Chapter 288: This Is Where Things Get Serious
Thanks to the emergency defences they set up, Akira and the others somehow managed to survive the giant’s sudden long-range laser beam.
However, their situation remained dire. The giant was too far for them to attack. On the other hand, it was able to freely shoot its powerful attack toward them. Akira was once again reminded of the curse that Pamela had left behind after her death.
“…s.h.i.+ori-san. I have a question. That thing… it’s not Latis, right?”
s.h.i.+ori knitted her eyebrows and seemed troubled. She seriously considered that possibility before answering his question.
“If that’s the case, that would mean she somehow turned Latis’ corpse into that giant. Though, I don’t really know why and how she did such a thing. Akira-sama, why do you suspect that giant to be Latis?”
“Well, I’ve fought against someone I was certain I’ve killed. When I got attacked by humanoid monsters sometime back, I fought against a giant monster, which resembled a human. There was even a time I fought against someone I thought was human. He suddenly grew multiple hands out of his body. Well, what I’m trying to say is that I‘ve gone through all those almost strange and seemingly unthinkable scenarios, you see… So, I just thought that this might just be another one of those.”
The strange-looking monster, automata with Pamela’s face on them. The giant that Akira fought back in Kuzusuhara ruin and Tiol, who grew out multiple arms from his body. All of them had green liquid in their blood. Akira noticed this similarity and had an ominous feeling about it.
However, it was not like he could just run away. Thus, he gave a sigh and composed himself. He stepped back onto his bike and jumped off from the top of Sheryl’s base. He managed to land inside the camping vehicle, where he quickly grabbed his supplies, and returned back to the rooftop. The moment he returned, Akira presented Elena and the others with a smile. He simply spoke to them while still floating in the sky.
“Elena-san, Sara-san. One thing I know for certain is that thing is hostile, so I’ll go off for a bit to take it down. Elena-san and Sara-san, for now, please provide me with… I guess that would be rude of me, huh? Please help me while I attack it. I don’t exactly know what the both of you should do so I’ll leave that to you. Please use your experience as my senior to help me.”
Although he spoke in a more casual tone than usual, Elena and Sara could feel that he was earnestly asking them for help.
Thus, Elena bitterly smiled and half-jokingly stated.
“Alright, but well, you know, we don’t have any experience fighting something like that.”
“Is that so? Actually, I fought one before. This would be my second time.”
Akira mentioned it with a prideful smile. This signified his leap over the wall he had erected between him and the two. It was a wall created unconsciously due to his belief that they had once saved his life. That feeling of debt created a barrier which made him not want to trouble them in any way. His statement indicated how their relations.h.i.+p had changed. It was meant not only to Elena and Sara, but also to himself.
Elena was a bit surprised by that, but she understood why Akira did that as both of them smiled confidently at each other.
“Good grief, you’ve grown pretty cheeky, right, Sara?”
“Yep, you really have.”
“Is that so? Well, I guess that just shows how much I’ve grown. Now then, I’ll head off.”
“Good luck!”
“Make sure to speak up when things get difficult, okay? We’ll be there to help.”
Akira and Elena smiled jokingly at each other. Just like that, in a situation where the giant could eliminate all of them in one perfectly executed attack, Akira travelled all the way back up to the roof to state what he felt was necessary.
Their conversation would eventually come to an end as Akira quickly accelerated his bike away. Freshly charged, the bike flew like a bullet through the sky.
After both women saw him off with a smile, Elena then frowned and questioned.
“s.h.i.+ori-san, what are you planning to do? If you‘re available, it would be great if you could help Akira as well, but…”
“We will provide support as well.”
“Is that so? Reina is not here though?”
“Milady is safer over there, so there should be no problem.”
Elena was a bit surprised by s.h.i.+ori’s response, but since it was beneficial to her, she did not say anything back.
Although s.h.i.+ori’s response was an honest one, she hid a few things from Elena. She did not mention anything Togami told them. This included the fact that they failed to receive help from the city defence squad. The fact that Chloe was in close proximity to Reina and those from the main branch had apprehended the two of them. If she brought it up, Akira might somehow get wind of it. Fearful of the consequences of Akira attacking those from the main branch, she refrained from sharing.
s.h.i.+ori had to also remind herself that the main branch was maintaining a neutral position. That they were not taking sides with either the third ward branch or the fourth ward branch. That her decision would be more beneficial to Reina once Akira ended everything with his victory.
