Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Outrageous Ones on the Battlefield

Are there things

That the people doing them enjoy

But everyone else thinks are a pain?

Point Allocation (Are There? Are There?)

●

Toshiie heard a yelling voice.

Many yelling voices, in fact. Thousands of them were descending the slope from the forest to reach him.

Below the mist, ghost warriors were emerging in response to the silver coins he tossed out.

But the unsteady enemy was more powerful now.

Their charging formation used their spears to crush everything in their path and used their numbers to trample the ghosts trying to rise from the ground below. And when ghosts rose from the ground behind them and tried to attack…

“Ohhh!”

A second and third formation followed after them. They were likely around 7000 in all, which meant 7 formations. If they were charging this way from the forest while evenly spaced, Landsknechte could not hope to stop them after the Technohexen blasts destroyed the big apes and large skeletons. Any ghosts trying to attack from the side were likely being eliminated by the nonhuman unit.

That settled it.

His underclassmen would retake the clearing.

So the real battle would be fought over the entrance here.

The Shibata Team’s territory within the fortress wall of ships was all Landsknechte territory. By gathering the ghost warriors that had spawned across that entire area, he could form a solid wall.

So that was what he would do. Furthermore…

“What a shame,” he said with a nod toward Matsu who turned toward him, wings glowing on her back. “Kasuya-kun, I wanted to speak with you. Attacking with your delightful comrades isn’t exactly the friendliest thing you could have done, is it?”

●

Kasuya moved out ahead.

The clearing’s slope flattened out starting at the center, giving her level footing on the way to the moat in front of the fortress wall of ships.

She had to check on one thing first.

…Did the bridge across the moat survive!?

A pair of big ape ghosts ran up from the bottom of the moat up ahead. When they spotted her, they lunged at her with artillery-like leaps, but…

“Lu, ah!”

She swung her right arm up to defeat the one on the right with a drill bunker strike. As she pulled that arm back, she used the motion to swing out her left Argent Clou in claw form, using the momentum alone to tear the ghost ape into four slices.

And when she shot herself forward, she saw what she had hoped to find.

“The bridge is still there! We can cross into the enemy formation!”

It was 15m wide, too narrow to send their defensive formation in, so they would have to rearrange their formation first. But that wasn’t her job. She had to…

Kimee: “Covering fire’s on its way.”

Before she could even see that text, the first shot passed by overhead, detonating beyond the fortress wall of ships.

Yoshiaki bombed the enemy out ahead.

…This will work.

The biggest concern was the large skeletons. She was in trouble if they worked to bring down the bridge or blocked the gate from atop the bridge.

So she appreciated Yoshiaki’s shell sent out ahead of her. Also…

AnG: “We’re not done yet!”

A second shot arrived through the sky behind her.

She ran forward as if chasing after it. She took the lead through the gate that had been smashed open by the large skeletons earlier.

…I will secure this position!

She needed to ensure the safety of this entrance area so the rest of their force could get in.

She could eliminate the large skeletons, so securing this position was a job only she could do.

She hoped the others would arrive quickly because a lot of about this battle concerned her.

…What happened to Kiyomasa down south and what about captured Kani!?

And had Fukushima caught up to them? But more than any of that…

“Who will defeat Shibata-senpai!?”

As she raced forward, Wakisaka’s shell reached the inside of the foggy formation.

Its detonation would eliminate all of the ghost warriors rising from the ground and approaching.

The gap that created would be a valuable respite for Kasuya. She wanted a chance to drink some water and prepare for the battle to come. She had been on the move constantly so far, so her grooming divine protection couldn’t keep up.

But then she saw the spell shell suddenly break.

It didn’t explode. It was broken by a blow from up ahead.

●

…Huh!?

Kasuya sent herself forward while failing to understand what had just happened before her eyes.

The basic phenomenon was simple: Wakisaka’s diffusion shell had been broken by a counterattack.

But when she tried to figure out how that could have happened, she drew a blank.

