Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Greeting Couple in the Shadows

What is the difference

Between experts

And ordinary people?

Point Allocation (An Edge)

●

The Musashi group jumped down from the transport ships after they had descended far enough to skim just above the ground.

But they didn’t just jump. The transport ships’ rear loading hatches opened and runways were created with gravitational control.

Belt lines were drawn out with ether. These provided eight courses, which moved with the same speed as the ground flowing by below.

The disembarking crew would hop onto those and be immediately carried into the space behind their ship. That wouldn’t help much if they were blown away from there, but the capable ones could handle it differently.

They would resist and move forward.

If they ran along the flowing belts using acceleration spells and physical buffs, they could…

“Land!”

This let them literally hit the ground running.

They were disembarking south of Honnouji, midway up the hill. Those who jumped down into that wooded area used their acceleration from the transport ships to run north up the slope.

Their positions were scattered, but they had a rendezvous point.

They would be charging until the end, so they could each run as they saw fit.

“…”

But a few of them suddenly tripped in midair.

Their footing was unsteady and they fell over during the high-speed maneuver.

●

While it all happened at once, not many tripped, so it wasn’t enough to stop the overall flow.

They all called out to each other while weaving between the trees and running up the shallow slope.

“Hey, did you screw up your landing!?”

“Are you alright!? Can you stand on your own!?”

“Don’t trip over nothing when you’re out in front!”

The comments by passersby pushed the fallen ones to get back up in a hurry. And they all shouted at the passersby.

“I didn’t fall on purpose!”

That wasn’t much of an excuse, but after checking over their gear, they started running again. Except…

“Huh?”

Their backpacks fell from their backs.

The quickly gathered their backpacks back up and found the them shaking unsteadily.

The impact had broken or bent the joints with the hard point parts or the bags themselves. In the worst case, entire parts were missing.

“Oh, c’mon. What am I supposed to do about this?”

Now they would have difficulty participating in the fight. If their gear was in too bad a state, they would have to fall back to the withdrawal and extraction point.

Now I’ve done it, was the thought on the minds of everyone who tripped.

But soon another question occurred to them all.

“…!”

Some of those who had arrived first and some of those who had arrived later had tripped.

…Huh?

That’s odd, thought those who had arrived first. When I tripped, around 1 in 20 tripped.

Then why had the later group, who would have had advance warning, tripped too? And…

“Hold on. 1 in 7 of them tripped.”

That rate was way too high. Furthermore…

“Hey, look!”

A male student held his gear up in the light from the glowing pillars filtering through the trees. In his case, his main weapon – a tachi – had broken, but it was broken in a different way from the others.

The curved scabbard had a slash in it.

After seeing that, the commander of a different unit who happened to be passing by raised his voice.

“We’re under attack!”

Something happened at the same moment.

At the front of the group hurriedly changing their course, the people weaving between the trees’ shadows to reach Honnouji were blasted into the air.

This was more than just tripping. They had received a physical blow.

It wasn’t many, but they had suffered a definite attack and those behind them saw the enemy.

Two or three rows of warriors were crouched at the entrance to Honnouji less than kilometer up ahead.

That was a gunner unit with 20 people per row.

With the glow of the pillars behind them, the flames of spell gunpowder burst from their muzzles. But no one on the Musashi side could see the bullets. They only heard a sound like straining metal, and…

“Here it comes!”

Branches suddenly ruptured and leaves flew everywhere.

This wasn’t coming from ahead. Most came from above and some may have even come from behind.

“Guided rounds!?”

As soon as they heard bullets scraping against trunks and underbrush, a few were struck within the shadows of the trees.

There were injuries.

●

Mitsunari was commanding the continually-firing gunner unit. Um, how many of me are there right now? she wondered, realizing her sense of herself was gradually growing more roughly defined, but that may have just been what happened for the Aki training camp group.

…The way Hirano-sama would respond to Sakon-sama’s deaths toward the end like it was some kind of sport just won’t leave my head. And is that really how a Shinto shrine maiden should act?

But as she calmly fired the bullets, she also opened a lernen figur.

“Yasuke-sama, how much has the main Musashi unit been able to gather?”

She looked out from the front of the hill toward the ships in the sky.

Those silhouettes veering west were the transport ships which Musashi had used to charge toward Honnouji. The last of the five most likely carried Musashi’s main unit.

“They should be fully gathered in another two minutes,” responded Yasuke. “How are things going there?”

