bookworm

THE ASSAULT BEGINS
All the monsters on the battlefield accepted the words of their lord and ally Rimuru with their souls, the words of an absolute ruler who accepted all their loyalty and trust. Then another voice commanded them.
“The disguise operation is canceled. Crush the fools bothering Sir Rimuru’s mind until nothing remains of them.”
With this, there was nothing left to bind the monsters. Joy filled their hearts, and they relied upon pure impulse to unleash their magic force. The demonic auras they had suppressed so as not to affect the town they lived in were now fully released, and the concentration of magicules around them shot upward.
There was nothing to be afraid of anymore as they let their deepest impulses drive them across the battlefield…
Gobta, too, heard the order as the shells kept raining down.
“Finally! But it doesn’t look like we’ve achieved our goals yet. Is that okay?”
He was talking to himself, but his second-in-command, Gobchi, responded.
“Well, what’s the problem? The plan was to persevere and make the opponent show off all their latent force, but at this rate, we’re going to dwindle down to nothing. We have to scare them a little, or nobody strong’s going to come out for us.”
“That’s how it is?”
“That’s how it is.”
Gobta and Gobchi were having this conversation in the middle of a battlefield, bombarded by shells and shock waves. Those watching were impressed by their ability to hear, although they were well used to their supremely relaxed attitudes by now.
“If it were us, y’know, the strongest guys would jump out first, but…”
“Well, put it that way, Gobta, and aren’t you one of the Big Four?”
“Hey! All right, maybe, but I’m still the weakest of them. Seriously, stop bringing that up…”
As they conversed, Gobta, Gobchi, and the Goblin Riders under them were seething more than ever before. Everyone was waiting for the order from Gobta to come down.
Shells rained down on regular occasions, deliberately and precisely, as if aimed at a dartboard—and they were throwing a dozen darts at once. From the beginning, the intention wasn’t to score a direct hit, but to wipe them all out with the shock waves.
The Goblin Riders, realizing this, were on the move in search of shelter. A direct hit would kill them instantly, but on the other hand, anything else was survivable. Everyone here was powerful enough to rank as lieutenant in the Tempest force, meaning an A-minus equivalent in rank. Even if they were seriously hurt, a little potion would take care of it.
Based on this, Benimaru’s strategy was to feign defeat. There was no need to actually lose, of course—just pretend to be in a crisis. In the meantime, the remaining troops were to block the imperial army’s retreat and counterattack at once. If they waited until the tanks ran out of ammunition, the strongest people on their side would come to finish them off—Benimaru put it in the simplest terms possible.
Gobta, of course, wanted to voice a few complaints about that, but an order was an order, and he couldn’t disobey it. The imperial army wasn’t nearly as much of a threat as Benimaru in his mind.
I mean, Benimaru’s usually a real nice guy…but when it comes to military stuff, he’s merciless. And this time, even Sir Rimuru’s safety is at stake. There’s no way somebody like me could speak out against it.
Those were Gobta’s memories about when he was told about the plan. Convincing his Goblin Riders to follow it was a pain, but once he mentioned Rimuru’s name, they stopped complaining.
All that was left was to overwhelm the enemy in the first engagement, but as expected, that was asking a bit too much. As soon as their attempted breakthrough was blocked, Gobta’s force decided to stick to their original decoy role. But that’s over now. Rimuru had given his statement—and Benimaru followed it up with new orders. No need to hold back. The time had come for them to unleash all the power they possessed.
(Okay, you now have permission to attack freely. The Green Numbers are Hakuro’s responsibility, so they’re good, but for now, I’m leaving you Riders to Gobchi.)
He sent out a Thought Communication to his squadmates, face stiffened. His tone of voice was as usual, but it had an unmistakable power to it.
(Roger that! So what are you doing, General Gobta?) Gobchi asked, shrugging. Gobta replied with a troubled-looking smile:
(Well, I can’t play around anymore, either, y’know? I don’t care about that Big Four stuff, but it’s an order from Sir Rimuru, and I can’t act like a wimp when he’s watching me! I’m gonna get real serious now!)