“Since we are not in our best condition, we might not be able to help much.”
“I don’t plan to be dead weight. Though I have to admit, I’m pretty fatigued. The last fight was against a rather strong opponent, so yeah, sorry if I end up being a burden.”
Kanae smiled and spoke nonchalantly. Even if she tried to stay strong, Elena and Sara could easily notice her exhaustion.
Sara smiled at the two maids as if to rea.s.sure them. She gave a firm nod and stated.
“It’s fine. We came fully prepared, so we’ll take on most of the load. Well then, Elena, I will leave the command to you.”
Elena smiled.
“…Sara, it’s true that taking command is a part of my job, but you’re basically just throwing it at me, you know?”
“That’s just how much I trust your leaders.h.i.+p.”
“Yeah yeah, well then, let’s get going.”
They did not know just how powerful that giant was. Judging by its size alone, it was out of the ordinary. Even so, Elena and Sara were smiling confidently. They were more fired up than usual as they went out to provide Akira support.
After Akira flew off from the rooftop, he did not go straight toward the giant. Instead, he took a long detour.
“Alpha, why are we circling the giant?”
“It’s to confirm something. Though it shot at us before, I want to check if it’s acting based on its will or some other trigger.”
Since Akira’s expression showed overt bewilderment, Alpha then further elaborated.
When the giant shot at them, it did not seem like it acted by coincidence. Basically, it knew where Akira was and intentionally fired at him.
If it was a properly aimed shot, that meant the giant had an extremely powerful detection ability. This was considering the existence of thick jamming smoke in the area.
If it achieved that without being able to detect where Akira was, that would mean it had prior knowledge of where he was.
It was unlikely that the giant was scanning for information under the influence of such thick jamming smoke. Thus, there might be something else there that informed it of Akira and the others’ whereabouts at that time.
“If that’s the case, the next step would be to identify what’s helping it…”
Akira was able to understand what Alpha meant thanks to her explanation. He frowned and questioned.
“They are from Lion Steel. Latis’ corpse had run away. The monster swarm had suddenly stopped coming and that giant might be one of them… Or maybe it’s all of them!?”
“Yep, exactly.”
The giant’s mouth flickered again. A moment later, it released another beam of light. It burnt everything in its way as it spread out in all directions. Although it was weakened as it travelled further, it was still able to reach Sheryl’s base. Even so, the base was fine. At least for now. However, it would only be a matter of time after taking a few more hits that it collapses.
“Since it’s still firing in that direction, I guess that means it’s the latter, huh?”
Akira took a long detour. He was still approaching the giant. If it was originally able to detect Akira when he was back in Sheryl’s base, it should still be able to detect him by now. There was no way the giant would ignore him when he was quickly approaching it. This meant that the giant was unaware of his location. That it was only attacking the base, believing its enemies were still over there.
“…In that case, let’s ambush it and kill it right away! Alpha! We’ll be using it!”
“Roger that. Since the jamming smoke has thinned out, I can give you better support now. So, leave it to me!”
Akira aimed his RL2 multi-rifles. It was loaded with his trump card, the annihilator warhead. He did not have that many left, and each one cost 100 million Aurum per shot. Thus, he felt reluctant to use it. However, in this situation, he did not hesitate. He knew when he needed to use it, and would do so even if his heart bled from the cost.
The enemy was in the direction of the wasteland. There was no need to worry about hitting the city by mistake. If the giant was Pamela’s trump card, Akira believed that he should shoot it down before it could do anything else.
Thanks to Alpha’s support, Akira could see a zoomed-in image of the giant through his enhanced vision. Even from Sheryl’s base, he could only tell that the giant had a humanoid figure. However, after he got closer and the jamming smoke got more dispersed, he was able to clearly see its true form.
Its limbs were distorted amalgamations of machines and flesh. It resembled a cyborg made from random metal it sc.r.a.pped from around. The flesh underneath the metal seemed to protrude out from its body as if its rampaging cells forcefully broke through the armour plating covering its body.
To prioritize power, it completely forgo aesthetics. Either that or it was intentionally designed to be grotesque to terrorize its enemies. It was possible that its appearance could be the result of both.