Wakisaka had fired an anti-ship cannon. What kind of counterattack could break that?

But the enemy had made just such a counterattack up ahead.

“Kh!”

She saw a single thick blade extending high overhead. It looked like…

“A sword!?”

That was strange. Even the large skeletons’ swords were only 7-8m long.

But this was much bigger. It extended well above the fortress wall of ships and flew toward Kasuya along a path like a giant pendulum.

As soon as she realized it was going to hit her, she saw the entirety of the enemy swinging this massive sword.

She saw the color white. Ether light glowing in the moonlight had formed…

“A giant!?”

●

“Eh?”

Angie tilted her head forward while watching the others move on ahead.

“What is it?” Yoshiaki asked, giving her a look in the forest night, but she had to already know the answer.

“Um, Kime-chan? That shot didn’t seem to do anything.”

“Did you get the height wrong?”

“That should’ve been fine since the angle of fire was set by the spell, but can you check for me?”

Yoshiaki checked her Magie Figur. It displayed the current state of their shots and a report on measurements taken of the shell.

“Sure enough, the shell disappeared before it hit.”

“Right!? Right!!? And it passed over Take’s head like it was supposed to!”

Angie pointed just in time for Kasuya to come flying out of the fog. The wolf whipped up the fog around her and broke countless branches in the forest as she flew over their heads in a guard stance.

“Huh?”

While trying to figure out what had happened, Angie saw something while still pointing out ahead.

Her right index finger was now pointing at a hole in the fog Kasuya had flown from. And beyond the vortex of fog moving to refill that hole…

…What is that?

“Kime-chan.”

There it was at the gate, beyond the giant valley of broken and eliminated skeletons.

A white giant was formed from ether light. The bizarre thing had retractable swords at the ends of its arms.

But this was not one of the large skeletons. If the ships forming the fortress wall were 15m tall, then this moonlit giant had to be…

“800m tall? What is that ghost?”

●

Katagiri took a deep breath.

To calm himself. And then…

…What the heck is that giant ghost!?

He hid his rage inside and looked to Takenaka.

Her upper body was sprawled out on the table.

“T-Takenaka-senpai! What happened to all your motivation!?”

“You know what, Katagiri-kun? I was thinking. I only do all those ero things because of that pesky motivation. But I don’t want motivation if it just makes me do ero things. I’m not trying to make a baby here.”

“Takenaka-senpai, please calm down!”

The on-site sounds were coming in via divine transmission. Maeda was laughing.

“Ha ha ha! How about that!? Cool, isn’t it!? No one expected something this big, did you!? Yes! This one’s so strong! And did I mention cool!?

“Yes,” said Maeda. “This colossal ghost skeleton is a first in the history of necromancy, so I have given it my name. Yes, this is the king of all ghost warriors! And his name is…”

Maeda lowered his voice.

“Maeda König Geist.”

In the kitchen, the chef stabbed his sashimi knife with enough force to pierce the cutting board.

●

That’s bad, thought Angie.

“That’s bad, Kime-chan.”

“I was thinking the same thing, Angie.”

All sound had vanished within the forest. The advancing troops had come to a stop and those waiting behind at the top of the slope still had to crane their necks to see the colossal skeleton.

“That is so bad,” said Yoshiaki. “Maeda König Geist is one of the worst names I’ve ever heard.”

“Right? Later historians are going to list this as one of the Maeda clan’s gravest errors.”

A voice traveled across the silent clearing to reach them through the fog.

“Hey! You two! Stop that!”

It was Maeda. Maybe it was the silence and maybe he was transmitting his voice through the remnants of the ghost warriors, but they could hear him clearly.

“Maeda-senpai, we weren’t saying you have abysmal taste in names,” said Yoshiaki.

“Testament,” nodded Angie. “Yeah, we weren’t saying that.”

“Th-then who was saying it just now!?”

“Testament,” said Yoshiaki. “A commander is responsible for her troops, so Mitsunari, I guess?”