Gobchi and the rest of the team looked into Gobta’s eyes. Immediately, they knew he was serious—the kind of seriousness they almost never saw in their boss.
“Heh. I know what you’re capable of. Go ahead. Don’t hesitate to use it.”
(Why are you acting so bossy?)
(Y-you heard that?)
(Well, it’s fine and all, Gobto, but you do your best, too, okay?)
(Heh… Of course.)
Gobta gave this a tired sigh. Gobto had been on the team since its early days; they had known each other a while by now. He was good in his own way, but thanks to absorbing a lot of unnecessary knowledge from Rimuru, he had a tendency to act all cool when it wasn’t called for. Way back when, he had imitated Gobta’s aide Gobchi, but now he had evolved in his own unique way. He was wearing a long black coat with two longswords that he didn’t even know how to use fully. Gobta wondered if he was safe out here, but he figured that with Gobchi around, it’d probably work out.
After making up his mind on that, Gobta turned to the person he had to worry about the most—Testarossa, still sitting behind him.
(So along those lines, Testarossa, I’d like us to go our separate ways from here, if that’s okay?)
Testarossa nodded, smiling. Even in the midst of these flames and concussive impacts, her graceful gestures remained intact, her military uniform still clean. Soot and dust would never stain Testarossa.
(Yes, of course. I feel the same way as you. From now, I will act not as an observer, but as an individual living under Sir Rimuru. Please do your best, all of you.)
So Testarossa got off Ranga, and with a final “Good day to you,” she breezily walked away. Rimuru had attached her to Gobta as an observer, but that role was now over. The lethally dangerous demon was now on the move.
She sure is a free spirit, ain’t she? a dismayed Gobta thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. He had grown up at least enough to know saying that was a bad idea.
After seeing Testarossa off, he decided it was his turn.
(All right, everyone… Begin!)
(((Yeaaahhh!!)))
He gave the order to his troops, finding the response satisfactory enough. Even Gobta wanted Rimuru to see how cool he was. He liked Rimuru. He was selfish and more than a little mean, but at the same time, he was always so kind and worth relying on. He admired her. He was once just this tiny little goblin, but he had grown to a fairly famed warrior. Now it was time for him to repay that favor.
(The Riders are yours, Gobchi!)
He turned toward Ranga.
“Now it’s your turn, Ranga! Transform!!”
The shouted order was answered by Ranga, who had been lying in wait all this time. “I’ve been waiting for this moment, Gobta. Let us show our powers to Sir Rimuru, my master!”
The two fighters’ consciousnesses synched together as they released their inner magic power. The next moment, a black mist enveloped Gobta.
“Come on! Let’s go wild!”
“Yes. I’ve been holding back for so long!”
The mist disappeared as if it had been sucked into Gobta. It revealed a goblin fighter infused with a black wolf—a humanoid wolf with two ominous horns. Gobta and Ranga had Unified, and only now could they be called part of the Big Four without a trace of irony.
The moment they saw him, Gobchi and the rest of the Goblin Riders rushed out of their hiding spot.
(Don’t get in Captain Gobta’s way! He’s fighting serious now!)
Gobchi’s desperate shout expressed just how endangered the goblins were at the moment. The demon wolf’s fists, for example, were literally swatting down flying tank shells from the air. In fact, even a direct hit didn’t singe his reinforced black fur. These massive bullets, running just under six times the speed of sound and boasting incredible destructive energy, couldn’t even dent Gobta now that Ranga’s “armor” was on him. That was a by-product of Ranga’s own Multilayer Barrier, but for the unwitting imperial troops, he was nothing but a walking nightmare.
“Wh-what is that? Am I dreaming, or…?”
“You sure aren’t! It’s a monster! I can’t believe the kinds of freaks that demon lord has working for him!”
