This was the moment when the true force of the Dragon Warriors—the most powerful fighting corps in Tempest—came into effect.
“I want each of you to take down one airship. Can you do it?”
“““Yes, sir!!”””
“Great! Then get to it…!”
At Gabil’s command, Team Hiryu moved in unison.
Who were the champions of the skies? The answer to that question was about to be resolved before their eyes.
The members of the Flying Combat Corps, the most valued part of the Armored Division—itself one of the Empire’s three great fighting forces—were no more than pathetic, bleating lambs by now. The reason? Now that the dragonewts had unleashed Dragon Body, the special properties of that intrinsic skill had nullified their magic. Gabil and the other Dragon Warriors were now immune to everything including and up to Megiddo—itself a nature-based magic. Each one had a Multilayer Barrier and a Cancel Natural Elements spell on them, shrugging off all physical attacks and canceling both magical attacks and natural effects.
These airships mainly attacked with magic, and with the machine guns they had as auxiliary arms, they didn’t have a chance of penetrating the scales of Gabil’s force. Team Hiryu’s fighting skill ranked A-minus to start with, and having that multiplied several times over had put them well past the A wall. Even worse for them, the transformation also gave them healing skills that came scarily close to Ultraspeed Regeneration. They had tapped into enough power to make each one a high-level magic-born.
With that, the fate of the now-toothless airships was sealed. And now Gabil was making it official.
“It’s time to go! Prepare for my special finisher…”
Gabil was stronger than his peers to start with, but in addition to muscle, he also had a special-A level of magicules in his body. It didn’t hold a candle to Shion’s or Benimaru’s, but it made him as much of a force as Soei or Geld. Tapping into Dragon Body for himself had made him into a truly remarkable warrior, enough power to even approach the former demon lords Carillon and Frey…
“…Vortex Crash!!”
A single strike from Gabil sent an airship hurtling toward the ground.
The air currents swirled around him, concentrating the moisture in the atmosphere to a single point and melding it into a maelstrom of magical power. The full brunt of this vortex was released from Gabil’s spear, piercing straight through one of the airships. Its barrier, kept running by a hundred-strong staff in the ship’s defense section, provided zero resistance before shattering. The airship was instantly downed.
The rest of the Dragon Warriors quickly followed suit. Although they couldn’t fire pure magic power from their spears like Gabil, each used their enhanced physical abilities to charge at their respective airship. Magic no longer worked on them, and the ships’ barriers provided no protection—and in no time at all, those barriers were breached, allowing them to invade the ships.
Five Dragon Warriors swarmed a ship at a time, taking no more than a few minutes to bring one down. At this point, it was only a matter of time before the entire Flying Combat Corps was wiped out.
Gabil was already getting carried away with it.
“Gwah-ha-ha-ha! Keep it up, Warriors, keep it up! And if any of you can’t take down a single ship, you know what’ll happen to you later, I’m sure!”
Hearing those words, the Team Hiryu members lagging behind the pack exchanged alarmed glances. There were only a hundred airships—they counted—and if Gabil wasn’t gonna stop attacking, there were precious few left open to them.
“Aw, c’mon, Sir Gabil!”
“Sir Gabil’s so moody, isn’t he? And he’s in such a good mood right now, I dunno if he’s gonna leave any prey for us!”
“Knowing the general, that’s way too possible…”
How would Gabil judge airships taken down by teams? Well, that was for him to decide. The rest of the force, fully aware of this, rushed to join in the attack. Now the positions of predator and prey were reversed—and so the course of the day in the sky was settled.
Going back in time a little…
The supply troops assigned to the imperial army’s Magitank Force were about to face the trial of their lives.
“You’ve done well to keep up with me…but remember, the real battle is about to begin!”
These words were uttered by Hakuro, the man in charge of the Green Numbers. His face was cool, unaffected, but the force of twelve thousand hanging on to his words were gasping for breath. They were, after all, located directly behind the Empire’s tank force, and to get there, they had to march a long, arcing path of some twenty-five miles from the Dwarven Kingdom—all while wearing heavy equipment.
It was Hakuro the Instructor who allowed this to be possible. He had trained all his Numbers thoroughly, drilling them in the art of Battlewill. Thanks to that, the Numbers had mastered a variety of martial arts—including Instantmove, letting them virtually teleport at will, and Formhide, which prevented their foes from sensing them.
These Green Numbers had deployed at the same time as Gobta’s force, doing their best to reach this spot without being detected by the enemy.
