Of the two multi-legged tanks, one was grappling with the Hidden Player.
And the other one was holding a little distance away, watching for an opening as a feint—those were the circumstances.
From that tank—the one farther away—a doll-machine communicator dropped down.
The Hidden Player, perhaps on guard, was still locked in a tug-of-war through the club <Smasher> it had grabbed, but it wasn’t showing any large movements.
Even so, this deadlock wouldn’t last long.
All around them, Shadow Players were still continuing their incursions, and the Mountain Boar showed no sign of stopping either.
“Defense officer, may I?”
“...Yeah. You came down. Are things over there okay?”
“No problem. There’s still one person there.”
The doll-machine communicator that had landed ran up to the defense force, who were hesitating to step in, and spoke to them.
“First, buy time.”
With those words, the multi-legged tank that had been in standby-to-engage began to move.
It fixed the club <Smasher> to both arms, held it like a thrust, and charged in.
“About that earlier attack with bows and arrows—can you use it many times?”
“Y-yeah. Probably... two or three more times, depending on the person.”
The Hidden Player must have disliked taking that body-check; it released the club it had kept hold of and slipped away from the charge.
“I see. What about the firing interval. Can you shoot consecutively?”
“Next shot? ...Well, if we grit our teeth—one shot every ten seconds, give or take.”
The strategic AI <Cosmos>, while asking for opinions from multiple backup tactical-AI units at the <Wederia> class, searched for a way to break through the Hidden Player.
“Apply load to the barrier—the magic defense barrier—with blunt strikes, or ramming, and the like. If we can synchronize your penetrating attacks with that, we may be able to make the magic defense barrier vanish temporarily.”
For the phenomenon of “penetration,” the magical phenomenon the hunters used—Pierce—was extremely effective.
Against terrifying entities that treated magic barriers as standard equipment, how had the humans of this world fought back?
The answer was the technological system called “magic.”
From interviews and the like, it had become clear that this technology called magic seemed to have developed for anti-monster purposes.
That magical technique Pierce likely targeted monsters that were extremely hard and tough.
If so, then if they could weaken—or make that magic barrier disappear somehow—even these hunters might be able to get their attacks through.
As an aside, if they still had the Pierce users who had been pulled out for the Giant Soul Butterfly, they could have countered it.
But it was precisely because they couldn’t allocate those people that they had asked <Paraiso> for help. Things didn’t always go the way you wanted.
“Right. Even if we can’t kill it, if we can make it recognize us as a threat, it might retreat. Can you match the timing?”
Even while they talked, the multi-legged tanks were throwing themselves around in a big fight.
The Hidden Player quickly swayed aside to dodge a horizontal sweep of the club <Smasher>. Without pause, a scythe strike shot out—and the other multi-legged tank dove in and knocked it aside.
The scythe looked fragile at a glance, but it endured even a direct hit from the solid-metal mass of <Smasher> without a problem.
Its toughness was one thing, but the muscle supporting it was also staggering.
“I want you to match the approximate firing timing on your side. After that, we will fine-tune.”
“...Yeah. There’s no other way, is there. Alright, I’ll trust you. We can abandon the village, but we have to protect the villagers.”
If they failed to drive it off, it would become a fighting retreat while protecting the villagers.
If they could hole up, that would be ideal, but if the Mountain Boar charged in, the village would be trampled. It wouldn’t care about a little defensive wall at all.
The one saving grace was that the highway was already maintained.
They could flee at a run with the wagons packed tight, guarded by the multi-legged tanks.
If the highway hadn’t been maintained, they would have been forced to travel on foot.
“If we can drive off the Hidden Player, evacuation should also proceed safely. Then, the attack will be—right, three minutes from now. We’ll also call over about three of our troops. Then, start the count.”
“You guys heard that! Match the timing exactly! If you’re even a little off, the power drops hard—don’t be late, got it!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
The policy was decided.
The weapons to be used were all of the multi-legged tanks’ systems: main gun, secondary guns, and anti-air guns.
B Beta, currently hunting Shadow Players on top of a rocky hill, would also attack at the same timing.
Furthermore, they would use two twin mounts of the multi-legged tank’s four-tube missile launchers. They would launch them in ground-attack mode, synchronize timing in the air, then drive them in.