Panic was beginning to set in among the lower-ranked privates. Among the troops in the tanks—stuck together and unable to move—the fear was even greater.
With a howl from Gobta, Dark Lightning stormed down from the sky above the tank crews. One thousand tanks had transformed into a fortress, and now they were ripe targets. The dark strikes interfered with the tanks’ defensive barriers, emitting a blinding light as they did. They withstood the barrage for a few moments, but it seemed its resistance to electricity was less than perfect. The crew inside the tanks seemed to be safe, but the infantry nearby, in formation with the tank wall behind them, suffered incalculable damage.
But Dark Lightning was dangerous not just for the shock it carried. The essence of it was even more terrifying than natural lightning.
“Ah! Hot! This has to be seriously damaging the tank’s defensive mechanism…!”
“A-all teams, evacuate! Evacuate your tanks at once!”
Although the crews were saved from being electrocuted, the heat the bolts generated were too much for the tanks to bear. Even after the first cracks appeared, the Dark Lightning wasn’t done yet. Like a living, thinking snake, it continued to bite into the inorganic metal plating, causing serious damage to the mechanical parts inside.
One after another, the tanks exploded in flames. With a thunderous rumble, they breathed their last.
In this situation, the tanks that had been linked together to form a fortress were now nothing more than death traps. The crews desperately abandoned them, scattering to avoid being caught in a lightning strike. Military command was a thing of the past for them, and they felt and acted every bit like a defeated army.
They were sure no big deal…
Gobta smiled as he observed the scene. As he saw it, the power he and his cohort wielded was more than enough to face up to this foe. That, and the enemy’s main force—the original target of this operation—no longer seemed threatening in this demon-wolf form.
He looked at the wall of tanks towering in front of him. The wall that once blocked their way was belching black smoke from Ranga’s lightning. Without hesitation, he let out a roar—a Voice Cannon—and instantly, it shattered the wall.On the other side, he could see a line of tanks pointing their muzzles at him.
(More than enough to play with, huh? This is where we come in!)
(That’s right. I’m sure Sir Rimuru will love watching this.)
Gobta and Ranga gave each other contented nods. So they began.
Without further hesitation, Gobta dived through the burned-out wall of tanks, wholly unafraid of the vast forces awaiting him. Then he ran across the battlefield with all his might. He exceeded the speed of sound, making it impossible for the imperials to follow with the naked eye.
“Just you see what Ranga and I have been working on in training! How long can you keep up with us, huh? Dance…with Wolves!!”
A dark gale rushed across the battlefield. With it, a destructive sonic boom slammed itself against the tank troops.
The shock wave included the magical effect of the Storm of Destruction skill. Gradually, the storm grew to a tornado, a Dragonstorm of Destruction whose well-calculated movements were honed for maximum enemy casualties. That was Dance with Wolves, Gobta’s fearsome anti-army annihilator.
And with that, one corner of the battlefield had effectively collapsed.
As Gobta was beginning his rampage on the ground, changes were also occurring in the sky. It was the Third Corps, led by Gabil.
………
……
…
Following Benimaru’s order, Gabil and his team had been providing cover for the Goblin Riders. Once that became too difficult, they moved on to the next mission, never panicking. In other words, they were part of the same “pretend to lose” strategy Gobta was in on.
The strategy was to make the enemy play their trump cards by maintaining a stalemate while making it look like they were about to lose. It was a pretty wild idea—but Benimaru ordered it nonetheless, not looking concerned at all, and Gobta and Gabil accepted it without a second thought. If things got really dangerous for Gabil, they had permission to evacuate—only after they helped Gobta’s force retreat, of course. Gabil didn’t think that would be necessary, though. After all, despite all his protests, Gobta was still smirking at the idea of executing this op.
Gabil thought he could learn a lot from Gobta’s brashness, but as it turned out, they were quite similar in many ways. Even in this state of affairs, he was still looking to shoot down an airship if he could. As long as he could maintain the stalemate without too much effort, he didn’t see a problem with inflicting some damage on his opponent.
