At the same time, though, despite how loud and impressive they were, several of the Faldra’s attacks didn’t seem to have slowed down the puppet drake. Was this just because our opponent was reptilian and didn’t feel much pain? Was it really that tough? Or did being a puppet mean it didn’t feel pain and fatigue?
But that suggested...
“Aim for the spike!” I yelled.
That was pretty obviously its weak point. In fact, I kind of wished Bahairam’s mages had thought a little harder, you know? If they had succeeded in turning me into a puppet, I would have just kept running into everything, and then eventually... (shiver).
“Got it!” Romilda said, a kick from the Faldra slamming into the puppet drake’s forehead. It hit the spike square on.
Roooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!
The drake shook its head violently and backed off.
Awesome! It was working!
“This is our chance!” Loek said. “Finish it! Use the special move—Drill Hand!”
“Sure thing!”
The Faldra’s hand pulled way back, its fingers joining to form a point, which started spinning very much like a drill bit.
Yeah. These kids know how it’s done.
A drill! And a spear hand, at that!
Now that’s a special move!
You’ve made your sensei so happy, kids! You’ve learned his lessons so well!
But while I was busy being moved by how much Loek and Romilda had grown as otaku...
“H-Huh...?”
...Romilda was not sounding very triumphant.
The Faldra’s right hand suddenly slowed and then stopped rotating altogether. In fact, the mech’s movements all seemed to be growing sluggish.
No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than the puppet drake’s tail hit us.
Boooooonggg!!
“Eeeek!” The girls gave a collective scream when we got hit. Even the wall of wind that was supposed to defend against attacks like that didn’t seem to be working. What in the world was going on?!
“It’s not... moving like it’s supposed to...”
“Huh...?” Loek and Romilda exchanged dark looks.
And then I put the pieces together.
The magic gems in the Faldra’s chest, legs, and shoulders. The vein-like pattern that ran along its armor. The green glow that suffused all of it was obviously getting weaker, flickering like a fluorescent lamp at the end of its life.
“But why?!” Loek shouted.
The Faldra was clearly running out of gas, but... Wait. Gas?
“The dragon’s energy drain!” I exclaimed.
Dragons—especially the huge creatures properly known as True Drakes—were immune to magic. Because they used sprites themselves to support their huge bodies, breathe fire, and even fly, they had bodily organs that allowed them to metabolize magic and sprite power. So when unstable magical power like that from a human got anywhere near a dragon, it was simply absorbed.
We had completely forgotten about that as we engaged with the puppet drake.
When the magic was simply latent inside the gem, that was one thing, but because we were constantly using magical power to control the Faldra, that power was always coursing over the vehicle’s surface. We needed even more magic to kick or punch, or to stop an opponent’s attack. Fighting the dragon in that state was as good as begging it to absorb our energy...
The premise was sound: you couldn’t fight a dragon with magic, so you would have to do it hand to hand. Powering your hand-to-hand fighter with magic defeated the point.
“Ahhhh, Romilda, you idiot!”
“You’re the idiot, Loek!”
Gosh. And they had been getting along so well.
And frankly, they were probably both idiots.
“Eeek!”
“Ahhhh!”
More blows assaulted the Faldra.
Crap. We’ll never hold up to this.
But without even the power to move an arm, let alone a leg, running away wasn’t looking very likely...
“Th-That’s it!” Romilda exclaimed suddenly. “We can use the emergency power supply!”
“Huh? Do we have one of those?” I asked.
“Yes!” she nodded, then gave the magical gem above our heads a very solid smack.
“Yipes!”
The crystal had already nearly gone dim; now it cracked down the middle, and I saw something emerge from within. Wait, so that thing wasn’t solid?
What came out was...
“A... wheel?”
It looked like something a hamster would run on, but about ten times bigger. About human-size, actually.
“This thing was originally built as a marionette, remember?” Romilda said. “It has some gears to help it do things that strings alone couldn’t manage.”