“As far as I can tell, I have managed to damage 21 – no, add two…three more to that – with my gunfire. Even in the woods, they will open defense barriers once this calms down, so it will be extremely difficult to get many more.”

“Shaja. Once they stop moving, could you fall back a bit to lure them in?”

“No,” she replied. “I am here to delay them, not exterminate them.”

She gave instructions to the gunner unit as she spoke.

“Listen. There is a trick to shooting. If you want to reduce their numbers instead of bunch them together, you must lure them into position.”

Most of those who had come to Honnouji were rookies. Mitsunari’s own combat experience… Was from the Aki training camp, so I have a lot of it. I’ve seen plenty of deaths on the battlefield. Yes. On that note, the line I started using when Sakon-sama died was “Pull yourself together and get going!”, but maybe that’s a separate issue. But I still think that is better than Kasuya-sama’s “My goodness!”, but I had to watch myself to make sure I didn’t react similarly.

Anyway, there was a trick to shooting.

“For the first shot, aim carefully for where you see the enemy and fire. For the second shot, aim for where they should be based on where they were.”

And…

“For the third shot, simply fire between the trees. And after that…”

This was the most important part.

“For the fourth shot, do the same as the first shot. Aim carefully. Then you will hit. You give them what they want in stages. I have determined that is more certain than shooting without a plan.”

●

The Musashi group felt trapped within the woods.

By the time Asama joined the others, the 1st through 3rd unit should have already arrived on the path to Honnouji’s entrance. Instead, they were stuck in the woods just before that path.

That prevented everyone else from moving on. But Asama understood why the front group couldn’t move.

…With the mix of directly aimed shots and seemingly random shots, they aren’t sure what they should do.

And the enemy’s shooting method was even nastier than that. They started by aiming carefully, then got less careful a couple of times before finally aiming carefully again just as the Musashi warriors were about to move. They were clearly switching it up, but if the Musashi warriors were going to make their move, it had to be during the less carefully aimed section.

Of course, everyone had realized that much. So the more experienced warriors in the lead were gesturing for everyone to keep their heads down.

“Hey! Everyone! Watch out! They’re luring us out with waves of loose and strict aiming! So you need to move out during a loose- gwahhhhh!”

“A-are you alright, everyone!? Watch out so you don’t end up like that idiot! You all saw that, didn’t you? The enemy is firing in a pattern! So you need to stand up during a loose- gwahhhhh!”

“Hey! Hey! What are you two doing!? If you stand up during a loose wave, you’ll get shot during the next strict wave! So you need to make your move during a strict- gwahhhhhh!”

That last one was at least different, but they really needed to stop this before too many of them got injured.

Asama let the medic team take care of them.

“I expected we would be stopped here.”

“On an open road, we could have activated defense barriers and charged in.”

Some of them noted that as they moved forward and the fourth and third units opened the way ahead. That is probably what will happen if we leave them in charge here, thought Asama, but…

“Eeek! The Chancellor’s group is coming up from behind!”

“He’ll do more than just hit us in the back of the knees! Clear the way!”

“For the love of god, get that enemy out of the way right this instant!”

Was that reaction a good thing? Was it a sign of trust?

But Asama had received a strange report from the group out front earlier. It concerned the barrage of bullets making a straining metal sound as they struck the trees and branches and it had caught her interest.

“These guided rounds aren’t encased in ether light?”

●

Art-Ga: “Is that possible?”

10ZO: “Our subject expert is already confused?”

Gold Mar: “Well, with spherical bullets, you can alter their trajectory to an extent by applying a spin during the acceleration sequence. It’s just you would normally include a buffing, course correction, and acceleration continuation spell, which would produce enough ether light on their own.”

Scarred: “Could they be applying stealth to the bullets?”

Smoking Girl: “If you don’t mind me interrupting from the Musashi, I’ve never heard of a stealth spell that works on objects as small and high speed as a bullet.”

Flat Vassal: “Could it be a new spell?”

Tachibana Wife: “I doubt it. Their state upon impact proves it.”

Tachibana Husband: “What do you mean, Gin?”

Art-Ga: “ ‘You don’t know? Fine, then I will explain, Master Muneshige,’ said Gin. And…”

Tachibana Wife: “D-do not put words in my mouth!”

●

Gin had some thoughts beyond her explanation, so she first had the entire main unit move a bit to the west.

She also instructed the other units to shift their positions east.

Among the group moving west, the 1st Special Duty Officer asked a question through his non-glowing sign frame.

“Are they using some kind of trick?”

