08-34 Aquatic Battle

Content warning: death

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“Magic troops, fire! Keep firing!”

At the command of the branch head of the sixth division, Intact, the magic troops shot out [Flame Ball]s one after another.

“…But really, they don’t have a strategy or anything. Isn’t the branch head just an idiot?”

While protected from magic by the deployed [Barrier], Jin thought.

“Well, let’s keep on observing the situation for a bit longer. They’ll probably soon run out of Magic Energy and become unable to attack.”

Maintaining a [Barrier] required little Magic Energy, but [Flame Ball] required quite a lot.

Maybe because they realized [Flame Ball]s were making no progress, this time three [Flame Lance]s came flying.

But, those were also readily stopped by the [Barrier].

And with that, no more magic was shot.

“Branch head, everyone’s overtaxed their Magic Energy…”

The head of the magic troops reported with a blue face, but Intact simply kept being enraged.

“Useless! You’re all useless!”

At that moment, a shock ran through the boat they were on.

“Alright, Reiko, this time using steel rounds fire five shots at their boat.”

This time Jin wasn’t planning to use a lot of special attack manoeuvres.

At any rate, disregarding the railgun’s power, it was basically the same as a catapult or a slingshot which had equivalents in this world.

Although no matter what it was impossible for them to shoot at speeds surpassing Mach 20.

“Yes, Father.”

The [Barrier] was temporarily rescinded, and Reiko prepared to shoot the railgun.

“Ah, that’s right. There’s no need to use full power. Let’s see, five percent should be enough?”

“Understood.”

The opponents had a wooden ship. There was no way it had the means to stop a steel ball that had –even at five percent power– an initial velocity that surpassed the speed of sound.

As you’d expect the recoil made even Hydro-5 move about 10 meters backwards, but it returned to its original position right away.

On the other hand, to speak of the Unifilers’ boat.

The hull jolted together with a dull impact sound. If you looked you could see a girl on the small boat holding a long tube pointed towards their ship.

“Don’t tell me that’s a Magi Tool!?”

The eyes of the vice-head of the branch Marcello went wide in shock. But the branch head Intact, he panicked.

“Whawhawha, whaat!? What was that? Someone say something!!”

“Due to a mysterious attack, two of the four golems moving the ship have been damaged!”

“Numerous holes have appeared in the ship’s hull!”

That’s not what he wanted to hear, Intact yelled. Then, the ship jolted violently and inclined.

One of the shots hit below the waterline and the ship began to flood from there.

“A-aaaargh!”

In his panic, Intact summoned the all-purpose golem.

“Yes-branch-head.”

“H-hold me! Listen, don’t let go until I tell you to!”

“Yes-sir.”

Because he couldn’t stand on top of the ship’s deck, Intact used his only remaining secret weapon, the all-purpose golem to hold his body up.

“Sigh, now I can relax. How is the damage? What in the world was that attack?”

When this late in the game Intact could only put on airs of dominance, Marcello began thinking that it’s about time to wash his hands off the man.

“You bastards! Are you people really going to silently accept this incomprehensible attack!? Shoot your bows, throw your spears, anything! If the magic troops have recovered even a little then fire your magic!”

And so on, Intact kept yelling orders.

Then two archers heeded the commands and stood up on the side of the ship to aim at Hydro-5.

The archers were certainly skilled, as they shot two arrows from the shaking and slanted ship towards Hydro-5 without erring.

However, before they reached Hydro-5, they were stopped by the [Barrier] and fell down to the water.

Then, simply as payback, three steel rounds were fired, two of which hit below the waterline. One of them pierced through the cabin.

“Hull damaged! It’s impossible to repair! Water is coming in!”

A report came from the cabin. Marcello gave a sidelong glance at the ranting and raving Intact and gave his orders.

“This ship is already lost. Everyone abandon ship. Even a plank will do, find something that looks like will keep you afloat and jump into the water with it! ”

“Y-y-y-you imbecile, Marcello, you say you bastards are going to abandon the ship!?”

While hooting and hollering in his agitation, Intact drew closer to Marcello.

At that moment, two more shots hit the ship. One of them destroyed the right arm of the all-purpose golem. The all-purpose golem lost its balance and fell into the river taking Intact with it.

“Aaaaaaaagh…”

After the scream a splash, the sound of him hitting water.

The all-purpose golem abided by its orders, and even underwater did not let go of Intact. And then Intact, or rather, no human could speak underwater.

As a result, in the middle of the river, the all-purpose golem simply sunk down while firmly keeping hold of Intact.

