Live Bait
Enlow and Grik abandoned their earlier bravado and began sprinting in blind panic. Yet the Earthworm, its body stretching long and sinuous, moved with terrifying speed. They would never clear the forest before it caught them.
“Luna, save us!”
“Hey! What are you doing? Help us already!”
So these two were actually this pathetic. Enlow was one of the few second-years who could hold his own against Rendel, and Grik was the top student of the first-year class. Their composure had completely shattered. Did they really believe a single Nimust-class could take that thing down? Though, to be fair, Limpid was no ordinary Nimust-class.
“Let’s go.”
[Roger!]
A low hum vibrated through the frame as I pressed the flight button. The crew fairies answered at once, and the Limpid Fairy’s engines roared to life. Her flight ceiling was absurdly high—high enough to brush the mana field in the sky—but after days of practice I had learned to keep her at a comfortable altitude. Just in case, I had already preset the fairies with the Black Fairy’s limit of one hundred and fifty meters. They would handle any mistakes on their own.
Below me, the wooden platform that had served as my shelter for the past few days splintered and fell away. I left behind a faint twinge of regret and guided the mecha over the forest canopy toward the point where Enlow and Grik were likely to break into the open.
“Can you both see me? Run straight this way!”
Pathetic or not, I couldn’t just leave them to die. The Earthworm had already entered the trees, weaving between trunks as it chased the two Aindiums. The gap between hunter and prey slowly widened, but the moment they cleared the forest the monster would close in instantly. That would be my moment.
“Call for backup, quickly!”
“I already did.”
“We’re about to get eaten right now!”
“It’s fine. You won’t die.”
I wasn’t about to let that happen. Losing two perfectly good decoys before Rendel even arrived would be a waste.
Through the scope I watched the cloud of dust and the swaying treetops the Earthworm left in its wake. Ahead of it, the two Student Council Aindiums somehow maintained their balance while running at full speed. If they had been human, their legs would have tangled or their hearts and lungs would have given out. Then again, the two riding those machines probably had hearts the size of raisins already.
Once they were close enough that the scope was unnecessary, I moved in. The two Aindiums reached the forest’s edge with the Earthworm right on their heels.
“Aaaaaah!”
Someone—either Enlow or Grik—screamed. I calmly pressed the button to deploy the external modules. With a sharp hiss, two anchors shot from the waist-mounted module. The pair grabbed the cables as if they were lifelines, and I accelerated toward the plains, reeling them in.
The Limpid Fairy’s output far exceeded that of ordinary Aindiums. She could tow two larger Aind-class units without difficulty. The anchors’ winches and engines strained, and the two machines began an ungainly flight without wings.
“Aaaack!”
Whoever it was, they were loud. I cut the comm channel connecting me to Enlow and Grik. I needed to focus on fishing.
The two Aindiums, now literal live bait, rapidly distanced themselves from the forest. The Earthworm surged upward after them, jaws gaping wide. I deliberately slackened the anchors for a moment, then yanked them hard to increase speed. The Earthworm’s massive maw snapped shut on empty air. When its enormous body crashed back to the ground, the impact shook the earth and left a crater.
Once I confirmed the entire length of the Earthworm had been dragged into the open, I opened a different channel.
“Senior. Now!”
Far across the plain, a pure-white frame was already racing toward us at impossible speed. To buy Rendel a little more time, I fired at the Earthworm as it tried to rise. The special armor-piercing rounds Kirie had made. They should work even on this thing.
Clang—
They ricocheted. The angle must have been wrong; the bullets struck the side of its neck—steel and stone hide—and bounced away. What a waste. I hadn’t brought many of those rounds.
The two Aindiums dangling from the anchors kept struggling. The Earthworm was over a hundred meters long; to rear up it needed at least half its body on the ground, so the bait currently hung at roughly fifty meters. Since Rendel had arrived, it was time to drop them.
I let the anchors descend gradually. Enlow and Grik’s machines climbed the cables instead of descending, clearly unwilling to return to the ground. Apparently Aindiums could climb ropes. First time I’d seen that.
No helping it. I anchored the ends to the ground and severed the lines. The two machines plummeted. Between them, the White Fang flashed past like a white comet. I lowered my altitude and followed in Rendel’s wake.
His low, steady voice came through the open channel.
“Luna. What the hell is that thing?”
“A locally famous monster, apparently. Want to take it down together?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to request military support?”
“If the army shows up and charges it, we’ll have a disaster on our hands. Tanks and armored vehicles would just be extra meals for it.”
The Earthworm’s speed was already too much for even agile Aindiums to handle safely. A few solid hits would probably destroy the main frame as well. Ordinary cadets stood no chance. Only something like Rendel’s White Fang with its acceleration or my flying Limpid Fairy could weather its attacks. Or a veteran pilot.
“Bombardment isn’t an option either. We might get caught in the blast, and if we drive it off we won’t know where it’ll go next.”
“True. Guess we have no choice.”
Rendel spoke calmly while already engaging the monster. He used his acceleration to dodge a direct headbutt, then dragged his blade along its flank. The sword failed to pierce the tough hide, throwing sparks instead. It only left a shallow scratch.
