Vol 4 Chapter 15 (1/2)

It was clear that everyone did not know on, but even so, they had to take up their weapons and fight That hat it meant to be a warrior

The Dark Elves equipped theear that they were familiar with — sabers, katars, bow and arrows, and their trademark black leather armor

There was soe ar if only the woroup were men and they wore the same armor that their female counterparts did

I don’t want to be seen with these guys Italanced around like a wary herbivore

“Itami-dono, the nine of us will accompany you on your mission”

Yao greeted Itami as the representative of these ht have understood how he felt After that, they began introducing themselves

From the males, Crow looked like a human man in his 40s, while Meto, Ban, Fen and Nokk looked to be about the sa to theest of their group, at a mere 154 years old For some reason, he felt that he had to respect them all as his elders As for the feer than Yao

In any case, they gathered together and said, “Please take care of us”, and then Itaear referred to the LAMs and the plastic explosives, as well as reels of detonating cord

“Is this what they call the ‘Rod of Steel’?”

The long hty and potent to the Dark Elves, and they enthused over it

“I’ve heard that this is not acalled a weapon… but hoe use it? We should be able to use it too, right?”

“Ah, yes, I’ll teach you how to use it now”

Since the Dark Elves were intelligent beings, not only did Ita the them eapons, he had to teach the Dark Elves the proper way of using them too If they were horses, there would be no need to worry about theear, but since they were sentient, if they made a mistake or fiddled around with it carelessly, there was a risk of an explosion which would blow them all up

To that end, Itami carefully explained the operation of the LAM 110mm anti-tank rocket launcher to them

Once the Dark Elves learned how to use it, they on now” It was obvious froon bitterly, and there was a risk that they e a rocket the moment they saw it, especially since the possession of the weapons on this time, no h their final objective was to defeat the Fla blow The first two points he drilled into theer if you’re not ready to fire” and “Do not fire if anyone is standing behind you”

First, they would need to extract the LAM fro it out by the warhead, slowly and carefully After re fro asseht The Dark Elves were not familiar with tools, so it would be faster for Ita up a LAM, he could hear the Dark Elves around hi dirty jokes

The person to Ita went into me, I’d break” er” It would seem the Dark Elves were a sexually open tribe He did not know if this was a good or bad thing, but if he got eht think he was a weirdo

The Dark Elves could not read the instructions and warnings on the launcher tube Therefore, Ita how to set up the launcher First, he pulled out the long probe on the tip of the warhead, removed the protective cover, and then turned it in the direction the arrow pointed Then he explained that against tanks (or arainst huainst the Flaon they would need to pull it out

“Then, how do youon the front shoot out?” Fen asked as he lifted the LAM He wasthan Itami, so when he put it on his shoulder, he looked pretty cool

“When the warhead touches so you is troublesome, so I should probably let you experience it Also, in order to counteract the weapon’s recoil, the LAM sprays out a counterreat force when you fire it It’s very dangerous, sobehind you when you fire it”

“Mm, I see…”

The Dark Elves picked out suitable targets and began practicing firing postures Since the warhead was very heavy, everyone realised that tracking a et was difficult

“Then, what about those crates and that rope?”

Kom, the Dark Elf who looks like a boy but as 154 years old, looked at the rest of the gear Counting the weight of the LAMs and the other stuff, each of the 20 kilos of equipment

“Oh, that’s the explosive and the pri, that explosive is more important than the LAMs”

After caan clireen and brown cae paint, while all the metallic parts on his weapon rapped up to prevent the While he did not know on, it was a wild beast, so it should have keen senses It would be best to take the appropriate steps against it

After that, Ita Tuka on his back

“Father, I’,” Tuka said

Because she seemed completely terrified, Lelei put her to sleep

However, Tuka was quite obvious in her usual clothes, so Itae her, and the titaniuain, it was questionable how useful it would be against a Flaon attack

Behind hi theed themselves, like Itami did

“Ugh, this sross”

Crow pinched his nose as he grumbled Yao replied, “Itami-dono told us to do this, so it can’t be helped”

That hy everyone slathered all the exposed parts of their body in animal oils

“I know this is supposed to hide our scent, but won’t the smell just make us more obvious?” Nokk said as he climbed

There were no trails on this h The HMV could not drive through here, so they had to go on foot They kept low as they round, and theytrees They changed caht, only

Sloalking ht be, they would reach their objective eventually if they just keptforward

On the evening of the third day, they finally reached the slopes of Mt Tyuba The s their scent cae

Everyone changed into a sand and rock-type cae pattern Itae their hands and feet, in order to hide the obvious green color

Itanalled with his hands for Crow to coroup Crow had been here before, so he would be their guide

“What’s wrong?”