“I cannot be certain yet, but there is something odd about this.”

Sounds like straining metal raced by even as she spoke.

“Wah!”

A Shinto defense barrier opened to the right of the vassal.

That was one of the auto-activating spells the Asama Shrine Representative had supplied. Most of the group was using them, but not all. They would only get in the way for some, like Gin, Muneshige, and the Vice Chancellor.

As long as they weren’t directly hit, they could endure these flying attacks to an extent.

“Did the bullet that hit Vassal Adele produce any ether light?” asked Gin.

Everyone exchanged a look and the vassal shook her head.

“No, I didn’t notice any.”

“Then these are not any kind of spell.”

“Huh?” said the Asama Shrine Representative. A moment later, the warriors on the leading edge of the group to the east readied themselves.

“Here it comes! The sound is circling this way!”

They looked all around and raised defense barriers. They were in the forest, but they still erected walls of defense barriers to box themselves in and hide themselves from all directions.

…Oh, no!

“1st Special Duty Officer! Don’t let them stop moving!”

As soon as Gin shouted this, a few of that group were blown away with a loud noise. They were blasted outwards from the center of their little group.

●

Asama didn’t understand what had happened.

Some of the warriors accompanying them had been blown away. But when it happened…

“Did a bullet hit in the center of them?”

“You didn’t see any ether light, did you?”

“No, they just suddenly exploded.”

The rescue squad was collecting that group and hurrying east. Asama’s group kept to the west as they slowly walked north, but if they moved too far, they would move away from Honnouji’s front entrance.

That may have been why Gin spoke while crouching low in a position that gave her a diagonal view of the path.

“If they were using stealth spells on their bullets, the stealth barrier would be torn away on impact, scattering ether light.”

“Which would mean that isn’t what was done to whatever has been hitting us, right?”

“Judge. Even ordinary bullets are hard to see at night. So I believe these are normal bullets with no spells applied at all.”

Gin’s argument was persuasive. But that raised another question.

A defense barrier opened near Noriki. It definitely blocked a grazing hit.

They were indeed under attack. A similar attack was underway against the warriors further to the east. Asama could hear their voices as they resisted. Which would mean…

“So these have been ordinary bullets hitting our people. But can even a master sharpshooter make their bullets circle behind people?”

“Could you do it, Asama Shrine Representative?”

“No, that just isn’t possible.”

She noticed broad smiles forming on everyone’s faces.

“Wh-what are those looks for!? It really isn’t possible without any protections or spells!”

“That leads to a question and a suggestion,” said Gin. “Why are these attacks only happening to the ordinary warriors who split off from us?”

“Eh?”

Asama suddenly realized that was true. The voices from the east made it clear they were having a rough time, but only the occasional defense barrier was activating over here.

…What could this mean?

Gin responded to Asama’s unspoken question.

“There is a way to reach a result on par with a spell or divine protection without producing ether light. Do you know what that is?”

Before Asama could think about it, someone else spoke up: Mitotsudaira. She raised her hand and answered.

“Species traits. I can hide the ether light of my grooming protection if I want to and some species have stealth protections to help them hunt.”

“Judge. So the answer is simple.” Gin drew a short sword from within her prosthetic arm and held it in hands so large they hid it from view. “We must hunt our prey. What could be simpler?”

●

The Musashi warriors advancing through the forest from a position east of the main force continued forward on a command from the 1st Special Duty Officer.

They readied their spell shields as defense barriers and hurried through the trees.

“Form horizontal rows! Form up in waves!”

“Judge!” everyone replied and moved forward.

They were less than 200m from the end of the forest. With their physical buffing spells, they could move quick in the forest. They could easily clear that distance in 30 seconds.

But the trees acted as obstacles. In the lead row, anyone who had to avoid a tree would raise a hand to inform the rest of the rows where to break formation.

Then the sounds returned. Gunshots overlapped while the groaning metal sound circled around them.

“Here it comes!”

Those on either side of the trees readied their defense barriers.

The front row readied their own defense barriers against the sound like claws tearing into space itself and the other rows worked to cover them from behind.

They crouched and braced for impact just before it arrived.

The sound suddenly vanished.

This was when they had taken damage before.

The enemy bullets would slip past their defenses and someone on the interior would fall.

“Is it going to happen again!?” someone asked.

They heard a pair of impacts. Someone had been hit. Two someones.

“Damn!”

The warriors quickly lowered their defenses and began to form up again.

