“Oh boy… This is bad…”
The Giant Peeders that were coming out of the Inad Mine weren’t as big as the other five, and were at most 10 meters long and 1 meter wide.
But the problem was in their numbers. There were easily over a hundred of them.
“Well, what should I do?”
“This isn’t the time to be calmly asking that to yourself!”
“Sis Saki, please calm down. Panicking isn’t going to bring us any closer to a plan.”
“Uh… You’re right, but…”
“Look at Brother Jin. He’s just calmly thinking of a solution. That’s how he is.”
Although Jin was being praised by Elsa, despite his calm appearance, his mind was a mess.
“I don’t have any magic swords to use anymore… They’re too little for the Magi Cannon to be of any use as well… Hmm? Too little?”
That’s where he stopped.
“Guess I’ll just have to try… Reiko, take Peach Blossom… No, take the Vibration Sword!”
He had brought a Vibration Sword along in case he’d need it. For the third time, Jin threw a sword at Reiko for her to catch.
“Reiko, make sure you hit them with it!”
It was a sword made of Magi Adamantite, the hardest metal in the known world. Since the Magi Cannon’s shells were made of the same material and were able to pierce through the Giant Peeders’ bodies, that sword should be able to cut through them as well.
And Jin’s guess was correct.
As Jin and the others watched, Reiko splendidly sliced one of the Giant Peeders in half. Body fluids spurted out of the sliced sections, but Reiko cleverly cleared away from harm’s way.
Since they were small, they didn’t spurt as much of those body fluids as the others, so she managed to dodge them without a problem.
“Yes, that’ll work!”
Jin contacted Laojun and ordered him to dispatch 50 Army Golems armed with Vibration Swords.
“Orders received.”
Not even 5 minutes after receiving Jin’s brief order, the 50 Army Golems arrived on site.
“Okay, Land Corps, full steam ahead! Shred them as quickly as possible! Once you slash them, immediately deploy your Barriers. Try to avoid coming in contact with those body fluids as much as possible!”
With Jin’s instructions, the Lands 51 through 100 that had been sent started to move along with the Army Golems.
Reiko joined in as well, and what unfolded afterwards, to put it in one word, was chaos. To put in two words, it was a complete overrun.
Since the cut sections weren’t burned as the blades went through them, body fluid scattered all over, causing things to emit a white smoke. The Lands scuffled cleverly and deployed their barriers so as to not get in contact with those body fluids, and then attacked again.
Still, since they were dealing with this many Giant Peeders, they were definitely going to suffer some damage.
Reiko was the only one who came out of that battle completely unscathed.
The battle was about one hour long.
The extermination was completed as a total of 129 Giant Peeders lay chopped up on the ground. More than half of the 50 Army Golems had some parts of their bodies molten away, but they were still able to move around to some extent.
“…Is it over now?”
Jin ordered the 10 Land units from 91 to 100 to scout inside the tunnel of the Inad Mine.
10 minutes later, their report came in.
“Master, we have reached the innermost part of the cave. We couldn’t find any remaining Giant Peeders in here. They seem to have been completely exterminated.”
“I see, thanks. Do one more round just in case and then return to the surface.”
Jin relaxed his shoulders.
Before he realized, it was already night and the moon was rising in the sky. It was about 8 o’clock.
“Great job, Brother Jin.”
“It really was rough, huh? …I thought that there was nothing we could do against them, but… Well, we’re in the middle of the air anyways, so it’s not as if they were going to attack us right away, but… how should I put it? I can’t find the words…”
“…Hopelessness?”
Elsa sent a lifeboat at Saki, who was at a loss for words.
“Yeah, that’s it! Hopelessness. That feeling of dread you get when you face something mere humans can’t deal with.”
Saki felt more at ease to speak now, having been released from her previous tension.
“To be able to manage to deal with them, Jin… You really are the Magi Craft Meister!”
“But I got really anxious this time. It made me realize I’m still not quite there yet. To find out that such monsters were out there…”
Jin wasn’t expecting the laser to not be able to take care of those monsters.
Sure enough, there was a defense mechanism that would make it possible to reflect light-based attacks. Jin wondered if he could create a barrier that could work in the same way.
“The Magi Cannon isn’t very user-friendly…”
In short, he could say that the performance of close-range and medium-range weapons was rather poor.
