Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Climbers Laying a Trap

Technohexen traps

Are always laid in the dark

Because they are the most fun

When they can’t be seen

Point Allocation (Um, What Do We Do Now?)

●

Inada shuddered.

…Honestly!

He and Kousaka had been the central commanders for the nonhuman unit.

They were both nonhuman and they still had plenty of physical and mental strength left. The nonhumans had plenty of combat experience and he had honesty thought they could do a lot more in this battle than the ordinary warriors coming in behind them. So he thought they needed to use those warriors in a support role while the nonhumans kept everything moving without delay.

He had been right.

But he had also been wrong.

There was a difference between what the two groups could do. But that difference included things the ordinary warriors could do that the nonhumans could not. So…

“Way to go!”

The colossal skeleton’s leg was out in front of him.

At less than 20m, he was basically right on top of it. If the colossal skeleton shifted its position or took even half a step, it could easily crush him underfoot at that distance.

But there were those who kept that distance and did whatever it was they could do.

“Are those the ordinary warriors with construction and field spells!?”

Those two skills were great for rear guard and support roles, so most of the ordinary warriors learned them. But while those skills were necessary for lower-ranked warriors, they had accomplished something great with them.

...They collapsed the ground below the colossal skeleton!

●

Kousaka saw the result of the field spells and construction work.

The moat had given them the hint they needed and that was where they were working.

They had used the 1km moat to escape the shockwaves sweeping across the clearing.

They couldn’t get their defense barriers or defensive stances ready in time, so they had dived into the moat.

And after the gale blew through, they had hurried back up and come to a realization.

M.H.R.R.’s ordinary warriors must have built the moat.

Their method had been simple. First, they had applied a field divine protection designed to enrich the soil for farming. That had removed all the excess stones and such, so then they dug down with an excavation spell.

So what would happen if the warriors with construction spells used their excavation spells to dig deep into the crust as a group?

What if they did so horizontally from within the moat? What if they also sliced down from above like cutting out a piece of a cake?

The extreme weight had lowered its center of gravity by crouching and then it stepped on the cut-out piece, easily breaking through the ground.

The surface split open and the colossal skeleton attempted to stop itself. But its right leg was extended toward the clearing as the earthen crust unraveled, so it ended up tilting to the left.

That had altered the course of its explosive roar.

...Great work.

Kousaka hadn’t instructed them to do this.

“How did they know how to do that?”

“That’s how we fill in a moat after the fact!” they said after climbing out so they weren’t caught in the collapse. “We were already planning to elevate our footing. Sorry for doing the work without asking permission first!”

“Forget it. You did great.”

The colossal skeleton must have arrived right as they were preparing to do what they could to improve their situation.

As a result, they had protected the Azuchi. That was plenty. But…

“Prepare your defenses!”

The colossal skeleton was moving.

It lifted its hips and stood up.

...What’s it going to do now!?

The colossal skeleton answered that question with a very simple action.

It raised its 400m right leg as it stood up.

“Brace for impact!!” shouted Kousaka just as the attack dropped down.

A rapid axe kick carried a shockwave as it slammed into the clearing’s entrance.

●

Toshiie watched the explosion.

...Direct hit.

When an 800m being moved the same as an ordinary-sized person, its every action would produce explosive pressure.

This axe kick was no exception.

It didn’t even need to launch a shell. Anything within arm’s reach – and anything a bit outside of that – could be struck with a force equivalent to a bomb.

Just before the mist formed, Toshiie saw the enemy raise their defense barriers.

“Oh.”

They were attempting to resist the powerful force he sent their way.

But it was no use. He raised a defense barrier in his left hand to deal with the artillery fire from the Azuchi while…

“How about this?”

He clenched his right fist and leaned forward to swing his fist straight down.

He punched at the ground. The colossal skeleton mimicked the action perfectly.

As soon as it started moving, its arm split the air and slammed into the ground while carrying a white explosion.

He adjusted his position and repeated the action 3 times, 4 times, 5, 6, 7, 8, and he stopped counting after that.

“Phew.”

The many layers of expanding mist rose into the sky like the smoke of volcanic eruption.

As far as he could see, no one remained moving, standing, or sitting on the ground.

“Now, that’s what I call overwhelming force. Too bad I have to leave here in 30 minutes.”

Toshiie straightened up and shook his right hand a bit. He viewed the Shibata Team’s formation in the chilly mist and then turned right to view the southeastern sky.

Transport ships landed as buildings blocked his view, but he knew what had to be there.

...Honnouji and the Musashi.