●

Nari Nari Nari: “Eh!? N-now hold on! I’ve been dedicating most of my processing power to evacuating Kyou, so I was only just now thinking of splitting my focus between there and Honnouji! But how am I supposed to show my face there after this!?”

Kimee: “Don’t worry, Mitsunari. You’ll figure something out.”

Nari Nari Nari: “That second statement does not follow from the first!”

AnG: “Yeah. Because there’s no conjunction between them.”

Nari Nari Nari: “That is not what I meant!”

●

After watching Mitsunari wave her hands up and down on the lernen figur, “Azuchi” confirmed the range and then fired a main cannon.

She was targeting the colossal skeleton. In the center of its chest. Since it had appeared so suddenly and was so tall, she had needed to adjust her aim from the surrounding structures, but…

…Thank you for buying me sufficient time!

She fired. The cannon was 30cm/38 caliber and it fired physical shells with a length of 1m 20cm. By applying power and acceleration spells, it could even punch through the chest of that 800m colossal skeleton. Her scans told her the impact would fully destroy the center of the skeleton.

From there, they would just have to finish it off.

The divine protection garudas were crying a lot today. The shell shot out along its downward-angled course.

“This will hit. Over.”

●

Kiyomasa saw it even as she kept her eyes on Niwa.

A colossal skeleton stood up and turned to the north.

…It moves so fast!

“Huh, that thing must be boosted by spells.”

Niwa used her normal casual speech, probably because she wasn’t commanding her Mouse.

After looking back over her shoulder, she tilted her head.

“By my estimation, that colossal skeleton is dangerous.”

“Niwa-sama. As an upperclassman, shouldn’t you be setting an example by using its actual name?”

Niwa held her lightning beast hand to her forehead and spoke with eyebrows raised.

“Not happening!”

…Oh, she’s being especially harsh because the Mouse doesn’t want to do it either.

Then Kiyomasa heard a loud impact from high in the north.

The Azuchi had fired on the colossal skeleton.

●

…It hit!

Angie clenched her fists.

“Way to go, ‘Azuchi’!”

During the Siege of Bitchu Takamatsu Castle, the Azuchi had used ultra-high altitude artillery fire to eliminate the enemy’s Terrestrial Dragons. But Angie hadn’t seen that.

She loved seeing her friends performing well.

“A direct hit!”

But just before the on-target impact raced out, Angie saw some motion and what the colossal skeleton had acquired.

She had a Technohexen’s high-speed mobility vision. She always maintained a combat divine protection that boosted her kinetic vision and that had allowed her to detect several lights appearing around the colossal skeleton.

Those were countless spell circles. Multiple acceleration spells were applied all across its body while it raised the left hand which contained a massive sword.

It thrust out its left arm while several shock absorption spells activated from shoulder to open palm. Then multiple defense spells were ejected out from that palm.

…A…direct hit!?

Angie saw light.

The colossal skeleton had “caught” the Azuchi’s shell with its outstretched left palm.

●

In the clearing, Kousaka hadn’t stopped her southward movement. No matter what showed up or what happened, her group of thousands had begun their charge and there were more following after them.

With the artillery shot as their cue, they had already started.

“Forward!” she shouted as formation commander, playing a signal from an acoustic spell, and everyone did ultimately move forward.

Their movements showed no sign of rushing. Or of disorder.

But they weren’t perfectly unified, creating something like a tremor. Probably because they were held together by the conflicting factors of fear and trust in Kousaka.

The oddity was more overhead than out front.

They wanted to do something about it.

But they weren’t accustomed to the battlefield, so they obeyed their commands.

There was some uncertainty in their actions, but they weren’t doing too badly. So Kousaka spoke to them.

“Don’t look ahead! Keep your eyes on the ground!”

That was all she had to say.

They were surrounded by fog and the ghost warriors continued to rise from below. Plus, the clearing was around a kilometer across. During a physically buffed charge, they would reach the other side while still looking at the ground.

