"Magic unit, fire! Keep firing!"
Under orders from Intact, the manager of the 6th Branch, the magic unit launched one Flame Ball after another.
"...Seriously, there’s no strategy here at all. Are all these branch managers idiots?"
Jin watched from behind his deployed barrier, effortlessly blocking the incoming spells.
"Well, let's just see how this plays out. They'll run out of mana and be unable to fire soon enough."
Maintaining the barrier required very little mana, whereas launching a Flame Ball was a significant drain.
Perhaps realizing that Flame Balls were achieving nothing, the enemy switched tactics, and three Flame Lances came hurtling toward them. However, these too were easily neutralized by the barrier.
After that, the barrage finally ceased.
"Branch Manager, everyone has expended too much mana..." the magic unit captain reported, his face pale.
Intact remained in a fit of rage. "Ugh! Every last one of you is useless!"
At that moment, a massive shock jolted their vessel.
"Alright, Reiko. This time, fire five steel balls into their ship."
Jin had decided not to use anything too exotic for this confrontation. A railgun, regardless of its devastating power, was essentially a catapult or a slingshot in principle—technologies that already existed in this world. Of course, the fact that it fired at speeds exceeding Mach 20 was a detail far beyond local comprehension.
"Yes, Father."
Reiko temporarily deactivated the barrier and leveled the railgun.
"Oh, and Reiko—there’s no need to go all out. Five percent should be plenty."
"Understood."
Their target was a wooden ship. There was no defense capable of stopping steel balls traveling at the speed of sound, even at five percent power.
The thunderous cracks of the shots were sonic booms. Had Reiko not deployed an absorption barrier on her own side, the sheer force of the launch would have harmed Jin, even if Reiko herself remained unscathed.
Five successive booms echoed across the water.
The Hydro 5 rocked back about ten meters from the recoil, but it quickly stabilized. Meanwhile, the Unifilar ship fared much worse.
The enemy vessel shuddered with a series of dull impacts. Looking through the smoke, the crew saw a young girl on the small craft aiming a long tube at them.
"Is that... a magic tool?!" Vice-branch manager Marcello’s eyes widened in horror.
Branch Manager Intact, however, was in a complete state of panic. "Wha—What was that?! Just now! Someone, say something!"
"Two of our four power golems have been destroyed by a mysterious attack!"
"The hull is riddled with holes!"
"That’s not what I want to hear!" Intact roared. Suddenly, the ship lurched violently to one side. One of the rounds had struck below the waterline, and the vessel had begun to flood.
"U-uwaaa!" Losing all composure, Intact summoned his all-purpose golem.
"YES, BRANCH MANAGER."
"H-hold me steady! Listen, do not let go of me until I tell you to!"
"YES."
Unable to keep his footing on the pitching deck, Intact used his final trump card to keep himself upright.
"Phew, now I’m safe. Report the damage! What on earth was that attack?"
Even as the ship went down, Intact did nothing but bluster and bark orders. Marcello looked at him and realized it was time to cut his losses.
"You lot! Are you just going to stand there and take these attacks?! Fire your bows! Throw spears! Magic unit, if you've recovered at all, fire more magic!" Intact continued to scream.
Two archers stepped to the gunwale and took aim at the Hydro 5. Their skill was undeniable; despite the swaying, sinking deck, they loosed two arrows that flew true.
But before the arrows could reach the Hydro 5, they struck the barrier and fell harmlessly into the river.
As a retort, three more steel balls were fired. Two struck below the waterline, and one punched straight through the cabin.
"Hull failure! We can’t stop the leak! The water’s coming in too fast!" a voice cried out from the lower decks.
Ignoring the shrieking Intact, Marcello took command. "This ship is finished. Everyone, abandon ship! Grab a plank or anything that floats and jump!"
"Y-y-you fool, Marcello! You would abandon my ship?!" Intact lunged toward Marcello in a frenzy.
At that exact moment, two more steel balls hit. One shattered the all-purpose golem's right leg. Its balance destroyed, the golem tumbled into the river, dragging Intact down with it.
"Uwaaaaaaa..."
A scream, then a heavy splash.