They were on this eastern route on a command from the 1st Special Duty Officer who was on the western route himself. But it hadn’t helped at all, so…

“That damn ninja!”

“He’ll pay on the divine network later!”

“Yeah, it’s not like we can say this to his face!”

In the darkness, they all clenched their fists until they shook, but then they realized something.

They had heard two impacts earlier, but…

“Huh?”

They looked side to side and everyone was there.

No one was missing. In fact, there were two more people than before. A pair of figures was crouching behind the defense barriers they had erected earlier.

…What is going on?

Then the figures stood up. One was a tall boy and the other a short girl.

The tall one, the boy with a long-tipped spear, raised his right hand in a light greeting.

“Keep up the good work! I’m Tachibana Muneshige!”

●

“Huh?”

Everyone viewed those two. If the boy was the Vice Chancellor’s aide, then that had to be Tachibana Gin by his side. But…

“Um, where did you come from?”

“Judge! My apologies! We come from above where we were running along the tree leaves. Gin is extremely light and that route is much safer.”

“Master Muneshige, you are the lighter of the two of us.

“Also,” said Gin as she opened a sign frame and illuminated the ground with its light.

There were shadows there.

No, those weren’t just shadows. It was a pair of nonhumans much too big to call humanoid. They were…

“Half-dragons!?”

●

“Judge,” replied Gin.

Half-dragons about 2m tall lay collapsed half-sunken into the grass at her and Muneshige’s feet.

They had no wings and they were probably colored entirely black. They wore no gear on their upper body and they were only equipped with summer uniform pants, a short sword, and a pick hammer. Both weapons had spells applied, but their ether radiation had been reduced as far as possible.

Gin could guess who they were.

“These are shadow walker half-dragons. The species was engineered for ground combat and that process provided them with Celestial Dragon techniques. They can pass through shadows just like shadow spirits.”

They were from the New World.

The New World of Ezo had been inhabited by peoples with their own unique cultures before the arrival of Columbus and other adventurers from Europe.

The history recreation of this had been carried out in the Harmonic Divine States. So in the early days when people were still working to take control of the Harmonic Divine States, the development and stability of distant Ezo had been crucial.

Nonhumans like the half-dragons had been given that task.

Of course, they did have backup from the real Divine States through the Gate, but survival in that harsh environment was said to have been a challenge. So to regroup with them more quickly, a certain event had gathered a lot of attention: the Reconquista.

In the Middle Ages, the dragons who had inherited the names of the Germanic tribes had swept across Europe. This became known as the Draconic Hazard, which ended in the 9th Century when the inherited name of Charlemagne was given to the humans and the world entered a cooling period, but remnants of the dragons and the Mlasi in Europe, who sensed the coming rise of Turkey, established a defensive line in the Iberian Peninsula.

At the time, it was half-dragon units who fought on the front line of the Reconquista. Most of them had originally been on the dragons’ side, but their fellow half-dragons were in the New World. They knew their fellow half-dragons were struggling to survive in a harsh environment and they knew the success of the Reconquista would lead to the arrival of the Age of Exploration. Knowing that would allow them to rejoin their fellow half-dragons, they sided with the humans.

Ultimately, the Reconquista history recreation was carried out and the half-dragons were reunited. Most of those who had managed to survive in the New World were those with species traits and spells allowing them to survive in great heat, and shadow walking was one such ability.

Shadow walking allowed one to hide in and move through shadows.

As long as there were shadows, they could hand their living space over to someone else, so regions where they lived had much higher survival rates.

But after the completion of the Reconquista, Tres España shifted to a belief in pure bloodlines and nonhumans other than the long-lived were no longer welcome there. Of course, with their vitality and strength, half-dragons could live just about anywhere.

…Musashi’s 2nd Special Duty Officer must be a descendant of those people.

His parents ran a bedding store, but cleaning futons and such was a Mlasi specialty. So were his ancestors the half-dragons who fought in the Reconquista?

The world turned and created new connections.

And the world had formed a connection here as well.

After the Shadow Walker half-dragons left Tres España, they moved to the Dark Continent because its environment was similar to the New World and there was little religious oppression there. The history recreation of the slave trade had occurred from there, but Europe had guaranteed they would be treated with care. And then…

“Oda Nobunaga traded with Europe and took in a Black slave. I heard he was given the name Yasuke and appointed to an important position. Given who we see collapsed here now, the enemy must have a unit of shadow walker half-dragons and their leader must be him. When P.A. Oda’s Ranmaru visited Musashi before, I was told he hid nearby as her bodyguard. He likely hid in her shadow.”

