Tsuchimikado Motoharu was covered in blood.
It wasn't because he had been shot by the powered suits. It was a side effect of the origami magic he had used in order to draw their attention elsewhere.
He had used the tiny opportunity from that to start running down a narrow road. He looked like he was about to fall over as he hid behind a parked car.
A number of gunshots rang through the air towards him.
Even though these gunshots were from blanks, the blasts of air were effective at suppressing the rioters. With one blast, the car's windows shattered and the metal door bent in.
(Damn them…)
Tsuchimikado clicked his tongue as he pressed against the side of the car.
He wouldn't die if he was hit, but he would pass out. And as he hid behind his shield, he heard a different thud.
He looked over in shock and saw that one of the powered suits had used its astounding jumping power to travel 10 meters through the air and was approaching from directly above him.
"Shit!!"
Tsuchimikado immediately jumped back and, at about the same instant, the giant powered suit landed on the car. The car was crushed beneath the great weight and exploded. The blast carried Tsuchimikado farther than he could have jumped otherwise.
As he rolled along the ground, the powered suit quietly aimed its anti-barrier shotgun at him while it was still surrounded by flames.
The area he was in simply had a line of cliff-like buildings on either side of the narrow street. Tsuchimikado tried to get behind a building at a street corner, but the powered suit was faster. The blast of air that came with the gunshot hit Tsuchimikado's feet.
He fell as if he had been tripped.
Crawling, he somehow managed to get around the corner.
(Gh…Ahhhh!?)
When he looked at his ankle, it was badly bruised. Somehow the bone hadn't been broken, but his movements were restricted nonetheless.
(It looked like there were 14 powered suits. Their armor looks thin, but they should be able to take an anti-tank missile straight on. Not to mention that…)
As he heard moving machinery from around the corner, Tsuchimikado pulled some first-aid medical tape out of his pocket and used it to wrap his ankle.
(They're using the new drive correction device. That driver that studies the conditions of the battlefield and automatically regulates everything to bring out the greatest performance.)
When using the same weapons in a tropical rainforest or in Antarctica, its performance could change based on the environment. In a desert, you had to be sure that sand didn't get in and in wetlands you had to make sure mud didn't get in.
The easiest way to maintain a weapon and the weapon's characteristics differed depending on the region. But these powered suits were different. They scanned the environment around them and automatically corrected for it, so they could be used in their default settings anywhere in the world.
(I'm pretty sure the automatic correction information is transmitted amongst all of them during a mission. Ha ha. They probably know the best on how to walk through Avignon right now.)
For weapons with legs, balance was the biggest problem, but that weakness was not present with the powered suits. They could walk across crumbling ground even better than a real person could.
(Damn it. How am I supposed to attack…?)
Tsuchimikado Motoharu checked his taped ankle.
And by then, they were drawing near.