The all-purpose golem followed its orders to the letter, refusing to let go of Intact even underwater. Since humans are not equipped to speak—or breathe—underwater, the golem simply sank to the bottom of the river, clutching Intact in a crushing, iron grip.
"All hands, evacuate! Get out now!" Marcello shouted. Once he saw that everyone else had jumped, he grabbed a nearby piece of wood and dove into the water himself.
"Father, the crew is abandoning ship."
"Yeah. The boat’s nearly gone, anyway. Alright, let's finish this."
Jin ordered Reiko to fire two lead balls.
"Yes."
The soft lead flattened upon impact, spreading out and transferring every bit of its kinetic energy into the wooden hull.
The result was spectacular.
"Wha... wha..."
The Unifilar members floating in the water watched in shock as their ship was pulverized into splinters before their eyes.
"Okay, now for the survivors. Reiko, give them a Thunder Rain at the minimum current."
"Yes, Father."
The most efficient way to disable multiple people submerged in water was to strike from above. Reiko unleashed a Thunder Rain at the lowest setting she could manage.
For a heartbeat, the surface of the river glowed purple. Ten million volts cascaded down upon the drifting Unifilar members.
With short yelps and muffled groans, every member in the water was instantly rendered unconscious. Because they were in water, their hearts would generally keep beating unless they were exceptionally unlucky.
However, two individuals were that unlucky, and two others were knocked out only to be dragged down to the riverbed by the weight of their armor. Including Intact, five people died—unintentionally matching the number of guards Reinhard had lost.
"Alright, let's reel them in."
They used the ship’s fishnets to scoop up the incapacitated Unifilar members. They pulled twenty-eight people from the water.
"Let's put them on the shore and tie them up."
Jin had the Land units wait on the riverbank to take custody of the prisoners. Since they lacked enough rope, Jin used Craft Magic to forge wire rope from the fragments of the destroyed golems.
"Now then, I’ll have to consult with Reinhard on what to do with them."
Since they had kidnapped a diplomat of the Shouro Empire, Jin felt it wasn't his place to decide their fate. Besides, Reinhard was the one with the biggest grievance; it was only right to ask for his opinion.
Reinhard soon arrived, escorted by the Army golems Land 58, 59, and 60.
"Jin!"
"Reinhard! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks to you." Reinhard smiled, but Jin noticed the smile was strained. Then he saw the collar around his friend's neck.
"No way! Sorry, Reinhard. I should have noticed sooner." Jin reached out and placed his fingers on the device.
"Wait, Jin, this won't come off easi—"
Jin simply ripped the collar off. He did it so cleanly that Reinhard didn't even feel the tug.
"It's... it's gone..."
"Hmm?" Jin looked at the discarded collar with pure disgust.
Reinhard gave a weary laugh. "Good grief. How on earth did you pull that off so easily?"
"How? Well... the moment I touched it, I felt this incredibly nasty sensation. So I pushed back with my own mana, and the thing just turned soft like clay and snapped."
The collar functioned by using the wearer's mana to maintain its size. The truth was that Jin had flooded the mechanism with over ten times the maximum mana it was designed to handle, causing it to fail instantly. Jin would only learn the specifics once he had a chance to analyze the device properly.
"Well, we can look into that later. Stearena was captured with me. Please, get hers off too."
Jin looked over at Stearena, who was still unconscious in Cosmos's arms.
"I know. I heard you were attacked at her place."
"Yeah, one of her villas, apparently."
"She’s out cold," Jin noted, moving toward her. "It’s definitely the collar. There’s a magi-formula in here designed to drain the wearer’s health."
Jin made short work of Stearena's collar as well.
"What?! So that’s why I felt so lethargic. You’ve saved us, Jin... Still, what is that? That’s a strange helmet. And is that even clothing?"
Jin was wearing a suit of gear that looked more like an astronaut's suit than anything medieval. His night-vision visor was currently flipped up so his face was visible, but with it down, he would have been unrecognizable.
"Just some new gear I put together. It's actually quite useful."
Jin’s expression then turned serious as he gestured toward the bound and unconscious Unifilar members.
"Reinhard, how do you want to handle these guys?"