Crow squatted beside Itami

“Does the Flaon enter from that crater?”

“Yes Its nest is on one of the outcroppings protruding from the side of the volcano’s mouth,” Crow explained

He had coather the sulphur found near the volcano When burned, the ser time, and it would look fresher as well

Although he had only co his searches That cave led to an outcropping on the interior of the volcano, where the Fla

“I had a bad feeling when I saw it, so I ran”

Itami questioned Crow about the interior of the volcano, particularly the condition of the air within

According to Crow, the volcano’sabout what lay beloever, the interior ell-ventilated due to the cave leading to the outside, and unlike the exterior, which reeked of sulphur, the air quality inside was very good

“So the Flaon’s nest is inside the cave?”

Rory seemed quite shocked when she heard it, but she quickly shut her mouth

“No, it’s inside the volcano’s mouth The cave simply connects the outside to the inside”

“Then, what if we descended from the summit of the volcano?”

“Not possible The interior of the volcano’s mouth is a sheer cliff I don’t think we could climb down from up there”

Rory frowned, because she could not go under the earth Itami smiled and said, “Don’t worry”

“That’s fine, Rory can stay outside All we’re doing is checking if the Flaon is in If it comes back, she can contact us”

According to the plan, they would enter the cave and check if the Flaone, they would plant the explosives, and if it was in, they would is ell, Rory would not need to do anything

“Shouldn’t we stop it fro?”

“Mm We don’t want to make it suspicious We’ll hide and wait for it to leave first”

Itami muttered, “Does Rory kno to use this?” as he fiddled with his earpiece and headset mike Rory hurriedly pulled her mike to her mouth and Itami tested the wireless connection to Lelei and Rory

“We’re going in”

Itao in with a rifle Just as he was about to do it, however, Yao and the other Dark Elves urged him to stay

“Let us handle these trivial tasks”

Itao in instead of himself

It took a while before Yao and Crow got back, and Itami directed the others to take a rest, while they had a dinner of dried travel rations The smell of food would be covered up by the smell of sulphur, but that same smell made it difficult to work up an appetite

Still, considering ould happen soon, they did not knohen they et the chance to eat Fortunately, everyone understood this, and they ate with gusto regardless of their current location

Lelei and Rory each took out a set of JSDF Type II Coetables / rice) as well as just-add-water heating packs The Dark Elves had dried fish from the valley, dried fruits, beans and the like, but they were fascinated by Rory and Lelei’s processed foods They were quite surprised with how the heating packs immediately produced steam ater was added

Tuka quietly slept by the side of the group

Itaht that he hardly felt fatigued That said, the tension was tiring hiry, he ate slowly

“You should let Tuka eat too, otherwise she’ll cry when she wakes up”

“Oh well, what can we do?”

Lelei said that as she took a spoonful of curry

Just then, Yao and Crow returned

“What’s it like?”

“Mm, the cave and the volcano shaft are connected, and there’s a nest on an outcropping of rock The Dragon’s not in, it one”

“Excellent”

After hearing Yao’s report, Itami picked up Tuka

At last, they were going into the cave Everyone tensed up, knowing that they were going into enemy territory They even spoke more quietly

“Then, Rory, we’re counting on you”

“All right, I’ll keep a lookout near the volcano’s mouth”

Rory tapped heron?”

