Go Big To Go Home: A Kaiju-Fighting Isekai LitRPG (Book 1 Complete!)

The Detective King burst out of the buildings and into the field, finding the Moonlight Knight waiting for it. Merk stalked forwards, riot shield raised and ready.

"Just so we're clear, he is still an officer of the law. We are not going to kill him. We just need to break his Armour so that he cannot pursue us as we make our escape," Nya asserted.

"But I wanna kill him! He's a meanie and he deserves to die!" Shao whined.

Both of the older girls twisted in their seats to glare at her, and the little Yaoguai slumped back into her seat and sulked. "Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine," Just to be contrary, she drew out the word for as long as there was breath in her lungs.

"Still, this shouldn't be too hard. The police aren't that strong, and now that we're not in the city the prospect of collateral damage is no longer tying our hands. We should be able to defeat him quite quickly," Nya asserted.

There were several expanding shapes of light, and a half-dozen more Armour Cores flared into existence. They looked similar to the blocky forms of Amber Sentinels, but instead of the spear and shield fused to their hands that Mikayla expected, they had batons and differently shaped riot shields. Their helmets were adorned with tall crests that flashed red and blue, as well as bulky goggles.

Mikayla winced. ". . How do you feel about seven on one?"

"Less good," Nya squeaked. "Those are Amber Corporals. They're garbage compared to a real Armour Core, mostly made to intimidate civilians, but . . six of them supporting our foe is a problem,"

With his men lined up to either side of him, Merk barked, "We are the City of Roses Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad, Northern Division!"

"Judicious, meticulous and -" The chant was interrupted when a ball of napalm burst from the Moonlight Knight's Cannon and struck the man standing to Merk's right dead-on, exploding and spraying liquid fire across the less-protected right side of the Detective King, as well as his squad mates.

"Whoops," Shao offered insincerely, as though Mikayla and Nya hadn't just watched her slam the Big Red Button with vicious glee.

"You rude little crook!" Merk yelled, swinging his flail up and around towards them, and they suddenly didn't have time to reprimand her.

In what looked like an impossible feat of multitasking, the left arm of Moonlight Knight came up to catch the spiky ball on their shield while the right arm drove their spear into the Detective King's gut. This was possible because Mikayla was controlling the left arm while Nya took over the right.

The Amber Corporals on Merk's left, who were mostly unscathed by Shao's blast, started to make to encircle them, but their partners were slower to keep up on account of being on fire. Nya made the Moonlight Knight step smartly to the left, using their spear to shove Merk's shield aside, and Mikayla capitalised by batting the spiky ball caught on their shield at one of the recovering Corporals.

They broke left, keeping the entire group within line of sight, and Nya reversed her grip on their spear before wedging it under one of the downed Corporals' chin and ripping their helmet from their shoulders.

"This is why no Guardsman uses Ambers," she scoffed as the Corporal shattered around its pilot, leaving them to fall to the ground in a heap. "That wouldn't have worked on any other type of Core," Even now, she was falling back on her role as Mikayla's tutor. Possibly as a coping mechanism. Mikayla resolved to check in with her properly later on.

Energy blasts bounced off their right arm and shoulder, carving dents into the hardlight armour. The three unhurt Corporals were firing bullets from their batons . . but they were weak, well below even the most basic Techniques Mikayla had seen used around Cloudscraper. Which made sense, actually; these were police officers, not Guardsmen. Blasts of that magnitude would be more than enough to deal with civilian criminals.

Which was to say, they could barely even slow down the Moonlight Knight.

Mikayla made the Blunderbuss on their shoulder swivel and return fire. Three quick shots sent them staggering backwards, their formation disrupted and their Armours flickering worryingly.

"We can't keep fighting like this, we'll kill someone!" Nya fretted.

"Well, we can't just run or they'll chase us. We need something to hit them all at once, that'll stagger their whole party enough for us to make our getaway,"

"I, uh, am not specialised in fighting

people

. Or non-lethally," Nya awkwardly admitted. Despite her protests, she was doing an excellent job of fending off the half-dozen warriors, retreating with every motion to prevent them from encircling the Moonlight Knight.

A thought occurred to Mikayla, and with a twitch of her fingers, she flipped through her Profile until she found the entry she needed.

[{WHEN MANY HANDS WIELD ONE BLADE} (Basic) (

Divine Technique

): Draw strength from your bonds with your allies to unleash a Sacred Smite. This Technique bypasses all forms of damage resistance or immunity and inflicts True damage. This Technique will only inflict fatal damage if the user wishes it to. Costs 50 Faith Points. Damage scales with quantity and quality of the relationships drawn on.]

That was perfect.

Mikayla took a deep breath. "We need to line them all up, hit all of them with the sword at once,"

"Ahem. Our weapons are merged," Nya reminded her.