That was the idea behind their aerial approach, but the enemy turned out to be stronger than he thought. Their corps’ magic didn’t work, and the Wyvern Riders’ fireball attacks were similarly blocked. With their air dominance now gone, Gabil’s team was at a distinct disadvantage.
Our role is to attract the airships’ attention. If we fought with all our might without minding the consequences, it’s not impossible to bring them down, but…
Yes, Gabil and the rest of Team Hiryu might have been able to break through the airships’ defenses. But doing that would make it impossible to continue the mission…and so Gabil decided now was the time for patience.
Thus he followed Benimaru’s orders, gladly accepting the role of a sitting duck in the air. The problem with this was the Wyvern Riders and their lack of durability. They might’ve been the elites from the Blue Numbers, but they hadn’t evolved into dragonewts the way Gabil and his corps had. Their magic resistance was low, and if they were caught up in a large-scale magical attack, they’d be brutally shot down.
So Gabil decided to ask the Wyvern Riders to withdraw.
“Lady Ultima, I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it?”
“I wish to have us continue our ‘pretend-to-lose’ strategy…but I am thinking about upping the performance.”
“Upping the performance?”
“Yes. If we keep flitting around like this, I’m not sure the enemy will ever let their guards down. Therefore, I’d like to have Team Hiryu leave itself more open to magic attacks.”
“Hmm… A very interesting idea. So what do you really want?”
“Well, as I see it, now is the perfect opportunity to build our resistances a little. Not even a direct hit will kill us, likely. We have plenty of recovery potions, so I thought I could put on a nice show of being battered and bruised, while we tested out our endurance against them.”
Ultima laughed out loud at this wild idea. The rest of Team Hiryu looked less than enthusiastic.
“Are you serious, General?!”
“Sir Gabil can be rather…simple sometimes, can’t he?”
“Do we have to try that right now? That’s what I want to say…”
Gabil pretended not to hear the rising complaints.
“Well, all right! I’ll allow it! Sounds like fun, besides,” said Ultima.
“My thanks to you. Now, if you could, I’d like your group to take their leave.”
He wanted Ultima, the observer, to lead the Wyvern Riders away to safety. Gabil and Team Hiryu alone would then launch a de facto suicide strike on the airships.
“If this kills me, I’m gonna haunt you in the afterlife!”
“Wish you hadn’t thought of this experiment…”
“This is definitely something he’ll be pissed about later…”
Groans and scowls were prevalent across the faces of the force, but Gabil still paid them no mind. Although they liked to gripe, their enthusiasm and excitement were still bubbling up to the surface.
So Team Hiryu decided to engage in some impromptu magical endurance training.
All this happened, by the way, as Rimuru was looking on, fretting to himself. When he found out the truth later, he almost had a conniption on the spot, shouting to high heaven at Gabil and his aides. More than a few Team Hiryu members predicted this well in advance, but the fact that they went with it anyway indicated that Gabil, their superior officer, was maybe becoming a bad influence on them.
Anyway, this was much of the reason why Gabil and his force took so much damage from the magic the airships spat out.
………
……
…
And now Gabil heard Rimuru’s order in his mind.
“Listen to me!” he shouted, oblivious to how worried Rimuru was about this experiment. “The training time is over! Now it is time to turn these skies into a graveyard!”
His troops were beyond excited. Gabil himself was brimming with joy.
“Fortunately, the inexperienced among us have evacuated with Lady Ultima. It’s only us here now, and it’s no problem if we get a little reckless!”
This goading didn’t quite get the reaction he intended.
“Reckless? I’d rather fight like hell than go through that ‘endurance training’ again!”
“Yeah, yeah! And it’s not the first time Sir Gabil’s been reckless with our lives!”
Gabil’s face turned red. “Silence!” he shouted. “Just get on with it, all of you! Follow me and give me your full strength!”