Akira looked straight at the giant. Even so, he did not feel anything. His gaze was locked onto it without any hint of fear. Together with Alpha’s signal, he pulled the trigger.
The bullet left the muzzle at high speed. It was further bolstered by his momentum as he sped through the air on top of his bike. Thus, once it left the barrel, it immediately broke through the sound barrier and flew straight to hit its target.
When Akira shot the multi-legged tank with his annihilator warheads, he had to fire under the bombardment of weaponry made to a.s.sault a city. Thus, he released 5 shots at roughly around the same time to guarantee his attack had enough firepower to destroy the multi-legged tank.
Furthermore, within the family of annihilator warheads, the ones that he bought were relatively cheap and had relatively low firepower. It took 5 annihilator warheads exploding at the same time, precisely calculated by Alpha to explode at points that would increase their effectiveness to destroy that multi-legged tank.
Since Akira only used one bullet this time, it did not produce the same level of explosiveness. Even so, the explosion was strong enough to blow everything around it away. The shockwave it released launched the upper half of the giant into the sky. Meanwhile its lower half made a loud boom when it crashed onto the ground, drowning under the sea of flesh, machine parts and green liquid.
The shockwave was quickly preceded by a powerful gust of wind. Akira squinted his eyes as he made a rather conflicted expression.
“That was rather anti-climatic… Or so I want to say, but each shot cost 100 million Aurum…”
Akira knew that he was forced to spend a huge amount of money just to defeat an opponent that would not cover his cost. He heaved a sigh; his regret only grew bigger. It showed how he felt more exasperated than delighted from his victory.
That was when Alpha came with bad news.
“Akira, we’re not done yet.”
“…What? But we killed that giant, right?”
“That one, yes, but look over there.”
In front of a confused Akira, Alpha pointed towards where the giant was before it blew up. The whole area was drowned under a disgusting mesh such that Akira was not able to see the dirt beneath. That was when he noticed something that looked like a human rising from it. That human-like figure gradually turned to look more human-like and grew. It seems like it was creating another giant.
It did not stop with just a single body. As Akira watched on in shock, another body raised up, creating another giant.
“What in the world is going on…?”
“It is nothing more than just my guess and it won’t change the situation, but if you still want to know, I can tell you if you want.”
“…Yes, please.”
Even if he might not be able to understand anything, Akira chose to attempt to know. At least he might have a chance to get out of this situation, where he was getting repeatedly surprised as events unfolded. Alpha nodded and conveyed her hypothesis.
Among old-world medicines, some could recover lost limbs. That was so powerful it could no longer be regarded as something like healing. It was more so in the region of regeneration and reconstruction treatment. Instead of increasing the natural ability of the body to heal itself, these medicines gathered information and determined the normal state of the body. It would then reconstruct the body to approach that ‘normal’ state. Using such a medicine, even if the user was a cyborg, it would forcefully return their body to normal flesh and bones.
By modifying the information the medicine contained, one could set the giant to be its normal state. It was possible to force the body to continuously reconstruct by obeying said information. Moreover, those strange-looking monsters devoured all kinds of things in the slums, which added more different materials into its body. When combined with the green liquid, the monsters managed to grow to an enormous size but were fragile.
“Hold on, Alpha. Let’s just say you’re right and those giants were originally those strange monsters. It’s weird that it managed to shoot that huge laser beam though. Did it grow that laser cannon with the regenerative ability of the drug? That the drug was instructed to consider it as normal?”
“It’s true that it’s difficult to create that laser cannon from scratch, but it is manageable using materials that they can find in the area, no?”
“Someone brought such a thing here? That huge laser cannon?”
As Akira pondered, he somehow got reminded of the 5 annihilator warheads he shot, which destroyed the multi-legged tank. When he considered the possibility, he shook his head. The thought of those strange monsters consuming what remained of the multi-legged tank and turning it into a laser cannon was way too far-fetched.
“But we basically obliterated that multi-legged tank, at most, it would only leave unusable wreckage, no?”
“That thing, huh? They might still have more of it, you know?”
Alpha then pointed toward the direction of the wasteland. The Lion Steel tanks stationed there were gone.
Alpha further elaborated that it would have taken a huge amount of medicine to be able to create three giants. It would be impossible even if they gathered all those strange-looking monsters in one place and amalgamated them. In the first place, those strange-looking monsters were also using a green liquid, which was only able to create their demented shape. Thus, they would not be enough to create these giants.
