Chapter Nineteen: Make My Monster Grow

Ren, Yuto, and Haruko were spat out right in Tenshigurobu’s city center. They were warped about a meter above the pavement and then sent sprawling to the ground. Crowds of unassuming salarymen were about to head out to their post-work group binge drinking sessions. The trio fell right into this mess, eliciting shocked gasps. 

They were exposed!

“What is it, some kind of cosplay?” asked a confused pedestrian.

Ren groaned. They hadn’t even been hurt, but already felt drained. The three rangers barely had time to get to their feet before the ground began to rumble. A cry of ‘earthquake!’ went out over the crowds.

“What are we missing?” Ren asked.

“Ay. Mahourangers report to the Temporal Fortress immediately!” the castellan blared.

“Where did you all go?” Sakura asked over the comms.

“We lost contact with you,” Miyu said.

Ren and Yuto shared a look. The Kagehime’s stronghold must have blocked their comms.

The earthquake grew fiercer. Attention was quickly drawn away from the three cosplayers who fell from the sky. Random pedestrians scrambled for safety.

Then, at the foot of the castle at the foot of the far eastern mountains…

+++

The Kagehime shuffled towards a regal altar in the depths of her redoubt. It was one of the few items in the umbral castle that was elaborately ornamented.

Four battle-thralls sat in tanks around the altar, while a fifth sat in another brothy tank above the ornate facade.

“How hum, how we shall miss our attendants,” the Kagehime said. “Pity that prisoners are required for monster-crafting and macro-fication.”

With a flourish of her hand, the five vats sank deep into the altar.

“No matter,” said the Kagehime with an airy tone. “With victory achieved, we can always acquire more…”

+++

Ren and company were warped back to the command center.

“Aye, mahourangers. This is bad.”

The central screen focused on the quarry at the foot of the Kagehime’s castle. An unformed whisp of free-floating vapor hung in the air.

“A ghost!?” Miyu said.

As soon as the Snapdragon Ranger said this, the mist formed into a more humanoid, solid figure.

Well, Ren said ‘humanoid’ – it had a face like a badger and a body like a mountain bear. It was also wearing heavy knight’s chainmail, the color of moondust. Though it had no weapons, the beast-knight’s clawed paws appeared deadly enough.

“A ranking Schattenritter has spawned!” the castellan announced. “That’s not good! It shouldn’t happen for another half a season. Oh dear.”

“That’s not a mythological creature,” Ren said.

At least not a local creature of Japanese mythology. Maybe there was some overlap with a griffin. Kind of looked like a Cereal mascot, come to think of it.

“Well, at least he’s in the quarry,” Ren said.

I knew we’d fight the quarry eventually, he thought, metaphorically patting himself on the back.

“We need to go out there and fight him,” the Kermes Ranger continued. “At least he’s in a deserted area.”

So long as they could contain him there in the quarry, they could go all out. Their fight wouldn’t even have eyewitnesses.

A bolt from out of the clear evening sky struck this badger-bear-person. Immediately, he began to grow roughly and unevenly. In a second, he’d tripled in height. In five more, he was the size of a building.

“How can we fight that?” Yuto asked, incredulous.

“Proceed to the garage, mahourangers!” the castellan pressed some buttons. “It’s time to be assigned your adaptive mecha!”

Up on the monitor, the Strenritter had reached ‘full size’. It took an earth-shattering step toward town.

Ren pointed at the castellan rather brusquely. “You should have told us about those much earlier.”

“You never asked. You never asked!” the ghost-bot put its hands up. “Mahouranger tools are deployed in accordance with threat level. Said threat level has just increased tenfold!”

Well, guess we’re diving right into this. Ren shot a glance at his squadmates. Their training had proven less than effective at dealing with the Malachite Ranger. They wouldn’t exactly get a practice run with these ‘adaptive mechs’ either. What worried Ren the most was that Becca and her own flying horse-creature were still out there.

Could they trust their castellan with anything? He’d lied by omission about the fate of their families. As the giant monster took another step towards the city, though, Ren felt they didn’t have much of a choice in this instance.

“You heard him, to the garage,” Ren said to the squad.

