Chapter 382: The New Over Gear, and Disciples of the Martial God.
"I sure didn't expect to be made to ride in this first thing in the morning."
A voice of complaint could be heard from the giant black lion standing on the lands of Yulong.
[Leo Noir]. Using a Legacy golem as its core, it's a mechanical beast made by combining the same technologies found in Frame Gears, an [Over Gear].
As it's the exclusive gear for the [Black Crown], Noir, its pilot would necessarily become Noir's master, Norn.
From the voice that's coming out, a feeling of resistance after being forcefully dragged out of bed could clearly be felt.
"Really? I'm pumped for it, though."
On the other side, letting out a voice that felt like it left all its fatigue somewhere on the streets before coming here, was the master of the [Red Crown] Rouge, Nia.
And that Nia was inside a giant mechanical tiger colored a deep scarlet. A new Over Gear, [Tiga Rouge].
Its size isn't very different from Leo Noir. Silver lines run on its red body, and parts made out of crystal materials can be seen here and there, glittering under the morning sun.
"The previous problem has been fixed, right?"
She probably switched the channel; Norn's voice came out of the smartphone held by the professor next to me, instead of the external speaker.
"It's fine. We've raised the vibration resistance and shock absorption values a lot, and the power control should be adjustable now too. Isn't there a gear lever for that on the console to your right?"
In the previous test, the power output was so large that control was basically impossible, and the absolutely horrible ride condition made the pilot sick as all hell. This time, it seems that that's properly addressed.
While this is Nia's first time piloting, she has been training properly with an Over Gear-version Frame Unit. There should be no problem with her operations. As long as she doesn't get too ahead of herself, that is.
I opened the comms with the pilot of the Knight Baron that's standing behind me.
"Est-san, please follow up on Nia well."
"Understood. If she goes overboard, I'll have her wear half-dried underwear for a week."
"Stop it with the subtle harassment!"
As Est-san replied on the common channel, Nia who heard that retorted with a truly fed up voice.
This time, ten members from the [Red Cats] are participating.
All of them are using red-painted Chevaliers, except for Est-san, who's in a Knight Baron. Of course, that one is red, too.
Since it's red, shouldn't it be a red knight instead of a black knight? Red Baron… Oh, Red Lynx sounds like a good name.
From our knight order, around forty are participating. While the commander and both vice- commanders are participating, there isn't a lot in terms of numbers. If Yumina and the others participate as well, our forced would add up to about 60.
The other side has 6000; so it would be 100 per person. Not a tough job.
"Suu, you'll mainly be taking care of the wood golems, okay."
"I know. I'm looking forward to it!"
Suu's voice responded from the Ortlinde, already combined into its Overlord form together with the support mechas.
The wood golems are bigger than the Frame Gears. While a Frame Gear is around 10 meters, a wood golem is usually around 16-17 meters, and in rare cases it can even go up to 20.
However, Suu's Ortlinde Overlord easily goes over 25 meters in height.
It's not called the Golden Giant for no reason.
It's so large that—since it may cause friendly fire in its surroundings due to its size—it has an alarm installed in the cockpit that would sound when there's a friendly unit near its position.
The battle this time isn't something like protecting a town from the Phrase. It's an extermination; as such, there's no need to be prudent.
"Touya-san. They're swarming over from the other side."
Yumina sent a warning from within the silver-colored Frame Gear, Brunnnhilde, positioned on
aboulder nearby. As befitting of a long-distance sniping-type unit, Brunnhilde's sight distance is huge.
I casted [Long Sense] and looked towards the north, and sure enough, a whole horde of garbage-like things are heading this way.
They shouldn't be able to see us yet from that distance, I think?
"Wait, that's not possible isn't it…"
Looking up at the gold giant standing besides me, glittering under the morning sun, I inadvertently let out a wry smile. No way they wouldn't spot us with the world's most eye- catching landmark right here.
Which would mean that they're charging in while knowing that we're here? So they've made the resolution to fight, huh.
"What do we do? Your Majesty."
The commander, Rain-san, asked from within her Shining Count. The answer to that question is already set in stone.
"Alright, let's begin the battle. For starters, let the two Over Gears be the spearhead. The knight order will be supporting the Red Cat Corps to take out the Iron Machine Soldiers. Yumina and Sakura, support everyone; Elze, Linze, Yae, Hilda, Luu, Leen and Suu, you girls focus on the wood golems."