“Wasn’t that for when it was flying?!”
“The mechanism is still there! Our range of movement will be limited, but if we turn this wheel, we should at least be able to walk—and it won’t use magic!”
“W-Will that really work?” Would the Faldra really move if we turned this wheel? I mean in this armored configuration, and with six passengers?
Talk about your hostile working conditions...
And all this was to say nothing of the fact that the wheel only looked big enough for one person...
“Elvia!” I said suddenly, turning to the werewolf girl and grabbing her by the shoulders.
“Y-Yes?” she said, startled.
“We need your strength!”
“Wh-Who, me? Mine?”
“Only you can do this!”
“Only I can—?” Her eyes got bigger.
I understand that forcing a young woman to do this kind of physical labor is a questionable proposition, but all our lives were on the line here; this was no time to be getting caught up in notions of chivalry. Elvia, as a werewolf, was far and away the strongest of any of us.
“We need you!”
“But I...”
Hey, why are your cheeks getting so red?
No! Not the time to be wondering about that!
“Run, Elvia! Run for our future!”
“Uh... Okay? Whatever you say!” She nodded and jumped on the wheel.
Then she started to run.
“Whoaaaa!”
Fzzzzzz! The wheel spun with a very familiar sound, the Faldra creaking in time along with it. Meanwhile, Romilda had taken hold of a collection of exposed pegs, a smile on her face. Apparently, those pegs were what would let her control the Faldra by hand.
“It’s working!” Although with much less fluidity than before, the Faldra had started to move. “We can do this, Sensei!”
“Great! L-Let’s start by getting some distance.”
“Sounds good,” Romilda said, nodding. Our ride began, totteringly but unmistakably, to put some space between itself and the puppet drake.
Our enemy was holding station up in the air. Maybe it thought it could use its fire breath again.
“Hrrraaaaaahhhhh!” Elvia bellowed as she ran and ran and ran. She was already covered in sweat, her breath coming in ragged gasps, but somehow she kept going faster and faster. I had never seen anyone work so hard. It was incredible. Thanks to her, the Faldra was able to walk without falling over.
But even so...
“This is bad...!”
We still couldn’t jump or fly. Those actions were obviously enabled by magic. Worse, our gems seemed to still be recovering; the green glow wasn’t quite back at full strength. And there was no way we could move the entire Faldra using just our personal magic...
In this state, we wouldn’t be dodging any fire breath.
I thought I saw despair peeking over the horizon of panic.
Is there something we can do? Anything! Anything at all!
Myusel, Minori-san, Elvia, Loek and Romilda—they had all come specifically to rescue me! And now they were going to be slaughtered for their troubles...
Suddenly, out of the corner of my
eye, I saw Minori-san look up resolutely. Did she mean to take on the dragon in bare-handed combat like she had before?!
No, Minori-san! It just isn’t possible!
“Looks like there’s no choice. Romilda, open up the cockpit!”
“Wha? But Minori-sensei, that’s—”
“Open it! That’s an order!”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
Romilda flipped something, and the armor that had been protecting the cockpit suddenly opened, connecting us directly to the outside world. Now I could see the glowing globe forming in the dragon’s jaws with my own eyes. Crap! We’re all—
“Everyone, get down!” Minori-san shouted, then grabbed something in the cockpit and jumped out of the Faldra.
“Hey—Minori-san?!”
“Sensei!”
Romilda quickly directed the Faldra to bring its hand down to Minori-san. She jumped on its open palm, then I heard her yell:
“So-Crazy-It-Just-Might-Work Finishing Move!!” She sounded so loud. So proud. “Panzerfaust Drei!!”
W-Wait just a second...!
Before I could even get a smart remark out of my mouth, Minori-san had braced the object against her shoulder—it was a rocket-boosted recoilless weapon—and fired.
The exhaust gasses came flying out the back.
