The soldiers secretly tightened their grips on their swords, watching for the perfect moment to strike Gloria with their scabbards. Just as they were about to move, a voice rang out.
"Ah, look at all the humans."
It was unmistakably the voice of a young girl. Even with the most generous judgment, she sounded far too young to be an adult.
A figure emerged from the shadow of a large boulder, giggling. Standing at about 120 centimeters tall, she was certainly a girl of no more than seven or eight years.
She had jet-black hair reaching down her back and eyes of a dark red. Her skin was a sickly, morbid white, and the limbs peeking out from her black sleeveless dress were thin and fragile.
The soldiers, who had been on the verge of pouncing on Gloria, stared at the girl, their murderous intent momentarily deflated.
"How lucky. I didn't even have to wait an hour for this many humans to show up."
The girl cackled, her mouth a blood-red cavity as she laughed.
"You... who are you?"
Gloria glared at the girl, her hand remaining on the hilt of her short sword.
"Me? I’m Arshel. Arshel the Puppet."
With a grin that was more of a smirk than a smile, the girl who called herself Arshel took step after step toward Gloria.
"Stop right there!"
Gloria shouted, an indescribable chill running down her spine. A greasy sweat broke out across her back.
"What is it? Are you scared of me? Look, I’m not carrying anything."
Arshel stopped and spread her arms wide, waving them playfully to show she was unarmed.
"I have your name. Arshel, what are you doing here?"
"Hmm? I was waiting for humans."
"For what purpose?"
"To experiment on them, of course."
"Experiment?"
"That's right. Look, look at this! These are my pets!"
Arshel raised her right hand high. At that signal, several massive, elongated shapes dropped down from atop the rocks.
They closely resembled earwigs, but their bodies were over two meters long. There were four of them in total.
"U-Uwaaaah!"
"I-It’s a magical beast!"
The moment the soldiers behind Gloria saw them, they screamed and scrambled to flee.
"Fools! Stand your ground!"
Six men stopped at her command. The three who had been furthest back halted momentarily to look back, but then turned and resumed their flight.
"Ahaha, what cowardly humans. But do they really think they can run away?"
Arshel blew a high-pitched whistle. Immediately, four more giant earwigs appeared from the direction the three men had fled.
"Gyah!"
The soldier leading the escape was swatted aside by a single swing of a monster's tail. The remaining two barely managed to scramble back, away from the deadly pincers.
"Get back here! Form a circle!"
Gloria shouted again. The remaining eight soldiers obeyed, clustering around her.
The nine of them formed a circular formation in the clearing of the mountain pass. Positioned this way, they wouldn't be vulnerable to attacks from behind.
"Everyone, draw swords! Ready!"
At Gloria's command, they all drew their short swords and held them out in a thrusting posture.
"Ufufu, do you really think that will save you? How shallow. Swords can't cut through my babies' bodies."
"We won't know until we try!"
Gloria parried the tail of a monster closing in on her. To everyone's shock, the massive pincer was severed and fell to the ground.
"Eh?"
Arshel's eyes widened in astonishment.
"No way. You cut it? What is that sword?"
The sword in Gloria's hand was one Jin had reinforced with adamantite. It was constructed by sandwiching a thin plate of adamantite—0.1 millimeters thick, 25 millimeters wide, and about 60 centimeters long—between layers of steel.
The edge ground into that adamantite was harder than the chitinous shell of the giant earwig.
"Jin-dono, you have my thanks!"
Gloria offered a silent prayer of gratitude to the man who had crafted the sword for her.
On Hourai Island, Jin and Elsa had finished Edgar's new equipment that same day.
While the shell of a Gigant Peeder was inferior to adamantite, its strength-to-weight ratio actually surpassed it. In other words, the material was exceptionally durable yet very light.
"Ten knives. Let's make it so he can keep them concealed inside his clothes."
With Edgar's reinforced strength, he could easily pierce common bronze armor. He could likely even slice through steel.
Then there were the gauntlets, which covered everything from his elbows to his fists. If used correctly, they could even deflect magic.
"Alright, with this, Edgar is even stronger. He'll surely protect you, Elsa."
"Mm, Jin-nii, thank you."
Just then, an emergency report came in from Laojun.
"My Lord, Gloria-san is under attack. The opponent is a girl who appears to be of the demon race. She has brought along giant earwigs. They are approximately two meters in length, and there are eight of them."
"What did you say?"
Jin had considered the possibility that Gloria might be attacked, but he hadn't expected a member of the demon race to appear.
"Send ten units from the Land squad under the name Maquina! This will serve as a test for the new equipment."
"Understood."
Using the transporter, Laojun deployed Land 11 through 20. Since Deneb 4 was providing the position marker, the deployment was pinpoint accurate.
"There appears to be one person who is heavily injured."
"Alright, send Nurse Alpha as well....I should probably start thinking about mass-producing those soon," Jin muttered to himself after sending the medical unit.
"Ahahaha, you're doing well against the Gigantoavrums!"
Arshel, using her own name for the giant earwigs, watched Gloria's movements with delight.
"Humans can actually do this much? This is great data."
"Damn it, don't mock me!"
Gloria's sword was the only weapon capable of truly harming the Gigantoavrums. In terms of raw skill, the soldiers were no match for the creatures.
The soldiers maintained their circular formation, managing to fend off attacks through their collective effort. Gloria handled a large section of the circle herself, protecting the soldiers while wounding the beasts whenever they drew near.
However, Gloria was only one person with one sword.
Inevitably, the soldiers on the side furthest from her were exposed to the greatest threat. To mitigate this, they kept the circle rotating slowly, ensuring they were constantly in motion.
"Ufufu, aren't you getting tired yet?"
The soldiers' training was inferior to Gloria's, and the fatigue from their march was beginning to take its toll. Their legs began to tangle, and their movements grew sluggish.
Then, catastrophe struck.
A soldier to Gloria's right stumbled while trying to dodge, accidentally tripping Gloria in the process.
"Uwah!"
Gloria and the soldier fell in a heap.
"Ahaha, this is the end! That was fun!"
A Gigantoavrum lunged at the fallen Gloria.
"Captain!" one of the soldiers screamed.
Gloria closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, bracing herself for the impact and the pain.
"......"
But no matter how long she waited, there was no sign of the monster's strike. Gloria slowly opened her eyes.
"What!"
Before her stood silver-brown golems wielding glowing swords, and the Gigantoavrum that had been lunging at her lay dead, sliced clean through.
"Where did you come from? What are you!" Arshel shrieked, her voice cracking with rage.