Meanwhile, on Kyurajima Island, Director Sawai and two guards in red uniforms arrived at the scene by helicopter.
As soon as Director Sawai stepped out of the helicopter, a guard in blue uniform ran up to him and saluted.
Walking forward, Sawai asked, "What's the situation?"
"Three miners and three investigators have been killed."
Sawai gathered the workers together and asked, "Has anyone here seen Gagula?"
"Yes! That thing looks just like a rock, oh, and it has a horn on its head!" an older worker said, gesturing with a finger above his head.
"Hey old man, your eyes are failing you, Gagula clearly has two horns!"
"Right, it's two!"
"No way, it's one, I've seen it!"
"It seems not a single person here has actually seen Gagula," Sawai said helplessly to the people around him.
Back in the GUTS command room:
"I see, the Giant can adjust his own strength based on the enemy's traits to deal with them!" Daigo muttered to himself, nodding as he fully understood.
"And this!" Muzui said, bringing up the footage of Gomora's battle.
"This Monster has been pressing the other two Monsters down in combat ever since it appeared; they're clearly not in the same league! But correspondingly, I noticed its movements aren't very agile—it looks just like the Giant's Power Type," Muzui analyzed.
"Yet, since its movements are so slow, why was Melba defeated by it?" Daigo wondered in confusion.
Seeing this, Xiao Luuo slapped a hand to his forehead in exasperation and said, "Didn't you see it fighting in close quarters the entire time?"
"Agent Xiao Luuo is right. That Monster seems to know its own weakness, so it constantly forced Melba into close-range combat! However, I feel that the Monster that appeared later has higher intelligence than both Melba and Golza," Muzui continued.
"Needless to say!" Xiao Luuo said with confidence, a hint of an enigmatic smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
Yet Muzui's analysis also made Xiao Luuo aware of a problem: Gomora lacked agility. If not for Muzui's analysis, he wouldn't have noticed it at all.
Just then, Megumi Iruma returned to the command room and wearily sat down in her chair.
The moment she sat down, the massive screen in the command room beeped a few times, and Director Sawai's figure appeared.
"GUTS, listen up—deploy immediately!" With that single sentence, the communication cut off.
Seeing this, Megumi Iruma quickly connected to the modification room.
"We've received the operation orders! We're out of time!"
"Are you kidding? How can we deploy right now? The entire craft has been dismantled and is currently being modified!" Director Reiko Kimbuchi protested.
"No problem, we can launch at any moment!" Rena quickly chimed in.
"You stay out of this!" Reiko Kimbuchi scolded.
"It's fine, I've converted the flare into a beam gun!"
"But it hasn't been tested yet!"
"I'll pilot it!" Rena declared immediately.
"Alright!" Hori nodded at Rena, clearly placing immense trust in her piloting skills.
On the Guts Wing 1 launch runway:
Rena said to Vice Captain Munakata behind her, "This feels pretty awesome!"
With that, she took straight off!
The intense wind pressure made it hard to keep one's eyes open even inside the cockpit, prompting Vice Captain Munakata in the rear seat to exclaim, "Good grief!"
Every family has its own difficult issues—
Back on Kyurajima Island, Sawai watched the continuous life signs reading from underground. The very second the single-horned Gagula crawled out of the earth, Director Sawai directly pressed the detonator!
The pre-planted explosives detonated instantly! But as the smoke cleared, Gagula was still jumping around lively. It then opened its mouth and fired a petrification beam straight at an excavator, turning the machine into solid stone in a mere fraction of a second!
"How can this be!" Sawai stared at the behemoth before him, his eyes filled with disbelief!
Right at that moment, the roar of an airplane engine echoed through the sky! Turning his head, he saw Guts Wing 1 and let out a long sigh of relief, saying, "They're here!"
Meanwhile, sitting in the command room, Xiao Luuo propped his head on one hand and softly muttered, "Poor two Monsters."
"Poor Monsters? Agent Xiao Luuo, what do you mean by that?" Megumi Iruma asked, puzzled.
"They haven't done anything wrong at all. They're just Monsters that feed on stone; humans provoked them by over-mining," Xiao Luuo explained.
"Because of humans?" Megumi Iruma murmured softly, her eyes filled with bewilderment.
"Humans are the ones who disturbed their lives," Xiao Luuo added.
"I need to use the restroom!" Xiao Luuo said, standing up and leaving.
Entering the restroom and finding it empty, he grabbed his head with both hands and whispered, "Oh crap, oh crap! It's over, it's totally over. Why didn't I go along with them?! How am I supposed to complete this mission?!"
Just as Guts Wing 1 took off, Xiao Luuo had received a system mission: rescue the Gagula family. Reward: 100 points.
"Ding, you can ride Melba and fly there!" The system's voice chimed in.
"Fly? How am I supposed to fly? I'll be blown to death by the strong wind!"
"Ding, your current body is completely that of a Reionics, and you already possess the Reionics form. You are completely unafraid of strong winds!" the system explained.
Hearing this, Xiao Luuo gave two light coughs and said, "Of course I knew that, I was just testing your reaction." He even whistled casually to make himself look at ease.
Turning to double-check that no one was around, he slotted the Melba card directly into the Battle Niser.
"Battle Niser! Activate! Ultra-Ancient Dragon—Melba!"
Frightened, Xiao Luuo quickly squatted down, hugged the Battle Niser to his chest, and complained, "Why does this restroom look so small, yet the echo is so huge?!" He hurriedly poked his head out of the restroom, and seeing no one around, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Melba transformed into a streak of golden light, appearing beside the TPC headquarters base.
Xiao Luuo threw open the restroom window, leaped onto Melba's back, and didn't forget to close the window behind him before leaving.
A flash of white light later, Xiao Luuo transformed into his Reionics form. His entire body was covered in patterns resembling an Ultraman, bearing a 70% resemblance to Ray, but without the two horns on his head—instead, he had a crystal-like protrusion on the side of his head.
Xiao Luuo patted Melba and said, "Let's go, to Kyurajima Island," pointing in a certain direction.
Melba understood instantly and flew directly toward the designated direction. Wherever it passed, the ocean was whipped up by fierce winds into waves dozens of meters high!
Inside the TPC headquarters:
"This is bad! A giant lifeform signature has appeared near the base!" Muzui said, bringing up the satellite surveillance. A small figure resembling the Giant could be seen riding Melba as it flew away into the distance!
"It's moving away from the base now," Muzui said, his inner anxiety lessening considerably. After all, if a Monster were to suddenly attack the TPC headquarters, given the unusual situation just now, they wouldn't have been able to stop it at all.
Megumi Iruma stared intently at the Melba on the screen and puzzledly remarked, "This Melba looks a bit different from the one that appeared some time ago, yet it seems to be the exact same one."
However, just a few minutes after Xiao Luuo's departure, Guts Wing 2 also launched straight up, heading toward Kyurajima Island for backup.
Xiao Luuo had underestimated the flight speed of Guts Wing 2.
Soon, the two parties crossed paths.
"That's—Melba! It's a Monster!" Hori exclaimed in surprise as he looked at Melba ahead.
"Prepare to attack!" Shinjo shouted, immediately adjusting the gun barrels.