Space Calendar Year 422, Rakai Star System, Belchis Fortress.
"This is your last chance! Don’t fall back! Hold the line even if it kills you!"
"Walking Shrimp down!"
"Go, go, go!"
The Walking Shrimp, a unit built entirely for anti-air combat, was crippled when its legs were targeted by ground forces’ railgun fire, and armored vehicles surged forward in the opening.
"Core breach successful!"
"Good! Keep—"
"Watch out!"
"Aaaagh!"
Crunch! A soldier was crushed under the foot of a medium Teddy Bear, and the awful sound rang out.
"Tch! Don’t fall back! If you survive by retreating here, then if the knights fail this time, we’re all dead anyway! If you’re going to die, die alongside those damned monsters!"
"Don’t fall back!"
Boom! With a deafening roar, a shielded nuclear reactor unit exploded.
"Two Type-5 units spotted ahead!"
"Damn it! Somehow...!"
Shk! Along with a slash, the body of the speaking soldier was split cleanly in two from top to bottom.
"Tch!"
A knight wielding an AB Sword charged in, but the sight before him was nothing but two Type-5s stained red with blood and a single company already reduced to a brutal massacre.
"Ha!"
Two monstrous greatswords and one AB Sword crossed paths. Even if it was two against one, he was still a veteran among veterans, someone who had survived more than two weeks in this hellish Belchis. You might ask, only two weeks? But considering the survival rate on this miserable battlefield—where Master Knights who would not even flinch at ordinary levels of monster contamination were cut down every other day, and even division-level fighters could turn into chunks of meat and scatter if they slipped up—yes, he was a veteran.
A plain knight who, before coming here, could barely handle Type-77s had grown in just two weeks to the point where he could glimpse a chance against two Type-5s. That was how fierce this battlefield was. That was Belchis.
"Knight! Support bombardment incoming!"
"Copy that!"
Good news came to him just as he was being pushed back little by little.
"...Then why isn’t it here yet?!"
The reason was simple. The unit that had just announced it would provide bombardment had been shredded by a Type-77 formation (!) before it even had time to report back. A force so powerful that it would normally require the combined strength of an entire nest dropped by a decent queen was, here, just something you tripped over like a slightly stronger mass-produced unit.
Of course, he had already guessed as much.
"Damn it!"
There would be no support bombardment. At this rate, he would be slowly pushed back and die. If this had been him before coming here, he would have been trembling, but...
"Well, whatever. By the time I got here, it wasn’t like anything was going to change anyway."
He took a gamble. Relying on the DC Coat, he blocked the greatsword flying toward him. Zing! Hexagonal panels rose up, and the greatsword scraped across them. Kakakak!
[DC Device remaining: 30%]
Ignoring the sharp pain from the impact transmitted through the DC Coat, he threw himself forward.
"Hup!"
For a moment, the Type-5 froze in surprise. It was a brief instant that might not even amount to 0.1 seconds, but in battle it could feel endlessly long.
Shk! The AB Sword cut into the Type-5’s neck. Ignoring the fleeting sense of accomplishment, he kicked the collapsing body aside to correct his stance and blocked the next attack from the other Type-5.
Clang! Metal rang out as the greatsword and the AB Sword collided.
"Hup!"
Planting his foot on the ground, he lunged forward and threw himself at the second Type-5. The green barrier was cut apart helplessly by the AB Sword, and at the same time the blade sliced through the core that served as its power source.
"Nice!"
Crack! Unless it was a higher form, there was no way it would have multiple cores. It was over. The Type-5’s body collapsed.
"Phew..."
Taking a moment to catch his breath, he looked around. The corpses had been so thoroughly destroyed by the battle between him and the two Type-5s that they were barely even recognizable anymore. Bitter, he thought.
And that was his last thought.
Shk!
++++
The knight, leaning on his sword and catching his breath, collapsed. At the same time, a round object fell to the ground.
The knight’s head. He had been wearing a bitter expression, and he died with that same expression on his face.
What had separated his head from his body was a monster resembling a Type-5. The only difference was that the area around its eyes was split in a cross, and at the four ends of that cross were green eyes.
"Kyaaa!!"
The monster screamed and lunged forward.
++++
"Engine output dropping!"
"A Type-77 has latched onto Nene! We’re abandoning the ship and opening fire!"
Zing!Zing! Gunfire from the surrounding fleet rained down on the allied ship. At a glance, it would seem absurd, but everyone accepted it as normal. The first rule of monster warfare was to shoot down any ship that had a higher monster attached to it. Even if there were survivors, there were no exceptions. In the first place, a ship with a higher monster attached was already as good as dead. Even if they didn’t bombard it, the higher monster would kill it anyway.
