I was stuck cleaning up the Great King’s sloppy mess on the battlefield.
"That sports thing," my foot!
He was acting like a total superfan!
There was only one Ghoul Battleship present.
For supposed "endgame content," the enemy was pathetic...
What was this? I couldn't shake this nagging sense of wrongness.
"Great King! Stop right there!"
The Great King’s machine ground to a halt.
"What? Has something happened?"
"It’s weird! They supposedly came here to attack the event, but there's only one battleship... Isn't this a diversion?"
"What do you mean by that!?"
"Great King... no, old man! Did you try to open the Gate on our end?"
"What are you talking about?"
...This was bad.
"Saria! Are you reading me!?"
"Yes! What about the Gate!?"
"The old man doesn't know anything about trying to open the Gate! Is anything unusual happening back in the Ogre God Nation?"
"...! I’ll investigate immediately with everything I have!!"
"Hey! I don't follow! What does this mean!?"
"Look, you don't even have diplomatic relations with the Ghouls, right? Yet they went out of their way to attack this specific location. If we assume the info about the Great King attending the event was leaked..."
That was information even we didn't have until the last minute.
Which meant whoever leaked it was someone close to the Great King.
"A coup d'etat!?"
"It's just a possibility! But for now... Claire! Fire at the battleship!"
"O-Okay!"
Claire's bazooka scored a direct hit on the Ghoul Battleship.
Even though it was originally a Death Blaster, the damage it dealt was far too high for its size.
I hadn't questioned it at first. I think we were all just a bit too caught up in the festive mood.
"I knew they’d pull something like this..."
With a series of groans and cracks, a large humanoid fighter tore its way out of the battleship’s hull.
No, wait, was that right?
Was it a person wearing an armored combat suit?
"It’s a Large-type Ghoul!"
It must have been a trap—wait for us to get close, then spring out.
Too bad for them; we’d survived Zork-san’s absolute trash-tier villain tactics.
I knew they were going to pull something like this!
Still, these Ghouls... they might be a bit of a handful.
They were different from Zork, who had managed to hijack the Duke Association and the Grand Chamberlain but failed to actually win.
These guys had enough brains to team up with the enemy of their enemy.
Even if their raw combat power was lower, that kind of cunning was much more dangerous.
"Old man, get back! We’ll take it from here!"
"Nu... Nuuu! The pride of the Ogre God!"
"Forget it! If you die, old man, the whole thing ends right here!"
"Nu, nuuu!"
"Everyone from the Ogre God Race, get him out of here."
The old man's machine was grabbed firmly.
"Nu, nuuu! Let go! Let me goooooo!"
And off he went, escorted away.
Since he kept resisting, I even had the Battle Dome Defense Force help haul him off.
Now, only we remained on the field.
It was time to face the Giant Ghoul.
"Registering the name as 'Gigant'~" Nina chirped.
Apparently, that thing was called a Gigant.
First things first...
"Claire, fire!"
"Roger!"
Claire’s bazooka hit it dead center.
It wasn't moving very fast.
However, it was freakishly durable.
"Guooooooooon!"
The combat suit the Gigant wore... the skull-like face portion began to glow.
Oh, crap!
"Evade! Full power!"
A massive beam erupted from the face.
Seriously!
A giant that could fire beams with its own body?
That had to be against the rules!
Fortunately, we were experts at dodging by now.
We managed to get clear.
In fact, we actually had a fair bit of room to maneuver.
"Hey, you boys! Do something about this already!"
"Ugh, shut it! Leo, you're so annoying!"
Then, a transmission came in from Kevin.
"This is Kevin! I’m in position!"
"This is Nina. I'm in position too~"
...Our two heaviest hitters were ready for combat.
Alright, I’ll just play around and draw its attention for a bit...
Just as the thought crossed my mind, the Ghoul humanoid fighters arrived.
I guessed that was the whole lot of them.
"Alright, boys~, let’s take 'em down~. Claire, Melissa, you’re with me on interception. Ren, provide cover!"
Claire tossed her bazooka aside.
Despite her sniper certification, her machine was customized for close-quarters combat.
She was a Brawling Fighter, through and through.
Ren opened fire on the Gigant.
"Keep it pinned down, Ren!"
The rest of us would sweep up the small fry.
But I hadn't realized just how fired up everyone else was.
To put it bluntly, they were beyond livid.
The Soccer Club, whose second-half exhibition was being ruined.
The Martial Arts Club, whose demonstrations of karate, judo, sumo, and wrestling were being interrupted.
The Baseball Club, who had been hoping to use this chaos to promote themselves.
And the Pro-wrestling Research Club, whose showcase was now in jeopardy.
It didn't stop there.
The Brass Band, Calligraphy Club, and Art Club were all absolutely incensed.
"Ora ora ora ora oraa!!! Come and get some!!!"
Isono was acting uncharacteristically aggressive.
"Your guard’s weak! If you want to kill me, you’d better bring a whole army!!!"
Nakajima had basically turned into a Berserker.
But the one who reached legendary status was Claire.
Crunch.
With an Iron Claw, Claire crushed the head of an enemy machine.
"...And after all that..."
"Eh?"
"After we spent so much time practicing!!!"
She swung the machine—whose head was still being crushed—with one hand and hurled it. It slammed into another machine behind it, and both exploded.
O-Oh... isn't she a little too strong?
"Daryaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
A Lariat pulverized a neck.
A Rolling Sobat sent another enemy to the grave in a single hit.
She wasn't the only one; the others were absolutely trampling the enemy.
I... found myself with nothing to do. All I could do was dodge the occasional beam from the Gigant.
Finally, Kevin's drones and Nina-san's fighters arrived.
"Here we gooo~"
It was a literal inferno. Kevin’s Self-destruct Drones scorched the Gigant, followed by a relentless rain of Nina-san’s missiles.
At this point, machine specs didn't even matter.
As for me, I dealt with a few stray machines the others had missed. "Atchoo!"
One enemy swung an axe at me, so I countered with a hand-chop. When it dropped its weapon, I followed through with the same hand for a Hell Thrust. I blew its head clean off in one strike.
Getting a bit cocky, I ended up surrounded by two more. I dodged an axe, slipped behind one, and kicked its backside. As it stumbled into its ally, I pulled the handgun stored in my leg and finished them off.
By the time I’d taken care of those three, I saw the Gigant being shot down.
No self-destruct? Nothing? Are these guys even trying?
We finished them off quickly, and that was that.
Then, a transmission came through from Saria.
"...It's a coup d'etat. Just as Lord Leo suspected, a coup has broken out on the Capital Planet."
Well then, I guess we’ve officially got a government-in-exile.
Good thing the Great King old man decided to come visit us after all.