Chapter 797: December 15th: The Sky, Run Like a Dog
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1:1:1:1:1:2:3
What do you think this is? It's the ratio of feather missiles flying at DeepSlo, Survival, Yashirobird, Overwerke, Ur Idim-shi, Saina, and me.
"Hold up!!?"
Your anti-air awareness is way too high, you idiot!!
Naturally, I have no choice but to interrupt my attack. The incoming feather missiles are clearly tracking me, and on top of that, they are flying while spinning at high speeds... Just how accurate is their homing? However............ Damn it!!
"Saina! Come here!"
"Acknowledged: Evasive maneuver."
Calling out to Saina, who is currently being chased around by the feather missiles second most after me due to providing support from mid-air, I also start moving.
The number of feather missiles currently is 3. Just like Tomahawk's name implies, the feather missiles soaring through the air while spinning like thrown blades each trace a different trajectory but head straight towards me... First is the first one, I step to the left with a mid-air jump ───
"Ouch!"
Guh, it barely grazes me! Because it spins like a fan blade, the distance is hard to read!! Or rather, my HP is halved!? Yes, yes, I get it, taking a direct hit means instant death—alright, bring it on!!
Second wave. The applicable time for my mid-air jump is still continuing. As long as it's shaped like a blade, no matter how long it is, its width is thin. The good thing about aerial maneuvers is that the entire space acts as the ground, the ceiling, and the walls.
Stepping on the void and leaping, I tilt my body ninety degrees and run as if kicking off a wall. Because the direction of gravity is turned sideways by the effect of the Grace of Zero Gravity, the third wave flying vertically now comes straight at me from the side.
"Tch... Can you do it, Areadbhair!!"
Firepower excellent, motivation fully received!!
Thought acceleration. Within this state of acceleration, where even the tips of the rough-textured feather missiles are visible... I slash the silver-flamed Areadbhair upwards from below.
Gyarigyari, the rotational energy from the feather missile applies a heavy load to Areadbhair... But it's your bad luck that a mere piece of metal is imbued with the Dragon attribute.
The wildly scattering gyarigyari sparks soon start flying fiercely from the feather missile rather than Areadbhair. And putting even more strength into it... I send it flying!!
"Contractor."
"You're here! Lend me a hand!!"
"Acknowledged: Awaiting specific instructions."
"We're escaping to the ground!!"
Even I can't run in the sky forever. I've already exhausted my aerial maneuver skills, and since I don't know how persistent the homing performance of the deflected feather missile is, returning to the ground is the better option.
The moment Saina's hands firmly grasp my extended hand, my body is instantly yanked into acceleration by the maximum output of the boosters Saina has equipped.
"Approaching: Offensive objects from the front, 2."
"Dodge them with guts and make them chase us! I'll deal with them!!"
"Acknowledged: Expect turbulence."
"If it's a roller coaster, my cousin takes me on one every two years, so I'm used to it."
Making grade-schooler me wear elevator shoes just because I was 1 centimeter short to get me on a roller coaster is madness, to put it mildly... Don't give me that "Stand on your tiptoes! Tiptoes!" nonsense!
Saina, holding onto me, performs a barrel roll while rapidly accelerating. The next moment, the two feather missiles tear through the wind as they pass through the space we were just in......... Guh, what do they do to turn 180 degrees in mid-air and fly back!? What kind of bullshit homing is that!!
"It's not 'whether divination hits or misses'—it's 'Divination, you better hit!'"
Clamping Areadbhair between the soles of my feet to forcibly free up the hand Saina isn't holding, I continuously fire the Aerial PD at the feather missiles.
Miss, miss, miss, one hit! One of the feather missiles is blown away in an erratic direction. But I can't hit the remaining one. At worst, I'll have Saina let go of my hand and... No, it's going to hit!
Pon...... Bon!!
"Nn!?"
