Mad Hunter: Road of Fury (2)
But that joyful massacre of the pursuit squad and the ensuing bliss didn't last long.
"Did we get 'em!?"
"Wait, that line…!"
"It's not actually over yet, yuu. The Orc Empire's pursuit squads are still swarming out there, yuu."
"Oh, that kinda thing?"
Maybe because we'd wiped out all the pursuers nearby? Mika had gone ahead and chanted a resurrection spell, but Alex—regaining his composure and even his flair—started talking like that. And from what he said next…
"Plus, the Orc Empire pursuit squads have some kinda curse? Weird tech carved into their bodies, yuu."
"?"
"What that means is, when they die, the last thing they saw or the cause of death gets relayed back to Orc Empire HQ through the curse, yuu."
…Body cams, huh.
Like the carriage back on floor 12, hearing about the Orc Empire's tech developing in such bizarre directions made me feel a fresh wave of how damn unfair the world was.
And sure enough, as if to prove Alex right, rat-riding orc cavalry started popping up from all directions soon after.
So I made time here and there to recharge ammo using the power of my Infinite Magazines, and unlike before, I held back on spraying bullets—firing in controlled bursts to conserve ammo—while keeping up the chase…
-Hiiihiiing…
"Arrows are out, and the horse pulling the carriage is dead."
"Fucked."
"Situation's gone straight to shit. What's your plan?"
The 20mm and 30mm guns, loaded with massive 1,500- and 1,000-round mags, had finally run dry. Our allies, who'd been blasting away just as hard, were out of ranged options and utterly spent.
And to top it off, the carriage we were riding—pummeled by orc slings and crossbows—had turned into a shredded rag. The horse pulling it took a blind bolt, bled out, and dropped dead.
At this point, staring at the wooden crates in the carriage—over 100 of them packed with mana stones (complete with padding)—I racked my brain on how the hell to move them.
Pulling the carriage ourselves? No dice. The crates were heavy as sin and took up way too much space.
-Thud thud.
"Georg, how's the carriage? Can we drag it?"
"Beaten to hell from the rough ride. Axle's totally warped, and two wheels have busted spokes. Drag it more, and it'll snap and flip."
"This ain't easy, yuu."
With the carriage in such crap shape, that option was off the table from the start.
Camp here and wait for another convoy? No, like we'd heard earlier, everywhere else was swamped fending off Orc Empire forces—no spare routes or time.
The party members sighed deeply, wallowing in despair over what to do next.
But watching them mope, I flipped them off and said there was no need to worry.
"Don't sweat it. I got this covered."
"Huh?"
"FirepowerJoe, you got a plan?"
"Yeah. Gimme a sec."
Naturally, Alex, Mika, and Georg shot back with 'what the hell are you gonna do?' vibes.
But the second they saw me yank out the massive eight-wheeler straight-armored car—the biggest one I'd absorbed from the Management Bureau test range—they froze.
"……Huh?"
"What the fuck is that?!"
"O, ooooh… Ah, what magnificent machinery! Our ancestors would leap from their graves!"
Their eyes sparkled as they finally got why I'd been so chill this whole time.
Of course, that hype faded quick—we still had to manually haul the mana stone crates from the carriage one by one.
-Zzzt!
"Dammit, more orcs incoming! About 100 meters out!"
We were out of ranged firepower, but detection spells were fine. Mika's sensor magic (turns out this world's got its own distance units, but the Tower's Status Window auto-translates) picked up another orc pack closing in.
Tension spiked again, killing the mood in seconds…
But only for a moment.
"I'll hold 'em off. You lot, hustle those crates from the carriage into the armored car!"
"R, right!"
"Got faith in ya, FirepowerJoe!"
"Move move move, yuu!"
I barked orders, swapping my near-empty 20mm and 30mm for unused 15mm and light machine guns.
The party snapped to, frantically unloading crates from the carriage and loading them into the armored car.
About five minutes later—a short but insanely intense firefight—we were done.
-Vrooom vrooom, rrrumble!
"Heh heh, this giant hunk of steel actually moves!"
"Grip tight. All crates secured?"
"You bet."
We rolled out, leaving the sand painted green and red from the Orc Empire goons we'd mulched.
Of course, cruising around in the armored car with a satisfying vroooom didn't change the fact that Orc Empire pursuit squads were everywhere.
And contrary to what I'd expected, it wasn't even faster than the damn carriage we'd just ditched…
-Ting! Tang! Thunk!
"FirepowerJoe! Orcs are hitting this iron carriage!"
"How? No firing ports!"
Minutes after properly rolling out, another green wave surged in, leaving me dumbfounded.
But aside from that, something dawned on me mid-action…
"We don't need to attack. Just ignore 'em."
"What?!"
"But there are so many orcs around, yuu?"
"Look, FirepowerJoe, this iron carriage might hold, but dragging that many enemies to the fortress? They won't let us in!"
"……Got a fix for that too. Look outside and count to three."
"Ha?"
Like how I wasn't grabbing the wheel but kept part of myself fused with the armored car to drive it? That let me control the vehicle and all its fixed weapons at will.
I directed their eyes outward, focusing on the turret atop the car.
It swiveled just like I wanted, the 20mm autocannon and 40mm grenade launcher spitting fire.
A rain of cannon rounds and grenades poured down on the orcs.
Poor bastards—armored or not—turned into equal-opportunity Emmental cheese, riddled with holes.
Sure, a few tough nuts broke through the turret fire, clambering aboard or charging head-on for body slams…
"One climbed up."
"Then it's our cue, yuu!"
"Mika, go squash the fucker!"
"On it!"
Climbers got crushed or hacked up and tossed by our waiting party members inside.
Frontal chargers?
-VROOOOM crunch boom! Graaawwl rumble crash roooar!
"Huh? FirepowerJoe, something just hit us, right?"
"Nah. Don't worry about it."
"Gotcha."
Too bad for them—ramming a 20-30-ton steel beast at full speed? The results were too gruesome for words.