●

Gin took a sharp look around.

…They are there.

She sensed movement. They were keeping their distance but not fleeing.

So she spoke loud enough for them to hear.

“The gunfire and straining metal sounds had nothing to do with each other. P.A. Oda had the half-dragons enter the forest. And as a species capable of traveling through shadows, the half-dragon unit attacked in time with the gunfire to fool us.”

Her analysis received no response from the forest.

…So they intend to keep fighting.

She was impressed. They did not flee even after their trick was revealed.

They were desperate too. So she had a question.

“1st Special Duty Officer, I will be sending these warriors on, but how will you respond to this attack?”

●

I see, thought Tenzou.

Gin’s explanation from the forest to the right made sense to him.

“When Ranmaru-dono visited the Musashi before, I did sense another presence with her.”

“Judge,” agreed Mitotsudaira who had noticed it then too. She formed a humanoid shape with her hands. “I noticed a scent like someone was hiding behind her. It didn’t occur to me someone could be hiding in her shadow itself, though.”

“And,” said Mary, next to Tenzou. “His troops are in this forest?”

“They are. Probably 7 or 8 of them.”

But none of them had come here, to the west. They were all targeting the warriors to the east.

They had split their forces like that on Gin’s instruction, but…

…You can always count on Gin-dono.

Gin must have realized the enemy’s identity based on the attacks and her own knowledge. As a gunner herself, it must have been easy for her to identity the enemy gunfire as a distraction.

And she had split them between officers and warriors in order to give the enemy a false sense of confidence.

After all, Tenzou and Mitotsudaira had detected Yasuke’s presence before.

Also, the enemy’s strategy was to whittle down the warriors, ridding the Musashi group of their defenders. That would be a disadvantage when entering Honnouji.

By that point, Tenzou had caught on and gave the command to defend.

He did so right as the warriors were avoiding the trees.

The gaps in their formation had created the perfect gaps for half-dragons to emerge from the shadows below.

But then Gin and Muneshige had run across the tree leaves above and caught the enemy by surprise. It was impressive how Gin’s initial instruction had paid off like that. The half-dragons below must not have imagined the shadows overhead could be from attackers even higher up “falling” toward them.

And so they had had given the enemy the perfect opportunity to lure them out.

And with all that done, Tenzou knew exactly what command to give.

“Everyone, continue onward!”

●

Muneshige heard metal.

It coincided with the gunfire and spun rapidly through the forest to attack the warriors.

But…

…That is not gunfire.

Their equipment caused discord when shadow walking. Some species traits affected worn equipment as well, but apparently not in this case. They could take it into the shadows with them, but the portion that spilled out beyond the range of their trait’s protection would scrape against the gap between shadow and non-shadow as they moved.

That was the source of the straining metal sound.

It was hard to miss in the darkness of the night, but when it coincided with gunfire and whizzing bullets, it was a lot harder to assess. They had likely come up with this tactic for that very reason.

“Master Muneshige, they are on guard now.”

The metal straining sound was a lot quieter now. They must have stopped moving so carelessly and were regulating their speed. And if they were restraining their movements even as the Musashi warriors continued forward…

“Do they intend to stop us?”

As soon as Muneshige said that, he felt a chill on the right of his neck.

A black blade was suddenly pressed against it.

●

The advancing warriors saw Muneshige suddenly spin around.

No one was surprised. Because he was a weird guy. When he and his wife Gin took a morning walk, she would smoothly draw a short sword and swing it without warning and say, “Excellent dodging, Master Muneshige.” So the warriors figured this was just another part of their recreation.

But his spin was accompanied by a great figure.

A pitch-black half-dragon.

“Whoa!?”

The reason for the surprised cry was obvious. Muneshige had grabbed the half-dragon’s right hand and twirled around once more. The enemy had been trying to catch him off guard and hadn’t expected to be tugged with such great strength.

Meanwhile, the warriors were disturbed by it all.

“If someone has a blade to your throat, can you really dodge it by spinning?”

He had made the spin with the blade right against his throat.

“Yeah, but this is the Vice Chancellor’s aide. He’s a weird guy.”

“To be clear, he’s not a bad person! And neither is his wife!”

That was why he fell into the category of “weird”, but then they heard a noise from a different position.

From Gin. She had readied Arcabuz Cruz within her prosthetic arm and fired into empty air.

There was nothing at all in the space she aimed for. And…

“You could use more training. What is the point of attacking from the direction needed to kill?”