[Nene is self-destructing!]
"...Understood!"
The voice of Nene’s crew came through the comms.
Kaboom! Nene detonated all the explosives loaded inside the ship while overloading its core and self-destructing.
"Type-77 core reaction lost!"
"Good! Keep advancing! Those losses are within expected parameters!"
"Yes, sir!"
The fleet, with output raised, advanced in unison.
"Core reaction ahead! Cross Eye Alpha and Beta!!"
"Commence firepower projection ahead! Open all silos! Fire everything—missiles, beams, all of it! Don’t aim! Even if you do, with the Jamil reactor and the Chamild reactor in there, it won’t hit anyway!"
"Yes, sir!"
An absurd scene unfolded as beams and missiles formed a curtain of fire. Since they were not being aimed, most of the firepower was wasted into the void, but in fact this was the correct call. As he said, even if you aimed, it wouldn’t hit. Better to at least force a hit this way.
"Lure successful! It’s charging at us like a rabid dog!"
"Good! Deploy Ramel and run like hell! Against a weapon of mass destruction, the defense systems are just scraps of paper!"
"Yes, sir!"
[Deploying small maneuver ship Ramel]
"Engaging!"
"Ramel 1 down! Confirmed shot down!"
Reports came in at roughly two-second intervals. It was absurd to hear that the ship deployed had gone down just two seconds after deployment, but the crew’s expressions did not change at all.
"Even so, that’s a ship built to fight a higher monster..."
"It’s closing in rapidly!"
"Tch! Flagship Feynman, forward! Melt down the engine and apply the higher-form shield pattern. Hold out for even one more second!"
"Yes, sir!"
Despite an order that was effectively no different from a suicide command, Feynman’s crew answered bravely.
Kuaang! Immediately after, the flagship exploded.
"Feynman down!"
"Damn it! What about the G-system charge?!"
"Now!"
++++
"G-34 charge complete! Firing!"
"Take this, monster!"
Kiiiiing! With a thunderous roar, three G-series weapons—devices even used in planetary destruction—unleashed their beams.
"Right. That’s not output a small ship can endure... Well, that one will endure it."
++++
From the sky, a beam cannon laden with immense energy came crashing down.
"?!"
Only then did the red Cross Eye Alpha notice it and raise a hand. It was already too late. Anyone would have thought so, but what followed shattered that obvious assumption as if it were nothing.
Kwaa! With a deafening roar, a pillar of light swallowed the two. When the beam struck the ground, a massive explosion erupted.
"What about the higher form?"
"Still intact! Looks like it dispersed the force with a weapon of mass destruction!"
"But... this is enough! We forced those damned monsters to the ground! And only those two!"
Even though the report said they had failed to damage the enemy at all, they were instead overjoyed.
"Yeah. You did well."
"I’m going to kill those cross-eyed bastards, kill those cross-eyed bastards, kill those cross-eyed bastards, kill those cross-eyed bastards, kill those cross-eyed bastards, kill those cross-eyed bastards..."
"Hey, knock it off already. Well, I do agree with killing those damned cross-eyed bastards..."
A blonde girl with red eyes and a woman with a brown ponytail walked forward. Beside them, a silver-haired young man with red eyes walked in step.
"Heh. With this, it’s our stage alone. We’ve clashed twenty-four times over these past six months..."
"Let’s hope this is the last time. Though, this is our last chance to begin with."
Even now, hundreds, thousands of lives were surely being shredded in literal sacrifice just to buy them this one second. That thought flashed through the brown-haired female knight’s mind.
"A red-blue wave weapon split into two colors to counter a weapon of mass destruction. This battle is the final gamble."
"Hey, Anne, isn’t that a little too cheesy?"
"...Shut up!"
A light exchange passed between them to ease the tension. In the end, tension was something they would be forced to feel to death whether they wanted it or not, so it was better to relieve it if they could.
"Then, let’s go...?"
The words came out with a strong start and ended in a trailing question, like the very embodiment of a promising beginning that collapses into a weak finish. The reason was simple.
[N-no, core reaction? Now?!]
[Core grade A rank! It’s a higher form! Considering the output, at least A rank!]
Even before they had identified it precisely, they had judged the enemy to be a higher form without hesitation. And rightly so—if it took at least dozens of units to make even the slightest dent in that battle, there was no way a single higher monster of the “type” class would be charging into that battlefield. Even if it did, it would hardly matter. Naturally, it had to be a higher form.
""...Fuck.""
The curse that burst simultaneously from the blonde girl and the silver-haired young man perfectly expressed the feelings of everyone present.
-Cross Eye Alpha, Beta. The red one is Alpha. Source: Night Run Frai Arc, Episode 28
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