“Reading you loud and clear Ah, screw the comms protocols Okay, I hear you”

They bid farewell to Rory at the entrance to the cave

Clutching her halberd tightly, Rory vanished up the side of the brick-red mountain with nimble steps, while Itami and friends headed into the cave after they parted ith her

The interior of the cave was so large they thought that they

Lava flowed, and became solid when it cooled After that more lava would flow out, and solidify as well After countless repetitions of this process, the layers of stone looked like a staircase

The way the layered stone spread out looked like the stairs leading up to a shrine The walls were not one solid sheet; they lookedthis place a shrine would not be out of the question It boasted a long corridor, a high viewing platform, and even an altar-like structure The power of nature was not to be underestimated

If they brought a holy ht set up a church on the spot

Itaht, then left the not-altar behind, and went deeper into the cave

The Dark Elves lit their surroundings with fla torches The echoesshadows ht sources contributed to the spooky atmosphere

“Itami-dono, this way”

Ita from ahead of him

He put Tuka down, and nervously advanced, holding his rifle Above hih thefrom the mouth of the volcano

There was an outcropping here

Though it was called an outcropping, it was actually quite broad The caldera of the volcano was about the size of a baseball field, and it was roughly bowl-shaped In its center, a hole led down to thewas located here

The outcropping was roughly the size of two basketball courts, and the way sand and rocks were on’s nest here looked like a formation of stones on a beach

Crow confiron had been resting here earlier

Although they had never seen a Dragon’s nest before, this layout was far too simple, and it made them suspicious

Still, when they stood there, they could believe that the vast thing before them here their enemy made its lair

There were fragshells scattered over the ground, as well as enoron

“The eggshells are fresh It looks like the young dragons hatched recently, and that they left the nest right after hatching”

Lelei’s conclusion after inspecting the fragments put everyone at ease

There were things which looked like rocks on the sand, but a closer look revealed that they were the re these things had been here, but they also found sparkling weapons like swords and the like, half-buried in the sand

“And this is?”

Yao picked up the hel them in her hands

“I think these belonged to the heroes throughout history who caon”

“Well, this is a ic sword, after all”

Nokk’s eyes were sparkling as he focused on that sword He breathed, “This would be worth a lot if we brought it back…”

The Dark Elves closed their eyes in silent prayer for the ones who had borne these weapons and arh to bet their lives against the Flaon must have been the work of a master

“All right, let’s get to work Lelei, help s”

After hearing Itaht their equipment over

Itami unpacked what looked like blocks of cheese frorams of it

“It looks a bit like cheese”

The young Ko from the boxes He pinched off a piece to put in his mouth, but Itami smacked it out of his hand

“This stuff is poisonous Don’t even lick it”

Frightened by the mention of poison, Kom immediately put the piece back

Itaht it near Kom’s torch The white substance quietly burned as Itami stuck it into the torch’s flame This unexpectedly peaceful reaction was unlike the coht have of explosives

“This stuff will only burn if you light it You need to do some work to make it explode”

Itaround and put the white substance on it, as though he were a sculptor

In theC4, the actors would stick electrical detonators into the wrapped explosives, but that would result in an inco out the plastic explosives’ power, it had to be kneaded well Without sufficient kneading, the explosives ht even fail to detonate

Ita the explosive

It would be far too much to expect one person to knead 75 kilos of C4, so everyone chipped in In the end, they molded it into bricks

Itaround and took out a small device It was called an electronic detonator

He touched the ground to discharge his static electricity This was because enough static electricity could initiate a detonation By touching the ground, he grounded hie

The next part required a lot of specialized knowledge Only Itami could do it He took out the cable reel and a pair of pliers, cut off several lengths of wire fro them into auxiliary circuits

He stripped off the cable casing at the end, and then he joined the wires inside onto the contacts of the detonator

Itami worked in silence, while Yao held a torch above hiht

“Is there anything we can help with?”

“Yes Dig a pit in the Dragon’s nest About this deep”

After receiving their instructions, Ban, Fen and Nokk started digging

Itaood work, without any ths of cable, and then joined them to the final detonation circuit

Usually, only engineers would study these techniques of rigging explosives However, they were part of the basic curriculum within SFG, and Itaent student, butat your tasksat life” His determination helped him to master this skill, and this determination was now a part of him

Suddenly, he recalled thehim on the head

Itaently put down the detonators, and pressed his mike’s switch

“Rory, can you hear me?”

He called Rory several tinal could not penetrate the thick rock If that was the case, there was no point inher a sentry

daht as well finish it up in one go

“Cheh, this is going to be a pain Everyone, eyes to the sky Lelei, the reception here seems pretty bad Try and raise Rory”

After saying that, Itami went back to work

Then he turned off his mike’s switch and took off his headset Electronic switches could cause sparks, and he broke out in a cold sweat as he realised he had been handling the explosives and detonators with the headset on