+++

The garage contained dozens, possibly hundreds, of building-sized block-like mecha. They were all a gunmetal grey, same as the walls. None appeared to be earmarked to any one ranger, so naturally, Ren called dibs on the first.

The Kermes Ranger sat upon the lead mecha as it began to transform. A red hue covered the mech in its entirety as the cockpit began to mold into something more thematically appropriate. The rest of the squad sat on their own mecha. True to their name, each mech adapted to its operator.

Miyu and Yuto’s mechs elongated and appeared to grow tank treads alongside a fierce, ugly pig-faces.

Haruto’s mech took on more of a wolf-like appearance with a wide jaw. Sakura’s was a slower affair, but it appeared to be morphing into a fox-like creature.

“We can only put one mecha in the staging area at any one time,” the castellan reported. “Kermes Ranger, board your adaptive mecha. You’ll have to keep the Schattenritter busy until the others are ready.”

Before Ren could respond, a hatch opened up directly before him. He jumped right in, deeming it far better than being stuck out when the mech was launched through the air at top speed once more.

The cockpit was spacious, far too big for one person. Ren briefly wondered why he got this much space, but didn’t have time to dwell before a portal opened up and the whole mech was spat out into the skies of Tenshigurobu, slingshot-style.

“Ganbatte!” Miyu and Sakura said, barely registered by the Kermes Ranger against the g-forces.

This mech wasn’t meant for flying! IT was oblong, top-heavy. More meant for grappling. Fortunate, as he was flying at high speeds right towards this white-armored Schattenritter.

A series of knobs, two levers, and a few buttons were all Ren had for controls. He pushed the right lever forward on instinct and a squat leg jutted out, kicking their foe right in the chest. The giant monster stumbled back, sliding through the fields and levees outside of town.

Every movement left a trail of destruction in the monster’s wake. It would have been to the city center in another minute or two. Now, Ren was out here all alone, left to his own devices!

“Foolish mahouranger!” the monster boomed with a voice that shattered distant windows. “You face Balthazar, trusted Schatternritter of her majestyship the Kagehime. Grovel for mercy after your attempt upon her life, and I may yet grant you a quick death.”

This Balthazar towered over Ren’s mech. It was preferable to taking on the beast on-foot, sure, but he wasn’t going to be taking on this beast alone.

A jagged great-hammer appeared in Balthazar’s hands. He wound up and swung. Ren wiggled the levers until his squat mech did a sort of diving dodge. The hammer landed where the mech once stood, producing a massive crater and a shockwave that sent the mech stumbling anyway.

“Going to need some help out here, guys!” Ren said into the comms, receiving no response.

A great mound of dirt was kicked up as Balthazar performed a sliding kick, striking Ren’s mech right in its squat body. Before he could react, Ren was flying. The mech soared right over Tenshigurobu! He couldn’t control where he fell, only hoped that he landed somewhere unpopulated.

The mech fell with a crash in a train yard on the outskirts. At this hour, Ren only hoped that the yard was abandoned.

The ground shook as Balthazar approached, hammer raised. The mech wasn’t responding. Balthazar reared his hammer back… only for it to be caught by a wolf-shaped mech who’d run up from behind.

“Ren-san!” A fox-shaped mech grabbed Balthazar’s leg.

A portal looming high in the air deployed two more mechs in quick succession. The tread-like tank ones. It was Haruto and Sakura. Miyu and Yuto were in the four-legged models, haranguing the schattenritter.

The tank-tread mechs landed with a thud two wide avenues and ground the street up as they advanced upon the outrider knight.

“Aha. I’ll have you know I have up to two hundred adaptive mecha kills over the course of her gloriousness’s many conquests!” boomed Balthazar.

The man-beast picked the wolf mech up and chucked it into the distance. It kicked the fox-mech away, eliciting a harsh and almost hurt sound from Miyu’s mech. The fox slid to a stop, its hind legs decimating a block of storefronts.

They were still too small! It was like five corgis nipping at a full-grown human’s heels.

“We need a plan,” Yuto said.

“I have one!” Ren jostled with the levers until his mech was standing upright.

The Schattenritter held his hammer up high and bellowed out a war cry. The four mechs hung back, waiting for the team leader to make an announcement.

“Gattai!”