Because of that, he intended to put the Plasma Sword into practical use.
“Ah, if I were to use a Mana Bomb… Wait, that’s going to cause a lot of damage to the surrounding area. Hmm? But if I were to put a barrier beforehand… Wait, to cover such a wide area would be a little too much… But…”
Elsa and Saki remained silent as they saw Jin indulge in his own thoughts. In particular, Elsa felt that it was precisely at times like these that Jin would come up with the craziest ideas.
Then, just as she expected…
“That could work!”
…Jin seemed to have finally come up with something.
“Two Titans should deploy a hemispherical barrier toward the same target. When the two hemispheres are combined, they become a sphere. You can trap your opponent in that spherical barrier. And if you were to send a Mana Bomb with a transfer machine in there…!”
At first glance it seems like he was talking to Elsa, but he wasn’t. The very things he was saying were proof of that.
However, Elsa, who was listening by her side, understood the principle and was impressed with Jin. And Laojun, who had been listening through the Mana Comm immediately started working on a detailed analysis of Jin’s theory.
At that moment, another emergency call arrived.
“Master, the tunnel is caving in.”
“What? Stop the investigation! Everyone come back to the surface, now!”
Was its foundation that brittle, or was it a result of the Giant Peeders coming out of it? Jin hurriedly commanded the Lands that were scouting underground to return to safety.
Faithful to Jin’s orders, the Lands head for the surface without looking back. At that time, they noticed something that seemed to be an unfamiliar magic tool, but they didn’t confirm it because they prioritized Jin’s instructions.
If they had stayed long enough to confirm it, they might have found a new fact, but half of the Lands could have been buried under the rubble as a result.
Was it a good thing or a bad thing that they couldn’t check that magic tool underground? No one would really know that, but if they had retrieved that magic tool, would a different fate await them in the future?
A few seconds after the Lands returned to the surface, the tunnel collapsed and the Inad Mine became inaccessible.
“Okay, everyone seems fine.”
Jin relaxed his shoulders once again. Now it should really be over.
The area around the Inad Mine was in bad shape. All over the place, trees were broken, large and small rocks were scattered, and everything had been riddled with holes.
To make things worse, there were also places filled with white smoke due to the influence of the Giant Peeders’ body fluids.
“…This is going to be a pain to clean up.”
Well, let’s get it done by the Kingdom of Klein, thought Jin as he made Pegasus 1 move in order to get confirmation.
“Ah… Is this some kind of material?”
The sections cut by Reiko’s sword of light were burned by its tremendous heat, and no body fluids were released from them.
Jin told Laojun to collect those. At the same time, he had him retrieve the destroyed general-purpose golems as well.
“I have dispatched Condor 3 to retrieve those.”
As stated, he would use Condor 3 to collect the materials and retrieve the destroyed golems.
“Phew, come on, Jin, What on earth are you exactly? …Just how many planes do you have?”
Saki sighed as she said that.
“Well, I’ll take it easy from now on.”
“Please do. I’d like to be able to keep getting along with you from now on. So go easy on me!”
Saki had a tired smile on her face.
“Sis Saki, you have to think about it well before getting along with Jin.”
“Eh!?”
“Do you mean that as ‘don’t get along’?”
It sounded terribly bad depending on how you understood it.
“I mean, that’s the only thing I understand from what you said…”
Jin made a sad face on purpose.
“But Elsa doesn’t seem to be that kind of person…”
“Ah, no, that’s… That’s not it, umm…”
Elsa panicked as she saw Jin cast his eyes downward.
“That’s not it. Look, I’m not saying Brother Jin is not a nice guy, he’s just a little eccentric, that’s all.”
“…Elsa, that still sounds terrible in my ears.”
“Uh, ah, ah…”
Elsa went from completely blushed to completely pale.
“T-That…”
Tear’s started to form in her face. Now it was Saki and Jin’s turn to panic.
“I-I get it, Elsa.”
“Sorry, sorry. I do understand what you’re trying to say.”
“…”
“I think your reaction just now was really cute, Elsa.”
Saki stroked Elsa’s head as she said that.
“…Whatever.”
Elsa looked away and pouted.
“Uhuhu, it’s the first time I see you make a face like that. You really are so cute, Elsa.”
“…Sis Saki, you dummy.”
Once again, there was peace inside Pegasus 1.