Seeing Gabil embarrass himself like that made all the troops who saw it grin a little.
“Well, so be it. You guys stop fooling around, too. Let’s just step up and get on with what we’re told.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’re not about to say no to the general, no…”
“No way! Sir Gabil, give us your orders!”
Hearing that, Gabil nodded, satisfied. Then he sized up the Flying Combat Corps fighting against them and asked a shouted question.
“Who are the champions of the skies?”
“““It is us, Team Hiryu!!”””
The mood had changed with Gabil. His team answered up to it.
“That’s right. We have to get rid of those who pollute our sky. That is the will of Sir Rimuru! He has given his royal decree, and so you must do everything in your power! All of it. Don’t think about anything else!”
“““Yeah!!”””
Gabil’s order held special meaning for Team Hiryu. It meant far more than simply trying harder…
“Don’t let your consciousness slip away from you, all right? All troops, enter Dragon Body!!”
The members of Team Hiryu sprang up at once. This was Dragon Body, their secret weapon and ultimate finisher. Not only did it increase their fighting power to an overwhelming degree, but it also increased their ferocity, making it more difficult to control themselves. If it consumed their sense of self, they would become rampaging monsters.
They had stashed away that ability up until now, precisely because it became difficult to control all their destructive impulses. Gabil had thus invited Middray to lecture them on control training, but their success rate hadn’t been too stellar with it so far.
Still, use it they must. Rimuru had ordered them to give it their all, and so they had no reason to hesitate.
“…Dragon Mode!!”
All at once, Team Hiryu unleashed their true force. Their muscles swelled up, and the purple scales that covered them turned jet-black. They became thicker, more flexible, and several times tougher-skinned—and along with that, their heights also went up around 20 percent, taking in the surrounding magicules to construct new bodies for themselves.
With this mega-boost in mass and volume, their offensive and defensive forces had also leaped forward. They were, needless to say, incomparable to how they were pre-transformation. And as for the most important part, their consciousnesses… If they were to lose that, they’d be nothing more than pure manifestations of power, but no one on Team Hiryu lost it. Every single one did a magnificent job keeping ahold of themselves.This was the moment when the true force of the Dragon Warriors—the most powerful fighting corps in Tempest—came into effect.
“I want each of you to take down one airship. Can you do it?”
“““Yes, sir!!”””
“Great! Then get to it…!”
At Gabil’s command, Team Hiryu moved in unison.
Who were the champions of the skies? The answer to that question was about to be resolved before their eyes.
The members of the Flying Combat Corps, the most valued part of the Armored Division—itself one of the Empire’s three great fighting forces—were no more than pathetic, bleating lambs by now. The reason? Now that the dragonewts had unleashed Dragon Body, the special properties of that intrinsic skill had nullified their magic. Gabil and the other Dragon Warriors were now immune to everything including and up to Megiddo—itself a nature-based magic. Each one had a Multilayer Barrier and a Cancel Natural Elements spell on them, shrugging off all physical attacks and canceling both magical attacks and natural effects.
These airships mainly attacked with magic, and with the machine guns they had as auxiliary arms, they didn’t have a chance of penetrating the scales of Gabil’s force. Team Hiryu’s fighting skill ranked A-minus to start with, and having that multiplied several times over had put them well past the A wall. Even worse for them, the transformation also gave them healing skills that came scarily close to Ultraspeed Regeneration. They had tapped into enough power to make each one a high-level magic-born.
With that, the fate of the now-toothless airships was sealed. And now Gabil was making it official.
“It’s time to go! Prepare for my special finisher…”
Gabil was stronger than his peers to start with, but in addition to muscle, he also had a special-A level of magicules in his body. It didn’t hold a candle to Shion’s or Benimaru’s, but it made him as much of a force as Soei or Geld. Tapping into Dragon Body for himself had made him into a truly remarkable warrior, enough power to even approach the former demon lords Carillon and Frey…
“…Vortex Crash!!”
