Chapter 9 (1/2)

SECT.9 - M's Battle

“Enemy! On the right!”

The first thing that LLENN thought when she heard that was,

‘Aren’t you mistaken?’

That.

Indeed, an enemy team had survived in the swamp. They confirmed that 4 minutes ago.

However, they were 4 km away in a straight line. Moreover, there was a lake between their current position and the swamp.

If they were on a flat land that was suitable for running and had characters that had raised their agility to extreme levels, they would have to be running at a no longer human speed of 60 km per hour in a straight line; such a thing had to be considered.

‘That’s impossible, you must be mistaken’, LLENN tried to say as she stopped and looked to her right,

“Wha?”

Discovering that she was wrong herself.

Above the lake, something that she did not see until this moment could be seen.

They were black dots. Three, no, four black dots were floating on the surface of the red lake, and moreover, they were rapidly becoming bigger.

“Drop to the ground!”

Just as she lay down as M told her, several vivid Bullet Lines pa.s.sed above her head.

There was no doubt about it anymore. Those black dots were an enemy, and they were targeting LLENN’s group with their guns.

She heard the sound of several bullets from those guns flying above her head; a sound that she had heard far too much shortly after the game started.

“What’s going on? M-san?”

While on the ground and pressing her head to the asphalt, LLENN asked. M, whose posture she couldn’t see, answered.

“The enemy has obtained a convenient vehicle. That’s all there is to it.”

“A vehicle?”

“Yeah, they’ll be coming considerably close to us, so you should see it.”

“…………”

LLENN slowly raised her head, and looked at the lake once again. The four black dots had decreased the gap by about 300 metres, and although they were still small,

“Aah…… I get it.”

She realised what that shape was. Small motorboats. And there were people riding it. In that case, it wasn’t strange that they closed this distance, travelling at 60 km per hour on the surface of the water.

“Those are motorboats! That’s cheating!”

“It’s not really cheating. Players are free to use vehicles within the field. First come first serve.”

“Uu……”

“Moreover, to be accurate, those aren’t motorboats.”

“Wha? Then what are they?”

“They’re hovercrafts.”

“Wha?”

“Roll to the left to get away!”

Before LLENN could process that, she rolled horizontally from her p.r.o.ne posture. Due to her extreme quick-wittedness, she rolled twenty times in the blink of an eye, moving several tens ofmetres away from her former position, and although she felt considerably dizzy, that action saved her.

Weren’t those red Bullet Lines that came flying at the place that she had been just a moment ago, the ground being showered in a hail of bullets right afterwards?

They were under fire from machine guns. LLENN had been under considerable fire some time ago, thus she immediately understood what was attacking them now.

The bullets were scattered, but if she hadn’t rolled away, it was quite possible that at least one of them would have hit her. If the bullet had hit a vital part of the body, it would obviously result in instant death.

“Shhit.”

LLENN, whose pink combat uniform was stained with gra.s.s and dust, raised her head, and saw that one hovercraft was merely 100 metres away, and traversing the lake from left to right at high speed.

She clearly saw it in detail. Its overall length was about 3 metres. At a glance, it looked like ajet ski, in other words, a water scooter.

However, unlike a jet ski, it had black rubber under its green hull, and an aeroplane-like largepropeller in its rear.

Its hull floating by jetting air below it, and moving with the help of its propellers; that is what a vehicle called a hovercraft is. A high-pitched engine noise, with the *būn* noise of the propellersmixed in, could be heard.

There were two men riding it in a row. The man sitting in front grasped a horizontal handle, and the man in the back had his machine gun placed sideways on the side of the vessel.

LLENN pointed her P90 at them, wondering if she should return fire, but before she could put her finger on the trigger, in other words, before the Bullet Circle appeared in her field of vision, she stopped.

She didn’t feel that she could hit the hovercraft that was zigzagging away from them. It would be a waste of bullets.

The other three vehicles were still far away, thus it seemed that only one of them charged in for a flank attack.

“M-san, you okay?”

“Yeah. I didn’t get hit.”

Hearing the answer, she sighed in relief for now. M should be about 50 metres behind her, but she couldn’t see well from her p.r.o.ne posture.

The vehicle that came attacking returned to the company of their comrades. Right now, all four vehicles approximately 300 metres in front of them continued zigzagging in order not to get shot.

“W-what do we do? Since we got discovered, we can’t use the trap during the next scan if we don’t get away.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s run to the back! Into the housing district!”

“We can’t. They’ll chase after us.”

“How? We’ll be on sh.o.r.e after all, right?”

