Let There Be Massacre (1)
The human soldiers were dying in the most miserable fashion imaginable. Their death screams tore through the air. Blood and entrails sprayed in every direction while finely minced chunks of flesh scattered across the battlefield. It was a slaughter on a massive scale.
“Huuuoooooo… Mommy… Mommyyyyy…!! Aaaaaagh!!! Mom!!! Mom!!!!”
“E-heeheeheehee… E-heek… Heek……”
Two soldiers had been bisected by a single swing of the chainsaw, their upper and lower bodies severed in identical horrific wounds. In truth, the injuries were fatal, yet their reactions differed wildly. One could not accept the reality of being cut in half and screamed for his mother. He wailed pitifully, desperate to escape all the pain and terror and return to the warm safety of her arms. Even as he thrashed, calling for her in a frenzy, he died while clinging to the hallucination of her embrace, face buried against her chest. The other laughed like a madman, frantically trying to scoop his spilled intestines back into his body. His system had flooded him with endorphins to endure the agony, so even while experiencing the worst pain imaginable, he could only laugh. He was beyond rational thought, riding an artificial high as he struggled to save himself. He kept pushing his guts back inside his ribcage. Every time he crammed them in, the pressure forced more blood to gush out, yet he refused to stop. He kept forcing them in with brutal hands until the moment his breath finally ceased. It did not take long for his laughter to die.
“You…!! You monster…!! Monster…!!! You fucking monster bitch!!!!”
Zwoooong!!! Zwoooong!!!
“Krrgh…!! Haaaaack…!!!”
“Keuk…!!!”
Several human soldiers, paralyzed by overwhelming terror, kept making the one mistake no gunner should ever make. No matter how many enemies had breached their lines, firing into the middle of friendly forces was strictly forbidden. To make matters worse, they were shooting wildly without aiming, so it was only natural that Beatrice dodged the mana beams with ease. The indiscriminate barrage ended up tearing through their own allies. The powerful rays punched straight through everything in their path, piercing one soldier before continuing on to skewer three more before finally dissipating. The soldier who had kept firing until his mana stones ran dry was eventually shot dead by his own comrades and left as a cold corpse.
The problem was that more and more soldiers were losing their minds and repeating the same mistake.
“Cease fire!!! Run, you idiots!!! Stop shooting and run, damn it!!!! Hey!! You stupid sons of bitches!!!!”
The commander clutched his communication device and screamed even as he fled for his life. He already understood how pointless it was to fire at the maid who had already plunged into the heart of their formation. The earlier order to lay down a barrage to slow her charge had failed to delay her for even a single moment. He knew full well that, at this range, shooting would only accelerate their annihilation. Yet calming a terror-stricken, chaotic mob was not something one frail human could accomplish no matter how loudly he cursed at them.
Shrrk!!Ziiiiiiing!!!Crackle-crackle-crackle!!!
The terrifying chainsaw ground everything it touched into pieces. Beatrice was not limited to her adamantium chainsaw; she revealed new weapons with every passing second. Her previously empty left hand spread open with all five fingers extended, and a mana sword longer than two hundred mentols materialized around it. The vast luina compressed into an obsidian mana sword sliced through everything in its path with effortless grace.
Magical characters that had been listing and analyzing every piece of information flickered across her blue eyes. The complex runes appeared and vanished repeatedly. Then the pupils at the center of those coldly glowing eyes dilated on purpose, and a single jet-black beam shot out. The thin black ray, fine as a strand of cotton thread, split every being in its trajectory. Whenever she leaped into a cluster of tightly packed soldiers, she unleashed ultra-high-voltage electricity without hesitation. Massive currents spread across the ground and through the air, charring every living thing they touched pitch black. The random waves of electricity were a catastrophe no ordinary human body could possibly evade.
Kwaaaaaaaaah!!!Kwadududuk!!!Jjeojeojeojeok!!!
She made full use of her four propulsion mana thrusters as well, moving with blinding speed and ruthless efficiency. Whenever compressed power resembling black flames erupted from her thrusters, the flashing chainsaw inevitably carved a dozen humans in half. Her pure physical strength was already enough to rip steel apart; when enhanced by the thrusters, her kicks could shatter three or four fragile humans into pieces with ease. If she cast a spherical defensive spell and charged with her thrusters at full power, it was like being hit by a giant field bison. Every human in her path was smashed into a bloody pulp and either slammed into the ground or sent flying in gruesome arcs.