"Not a problem," Mikayla looked at the semicircle of Armour Cores surrounding them, and with a twist of her joystick, the chain that connected the blade and handle of Nya's kusarigama extended. She let the handle fall to the ground, gripping the base of the blade, and took a deep breath. "Now,"

A cycling, transforming pattern wrapped around it, and ribbons of white light wove around their arms, linking Nya and Shao together. Nya's purple cord was strong, if a bit erratic, while Shao's yellow conduit shook wildly and seemed to let off sparks. Mikayla guessed that said something about how much her two co-pilots trusted her, but it was clearly enough for the Divine Technique.

[YOUR CURRENT FAITH POINT TOTAL IS: 2,774.]

"When Many Hands . ." She swung, and a fizzling, burning crescent of light grew from their weapon and washed over the Enforcers. "Wield One Blade!"

She could feel it, the energy of {TEAMWORK}, flowing into her opponents, destroying their Armours from the inside out. Chunks of Amber Armour cracked and shattered, but the Mana sensed her Will and acted accordingly. None of the policemen suffered lethal damage.

Mikayla admittedly wasn't sure if they would have in any case, but better not to take the chance.

She completed the swing and breathed heavily. The Technique ended, and pain lanced up her arms, through vital energy channels that she was growing more and more convinced weren't strong enough yet to properly channel Demigod powers. But she couldn't afford to collapse right now. They needed to run. "Nya, take over," she hissed, and slumped back in her seat when she saw Nya nod confirmation. Massaging her aching arms, she focused on Circulation of Stamina, feeling the tears and micro-fractures repair themselves.

<=====}—o

One by one, like bowling pins, the Amber Corporals collapsed to the ground and shattered.

The Detective King fell to one knee, clutching its chest. "You . . you bastard," Merk hissed, forcing himself to raise his head. The strike had gone straight through him. There was only a tiny sliver of his Health left, and only the policework Technique that let him reduce the damage his strikes inflicted in exchange for increased durability had kept his Armour intact.

He forced himself to raise his head. To look death in the face when the killing blow came. Even if he fell, he would never bow to the scum of the world. Because that was what it meant to be part of the City of Roses Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad, Northern Division. Judicious, meticulous and perspicacious. To the end.

. . . why wasn't he dead yet?

He looked around, confused, even as his instincts kicked in and he subconsciously drew and quaffed a Health Potion.

Where had the arsonist gone?!

"Everyone! Split up, spread out and . ." He trailed off, noticing that his subordinates had been reduced to groaning, useless heaps. By some miracle, it seemed like none of them had died. And the arsonist didn't seem to care to finish the job.

He groaned. This had ended up being an absolute failure. "I . . I'm going to have to report this to Haran . . argh, I can already hear him yelling at me . ."

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<=====}—o

The flames falling from the Moonlight Knight carved a trail into the forest as they fled the city. "I think we're safe," Mikayla breathed.

"Well, so long as we stop leaving an easy to follow trail," Nya glared at the line of burning trees behind them.

"On it," Mikayla reached out and snapped the Blessing of Teamwork. The Moonlight Knight collapsed into a shrinking pillar of rainbow light that deposited its three drivers unharmed on the ground. Mikayla breathed a sigh of relief. "We did it. We made it!"

"Boo-yah!" Shao jumped up and down to celebrate. "In your face, meanies!"

"Now, hold on. We are not done yet," Nya interrupted. "For starters, we need to get somewhere there is not a line of burning trees pointing at us. Which means no more fire tonight. Can you promise me that, Shao?"

"Oh, sure," Shao stood up and clapped her hands, and suddenly the fires all went out.

Mikayla and Nya both froze, looking around at the scorched trees that were no longer ablaze.

Nya's tail lashed. ". . You could have done that

at any time?"

"Yeah?"

"Then why didn't you?!" Nya just barely managed to restrain herself from screaming at the little pyromaniac.

"Fire solves problems! So of course I kept the fire going!" Shao replied without a hint of shame.

Mikayla heaved out a sigh. "Well, doesn't matter now,"

"Excuse me? She -"

"It doesn't matter now,"

she emphasised. "We made it," Mikayla glanced back at the young yaoguai they'd rescued, who was staring at the distant lights of the city. "Now what?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Nya shrugged a bit.

"What are we going to do with her? Hide her in our room? We can't just send her to an orphanage or something, she'll start burning things again," Mikayla wrung her hands. "Do you have any kindly grandparents who live on a farm in the middle of nowhere?"

Nya stared at her as though she was an idiot. Which she was used to, but usually from Keldryn. ". . why would we not just take her to the faculty at Cloudscraper?"

Mikayla grimaced. "She's still a criminal. If we just put her back in the system, the police will come knocking. We'll be right back where we started,"

"Cloudscraper has systems set up for this. Work release programs for criminals, rehabilitation for young offenders. Dean Wujing will smooth everything over if we just ask him to, and this is most definitely a situation that merits his attention," Nya insisted. "He is a good man, and he has enough political and personal power to keep us and Shao safe,"

"So we're gonna fight abuse of authority against us with abuse of authority that favours us," Mikayla sighed. "I don't like it . . but I don't have a better plan,"

"There is a program for taking care of orphaned children left behind by Guardsmen who made the ultimate sacrifice. Including those who inherited their parents' Neidans, like Shao must have. The Cloudscraper Nursery is the safest place for her to be in all of Guili. All we have to do is talk to Dean Wujing, and he'll send Shao there,"

"I don't wanna go to school!" Shao suddenly burst out.

