Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Unknown Roarer

Bigger

Is better

What are we talking about?

Point Allocation (You)

●

Yoshiaki gave a hurried instruction while noting how much of a pain this was.

“As soon as your defensive formation is ready to move, begin to advance!”

Overhead, the colossal skeleton had just thrown a warship. Just as she received a report on the Azuchi’s artillery fire, all of the shells collided with the thrown wreckage. In other words…

…Katagiri was right about the artillery fire being blocked!

The shells hit, but the booms were overlapped so much, they sounded like no more than four blasts.

Still, the thunder-like roar was weaker than Yoshiaki would have expected for so many shells.

AnG: “Oh, the shells hit the warship during their ascent!”

The Boy: “It happened before their acceleration, so they were mostly crushed!”

Azuchi: “Taking a deeper angle so we would hit the Shibata Team’s formation even if we missed backfired on us. Shaja.”

“Azuchi” seemed a little too fired up about exterminating the Shibata Team, but that was fine.

The wreckage in the sky was little more than fragments.

Even during their ascent, that had been 20 main cannon shells. The external hits to the warship had shattered its armor and the force that made it inside had bent and broken the metal frame within.

Yoshiaki had enough experience to know what had happened from the sound alone. She had joined a fleet battle during the Keichou Campaign, after all.

A single bursting sound came from the sky.

The wreckage had lost the connection between its frame and armor, meaning the entire structure had lost all meaning.

It was now no more than a collection of metal and wood fragments, which poured down into the forest behind them. That would be the rain-like sound coming from far in that direction.

The Azuchi’s attack had been blocked. But…

…I guess that’s better than taking a shockwave equivalent to 20 shots at close range.

The ground forces had their work cut out for them. Right now, they had to advance whenever possible. Now seemed like a good chance. Because…

“The Azuchi has that giant thing’s attention, so now’s our chance!” shouted Yoshiaki.

At that same moment, two rumbling noises and two powerful winds swept across the forest and the ground.

…Don’t tell me…

The colossal skeleton had thrown two wrecked warships toward the Azuchi in quick succession.

●

Mori had exited the wreckage of an aerial ship destroyed on the inside.

He had been caught in the summoning of Kani’s Sasamura and fell out along with the destroyed wall.

Falling wouldn’t have been so bad, but there had been snow piled up below to support the bottom of the ship. He had slid down the slope and only come to a stop after arriving on the other side of the road with all the wreckage,

He sighed and quickly scooted all the armor fragments and whatnot to the side of the road.

“It’s a good thing no one was down here.”

The area was filled with the chill caused by Maeda’s necromancy.

…Brr.

Mori was glad he had worn his warm hat and coat. For an inner suit, as embarrassing as it had been, he had removed the foot to a pair of girl’s tights and sewed it to be a one-legged affair. It came out well. When a sudden urge makes me stiffen up, the snug fit of the tights has the most delightful feeling. This must be why tight clothing is so fashionable.

But as he let out a white breath, he saw a giant shape overhead.

“Is that a god of war!?”

No. He wasn’t aware of a god of war that large. Also, it had just used both its arms to throw something about the same size as it to the north.

…Warships!?

That’s impossible, he thought. So…

“Wh-what is that!? What is something so absurd doing here!?”

Some troops were moving nearby and they all turned and directed mirrors his way when they heard that. Those are emergency optical divine transmission hand mirrors, aren’t they? he noted, but he couldn’t figure out why they would be directing them his way.

Regardless, the wind blew in. The chilly gust blew between the transport ships being used as buildings and intensified as it traveled. The icy wind seemed to have mass of its own as it washed across his soft skin and pushed him backwards.

That would be the result of having massive warships flung around like that.

And he saw lernen figurs opening at different points on the giant ghost skeleton’s limbs and torso.

…That must be what’s moving that big thing.

He honestly didn’t know that much about spells, but he knew Maeda must have caused that.

But in that case…

“Maeda-senpai must be delighted to be back!”

●

Toshiie could tell how excited he was.

…This is great!

Upperclassmen fighting underclassmen wasn’t great and this being Shibata’s final battle was sad, but he loved that he could use up all of Shibata’s budget on summoning warriors here.

After all, any money leftover would just go to waste. So he used spells to buff the colossal skeleton and…

“How will you handle this second warship attack, Azuchi!?”

He pointed both index fingers into the northern sky. From here, the forest and slope blocked his view of Azuchi’s 6-ship form.

