Chapter 121: The Carnela Port Recapture Operation (28)
After leaping down from the fortifications I created, I dashed through the corridor, keeping a low posture. The heavy armored soldiers, seeing me approach, transformed the lower part of their armor into guns and immediately opened fire. Their bullets were of a small caliber, but the direct hits still sent intense shocks through my exoskeleton.
However, it was impossible to stop me with just regular bullets at this point. Keeping my posture low, the bullets had a hard time hitting me, and even if they did, I pushed forward with sheer determination. I knew that my reinforced exoskeleton couldn’t be pierced by ordinary means. A little extra pressure wouldn’t make me stop.
“■■■”
Even as they witnessed me charging forward, undeterred by the hail of bullets, the heavy armored soldiers showed no signs of panic. Part of their backs transformed, forming thick, pointed tubes that attached to their arms. What on earth was that?
I wasn’t sure what it was, but my instincts were telling me that it was something extremely dangerous. Not long ago, my instincts warned me about the peril posed by the white-armored soldier’s poleaxe. It was because I trusted those instincts that I managed to defend against the sudden elongation of that guy’s poleaxe weapon. I couldn’t afford to ignore my intuition now.
However, I couldn’t stop here. I ran along the corridor atop the outer wall, always conscious of avoiding any potential threats.
“■■■■”
“!”
Thanks to my instincts, honed by constant vigilance, I managed to react to the attack. The pointed tip at the end of the tube was propelled at bullet-like speed with a deafening blast, reminiscent of a cannon fire. Since I was prepared for such a situation, I leaped and evaded, and at the location I had been just a moment ago, a sharp tip struck… there’s nothing!?
I was certain I had evaded something. There were marks on the floor of the corridor, indicating that something sharp had pierced through. So, it couldn’t have been my imagination that something was flying at me. Then, where did the tip that should have been fired go…!?
My confusion lasted only for a brief moment. However, even a momentary lapse on the battlefield could be a fatal vulnerability. And now I was in mid-air from my leap, unable to evade.
“■■■!”
“Gah……!?”
The armored soldiers didn’t miss that opportunity. Once again, several projectiles were fired from the large tubes at bullet-like speed, piercing through my exoskeleton and hitting me directly. Instinctively, I used my arms and sword to protect vital areas like my head, but I couldn’t avoid being impaled through my left shoulder, right side, and both legs.
Whatever had impaled me was quickly withdrawn, and without anything to support myself with, I was sent tumbling across the corridor. With holes punctured in my body, I finally understood what they had done. It was a weapon resembling a spear with a thick, pointed metal stake that extended at incredible speed from the tube-like weapons and retracted immediately after being launched.
Because of its barrel-like appearance and the sound it made when fired, I mistook it for a gun, and I grew disoriented and caught off guard. No, it wasn’t just being caught off guard; the cause of this injury was my own carelessness. I had thought it impossible for anyone other than a White-armored soldier to pierce through my exoskeleton, so I did a foolish thing like getting stunned when I was alerted by my intuition.
Lately, while I had faced some tough battles, I rarely felt my life was truly at risk. Perhaps that had made me somewhat complacent. I need to remind myself of how it felt to be under Georg’s command and to be on guard at all times.
“■■!■■■■!”
“Go go ga-ge-ge ga ga guga.” (Like I would let you kill me!)
Immediately, I suppressed the pain and intensified my fighting spirit to initiate the healing process. At the same time, I used my tail to block the stake that was fired at me again, aiming to finish me off. Although I had reinforced my tail’s exoskeleton, the stake still managed to pierce through.
However, knowing that it would penetrate, I had a plan. I swung my tail before the impaled stake could retract fully. This caused the armored soldiers to lose their balance.
“Gaah!”
“■■…!”
“■■, ■■…!”
Taking advantage of the moment, I also threw both swords I had in my hands. With the spiritual circuits activated once more, the two thrown swords flew with a spinning motion, cutting down four of the armored soldiers.
Yes, four of them. The black sword had smashed into one’s armor, but the white one had sliced through the necks of three of them before coming to a stop, embedded in the corridor floor. Clearly, that sword had extraordinary sharpness.