“All hands abandon ship! Abandon ship!”

Marcello went around yelling loudly, and when he recognized that no one was left to jump off, he himself also grabbed a nearby piece of wood and jumped into the water holding it.

“Father, everyone has left the ship.”

“Yeah. The ship’s about to sink too. Alright, let’s finish this.”

Jin ordered Reiko to shoot two lead shots.

“Yes.”

The soft lead was smashed along with the impact, spread wide, and conveyed its kinetic energy without waste to the ship’s hull.

And the result.

“Wh-whawha, whawhawha”

In front of the Unifilers floating on the river, the boat they had just been on was smashed to smithereens.

“Alright, next is the fellows floating on the water, I suppose. Reiko, let them have it with the smallest current [Thunder Rain] you can.”

“Yes, Father.”

Right now one of the quickest ways to deal with the people in the water was to give them an electric shock, using lightning from the skies.

And so Reiko cast [Thunder Rain] at the smallest possible output she could manage.

For an instant, the river surface was dyed purple. Around 100,000,000 volts rained upon the floating Unifilers’ heads.

Urgh, argh, and similar short screams: all the Unifilers on the surface of the river fainted. Despite being submerged in water, their hearts probably wouldn’t as long as they weren’t extremely unlucky.

However, there were two of those extremely unlucky people, and two who sank while unconscious due to the weight of their armor. Including Intact, that was a total of five people. By chance, the death toll was the same as the number of Reinhardt’s guards.

“Alright, let’s collect them.”

And like this, the neutralized members of the Unifilers were scooped up with the fishing nets on Hydro-5. The total turned out to be 28 people.

“For now, let’s tie them up properly.”

The Land golems were made to be on alert on the riverbed, and the unconscious Unifilers were handed over to them. As he didn’t have suitable rope with him, Jin fashioned a wire rope out of golem fragments using Craft Magic.

“Now then, I suppose I’ll consult with Reinhardt about what to do with these guys.”

Although they failed in the end, they had abducted a diplomat of Shouro Empire, so Jin was hesitant to deal with them on his own.

Or rather, he thought the one who bore the largest grudge must be Reinhardt, so he figured he’d ask for Reinhardt’s opinion first.

Reinhardt then turned up while being guarded by the Army golems Land-58, 59, and 60.

“Jin!”

“Reinhardt! Are you alright?”

“Yeah, thanks you to.”

Reinhardt said and smiled, but Jin noticed that there was no energy behind that smile. Looking it over, there was a choker on his neck.

“Don’t tell me! Sorry, Reinhardt. I should’ve realized it earlier.”

Jin said and laid his fingers on the choker.

“No Jin, this isn’t something that’s so easy to–”

And then he tore choker off. Without Reinhardt even feeling that Jin had pulled on it.

“Take…off…”

“Hm?”

Reinhardt looked at Jin who was viewing the taken off choker annoyedly, and smiled bitterly.

“Good grief, what in the world did you do to get that off so easily?”

“What did I do, umm… The moment I touched it with my fingers I got this indescribably baaad feeling, so I opposed it with Magic Energy which made it as soft as clay and I tore it off, or something like that?”

The choker had a function to, using Magic Energy, adjust its size to the chokee’s neck. If this function’s parts were overcharged with Magic Energy, let’s say by ten times the capacity, it was true that it would malfunction but for Jin to know that he would have to examine this choker in detail.

“Hmm, well, let’s leave the detailed investigation for later, as Stearina was also caught along with me. Please also take off her choker.”

Reinhardt said and Jin was surprised,

“I heard of that. The place were you were attacked was Stearina-san’s house, after all.”

“Yeah, her secondary home to be precise.”

Speaking of Stearina, she was still unconscious after being carried by Cosmos.

“Yeah, it must be because of this choker. It’s got a Magi Formula that undermines your physical condition inscribed in it.”

Jin took off Stearina’s choker while saying so.

“What!? So that must be why I was feeling somewhat listless. Thanks, Jin. …Leaving that aside, what’s up? That’s a very unusual helmet. I don’t know if I should even call it clothing?”

The helmet Jin was wearing was more like a sci-fi movie prop. Right now his night vision visor was flipped up so his face could be seen, but if it was down probably no one could tell who he was.

“It’s the new equipment I made. It’s been rather helpful.”

Jin then put on a serious look and pointed towards the unconscious and tied up Unifilers.

“Reinhardt, how should we deal with these guys?”

He asked.

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