Oooooooong… Thud!!!Oooooooong… Thud!!!
The long-awaited arrival of the magic colossi had finally reached the front lines. The nineteen units, originally positioned at the very rear, naturally required time to cover the distance. No matter how long their strides, the initial gap had been considerable. Still, they had reached their positions while roughly half the soldiers were still alive. Considering the brutality of the battle, that was the best outcome one could hope for.
Yet the commander who had been exposed to the surging tide of death could not muster even the faintest spark of hope.
“Kill it immediately!! Pour everything you have!!! Focus on the mana ray cannons and commence large-scale bombardment!!”
“C-Commander! Our allies haven’t evacuated yet!!!”
“Shut up!!!! Even so, quite a few have already escaped!!! If they’re still stuck and unable to retreat at this point, waiting for them is pointless!!! Fire now!!! That is an order!!!!!”
Even though some of their own men remained in combat, the commander ordered an indiscriminate full barrage. His command was not born of cruelty but of desperate survival instinct. If they did not stop the monster with bombardment right now, total annihilation awaited them. Those whose legs had given out, those who were injured, or those who had chosen the suicidal option of counterattacking were doomed anyway. Ignoring the ones already destined to die and bombing the area was the only way to create even the slightest chance of survival for the rest. The captain of the magic colossi control team knew it was an impossible situation, yet he still hesitated to slaughter their own allies and tried to suggest reconsideration. But he already knew the answer. Pushed by the commander’s frantic order, he finally moved the colossi.
Zwooooooooong!!!
The majestic sight of nineteen magic colossi charging their power simultaneously. Even the control captain, who oversaw all operation and maintenance of the units, had never witnessed such a grand spectacle before. In his entire service, he had never actually deployed them in real combat. He and his entire crew had trained diligently, so they could carry out the mission without issue, but this was their first time firing on an actual enemy. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined their debut battle would involve a full salvo from nineteen mana ray cannons. That alone showed how extraordinary the current catastrophe was.
Kugugugugugugu!!!Kugugugugu!!!Kugugugugugugugu!!!
The mana ray cannons fired in unison, surging toward Beatrice. Nineteen enormous beams that carved deep furrows into the earth raced toward her. Yet Beatrice showed no emotion whatsoever. She simply leaped high into the air. Propelled solely by leg strength, she soared into the distant sky until her figure grew faint. The only thing that filled the sudden void she left behind was the death of human soldiers.
Gooooooooh…
The place where one overwhelming attack had passed. The ruins left behind by the magic colossi’s strongest weapons. Having lost their target before the attack even landed, the colossi could not even begin the full bombardment that was supposed to follow. All that remained was the roar of displaced air rushing back in after the terrain-altering strike, howling like a lament for the miserably slain.
“F-full barrage……”
“Yes…?”
“I said full barrage, damn it!!! Why are you standing there like idiots!!! Look up at the sky!!!!”
Beatrice, who had soared so high she had vanished from sight, was now plummeting at overwhelming speed toward the colossi’s formation.
Tu-woong!!Tu-woong!!Tu-woooooong!!Tudududududududududu!!!
Kwaaaang!!Kwaang!!Kwaaaaaang!!
The control team, having finally reacquired their target, unleashed every weapon at their disposal. Barrels firing explosive shells. Barrels pouring out mana rounds at ferocious rates of fire. Barrels launching massive steel projectiles through internal explosions. Every means of attack was directed at Beatrice.
Oooooooong…Shukwaaaaaang!!!
Yet the desperate full barrage carrying the hopes of the entire human army could not land a single hit. Powerful energy had gathered in her mana thrusters and then erupted. Beatrice had already been falling at overwhelming speed. When the thrusters added their propulsion to gravity’s acceleration, her velocity became nothing short of a streak of light.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang!!!
Beatrice cast defensive magic to withstand the pressure of atmospheric resistance. She had only done so out of concern that her precious outfit, a gift from her beloved master, might tear, but it also proved just how unrealistic her speed truly was. Less than a second after boosting with her thrusters, she had already broken the sound barrier. A violent explosion of air accompanied by a thunderous roar erupted around her. A circular vapor cloud formed from the sudden condensation of atmospheric moisture. There was no means capable of stopping her descent at supersonic speed. There was no weapon powerful enough to shoot her down. The human army could only stare helplessly at the death descending from above.