Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume10 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 8===

After Quenser and Heivia started shooting down the barrage balloons overhead, the others around them started doing the same. Bombs rained from the sky. Some Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers were nearly blown away on occasion, but they still managed to destroy most of the attack formation sunken in the mud.

The few that were lucky enough to survive were dealt with using shoulder-fired missiles and the like.

“Place the injured on the capsized hovercraft. Only the hovercraft! Place them on the wreckage of the tanks or armored trucks and they could get caught in the explosion if one of their shells goes off!!”

Heivia held a piece of an armor panel below his stomach like a body board as he shouted instructions around.

Quenser was similarly floating on top of the mud and he was staring into the distance as he lay on his stomach.

“This might be over sooner than we thought.”

Black smoke was rising there.

Some of it came from the tanks and armored trucks they had been targeting, but some of the fallen barrage balloon bombs seemed to have hit the Rafflesia thermobaric antiaircraft guns.

Once they were out of the picture, the Legitimacy Kingdom could fire their cruise missiles.

And once the coagulant was scattered from the air and the marsh quickly solidified, the Baby Magnum could be sent out. Once that happened, it became a perfect game for them.

But just as he thought that, he heard an odd noise.

“What’s that?”

It sounded different from a car or motorcycle engine. It was higher-pitched and more like a whistle. Quenser grimaced as the high-pitched roar stabbed at his ears and he saw several shapes arranged in a horizontal line and approaching from the horizon.

But by the time he saw them, they were already incredibly close.

They were fast.

The formation carried a mass of air with them as they passed right by the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers. A moment later, intense pain exploded in Quenser’s ears and a dull pain spread through his chest like his lungs had been forcibly overinflated.

“Gyah!?”

“Dammit! What are those things!? Hovercraft!?”

Based on the direction they came from, they had to be weapons from the factory, but they moved right past Quenser and the others.

Their objective lay elsewhere.

“Frolaytia!! The barrage balloons might be filling the radar with readings, but something insane is racing around below them. They’re probably trying to attack the maintenance base zone! Prepare to intercept them!!”

Even as he shouted over the radio, the second wave arrived.

They formed a reverse V-shape like a flock of migratory birds. When they saw that the hovercraft were equipped with heavy machineguns and multiple rocket launchers, the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers were filled with fear as well as surprise. Some even aimed their assault rifles and grenade launchers toward the approaching enemy.

Fortunately, the enemy was moving in a completely straight line, so it was not difficult to target them even with their extreme speed.

There was an explosion, but it was large.

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It was far too large. The grenade launcher was only meant to fire hand grenades farther than could be thrown by hand, so it could never have caused this explosion. Like an accident at a fireworks show, explosive flames covered dozens of meters and a shockwave swept out even further.

Quenser had been lying on top of an armor panel, but he was tossed into the air and slammed into the bottomless swamp-like mud.

“Bh…gah!? What…the hell? Did we set off something inside it?”

“Dammit, this isn’t right. Something about this isn’t right! Dammit!!”

To keep himself from sinking, Quenser grabbed nearby piece of wood and spat out the words with mud covering his face.

He looked to the wreckage of the hovercraft scattered about in the distance.

The wreckage continued to burn with orange flames even when it fell into the wet mud. There was plenty that could have exploded, like the ammunition or the rocket motor fuel, but no matter how much he tried to make sense of it, it seemed too unsafe. Pieces of the structure were completely unnecessary for an armed hovercraft. It was like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces of an entirely different puzzle mixed in.

“You’re kidding…”

“What is it, Quenser?”

“This is no joke. They’re really using this ridiculous weapon in battle!?”