The wife used that absurd logic to strike an enemy in seemingly empty space.

The cannon blast cracked the half-dragon’s armor and slammed him against a tree trunk. The impact shook the entire forest.

●

…This is nothing to be ashamed of, but it is a Tres España issue.

While it had happened before her birth, the shadow walker half-dragons were part of her birthplace’s history. That fact meant she and Muneshige had to handle this.

Furthermore…

“During our time building up our careers in the New World, we were assisted by you, other half-dragons, and other nonhumans. We often hunted common dragons and other animals together and I recall enjoying dinners with you.”

Her relationship with Muneshige had reached a more comfortable position then.

An expedition away from her father and homeland had partially been meant as a simple change of pace, but it had deepened her relationship with Muneshige and changed her own attitude as well.

The half-dragons who had assisted her then were not the same as these ones here. But…

“I will repay the favors they showed me by proving my worth now.”

That statement was a challenge.

…I cannot allow any more damage to the warriors.

They required personnel to ensure their safety while entering Honnouji and when withdrawing. Honnouji had not been secured for them like Novgorod’s underground ruins and the Houjou ruins had been.

Simply put, Honnouji could be seen as the enemy’s central base. Gin knew enough about attacking castles to know they could not afford to lose much of their forces before even arriving at the “castle”. Especially when they needed to get the Chancellor’s group to the center.

…I am sure that the 5th Special Duty Officer and others will protect them and that Honda Futayo will breach the enemy defenses.

But the unexpected could always happen and if they had no route back…

“––––”

What if this ended the way Mikawa did?

If Gin hadn’t been there, Muneshige would have been caught in the destruction of Mikawa. And if the other unit hadn’t arrived, everyone injured by Honda Tadakatsu would have as well.

She had to protect everyone here and make sure they got through. So…

“Let’s go on ahead, Master Muneshige.”

As soon as she said that, new attacks arrived.

They came from the front and rear. From the rear, a striking pick to her right prosthetic arm and a blade to the center of her back.

From the front, blades stabbed toward her lower chest and between her legs.

The blades coming from the front were less than 5cm away.

Not only was it an extreme close-range pincer attack, but the number of weapons told her…

…They are dual wielding.

●

The half-dragons saw this as a sure thing.

It was rare to achieve so much at night.

For shadow walkers, the night was a challenging environment because the darkness consumed the shadows.

In the darkness, shadows were weakened, preventing them from moving or diving as much as they would like.

It was like trying to swim in the shallows.

It all came down to the difference between darkness and shadow. But when they or ninjas with similar abilities appeared in novels or manga, the two concepts were often conflated. Lately, it had started happening in video games too, which was infuriating.

But forests were a different matter. Especially when there were glowing pillars providing a massive light source.

The shadows here were deep even in the darkness, allowing the half-dragons to move through them.

Shadow walking wasn’t limited to the shadows cast on the ground.

Shadows began at the object blocking the light and continued all the way to the ground. The shadow cast on the ground was only the end point – it was not the full shadow itself.

Everything in the space blocked from the light was the shadow.

And in this forest, there were plenty of obstacles and an enormous light source.

The glowing pillars extended up into the sky from Honnouji.

With the light source taking the form of pillars, the shadows stretched far out at an angle.

While this place looked like it was nothing but the darkness of the night, it was in fact a space of shadows.

And yet someone had managed to fight back.

The half-dragons had adjusted their point of emergence and attacked from just about point-blank range, but this enemy had dodged and even struck back.

So now they were attacking in pairs.

First, the girl.

From behind, they targeted the center of her back and struck her prosthetic arm to immobilize it.

From the front, they jabbed a blade between her legs to restrict the movement of her legs and sent an attack below her chest.

After stopping her legs and arm, they were stabbing the center of her torso from the front and back.

The attack was made from nearly point-blank range. The pincer attack cast upon the enemy could not be dodged.

And they carried it out.

●

Gin made a split-second decision.

She saw a knuckle-style pick hammer swinging toward her right prosthetic arm from behind.

…Is the impact meant to confuse my movements?

A half-dragon’s striking power would be enough to knock her right arm away.

The prosthetic arm was heavy. She was controlling it, but enough external force to it and it would pull the rest of her body with it.

So she purged her right arm at the shoulder.

And just as she let go of the Arcabuz Cruz held within that arm, she fired it forward.

She fired it with the bracing gravitational control switched off.

…I should have made it a blank round.