That was where the Lion Steel tanks became important, Alpha believed that those tanks were filled with medicine. When Akira blew up the multi-legged tank, the other tanks plunged themselves into whatever remained. They released the medicine stored up and created a pond filled with material, ready to be used. If the construction of those giants needed more energy, they could gather more by absorbing the jamming smoke in the air and transforming them into pure energy. This would be the reason why the jamming smoke suddenly thinned out.
After hearing her explanation, Akira could not help but frown.
“Wait for a second… They used jamming smoke to reduce their reach, right? After all, it would be bad if they somehow hit the city by mistake. So, if they thinned out the jamming smoke…”
“That was probably just an excuse.”
“What?”
Alpha then continued to explain.
Information greatly affected the development of any battle. Spreading out jamming smoke that would prevent information gathering right next to the city would normally be considered a hostile act. They made use of an excuse, stating that the jamming smoke was meant to protect the city. It was a battle against a bounty target this close to the city after all. So City Management allowed the matter to slide.
Thus, reducing the effective range was nothing but an excuse. Their real goal was to hide the strange-looking monsters and the giants. Now, there was no longer any need to keep hiding them.
As Akira was listening to her explanation, he suddenly recalled what s.h.i.+ori had said. It was something about a Rank 9 warehouse, used to house equipment designed to a.s.sault a city. This sudden recollection made Akira’s expression turn grave.
“So, all the fighting before was just preparation? And now, they have completed all their preparations?”
“Most likely. It might be nothing but my hypothesis, but if that really is the case, then this is where they will get serious.”
Akira’s ominous feeling was right. He took a deep breath and gave a long sigh.
“Akira, let’s change the ammo in your rifles. Conserve your annihilator warheads. If your opponents are those giants, we don’t need to use them.”
Akira changed the ammunition and aimed both of his RL2 multi-rifles at the giants. While in the midst of reloading, the bike was already approaching those giants.
“It would be disadvantageous to fight those giants from a distance. Let’s use the difference in size to our advantage and fight them up close. Just leave the bike to me and focus on shooting.”
“…Roger that!”
His enemies were still alive and kicking. That was all he needed to know and focus on. He made his resolve to bring death onto them.
The closest giant suddenly grew a huge blade out of its palm. The blade seemed to be a forceful amalgamation of tanks, vehicles, and powered suits, which was rooted onto its palm.
That metallic blade started to glow and melted down, changing its shape closer into an actual blade. It then glowed even brighter as the forcefield armour used to solidify its shape started to break apart. The blade, still glowing, was suddenly swung down.
Due to its size, it seemed as if the giant’s movements were slow. However, the tip of the blade was in fact moving so fast that it released sonic booms. It seems as if the giant was trying to slice the whole world apart as its blade raced towards Akira. He only somehow managed to evade it thanks to Alpha’s dextrous control over his bike.
Rather than just getting out of the blade’s way, the bike pa.s.sed by, right next to the huge blade. The forcefield armour did protect it from the shockwave, but it still managed to push the bike to the side. Thus, the bike had to use its brake extensively, which left trails of brake marks on the forcefield armour projected under its wheel.
Once Akira evaded the blade, zoomed right towards the giant. He managed to land on it and continue to grind the wheel against the giant’s skin, racing up. At the same time, he aimed his rifles at another giant and released a barrage of bullets in its direction.
Although it did not pack as much power as compared to the annihilator warhead, a single shot was powerful enough to obliterate any normal monster. Moreover, Akira released the barrage at an astonis.h.i.+ng rate. He managed to strip the giant off its flesh and mechanical parts, sending shockwaves into the giant’s body.
However, the green liquid that leaked out from where he struck quickly healed its wounds. The gigantic hole he created from his barrage also swelled up for a moment and got quickly filled up. With how horrendous its body looked; Akira could not tell if he had left any damage on the giant.
As he was racing on top of the surface of a giant, it tried to crush him by flailing around its large arms. Akira simply made short bursts of speed and sharp turns to avoid getting crushed. However, its attempts still managed to release powerful shockwaves. Whenever its palm landed on its body, it transmitted a strong wave, which eventually managed to throw Akira’s bike off.
