Killing Machine (3)
The commander could not understand why his hands trembled so violently at the sight of the unarmed woman. Her azure eyes, devoid of any emotion as they silently regarded them, sent a chill down his spine that made his very bones feel cold. Standing alone amid the corpses of his allies, the woman radiated an aura that suggested she was about to unleash something terrible, and he knew he had to stop her somehow.
“Open fire… all at once.”
Everyone froze at the commander’s dazed order. The situation ahead was utterly incomprehensible, yet the target appeared to be nothing more than an unarmed woman in a maid’s uniform, clearly a civilian rather than a warrior or soldier. No one could believe their commander had issued a firing order without even attempting to assess the circumstances.
No one immediately responded to the muttered command that seemed to slip out as though he were possessed.
“C-Commander…? That’s just an ordinary—”
“Shut up and shoot! Fire!!! Shoot, damn you!!!”
The adjutant standing beside him had tried to offer advice after gauging the commander’s state, but the outburst that followed cut him off without mercy. Military discipline demanded absolute obedience to orders, and the one who had given them was the commander himself, not a mere squad or company leader. In the end, the marksmen in the front line who had been preparing to fire had no choice but to set aside their doubts and activate their weapons.
Zwoooong!!! Zwoooong!! Zwoooooooong!!!
Dozens of mana beams poured forth at once, displaying overwhelming firepower. When concentrated on a single point, those beams could melt through steel tanks or stone fortress walls. Yet even such potent mana beams were meaningless if they failed to strike their target. Beatrice, whose senses were enhanced by transcendent sensors, could not possibly have missed the commander’s desperate cry to fire. The beams sliced through empty air before gradually fading and vanishing.
Beatrice was dodging every single one of them. She had already calculated the firing angles of all the soldiers, reading their lines of fire in advance. No matter how they adjusted their weapons to try and hit her, striking Beatrice—who preemptively evaded those trajectories—was impossible.
Sometimes she took a single step to the side. Sometimes she merely lowered her head. Sometimes she leapt into the air and spun her body. Beatrice allowed not a single beam to touch her.
“Rear line marksmen, prepare to rotate in!!! Artillery!! Prepare for bombardment!!”
Anticipating that the front-line marksmen would soon exhaust their mana and cease firing, the commander ordered the waiting rear-line marksmen to prepare for rotation. Furthermore, after witnessing Beatrice evade every beam, he judged that marksmen alone would not suffice and decided to deploy the artillery as well.
Chreeeeeeeeng!!!
The commander’s order was remarkably accurate, regardless of whether he had properly analyzed his opponent. At least, that was what the commander himself was forced to conclude. Just as the front-line marksmen’s mana-beam weapons began to dim one by one and the final beam was fired toward Beatrice, she suddenly stood still and allowed herself to be exposed to it. The Humian soldiers cheered inwardly, their hearts leaping with joy.
Having grown terrified after witnessing Beatrice’s extraordinary physical abilities that let her dodge every mana beam with ease, they had feared what she might do once she switched to an offensive stance. If she charged at them with speed overwhelming enough to casually evade their beams and began tearing through their ranks, they knew they would stand no chance of responding. As their weapons’ mana reserves dwindled, their dread of her inevitable counterattack had only grown—until at last, she was struck by a mana beam.
Though they could not cheer openly for fear of the commander’s gaze, the hope and elation shining in each soldier’s eyes made it clear they were roaring with triumph inside.
Yet it did not take long for that elation to turn into despair.
The moment the mana beam that had struck Beatrice faded due to the weapon’s depleted reserves, her figure emerged from the shimmering heat and black smoke. Beatrice had raised her hand toward the beam. The flesh of her palm had burned away and vanished, yet no bone was visible beneath. Only gleaming silver metal could be seen. Even that metal had been covered by flesh moments earlier—flesh that had caught the mana beam and burned away. Now that flesh was rapidly regenerating, erasing the wound before their eyes.