The colossal skeleton had thrown two wrecked ships, but the one thrown first had been destroyed in midair.

The Azuchi’s return fire had hit it.

Thanks to its mass, not even that counterattack could stop its momentum. But it was full of holes and the many shells had obliterated its core, so the lightened mass was eventually overpowered by the impacts.

With the splitting sound of shell hits, the 800m wreckage split in three and broke apart.

“That can’t be good for the forest below.”

But there was another ship coming in behind that one. And it was nearly undamaged.

“Beginning a counterattack now won’t be enough. You know that, don’t you?”

●

Oh, we’re in trouble now, thought Takenaka.

She had calculated out the path of the thrown enemy warships, but…

“The second ship is going to hit us for sure.”

Maeda shouldn’t be able to see them from his position, so he had to have a good sense for this.

She thought the double throw had been well done. After all, he had more or less been throwing his formation’s outer wall at them. It was a great example of high damage, high return.

He was stealing her bit.

Still, she had to respond to it.

Based on measurements by Three Thousand Worlds, she knew a close-range artillery blast could destroy it.

But the recoil could cause some of the wreckage to spin through the air and collide with the Azuchi’s bridge. And they didn’t have enough cannons to shoot down that wreckage.

Kuro-Take: “ ‘Azuchi’-san, can you dodge this? It would help if you could.”

Kimee: “And what if she can’t?”

Kuro-Take: “Let’s just say it would really help if she could.”

AnG: “That’s awfully vague for you, Takeko!”

Azuchi: “But everything is fine if I can, yes!? Yes!? Shaja.”

●

While shells crashed into the thrown warship, it pushed at the atmosphere to fall toward the Azuchi. Angie had a thought while listening to it from among the forest’s trees.

…This is taking a long time.

Just because it was big and heavy didn’t mean it fell quickly. In fact, the bigger it was, the more air resistance would slow its fall.

Kimee: “And ships are made for stability and fuel economy over speed, so they’re designed to have a lot of lift. P.A. Oda ships are based on galleys, so they tend to have flat shapes.”

But its size did make destroying and eliminating it a challenge.

That was why dodging it was the better plan, but…

“We’re in trouble if the Azuchi pulls away!”

Distance from the Azuchi would exacerbate everyone’s worries. If they needed to carry anyone to the ship in an emergency, that distance could be a problem. But…

Kimee: “The Azuchi is moving.”

Yoshiaki’s comment made Angie look into the sky behind her.

The warriors around her were already moving out ahead. They needed to consider their own movements and positions, but knowing the Azuchi’s position was also important.

…So what’s it going to do!?

Angie looked up through the tree branches to see the Azuchi. But she could see a lot more of its bottom than before, giving her a fuller view of its whole shape.

It was moving. The sound of it pushing at the air was a familiar one.

But it didn’t seem to be moving away. Instead…

“Is it ascending!?”

●

“Azuchi” had a simple plan.

By positioning the ship at a higher altitude, the enemy’s thrown warships couldn’t reach it. And even if they did, the ascent would have greatly reduced their speed.

They might have plenty of mass, but without speed, they were worthless hunks of metal. Then she could handle the rest.

The only real risk was artillery fire from Shibata’s fortress wall of ships. As a captain automaton, she sensed danger in ascending and exposing the bottom of the ship like that.

But in response…

…If my past experience and methods allow me to respond to one threat and not to another, the latter is the greater threat!

So she ascended. The external sight devices showed the colossal skeleton down below.

Azuchi: “It looks less like a threat while viewed from so high. Shaja.”

As soon as she said that, the wrecked enemy ship passed below them.

She had dodged it.

Did the wreckage soaring by below have explosive spells aboard? “Azuchi” ran a rough ether scan while arranging for a rapid descent.

The colossal skeleton took a step back and looked ready to try again.

…But I will not let my guard down.

At this height, the Azuchi did not have a good angle of fire either.

What happened if neither side could launch an effective attack on the other? Takenaka provided an answer for that.

Kuro-Take: “Ground forces, split to the sides to evade!”

Just as “Azuchi” wondered why they would need to do that, the colossal skeleton took a certain action. It suddenly kicked one of the Shibata transport ships forward.

As if the ship were a soccer ball.

The enemy redirected its aim toward the clearing.

The Dragon-class 400m transport ship took flight with the sound of breaking metal.