A single strike from Gabil sent an airship hurtling toward the ground.
The air currents swirled around him, concentrating the moisture in the atmosphere to a single point and melding it into a maelstrom of magical power. The full brunt of this vortex was released from Gabil’s spear, piercing straight through one of the airships. Its barrier, kept running by a hundred-strong staff in the ship’s defense section, provided zero resistance before shattering. The airship was instantly downed.
The rest of the Dragon Warriors quickly followed suit. Although they couldn’t fire pure magic power from their spears like Gabil, each used their enhanced physical abilities to charge at their respective airship. Magic no longer worked on them, and the ships’ barriers provided no protection—and in no time at all, those barriers were breached, allowing them to invade the ships.
Five Dragon Warriors swarmed a ship at a time, taking no more than a few minutes to bring one down. At this point, it was only a matter of time before the entire Flying Combat Corps was wiped out.
Gabil was already getting carried away with it.
“Gwah-ha-ha-ha! Keep it up, Warriors, keep it up! And if any of you can’t take down a single ship, you know what’ll happen to you later, I’m sure!”
Hearing those words, the Team Hiryu members lagging behind the pack exchanged alarmed glances. There were only a hundred airships—they counted—and if Gabil wasn’t gonna stop attacking, there were precious few left open to them.
“Aw, c’mon, Sir Gabil!”
“Sir Gabil’s so moody, isn’t he? And he’s in such a good mood right now, I dunno if he’s gonna leave any prey for us!”
“Knowing the general, that’s way too possible…”
How would Gabil judge airships taken down by teams? Well, that was for him to decide. The rest of the force, fully aware of this, rushed to join in the attack. Now the positions of predator and prey were reversed—and so the course of the day in the sky was settled.
Going back in time a little…
The supply troops assigned to the imperial army’s Magitank Force were about to face the trial of their lives.
“You’ve done well to keep up with me…but remember, the real battle is about to begin!”
These words were uttered by Hakuro, the man in charge of the Green Numbers. His face was cool, unaffected, but the force of twelve thousand hanging on to his words were gasping for breath. They were, after all, located directly behind the Empire’s tank force, and to get there, they had to march a long, arcing path of some twenty-five miles from the Dwarven Kingdom—all while wearing heavy equipment.
It was Hakuro the Instructor who allowed this to be possible. He had trained all his Numbers thoroughly, drilling them in the art of Battlewill. Thanks to that, the Numbers had mastered a variety of martial arts—including Instantmove, letting them virtually teleport at will, and Formhide, which prevented their foes from sensing them.
These Green Numbers had deployed at the same time as Gobta’s force, doing their best to reach this spot without being detected by the enemy.
“I would like to commend all of you on your mastery of the Battlewill I taught you,” Hakuro said, face as gentle as a doting mother. His troops, seated on the ground as they listened to him, gasped anew at this, afraid of what was coming next. They had known Hakuro for a long time, and they knew if the Instructor was merciless against his allies, he was even more so against the enemy. The order he would give them with this compliment was terrifying to even imagine—and for those who understood it was up to them to execute, it was with a steely resolve that they took the foreboding news.
“Our mission is to cut off the enemy’s supply lines here. It may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but if we can destroy the enemy’s rear supply units, we can dissuade them from wanting to fight a little. There’s no need to take enemy lives needlessly, but there is also no need to show mercy, either. Besides…”
Hakuro gave the battlefield a glance and smiled. And then:
“Gobta has grown to be a fine man. He is currently doing an expert job playing the decoy for us. And I want you all to perform as well as that general is!”
Hakuro’s voice boomed over the distant sound of explosions. Those with no real combat experience grew more tense by the moment, overwhelmed by the sound of it all.
“All right? While you’re fighting, I don’t want you to think about anything else. Fail to kill the enemy, and you’re the one who dies. Let the enemy go, and friends will die because of it. Those are the ironclad rules of the battlefield.”