In 30 minutes, he would be leaving ahead of the Ten Spears, but would they make it in time? If they did…

“I need to do what I can. Things are mostly done here in the north, so that just leaves the south. Kiyomasa-kun is there, I believe.”

●

Toshiie scattered silver coins from his coin roll sword.

Fuwa was the local treasurer, but she had already withdrawn, leaving the position empty.

As M.H.R.R.’s treasurer, the position automatically went to him now that he was here.

He could use as much money as he liked. There was still plenty left. In fact, he doubted he would run out even if he kept this up all night.

...Not if I created multiple König Geists, though.

He wouldn’t be able to control that many anyway. It would be a significant burden on Matsu too. If possible, he would like to switch this one to a defense-oriented autonomous mode to use as a shield against the Azuchi and the Technohexen.

“So I need to mop up the enemy here first. Crushing the remaining warriors and placing some guards in the clearing should do the trick.”

Meanwhile, many forms rose up from the clearing.

...I can still send in plenty of ghost warriors.

Even with all the ghosts he had used tonight, he was far from reaching the Kaga Millionen Geist’s upper limit of a million. He didn’t really want to go anywhere past 500 thousand at the most, but…

“Ma-chan, I don’t want to wear you out too much. Do you need a break?”

He looked aside to see…

“––––––”

Matsu had closed the wings on her back while she nodded off.

She was napping.

...Huh?

He understood she was sleeping. Probably because she was worn out. This was a big night, after all. And she was normally asleep at this hour.

But if she had been asleep for a bit now…

...Where did those ghost warriors over there come from?

Who had summoned them from the earth?

“Ma-chan, wake up.”

“Yawn?”

Matsu woke up. As she did, she spread her wings and glowed. The lernen figurs emitted around her were reactivating after going into sleep mode. But…

“Huhhh?”

Upon waking, Matsu looked in the same direction as Toshiie and suddenly returned to normal.

She regained her ordinary proportions, landed on his shoulder, and tilted her head.

“What happened? Do you know?”

Her tone made it clear she was more asking how this had happened.

“Why are Hashiba-kun’s people getting back up after we crushed them?”

Yes. The people getting up near the entrance to the clearing were not the ghost warriors.

The people who had been crushed by the colossal skeleton’s attack before were raising their voices and standing up.

“It must be a divine protection akin to resurrection!”

Toshiie knew what this had to be.

It came from the sky.

While the Azuchi bombarded them, a white light now shined from its bow. He knew what that was.

“Takenaka-kun’s Testamenta Arma: Crus Fortitudo – Vetus!”

●

Takenaka had made up her mind.

To do so, she had puked up everything in her stomach back in the dining hall.

Because her Testamenta Arma’s ability was an awful one.

“Anyone who shows courage is given impenetrable defenses just once!”

She could make her entire side invulnerable. So if possible, she didn’t want to use it.

...I really wanted to save this for our battle with Musashi or to recover afterwards.

But Shizugatake turned out to be more of a kaiju battle than she expected. They were still only at the northern gate and they were already dealing with an 800m colossal skeleton. What is Maeda-san thinking? Is he a child? Oh, but I bet this was Matsu-san’s idea…

The Boy: “Takenaka-senpai! Don’t hang your head! Don’t let it get to you!”

She wasn’t sure what she wasn’t supposed to let get to her, but at least she hadn’t empty-eroed.

But now that she was out here, she could see what needed to be done.

“Listen carefully, everyone.”

This was an important decision. It would set things up for victory.

“I can’t do that again.”

Her Testamenta Arma couldn’t be used again until tomorrow. Carrying courage on the battlefield was meaningless now.

...That’s right.

Which could only mean one thing.

“That was our high damage!”

●

This will work, thought Takenaka.

Now that they had taken high damage, she wanted an immediate high return.

This required quick action, so…

“This timing is more like Kuroda Kanbei than Tanekana Hanbei,” she said to herself as she typed into the command form she called up on her lernen figur and sent the command out to everyone. “Everyone, break through Maeda Toshiie!”

●

Kousaka heard a great roar.

As usual, it came from near the colossal skeleton. But that opponent was now standing up and defenseless. And they knew what to do thanks to a command from nearly the very top.

So Kousaka raised her voice in a bestial roar that would reach the entire clearing.

“Move!”

They had their orders. If they acted on them, they would win. Because…

“The time for high damage has ended!”

As soon as she shouted, a wind blew in. The colossal skeleton was swinging its arms down toward them.

...Gonna fight, huh!?

But even as she looked up, she heard a voice coming from the Shibata Team’s formation past the dancing mist.