“Inada!” called Kousaka and Inada, commander of the rear unit, raised his rifle in response.

They were going to split.

The even-numbered teams would go left and the odd-numbered ones would go right. That way they could hurry on while avoiding the area directly in front of the colossal skeleton.

Any artillery fire that hit an elevated area would cause damage on the surface. Shockwaves and explosions were common in artillery battles. So they had to…

“Continue toward my-!”

Oh, thought Kousaka.

…No, not ‘my’. ‘Mae’. As in ‘Maeda’.

As soon as she thought that, a shell hit overhead.

●

Angie first saw the flash of light from the blast. The colossal skeleton took the powerful impact head on.

It did this while sending a counterattack straight ahead.

Light shined, all the spell lernen figures vanished from around the colossal skeleton, and ether light scattered.

Its fingers bent backwards as if being pulled by the wind and failed to function as actual fingers.

But that wasn’t all. The resultant shockwave tore off the bent fingers, stripped away the palm, and scattered the hand as if eating it away down to the wrist. And despite being a skeleton, the pressure caused the forearm and upper arm to shrink and bend.

A warship’s main cannon was powerful enough to cause serious damage even when it didn’t manage a direct hit.

“Take that!” shouted Angie, but she saw something else at the same time.

Fingers grew out.

Power raged out from the point of impact, striking everything in every direction. A large skeletal hand emerged from the center point.

Five fingers, a palm, and a wrist emerged more than they grew.

Before one finger could bend and break, another appeared.

Before five fingers could bend and break, a full hand replaced them.

And before the wrist could be torn away, a forearm blossomed from within.

It all scattered as a dance of ether light as the shockwave blew it away, but the regeneration speed pushed through the shockwave. Yoshiaki was watching all this next to Angie, and…

“It can’t be,” she said quickly. “Get down.”

“That doesn’t explain anything, Kime-chan!”

The answer arrived before Angie could ask the question.

The night sky split open and a shockwave struck the entire clearing, pushing everything outwards with its pressure.

●

Yoshiaki got down.

Since she needed protection from the blast in a hurry, she used Weiss Fürstin as a shield.

She accelerated it in cruising form and stabbed it into the ground so it could handle the impact.

She gave it an angle of about 30 degrees as she stabbed its tip into the soft forest crust all the way to the base of the nose portion.

Then she got behind it and made sure Angie had done the same.

But that wasn’t enough to keep them safe. She activated all the thrusters at once and used its gravitational control to fix it to those coordinates. She thought that would be enough no matter what kind of blast was coming, but…

“Everyone, get down!”

As soon as she shouted that warning, an odd silence arrived as a prelude to the blast.

A forced silence, she thought. If I hear anything from here, it’ll be the air being blasted away and the beginning of the crushing force.

And…

“––––”

There it was.

Wind blew in from the bottom of the clearing as a wall of dust. It crashed into them. The solid wind carried chunks of dirt and underbrush. Carried by that rapid force, even sand could tear at skin and rip at flesh.

Looking at the surrounding terrain, the underbrush forming the border of the forest had been ripped up and thrown.

Then came the noise. The great din seemed to swallow up everything from below.

“Here it comes!!”

Yoshiaki could barely hear her own voice as some of the trees on the edge of the forest shook violently before being torn up from the roots. It was like a giant had forcibly yanked them from the ground and it didn’t end there. The taller the trees, the more of the force they took, so it was the thicker – and thus more usable as a shield or cover – trees that were made airborne first, the sounds of snapping roots playing loud. Furthermore…

“Here comes the main blast.”

Another force pushed in from behind the wind. That was the explosive blast itself.

It had hit the ground and then spread out in all directions like a great distortion.

It first instantly felled the trees on the forest’s edge.

The trunks and branches tangled together and couldn’t endure the force. Once one toppled from the weight, its fall joined the force of the blast, creating a chain reaction.

Yoshiaki and Angie would be in serious trouble if that chain reaction reached them. But it didn’t care at all about what they wanted.