“Waaahothothot!”
They obviously didn’t come directly at us, but the gout of smoke and flame from the shot built up against the cockpit armor, immediately and dramatically driving up the temperature.
As for the 110-millimeter personal anti-tank shell, it went flying off, trailing white smoke.
It was headed straight for the dragon, which probably couldn’t even see the rocket in the glare from the magical globe in its own mouth. The projectile scored a direct hit.
The sound of the ensuing explosion filled the area. Half the puppet drake was obscured by a cloud of white smoke.
We took in a collective breath: when the smoke cleared, we saw that the dragon’s head had been blown clean off.
“Yikes...”
Even from this distance, it wasn’t a pleasant sight. But at the same time, it meant the dragon had been neutralized...!
“M-Minori-san...”
“Heh heh!” Minori-san chuckled as she climbed back into the cockpit. “Crazy like a fox. I’m glad I brought this puppy along.”
“That thing’s not exactly a travel necessity! Are you a lab coat-wearing nutzoid scientist, too?!” There’s a line to draw when you’re packing for a trip! “And what do you mean ‘puppy,’ anyway?! You could at least call it a 110-millimeter personal anti-tank weapon or a LAM or something!”
“But can’t you just imagine it being glossed Finishing Move in a manga?”
Well, yes, I could, but...
“Anyway, thank God it only took one shot.” Since, Minori-san added, I only brought one with me.
In point of fact, except for the sight and grip, a Panzerfaust 3 is entirely disposable.
“Wait a second,” I said. “If you had something like that along, why didn’t you use it in the first place?!”
“It’s surprisingly hard to just, y’know, use,” she said. “You have to be careful of what’s behind you.”
“You weren’t!”
“Plus, if you’re too close, you get hurt, but if you’re not close enough, you won’t hit anything. Normally you at least get to brace yourself against the ground when you’re using it.” Minori-san shrugged.
If nothing else, she was right that you didn’t normally fire one from atop a giant robot.
“Not to mention, I wanted to keep Bahairam from learning about that technology if I could.”
“Ah...”
Now that she mentioned it, that made sense. We didn’t know how much the Kingdom of Bahairam actually knew about Japan, but based on what Amatena had said, we at least knew that they entertained the possibility of conquering it if they got the chance.
That meant this kingdom was a potential enemy. The less they knew about our weapons and technology—even if ours were vastly superior—the better. Personal weapons like the Type 89, the Minimi, or the M9 were one thing, but anti-tank munitions would definitely be something of a military secret vis-à-vis a country like Bahairam.
“And then there’s the fact that unlike a handgun or small arms,” Minori-san said, her eyes growing distant, “when you use one of those things, the paperwork is a huge headache.”
“Don’t tell me that’s the real reason you wanted to avoid it.”
“...............................Okay. I won’t tell you.”
She was pointedly not looking at me.
“Can you look me in the eye and say that, PFC Koganuma Minori?”
“The point is, Shinichi-kun, we have to get out of here!”
What a bold change of subject.
I looked around. Maybe it was because the puppet drake was dead, or maybe our magic regeneration had finally caught up with us, but in any event, the Faldra’s crystal was glowing at full strength again.
“After that sort of noise, Bahairamanian reinforcements are sure to be on the way!” Minori-san said.
“Right!” Loek and Romilda nodded, and then the Faldra’s armor started shifting again, returning us to the flight mode that would get us into the sky and out of Dodge.
We kept flying, straight out of the eastern city of Borfoi.
The only catch was, the Faldra was sounding kind of creaky, maybe on account of having just done hand-to-hand combat with a dragon, and we weren’t sure it was fit for a long-distance flight.
So we were just looking for a place to set down and do some simple repairs on the mech when...
“Huh...?”
I looked out across a wasteland of sand and rocks, toward the mountains that formed the border with Eldant. Smack in the middle of it stood two figures.
Were those...?
