032. Frost Phantom (1)
032. Frost Phantom (1)
I moved with Laika, studying the map as we went.
It wasn't far. About a thirty-minute walk from the ice wall.
At the eastern edge of the basin that made up the Ice Shell, a massive artificial structure came into view.
"This is..."
"A forward base."
Forward Base, Allegro.
"But... wasn't the Ice Shell supposed to have no stationed troops?"
"That's right. There's no one. Look."
I pointed at the Allegro building.
The place was in such bad shape it barely deserved to be called a base.
In fact, it was hard to recognize it as man-made at all: buried in snow, its walls torn away and its framework exposed.
Which made sense. This forward base, Allegro, had been shut down.
"What happened?"
"The Frost Phantom, most likely."
Thanks to its climate manipulation, this area had become a place where no one could possibly settle and hold.
So the base had been decommissioned long before the operation involving Laika and Seo Se-rin even began.
Only its most basic functions were still maintained by an unmanned system.
"Basic functions?"
"Like the Phase Distorter."
Most bases, Krädel included, housed enormous, extremely powerful Phase Distorters.
They periodically emitted disrupting phases to block Legion approaches and jam communication systems.
In essence, it was an oversized anti-Legion loudspeaker constantly blaring noise, making them reluctant to approach under normal circumstances.
"Don't they come looking for it and break it?"
"When humans are stationed there, they're stopped from doing that. With no humans around, they don't bother."
For better or worse, Legions weren't particularly proactive about anything except killing humans.
Rather than storm an unmanned base and destroy the transmitter, they took a simpler and more rational approach.
They developed a kind of adaptation to the interference, so signal disruption wouldn't occur—at least when they were far from the Phase Distorter.
The Frost Phantom had surely adapted to the jamming frequency of this closed base, Allegro, in the same way.
So I asked Laika a question.
"What happens if you suddenly turn off the distorter when they've adapted to the disruptive phase like that?"
"......If you turn it off?"
Laika truly wasn't the sharpest biodroid.
But she was kind and cute, so that was fine.
Anyway. The answer was this.
"If you turn off the distorter, it'll be incapacitated for a short while."
"Euhye? Really?"
Yes.
Because the adaptation I mentioned earlier was achieved by automatically erasing only the noise matching the jamming frequency from surrounding signals.
In other words, it was like having automatic noise correction enabled—and then the noise suddenly vanished, making it impossible to determine what the normal signal even was.
"Of course, that stunned state won't last more than a dozen or so seconds."
By then, it would realize the noise was gone.
But the fact that we could secure even that much time was what mattered.
Laika had a way to unleash an overwhelmingly powerful strike during that brief window of incapacitation.
"......You're telling me to activate the equipment skill?"
"That's right."
Not just activate it—activate the Rampage skill alongside it.
With all her stats boosted by one tier, she would use 「Shape Shift - Full Bloom」, the skill of her new equipment, Last Bloom.
If a strike that powerful landed while the target couldn't take any defensive action, not even an A-rank Legion could withstand it.
By that logic, there were two problems to solve.
"First, we need to lure the Frost Phantom as close to here as possible."
Because the duration of the incapacitation from the vanishing noise was directly linked to the distance from the Phase Distorter.
If we turned it off at our current location—practically right in front of it—we'd secure a dozen or so seconds of stun time, as I said. But if the distance were several hundred meters or more, we might not even get a few seconds.
It would be nearly impossible for Laika, who still wasn't proficient with Last Bloom, to land a precise blow in that brief a window.
So the Frost Phantom had to be drawn in as close as possible.
But that wasn't the only problem.
There was a harder problem than simple physical distance.
Namely, the activation condition for Last Bloom's skill.
Unique Skill: 「Shape Shift - Full Bloom」
Whenever an enemy attack is blocked with the shield, a portion of the incoming damage is stored in the core at the center of the shield as 'Phase Energy.'
The accumulated energy fills the cherry blossom patterns on the shield's surface with a blue light, and the skill can be activated once it reaches 100% charge.
"To activate the skill, you have to charge it with damage taken first. You know what that means, right?"
"......Yeah."
Laika answered a moment later.
"Until the gauge is completely full, Laika has to keep blocking the Frost Phantom's attacks. While fighting it up close."
Exactly.
Only after filling the gauge all the way like that could she activate the skill and slice the thing apart.
"It's not going to be easy."
The Frost Phantom, as shown on the radar, was two kilometers from us.
I couldn't accompany her while she lured it here. I didn't have the means to block and dodge its attacks the way Laika did.
I also had to stay here and wait so I could precisely manipulate the Phase Distorter at the right moment.
That meant during the luring process, the phase resonance between Laika and me would be severed by distance, and Laika's stats would drop a little further than they were now.
In that state, she had to lure the thing while filling the gauge.
But still.
"I can do it."
Laika spoke with conviction.
"Because I've trained really, really hard. So... this time, I can protect you."
I see.
"Alright. The comms network is still dead beyond very short range. So if it comes to it, trigger Rampage on your own. Activate it without fail if you need it. It's possible you might finish it off with just the equipment skill, even without Rampage."
"Got it."
"Oh, and according to the data, its confirmed weak point is the right side. It's missing a leg on that side."
"Okay."
"When it raises the front part of its body, it's about to fire cold energy. Be absolutely ready to block."
"Okay, got that too."
Laika drew Last Bloom.
Right after that, I spoke.
"And, Laika."
"Yeah?"
With conviction, just like her.
"Thank you for following along so well up to now. When we get back safely, let's take a nice long nap together."
At those words, Laika grinned.
"That's a 'no return' flag, you know~"
"We have to charge through even things like that head-on. That's Krädel."
