"Who was the one who said the Ghouls were weak?!"
...It was Saria.
Yeah, it was Saria’s fault.
Everything—every single bit of it—was Saria’s fault.
I’d deal with Saria and the Great King later. For now, the priority was rescuing the Latarnians.
"Prioritize the rescue of the Latarnian battleship crew! I’m going to go throttle these Ghouls!"
"I'm coming too," Eddie said, following my lead.
"Hey, we’re not exactly great at rescue work either, so we’ll take the combat side~"
"Isono, wait for me~"
It looked like the Isono and Nakajima duo was joining us as well.
That said, we were all leaders of our own private forces. Between the four of us and our knights, we had over twenty units.
"My Lord, I shall provide cover fire as well!"
Ah, correction. Ren’s Wan-wan Knight Order was joining in too. That brought us up to over thirty units.
"Me too, me too~"
"Melissa... please, just focus on the rescue."
"Ehhh~"
And so, the battle began.
Our mission: rescue the survivors and eliminate any Ghouls standing in our way. We could worry about the rest once the rescue was finished.
The Taikyoku Nation's humanoid fighters began their approach.
"Leo... those aren't... regular humanoid fighters," Eddie muttered, sending over an enlarged video feed.
Raw flesh was clinging to the humanoid fighters. It was a grotesque fusion of the Giant Ghouls we had fought early on and the fighters themselves.
"U-Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The memory hit me like a physical blow. It was exactly like the Parasite-type Zorks.
Give me a break.
"L-Leo! Get it together!"
"I couldn't help it! Something I never wanted to fight again just showed up..."
They were just like the Zorks—enemies that delighted in manipulating life.
Isono let out a groan, sounding genuinely appalled. "Just take them down already. It shouldn't be hard for you, Leo."
Nakajima chimed in with annoying agreement. "Exactly, Leo! You already wiped out the Zorks and the Proones!"
They were really laying it on thick.
"Yeah, yeah."
The Parasite-type Ghouls entered our effective range.
"If the beam weapons don't work, we'll take them with blades! Fire!"
I said that, but our weapons had already been modified to pierce Zork carapaces.
First, Ren’s sniper rifle locked onto the lead unit's head. The head of the enemy humanoid fighter vanished in a burst of scrap and gore.
Normally, if a human were the pilot, they would have been forced to switch to backup cameras... but instead, slimy tentacles writhed out from the stump where the head had been.
"Give me a break..."
The revulsion was overwhelming. Memories of being chased by sentient meat at Melissa’s family estate came flooding back.
"Fairy... can I go back and grab the Bolt Thrower?"
"Negative."
Ugyiiiiiiiiiiiiii! I hate squishy, slimy enemies!
"My Lord! I will test the Death Blaster Sniper!"
Ren connected her sniper’s external power terminal to her own machine. It was a Prototype Model of a Next Generation Sniper Rifle. By using the gun-type device to aim and fire the Death Blaster mounted on her machine's chest, the accuracy was improved exponentially.
Furthermore, the output could be condensed, allowing for high power in a smaller frame. There was no need for the weapon to be unnecessarily bulky. If she could just give it a cooler name, it would be a perfect ten out of ten.
"Firing."
The Death Blaster discharged. The humanoid fighter that had lost its head—and the machine flying right next to it—erupted into a massive explosion.
"It seems the output was excessive again."
Well, obviously. It was originally a tool for tunnel construction, designed with enough power to hollow out entire mountains. On top of that, it had been customized for military use. It was a weapon capable of downing a Battleship-type Zork in a single hit. It would be much better if she could lower the output to an appropriate level to allow for rapid fire.
The fundamental principles behind that kind of power remained a mystery. It was completely lost technology. We could reproduce it, but we had no idea why it actually worked. Quite a few of the tools we used daily were like that.
"Leo! Fighters incoming!"
A swarm of non-humanoid fighters swept in. They had the advantage in top speed, but we had the edge in maneuverability and sharp turns.
"My Lord, launching automated tracking mines!" Raven-kun reported over the comms.
Hahaha! I was about to brag about the terrifying might of my Kamishiro Main House knights... but that was a textbook tactic.
I opened a channel to Shiyun first. "Shiyun! Are you watching?"
"Yes!"
"Look closely. Fighters have high top speeds, but their maneuverability is poor. Their role is basically to close in at high speed and fire missiles. That's why, when you spot fighters, you use automated tracking mines to restrict their movement."
"Y-Yes! But Brigadier General, won't the enemy just fire their missiles?!"
"That's not a problem. Watch the missiles carefully. They accelerate once they get close to the target, and when they do, their tracking performance drops... that’s when you dodge!"
Hup!
"...Brother?" Shiyun turned to her older brother for help.
"I believe that is beyond any human capability," he replied.
Even Shiyun was starting to treat us like monsters.
"If you can't dodge... use your shield!" I deployed the folding shield. "But if you just take the hit, you'll get caught in the explosion. So, move forward and—hup!"
Just before the missile could accelerate, I closed the gap and slammed into it with my shield. The impact knocked the missile off course, causing it to detonate harmlessly away from me.
"This works for single shots, but the real problem is..."
The next missile split mid-flight, scattering dozens of small diffusion missiles toward me.
"For stuff like this, hold your shield out front and charge!"
I blocked the ones directly ahead, letting them explode against the shield.
"Then, kill your verniers! Use the blast from the missiles to snap your machine around!"
Instead of resisting the force, I let the blast throw my machine back. The remaining missiles swerved to follow.
"Wait until the very last second... and now!"
I slammed the verniers to maximum thrust, slipping right through the cluster of missiles. They lost their lock on me and detonated in empty space.
"And, well, it’s something like that. Tatiana! We're practicing this later!" I called out to Tatiana, who was watching alongside Shiyun.
"There's no way in hell I can do that!" she barked back.
My, she was being rebellious.
"Lesson two: Dealing with the enemy. Avoiding missiles is simple enough, but—"
"Go look up the word 'simple' in a dictionary, you jerk!"
Tatiana-chan was definitely in her rebellious phase.
"...Anyway, you have to counter-attack the units firing the missiles. So, while dodging..." I readied my rifle mid-maneuver. "Now!"
Target destroyed.
"Seriously, are you even human?"
"Look, you don't even have to hit them. As long as you're attacking, it works as a deterrent. See?"
Ren’s subordinates opened fire in unison. The natural-born hunters picked off the fighters one after another.
"What was the key factor here?" I asked.
Shiyun was the one to answer. "I see! Because the mines were placed, their flight paths were restricted..."
"Exactly. And always keep an eye on your allies' positions. I'll have you review all of this in the simulator later~"
We continued to tear through the fighters. Eventually, a Huanglong-type Battleship came into view.