“I would like to commend all of you on your mastery of the Battlewill I taught you,” Hakuro said, face as gentle as a doting mother. His troops, seated on the ground as they listened to him, gasped anew at this, afraid of what was coming next. They had known Hakuro for a long time, and they knew if the Instructor was merciless against his allies, he was even more so against the enemy. The order he would give them with this compliment was terrifying to even imagine—and for those who understood it was up to them to execute, it was with a steely resolve that they took the foreboding news.
“Our mission is to cut off the enemy’s supply lines here. It may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but if we can destroy the enemy’s rear supply units, we can dissuade them from wanting to fight a little. There’s no need to take enemy lives needlessly, but there is also no need to show mercy, either. Besides…”
Hakuro gave the battlefield a glance and smiled. And then:
“Gobta has grown to be a fine man. He is currently doing an expert job playing the decoy for us. And I want you all to perform as well as that general is!”
Hakuro’s voice boomed over the distant sound of explosions. Those with no real combat experience grew more tense by the moment, overwhelmed by the sound of it all.
“All right? While you’re fighting, I don’t want you to think about anything else. Fail to kill the enemy, and you’re the one who dies. Let the enemy go, and friends will die because of it. Those are the ironclad rules of the battlefield.”
His troops were panting for breath a moment ago, but now they were silent, listening to every word from Hakuro. Their leader was imparting knowledge, so those prepared to give their everything would not find themselves mentally lost in battle.
“All life does not come equally. There is no need to worry about strangers, when compared to the lives of your loved ones. I will also remind you that these enemies are invaders. They are fools who don’t even deserve the right to live. Do not be shy about cutting them down!”
With those threatening words, Hakuro hoped to quell any feelings of guilt they might have had. It was his way of showing a little kindness.
“I have trained all of you, and with that training, you can even cut down those piles of iron. Everything thrown out from them seems frozen in the air to you, does it not? Then do not be afraid. There is no one who can stand against our blades!”
Nobody could say “Er, no, they don’t seem frozen at all, sir.” There was no way to. If they did, he would say “You need more training!” and give them an even more harrowing ordeal than any war could give them. But while some had “little complaints” like that in their minds, no one had any complaint about Hakuro himself. He never asked them to do something he wouldn’t. His words may have been extreme at times, but it was all based on his desire as their leader to see his troops reach the same heights as himself.
Now the Green Numbers were watching for their chance—the order from Hakuro to charge. Their boss was acting as a decoy, the most dangerous job of the day—a truly excellent performance, one befitting a member of the Big Four. They had all seen him, thanks to Hakuro’s All-Seeing Eye extra skill, and thanks to Thought Communication, everyone down to the last member was sharing in the same insight. There was fear, yes, but more than that, the members were fascinated by Gobta’s and his Goblin Riders’ courage. It made them realize that now it was their turn to make an effort.
Hakuro felt his anxiety dissipate a little as he sized up his group. Its members had been thoroughly trained to deal with all kinds of situations, but there would still doubtlessly be casualties in their first battle. He did wish, somewhere in his heart, that he could’ve done additional training, but there was nothing more he could do. The enemy wouldn’t wait for them.
Under Benimaru’s plan, Gobta’s force would stick to their stalemate for as long as possible. It’d be bound to make the enemy impatient, he said; the tanks didn’t have infinite shells, so the rain of bullets had to stop at some point. That’s when Hakuro’s force would come into play. They’d hit the enemy’s supply forces, seize their goods, and make it a cinch to seize these so-called tanks. As a secondary objective, they were tasked with uncovering the hidden leaders, the strongmen among the enemy…but that, they could play by ear.
Hopefully if they exist, they’ll come up to me, Hakuro thought, although that, too, was just a matter of luck. This is their first battle. If they’re consumed by fear, they’re bound to die. I wanted to ease those fears as much as possible, but we’ll just have to see…
For now, all Hakuro could do was pray they succeeded—and that everyone came out of it safe. But those fears turned out to be unnecessary.
“Listen to me!”
Suddenly, Rimuru channeled an order to the Green Numbers through Hakuro’s skill. Hearing it was all it took for the monsters’ anxieties to be quelled. An inexplicable elation rose up among them; their bodies felt warm, as if they’d catch on fire.
“…to eliminate the enemy as quickly as possible.”
Now Rimuru’s words—or his orders—would be going into effect. They made Hakuro chuckle.
“I see I’ve worried for nothing. Did you hear that, all of you?”
“““Yes, sir!!”””
“Then let’s go! Your patient waiting is over. Go and unleash your full powers!”
Before Hakuro could finish his words, the monster army rushed off at a furious pace.