Thankfully, it was only temporary as the bike did not need a solid platform. With its ability to fly in the sky, he managed to quickly return back to the giant. However, another hand was already prepared for him, which came at him the moment he landed.
“Akira, we’ll launch a counterattack.”
“Alright!”
Akira reached for his blade, which was installed on the bike. Once he pulled the handle out, a huge amount of liquid metal spilt over from the bike’s tank. It quickly solidified into a blade with the help of forcefield armour. The blade then started to glow and formed an enormous, long sword.
Akira swung his blade, toward the incoming palm. Up close, the palm seemed like a wall of flesh that got randomly mixed with metal. Before he struck, the TGP laser cannon fixed on his bike released a shot. It was fired exactly where the blade would make contact. The two combined attacks sliced open its palm, and went through way past the arm, slicing its limb off.
“Whoah! So the blade is good enough to cut through its body! Then it might be better to use a blade instead of a rifle… What!?”
As the amputated arm fell to the ground, suddenly a large swarm of drones came out. They were all racing off from the sliced surface. They seemed to be made from powered armoured suits that had flying devices installed. They moved in sync and pushed the arm up, helping it float in the air and turn. The fingers of the amputated arm transformed into ginormous muzzles that were all aimed at Akira.
“It can even transform an amputated arm into a weapon if I don’t completely destroy it!? Give me a break already!”
“Stop getting impressed and start shooting.”
“I know, I know!!”
Akira flew in between the barrage of bullets released by the floating arms. He took aim, ready to fire, but before he could, a large s.h.i.+ning round struck it. It came from the ground. After that one shot, the gigantic arm broke into pieces and burnt to a crisp, falling to the ground.
A call reached an astonished Akira a moment later.
“Akira, can you hear me?”
“Elena-san!?”
“Oh! It’s connected! Akira! We’re here to help!”
The source of that shot was Elena and the others. It came from a large portable cannon that once unpacked, it could not be packed back without help from a specialist.
“It seems like I can contact you from this distance. We should be able to maintain a decent enough communication line if the jamming smoke has already weakened by this much.”
Although Akira was talking through telepathy via Alpha, the communication line was still established using his information-gathering device. It showed just how much the jamming smoke had dispersed. Akira connected his information-gathering device with Elena’s to share information between them and increased their overall information-gathering capability.
“We’ll provide you support, so go all out.”
Akira broke out a natural smile in reaction to her rea.s.suring line.
“Thank you very much!”
“Akira, just a question. What happened on our way here? Why are there multiple giants now?”
“…Uhhh, I’m not really sure myself. While I was fighting that giant, they multiplied before I realize it.”
The only thing he knew was what Alpha had conveyed to him. Otherwise, he would have no clue as to why it happened. If he were to share her hypothesis, it might seem a little misplaced. Thus, he acted none the wiser.
Akira was a bit overwhelmed when he challenged two giants all by himself. Now, with help from the others, he was able to gain the upper hand.
Elena’s team was moving like a mobile turret, attacking the giants. Their main attackers were Elena and Sara, who were shooting out those bullets that shone.
They exhausted a huge amount of energy with each shot, prioritizing power. Using some energy, the bullets maintained their round shape using forcefield armour. Once they landed, the forcefield armour immediately collapsed, exposing all the concentrated energy inside. The explosion sent shockwaves which devoured huge chunks off the giants.
Naturally, the giants could not simply ignore them. They swung their huge blades at Elena’s team and released beams from their jaws.
However, Akira prevented their attacks from hitting. With the help of Alpha’s calculations, he regularly fired at the giants’ mouths and arms, throwing their aim off. This greatly aided Elena’s group’s attempts to evade. Meanwhile, Elena’s team worked together with him in sync to pre-emptively move to evade the attacks.
Elena’s group was able to avoid a direct hit from the blades. As for the laser beams, they dealt essentially no damage to them. The laser beams prioritized covering a wide area, which greatly weakened them. Though that made it unavoidable, it was weak enough to be fended off with the combination of their forcefield armour along with s.h.i.+ori’s forcefield s.h.i.+eld.
Akira and Elena’s groups were repelling the giants’ attacks in such a manner. However, other monsters in the area were also trying to attack Elena’s group. These monsters came from those pieces that were blown off the main gigantic main body. They grew out of the sea of green liquid and slowly grew in numbers to form a swarm which went after Elena’s team.