Viewed from above, it was bent into a shallow V as it soared toward the clearing along a shallow parabola.

“Nonhuman unit, watch out ahead! Shaja!”

●

Kousaka understood what was happening.

She was currently leading the charge into the Shibata Team’s formation. Just as she sent a third of them to Inada’s group, something flew toward them from within the fortress wall of ships.

It was a transport ship bent down the center.

The intent was clear. The ship had been kicked toward the opening in the wall created by the three missing warships.

We need to withdraw, she thought, but instead she said…

“Clear the center!”

They had already been charging in from the sides, so that would be simpler.

A moment later, scraping metal sounds and flying sparks decorated the transport ship as it tumbled between her group and Inada’s group.

It had a lot of speed. An 800m being had kicked it with all its might. If the speed scaled up evenly with the same action made by a human, it would easily break the sound barrier.

…In that case…

With that thought, she read the movements on the battlefield.

“Everyone, hurry up!”

It arrived a moment later.

What happened if the flying transport ship broke the sound barrier? Any P.A. Oda or M.H.R.R. warrior would know the answer.

It produced a sonic boom.

Almost everyone was already moving toward the south end of the clearing. But a white fog rushed in as if to sweep them away along with a tearing sound.

“…!”

Afterwards, a splitting of the air crashed into them as a great pressure.

●

“Yes, that worked great!”

Toshiie looked to the northern clearing after the sonic boom blew through.

With three warships removed from the wall, the only obstacle from the clearing to the fortress were the moats and the forest to the sides. That would have let the enemy charge right on into the moats and this side of the clearing, but…

…That stopped them!

“Ha ha ha! Bigger is better! And all the special effects make it all the more refreshing!”

It had been most effective. He had stopped the influx of Hashiba’s forces.

He didn’t think too much about those who had already made it in.

He still hadn’t fully stopped their charge, so…

“The important members of their command chain must still be in the clearing.”

So if he crushed the point where those members were, they would be unable to continue commanding those already inside, allowing them to eventually be crushed too.

So for now he needed to…

“Make use of what I have.”

Fog spread out below the colossal skeleton, but he was up high enough to still see. The enemy’s main force was at the edge of the moats down where the entrance to the clearing had originally been.

Their nonhuman unit was small and some of them had already been blown away, but their commanders had survived.

…Did their two groups gather their defense barriers together?

The unit had split into a right and left group.

Toshiie raised his hands overhead.

The colossal skeleton mimicked the motion. The hands made of many white ether bones were holding…

“I brought in two unneeded storage transport ships. They aren’t quite as powerful as a warship when thrown, but they should function as a barricade.”

With that, he swung his arms down hard.

The colossal skeleton followed suit.

At the end of its arms, a pair of transport ships were slammed down.

The movement took straight lines toward the ground. And as a result…

“I knew you’d try to interfere!”

The transport ships burst open in midair. Across two decks.

They had been shot.

He understood the first blast. The Azuchi had rapidly circled around to the left and sniped one with a main cannon.

But the second shot had come from the forest.

“That was the Technohexen, wasn’t it!?”

●

After seeing the result of her shot, Yoshiaki canceled Weiss Fürstin’s anti-ship cannon form she was holding at her hip. She hurriedly converted it to emergency acceleration form and called out to Angie next to her.

“Angie! Hurry! He knows where we are!”

“Eh? Eh? But that thing doesn’t have another ship to throw. We just destroyed them.”

That Yoshiaki didn’t need to argue the point showed that Angie had good instincts.

She didn’t understand, but she could sense the danger from Yoshiaki’s mood. She questioned it even as she deactivated Schwarz Fürstin. At the same time, the colossal skeleton directed its fists their way.

…It can’t be.

And they heard Maeda’s voice from the distant Shibata formation.

“Maeda König Geist! Rocket puuuuuuunch!”

Both 200m arms broke through the blast to fly their way.

●

“Azuchi” saw the two white arms stab down into the forest.

The method was simple enough. Repulsion acceleration spells and ether fuel had been loaded into the base of the arms and then those had been activated. It would work even better with some buffering spells for flight stability.

But what kind of idiot would actually do it?

“Hah hah hah! Ha ha ha ha ha! Hahhh ha ha ha ha!”

Maeda’s growing laughter came over the divine transmission.

“You didn’t expect a rocket punch, did you!?”

The colossal skeleton was even now regrowing its missing arms.

