Chapter 59: Titan (2)
“Arm yourselves with the weapons here?”
Matafil asked, looking dumbfounded.
“They’re all corporate weapons—did you really think there wouldn’t be security asures?”
He wasn’t wrong.
But instead of answering, Diesel called the na of his spirit.
〈Ar.〉
〈A total of six types of weapons have been detected. After cross-referencing with the data from the server room, it has been confird that none of them have ICE installed.〉
Maybe because the exhibition hadn’t opened yet.
Using the weapons didn’t require any troubleso hacking.
And that wasn’t the only piece of good news.
【Double Bolt Caster / Railgun / Condensed Rounds - 40 rounds】
【Anti-Monster / Autocannon / FMJ - 500 rounds】
【Eraser Mk. 2 / Plasma Grenade / 2 units】
【Heaven-Weight Bow / Anti-Tank Missile / 2 units】
【…….】
【…….】
‘Were they planning to start a full-scale battle in here?’
He didn’t know why they’d even prepared live ammunition, but as long as they could get their hands on them, the weapons were ready to be used imdiately.
Well, none of this would’ve happened in the first place if Titan hadn’t been ard either.
〈Send the location data too.〉
〈I’ve already marked them with icons.〉
I looked around carefully, making sure not to enter Titan’s line of fire.
There were four weapons within portal range for now.
After finishing his calculations, Diesel issued orders.
“Pinkbit, can you bring the weapons and ammo from the displays at the eleven o’clock and three o’clock positions?”
The white-furred beastman nodded instead of answering.
“Bring everything, right now.”
Before Diesel even finished speaking, a turquoise glow of mana flashed.
At the sa ti, portals opened and weapons ca pouring out in a clatter.
“No hacking needed. There’s no ICE installed.”
“No ICE……?”
Matafil unplugged the connection jack from his wrist, wired himself directly to a weapon to confirm it, and his expression turned grave.
“It’s true.”
There was no ti to hesitate now.
Diesel imdiately gave the next command.
“Matafil, start loading the railgun and the autocannon. Pinkbit, take the anti-tank missiles and grenades. You know how to use them, right?”
“It’s been a while since I handled manual operation, but it’s fine. Now, the interface is…… good. Sa version the Gale bastards use.”
Matafil checked the weapons, racked them with a clack, then grabbed one in each hand.
“You’re going to hold both at once?”
“Why? Never seen a barbarian-style cyborg before?”
They were both weapons ant to be mounted on ships or helicopters, so I wondered if recoil control was really possible—but I didn’t bother arguing.
“The most important thing is the anti-tank missiles. There are only two, so use them carefully.”
“I’ll pin it down with covering fire as long as I can. Fire while it’s distracted, Pinkbit.”
Pinkbit, grenades hanging from her waist, slung an anti-tank missile over her shoulder and examined it from various angles.
Then she raised a phrase with her finger: 「Portal?」
“That Titan has an extrely high mana detection capability, but…… yeah. If possible, try applying portals too. Even the distinctive distortion of spatial magic will make it react imdiately, so be careful.”
“It’d be best to hit the upper deck I was aiming at earlier. At least I stripped one layer of reactive armor there.”
‘Then all that’s left is…….’
The remaining two types of weapons were either too far away or too large to grab right now.
As I was wondering how to retrieve them—
Perhaps sensing that we were up to sothing, noise ca from Titan’s direction.
‘……?’
A light, popping sound.
It was the sound I’d heard before when fighting White Bear—the sound of a grenade launcher firing.
‘You’ve got to be kidding…….’
Diesel ford a spell formula as fast as he could.
He took the most basic Lightning-type magic, ‘Electrocution,’ and scattered it through the air like a net.
He only needed to trigger the grenade’s fuse, so power didn’t matter at all.
Just as intended, boom!—a blast rang out, and tungsten fragnts went ting, ting, ricocheting everywhere.
If it had detonated properly on this side of the wall, we’d have been shredded by those pieces.
“We have to counterattack now.”
