Chapter 454 (2/2)

「Sure, they’re awesome . But you can admire them after you break them apart . Here they come!」

The mechanical warriors rattle and creak as they slowly stand and approach us .

I don’t think they are seeking a friendly handshake .

Mack, Agor and I form the front row, Natia and Celia are in the middle, and the helpless attendant and the useless Tristan are in the back .

「Let’s do this . Get ‘em!」

「「Yeah!!」」

Mack and Agor attack the two closest soldiers first .

Agor wields a large broadsword and a regular s.h.i.+eld, whereas Mack jumps in with his warhammer .

As if they reacted to the offensive movement, the mechanical soldiers raise their arms and get into a battle stance .

However, the movements of the gears, which cause loud grinding sounds, were much too sluggish .

「Too slow!」

Agor brushes the machine soldier’s s.h.i.+eld out of the way with his own, easily avoids the incoming slash and then counters with a downward diagonal slash on his opponent’s neck .

「Muun!」

Mack lightly hits the s.h.i.+eld of his enemy with his war hammer, knocking it off balance before unleas.h.i.+ng a full-powered swing on the top of its head and slamming it into the floor .

「I won’t lose either!」

Celia continuously throws daggers from the rear .

The first one explodes on contact with the mechanical soldier’s s.h.i.+eld, opening up its body to take the hits of all the daggers that followed, and also allowing Celia to deliver a finis.h.i.+ng blow with a charging stab .

Naturally, those who are accustomed to fighting all performed beautifully .

If their foes were human, they would all be dead without a doubt .

「But……these guys aren’t fazed . 」

The soldier Agor slashed slowly turned its head toward him and raised its sword .

The soldier Mack slammed to the ground slowly stands up with only a slight dent on its head .

The one that ate Celia’s combo attack also spun its head around once before starting to walk again .

「Fighting them normally won’t work . We have to think of a smarter way to defeat them . 」

If the one that took a direct hit from Mack didn’t break, then recklessly cutting it or bas.h.i.+ng it won’t be effective .

We need a plan .

「Each of you fight one, including Natia . I’ll fight the remaining six――」

I draw my Dual Crater and survey my opponents, beginning from the one on the very left and ending on the one on the very right .

「I accept the challenge . 」

I lower my stance and then run at the enemies .

I’ll start with the three that are grouped up .

From what I saw earlier, I know they move much slower than average soldiers .

I won’t lag behind even if it’s three versus one .

I parry the three swords thrust at me consecutively at a satisfying rhythm .

So it seems they can cooperate, but the rhythm of their attacks are the same .

When I deflected their swords, all three soldiers reel in the exact same manner and retreat using the same movement in order to recover their balance .

「In the end, they’re block-headed puppets . 」

I slash upward at one of them from the crotch and send it flying into the wall .

It was quite heavy, at least 100 kg .

I approach the next one with a spinning slash, building up momentum before sweeping my sword horizontally, sending the soldier twirling in the air before cras.h.i.+ng down on its head .

Lastly, I stick the blade of my sword into what looks like its ribs, then yell as I exert myself to throw it up, letting it drop down before stomping on it with all my strength .

「Worthless . 」

Just when I was about to move on to the next three, a sword lunged at my foot .

It was slow enough for me to dodge it without trying .

「You can still move, huh?」

It wasn’t unharmed by my power and Dual Crater’s sharp edge though .

Despite an arm and a leg being torn off and sparks flying from its upper body, it was crawling toward me .

「They’re stupid puppets……and yet they keep moving like stupid puppets until they’re completely broken . Don’t let your guard down until you shatter them to pieces . 」

I warn Celia and the others before rus.h.i.+ng out again .

I didn’t hold back, but I wasn’t exactly devoting my entire body and soul to the fight .

While roaring like a beast, I leap with my Dual Crater and swing my sword at the head of the crawling soldier with the torn legs .

With all my weight behind the attack, its head was completely smashed apart and it stopped moving .

「Next――」

I fix my aim on the one with sparks flying from its upper body and use the energy from my charge to plunge my sword into the center of its body .

My attack doesn’t end there as I carry the machine soldier all the way into the wall .

A larger fountain of sparks bursts out and as the Dual Crater pierces through its back, black smoke rises and the machine ceases to move .

