Chapter 197: Splitting the Spoils

"Are you scared?"

Oni no Miko was looking down on Medusa as she stood atop Yamata no Orochi.

"Of course! I'm terrified!" Medusa replied with a fawning smile. "If I had known that you were this powerful, I wouldn't have gotten involved in this mess no matter how many cards I was promised. However, I'm a person of my word, so if you insist on fighting to the end, then I'll have to continue to oppose you regardless of how scared I am.

“If I go back on my word, no one will want to work with me in the future. On top of that, if I cower here and allow the seed of fear to be planted in my heart, then my psychic body could be permanently weakened, and that's a completely unacceptable outcome to me."

Even though Medusa was speaking in a very mellow and modest manner, she wasn't backing down in the slightest.

For adapters of her level, backing down in battle was not a decision to be taken lightly.

Courage was always the most important mental trait for any adapter. As an example, even in the instant right before he met his demise, Oni no Hanzou didn't allow himself to be overcome by fear. That was the mentality of a truly powerful adapter.

Oni no Miko took a glance at Medusa, then looked at her two half-dead subordinates and Diamond, who was significantly downsized, and she ultimately decided to accept Medusa's proposal.

"Fine, I'll let them go, but just this once!"

After that, Yamata no Orochi lowered three of its heads and picked up Diamond and the pair of Tigers in its mouths, then rose up into the air and departed at Oni no Miko's behest.

Only after the giant serpentine deity had completely vanished into the distance did Medusa heave a long sigh of relief.

"That was way too close! I can't believe I signed up for this. Where's that steam robot? Come out right now!" Medusa yelled in a furious voice.

Shortly thereafter, steam began to permeate throughout the nearby area, and Hook emerged with a sheepish smile on his metallic face. "Thank you, Mistress Medusa. Your beauty and power are truly unmatched."

"Stop trying to flatter me! Where are the cards?"

"They're all here. These are the points cards, here's the exit card, and there are also two intermediate skill cards."

Hook pulled out all of the cards that he had gathered from the small town as he spoke.

"That's quite a bit." Medusa's enraged expression finally eased slightly upon seeing this. "There are 23 points cards here, which amounts to 23 million. That's a very impressive haul! Of course, what's most important is the exit card. Now that I have this, I can leave the battle royale at any time!"

"Where's our healing card?"

While Medusa was counting the cards, the four mecha brothers slowly crawled onto the scene. At this point, they had already sustained such severe damage to their mechanical bodies that they were barely able to walk at all.

"You can take all the other cards, but that steam robot told us that he was going to give us an intermediate healing card."

This was the reason why the four mecha brothers had decided to intervene.

During the negotiation phase, they knew that there was no way that they could convince Medusa to hand over the exit card to them, so they had no choice but to settle for something else, and they were ecstatic to hear that there was an intermediate healing card available.

With such a card at their disposal, they would be able to recover from all of the damage they had sustained. Given their powers, once they returned to peak condition, they still had some decent chances of finding an exit card elsewhere.

"You're not going to change your mind, are you?" The four mecha brothers were feeling a little uneasy. "We agreed to this because you're known for keeping your promises."

"Of course I'm not going to change my mind, but if I run into the four of you again after we leave this place, I'm not going to hold back."

Medusa tossed a card to the four mecha brothers as she spoke.

"We'll make sure to stay out of your way!"

The four mecha brothers accepted the card, and sure enough, it was a counter-cyberhex card that bore the visage of a white-robed director, and it was able to heal all damage inflicted upon a psychic body within a certain period of time.

This was an extremely useful card that had the same effect as an advanced healing card, except an advanced healing card could achieve the same effect in a shorter period of time. In a battle, the longer duration required for the card to take effect would've been a problem, but outside of battle, it was essentially no different from an advanced healing card.

"Looks like we're not gonna be dying here!" the four mecha brothers said in an ecstatic voice before injecting their psychic power into the card to release the power of the director that had been stored within it.

A cool and refreshing sensation instantly surged through their bodies, and a layer of green light appeared as the twisted legs of the giant mecha began to gradually return to their original state. Its broken weapons were also slowly regenerating, and even its damaged magazines and energy core were beginning to recover.

While the four mecha brothers were undergoing treatment, they were still watching Adam and his team with wary expressions.

Medusa had promised to spare them for now, but Adam and the others had made no such promise.

"Don't worry, we wouldn't stoop that low. We're all enemies here in the battle royale, but you helped us just now, and it wouldn't be right for us to turn on you now."

Nie Yiyi plunged her blades into the ground, then stripped off her clothes and began to inspect her own injuries.

King Arthur didn't say anything, but he was also tending to his own injuries, displaying a lack of animosity through his actions.

At this point, Adam had already separated from Clown, albeit with great difficulty, and he was taking stock of his losses.

He hadn't sustained any injuries, but Mummy, the most powerful one of his reliable anomalies, was essentially a complete write-off.

He invoked Mummy to find that all of its bandages had been snapped, its head had been flattened by one of the six anomalies from earlier, and its entire body was riddled with injuries. In particular, it had been indirectly struck by a petrification attack to the back before taking many more hits during the battle against the anomalies, and as a result, its entire back was already completely mutilated, giving it the appearance of a corrugated mass of scrap metal.

Thankfully, as the anomaly of pain, its physical resistance was second to none. If the same injuries had been inflicted onto any other one of Adam's anomalies, they would've fallen dead long ago.

Adam heaved a forlorn sigh as he looked at the severely brutalized anomaly.

"Keep your head up. We'll just have to find a healing card to help it recover," Hook said in an encouraging voice.

"Thanks, brother. You really saved us there."

Having worked together with Hook so many times, this was Hook's most impactful performance to date. Essentially, he had turned the tide of this entire battle on his own.

"Don't get all sappy on me now. You guys are always carrying me, it's only right that I help out once in a while as well," Hook replied with a shrug. "Most importantly, if all of you die, I'm dead as well. We're all on the same boat here, so I'm saving myself by saving all of you. Going by that logic, there's no need for you to thank me at all."

Adam nodded in response, but he was still in a rather grim mood. In addition to the terrible condition that Mummy was in, the power that Oni no Miko had displayed was another huge cause for concern.

She was ridiculously powerful, far more so than anyone had anticipated.

Even with Medusa's help, there was no guarantee that they would be able to beat Oni no Miko, so they had virtually no chance now that they were on their own.

At this point, it still wasn't too late to back down. All he had to do was avoid Oni no Miko with the help of Hook's scouting abilities, then secure an exit card to save himself.

However, he didn't want to do that.

The footage was the only thing that would allow him to return to the civilized world. There were still far too many mysteries that he hadn't unraveled and far too many vendettas he hadn't settled. If he were to cower now, he would be no different from the maggots rotting away in the sewers.

Adam turned to the direction in which Oni no Miko had departed with tightly furrowed brows, feeling extremely indignant but also utterly powerless.