“A hovercraft is an amphibious vehicle that can travel on flat ground. It can chase after us even on the road. Especially in this area, where the lake turns into a highway, making it an ideal location for them to come ash.o.r.e.”

“Wha that’s cheating!”

LLENN was seriously angry, but that was just the sort of vehicle it was, so she couldn’t do anything about it.

“If we turn our backs to them and escape, they’ll accelerate and come straight towards us at once. And then, if they close the distance, it’s the end for us. They’ve probably realised that our group consists of but two people. Those guys are also a considerably skilled team.”

Even at a time like this, M’s calm voice was rea.s.suring. However, this didn’t change the fact that they were still in a pinch.

“Then, what should we…… Should I become a decoy and run around while, you, M-san, hide? If I’m alone, I’m considerably fast, you know? Of course, not as fast as a machine though……”

“That’s a nice idea.”

“I—— I know, right?”

Feeling that her suggestion was praised for the first time, LLENN felt a bit happy, despite the current situation.

“But, I’m not running away, I’m going to shoot them from here.”

“Say what? ——M’san, you shouldn’t fall into despair, you know?”

LLENN said in a tone as if she was admonis.h.i.+ng a person who was attempting suicide.

“Who is in despair. Do I look like I am? Right now, the enemy is far away. Try raising your head a bit.”

“Hm?”

LLENN first lightly raised her head.

No Bullet Lines could be seen in the surroundings, thus, for the time being it didn’t seem like she would be shot in the next moment. She was scared, worrying that there could be a sniper on the other side, but it should be a next to impossible task for a sniper to shoot her from atop a movinghovercraft. She couldn’t shoot them, but they couldn’t shoot her either.

Since this was the case, LLENN raised the upper half of her body. She turned her eyes at the direction she expected M to be and——

There he was. She saw a large body lying on the asphalt road that was by the side of the lake. And, she saw his M14 EBR set up on the bipod in front of him.

‘Huh? Something’s different?’

LLENN looked for what was wrong, and noticed it. His giant backpack was not on his back, as if it had run away under the cover of the night or had relocated. M had unfastened it, placed it in front of his body, and was now trying to open it. And he opened it.

“I’m going to use this.”

While saying that, M thrust his hands into the backpack.

“S-some sort of amazing weapon?”

LLENN’s voice was filled with expectation.

‘Is the mysterious „secret tool“ inside it finally going to be revealed? Is it a an anti-tank rocketwith powerful destructive force, or a grenade launcher that can fire grenades approximately 200 metres away?

With these thoughts, she believed that it would be an expensive, rare, and high-power weapon. One that was probably capable of turning the tables with a single attack in this inconvenient situation.

But M’s answer was,

“No, a protector.”

“Say what? A protector?”

“Look.”

What M took out was an object with large, iron plates lying on top of each other.

Its height was about 50 cm. Its width was probably about 30 cm. Dyed in green, it was an approximately 1 cm-thick plate. And there were about eight of them stacked up. They looked like tiles stacked up for a karate pract.i.tioner to break.

M took it and,

“Humph”

Along with a grunt, he extended it to the left and right with his hands. If M needed to shout, just how much strength was needed to extend it?

And so, after being extended, it became a 50 cm-high, about 240 cm-long in an arc, fan-shaped wall.

“What is that? M san what is that?”

“For a chicken like me, an overly chicken protector.”

While answering, M inserted his M14 EBR into the gap at the centre.

And so, the final form of it was like the emplacement of a tank’s gun turret, that hid M’s body from the front, with only the gun barrel sticking out from the centre.

“LLENN. One of them is coming again.”

“Wha!”

LLENN returned her vision to the lake. One of the vehicles among the four were charging from the right side, in other words, towards M, in a zigzagging manner.

“Am I the target now? Fine by me, look.”

Just as he said, LLENN lied down, turned her face to the right, and she saw it.

On the right side of her own field of vision, one hovercraft was charging towards him, and finally turned the rudder horizontally towards the lake sh.o.r.e. A turn, which made its rear skid, characteristic of a hovercraft that would be called drifting in car terms.

The moment the port side faced the sh.o.r.e—— the man in the back, who was holding a German-made ≪H&K HK21≫, opened fired with his 7.62 mm machine gun. 100 meters away from M.

LLENN couldn’t see the Bullet Lines aimed at M, but she did saw the bullets flying towards him this time. They were tracers. This machine gun guy seems to have increased the ratio of his tracers, and the several horizontal lines of light made by the afterimage were aimed exactly towards where M lay——

“Wha?”

And they soared up into the sky.

They were deflected.