I'll have Yumina and Sakura support everyone else using long-distance attacks. Rin's Grimgerde is a long-distance attacker as well, but most of her weaponry like the Gatling cannon can't be used when there's a lot of friendly targets around, after all. I'll have her help out on the wood golems' side.
"Alright! Let's go, Rouge!"
"Acknowledged."
"We're going, Noir."
"Understood, activating."
The two mechanical beasts, black and red, awakened and dashed off at the same time.
They're fast. The Red Cat corps, which moved out after them, were immediately left behind.
Leo Noir and Tiga Rouge, who had charged into the enemy's position in an instant, blew away the Iron Machine Soldiers in front of them while relying on their momentum.
"What is that. Would they be blown away that flashily with just the momentum?"
While standing on top of a rock formation and looking at the battlefield using my smartphone projection, I unintentionally raised my voice upon seeing how the Iron Machine Soldiers were blown away.
"The Over Gears can project a magical barrier around themselves depending on the state of their acceleration. That can also be very effective at body blows if they choose to use it that way."
The one who explained that was the older sister of Norn, Dr. Elka.
Her hair is as messed up as usual, but there are obvious circles under her thick glasses. So she didn't sleep last night.
However, there's a trance-like smile on her face as she looked with satisfaction at the two Over Gears. The wolf-type golem Fenrir, who's next to her, was looking up at her in exasperation though.
Still, a magical barrier, huh. It's the same as how I would put up a [Shield] when I'm flying in the sky using [Fly], isn't it.
The fangs of Tiga Rouge crushed the arm of an Iron Machine Soldier, while the claws of Leo Noir blasted the legs of a wood golem into smithereens.
Both the Iron Machine Soldiers and the wood golems couldn't keep up with the nimble movements of the Over Gears. Over there, the distinction between the hunter and the hunted is clear as day.
"Not drawing out the advantages of Soldats at all, that. They're wasting the function like that because they made them all unmanned."
"What do you mean?"
When I asked Dr. Elka to explain her remarks, in her stead, Professor Babylon answered me from the side.
"It means that they're just a brainless mob if there isn't a human commander on the field. Soldats generally cooperate in groups of five. A party like that can cooperate further with other similar five-unit parties to achieve greater results. Right now, however, they're unable to reach that stage because they're all unmanned. They're just following their commander units, and they're not going beyond a simple one-vs-five scenario. Originally, they're capable of coordinating on a one-vs-hundred scale, you know."
Assume three human masters, A, B and C exist. Normally, by reacting to changes in the battlefield, the five Soldats under them each, for a total of fifteen, would be able to fight seamlessly as a single group.
However, if A, B and C all gave the simple order of "Defeat the enemy" before proceeding to sit back and watch the situation without doing anything, the Soldats won't be able to exhibit any high-level coordination. The only advantage to the lack of human supervision would be the fact that the masters would be safe from any harm.
"There's no way the goddess of victory would smile on a bunch of cowards who would not stand on the field themselves."
While saying that, the professor took out a cigarette, lit it, and began puffing out smoke. Oi you, stop smoking when you're a little girl.
"N? Ahh, this isn't tobacco you know. Specially made by Flora from [Alchemy Building], it's an Ether Cigarette. The smell is nice, and it calms you down too. Wanna try?"
While it doesn't seem like there's nicotine or things like that in it, I wonder why is it that I feel like something far more suspicious is inside that thing. I'll pass.
"More importantly, uh. That person there who's cutting down Iron Machine Soldiers by herself… That's your elder sister, isn't she?"
"Eh!?"
When I turned to look at the screen the professor is pointing to, somehow, the figure of Moroha nee-san who's fighting while swinging a crystal broadsword around was there before I noticed. Karina nee-san's there too. She's using a crystal hand axe though.
Ah, the fight's sealed. This is a 100% win for us.
I became convinced in our dominant win after seeing that.
"Are? I don't see the figure of one more person who seemed like he would happily jump into that…"
"I'm right here!"
"Owaa!?"
Behind me stood Takeru ojii with his folded arms. Ahh, that scared me! Why is he appearing in the exact same way as Karen nee-san!?
The worn-out dougi, red headband and steel-like body. The Martial God descends, or something like that.