“Sorry, Minori-san, but can I borrow your binoculars?”
“Sure, here.” She handed me a pair of folding binoculars. I held them up and set the magnification.
“Hey...”
It was just what I had sort of almost expected. In fact, it was exactly what I had expected: Amatena and Clara. And for some reason, Amatena wasn’t wearing her usual military uniform, but a traditional outfit much like Clara’s. A lot like Elvia’s, for that matter. It showed a lot of skin (or fur), and yeah, I have to admit, it definitely turned me on... But even ignoring the part of my mind that was in the gutter, I personally thought the outfit looked really good on her.
“Stop here!” I cried. “Er, I mean, put ’er down!”
There was a collective “Wha?”
“You see those people there? I want you to set down there for a moment.”
“Wait. Isn’t that—”
I might have guessed Elvia would have good eyes. She didn’t seem sure about this.
“Shinichi-sama, that’s...!”
“It’s okay, trust me,” I said, my tone admitting little argument.
There was no sign of other Bahairamanian soldiers in the immediate area, and neither Amatena nor Clara was dressed for battle. Finally, at a nod from Minori-san, Loek and Romilda brought the Faldra down to land next to the two beast girls.
I immediately jumped off the fake dragon. Minori-san, ever my bodyguard, was right behind me with her M9 at the ready, but everyone else stayed on the Faldra. Even Elvia didn’t make any move to dismount. In fact, she perched watching Amatena and Clara like a wary animal.
“I had a feeling it might come to this,” Amatena said with a sigh as Minori-san and I approached. It didn’t seem like word had reached the army yet of my escape. Well, we had flown straight here after busting out of the research facility. If anything, it suggested that Amatena had known this might happen.
“Thanks,” I said earnestly.
It was because of Amatena that Minori-san and the others had known where I was. Her position in the military had prevented her from personally helping me escape, but without th
e hint she gave Minori-san, I would probably still be on my way to get spiked.
“I hear this is all thanks to you,” I said.
“Me? I didn’t do anything,” she said expressionlessly. “If anything I did happened to benefit you pieces of filth, I certainly didn’t do it for that purpose.”
“Sure, I know,” I said, smiling at this display of tsundere-ishness.
“I believed that someone like you was absolutely necessary to the future of this country.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that. In its quest for power, the Kingdom of Bahairam was starting to treat people like mass-produced consumables (even if this world, not yet having experienced an industrial revolution, probably didn’t have that concept). A rich traditional culture had been thrown away wholesale, replaced with attempts to control the populace and a philosophical fixation on a strong army.
And maybe, just maybe, that didn’t sit right with Amatena.
Or maybe the other citizens of this country, either. Maybe that was exactly why the king and his advisors thought it was so important to reinforce the people’s loyalty. They could probably sense the discontent spreading.
“Elvia is... different now,” Amatena said suddenly.
“Huh?” The voice came from the back of the Faldra—from Elvia.
Maybe she hadn’t realized it herself. Honestly, I hadn’t known Elvia long enough to be sure either way.
Something tugged at Amatena’s lips; she looked perilously close to a smile. A wry smile, maybe.
“She would never have stood against me like that before. She would have quietly run away. I suppose it’s meeting you that has wrought this change in her.”
I was hardly in a position to be all, “Oh yeah, obviously. You should be grateful.” I hadn’t even thought of myself as having enough influence with Elvia to cause her to act differently. Literally all I did was to have her stay at the mansion drawing pictures.
“For all the beating and shouting we gave her, we were unable to change Elvia. Not us her sisters, not her parents. Perhaps it only shows that such things lack the power to change people.”
I didn’t say anything.
“All the more reason why revolutionaries like you are crucial for this country. So I simply... I would have hated to see you used up as nothing more than a test subject for puppet technology. That’s all there is to it. And with you escaping, my efforts have come to little.”
Outbreak Company: Volume 5 Page 17