LLENN clearly saw it. How the fan-shaped s.h.i.+eld erected in front of M deflected the bullets that were flying towards him into the sky. Several additional bullets. .h.i.t it, but they all disappeared into the sky. Some of them hit M’s surroundings, sc.r.a.ping the asphalt and scattering the gra.s.s.

LLENN could hear the metallic sound of bullets. .h.i.tting the s.h.i.+eld much better than she could hear the gunshots from the machine gun 100 metres away.

“LLENN, fire at the guys with your P90 as they escape. You don’t have to hit them, just unleash all 50 of your bullets.”

“Ro-roger!”

The fact that she could hear M’s voice meant that he was safe, thus

“Alright!”

LLENN firmly pressed her P90 horizontally atop her left shoulder, and pointed her muzzle at thehovercraft, whose rudder was turned to the right to escape to the open sea.

As she touched the trigger, she waited for the appearance of the Bullet Circle that was late by a beat. She didn’t measure the time, but it probably took about 0.5 seconds. A large circle appeared in her field of vision, she then confirmed that the hovercraft was mostly within it and squeezed the trigger at once.

*Baaaaaaaaaaaa*, went the full auto rapid-fire that sounded like barrage of a small drum.

Small, golden empty sh.e.l.ls were ejected to the right.

A P90 would violently eject empty sh.e.l.ls directly below it, but with LLENN’s super short body shooting from a p.r.o.ne posture, there was barely any s.p.a.ce below it, thus there was the possibility that ejection of a large quant.i.ty of empty sh.e.l.ls would be delayed. Thus, shooting with the gun horizontally was one of the special techniques for her that she was taught by Pitohui.

Small bullets(1) went flying towards the hovercraft that was about 150 metres away but—— they scattered in a large area as expected.

Long and narrow pillars of water were made in the surroundings of the escaping hovercraft; a bullet hitting one of the men and causing instant death, much less a bullet hitting the gasoline tank and causing a big explosion - such lucky events did not occur.

‘Well, I’m just creating a diversion, so it’s not a problem.’ LLENN, who discharged an entiremagazine of 50 bullets, took out a new magazine from her thigh pouch and, while reloading,

“M-san, that s.h.i.+eld is amazing! You were carrying such a thing on your back…… You don’t get hurt even if they shoot at you like that?”

“For weapons of up to 7.62 mm cla.s.s, it’ll deflect their bullets if I’m shot from the front.”

“Wha that’s amazing!”

LLENN admired.

Some time ago, she was taught about piercing power by Pitohui in detail.

“If you pick a careless place to hide, you will be shot. You have to be careful”

She received such a lecture.

For example, gra.s.s and the like can be used to hide oneself from enemy’s eyes, but it won’t protect against enemy bullets. Since bullets can easily penetrate such cover.

The piercing power of a rifle's bullet far surpa.s.ses the imagination of a person not well versed in guns. With 5.56 mm and above cla.s.s rifle bullets being mainstream in GGO, a cover might look st.u.r.dy at a glance, but it would still be penetrated. For example, if concrete-block walls are shot, after 1 or 2 shots, it would be destroyed, thus it’s a very useless item to hide behind.

The walls of wooden houses are also weak, thus it is impossible to be safe from gunfire inside. The door of an automobile would fall out after a bit as well.

“The only areas of a car that can provide safety are the back of the engine block, and the back of the wheel. Everything else can’t be used for hiding.”

Those were Pitohui’s lessons.

“How the heck can it do that?”

Returning her gaze frontward, LLENN asked. Right now, the four vehicles were regrouping.

“It doesn’t exist in RL, but it seems that they are armoured plates from a s.p.a.ce battles.h.i.+p. The strongest material in GGO, or so I’ve heard. Special(2) material stores sell them at an extremely high price.”

‘Then I should avoid asking about the price of eight of those.’

LLENN thought. If she asked, she would probably end up seeing 10,000 yen notes plastered all over it.

“The s.h.i.+eld has displayed its power. Thus, those guys are probably going to attack all together. While the machine gun guy provides a diversion, the rest will try to muscle their way through.”

“Uge? Will you be alright?”

“I’ll tell you the plan—— LLENN, I want you to stand up and run around in all directions. At full-speed. If you see Bullet Lines coming towards you, immediately drop to the ground and roll, and run from place to place. Like before, you can shoot at them as a diversion.”

‘The decoy role again!’

Rather than feeling angry, she actually felt excited.

“Meanwhile, M-san, you’re going to snipe from there?”

“Yeah.”

Hearing that answer, LLENN,

“But but, won’t it be a disadvantage for you if your Bullet Lines appear?”

This time, she asked not in concern for herself, but M instead.