As I felt a slight sensation of the solid stake slipping out from my tail, I leaped towards the remaining armored soldiers, who were frozen in their place after witnessing their comrades’ deaths. Grabbing one of them by the head, I exerted all my strength before crushing his helmet in my grip.
Since I was originally a scorpion, I had retained a strong grip, a remnant of my past nature. I couldn’t speak for other scorpions, but my pincers had always been powerful enough to never let go of what they held. It seemed that even with the activation of their armor’s spiritual circuits, it wasn’t enough to protect them from my grip strength.
“Garururururu! Are you okay!?”
“I’ll lend a hand!”
“■■! ■■■!”
“■■■■■!”
Seeing me in danger, Tigar and Linardo burst out of the fortifications. At the same time, several spiritual attacks flew from the fortifications. Though their power wasn’t enough to penetrate the heavy armored soldiers’ defenses, it was enough to disturb them, and they seemed to be shouting something in frustration.
During this time, Tigar closed in, and his greatsword charged with electric shock landed a powerful blow while discharging purple lightning into the soldiers’ armor. Simultaneously, Linardo’s red-hot spear accurately pierced through the thinner parts of their armor. With three of us now, our attack frequency has significantly increased.
If I hadn’t rushed in alone from the start, there was a good chance we could have fought this way from the beginning. Trying to handle the battle on my own was likely a remnant of my days as a battle beast. As Mika had pointed out before, I had reliable allies now, so there was no need to take everything upon myself. This bad habit of mine needed to be gradually corrected.
My fist, Tigar’s greatsword, and Linardo’s spear clashed with the weapons and armor of the armored soldiers. As soon as they got close, the heavy armored soldiers transformed their difficult-to-handle, spear-like tubes into more convenient weapons. Engaging in close combat was their specialty, and their swift judgment and exceptional weapon-handling skills showed it.
“Gah!”
“Oraa!”
“Shaah!”
However, we were demons, and not just any demons—we were demons who got synthesized with the most dangerous creatures of the Empire, carefully selected by the late Orvo. There was no way those weak and feeble Khan race soldiers, who were not even white armored soldiers, could beat us in melee battle, even if they equipped themselves with heavy, close-combat-focused armored suits. They stood no chance against us. It was an undeniable fact, not arrogance.
It was fortunate for them that they couldn’t finish me off with that one strike earlier. Using our sheer physical abilities, Tigar and I overwhelmed the armored soldiers, while Linardo’s refined spear techniques cut them down one by one.
“■■■! ■■■■■!”
“What the hell are you blabbering about…?!” Tigar shouted.
“■■■…!”
“Even if you grab hold of me, it’s pointless! I’ll turn you into ashes!” Linardo said.
Tigar’s greatsword crushed the armored soldier, who was most likely cursing at us in his language, reducing him along with his armor to nothingness. Meanwhile, Linardo incinerated the armored soldier, whom he had impaled with his spear, from the inside. As for me, I maintained close contact, silently crushing the heads of the soldiers or piercing their armor with my deadly strikes.
Don! Don Do Don!
Amidst the battle with the heavy armored soldiers, we could hear the sound of Imperial drums coming from inside the Calnera Port. It was the signal that the complete occupation of the port, including the warehouse district, had been accomplished by the Imperial forces. None of us needed an explanation for what that meant.
“That Marcellus bastard looks like he won!”
“Oh yeah! The Imperial army has arrived!”
After securing the inner part of Calnera Port, all that was left for the Republic army were the two outer walls they had built to defend against the Empire. From the outside, the Imperial main forces continued their long-range attacks, while from the inside, the invading Imperial forces were closing in. The surviving Republic soldiers found themselves trapped within the two sturdiest walls.
The next step was to continue applying pressure from both inside and outside, which surely would lead to the enemy’s downfall. That’s what everyone, including myself, must have thought. However, the decision made by the Republic forces at that moment was quite daring.
“What the?! It’s blinding!”
“What is that?”