The Boy: “Um, how much money did that cost?”

“Azuchi” didn’t want to think about that, but Maeda had been given full authority over all the money supporting P.A. Oda’s Hokuriku Invasion Contingent. And…

“Begin accelerated descent to port! Move beyond the range of the colossal skeleton’s attack! Shaja!”

She gave her orders while deciding for herself that using the skeleton’s name or its attack’s name would constitute a loss.

“Once we are at its altitude, resume firing! Shaja.”

●

“Azuchi” switched to using ether cannons. Ether cannons used spells to launch ether attacks, so they didn’t include a physical shell at the core. They were less physically destructive, but without the physical shell, the cannon could be made more compact.

Also, spells and divine protections were more easily applied to ether cannons, so they could launch excellent guided and homing attacks.

The Azuchi’s main cannons could fire ether cannon blasts from the same system used to launch the spell shells.

Using the main cannons reduced the loss of strength inherent to ether cannons. Plus…

“Begin bombardment! Shaja!”

Bluish-white beams launched from the main cannons and curved toward the colossal skeleton.

All of the shots were guided.

This allowed the shots themselves to course correct while the Azuchi moved.

“Azuchi” wanted to swing the Azuchi side to side in the northern sky to avoid the enemy’s attacks.

Damage to the Azuchi would prevent them from flying to Honnouji.

…The Ten Spears will achieve victory here and make it there in time!

She trusted them to do that much.

So while it might look like cowardly tactics, she would focus on evasion.

In ether cannon mode, the main cannons’ recoil was greatly reduced. It wouldn’t affect the ship’s maneuvering.

The main problems would be in regards to fuel efficiency and the power system, but she could manage the former since they had loaded up with plenty of ether fuel this time. The latter would require a gift to Hirano, but hopefully she wasn’t approaching her limit already.

●

Tsurugi: “Um, more and more sweets and sake keep arriving for me. That was delightful at first, but I’m kind of running out of places to put it all…”

Kuro-Take: “If you can’t eat it all, send it up here so I can make good use of it.”

The Boy: “All you’ve been doing is switching between eating and sticking your face in that paper bag, Takenaka-senpai!”

Azuchi: “The bombardment has begun, so please focus on the battle! Shaja!”

●

…Well, if you ask so nicely.

Takenaka was in fact already monitoring the battle on her lernen figurs.

To the south, Kiyomasa had reached Niwa, but they hadn’t begun any obvious fighting yet. Niwa was probably worried about Kiyomasa’s Caledfwlch. She made the occasional lightning-based attack, but Kiyomasa was evading and using spell defenses.

…Kiyomasa-san is really keeping her cool.

You could say she was so cool she wasn’t doing much in the way of attacking, but not fully engaging Niwa was the correct choice here. If she let Niwa get a better read on her, Niwa could return to the enemy formation to support the rest of the fight.

The colossal skeleton and Niwa working together was the most dangerous possibility at present.

And to the north, Takenaka thought the battle had reached a turning point.

The view from the Azuchi’s external sight devices showed the Azuchi’s ether cannons crashing into the colossal skeleton.

But the attacks were ineffective. The colossal skeleton had opened defense barriers. And…

“Is that supposed to be a cannon!?”

The colossal skeleton opened its mouth wide. Ether light filled that mouth before it launched…

“Ether cannon incoming! Shaja!”

●

Angie saw the explosive roar.

It happened just after she got back on her feet in the forest after barely dodging the colossal skeleton’s rocket punch.

…That was too close!

She did not want her gravestone to say she was killed by a rocket punch. That would bring shame to her family, to her race, and to humanity as a whole.

She had to thank Yoshiaki for that one. After noticing Schwarz Fürstin wasn’t going to activate in time, Yoshiaki had activated Weiss Fürstin. She then snatched up Angie and Schwarz Fürstin and made a quick dash through the forest.

The rapid flight took them about 30m. Then the divine protection that provided Weiss Fürstin’s lift caught on a bump in the terrain and they collapsed onto the ground.

Fortunately, it had been a soft, mossy patch of ground. Yoshiaki had clicked her tongue at her terrible flying job, so Angie had spoken up.

“Whew, you saved my rear there, Kime-chan. Thanks.”

“Eh? Oh, sorry I didn’t give you any warning.”

“Politeness isn’t worth much if it gets me squished.”

Angie pointed at the two arms sticking up from among the broken trees where they had been before.