“They’re going to fly!”

While they sat using Weiss Fürstin as a roof, several trees spiraled above them, but once they flew too high, they collided with the shockwave and split apart.

Up ahead, a warrior girl screamed while down on the ground.

But nothing anyone said meant a thing to that shockwave.

The forest shook down to the crust and the night sky grew dark with dust. And down on the ground…

AnG: “You okay, Kime-chan?”

Kimee: “Of course. Supersonic flight is nothing for Zwei Fürstin. You know we have high-level anti-shockwave maneuvers as well as cushioning and defense spells.”

Her control Magie Figur showed Weiss Fürstin was responding as if it were moving at high speed. It was also deploying defense and cushioning spells against the shockwave. This wasn’t as good as warship-class armor, but Zwei Fürstin’s defenses were good enough if all they needed was defense.

…Although a direct hit from a shell would be too much, so we use angled armor to redirect the force.

But right now all of those effects were crucial.

They were safe here.

They had other reasons for thinking that, but they had to prioritize what they could do for themselves.

The shockwave was scattered by the cushioning spell so it wouldn’t directly hit the warriors behind them. Yoshiaki was worried about the nonhuman unit and the charging unit who had gone out ahead, but they had to be doing what they could.

And she saw the enemy past the edge of Weiss Fürstin and beyond the blast.

The colossal skeleton was visible past the swaying trees and scattering leaves. It stood within the dust cloud with the dark blue full moon sky in the background. It was…

“Unharmed!?”

●

Toshiie raised his left hand.

He saw the colossal skeleton do the same.

Its left arm was unchanged.

“But that doesn’t mean nothing happened. Its regeneration just happened to be faster than the damage.”

That was a brand new left arm. And the new left hand held something between its fingers.

“Hard to believe something so small caused such a powerful blast.”

It was the artillery shell.

The colossal skeleton had stopped and caught the shell launched from the Azuchi. There was only one thing to do now.

“I don’t want it, so I should return it.”

The colossal skeleton’s left arm made a quick rotation as if checking its range of motion. The forearm bent up at the elbow to check that joint. The wrist opened a bit on the ulna side and, after releasing some auspuff, the closed joint fixed in place.

The rest was simple. It tossed the shell up and made a two-handed backswing with its right arm sword.

“Homerun!”

●

“Azuchi” was briefly unable to react to the high-speed line drive attack.

The movement was borrowed from baseball, but since this was her first time seeing a 800m giant, she had failed to convert her predictions into an actual course of action.

As an automaton, she needed detailed data before she could make a decision. She was freed from that dilemma by a shout from Takenaka in the dining hall.

“Forward defense!”

That was a comprehensive instruction. Impressive. An automaton would be unable to immediately reach such a nonspecific instruction with a never-before-seen enemy.

But “Azuchi” was thankful. She made her decision and acted on it. That decision became an instruction and the action was carried out by words in the shared memory of the automata across the bridge.

They ended their bombardment to focus all their power on defense. Hirano was in charge of the power division, so “Azuchi” deployed three automata to send her boxes of sweets and sake. In a hurry. And…

“Activate forward defenses. Over.”

The response to Takenaka took 0.7 seconds in all. Not bad, concluded “Azuchi” just as the return attack arrived.

●

Katagiri synced the reports from the bridge with his Hundred Crest Land Survey to grasp the big picture.

Displayed at table height in the dining hall, the line drive drew a straight line between the Azuchi and the colossal skeleton.

It was aimed quite accurately at the bridge on the 1st central ship. In other words, here.

While the 1st central ship activated its defense barriers, the 1st port and starboard ships advanced slightly. They raised support defense barriers for a triple defense formation.

The attack hit a moment later. It broke through the defense barriers out front like they were made of paper.

…It’s so fast!?

And more than that…

“It’s so hard!”

“Yeah, it looks like the colossal skeleton used an acceleration spell and a hardening spell on it.”

“It can do that!?”

Katagiri looked over to see Takenaka with her face in a paper bag.