His troops were panting for breath a moment ago, but now they were silent, listening to every word from Hakuro. Their leader was imparting knowledge, so those prepared to give their everything would not find themselves mentally lost in battle.
“All life does not come equally. There is no need to worry about strangers, when compared to the lives of your loved ones. I will also remind you that these enemies are invaders. They are fools who don’t even deserve the right to live. Do not be shy about cutting them down!”
With those threatening words, Hakuro hoped to quell any feelings of guilt they might have had. It was his way of showing a little kindness.
“I have trained all of you, and with that training, you can even cut down those piles of iron. Everything thrown out from them seems frozen in the air to you, does it not? Then do not be afraid. There is no one who can stand against our blades!”
Nobody could say “Er, no, they don’t seem frozen at all, sir.” There was no way to. If they did, he would say “You need more training!” and give them an even more harrowing ordeal than any war could give them. But while some had “little complaints” like that in their minds, no one had any complaint about Hakuro himself. He never asked them to do something he wouldn’t. His words may have been extreme at times, but it was all based on his desire as their leader to see his troops reach the same heights as himself.
Now the Green Numbers were watching for their chance—the order from Hakuro to charge. Their boss was acting as a decoy, the most dangerous job of the day—a truly excellent performance, one befitting a member of the Big Four. They had all seen him, thanks to Hakuro’s All-Seeing Eye extra skill, and thanks to Thought Communication, everyone down to the last member was sharing in the same insight. There was fear, yes, but more than that, the members were fascinated by Gobta’s and his Goblin Riders’ courage. It made them realize that now it was their turn to make an effort.
Hakuro felt his anxiety dissipate a little as he sized up his group. Its members had been thoroughly trained to deal with all kinds of situations, but there would still doubtlessly be casualties in their first battle. He did wish, somewhere in his heart, that he could’ve done additional training, but there was nothing more he could do. The enemy wouldn’t wait for them.
Under Benimaru’s plan, Gobta’s force would stick to their stalemate for as long as possible. It’d be bound to make the enemy impatient, he said; the tanks didn’t have infinite shells, so the rain of bullets had to stop at some point. That’s when Hakuro’s force would come into play. They’d hit the enemy’s supply forces, seize their goods, and make it a cinch to seize these so-called tanks. As a secondary objective, they were tasked with uncovering the hidden leaders, the strongmen among the enemy…but that, they could play by ear.
Hopefully if they exist, they’ll come up to me, Hakuro thought, although that, too, was just a matter of luck. This is their first battle. If they’re consumed by fear, they’re bound to die. I wanted to ease those fears as much as possible, but we’ll just have to see…
For now, all Hakuro could do was pray they succeeded—and that everyone came out of it safe. But those fears turned out to be unnecessary.
“Listen to me!”
Suddenly, Rimuru channeled an order to the Green Numbers through Hakuro’s skill. Hearing it was all it took for the monsters’ anxieties to be quelled. An inexplicable elation rose up among them; their bodies felt warm, as if they’d catch on fire.
“…to eliminate the enemy as quickly as possible.”
Now Rimuru’s words—or his orders—would be going into effect. They made Hakuro chuckle.
“I see I’ve worried for nothing. Did you hear that, all of you?”
“““Yes, sir!!”””
“Then let’s go! Your patient waiting is over. Go and unleash your full powers!”
Before Hakuro could finish his words, the monster army rushed off at a furious pace.
Ten or so minutes later, the infantry guarding the Empire’s supply teams were lined in a horizontal formation, ready to intercept the monster army. The sudden surprise attack almost threw them into disorder, but they were the elites of the Empire, and they immediately regained their bearings.
Some of the platoons used armored vehicles for transport as shields to shoot at the monsters with. At first glance, the imperial forces seemed to have the upper hand, as befitting an army with such a decisive numerical advantage. But the Green Numbers weren’t intimidated. Despite being exposed to gunfire, the Scale Shields provided to the front row proved handy. Unlike a bow, a rifle shot does not travel in an arc; the purpose of small-arms fire is to suppress the enemy at close range, and as long as the front row didn’t take any hits, worthwhile suppression would never happen.