「And then――」

I lower my hips and take a short breath, then turn around with a quick slash .

The machine soldier behind me was. .h.i.t in the neck with my whip-like strike, its head snapping to a 45 degree angle, then it fell straight to the floor .

「Nooooo!!」

My eyes dart in the direction of the scream where a mechanical soldier is encroaching on the attendant .

Because I was delayed by the initial three, the other three walked away,

Tristan is nearby, but for some reason he isn’t reacting .

d.a.m.n him, he’s playing dead .

「Tch, they react to screams and movement?」

The female attendant pulled the short sword from her waist but she is about equal with the mechanical soldier in terms of speed .

Moreover, she stabbed at the breast plate, the hardest part of the machine, and broke her weapon .

I run a little in front of the approaching soldier, come to a halt and kick both feet at the machine .

It tumbles violently but gets up immediately without a single groan of pain .

「What are you doing attacking a girl?」

I’m not going to let that thing get up so easily .

I drive my boot into the thing that looks like an eye .

My foot stomps a second, third, fourth and then a fifth time, finally breaking the ocular part and terminating the machine .

「Next . 」

I mutter to myself and twist my body as I block the sword lunged at me with my Dual Crater .

Not waiting for their slow recovery, I raise my sword and strike the left and right shoulder consecutively .

Fragments spray out but its arms don’t come off . If the machine can withstand attacks from my Dual Crater, it really isn’t made of some ordinary metal .

I inhale deeply and bend my body backward .

Against a normal opponent, I wouldn’t use such a foolish wind-up, but this is fine against machines .

「Hmph!」

I hold the win-up for two whole seconds before letting it rip, slicing about halfway through the head in one go .

A fist-sized flame and a small explosion erupted, indicating the destruction of the mechanical soldier .

「I thought I cut the whole thing in two and sliced all the way through to the floor . 」

When I let out a sigh of disappointment, something b.u.mped me from behind .

My body contorts instantly, avoiding a fatal blow, but it’s embarra.s.sing to even suffer an injury against these kinds of enemies .

「It’s hard to sense when they have no killing intent . 」

I ready my sword as I come up with an excuse .

Obviously, the enemies aren’t afraid or happy that they hurt me .

They point their swords at their targets indifferently .

「How boring . 」

I’m not the type of person who seeks aesthetics in battle, but my blood boils with excitement when I fight .

On the other hand, these guys don’t feel any kind of emotion at all .

They seek to eliminate what they’ve been programmed to and I’m simply destroying them to prevent their goal from being achieved .

I mean, it’s more interesting fighting against an orc .

「Let’s finish this already . 」

I swing my sword, clas.h.i.+ng with the soldier’s s.h.i.+eld first so I can repel it .

（I’m awake . ）

Suddenly, an unhappy voice rings in my head and, not just the s.h.i.+eld, the entire mechanical soldier explodes .

「What the h.e.l.l?」

（What’s wrong with waking up now?）

A rapist dragon can sleep forever for all I care .

Regardless, I’ve slain the six that I promised .

「How are Celia and the others doing……?」

I check on Agor and see him wrestling with a mechanical soldier .

With both of his arms wrapped around its neck, he wrenched the head and finally pushed it to the ground, rendering it motionless .

The machines are hard to defeat with a sword because of how durable the surface of their bodies are, but don’t seem to be as strong against bending forces .

「Uooooh!!」

Mack’s guttural bellow attracts my attention as I see him grab a mechanical soldier and repeatedly slam it into the wall .

Bits and pieces scatter and an oil-like substance squirts out, then ultimately it goes up in flames .

I see, the wall is just as hard as these guys are .

Celia throws her knives .

Although they seem to be sucked into the soldier’s body, I don’t think they’ll have any effect……

「Got ‘em! Direct hit!」

The soldier’s gears creak loudly and its movements become awkward before it tips forward onto the ground, and writhes around like it was an insect that just had boiling water poured on it .

「I could see the gears in its body so I wedged my dagger there!」

The gears in a large water wheel will also stop if a small stone gets jammed in between them .

As usual, she has quite the precise aim .

「How’s that!?」

Natia hurls a bottle at the same time she evades the mechanical soldier’s attack .

As the bottle breaks, a syrupy liquid spills out and hardens instantly into an amber-colored gla.s.s .

