novelraw Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Silver rose along the trunk of the giant cedar.
Two armored warriors clad in thick silver plating.
With six log-like arms gripping spears and swords without waste, one of the Twenty-Four Metal War Machines stood—six-armed Nedda.
Nedda clicked his jaws and rubbed his silver weapons together. Each time, silver particles scattered.
"......That's a metal monster. And there are two of those near-mythical beings, for which reports are so rare."
Jiu realized something extraordinary was happening.
Even from about 40 meters away, the mechanical soldiers of Metal radiated abnormality.
The luster covering their entire bodies resembled meticulously polished metal, too perfectly balanced to be something acquired through biological evolution. More than anything, it was too beautiful.
But like a rose, that beauty concealed peril.
Just encountering them—let alone touching them—dealt a more certain death than any other threat one could face in life.
The reason for the lack of reports.
Simply because so few ever returned after encountering them.
"Back off, small fry. Those things are absolute monsters."
Bradley called out to the explorers.
The assassin's gaze shifted to securing a clear line of fire.
(These explorers are in the damn way.)
Between Jiu, Bradley, Pollen Fighter, Mister at the top of the cedar, and the two machine soldiers at the bottom, dozens of explorers were scattered.
Bradley loosely extended his arm toward the machine soldiers.
From under his skin, countless snake tattoos surfaced.
In the next instant, the tattoos became real and sprang out.
Each one was at least two meters long.
There were over twenty in total, slithering at blinding speed, avoiding the explorers and lunging at the machine soldiers.
The skill 'Summoning Art—Venomous Serpents' was the most proficient of Bradley's snake-based skills.
Thanks to that, he had superior skill control, and the snakes—normally mindless and indiscriminate attackers—coordinated precisely and struck the target.
Six-armed Nedda moved.
Godspeed. There was no other way to describe it.
How many explorers could even react to that initial motion?
Mister tightened his arm slightly.
The air shifted.
A fleeting exchange.
Only six-armed Nedda and Mister were truly aware of one another.
The gaze of a great explorer and a mythic beast crossed paths.
Mister released the tension in his body.
"——Big Punch."
'Big Punch Lv8'
A legendary blow that once shattered a small meteorite.
The sheer force of the punch carved a path of destruction far into the distance.
The moment Mister swung his fist, six-armed Nedda, who had been 40 meters away, was flung like a pinball and slammed into the outer wall of the giant tower.
A violent gust followed, making the cedar tree shake violently.
At the outer wall, cracks spread outward from a single point with a resounding snap.
Even from afar, the overwhelming destructive power was evident.
"That's Mister's fist...!"
"He's a monster... He's not human."
"We can win! Mister can take them down!"
"Of course! On our way here, Mister drove them back so many times! He'll do it again!"
The explorers erupted in excitement.
But the cheers died instantly when six-armed Nedda returned to the top of the cedar in a single bound, as if nothing had happened.
"Kachikachi (That human clearly isn't like the rest of the rabble.——I'll hunt that one first.)"
Nedda opened his ferocious jaws wide and began lowering his stance slightly.
Mister understood immediately.
(Even if I held back to avoid hitting the explorers in the line of fire, that should've been strong enough... Has his defense gone up since earlier? No, more importantly, that movement is dangerous.)
Realizing he had no choice but to move forward, Mister leapt into the front lines.
(If he charges, the shockwave will kill a bunch of explorers along the way. He's aiming for me. In that case, I'll be the only one to take the hit.)
Six-armed Nedda was fast.
He fully lowered his stance.
In the next moment, he would tear through wind and shadow, closing the distance all at once.
Trigger Happy made her move.
"Shimaenaga-san, lend me that!"
"Chii!"
Grabbing the ammo belt with a firm grip, Trigger Happy yelled "Out of the way!" and kicked aside an explorer who had been setting up a magical machine gun.
"Happy-chan, it's not secured yet...!!!"
"As long as it shoots, it's fine!"
"Chii (Translation: I'll hold it steady for you, chii)"
A brilliant collaboration with the Calamity Beast.
Trigger Happy loaded the ammo belt and, after a single breath, began firing.
She adjusted her aim after she started shooting.
That was her style.
"Uwaaaah! Run, we're gonna get shot!"
"I told you, never let that girl hold a gun!"
"We're done forrrr!!"
The explorers could do nothing but lie flat in the line of fire, convinced they'd die from friendly fire before the enemy got them.
The immensely powerful magical machine gun reached six-armed Nedda before Mister did, crashing into his silver plating.
Sparks burst forth—Gachin! Bajin!—illuminating the air.
"Ugggggh!"
Trigger Happy, relying on a bird's help, barely managed to suppress the tremendous recoil and maintained her firing posture.
However, the effect seemed minimal.
In fact, six-armed Nedda hadn't taken even a single point of damage.
Still, the shockwave from the impact could disrupt his movements.
But that was about the extent of its effectiveness.
"This is crap! Don't you have anything bigger?!"
"Chii (Translation: That gun is already plenty big, chii...)"
The time Trigger Happy bought led to the next move.
"Have you forgotten? This is my field, metal monsters."
Pollen Fighter swung her leg high and stomped down with a thunderous shiko stomp.
The entire cedar tree shook and began to transform.
The ground beneath six-armed Nedda writhed, branches bending like tentacles and trying to crush him with the trunk's pressure.
With tremendous force applied, cracks formed in one of six-armed Nedda's legs.
Once the target stopped moving, the serpents pounced upon their prey.
They aimed to attack through the seams in his armor.
"You seem confident in your defense, but that's exactly why poison will work."
Bradley summoned more snakes using his skill.
"Kachikachi (Annoying pests.)"
Nedda slashed, grabbed, and crushed the oncoming snakes.
Mister arrived right before his eyes.
"At this range, I can hit without holding back."
Mister clenched his fist and gathered power.
That's when it happened.
Behind six-armed Nedda, a blinding silver light burst forth.
Everyone gasped.
Like shooting stars streaking across the night sky, the silver light tore through the trunk at incredible speed.
The trunk binding six-armed Nedda was burned through, and the snakes were reduced to ash.
Just a touch was enough to vaporize the explorers' arms.
"Trigger Happy's" firing position was pierced, and the machine gun melted away without a trace.
Mister, who was closest, instinctively drew his axe and deflected the silver light.
Behind him were dozens of explorers. If the beam had passed cleanly through, it would have left a mountain of corpses.
"Mgh!"
The power of the silver light was overwhelming.
Even Mister, confident in his Power, had to use all his strength to withstand it.
What made it even more troublesome was that, unlike a laser beam, the silver light didn't just flash by in an instant.
For about five seconds, dozens of beams of light rampaged in every direction, scattering destruction.
Two points supporting the cedar trunk were burned and severed.
Unable to withstand it, the ground beneath began to collapse.
Amid the tremendous shock and billowing dust, Mister was the first to rise.
"Kachikachi (Human, be honored. I've unlocked 100% of my power just to kill you.)"
From beyond the dust came a slender machine soldier.
The machine soldier was equipped with glossy, mirror-like objects on both arms.
No, they were shields.
The Apostles, who looked like silver-colored grace, had received them long ago from the Silver Priestess, Lusas Osas—legendary anomalous substances from myth, and among them, the highest-grade equipment.
The strongest Apostle of the Twenty-Four Metal War Machines.
The Afterglow at the Boundary, Holy.
That was her name.