“W-wait, wait, wait.”
The <Little Owl> that had ignited its jet fuel and exploded in a massive fireball shattered apart, scattering fragments in every direction.
“Some kind of projectile detected. Estimated to be a high-velocity round.”
“Big Sister! Those things have ranged attacks!”
After watching the <Little Owl> explode, the flock of peacock-like birds wheeled around in a sweeping turn.
Then they leveled out and began horizontal flight toward the next <Little Owl>.
“Priority is information gathering. <Scout A2>, begin radar illumination.”
A new threat had appeared on the way to <Trout Nursery>. To bring back even a little information on it, one aircraft began transmitting radar waves despite the danger, while the other two prepared to collect the reflected waves.
But the moment the radar waves were emitted, the flock ahead changed shape dramatically.
With a slick motion like a single living organism, it slipped out of the illuminated zone.
The flock of peacock-like creatures, now twisted into something like a misshapen ring, closed in on <Scout A2>.
“Wide-area radar emission.”
“Is microwave detection just standard equipment for flying monsters!?”
Since ordinary microwave-based information gathering had failed, <Scout A2> switched from focused illumination to dispersal mode. Unlike normal radar, this mode simply scattered microwaves over a wide area as aggressively as possible.
It was not a function with any practical value for radar as such, but it paid off that they had prepared a mode like that for information-gathering purposes.
“Contact imminent.”
And once the distance between the flock and <Scout A2> dropped below five hundred meters, yellow light flashed again.
“Imaging successful. High-temperature projectiles. High penetration.”
Orange spheres of light launched from around the peacocks’ heads became streaking beams that pierced the <Little Owl>’s airframe.
Riddled by multiple beams, the <Little Owl> ignited its jet fuel and exploded. The high-speed camera captured the entire sequence in sharp detail.
“They look like the high-temperature, high-speed flame shots <Fenrir> used before!”
“So that’s a common attack method, then...?”
Did that mean this phenomenon called magic, murky as it still was, followed at least some kind of rules?
Well, that much had already been expected from the fact that multiple species of threat organism possessed the defensive method known as a magic barrier. There might be differences in degree, but reproduction was clearly possible.
“Commander Ma’am. Analysis of the onboard sensor data indicates there is no doubt that high-temperature projectiles penetrated the airframe. Estimated flight speed is between Mach 2 and Mach 3. High penetration performance.”
“So they don’t explode. But their hit rate seems pretty good...”
It was not as if <Scout A2> had been flying straight ahead like an idiot. Because it had been gathering information, it had not performed violent evasive maneuvers, but it had still been making course changes to some extent.
Which meant those peacock-things were firing with accurate lead.
“Big Sister. Detecting additional flocks.”
And then the situation got even worse.
Perhaps alerted by the commotion in the air, two more flocks of the same type rose out of the forest.
“Yeah... I don’t think they’re getting away from this...”
Accelerating sharply from below, the flocks rushed toward the <Scouts>.
Then yellow flashes flickered—
and at the same moment, the feed cut out.
“<Scout A>, all signals lost. Presumed shot down.”
“...Just how many of those peacocks are there...?”
In the end, <Scout A> had captured three flocks of peacock-like creatures.
Their total number was at least five hundred.
Since it was unlikely that they lived only in one specific area, it was reasonable to assume that multiple flocks of that scale existed throughout the surrounding region.
In other words, any attempt to enter from the air would require breaking through flocks of peacock-like creatures that could climb at subsonic speed.
If it were only a matter of reconnaissance, supersonic flight would probably make it manageable. But an airborne assault force? That was almost certainly impossible.
“So the sky’s out after all. Which means we’ll just have to cut our way through on the ground, the slow way.”
“A Titan-class might manage it somehow, but that would make it much more likely that other threat organisms would come swarming in...”
A Titan-class craft, all bristling over like a steel hedgehog, could probably defend itself against that kind of flock.
