ALL NOVEL Volume 5 11
We had just burned the monsters surrounding Marcho’s dungeon. By doing so, we had secured the entrance to her dungeon.
Before going in though, I had made the High Elves, who had excellent magic perception, search for any Transfer array the enemy might have set up.
I wanted to prevent enemy reinforcements from appearing as much as possible.
In the lead were me, Rorono, Rozelitte, and the Avalon-Ritters. The other members of the assault force entered the dungeon a little later than we did.
To prevent any attacks from the back of the assault force, the defense force were stationed right before the entrance to the dungeon.
“Rozelitte, don’t forget to communicate with the defense force every five minutes, okay?”
“Rest assured, Procell-sama.”
If the old Demon Lords got serious, it was possible that the defense force outside could be wiped out.
Rozelitte’s Wide-range Empathy allowed us to have constant communication with the defense force. If in case there was no reply from them, it would mean that their defensive line have been broken through and that we must go forward while keeping an eye on our back.
Technically, we were not the ones in the lead.
Rather, it was the intelligence corps in the other dimension.
R’lyeh Diva, who headed the intelligence corps, was sending me reports while fighting in that other dimension. Along with complaints of being overworked.
The first dungeon room was a labyrinth made of stone. After walking a while, we came upon an open area. In that moment, we saw the enemy army. In their anticipation of us, they had arranged themselves into a semi-circle formation.
Their count exceeded more than a hundred. There were many humanoid monsters and at that, most seemed to be magic users.
Frustratingly, they had already finished their chants for their magic spells and were ready to fire wide-range destructive magic at any time.
From the overwhelming amount of magic power, I surmised that there were several A rank monsters among them. If we were to be directly hit by their spells, it was more than likely that we would be annihilated in an instant.
Defense-wise, it was understandable for them to do so. After all, the most efficient way to eliminate us, the intruders, was to gather us in one place–preferably right after a direct, straightforward path we had to go through–and then use ranged magic.
Fortunately for me, there was nothing I could not respond to so long as I had R’lyeh Diva to provide me with intelligence reports.
She was capable of sending such reports through bodies of water. For this campaign, I wore a gemmed earing. The gem of which was a crystal with water in it. And so, through the earring, I heard R’lyeh Diva’s voice.
I will not waste the information Ruru has sent me while fighting in that other dimension.
“Rorono, make the Avalon-Ritters use that.”
“Mhm, understood, master.”
Rorono, who controlled the Avalon-Ritters, instructed them to activate the new weapon they had.
Rorono had perfected a fundamental theory for what was originally an equipment for the Mithril Golems but its consumption of magic power proved to be too much for them.
This equipment seemed impractical but it was exceedingly powerful. And so, three days ago, thinking whether it could be equipped on the Avalon-Ritters who had twin-drives, I instructed Rorono to put it into actual use.
And Rorono delivered.
“Watch them, master. From the first unit up to the fifth, activate anti-magic shell.”
Five of the fifteen Avalon-Ritters here began operating their twin-drives at full-throttle.
An overwhelming–and perhaps excessive–amount of magic power was generated. All of which were then supplied to the unit attached on their backs.
At almost the same time, the enemy offensive spells were fired. The enemies being comprised of many A rank monsters, a barrage of fire, lightning, water, darkness, light, and many other wide-area spells flew.
It was enough to make one tremble. The number and might of the spells had made me realize the true might of monsters under an old Demon Lord. As I was currently, I couldn’t match such number of powerful spells.
That didn’t mean I was afraid for my safety, though.
Even though we couldn’t win through brute force, my monsters were still the best in the world. I believed in the might of the equipment Rorono made.
A force field then began to form in the center of the Avalon-Ritters. That force field took on the form of a dome and spread as wide as a few hundred meters. As a result, the magic spells fired off by the enemies were all erased.
“As expected of you, Rorono.”
“This much is natural. After all, magic is the changing of the laws of the world through the application of one’s magic power. In theory then, if we use large amounts of magic power to tell the world to not do anything in a specified area, no magic spells can be produced.”
Rorono explained the principle behind the anti-magic shell.
Having shown the overwhelming might of the new equipment, she looked triumphant.
I decided to brush her soft, silver hair and in response, she smiled with squinted eyes.
Anyway, that was the fundamental theory but she had dedicated herself into finding ways to improve the anti-magic shell. For example, it could be used with sonar weapons so that enemies would lose focus.
Furthermore, the Avalon-Ritters had another ace up in their sleeves.
“First unit until the fifth, maintain the anti-magic shell. Sixth until fifteenth, activate [Burst Drive]”
The ten remaining Avalon-Riiters made their twin-drives run even fiercer.
The twin-drives thus exhibited a tremendous amount of magic power. That wasn’t all. The particles of light it produced also shined even fiercer and even more dazzling.