Before the stunned Humian marksmen could even comprehend what they were witnessing, her injury had completely healed.
This was why the commander had become convinced his order had been correct. It had been impossible to harm the maid with mana beams alone from the start. The unidentified maid with emerald hair and azure eyes, who had been dodging the beams with complete composure until now, had deliberately exposed herself to the final remaining beam. She had done so to declare to everyone present that such trivial attacks could never affect her.
Realizing the meaning behind Beatrice’s action, the commander felt a wave of terror so intense it made his head spin.
“What are you all doing!!! Rotate the marksmen!!! Don’t wait for orders—fire immediately!!! Artillery, full bombardment!!! Shoot!!! Pour everything you’ve got!!!!!”
The commander desperately urged his soldiers forward. Driven by his frantic, almost frenzied commands, the marksmen and artillery crews activated their weapons. Once again, a barrage of mana beams rained down, accompanied by the bombardment of mana cannons. Beams that burned and melted everything they touched swept across the area around Beatrice. Red mana spheres tracing parabolic arcs detonated violently upon impact with the ground. The earth turned crimson and melted as fierce flames and thick black smoke began to engulf the surroundings. Intense explosions rocked the area, sending dirt and sand flying into the air in all directions.
Because the desperate bombardment unleashed by the Humian soldiers covered the entire vicinity, Beatrice’s figure was no longer visible. Yet when the entire area was being saturated with explosions, the target’s exact position hardly mattered. They simply needed to continue the indiscriminate bombardment until their mana stones were depleted.
Boom!! Kwaaaang!!! Kwoooooong!!!! Kwakwaaaang!!!! Zwoooong!!! Zwoooong!!! Zwoooooooong!!!!
The desolate land, where nothing had existed to burn but earth and sand, was mercilessly pounded with bombardment so fierce that flames erupted across it. The barrage was powerful enough not merely to topple walls but to erase an entire small fortress without a trace.
The Humian marksmen rotated through multiple shifts, reloading fresh mana stones and continuously pouring out beams. The Humian artillery crews, regardless of front or rear lines, maintained their bombardment until every mana stone in the artillery division was exhausted.
“Stop! Cease fire! Cease fire!!”
Before long, once all the mana cannons had run dry, the commander halted the attack. Fierce flames still raged atop the molten, viscous lava, and black smoke blanketed the surroundings. The scene resembled nothing less than a blazing inferno. The area where Beatrice had stood had become a veritable lake of lava.
“Commander, was it really necessary to go this far…”
“Quiet!!!”
The adjutant, feeling the situation had gone too far, attempted to voice his doubts, but the commander sharply cut him off. The commander’s breathing was ragged. Though he had not exerted himself physically, his labored breaths stemmed entirely from psychological pressure.
“Aaaagh…”
A sight that should never have been witnessed appeared before the commander’s eyes. Something that should never have happened was occurring. A woman was slowly walking out through the endlessly burning flames. An opaque aura of dark light enveloped her. Her maid uniform showed no signs of tearing or burning, nor was there any trace of dishevelment. With the blinding flames at her back, the azure-eyed maid walked toward the Humian army. Her blue eyes glowed from within, as though they were small lanterns themselves. Even amid the intense light cast by the flames, the blue radiance shining from her eyes asserted a far more powerful presence than the dazzling glow of the firestorm the Humian soldiers had desperately created.
“F-Fall back…!!! We’ll use the magitech colossi to cover our retreat!!! Move!!! Hurry!!!!”
It was the first command the terrified commander gave as he shoved his way through the soldiers and fled toward the rear. The Humian soldiers, seeing their commander flee in panic, turned to look at the maid slowly approaching them. Only then did they fully grasp the situation. Breaking formation, they scrambled to retreat. As the nearly routed Humian soldiers scattered, a magitech colossus stepped forward, its massive legs carrying it ahead. It was the Humians’ ultimate weapon, one that had played a major role in destroying Neromeltia’s mana barrier a thousand years ago.