From the third outer wall, where the Republic forces were engaged in a long-range battle with the Imperial troops, they launched something that emitted intense flashes of light. Shielding my eyes with my arm, I tried to carry on fighting against the armored soldiers.
“■■…?! ■■■■■!”
“■■■■! ■■■!”
“■■■, ■■■■■!”
The reaction of the armored soldiers to the light fell into three categories. First, there were those who seemed bewildered, as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Second, some stood still in shock while others pulled them away and tried to escape. Lastly, there were those who recklessly charged toward us.
Feeling a sense of foreboding, I created a clump of sand with my spiritual power and hurled it at the frontmost attacker. At that moment, the spiritual circuits engraved on his armor began to glow intensely… and then he exploded!
Could it be that they were trying to blow us up as well, to take us down with them?! If that explosion had such power, it could have easily killed me too. The fact that the armored soldiers wore those emotionless masks sent shivers down my spine, adding an element of fear to the unknown.
“Wait, they’re self-destructing?!”
“No way! If they want to die, they can die alone!”
Tigar and Linardo were also taken aback, but they quickly intercepted the self-destructing attackers using their spiritual arts. The passage being straight and the number of incoming enemies not too overwhelming, combined with support from the makeshift fortifications, prevented us from being caught in the self-destruction.
However, the suicide attack wasn’t in vain. Their desperate act to deal with us allowed other armored soldiers to escape. The entrance leading to the inside of the outer wall was destroyed, making it difficult to get in. Moreover, the Republic army possessed several mysterious weapons, and meddling with them carelessly might lead to triggering traps and getting blown away.
“We don’t need to chase them. Let’s head back.” Tigar said.
Nodding to Tigar, the three of us returned to the interior of the makeshift fortification. Our companions inside the forts seemed genuinely concerned about me, and they all said they had feared I was dead. Mika, in particular, appeared quite worried and scolded me to be more cautious. Feeling remorseful, I simply nodded in agreement.
Back within the fortification, I peered outside to observe the situation. The only beings left on the outer wall were Karelvo’s demons. Their numbers had significantly dwindled.
It seemed that they had not only gotten caught in the self-destruct but had also charged recklessly at the four-legged self-propelled artillery that was shooting down from above. Thanks to that, we had managed to avoid being shot, but as a fellow demon, I couldn’t help but feel conflicted. I didn’t care about the lives or deaths of those who had come to attack us previously, but it was saddening to see other demons needlessly losing their lives.
The survivors were attempting to somehow dig through the entrance that the armored soldiers had destroyed, intending to launch a pursuit. Some of them even jumped down from the top of the outer wall, leaving me to wonder if they had a means of landing safely. However, leaping between the outer walls seemed like an act of self-destruction; there was no way they would make it out alive.
As I looked towards Carnela Port, I saw Imperial soldiers in the midst of climbing the outer wall using the slope I had created. Marcellus must be among them, no doubt. This battle, which had been short in terms of time, was finally coming to an end.
“Hey, look!”
“The gates… have been opened?”
To my disbelief, as I observed the state of the third outer wall, the gate leading outside had been opened. I couldn’t fathom their intentions, but one after another, vehicles, including self-propelled artilleries, were rushing out of the gate.
It appeared that the Republic forces caught in the pincer attack had chosen not to put up a last stand or surrender but to escape. Over a hundred vehicles were fleeing through the gate. The main force of the Imperial army was launching an attack on them, and it seemed they were indeed managing to destroy some of the escaping vehicles.
However, it seemed impossible to completely destroy the enemy, who swiftly fled from afar using only long-range attacks. More than half of their vehicles managed to shrug off the attack, escape, and head north. We couldn’t completely wipe out the Republic forces stationed at Carnela Port, but it was a fact that we had recaptured this territory.
“They… they got away, right?”
“So, that means we won, doesn’t it?”
“Of course! Let out a victory shout!”
“””Woooooooooo!!!”””
Though they managed to slip away, it wasn’t us who let them escape; it was the Imperial forces outside. There was no need to feel regretful. After all, we had accomplished our mission safely. Inside the small fortress I built on top of the outer wall, everyone roared in triumph.
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