“Alright. Let’s spread out to both sides.”
Another pop rang out, but this ti Diesel had prepared his magic in advance, making it easy to cause a premature detonation.
That explosion beca the signal for Matafil to aim both large weapons from behind cover.
“Die…… you bastard……!”
Wheeeee—dududududu……!
Thud-thud……! Thud-thud……!
The two weapons spewed fire at completely different rhythms.
On one side, pale smoke billowed; on the other, golden shell casings scattered through the air.
The one thing they had in common was their overwhelming power.
Enough to make that massive Titan stagger on one leg.
“Hahaha! So you’re not invincible after all!”
The tank twisted the attacked leg backward.
Then it turned its barrel toward Matafil—
And right above it, a turquoise glow of mana rippled.
What fell from the portal that opened there was a single plasma grenade, pin already pulled.
But as if it had been prepared for this—
Phaaang……!
The tank emitted a shockwave that shoved the grenade far away.
A aningless plasma explosion burst against the ceiling.
“Hmph!”
Pinkbit snorted, steam puffing from her nose, and imdiately created another portal.
Aiming at that blue ripple, she pulled the trigger of the anti-tank missile slung over her shoulder.
Fwoosh……!
The missile spewed a long trail of smoke as it passed through the portal.
But once again, perhaps having detected the magic in advance, the thing calmly executed an evasive maneuver.
Kwaaang……!
The guided missile sharply adjusted its trajectory in pursuit of the target, but exploded futilely.
Now only one missile remained.
“We’re almost out of ammo!”
Matafil shouted as he threw the spent railgun onto the floor.
At the sa ti, a counterattack began from an entirely different direction.
“What the hell are those now?”
Android guards, drawn by the sound of battle, fired pistols at Matafil.
Ting, ting—sparks flew from the cyborg’s entire body.
Matafil scoffed and swung the autocannon toward the androids.
“Hah! You think toys like that can even scratch ?”
As if to refute him imdiately, powerful rounds burst forth from Titan’s machine gun—dudududu.
“Kgh……!”
He dove behind cover, but Matafil’s right arm holding the weapon was shredded.
〈They finally showed up. Ar, can you do it?〉
〈Yes.〉
At her master’s words, Ar lightly flew across the bullet-filled lobby and slapped herself onto one android.
Its body twisted grotesquely, then smashed through the glass of the adjacent exhibition hall and grabbed hold of a weapon inside.
“Everyone, get down!”
“Huh?”
【Death Laser / Optical Weapon / 1 shot】
Ziiiiiing…….
A vivid yellow beam swept in a full circle across the exhibition hall.
Then, everywhere the light touched began to lt away—
Puh-buh-bung!
It exploded.
“Whoa!”
Most of the androids that had flooded into the hall collapsed like lted cheese, then burst apart.
But the most important target, Titan, had only its outer armor scratched, suffering no real damage.
‘Is this still not enough?’
At that mont, turquoise mana flashed once more and a portal opened.
As if it had anticipated it, Titan imdiately unleashed machine-gun fire toward the rippling space.
“Danger……!”
But whether it was Pinkbit’s intention or not, the other portal had opened toward the androids.
The mont Titan realized it had fired on its own side, it imdiately ceased fire.
“Hmph!”
The white-furred beastman snorted again, then this ti ford several spells simultaneously.
Nurous mana distortions appeared around Titan.
‘Ha…….’
Opening this many portals at once in a state of spatial interference?
Boss Kim’s words—that he had selected only highly skilled Ghostcatchers—didn’t seem like a lie.
Even the artificial intelligence Minerva System seed caught off guard, as Titan’s movents stalled for a brief mont.
Pinkbit seized that opening and fired the last remaining anti-tank missile.
Among the countless decoys, the portal linked to Pinkbit was the one positioned at the very top of the tank.
The missile nad ‘Heaven-Weight Bow’ left behind a pure white trail as it slamd down onto the monster’s crown.
Kwaaang!
A crisp explosion shook the exhibition hall.
“Haha! That was a direct hit!”