The feather missile, struck by something that probably flies up from below, suddenly explodes. The heat of the explosion slightly scorches my body, but that's it. My hand, held along with a floating sensation, is released.
I hastily land, using the legs that were clamping Areadbhair. Carrying its momentum, Areadbhair almost impales my head as it flies at me in a bit of an accident, but... I somehow manage to land successfully.
"Sunraku, missing with a handgun at that distance is no good."
"Shut up, point-blank is a 100% hit rate, right... Or rather, what? Did you snipe it with a grenade launcher?"
"Fundamentally, it's a mortar, you know."
I think that principle is probably wrong, but since I am saved, I'll refrain from pointing it out.
It seems Yashirobird and the others each manage to deal with the feather missiles fired at them. The numerous feather missiles stuck in the ground have already lost their tracking capabilities.
If that's the case, then the ones we need to watch out for are the five still in the air? As I shift my gaze upwards, a bizarre sight is there.
"...They're hovering?"
I have a fiercely bad feeling about this. Falling down, or continuing to chase us, I would understand. But hovering in place is strange. So far, Tomahawk's performance is nothing but a clump of murderous intent through and through.
So what's the reason for leaving parts of its wings up in the sky like that, where they'd only hit us if we were incredibly careless?
"A placed object? For what purpose? The possible candidates are..."
"A debuff, or a buff for it, damage upon contact, or just a simple obstacle... That's all that comes to mind off the top of my head."
The candidates Overwerke lists are not entirely impossible. But in the end, the answer is only confirmed when it's put into practice.
Tomahawk takes a bizarre stance. With its right arm extended forward and its left arm twisted and stretched behind it, depending on how you look at it, the stance doesn't not look like a Kabuki Mie pose. But the grinding gigi-gigi sound is absolutely not the sign of ending with just striking a pose.
As proof, mixed in with the sound of creaking metal... No, a vibrating noise that shakes the space enough to completely paint over that sound is resonating from the arm-blade still intact on its left arm!
"Here it comes!"
That mysterious fissure. A cross-section way too clean to just be called "torn"! That attack must be the true identity of it. While everyone scatters while remaining vigilant......... I notice.
"Where is that guy aiming?"
No wait, if it's not aiming at the players but in that direction, then as expected, those feather missiles are bad news───!!
"Gyaririririaaaaaaaa!!!"
The moment Tomahawk swings its left arm through in an all-out underhanded throw, the arm-blade carves a perfectly straight line into the ground while firing off a shockwave shaped like a slash. It doesn't fly towards us, but towards the feather missiles that are no longer moving, regardless of who neutralized them... towards the blade wings separated from Tomahawk, in an unwavering straight line.
Since everyone is in the middle of evasive maneuvers, there is no way to stop the slashing wave flying towards the blade wings stuck in the ground. And the moment the slashing wave hits the blade wings,
......................GIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!
"Guh!?"
"Kua!"
"Ugh."
"So loud!?"
"My head hurts."
"Nuguu."
"...Guh. Analysis: High-frequency-induced action obstruction."
A horrendous noise, like the sound of hundreds of cats scratching their claws on a blackboard all at once being poured from the back of our heads down our spines, stops all of our movements. A forced-stun move...!
And that isn't all. Because I am watching where the slashing wave goes, I notice it.
The blade wings, which are stuck into the ground and have supposedly lost their kinetic energy, receive the slashing wave and... begin spinning once again.
And then, they lunge straight at us, who are completely immobilized──────!!
Author's Afterword
・Re-Ignition
By striking the blade wings launched by the Cruising Autonomous Blade Wings with a Super-Sonic Vibration imbued with its own mana particles, it re-applies the autonomous attack function.
The high-frequency wave generated at that moment is powerful enough to halt the movements of living creatures for several seconds, leaving the pitiful victims with no choice but to shiver in fear against the incoming terror that has begun moving once more.
Comments
Force stun and homing attack as same time
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