Chapter 126 – I Shall Beat Them All Down!

In the simulator room's observation seats, the instant Merry's machine took a hit through the head, a fierce stir ran through the Vigilante Corps members, who had been holding their breath.

"No way...!"

Aland murmured, unable to help himself.

"...There's no way anyone could react to that."

Retta, too, was glued to the monitor, unable to hide the shock on his face.

"To think he had equipment like that hidden away..."

At the far end of the screen Herta stared at, breath caught in her throat -- there, Ranses's Radure drifted with its melted, large-caliber long rifle floating beside it, its hand now quietly leveling a slender Photon Rifle instead.

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"Hit. Whew -- you took the bait nicely."

Inside his cockpit, Ranses spoke into the comm, sounding faintly amused.

"Though it looks like your prized main gun has been destroyed."

Ranses had set his main weapon, the large-caliber long rifle, adrift nearby beforehand, and sniped at Grain and the others from there. Then, when Merry fired back at him, he'd returned fire with the slender rifle instead. What he hadn't anticipated was that Merry's counterattack would end up destroying his main gun.

At Priscilla's remark, Ranses laughed back lightly.

"Man, to return fire that accurate in that split second -- she's got some real skill. Lieutenant Priscilla, once this is over, think you could scout that sniper for my unit?"

Priscilla laughed softly. "Scouting just her? I'd love to bring everyone over there into our ranks, honestly. ...Now then, shall we go?"

As Priscilla quietly signaled the advance, Adelina cut in, looking like she couldn't wait any longer.

"I don't need a big crowd like that~! I'll just take care of all of them myself!"

An instant later, Adelina's bizarre Makina fired its back- and leg-mounted thruster arrays at full burn. Its immense thrust drove it into acceleration at an initial speed utterly unimaginable for something of its size.

"All right, then -- according to plan."

Ranses murmured this, then slowly deployed the large containers on both his shoulders. His machine began scattering dully-glowing special particles into the surrounding area, forming a field that scrambled both visibility and sensor data across the battlefield.

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"They got me...!"

Merry groaned in frustration, her field of view gone pitch black after losing her main camera.

"Fighting with your main camera knocked out is too much to ask. Merry, I know it's frustrating, but pull back."

Grain's calm order rang out. With her sensor systems completely destroyed, surviving combat in this zone was simply impossible. And yet--

"But... just one last thing, before I go...!"

Merry swallowed her frustration and, resolved to fire off every last round, pressed down the trigger on her console. The assorted missile pods mounted on Breaker Line's shoulders and legs opened all at once, and every remaining multi-purpose missile launched, tracing homing trajectories as it went.

The impact point she was aiming for was the exact firing position the beam that had pierced her own head had come from.

"It's frustrating, but... I'll be withdrawing here!"

Leaving behind a screen of smoke from the ferocious volley of missile impacts, Merry's machine was ruled combat-incapacitated by the simulator and withdrew -- eliminated.

"Down to an even three-on-three already, huh... Was this a little too much to bite off?"

Ethan said, in his usual tone, over the comm to Grain beside him.

"Heh, we can still pull this off. ...You think so too, deep down, don't you? --And so does Letaria."

"Naturally! I intend to avenge Miss Merry by beating every last one of them down properly!"

In Arden's cockpit, Letaria smiled and thrust out her chest with pride.

Even having lost one machine, their fighting spirit showed no sign of fading.

Letaria's Arden, Grain's Riese, and Ethan's Ribast -- the three machines began advancing together, to meet the oncoming elite of the homeland military head-on.