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“It is quite troublesome if you blow away part of my ‘Military Barrier’ as well.”
“…You were having a hard time, so I fired.”
Said the mushroom headed woman in the center of the flying fortress, with a robotic voice.
The main cannon’s energy was barely at 60%, which meant it was nothing more than near half of its potential output. Still, the explosion that caught a wide area dug down approximately one hundred meters.
“Whatever. A mere two hundred of my puppets disappeared.”
“…It will take five minutes for the main cannon to fire again. Do as you please in the meantime.”
“I will.”
Terracotta, who hung below the giant disk like a remora, shrugged.
He shook his body once again and created more black particles, the source of the puppet army.
They sprouted when they touched the ground, and gathered dirt and sand to take the form of human soldiers. What kept their form together were small parts of the sorcerer’s Military Barrier, which were stretched very thin, and they followed the simple command to attack people.
In front of them was the city they tormented countless times, and should have been trampled by the sorcerers at this point.
The three meter high walls around the city were already crumbling in various places, and held little defensive value at this point.
Humans were weak and frail. On par with bugs.
And yet, they foolishly gathered once again and stood against the god-like slave sorcerers.
“Now go, my dear parts of my being.”
Terracotta gave orders from the organs that resembled black tentacles and stretched out from his whole body. The dirt doll soldiers went into formation just as they were ordered, and marched faster.
“…Break into…”
“…Humans…”
“…Kill all…”
Behind the faces that seemed more like masks, they spoke as though they were chanting curses.
“Destroy the ramparts and charge into the city! Kill all the humans opposing us! Let not one of those bugs li… ve?”
The army was five hundred meters away from the walls, when a blonde girl stood up on top of them.
She pointed a three legged tubular cylinder towards the Military Barrier, which unleashed flames and shot out fire arrows.
Correction, they were not simple fire arrows. Many flaming, shining pebbles rained down on the Military Barrier.
“Gya.”
“Goh!”
“Bah!?”
The red rain destroyed dozens of the Military Barrier.
“W-what!?”
There was a rhythmical plosive sound, and the beautiful formation was in disarray, as holes were opened in it.
“The shields are being pierced…!? M-my beautiful army…!”
Not long after, hundreds more of the Military Barrier were crushed. The march stopped, and the formation broke.
“Ah!? Weak! You’re only relying on numbers, and those barriers are paper thin! Hyaha!”
Said the blonde girl with a joyous expression. She had a cowboy hat on her head, and moved sideways while continuously spreading her red rain in front of the puppet army.
Every time the very loud sound echoed, many parts of the Military Barrier went down. She not only pierced the barriers, but also managed to hit the puppet soldiers directly behind.
“Dammit! Impudent human!”
“…Terracotta. That is an irregular. That weapon is what destroyed the others.”
“That! So that is the woman who went against us slave sorcerers!?”
“…My main cannon will turn her into ash. Three minutes until we are in range.”
The giant disk floated using magic energy. It’s main cannon was the iron fist of the holy sorcerer, but magic energy had to be raised to critical levels to fire its arrow of light, which took time.
And since it used the planet’s gravity and atmosphere to diffuse, its effective range was very limited.
They were three kilometers away from the fortress. If they did not get closer, they could not burn away their enemies, which was why Terracotta’s Military Barrier was deployed, since it could overrun the enemy from a distance.
But it was not going according to plan.
“You defeated only a thousand…! Flank her!”
The Military Barrier army split in three and advanced from different directions.
They were only three hundred meters away, and if they could reach her, they could crush her with sheer numbers.
But then it happened. From the shadow of the fortress, countless humans jumped out at the same time.
“Uooh! Everyone, charge!”
They advanced with weapons in hand.
“Creeping out like bugs! Haha! A meaningless action from powerless dung beetles…!”
Terracotta laughed loudly while extending both arms and giving orders to all his puppet soldiers.
The arms of all of his soldiers turned into sharp blades, switching into massacre mode.
The two armies clashed.
“Uooh!”
“…Ehyu!?”
The puppet soldiers were destroyed. Breaking like porcelain when the swords touched them.