“Ha ha ha! You call that high damage!? I haven’t even gotten started!”

Needless to say, the colossal skeleton’s arms dropped down.

Rapidly. They accelerated to strike the ground in a few moments. But Kousaka had seen this before.

“You’re already moving, I hope!?”

“Testament!!”

The response came from all around her and in the moat.

Mud was dragged up from the bottom and the ordinary warriors’ work team called out.

“We did it as soon as we recovered! We knew we’d probably be doing this even before the command arrived!”

A great read on their part.

...I see.

These were Hashiba’s troops, so Kousaka had expected them to be softer than this. After all, Hashiba was a future conqueror.

Her victory was assured.

So Kousaka had assumed the people around her wouldn’t feel much reason to focus on combat. She had assumed they would see combat as no more than an obstacle to a stable conquering.

She had assumed wrong.

They all took their work seriously, obeyed their commands, and did their jobs. And they did it without needing to be told.

Even the nonhuman unit, which had worked so hard in this battle, sensed this as a threat.

A pair of powerful attacks was dropping from the sky above. And yet…

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“Out of our minds!” they shouted back up from the moat while completing a final inspection of their work. “But we work for Hashiba-sama.”

So…

“We might be scared, but we know we’ll win in the end!”

A great answer. Kousaka knew what she had to say to make that happen, so she raised her hand and her voice.

“Bring that bastard down!”

●

...I knew they’d go with that!

Toshiie had predicted his opponent’s defense.

Ordinary defense barriers wouldn’t stop the colossal skeleton.

Especially for ground units who generally physically held their defense barriers instead of defining the barrier’s position as a coordinate. That meant the ground troops themselves would be supporting the barriers used against the attack from above.

That was not enough to stop the colossal skeleton’s strike.

That was why they had chosen a different form of defense.

They would tear down the ground below the colossal skeleton’s feet.

Just like they had done when it was firing its explosive roar at the Azuchi. They would do the same to stop the attack against them.

He had predicted that.

So he commanded the colossal skeleton to take a quick step back.

“Put some space between you!”

The colossal skeleton did exactly that.

It took a quick half-step back from the clearing entrance where the ground crumbled.

...That should do it!

They were using the moat to collapse the ground. So if the colossal skeleton stayed sufficiently away from the moat, the collapse wouldn’t reach it.

The colossal skeleton completed its step.

It was now positioned further back, but its original action was still ongoing. Its raised arms followed its forward-leaning body on their way down to punch the ground.

That wasn’t quite the action Toshiie had originally planned for, but the step back actually made it easier to aim for the enemy.

At this rate, the strike would hit. But…

“You aren’t going to let that happen!”

He immediately pointed straight ahead.

There was a forest past the sloped clearing to the north. And he knew who was hiding in there.

“Are you, Technohexen!?”

●

Toshiie confirmed the enemy’s presence on his lernen figur.

That lernen figur followed the colossal skeleton’s gaze, sending the visual data back to him. Sure enough, a pair of Technohexen shot out of the forest.

...You can’t surprise me!

The nonhuman unit and the ordinary warriors had collapsed the ground below the colossal skeleton, but that didn’t matter. Even if it had worked, it would only let them dodge the attack.

They needed to destroy the colossal skeleton, not just avoid its attacks.

But Toshiie’s defense barriers were stopping the Azuchi’s bombardment.

So what would the enemy try next?

“A surprise attack with anti-ship cannons is a real Technohexen thing to do!”

He knew what they were trying to do. They were trying to destroy the colossal skeleton’s arms before they could finish swinging down.

That was fine by him.

The crouched colossal skeleton was inside Shibata’s formation. The crouching made it a smaller target and the ships landed as buildings had defenses that would work in place of defense barriers.

Now he only had to use the force of the downwards-swinging arms to target the Technohexen.

“Maeda König Geist! Roooocket Pwuuuunch!”

Nothing like subtly changing the command from last time to keep things classy.

●

“Angie!”

Angie answered Yoshiaki’s call with only a nod.

...I’m in a hurry here!

She converted Schwartz Fürstin from anti-ship cannon form to emergency acceleration form. She remade it into a pattern with excellent dashing speed.

Yoshiaki had created the form as an alternative to their charging form based on her experiences in the Siege of Odawara and the Keichou Campaign.

...We’re getting a lot of use out of it this time!

But it was the right choice here.

After making the quick form change, she filled her flying arms with…

“Guts!!”

She held Schwartz Fürstin under her arm to make a leaping acceleration.

She flew in a short jump.

...Oh.