Matafil shouted, thrusting the autocannon forward with his intact arm.
But that joy was short-lived.
“Insane…….”
Woooooong……!
With an ominous rumble, the weapon raised its body.
Phase two had begun.
The multi-legged combat weapon, Titan.
The true terror of this tank lay not only in its outstanding mobility and firepower, but in its steel-like durability that simply refused to fall.
“What kind of tank shrugs off a direct hit from an anti-tank missile……?”
And not just any missile, but a brand-new anti-tank missile that had been put on display to show off its power.
‘So it really is the star of this exhibition.’
In the market, countless spears and shields clashed every ti.
And the one that erged victorious was always the item the rchant most wanted to boast about.
The massive weapon before my eyes was one of the brightest highlights of this exhibition hall.
“Hey, mage. What are you going to do?”
“It’s Diesel.”
“Right, Diesel.”
I scanned the surroundings.
The pillar I was using as cover had partially lted from the optical weapon, but it was still functional.
That said, dragging this out any longer would an ga over.
The number of android guards creeping in was steadily increasing.
“How many autocannon rounds do you have left?”
“Seventy-three.”
“From now on, use them only against the androids.”
“Got it. They don’t even pierce that thing anyway.”
“Pinkbit, you’ve got one grenade left, right?”
She nodded, her face slightly flushed with excitent.
“When I give the signal, drop it over the tank’s head like before.”
“What are you planning?”
“…….”
Diesel turned his gaze toward the far distance.
The one remaining weapon.
Another star of the exhibition, boasting effects on par with the main attraction called Titan.
To use that thing, I needed the help of the Electrosphere Spirit, Ar.
〈Ar, are you ready?〉
〈Learning complete. I’m ready, Master.〉
〈Good. Move out first.〉
At Diesel’s words, Ar shot forward like an arrow.
“Grenade, now.”
Pinkbit once again opened nurous portals near Titan.
But perhaps because it had already experienced this once, it didn’t show the sa sluggish reaction as before.
Instead, it identified the real one among the many portals and raked it with machine-gun fire.
“……!”
‘It analyzed that in such a short ti?’
Absurd combat capability.
Another reason we couldn’t afford to drag this fight out.
A thick round slamd in, and Pinkbit took a gunshot wound to the thigh.
But even with bullets flying straight at her, she didn’t forget her mission and tossed the grenade into the portal.
Kwaaang!
A massive explosion erupted, but once again the tank was unhard.
In that opening, Diesel sprinted out toward the lobby.
“Pinkbit! You bastard son of a—!”
Matafil wiped out the guard androids in an instant, then focused entirely on Titan.
The ammo belt being fed into the autocannon grew shorter and shorter, until it finally stopped firing with a dull click.
As if responding, flas burst from Titan’s barrel.
Thud!
What the tank hit wasn’t the place where Matafil was hiding, but the pillar right beside it.
Was it calculated precisely?
The pillar, its base blown apart, toppled like a tree felled by a lumberjack toward the space where the two Ghostcatchers were taking cover.
“Damn…….”
Pinkbit, with a bullet lodged in her thigh, had no way to avoid it.
Even if she tried to dodge outward, she’d be exposed to Titan’s line of fire imdiately.
Faced with that, Matafil chose an extrely drastic action.
“Kgh!”
Thud……!
He caught the falling pillar with his own body.
The ton-level impact crushed down on his flesh, but sohow he endured it.
“Diesel……! Don’t tell you’re running away on your own……!”
It was a misunderstanding anyone could make.
The direction Diesel was running toward was the lobby entrance.
〈Ar.〉
The Electrosphere Spirit reached the destination before Diesel did.
Monts later, the last remaining weapon in the exhibition hall rose to life.
【Iron Skin MK-27 / Reinforced Exoskeleton / 3 minutes】
A flying exoskeleton suit, similar to what the protagonist of so movie used to wear.
〈Synchronizing.〉
Along with Ar’s notification.
The empty exoskeleton lifted into the air.
Reviews
All reviews (0)