Right now, with both parties having seen each other and knowing each other’s position, Bullet Lines would definitely appear before he fired.

Like the Bullet Circle, they appear right after the attacker puts pressure on the trigger with their finger. Since the opponent would know that he was being targeted when M fires,

“Wouldn’t he avoid them by suddenly turning the hovercraft’s rudder?”

“That’s right.”

“Then why——”

“Let’s talk later. I’ll do my best in my own way. They’re coming. Run from place to place.”

“Uhya!”

LLENN also confirmed it. Four hovercrafts began moving all at once, spread out widely across the lake, and came towards them in zigzags.

The Bullet Lines extending from there that began to dance wildly in the air, like the laser beams of a live concert.

“Oh enough of this!”

M did tell her to run around from place to place, in other words, draw the enemy fire, thus

“Let’s get’em!”

LLENN stood up forcefully. Her high-agility character began to dash at full power.

The team that obtained the hovercrafts——

Consisted of high-level players that have been playing GGO for a considerable amount of time. Their leader was so skilled that he partic.i.p.ated in the main tournament of the third BoB. Unfortunately, he was shot by someone more skilled in the early stages.

The six members were all men. Their weapon lineup consisted of a HK21, 7.62 mm machine gunas their princ.i.p.al weapon——

Along with two ≪H&K G36K≫, one ≪Steyr STM-556≫, one ≪FN Herstal SCAR-L≫ and one ≪Beretta ARX160≫ 5.56 mm a.s.sault rifles.

All of them were European-made, high-power guns; a considerably powerful lineup.

Furthermore, in order to be able to share magazines among the a.s.sault rifle force, the two G36K users were using adapters. Because of this, the five of them could use the same magazine.

Although their camouflage and equipment belts were all different due to personal taste, they had only two common features as a team.

The first was, a team emblem sewn on everyone’s arms. A skull, holding a knife horizontally in its mouth, mark(3) in inconspicuous black, navy blue and dark grey colours was depicted on it.

The other was that they had all equipped magazine pouches on the back of their vest. Their hands obviously could not reach them, thus they were meant for their comrades standing behind them.

In case they had to fight indoors and were close to their allies, drawing out magazines from the back of the person in front of them would be faster than from their own bodies; which was the reason they were equipped.

So far, they’ve been stoically pursuing team play, thus they had a streak of easy victories in SJ’s first half. Having begun SJ in the north-westernmost tip of the field, in the prairie, they took down several teams in their surroundings.

As for the two teams that took up position in the forest, trying to defeat each other, they had split into two groups and attacked both at the same time, forcing them to leave the tournament.

The problematic case, even to them, was the team that had camped in the crashed s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p in the swamp.

Leaving a lookout at the highest platform of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, they set up snipers facing all four cardinal directions on the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, and easily brought down teams that came along the fewroutes in the swamp that could possibly be traversed.

Cowardice is cowardice, but strategy is strategy. They were probably lucky, having started SJ in such an advantageous position from the beginning.

Just as they considered giving up on attacking them, and to advance toward the centre, while ignoring them, they chanced upon hovercrafts next to a shed before the swamp. They had searched for vehicles there right after SJ started, but, at the time, they could not find anything of the sort.

Although strange, this was a game. They deduced that, as the number of remaining teamsdecreased, a way to travel became necessary to make contact with other teams, thus these vehicles appeared. And so, with them, they decided to attack the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p team.

As they have had practice driving vehicles in GGO, with just a bit of practise, they managed to handle their new vehicles, and made use of their new speed to quickly traverse the swamp.

It was difficult to hit a hovercraft travelling at high speed, and due to Bullet Lines, it was possible to avoid the snipers’ line of fire. After infiltrating the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, they ended up in close quarter combat on board the confined s.h.i.+p.

Spreading out their forces to control all four cardinal directions was the cause of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+pteam's defeat. They were defeated one by one on board the confined s.h.i.+p, until finally, only theleader at the highest platform was left.

“Gentlemen! It seems that you have defeated all of my comrades! Splendid work! I probably have no chance of winning anymore! HOWEVER! I am NOT going to resign! I am not going to let you kill me either! I’ll show you! THIS, is how you lose a battle!”

The leader gave a speech in high spirits, distributed all the plasma grenades she had throughout her body, and pressed the activation b.u.t.ton of one of them,

“Uooooooooooooooo!”

And jumped down.

A flashy, bluish-white explosion was created in the air, the explosion induced by other grenadesspread out, and its inside s.h.i.+ned, with red polygon fragments mixed in; my-my, that was really beautiful,

“Taamayaa……”(4)

One of the attackers muttered unintentionally.