This performance was beyond what the twin-drive system was capable of.
“Avalon-Ritters, burn yourselves and eliminate the enemies.”
By Rorono’s instruction, the ten Avalon-Ritters who weren’t using the anti-magic shell rushed forward.
The Avalon-Ritters’ power source was like a generator without a battery in the sense that the cores continually produced magic power but was unable to store any excess and unused power.
This inefficiency was a weak point.
To fix it then, Rorono added a battery in the form of the fur in Kuina’s tail. The reason why the fur on Kuina’s tail was chosen was because it boasted the capability to store an absurd amount of magic power.
As a result, the Avalon-Ritters were then able to make use simultaneously of the magic power continuously generated by their cores and also of the magic power charged within the fur, essentially creating another core. This quasi-triple drive set up was the basis for why it was called the [Burst Drive].
Even though it was only for a short while–for as long as the fur had magic power remaining in it, to be exact–these golems were comparable to even S rank monsters.
“Master, please look at the might of the ultimate golems I have made.”
Just when I thought the particles of magic power were building up too much on the thrusters located on the back of the Avalon-Ritters, they vanished. Converting their magic power into kinetic energy allowed them to move at such abnormal speeds.
In their hands were very durable orichalcum lances.
Naturally, the durability and length of the lances were not its only features. It was a weapon that caused molecular destruction; anything it touched would be destroyed.
“GYAAAA”
“GAAAAA”
“No, no, no way”
The screams of the enemy monsters could be heard.
The Avalon-Ritters penetrated the enemy lines like a bullet and rampaged as they pleased.
They traveled at over three times the speed of sound. The moment the enemies came into contact with the Avalon-Ritters, who became these unreasonably massive weapons, the said enemies were simply blown away.
There was a reason why the Avalon-Ritters didn’t use swords and that was because swords were hard to wield properly at such speeds. There was even the chance that swinging a sword while going that fast could rip off the golems’ arms.
So, for that reason, we had decided it was best for them to ram into the enemies with a lance facing forward.
The ten Avalon-Ritters used three magic.
1. The conversion of their magic power into kinetic energy.
2. The lance of molecular destruction.
3. And the one for increasing their durability.
They needed only those three and nothing else. They were fast, strong, and durable.
The first five Avalon-Ritters were still keeping the anti-magic shell active but since it only interfered with magic that affected the physical world, the Avalon-Ritters’ three magic, which only affected themselves, worked unhindered.
In short, this was a fight between enemies geared for wide-area attacks but were no longer able to use magic and the ultra-fast, ultra-durable, and ultra-strong Avalon-Ritters.
Given that, the result was obvious.
Each time the thrusters on the back of the golems shined, at least one enemy monster was turned into minced meat.
“So this is [Burst Drive], huh.”
“Mhm. However, it still has many weak points. They’re fast but they only move in a straight path. A first class monster like Kuina will be able deal with them. Even if the golems move fast enough that the naked eye can’t keep up, Kuina, with her Precognition and Ultra-rapid Reflexes, is something else. Furthermore, the golems are also weak to enemies that fly.”
Rorono calmly analyzed the performance of the Avalon-Ritters.
As she did so, the massacre went on.
When the Avalon-Ritters stopped moving, not one enemy monster was left.
A certain number of enemies escaped but there was no real need to chase after them.
“Alright, let’s go further in. Thank the Avalon-Ritters for me.”
“They did accomplish their task but...”
“I know and that’s what I meant. Just their presence is enough of a weapon. The enemies will be none the wiser.”
“The golems still need to improve.”
The anti-magic shell generating equipment were already burnt out.
Meanwhile, for the 6th to 15th golems, their thrusters were damaged from the excessive amount of magic power poured into it. Also, their battery unit were no longer usable.
In just a few minutes of operation, all the Avalon-Ritters neared their limits.
The bodies of the first five, the ones that had anti-magic shell equipment, were still functional but the ten that used [Burst Drive] were beyond repair; all that could be done was to remove their twin-drives in order to salvage them.
I knew that this would happen. Their power was just too much to the point that even their bodies made of orichalcum could not withstand it.
By treating them as disposable fighting force, we could bump their performance from being upper A rank units to S rank equivalent ones. A luxury weapon, so to speak.
However, I didn’t regret deploying them here.
There were a lot of enemy A rank monsters here and fighting them head on would cause my main force to become exhausted or worse. That was something I wouldn’t allow.
There was one other purpose for using them now and that was to show off the might of the Avalon-Ritters. By doing so, the enemy would make counter-measures out of fear despite the fact that the Avalon-Ritters could not use [Burst Drive] again.
“Okay, let’s go further in, shall we?”
We still had a long way ahead of us.
Despite the hardships, we will absolutely advance forward. Our primary goal right now is to meet up with Marcho’s monsters as soon as possible.