Three doll-machine communicators—four total including the one in the operational meeting—would use man-portable rocket launchers.
The warheads were anti-tank high-explosive, and they were betting on penetration performance.
Multi-legged tank A Alpha sprang backward in a big leap. At the same time, it fired its main gun to pin it down.
C Gamma continued trading blows as-is, nailing the Hidden Player in place.
The main-gun shells were stopped by the magic barrier and didn’t produce effect, but they could disrupt its stance.
In the opening created that way, A Alpha and B Beta fired ground-attack missiles from their missile launchers.
From four four-tube missile launchers, sixteen missiles were fired in total. They would gain speed while circling overhead, then drive in with timing aligned.
Because they would accelerate downward from above, their entry speed would break the sound barrier.
They would align every attack with this missile entry.
Immediately after that, the Pierce shots.
If possible, follow-up by rapid fire from the main and secondary guns.
The two multi-legged tanks facing the Hidden Player drove it toward the target point while using nearby obstacles.
At the moment of attack, they needed to make it unable to move its body in a large way.
If possible, just like at the start, they wanted it to grab the club.
“One minute until attack time. We will begin the countdown.”
“Alright, prepare to fire!”
A doll-machine communicator shouted, bracing a rocket launcher.
“Fifty-seven! Fifty-six! Fifty-five! ......”
The hunters set arrows to their bows.
“Thirty! Twenty-nine! Twenty-eight!”
They flipped off the rocket launchers’ safeties.
Overhead, missiles accelerated up to near-sonic speed traced a circle.
“Ten! Nine! Eight!”
“Draw!”
Five hunters drew their bows.
At the same time, they loaded Pierce onto the arrows, pouring in the will to make them penetrate.
“Five! Four! Three!”
The missiles descended.
The missile swarm that had broken the sound barrier boomed—but that sound would only arrive after this attack was over.
Multi-legged tank B Beta also temporarily halted its attacks on Shadow Players.
All of its turrets were trained on the Hidden Player.
“Two! One!”
“Loose!”
The arrows were loosed.
Almost simultaneously, four doll-machine communicators mashed their firing buttons, igniting the warheads’ rocket motors. With backblast venting, the shells leapt from the tubes.
Multi-legged tank A Alpha brought down the club <Smasher>—and at point-blank range, poured in fire from its main gun, its secondary Gatling gun, and its anti-air laser gun.
C Gamma hopped backward out of the spot, and at the same time slammed in all of its shells and laser fire.
Every single attack struck the Hidden Player dead-on, without [N O V E L I G H T] even 0.1 seconds of deviation from the planned time.
The impact of the slammed-down club <Smasher>.
Sixteen missiles driving in from above at supersonic speed.
Main-gun shells fired at an initial velocity of 5,000 m/s.
Bullets scattered by six Gatling guns total—two per tank.
Anti-tank high-explosive fired by four doll-machine communicators.
High-temperature beams from laser guns.
All of it was blocked by the shining magic barrier, but the power of each attack was unquestionable.
Those attacks had their impact timing shifted by only the slightest amount. By doing so, they applied continuous load to the barrier.
And into that, the decisive attack stabbed home.
Pierce, while consuming mana, interfered with phenomena in order to make itself “penetrate.”
The first arrow was still blocked by the magic barrier while it remained effective, and lost its force.
But by that, a path was opened.
A hole opened in the magic barrier.
And into it, four arrows with the penetration attribute stabbed in.
The Hidden Player’s outer shell was tough, but not to the point it could resist Pierce.
The arrowheads pierced into the shell, broke through, and sank into the body.
As if delivering the finishing blow, Gatling rounds dove into the wound that had been opened like that.
It was a span of time not even reaching one second.
At that duration, the main guns’ recharge still wouldn’t be finished.
The Hidden Player—its magic barrier broken, its internal organs damaged—seemed shocked, and reared back hard.
About three seconds after the direct hit from the concentrated attack.
A multi-legged tank fired its main gun, but it was nullified by the magic barrier that had already recovered.
But perhaps it had realized the opponent facing it was a threat.
The Hidden Player spread its wings across its back with a FWOOSH and took off, flying in a direction that skirted the village.
The hunters, their tension finally snapping, collapsed onto the ground where they stood.