The cannons used by Elena and Sara were not the appropriate weapon to be used against these monsters. Despite their smaller stature, these monsters were much too strong for common Hunters to contend against. Thus, Elena’s team was having a hard time against them.
However, with s.h.i.+ori and Kanae aboard, they managed to repel them. s.h.i.+ori used her blade, while Kanae used her fists. They were slicing and crus.h.i.+ng those smaller monsters coming at them. Since these monsters were not as strong as Latis and Pamela, s.h.i.+ori and Kanae had no problems fending them off.
Elena and Sara worked perfectly in sync with Kanae and s.h.i.+ori. They executed their respective roles perfectly and increased the overall effectiveness of the team. On top of that, with Elena’s superior ability to gather information and ability to maintain constant contact with Akira, she could deliver effective orders. Thus, the team was extremely effective.
Together, they were overwhelming, even against the two giants. This was even despite the difference in sizes. The giants on the receiving end of the a.s.sault eventually lost their limbs and crumbled into the pool made of their own flesh and blood.
“We did it!”
Elena inadvertently yelped in victory. Sara also had a huge grin on her face. Meanwhile, s.h.i.+ori and Kanae managed to relax as they gave a soft sigh.
However, Akira’s tense voice immediately reached them.
“Elena-san! Don’t drop your guard! They might still be alive!”
“What!?”
Elena quickly checked her information-gathering device and scowled. A new giant was rising. And now, there were four of them.
“Akira… What’s going on?”
“I would love to know the answer to that question as well…”
Everyone was equally surprised. It was only when the new giants took on their new form that they managed to snap back to reality and returned to attacking.
To help with the morale, Akira lightly asked.
“Elena-san, is it okay for me to rely on my seniors a bit more?”
“Of course, just leave it to us.”
Even after the increase in the number of enemies, Elena and Sara still smiled, filled with confidence.
That was when the situation took another turn. From behind them, a huge swarm of mini-missiles appeared and flew straight toward the giants.
A moment later they saw a squad led by Goutol flying above. This greatly shocked Akira and Elena’s team.
“The city defence squad…? But I thought they were not going to send anyone…”
Akira, still reeling from the surprise, suddenly had someone connect to him through the general connection line.
“Akira, thank goodness you’re alright.”
“Carol?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t protect the base although you’ve asked me to. I had to go against someone pretty strong, so I had no leeway to protect the base. However, I got the defence squad to act in place of me. I hope you’re fine with this.”
After Carol left the slums, just like Reina, she asked the city defence squad for help and was turned down the same way. However, something changed after that.
To prepare herself in case information about her being an old-world connector one day leaked out, she greatly enhanced the physical capability of her body. She had even gone against her usual principle and took in non-Hunter clients for her side job to earn more. Among such clients, some were high-ranking city officers.
Thus, Carol called those men and requested them to dispatch the city defence squad. She even contacted Viola to add extra pressure.
With reward and threat, they had no other choice but to do as Carol had requested. Although, as expected, they could not simply dispatch men from the city defence squad because an outsider requested it of them. Thus, they chose to send out Goutol’s team, who were already posted nearby as observers.
Goutol, who had been grinding his teeth, holding himself back from going out, was more than happy to follow an order to dispatch. He immediately took the squad under him to the slums. It did not take long for him to grasp the situation that was hidden under the jamming smoke. This made him switch the mission from reconnaissance to extermination.
Akira smiled and thanked her.
“It’s good enough, Carol. Thank you!”
“You are welcome. I will head there as well once I’m done with my preparations, so please hold on for a bit.”
“I know it has not been easy for you, so there’s no need to push yourself too hard, okay?”
“No, you just wait over there, alright?”
Carol then ended the call. The last line that she said had a rather uppity tone in it.
That was when Alpha, who was in front of Akira, suddenly turned around and showed a wide smile.
“Alpha, what’s wrong?”
“Akira, isn’t it great that we have more allies now, aren’t you happy?”
“Yeah, isn’t that obvious?”
Akira casually smiled back without knowing Alpha’s smile was an ominous one.
“I see. Well, let’s not leave everything to them and get back to work as well.”
“Yeah, let’s go!”
Seeing Goutol’s team already joined in to a.s.sault the giants, Akira got fired up and resumed his attack.