But this was enough.

The pick hammer struck her floating prosthetic arm from behind.

But that was none of her concern.

At the same time, Arcabuz Cruz was blasted backwards by recoil.

It wasn’t as powerful as Cuatro Cruz, but Arcabuz Cruz still functioned as a decent striking weapon. It rushed backwards, striking the right arm of the person emerging from the shadow.

Holding the pick hammer in their right hand must have been a mistake because they couldn’t relax their fist fast enough to let go of the weapon and took Arcabuz Cruz to the arm.

“…!”

In the shadow, they bent back and to the left.

They failed to make a full-strength strike against the prosthetic arm. There was a sound of impact, but the arm only skipped forward through the air a bit.

The blade behind Gin pulled back and lowered before vanishing into the shadow.

Gin had already taken a half step back, so the blades arriving from the front failed to reach her.

But that half-dragon had only sent their blades and arms from the shadow.

After confirming her presence, they had kept their face hidden and exposed as little of themselves as possible as they attacked. That had to be standard operating procedure with this sort of combat.

Inside the shadow, they must have seen their partner knocked backwards by the hit from Arcabuz Cruz.

Upon realizing this was no longer a pincer attack, they tried to pull back. The two blades meant for Gin lowered and began to sink into the shadow.

…A good decision.

They didn’t get greedy and they remained calm. This had to be a team of well-trained elites.

But that didn’t matter to Gin. She raised her left foot up from the knee.

She was targeting the sword that had been aimed between her inner thighs earlier.

“How indecent.”

She used her step back to gain enough clearance for a rapid diagonal kick.

It hit. Her diagonal kick struck the ridge line running along the side of the blade.

“…!”

The blade’s pulling motion was diverted, causing it to swing a bit to the side.

A black arm emerged from the shadow. That was the forearm of the half-dragon who had swung the blade.

Gin’s hand was already there.

Because her prosthetic arm had been lightly deflected earlier. She had detached it, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t move it. As long as it didn’t enter sleep mode, she still had a remote control link to it.

So she had her prosthetic arm grab the half-dragon’s revealed arm.

She didn’t hold back. After hearing the crunch of breaking armor and bone, she twisted it and her prosthetic arm together.

“Gah!”

She used just the arm to toss the enemy outside of the shadow.

●

How? wondered the half-dragon.

…How did she dodge it and then hit me!?

The worlds of light and shadow were separate.

Light was powerful.

Light could eliminate shadows, but shadows could not eliminate light.

Shadows required light to exist, but light was not created by shadows.

The half-dragons had attacked from within the shadows. And from nearly point-blank range.

…So how!?

It should have been flawless.

They would bring only part of their face from the shadow to visually confirm their target and then move in while inside the shadow.

They would be fairly far away, so they had to hurry to avoid any lag.

It was unexpectedly bright within the shadows. The areas touched by light shined and everything else was bluish-black.

And once they arrived where the enemy was, they would read the enemy’s movements and begin the attack.

The final adjustments were made by sensing the enemy’s presence through the shadow boundary.

They looked to the shadow cast by the enemy.

They couldn’t actually see the enemy, but they could see the shadow. So by observing the shadow, they could watch the enemy’s movements in two dimensions.

That was what made shadow walking so effective.

They could see everything from within the shadows.

Their ancestors had apparently hidden in small shadows in the New World or other extreme environments.

No matter how harsh it was outside, everything was dark in the shadows and it stole away enough heat to freeze you to death.

It had long been said that everything would be “submerged” in the shadows and, if you weren’t careful, you would sink into the depths and disappear. It was comfortable in there, but you would vanish if you tried to live there.

So it was a comfortable place to be “submerged” in, but it was still a harsh environment.

They used it as a pathway.

They resisted the temptation to “submerge” themselves and simply passed through it, viewed the enemy, and struck.

That was what this half-dragon had done here.

He had carefully targeted an attack from point-blank range.

But his target had dodged it and even struck back.

“How?” he asked as the attack came.

His target, Tachibana Gin, was moving.

She reattached and adjusted the right arm she had used to throw his partner out of the shadow. And while he had been knocked out of his attack stance behind her…

“Shot two.”

She remotely adjusted her mobile cannon’s firing angle and fired it again.

The impact struck home with a solid sound of impact.

The half-dragon hiding behind her was blasted to the side.

●

Gin did not turn around toward the enemy blasted to the side behind her.

“Another Arcabuz Cruz.”