“Takenaka-senpai! You need to stop grabbing that bag every time you make a new discovery!”

“What’s that, Katagiri-kun? You want an uncensored view of me ero-ing?”

“That is not what I meant! Please pull yourself together!”

That stressed Takenaka out, so she was back to the paper bag.

…God, what a pain!

But what Takenaka had said bothered him. If that colossal skeleton could apply divine protections to itself and anything it held…

…A person can use that to strengthen their weapon or increase their own acceleration or combat abilities.

But that was for a person.

“What can such a colossal skeleton do?”

A divine transmission arrived from “Azuchi”. Their defense barriers had been breached by the enemy shell, but Hundred Crest Land Survey showed the shell had been slowed by the many layers of barrier.

It was now too slow to cause any damage to their armor, so…

“Our defense was a success! Shaja!”

●

This time, “Azuchi” made a swift decision.

Their previous cannon shot had been blocked and sent back at them, but what if they fired several?

Each of the Azuchi’s ships had main cannons.

The 1st ships had two double cannons. The 2nd central ship also had two double cannons.

They had all been prepared during the recent defense. They had even included the backwards sliding of the ships into their calculations.

“Fire all main cannons! Shaja!”

A great roar tore through the sky.

Ether light raced from the barrels and steam exploded out. There were twenty in all. The force of the blasts washed across the Azuchi’s armor and sent leaves bursting into the air from the forest below. It spread out like a wave while…

…Go!

The garudas cried as the shells flew out, trailing light.

They were aimed at the colossal skeleton. “Azuchi” refused to use its name. The 20 shells accelerated as they started on their downwards-angled trajectory. The force of these descending shots could not be knocked back by those two arms.

They would also likely destroy the majority of the north face of the Shibata formation.

“While we are at it, we can use this as the starting point of an attack built around angled artillery fire. Shaja.”

Unlike at Bitchu Takamatsu Castle, there were no civilians within. They could fire within the enemy formation without hesitation, but the return fire from the fortress wall of ships was currently preventing that.

But once that obstacle was gone, they could fire all they wanted. They had sent a ground force in to settle things with Shibata, but they could also end things with artillery from the sky.

Statistically speaking, this was a worthy time to clench her fist and proclaim…

“Artillery is king! Shaja!”

Then she watched the 20 shells flying along their trajectories.

The light-enveloped attacks were flying due south. But there was something odd in the sky out ahead of them.

…A large, wide black shape is floating there. But what it is?

The Boy: “ ‘Azuchi’-san!”

Katagiri’s voice told her what that black object in the sky was.

The Boy: “Maeda König Geist has thrown a destroyed warship!!”

Don’t use its name.

●

Katagiri sensed danger.

The enemy colossal skeleton had thrown one of the broken warships in the northern clearing.

It was 800m tall after all. The thrown wreckage was 800m, the same size as an ironclad ship. That meant the colossal skeleton could throw just about any P.A. Oda or M.H.R.R. warship.

It wasn’t just using muscular strength to throw the ship. As the skeletons evolved from ape to large skeleton, the amount of muscle across their bodies grew, but their strength was further enhanced by…

…The mobile shells and the spells Maeda-sama gave them!

Most likely, the mobile shells acted like exoskeletons and the spells acted like a power system.

Maeda had used every technique he had to create this colossal skeleton. This was probably a historical first, so Katagiri understood wanting to give it your own name.

“That Maeda König Geist is truly formidable!”

Takenaka immediately lowered her face into the paper bag.

“Wh-what are you trying to say by that, Takenaka-senpai!?”

“Shouldn’t you be focusing on what’s happening outside?”

She was right. The warship was flying this way. And Hundred Crest Land Survey showed what was happening with that.

The result was obvious. The Azuchi had fired 20 shells, but…

“They’re going to hit the warship!”

The colossal skeleton hadn’t just thrown the warship.

“The warship throw was a tactic meant to attack us and shield against our artillery at the same time!”

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