Since she was seated on the center of Schwartz Fürstin, she was a bit slanted, but her body still took flight.

“Made it!”

●

Yoshiaki knew they had cleared it without needing to check.

A warship-sized mass passed by so close below it nearly grazed her feet.

Weiss Fürstin’s emergency acceleration form could only produce a single kick of speed. It sent her flying around 50m in an instant, but it couldn’t be used for long-term acceleration.

So she felt like she was falling as the powerful gust blew by below her. And...

“Angie! Accelerated cruising!”

“Got it!”

Am I too strict if I wish she would just say “Tes” because it’s shorter? But…

...Oh?

Angie moved out ahead. She really did have excellent instincts for these things.

So Yoshiaki moved her wings to lift her own body.

“Weiss Fürstin. Accelerated cruising form.”

She immediately received a blast of acceleration directed diagonally upwards. Right toward the colossal skeleton’s face.

This was what they needed to do. This was correct. Because…

“Takenaka! We’re on our way!”

●

“Please get this done!”

Takenaka gulped on the bridge of the Azuchi’s 1st central ship.

This was a critical moment.

She saw that colossal skeleton as a “task” given to them by Maeda. He would join Hashiba’s side after the Battle of Shizugatake, but they had to complete this “task” before he would agree to it.

If they could overcome that thing, one of the Five Great Peaks would accept them as superior to Shibata.

So they had to complete the task.

They couldn’t just wait for his 30 minutes to be up.

They had to achieve this here.

But the colossal skeleton was dangerous.

That danger had less to do with the power and variety of its attacks and more to do with its scale.

What did it mean to be that enormous?

...It takes time for our attacks to reach it!

With the Azuchi facing it, the distance between them was about 3km.

No matter how fast the Azuchi’s shells were, they would be visible before they arrived. Worse, the colossal skeleton had automatic-activation defense barriers and could move the same as an ordinary-sized human.

So Takenaka had to come up with a way for them to hit that thing.

The Azuchi’s cannons unfortunately could not supply an effective blow. Most likely, the colossal skeleton had been designed as a ground weapon meant for use against aerial warships. Not only could it outmaneuver a warship, but it could open its defense barriers and react faster too.

...We need to catch it by surprise.

An attack from below would probably be effective since people tended to forget to pay attention there. But the most they had managed there was collapsing the ground below its feet and, even if they did approach on the ground, the shockwave of its punches could obliterate their ground forces. That felt like too much even for her high damage.

Hence the Technohexen.

The rocket punch suggested Maeda had been worried about the Technohexen attacking. Which meant their speed and anti-ship cannons could be effective against the colossal skeleton.

“But at the Five Great Peaks level, they see those things coming.”

He had to have predicted their attempts to an extent.

So Takenaka had made a certain decision.

She had used branching tactics.

●

Takenaka had not always been friends with a paper bag. It’s true. I have real friends. I swear they’re not imaginary.

But that wasn’t the point.

Predicting the enemy’s moves better than they predicted hers wasn’t the point either.

Her enemy here was a top-rate commander. Under ordinary circumstances, being out-predicted could easily mean her defeat.

So she chose branching tactics.

That was the natural result of using Three Thousand Worlds, a data processing spell that searched through countless possibilities. This was a factor no one could ignore when considering tactics – not her, not the other officers, and not the strategists of other nations.

You weren’t always going to win.

But things were different this time. The density of branches was a lot higher than usual.

She had built up branches for the big picture and for each individual move made across the battlefield.

It had begun simply. She had set her use of Crus Fortitudo – Vetus as the starting point.

...But the next move I had prepared – the ground unit collapsing the ground below the colossal skeleton’s feet – didn’t work out.

So she had taken a different branch. She was now on the branch where the ground unit was a diversion and the colossal skeleton had taken a step back to strike them.

With the colossal skeleton’s lowered stance, this branch had the Technohexen fire horizontally from the forest.

The colossal skeleton had intercepted that attack and launched its rocket punch.

So she again moved to a different branch. On that one, the Technohexen took flight.

There were countless branches, but the ultimate objective of them all was to destroy the colossal skeleton. So to ensure that…

...I need to keep working!

So far, her plans and Maeda’s responses had canceled each other out.

If anything, it looked more like her moves were the ones being defeated.

“But…”

What about this time? She had given the command, so now it was up to the Technohexen’s skill.

They were in flight, flying above the soaring arms and curving in from the sides.

“Now,” shouted Takenaka, emitting hundreds of Three Thousand Worlds lernen figurs. “Let’s see if I can make this work!”

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