This was, after all, still a world of swords and sorcery. With their unthinkably high lethality, guns had the power to change every tactical textbook in the land. But this world had magic, and thus a single bullet wasn’t necessarily enough to neutralize an enemy. For that, slashing attacks with swords and axes were more effective than bullets striking a single tiny point of the body.
The Empire had great pride in all its new weapons, but not even they were enough to institute a paradigm shift, a full change in the times. If not, their commander decided, it was time to break out a new weapon. So the next order came down from on high.
“Dammit! All forces, switch from rifle fire to your spellguns. Maintenance teams, join the main force and bring only the most important supplies with you!”
The standard rifle, a weapon re-created from knowledge brought from another world, was ineffective against monsters. They did have some success in the experimental stages, but that was only against unarmed, essentially naked creatures. But if that was the case, there was always magic.
These spellguns, wieldable even by ordinary foot soldiers, had Fire Lance magic engraved on them. That, the commander thought, would be enough to pierce through most monsters and burn them alive. Unfortunately, that supposition was beyond naive. The Green Numbers were equipped with the latest in Unique-class armor; Garm had hammered out the scales of Charybdis to create their Scale Shields, and they could deflect far more than just lead bullets…
“N-no good, sir! The enemy force is immune to magic!”
The true value of these Scale Shields was the high resistance to magic they offered. But that wasn’t the only nightmare striking the imperial army. From the skies above flew in the Wyvern Riders—the elites of the Blue Numbers—led by Ultima.
“Drop ’em all!”
With that sweetly voiced order, the ground was engulfed in flames. It was a flare bomb–based ranged attack. Not a terribly powerful one, but it had ample killing force against the imperial infantry.
But it was the sound, in particular, that sowed confusion across the battlefield. It made the support soldiers not used to fighting—mechanics, medics, and so forth—unable to keep up with the changing situation. Soon, the order to join the main force was no longer being heeded, leading to even more unnecessary casualties.
It was a relief for Hakuro to see that the battle turned out to be more lopsided than he feared.
“Hey there, Hakuro. These kids are under my command, but d’you mind if I leave ’em to you?”
“Ah, Miss Ultima? I don’t mind that, no, but…”
Hakuro gave Ultima a good-natured greeting as he watched her jump down from her wyvern’s back. The difference between his attitude with her and with his soldiers was like a yawning chasm.
“You don’t? Great, thanks so much!”
Ultima, for her part, was acting like a cute little girl begging her grandfather for a treat. If Veyron or Zonda saw her like this, they’d no doubt wonder if they were hallucinating.
They’d never tell her that, of course, but…
“Certainly, certainly. By the way…”
“Mm? What is it?”
“Well, y’see, Miss Ultima, I had a question for you. Are you close to Lady Carrera, perhaps?”
“Mmm, I dunno about calling her Lady and me Miss…but I’ll let you off the hook, Hakuro. Anyway, the answer’s simple: We hate each other!”
Ultima was still all smiles and cuteness, but there was something frightening about her presence in that moment. She was, as it turned out, extremely good at this feigned friendliness. She was actually brutal and ruthless by nature, and those two sides of her fluctuated so much, you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking she had a split personality. Even so, Ultima always paid due respect to those older than her, so that aspect of her went wholly unnoticed with most people.
“Oh, no? A pity.”
“Why’d you ask?”
“Well, I was just, you know, wondering if you knew Agera, one of Lady Carrera’s men…”
Hakuro picked his words carefully. The demon Agera looked a lot like a certain person Hakuro knew—in fact, they were virtually body doubles. That person was none other than Byakuya Araki, Hakuro’s grandfather and martial arts teacher.
He was thus keenly interested in this Agera, but the demon himself didn’t even seem to notice Hakuro. Was it because old age changed his appearance too much?