That reminds me, Karen nee-san isn't here is she; she's probably still sleeping at this time in the morning… I'm sure she passed this time since it isn't really related to anything romantic.
I'm also curious as to how Takeru ojii and the others knew about this, but for now, I'm a lot more concerned about the guy behind him who's looking this way with dead fish-like eyes.
"Why are you here as well, Ende?"
"Don't ask, Touya… I don't have the right to refuse."
Ende averted his eyes with a bitter smile. Well, from this situation, I can tell at least that he's dragged here forcefully by his shishou, Takeru ojii.
"So? Why are you guys here?"
"Umu. Rather than fighting against mechanical dolls, we'd rather deliver punishment to the rotten masterminds behind them. You're going there, right?"
Takeru ojii laughed. Ah, so that's what's going on…
It's true that I was thinking of leaving the Iron Machine Soldiers and the wood golems to everyone else, and going ahead to crush the [Kurau] members.
I've already gotten the location of their base from the memories I took, and I've also grasped the existence of the group who's watching this battle from the shadows. They're probably in a huge panic right now due to the Iron Machine Soldiers losing this badly, though.
As their numbers are rather small, I don't think all of the Iron Machine Soldiers' masters are there. I don't know if the rest are standing by at their base, or on another separate mission.
It's the end for them in either case.
"For the record, please don't kill them, okay?"
"We won't do anything like that. Subjugating them without killing; that is the training topic this time, after all. You listening, Ende?"
"Eh!? I'm doing it!? What about shishou!?"
"I shall stand back and observe your battle. And decide on your next training objective based on the results."
Ende made a speechless face. I was a bit concerned, so I tried asking Takeru ojii.
"Out of curiosity, what's the training for when he fails…"
"I havn't decided yet… Let's see… How about a 168-hours full marathon?"
Ende started shaking his head left and right fiercely. 168 hours… He's gonna make him run for a week nonstop!? There's a limit to how spartan you can be, you know!
Since I felt that Ende was too miserable, I sent out a lifeboat.
"Th, then how about a rest day as a reward if he successfully subjugates them? A warrior needs to rest sometimes, right?"
"Fumu… True, one needs a suitable degree of rest sometimes. Alright, if you manage to subjugate them without issue, I'll go with that."
When he heard Takeru ojii's words, Ende had tears in his eyes as he wordlessly hugged me. Oi stop, stop it. I don't have that kind of taste.
For now, after deciding on the plan of action, I left the professor and Dr. Elka to Fenrir and headed out to crush the remaining ones.
There's a cavalry troop of around 300 people in the shades of a rock formation a few kilometers away from this place. First will be them.
Takeru ojii said to leave them all to Ende, and I happily accepted. I mean, if it decreases my workload, why not?
Since all three of us can use transfer magic, we used [Teleport] to arrive at the scene, upon which a group of mask-wearing individuals greeted us with shock together with their horses.
"Wha, yo, you bastard are…!"
"[Prison]."
Ignoring the people who are making a fuss, I first casted a barrier over this place. I'm not letting a single one of them escape.
Since I did it over a wide area, it's not very strong; it's still as tough as your average iron plate, though, so it wouldn't break that easily.
"Alright, take care of the rest~"
"Cheh, wouldn't it be fine for you to help a little…"
While muttering under his breath, Ende stepped forward. If I helped you, that wouldn't be training, now would it.
"Three minutes, Ende. I'll give you three minutes to suppress them. If you go over by even a second I'll consider this time a failure."
"Eh!? There's a time limit for this!?"
Takeru ojii unleashed some truly merciless words while folding his arms. Oni. An oni is here…
Three hundred people in three minutes… If he can't manage 10 people per 6 seconds, he wouldn't make it.
"Guha!"
"Gofue!?"
Leaving me who's doing that kind of calculations in my head, Ende disappeared in an instant and proceeded to strike down the men on top of their horses.
"Wha, what the hell is this guy!?"
"It's just one brat! Kill him!"
"I don't have time here, so hurry up and fight me!"
While jumping around using the backs of the horses, Ende continued to break the masks. He seems pretty desperate. Well, there's a rest day or a weeklong marathon on the line for him, so I can understand why…
Ende still hasn't landed on the ground even once. Are you Yosh*tsune…?
Spears were thrusted towards Ende who was jumping around in the sky. However, using the tips of those spears as footholds, he jumped even higher.