"Euhye~ Is that so~ Then a nap together it is~"
Laika added a moment later.
"And Laika is really grateful too, for leading me all this way."
With those final words, she dashed out toward the vast, snow-covered field.
***
Laika ran through the plan in her mind.
Lure the Frost Phantom to the closed base.
While luring it, and even after, block its attacks to charge Last Bloom's energy.
Once the energy reached one hundred percent, the Commander would turn off the Phase Distorter, and in that gap, Laika would deliver her strongest blow.
It wasn't a particularly complicated plan.
Over three months with the Commander, she had carried out missions far more complex and difficult than this.
The real difficulty was the fact that the enemy was that very Frost Phantom.
"......Found it."
In the middle of the snowy field she had run and run across.
She saw its form.
She didn't even need the radar to confirm it was the one. She knew it by sight.
She remembered it clearly.
The pure-white coating wrapped around its entire body.
The shape of a massive seven-legged spider, with one leg missing.
That monster had taken Laika's Commander from her, one year ago.
Back then, Laika hadn't been able to do anything. Because the thing had completely overwhelmed her.
It wasn't merely a gap in attack power or mobility.
That day, Laika hadn't even sensed the faintest sign of it approaching.
The moment it lunged at her, Laika had known nothing at all.
The memory of that day had left Laika with a fear that seemed as though it might never heal.
Even if she turned back time, Laika couldn't win that day's fight.
The Frost Phantom would overpower Laika for the rest of her life.
No matter what happened, Laika couldn't win.
It was the same now.
—I'm scared.
——Can I do it?
———Can I do it right?
Laika asked herself.
Hoping the answer might be somewhere inside, she delved into her memories and her heart and asked again and again.
Yet no answer came, and Laika suddenly wanted to run away.
And then.
Very faintly.
From what was probably two kilometers away, she felt the Commander's phase.
The phase resonating with Laika. The phase that Laika felt was no different from her own.
That phase answered her.
—You can do it.
Very faintly, but clearly.
That gave Laika courage.
That was why.
"Euryaaaaaaah——!"
Raising her shield, she charged forward.
Kwajik! One of Last Bloom's cherry blossom petals struck the thing's right flank.
—Shiiiiik.
The Frost Phantom exhaled cold air like a scream.
It had no reason to stop moving after that. Instead, it twisted the struck area away and drove its four left legs down at Laika.
In the previous fight, Laika had been sent flying by that blow, and from then on, she could think of nothing but fleeing.
But now.
Laika immediately raised her shield.
—Kung!
Two legs swept at her, but the blows struck squarely against her shield.
As a result, the first of the petals forming Laika's shield began to glow pink by about a quarter.
There were five petals in total. So roughly five percent had charged.
Of course, filling the gauge wasn't the end goal by itself.
Even at one hundred percent, she still needed to reach a specific position to land the attack.
So the pattern wasn't simply hit and block—it was hit, block, and create distance.
If there was one thing to be grateful for, it was that she didn't need to look where she was going at all.
She just had to head toward where the Commander's phase was.
Lately, Laika had developed a habit of heading that way first thing when she woke up. So the movement came naturally.
Even now, Laika fled in that exact direction without looking back.
—Kieeeeeek.
The Frost Phantom chased her, emitting a grotesque noise.
Its speed, naturally, exceeded Laika's.
But it didn't overwhelm her as completely as before. While Laika only had to run, the thing first had to close the gap and then lift its legs to attack.
Block or dodge that attack, then create distance again.
How many times had the same pattern repeated?
Through the blizzard, the full form of the closed base came into sight.
Visibility was limited to three hundred meters at best.
Laika ran. Two hundred meters. One hundred meters. Fifty meters.
Maybe, just maybe, this was doable.
The moment she thought that—
Two legs grazed past Laika's head.
She managed to dodge, somehow.
The problem was what came next.
No—perhaps almost simultaneously.
The thing raised the front part of its body.
She knew what it was about to do.
The motion of lifting its upper body. From inside those massive fangs, it would now fire cold energy formed from phase power.
Laika raised her shield in response, but she was a quarter-beat too slow.
"Gyah...!"
She blocked it.
She blocked it, but the cold energy grazed her right shoulder.
A freezing pain, as if her whole body was shattering apart.
Right then, noise crackled from the receiver hooked onto Laika's ear.
[Laika, can you hear me? If you can, report your status.]
Status.
Report.
All she could think was: It hurts.
It hurts. It hurtsithurtsithurtsithurts——
It hurt, but.
"Distance, within fifty meters of the Phase Distorter... slight shoulder injury."
Laika barely managed to get the words out.
Right after, the Commander asked.
[Can you do it? If it's dangerous, we can still pull out——]
"No."
Laika shook her head.
She couldn't turn back here.
The end was right in front of her.
The Commander had even found a way for her to win.
She hadn't even managed to deliver the gift she'd finally figured out.
And more than anything else.
—There's someone I have to save.
Someone I have to get out of that cold ice, even now, even though I'm far too late.
Because that person is right there.
Unable to give up no matter what, Laika gritted her teeth and struck back.
A year ago, in this place, she'd had no choice but to run. But now was different.
"I'll try! No, I have no choice but to try!"
Had he sensed my resolve?
A moment later, the Commander spoke.
[......The distance is enough. Preparations on this side are done, too. The issue is your gauge.]
Laika checked the cherry blossom petals.
Four out of five... and a little more.
If she blocked about three more times, it would be full.
So.
Putting strength into her ruined shoulder, Laika raised Last Bloom.
As if it had been waiting, the Frost Phantom lunged at her.