Ten or so minutes later, the infantry guarding the Empire’s supply teams were lined in a horizontal formation, ready to intercept the monster army. The sudden surprise attack almost threw them into disorder, but they were the elites of the Empire, and they immediately regained their bearings.
Some of the platoons used armored vehicles for transport as shields to shoot at the monsters with. At first glance, the imperial forces seemed to have the upper hand, as befitting an army with such a decisive numerical advantage. But the Green Numbers weren’t intimidated. Despite being exposed to gunfire, the Scale Shields provided to the front row proved handy. Unlike a bow, a rifle shot does not travel in an arc; the purpose of small-arms fire is to suppress the enemy at close range, and as long as the front row didn’t take any hits, worthwhile suppression would never happen.
This was, after all, still a world of swords and sorcery. With their unthinkably high lethality, guns had the power to change every tactical textbook in the land. But this world had magic, and thus a single bullet wasn’t necessarily enough to neutralize an enemy. For that, slashing attacks with swords and axes were more effective than bullets striking a single tiny point of the body.
The Empire had great pride in all its new weapons, but not even they were enough to institute a paradigm shift, a full change in the times. If not, their commander decided, it was time to break out a new weapon. So the next order came down from on high.
“Dammit! All forces, switch from rifle fire to your spellguns. Maintenance teams, join the main force and bring only the most important supplies with you!”
The standard rifle, a weapon re-created from knowledge brought from another world, was ineffective against monsters. They did have some success in the experimental stages, but that was only against unarmed, essentially naked creatures. But if that was the case, there was always magic.
These spellguns, wieldable even by ordinary foot soldiers, had Fire Lance magic engraved on them. That, the commander thought, would be enough to pierce through most monsters and burn them alive. Unfortunately, that supposition was beyond naive. The Green Numbers were equipped with the latest in Unique-class armor; Garm had hammered out the scales of Charybdis to create their Scale Shields, and they could deflect far more than just lead bullets…
“N-no good, sir! The enemy force is immune to magic!”
The true value of these Scale Shields was the high resistance to magic they offered. But that wasn’t the only nightmare striking the imperial army. From the skies above flew in the Wyvern Riders—the elites of the Blue Numbers—led by Ultima.
“Drop ’em all!”
With that sweetly voiced order, the ground was engulfed in flames. It was a flare bomb–based ranged attack. Not a terribly powerful one, but it had ample killing force against the imperial infantry.
But it was the sound, in particular, that sowed confusion across the battlefield. It made the support soldiers not used to fighting—mechanics, medics, and so forth—unable to keep up with the changing situation. Soon, the order to join the main force was no longer being heeded, leading to even more unnecessary casualties.
It was a relief for Hakuro to see that the battle turned out to be more lopsided than he feared.
“Hey there, Hakuro. These kids are under my command, but d’you mind if I leave ’em to you?”
“Ah, Miss Ultima? I don’t mind that, no, but…”
Hakuro gave Ultima a good-natured greeting as he watched her jump down from her wyvern’s back. The difference between his attitude with her and with his soldiers was like a yawning chasm.
“You don’t? Great, thanks so much!”
Ultima, for her part, was acting like a cute little girl begging her grandfather for a treat. If Veyron or Zonda saw her like this, they’d no doubt wonder if they were hallucinating.
They’d never tell her that, of course, but…
“Certainly, certainly. By the way…”
“Mm? What is it?”
“Well, y’see, Miss Ultima, I had a question for you. Are you close to Lady Carrera, perhaps?”
“Mmm, I dunno about calling her Lady and me Miss…but I’ll let you off the hook, Hakuro. Anyway, the answer’s simple: We hate each other!”
Ultima was still all smiles and cuteness, but there was something frightening about her presence in that moment. She was, as it turned out, extremely good at this feigned friendliness. She was actually brutal and ruthless by nature, and those two sides of her fluctuated so much, you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking she had a split personality. Even so, Ultima always paid due respect to those older than her, so that aspect of her went wholly unnoticed with most people.
“Oh, no? A pity.”
“Why’d you ask?”
“Well, I was just, you know, wondering if you knew Agera, one of Lady Carrera’s men…”
Hakuro picked his words carefully. The demon Agera looked a lot like a certain person Hakuro knew—in fact, they were virtually body doubles. That person was none other than Byakuya Araki, Hakuro’s grandfather and martial arts teacher.
He was thus keenly interested in this Agera, but the demon himself didn’t even seem to notice Hakuro. Was it because old age changed his appearance too much?