"Ohh… So he can even do something like that."
Inside the encirclement made by the enemy, almost like a spinning top, Ende kept blasting people away. His long muffler trailed behind him, as if to trace his movements.
The horses, which lost their riders, ran off in all directions. As I set the effects of [Prison] to only affect humans, the horses passed through easily and disappeared somewhere.
Some idiots misunderstood that scene and tried to escape while riding on their horses, but they were blocked by the [Prison] and dropped down from their horses.
Before I noticed it, more than half are down for the count already. Is this a good pace?
"One more minute!"
Takeru ojii called out. Eh, it's actually pretty dangerous? I guess it's hard to fight while holding back.
"That guy's control of his power when fighting a human opponent is still not there yet. Well, he's won all his battles using an instinctual fighting style before this, after all; he's what you call a classic genius type."
"A genius, huh. What an annoying guy. You should just make him run a week."
"Wait a second! I can hear you over here, you know!"
While looking the other way, Mr. Genius retorted to our remarks. Oi oi, you sure you have that kind of leeway? There's not much time left, you know.
"This is the… Last!"
The explosive roundhouse kick unleashed by Ende landed solidly on the face of the last enemy remaining, and broke his mask into pieces.
The field is now strewn with bodies all over the place. Well, none of them should be dead. If we're suppressing them without killing, then isn't the fighting not needed? Was what I thought, but there's no need to hesitate against assassins anyway.
"The time?"
"Two minutes forty-seven seconds."
Takeru ojii, who's holding a mass-production model smartphone in his hand to measure the time, looked up from the screen and announced. So the weeklong marathon is no more, huh. Ende also stroked his chest in relief.
"However."
Ende and I both looked towards Takeru ojii when we heard his next word. Eh? What do you mean "However"?
"The guy that ate your last attack. He's dying, you know."
"Eeh!? Wai, please wait a second! Oi, get yourself together! Please don't die now, die a little bit later!"
Ende shook the shoulders of the man whose eyes had rolled into his head, and whose face had been crushed with blood flowing out here and there. Oi, wouldn't that have the opposite effect instead?
"[Come forth Light, the goddess' solace, Mega Heal] …"
As I couldn't stand still while seeing the desperate Ende, I casted healing magic on the dying man.
"U… I was…?"
"Thank god~ Thank you for not dying. Alright, let's try this again."
"Gofue!?"
Upon the face of the man, who had woken up, Ende presented another—probably more held- back than the last one—attack. What am I looking at…
"Shishou, the time!?"
"Two minutes fifty-nine seconds. Well, I'll count that as a pass."
The master's like that, and the disciple isn't that far behind. I just hope Elze isn't poisoned by them… I'm very worried.
When I looked at the battlefield again, as expected, there's no way they can end it in three minutes; they're still fighting.
As the knight order and the Over Gears mainly focused on defeating Iron Machine Soldiers, Elze and the rest concentrated on the wood golems.
With movements similar to what Ende had shown just now, Elze's crimson Frame Gear, Gerhilde danced on the battlefield.
The pile bunker that's built into its left arm pierced through a wood golem's abdomen, and as its upper body began falling forward, this time the pile bunker on its right hand pierced through the core inside its throat. She's completely ruthless.
"Pulve · rize!"
Was she poisoned already, or was she like this since the beginning…
For now, let's tie these guys on the ground here up and send them to Horn's royal palace. I suppose it's either the death penalty or being sent to the mines for them.
I won't let the remaining ones in their hideout escape either. I need to rescue the golem engineers who were being forcibly put to work as soon as possible, too.
"I'll be participating in crushing their hideout as well; that's fine, right?"
"I don't mind. We're the ones who made you accompany us in the first place, anyway."
I can see the figure of Ende who's obviously relieved behind Takeru ojii, but I'll ignore that for now.
"And where is it?"
"It's a bit to the north… This place."
I showed the location on the map projected into the air. It's a place very close to the city of Heiron, where the false emperor from that time had been at. There's around three hundred people assembled inside a small fort.
It's enclosed by rocky hills and built in a hard-to-discover location. If the memories I took was correct, there's also an underground factory at that location.
It'll be bad if we took our sweet time and let them escape as a result. The best course of action here is a blitz assault.
We confirmed the location, and transferred ourselves.