“The sword isn’t working!”
Most Aindium swords could coat their blades with mana. Similar to the aura blades of swordmasters in fantasy novels or beam sabers in some sci-fi series. The problem was that the Earthworm, having gorged on Ellydium, had developed high resistance to mana. Rendel’s blade had been reduced to an ordinary sharp sword—and even that was stopped by hide made of metal and stone.
Which was why I had prepared something in advance.
“Senior! Use the mace!”
The hammer slung across the White Fang’s back would be the answer. In the original story, when an Earthworm crossed the border between Alitus and Taraen, Taraen deployed a special hammer unit. Their soldiers had favored blunt weapons against the Empire’s heavily armored troops for centuries, and that tradition carried over to their Aindium forces. Against an opponent whose body ignored mana constructs and shrugged off bullets, a simple, brutal hammer strike was devastatingly effective. After the hammer unit joined the fight, the Earthworm’s body was crushed and collapsed; at the very end, Rendel severed its head.
Fans had argued about that scene—whether the monster’s internal shield weakened as its strength faded, or whether Rendel had awakened. I never got to see the conclusion because I ended up here before the next episode aired. It would be nice if Rendel gained something from this battle, but right now the priority was defeating the Earthworm with our own strength. That was why I wanted him to pick up the mace. With his acceleration and the hammer’s weight, he might be able to finish it in one blow.
Smash it to pieces with the hammer, Rendel.
That was what I had been hoping for…
“Not using it.”
“What?”
“I said I’m not using it.”
Why was he like this again?
“You just said the sword doesn’t work. Did you already forget?”
“Aren’t you the one who forgot our bet?”
Ah. So that was it. He was risking his life over a stupid bet? We needed a veteran pilot with a blunt weapon right now, not this nonsense.
“Senior, stop being stubborn.”
“It’s not stubbornness.”
A hint of laughter colored Rendel’s voice.
“I think I can do it.”
Before I could answer, he accelerated sharply, carving a wide arc and closing in on the Earthworm’s body. I gained altitude and sprayed the monster with my submachine gun to draw its attention.
GROOOAAAR—!!
The Earthworm let out a deafening roar that shook the air and rushed forward at terrifying speed. Even knowing it couldn’t reach me, my heart lurched. The actual distance was safe, but it felt like it was right in front of me. Inside its enormous circular maw, rows of saw-like teeth glistened.
And it kept getting closer…
[Luna!]
“Hah.”
At Unit One’s shout I snapped out of it and released the flight limiter. Altitude climbed rapidly. The Earthworm that had been at my feet dropped back to the ground, kicking up an enormous cloud of dust.
Good grief. Did it just jump? If I had still been in the Black Fairy, that would have been far too close.
“Luna! Are you all right?”
“Y-yes. I’m fine. What about you, Senior?”
“The dust is blocking visibility. Can you mark its position?”
“I’ll share the coordinates.”
I transmitted the last known positions of the Earthworm’s head and tail. The White Fang plunged into the dust cloud. I had worried it might be dangerous, but the dust parted around the White Fang’s path, revealing the writhing Earthworm on the ground. The White Fang was built on a wind-attribute frame, after all. That function came standard.
Rendel tried several times to slash the recovering Earthworm. Each strike only produced sparks; the hide remained untouched.
“Senior, the sword won’t work.”
I spoke in a chiding tone, but Rendel stubbornly refused to sheathe his blade. When the Earthworm renewed its attack, he fell back to maintain distance. After a long sigh, he called my name.
“Luna.”
“Yes.”
“That conversation you had with Enlow and Grik earlier—was it to lure this thing out?”
“Huh? How did you—”
“Answer me.”
How did he know I had contacted those two? There was no point hiding it anymore. If I tried to lie now, Rendel would be disappointed.
“Yes. You’re right. I did it to draw the monster out.”
“Why go to such lengths?”
“Because I believed you could defeat it, Senior.”
“You brought this dangerous creature here just because you thought I could beat it?”
“That’s not it!”
Rendel’s voice had dropped, turning cold. His pride in his homeland was strong, and he genuinely wished for Alitus’s peace. The reason I had gone so far as to summon a monster that would never have appeared in this region if left alone…
What could I say? That there was a monster that consumed Ellydium and I wanted to extract some? Would that even sound believable coming from me?
Ah. I remembered a perfectly usable excuse for this situation.
“On my first day here, I went to the village for supplies, remember?”
“I do.”
“I heard about it there. Apparently this monster wiped out several villages in the past.”
The old street vendor had been a survivor of that incident. At the time, Alitus’s relationship with Taraen had been poor, so the kingdom had been reluctant to station troops along the border. That was why the Earthworm had never been dealt with. The two countries had recently formed an alliance and relations were improving, but decades had passed since the attacks, the affected area had a small population, and the monster had simply faded from memory.
After I finished explaining, Rendel was silent for a while. Then he gripped his sword properly, began deflecting the Earthworm’s attacks, and reignited his fighting spirit.
“All right. Let’s definitely take it down.”
“Yes, Senior.”
I knew appealing to Rendel’s sense of justice would work. Still… Rendel, isn’t it about time you used the mace? Why are you still holding that sword?