A second Arcabuz Cruz – the left one – was ejected into the air. With both of them ready, she aimed only the left one at the half-dragon on her left.

She didn’t even need to turn that way.

She fired.

It hit. But just before it did, the enemy shouted a question.

“How!?”

She saw no reason to answer him. Because he had already been blasted into the forest by a direct hit from her shell.

…A half-dragon requires such a powerful attack.

But, she thought.

“Shadow walking has been defeated more than once even before the Age of the Gods and the strategy has differed each time. And it is our ability to come up with countermeasures even for point-blank range attacks that ensures conflict is ever present in human history. So if I had to explain how I dodged your attack…”

Gin looked to Muneshige by her side and walked through the shadowy forest as she explained.

“I would say I did what came naturally to me.”

●

Gold Mar: “Gin-chan, I really don’t think that’s a good answer. What’s he supposed to do with that?”

Unturning: “It is a simple answer, at least.”

Worshiper: “It sounded to me like she just used brute force to crush a strange power or supernatural spell.”

●

The half-dragons were honestly unsure what to do.

There were four of them left in the shadows. They had all poked a portion of themselves out of the shadows to hear what their opponent said using the sound transmission of their armor, but…

…I can’t believe it.

It was true shadow walking had a few weaknesses. The simplest countermeasure was to eliminate the shadows, leaving them with nowhere to hide. Additionally, they had to stick a portion of themselves out to acquire information on the outside world. But…

“She can dodge it at nearly point-blank range?”

“Like an expert?”

They did have a question, so one of them poked his face out from a short distance away to ask. This would also help delay the enemy.

“Excuse me…but what kind of training do you normally do?”

“Judge.” Tachibana Gin nodded. “My training in the dodging of surprise attacks and of attacks from a blade already partially against my body began as far back as middle school.”

“That’s right,” added Muneshige. He placed a hand on his chest. “You were so passionate shortly after our marriage that you would thrust a spear at me from around the corner of the hallway or stab a kitchen knife down at me while I was sleeping.”

“Please, Master Muneshige. I never once managed to hit you, so those are shameful memories.”

She fired.

●

“Whoa!? What!? Why would she shoot us then of all times!?”

“Hey, you! The right side of your head is chipped!”

“What was she thinking to shoot then!?”

●

Horizey: “Oh, Gin-sama is in top form, I see.”

Scarred: “They do say Tres España is the land of passion. Even her bashfulness has exceptionally high firepower.”

Art-Ga: “I seem to recall some English royalty whose bashfulness had a lot of firepower too…”

●

The half-dragons had readied their resolve.

The Musashi warriors were already starting to leave the forest, but they would have to stop those two at least.

“Let’s do this.”

They emerged from the shadows.

All four of them. They had already shown their hand and they knew any half-assed attacks would be evaded. So they had better chances under conditions that let them draw on their full strength.

They emerged into the forest without forgetting to keep the light source to their backs.

“You fight well,” said Tachibana Gin with a nod. The half-dragons nodded back.

“And you did well reaching this point.”

“Judge. I do have one question.”

“What is that?”

“Why did you join that side?”

“if we played the Dark Continent victims of the slave trade for the history recreation, it made the political stuff coming from Europe a lot easier.” The one on the far left shrugged. “In terms of the Testament, we were earning some political capital. Once we arrived in Europe, they would have put us to work, but when we were in the Dark Continent, Hashiba-sama arrived for her invasion of Kyushu.”

“We made some friends then, so they told us to go to M.H.R.R. and that led to here.”

“When I first arrived in Europe, I worked as a mercenary in Hexagone Française, but when I heard they were looking for someone to inherit Yasuke’s name, I went to P.A. Oda. But our commander got that name in the end.”

It had gone similarly for them all. But…

“Tres España banned slavery and worked to rejoin us with our brethren in the New World, so we do owe you something. Still…”

“The Testament’s a real pain. The New World’s environment suits us, but there’s little room for political growth there.”

“Judge. I can guess how you feel.”

“Although you two have got even worse problems than us.”

They smiled and their two enemies nodded. Then Tachibana Muneshige spoke softly.

“Will coming here solve your problems?”

That question had them at a loss for words. But Tachibana Muneshige continued in the same soft tone.

“The Genesis Project will end it but not let it end. When that happens, what happens to your situation back home?”

“Well…” began one of them, but another held out a hand to stop him.

“That isn’t for us to say. Not when we appreciate the blessings it will provide us.”

“In that case…”

Tachibana Gin suddenly fired.

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