Frozen in the mysterious fluid, it could only twitch .

「All of them are taken out? Well done . 」

「Same to you, Lord Hardlett . You took out six of these annoying things . 」

Well, I have the Dual Crater after all .

If I didn’t have it, I would have had to use the same joint-locking maneuvers and slammed them into the floor until they died .

（I couldn’t reap their souls because they weren’t human . ）

You, shut up .

「I guess that’s it . 」

I peek under the door and look up to see a pillar as high as the ceiling, in other words, 30 m .

Umu, I get it now . I understand everything .

「Alright, we’re running . 」

Everyone furiously nods their heads .

Noise comes from the pillar and steam puffs out .

「Ruuunnnーー!!」

「That was close . If something that huge appeared, we’d be done for . 」

I comment as I lean against the wall .

「They’re as st.u.r.dy as anything……I don’t even want to see those standard-sized ones ever again . 」

Agor tosses away his broken sword, which has become only a handle .

「The gears are small and they move around, so it’s a real pain . 」

Celia restlessly feels her chest and thighs .

It seems like she’s almost out of daggers .

「I wanted to bring the one I hardened back home alive……」

Natia says regretfully, but then hangs her head in resignation as she looks in the direction of the path Mack came from .

「In any case, this is our goal . 」

Tristan, who had been quiet up to this point, lightly taps the wall .

In front of us was a door larger and more fortified than the previous one; a door that screamed “final door” .

「So we’re finally here?」

However, Tristan’s expression did not improve .

「We’ve arrived . But it’s locked . 」

Tristan points to the dial next to the door .

「It uses a base-12 numeral system, has eight digits, and four additional levels…… 12 by 8 by 4…… what do we do?」

Everyone paused for a few seconds to think, then collapsed to the floor .

「We’ll have to guess . I mean, we might randomly stumble upon the correct answer . 」

「No, it’s impossible . How many combinations do you think there are? There are as many combinations as there are stars in the sky . 」

I silently fiddle with the lever and numbers .

「The capital sells these tickets for a lottery, you see . 」

You do this…… I see, that’s how it works .

「Everyone says that they can’t win n.o.body how many they buy . Yet, everytime someone ends up winning . The possibility isn’t zero . 」

「Sure, that may be true theoretically . Still, I don’t think you’ll win the lottery right here and now . 」

Tristan sighs as I complete the input of numbers and operate the lever .

「That might not be the case . I’ve won twice before in the past . 」

There was a low-pitched sound that rang out, almost like it was telling me I was wrong .

「No way . 」

Tristan’s jaw dropped . What a rare sight .

「You never know until you try . 」

I put in the next number and pull the lever . Again, the low-pitched sound played .

Tristan’s mouth opened wider . I wish I could show this to Leopolt .

「Who knew . 」

It appears the third number was also correct .

I guess I’m really lucky .

Celia also couldn’t believe what she was witnessing .

Dang, you’re going to make me imagine different things and get excited .

I save the fourth number and pull the lever .

Alright, got that one right too .

「What is going on……」

Natia’s eyes were opened wide in awe .

Her ears drooped so low that they were resting on her shoulders . Is that how they are when they lose strength?

The fifth was wrong .

「Lord Hardlett……he truly has the luck of the devil . 」

Agor is staring blankly at me .

The sixth……alright, it’s correct .

On the surface, Mack’s expression didn’t change, but the blood vessels on his bald head are moving .

What a strange way of showing his surprise . I’m surprised at that .

The seventh……wrong .

The female attendant is defenceless and I can see her chest .

She unexpectedly has a nice pair, good job Agor .

「Alright, last one . 」

I randomly pick a number and input it . A 5 should be fine .

I look over at Natia, whose ears start to perk back up in antic.i.p.ation of success .

1, 2, 3, 4……7 .

「I’ll change it to a 7 . 」

I switch the numbers and pull the lever .

There was a loud thud unlike the other sounds .

My first thought was that I got it wrong, but in the next moment, the large doors swung open, accompanied by the heavy grinding sound of stone rubbing together .

「I don’t think I’ll believe in probability theory anymore . 」

Pleased at Tristan’s reaction, I look into the door, not sure what to expect .

『Entry confirmed . T99 automatic doll activated . This is a high security area . Please state your name and job t.i.tle . 』