“W-what!?”
It was entirely unexpected.
Terracotta was at a loss for words. It was stretched thin, but the barrier protecting his soldiers should be unbreakable by humans.
The sacred power bestowed upon him by the sorcerer was being cut apart.
“We can do this! We can fight!
“Zuoryah!”
A strong looking soldier spun around while waving a sword, destroying three puppet soldiers.
“…Kill… Humans…”
“Shut up! Doryah!”
The puppet soldier collapsed after being pierced with a sword.
“Their movements are stiff…!”
“It’s easy to see when they’re counter-attacking!”
“They’re slow moving porcelain dolls…!”
Fire arrows continued to tear apart puppet soldiers.
The puppet soldiers could not deal with the movements and attacks of human soldiers.
They were losing control even though they had a five to one advantage.
Let the invincible barriers block attacks and stab their opponents. That was all they had to do to kill humans, but not anymore.
The barriers were no longer doing their job. The reason was obvious, something was done to the human’s weapons.
“Uoh… Damn you all!”
“..How unsightly Terracotta. It’s alright, we are within range. Everything… Will turn to ash.”
The magic energy gathered around the barrier of the giant disk accelerated.
Sixty seconds until it hit critical, and it was all over.
★●
“Oh no! That light again! Are they going to fire the charged particle cannon!?”
Screamed Ameriko, and as if reacting to her voice, a pillar of fire rose up from the ground, burning the bottom of the giant disk.
“Ooh! That’s that reactionary magic explosive!”
“Tch! Those damn bugs are getting too heated…!”
“…It will not work. Do those foolish humans really think they can defeat me with that fire?”
The new weapon did no damage, but it did create an opening for a white bird to soar behind the explosion.
“I will not let your feelings go to waste…!”
Himeno kicked a wall of wind and ran upwards.
She reached the part below the disk that looked like entwined roots, before unsheathing her shining white sword and getting ready to use it.
“Hou. This seems like quite the unpleasant special seat.”
Said Himeno, as the noble looking man sitting on a black throne looked at her in disbelief.
“…!? Y-you!? Where…”
“Tenken Chikaku type three, anti-air thrust!”
Himeno jumped using wind magic, rather than the unstable footing. She became a shining spear, which pierced Terracotta.
“Guhaaaah!? I-it can’t be…”
“You all say the same thing.”
Himeno changed her grip on her sword, and slashed sideways with the blade still in Terracotta. Blood sprayed like a fountain as the bisected Terracotta took his last breath.
The black puppet army stopped all at once.
“O-oh…!?”
“The enemy… Stopped…?”
“Did we win!?”
Screamed vice-commander Reblef.
The thousands of puppets broke down and turned back into dirt.
However, the giant disk remained, and the light around it accelerated and shined brighter with each passing moment.
“Why!? Why is it not stopping!?”
Screamed Himeno, who tried to slash the disk to no avail.
“…You can watch as I make the blonde irregular disappear.”
A voice echoed, seemingly coming from inside the disk.
“I see! There is one more!”
“…You noticed it far too late. Fifteen more seconds…”
“I will not let you…!”
Himeno desperately unleashed Tenken Chikaku one after the other, but even if she did damage the giant disk, she had no idea where the sorcerer was. Even as she blindly attacked, the clock continued counting down.
“…Foolish human. You may feel regret for crossing us. Ten more seconds…”
“Ameriko! Ruuuun!”
Screamed Himeno, but something happened.
“I told you we’d win.”
A light bigger than any other she generated appeared above Ameriko, and began swirling.
“…Useless…! Die! Five, four…!”
“You can have this.”
From the whirlpool of light, a fire spewing silver tube was launched along with a thunderous roar.
And it was not the only one. Many were fired at the same time.
“Anti-air missiles…! AIM-12 AMRAAM!”
They accelerated beyond the speed of sound very quickly, and flew towards the disk. They exploded right where the circumference of light surrounding the disk was concentrated.
“…Wha…!?”
The critical energy began to backflow, and fireworks spewed out from all over the giant disk.
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