The arms were buried up to the wrists in the forest soil and, with nothing to support them, they were tilted diagonally and slowly falling over. But…

“They aren’t going to last,”

Yoshiaki was right. The giant arms unraveled as ether light and scattered away.

This opened up a large space. The canopy of trees had been broken, revealing the sky where something could be seen flying.

The white attack had come from the colossal skeleton’s mouth.

The ether beam was nothing like the ether cannons fired by the Azuchi. It was several meters thick and a lot like…

…A dragon cannon!?

This was just like when a dragon used ether to weaponize their roars.

It was the same trick as the attacks made by Bernard’s dragons.

One of those was clearly flying toward the Azuchi.

On the Azuchi and the colossal skeleton’s scale, the distance between them barely mattered. Their attacks were all effectively at close range.

Which meant this had more or less been a surprise attack, so…

AnG: “ The Azuchi’s deeeeead!”

●

Toshiie was satisfied with the colossal skeleton’s attack.

…Yes, that’s about everything I can think of.

The colossal skeleton was a collection of ghosts, but it was also a mass of ether. That made it a giant piece of fuel and, by rearranging its structure and activating spells, any number of weapons could be prepared inside it.

There was no real reason it needed the humanoid shape.

It could have been shaped like a warship, a cannon, or even a sword.

But this humanoid shape was more versatile. It was also far more appealing. This made it very clear to the Azuchi that they couldn’t attack the Shibata Team without defeating the colossal skeleton first.

So they would eventually think up a way of doing that.

So what did Toshiie need to do?

He had tried most everything he could do with that humanoid form. That just left other applications.

But first, he had high hopes for this attack. Because…

“Can you dodge this surprise explosive roar!? Can you defend against it!?”

And…

“Can you defeat me – your upperclassman!?”

●

In an instantaneous decision, “Azuchi” chose to evade.

She fully activated the starboard gravitational thrusters and temporarily shut down the virtual ocean.

The explosive roar from the enemy’s mouth was aimed at their rapid movement and descent. A dragon’s mouth and body were linked by a straight line, but that humanoid throat had a bent windpipe, which would take the brunt of the roar’s recoil.

…So I predict its head will tilt backwards!

She was certain the attack would hop upwards.

And it did.

So she quickly had all the Azuchi’s ships drop down and to the left for an…

“Evasive maneuver! Shaja!”

As soon as she shouted that, the colossal skeleton moved.

It dropped to one knee and spread its arms to strike a pose.

The Boy: “ ‘Azuchi’-san! What is that pose supposed to mean!?”

Eh? You expect me to know?

…Besides, I have trouble adlibbing, so this could be bad!

The colossal skeleton’s pose itself wasn’t the problem. Dropping to one knee had lowered the altitude of its head, so…

AnG: “ The Azuchi’s deeeeead!”

As soon as “Azuchi” decided she had to dodge this no matter what, the downwards swinging attack reached the Azuchi.

●

Toshiie realized the attack was going to hit.

It was very clearly on course for a direct hit.

The blast’s shockwave cleared the fog and the color white blossomed in the sky like someone had waved a giant fan.

But past all that, he saw…

“It’s undamaged!?”

The Azuchi had turned toward the northern sky while rapidly descending.

It hadn’t been hit, despite the attack being on course for a hit.

But past the explosive blast and windswept northwestern sky, Toshiie didn’t see any wreckage or ether light shards. The attack had failed. Because…

“The colossal skeleton itself is tilted to the left.”

The colossal skeleton’s pose had broken.

●

…But why!?

Toshiie asked himself that while scattering silver coins from his coin roll sword.

There shouldn’t have been anything wrong with his colossal skeleton. It wasn’t damaged or broken. One glance at his lernen figur was enough to tell that. Besides, he had brought it down to one knee for a lower, more stable stance. How could it lose its balance like that?

“How did this happen!?” he asked, lowering his gaze.

Yes. If nothing was wrong with the skeleton, there had to be some external cause. And the only possible external cause here would be…

“The ground!?”

The fog created by the many shockwaves and blasts danced around like fluttering cloths. The dance continued all the way from the clearing to the formation entrance where Toshiie stood.

He saw several shapes below the fog that whirled about and vanished into the sky above.

Humanoid shapes. There were a lot of them and he knew who they had to be.

“The nonhuman unit and Hashiba-kun’s ground forces!”

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