But that would mean advancing a conspicuous Titan and its escort craft all the way to the front.
And if they were really unlucky, it could trigger a nightmare scenario where multiple <Wyverns> came attacking.
“With radar effectively sealed off, all kinds of things become a problem. At this point, we’re just going to have to take our time with it!”
“Right. If we rush and drag in something truly bad, it won’t be remotely funny.”
They could consider burning the forest away with napalm warheads or thermobaric warheads.
But of course, that would be extremely conspicuous.
When they considered the possibility of drawing in a threat organism like <Fenrir>—something they had only barely managed to drive off by committing their full strength—it was not a method they could easily choose.
Their military strength was nowhere near the point where they could pick fights in every direction and still win.
“Were these things in Amajio’s records?”
“The corresponding entry should be the monster tagged <Peacock>. Encounter records exist in the air. It was not found on the ground.”
“Keep investigating its habitat range. But for now, we’ll have to force a route through. This is starting to look like a long haul.”
A few days after that, a four-legged, two-armed automated machine was advancing through the <Demon Forest>.
<Jumper>.
They had dispatched large numbers of them for ground reconnaissance.
<Jumper> was a small machine about two meters long.
It was equipped with four legs for movement and had two manipulator arms.
It did not carry a control AI itself, and was intended to be operated remotely by radio from the rear.
At the moment, a <Backpacker> carrying an AI chassis for control was waiting about one kilometer behind it.
Since both the control signals and the power supply used microwaves, it was in a state where a threat organism could attack at any moment.
To disguise that position, they had sent another machine ahead carrying the transmitting device by wired connection, while the true vital component—the AI chassis—remained hidden farther back.
“Big Sis! There really is something around us ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) after all!”
“It’s like we’ve been tailed the whole time~”
Utsugi and Erika, who were controlling the forward-deployed <Jumpers> and <Backpacker> group as reconnaissance units, shook their heads in clear displeasure.
Apparently, even though they still could not see anything directly, they could tell that something was gathering around them.
“If it’s actively approaching them, then there’s a high chance it’s an aggressive monster.”
Asahi said that while helping with the data analysis. They had been gathering information on the monsters living in the <Demon Forest> from various sources.
At present, the amount of reliable information they had on such monsters was extremely limited.
And most of even that came from the northern part of the United Kingdom of Aphrasia—nearly three thousand kilometers away. The ecosystem here was very likely different.
“It’s blending into the vegetation, and it’s moving too fast for the cameras to catch properly. It’s probably moving through the trees. If that’s the case, then primates are the most likely possibility. Or else some kind of mammal specialized for arboreal life. Reptiles are also possible!”
“So basically, we still know nothing...”
The multiple sensors mounted on the <Jumpers> were clearly detecting that something was moving around them.
Most of that information came through sound, but it was also reinforced from time to time by branches and leaves shaking unnaturally.
And yet, even knowing that much, the <Jumpers>’ visual sensors did not capture the creature at all.
“Could it be using some kind of advanced camouflage...?”
“If it is active camouflage, then depending on the performance level, it could potentially deceive the <Jumpers>’ sensors.”
Never showing itself at all was unnatural in itself.
But when it was so clearly moving around and still could not be captured on camera, that was abnormal.
Still—
“With this many leaves growing everywhere, even things that should be visible won’t be. ”
That was true.
This area was thick with plant growth, to the point that they could not properly see even a few meters ahead.
Even so, because sunlight had trouble reaching ground level, the area near the ground was at least somewhat more open.
“If it keeps moving through the trees, it’s going to be hard to catch.”
The <Jumpers> had excellent rough-terrain mobility.
Even so, they did not possess the athletic performance needed to move freely through the treetops.
And there was no reason to needlessly provoke these still-unidentified monsters when, for now, they were only observing.
“For the time being, keep them advancing as they are. Mapping is progressing.”
And so the <Jumpers> continued their reconnaissance, ignoring the presences moving around them.