"Would you prefer to go to

jail?"

Nya fired right back at her.

Having no response for that, Shao just sulked.

<=====}—o

Mikayla had only briefly met Dean Wujing, over a video call through the Ataraxia Node in Cliffwatch. She had no idea at all where to actually look for the man. Fortunately, Nya's status came through; she had apparently visited Dean Wujing's offices several times prior to the official start of her studies.

Mikayla was surprised to find that, after more than an hour of walking, navigating by Local Map, Nya had led them to a modest cabin nestled at the base of the Cloudfingers. They'd made good time getting there; Moonlight Rose at full size could run very far very quickly. At a rough guess, it was a bit past midnight, yet the lights in the cabin were still on.

A knock on the door in short order had the blue-skinned, elderly yaoguai peering down at their little group. "Ah, Lady Han. Miss Aiadon. And who might this be?"

"I'm Shao!"

"We've had an exciting night, and I'm sorry to disturb you this late but we desperately need a trustworthy authority figure," Mikayla summarised.

He raised his wispy eyebrows. "Is that so? You had better come in, then,"

It wasn't long before they were sitting in Wujing's living room and explaining the events of the night that had brought them to this point. Mikayla had been hesitant to share the details of her status as a demigod, but Nya had persuaded her that trying to hide it from Wujing was pointless and counterproductive. Shao, conversely, had been all too eager to demonstrate the flames that fell from her fingers at the drop of a hat, and only some conjured water from Wujing saved the cabin from going up in flames. She was now snuggling into the crack between cushions on the sofa, leaving smears of ash on everything she touched.

Wujing rubbed his beard. "My word. This is a fine mess you've gotten yourselves into. It's a mercy that you covered your tracks as well as you did, this would be much more complicated if you'd gotten caught,"

Mikayla blinked. "Wait. Are you

actually

going to skirt the law and help us cover all this up?" Despite Nya's promises, she hadn't fully believed that Wujing wouldn't just, at the very least, turn Shao over to the police. She'd only gone along with the plan because she didn't have any better suggestions.

"Well, of course," he chuckled. "Let me make this a teaching opportunity. There are times in the life of a Goliath Guardsman where you must choose between the correct thing to do, and the

right

thing to do. And you will always find that the latter is the preferable option,"

"Hah. Kinda cliche, but I'm okay with that," Mikayla chuckled.

"You think? Well, I find it better that words of wisdom be repeated often, rather than words of foolishness. Remember that, little one,"

"Uh-huh. Sure," Shao clearly had no clue what they were talking about. "I, uh . ." Whatever she was about to say turned into a long and drawn-out yawn, and she nestled deeper into the crack between cushions on Wujing's sofa, hugging her own tail. "This is the softest thing I ever touched," she mumbled.

"It is getting quite late. Goodness, almost 1 AM. And you two have your morning exercise in, oh, six hours? Perhaps we should call it a night and reconvene tomorrow afternoon?"

Thinking about going to bed opened the floodgates, and Mikayla felt all the fatigue of the day crash down on her shoulders. She yawned, cupping her hands around her mouth for politeness. "Yeah, sure . . but, wait, what about Shao? She might panic if she thinks we've left her behind,"

"A prudent consideration," Wujing nodded approvingly. "Perhaps you could take her back to your room and settle her down there, just for tonight? I'll send a letter to the Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad and start cleaning all this up,"

"Can do. Come on, Shao, get up," Mikayla tried to lift the child out of the couch, and she caught fire.

"No touchy!" Shao groggily protested, diving back into the couch as Mikayla yanked her hands away, ignoring that her touch was now setting it ablaze.

"Oh, crap, crap, um -" Before Mikayla could do more than panic, a spray of golden particles wrapped around Shao, cocooning her in a silky blanket woven from sand. Wujing lifted her into the air, ropes of sand spreading from his sleeves, while another golden cloud snuffed the fire. "Perhaps I had better come with you," he asserted with a grim chuckle. "I'm starting to see how she caused all those terrible fires,"

"So, what's next?"

"We really ought to interrogate Shao properly. And if it's not too much to ask, I would like you both to be there so that she will feel comfortable and not need to set anything on fire," Wujing hummed. "Shall we say, bring her back here tomorrow, after your classes?"

"Of course, we shan't disappoint you," Nya confirmed.

"Can do," Mikayla agreed. "See you then!"

It wasn't long until, at long last, Mikayla and Nya were crawling into bed. Shao had been settled into an impromptu nest of blankets on Nya's least expensive couch, and Mikayla had generously offered up some of her stuffed animals as her pillows. "Ugh, this was the longest night of my entire life. Right, Nya? . . Nya?"

A snore was her only response.

"Okay, okay, goodnight,"