experiments on their corpses.
This was therefore Gorou's first encounter or combat against devils.
Especially devils possessing their full consciousness and not clouded by the absence of their master like stray ones.
After noting the huge hole in the wall caused again by Koneko with her body, he grabbed the young girl wounded by the collar of her shirt.
Bam.
Without hesitation, Gorou smashed her face into the wall before crushing her with a kick without hesitation.
This caused a small crack, because his exoskeleton could deploy a force easily reaching a ton!!
This was clearly superior to Koneko's personal punching bags.
Yet, Gorou didn't hesitate to use all his strength in his strikes.
She wasn't a cute young girl from an ecchi story to him, but a pure monster with human skin.
He wanted to make sure of her unconscious state, but...
Smash.
Slash.
While he was crushing Koneko's face against the wall, Kiba wounded him in the back with a strange sword.
"A Sacred Gear... so you're a former human, who betrayed your race"
He couldn't let his meta-knowledge show through.
He chose to destabilize Kiba with words.
'Unlike Koneko, I have trouble seeing him'
"Humans took everything from me!!" he said coldly, before attacking at abnormal speed.
'I can't continue like this'
He was taking too many cuts and wounds.
Kiba was clearly trying to capture him alive, because despite his provocations or insults, he managed to keep his calm.
'If Koneko recovers, I'll really be screwed and there's...'
The creature suspended on an electrical pole, observing the scene.
It's Rias Gremory's familiar!!
If he doesn't leave this place, he won't just be dealing with a low or middle-class devil but... a high-class one.
'I need to throw him off with a reckless action!!'
This was the solution he came up with after these few seconds of exchange between his bolter, his exoskeleton and Kiba's demonic sword.
Why hadn't he used the Memory Gun?
Kiba was already dodging his bolter attacks, so using a trump card from his plans was out of the question!!
Despite his current pitiful state.
Drip.
A small puddle of blood had formed under Gorou, but thanks to the injection's effects, his mind remained lucid.
'I'm stronger than him thanks to the exoskeleton though...'
Kiba was just too fast and lethal.
"Let's stop here, you risk really dying with your reckless attacks... human"
Thanks to Gorou's provocations, Kiba had finally guessed his opponent's identity.
"Hahah, thanks... I needed exactly that"
Kiba didn't understand the masked man's words at first, but this was quickly corrected.
'This is!!!'
He instinctively rushed toward Gorou to prevent him from reaching into his bag.
During the entire exchange, he hadn't noticed that they had subtly moved toward this location.
Slash.
Bam.
"Kiba!!!"
In Gorou's bag, there existed a self-destruction device.
He had created this thing to prevent the theft of his gadgets.
'I never thought I'd use it like this!!'
The explosion was less violent than expected because the devil had been able to split the bomb in two at the last moment.
This prevented the bomb from activating properly and destroying the entire neighborhood.
Was Gorou sure he would survive?
The answer was no.
He had just bet on Kiba and his absurd speed.
The current explosion was the result of the clash between Kiba's sword and the self-destruction device.
This reduced the power of the original explosion, which was now around 500 kg of TNT.
The equivalent of a very powerful car bomb explosion and this causes the formation of a 10-meter diameter crevice.
"... I'll have to wait for things to calm down *cough*"
He sat down on the ground in the sewers.
His mask stank of blood, and it was severely damaged.
There was also the doping effect, which was almost finished, but Gorou was content.
He hadn't been captured and his identity had remained secret.
"I also now have real combat experience."
As for Kiba's survival?
He was betting on him again, but this time on his resistance.
After all, he was a devil from an important clan and Rias's precious servant.
[synchronization level with the model: 14%]
'At least there's real gain today'
....
"Kiba!!!"
After Gorou's hasty departure, the explosion attracted enormous attention, whether from the supernatural or human side.
Japan isn't really known for this kind of thing, especially not in a place like the current city of Kuoh.
"Calm down, Koneko."
The little high school student had finally woken up in her bed.
She had her head covered in bandages, which also covered her small delicate body.
"Where... where is Kiba?"
The first thing she asked about was of course her senior's condition.
Akeno remained silent for a moment, but she indicated a direction with her gaze.
"Kiba is fine, but the shock from the explosion and the strain of bringing you both back put him out of commission for quite a while."