Vol 5. Chapter 11: Defeat
“Hey, what’s going on here?”
She asked that to Ringo at her side while staring at the power map updating in real time.
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. In short, it’s an internal civil fight. The United Kingdom of Aphrasia is a country formed by the merger of three kingdoms, and each royal house became a duke. The legislature is run through a council system by the Three Grand Dukes.”
“I feel like I’ve heard something like that... And even just from that explanation, it reeks of trouble.”
The displayed power map was deliberately color-coded into five colors.
One was, needless to say, Paraiso.
Another was ordinary civilians and refugees.
The remaining three were the factions of each duke.
And it looked like unrest had broken out between those ducal factions.
“The Royal Guard Knights under Duke Yubaden are deployed for gate defense. The Capital Defense Force under Duke Mercatia is deployed around the ducal residence. And Duke Calbark’s private troops are attacking the Royal Guard Knights’ garrison.”
“...Why?”
“They appear to be aiming to eliminate Duke Yubaden, who is assessed as the highest threat. They’ve judged that the Royal Guard Knights can hold off Paraiso’s invasion, and have ordered the assassination of Duke Yubaden himself, whose defenses have thinned.”
“Wait, did they not see the swarm of those multi-legged tanks? Do they seriously think they can do something about that?”
“Unknown. However, we have information that the deputy commander of the Royal Guard Knights is extremely capable. He is believed to possess some kind of magical skill, but the details are unclear.
And this deputy commander appears to be leading the force currently confronting the multi-legged tanks.”
Even as Ringo explained, the power map kept updating. Calbark’s forces breached the Royal Guard Knights’ garrison, moving in a straight line toward the King-marked Akirai Yubaden Aphrasia.
“If the assassination succeeds, it will affect future governance, so we will intervene.”
With Ringo’s words, Paraiso’s units held on airborne standby began to move.
“Drone shelling. Success. We will insert multi-legged ground-attack aircraft through the breach point. Beginning target neutralization. Success.”
While we’re at it, we’ll suppress each duke too.
From transport drones deployed overhead, multi-legged ground-attack aircraft were launched. Multiple units linked up to take down the other two dukes simultaneously.
“Royal Guard Knights and multi-legged tanks have made contact. Beginning neutralization.”
◇◇◇◇
The Afrasia royal capital was a comparatively new city.
Not even a hundred years had passed since its founding, and the capital itself had a short history.
Given that it was ruled by the Three Grand Dukes, the fortress equivalent to a royal castle was split into three as well.
Even so, the country wasn’t developed to that extent.
A low wall traced a rough circle, with the interior divided into three sections.
And near the center, three manor-fortresses had been built.
The southern district belonged to Duke Yubaden. It held the largest city gate, and the Royal Guard Knights in charge of its defense were said to be the strongest force in the united kingdom.
The northeastern district belonged to Duke Mercatia. He organized the Capital Defense Force, and under the pretext of maintaining order across the royal capital, he monopolized various rights and interests through violence.
He also performed security inside the other dukes’ districts in exchange for certain payments. Since he couldn’t act too high and mighty there, he apparently carried out patrols relatively properly.
The northwestern district belonged to Duke Calbark. He managed the largest market in the capital and handled trade with the western nations. However, trade with other countries had been shrinking over the last few years.
He held no military power beyond what guarded his own manor, and relied almost entirely on Duke Mercatia for public security.
In other words, it was practically the same as Mercatia occupying the lower city.
Even so, in economic terms Mercatia depended on Calbark, and the two maintained a standoff while holding each other’s vital points.
In that climate, Paraiso’s multi-legged tank group launched a breakthrough against the main city gate controlled by Duke Yubaden—the gate thought to be defended by the most elite forces.
In response, the deployed Royal Guard Knights entered battle formation. Leading the charge was their deputy commander, one of the strongest fighters in the united kingdom.
And almost at the same time, because Duke Yubaden was attacked by Duke Calbark, Paraiso began simultaneous, multi-pronged assaults against every force in the royal capital.
◇◇◇◇
The multi-legged tanks deployed at the main gate held hard-rubber clubs in both work arms, while firing non-lethal suppression rounds from their railguns. The rubber warheads carried enough force to kill or maim if they hit badly, but against normal humans, it was impossible for The Tree’s tactical AI to make such a mistake.
They precisely targeted weapons and gear, neutralizing knights one after another.
“—ORAAAH!!”
Still, not everything went according to calculation.
Some knights cut down the rubber rounds and closed in on the multi-legged tanks.
The tactical AI instantly switched to the prescribed response behavior.
It worked both clubs with deft control, winding up the charging knights’ swords and then striking their heads to knock them unconscious.
As the multi-legged tank line advanced while felling them, the Royal Guard Knights kept charging.
“NUUUN!!”
A non-lethal club swung down was sliced off by a single knight.
“Keep going!!”
“Yeah!!”
The multi-legged tank released the club at once and sprang back.
The knight’s sword swept through empty air and blasted the ground apart where it landed.
Into that opening, several knights who had been following behind the man rushed in.
They were an elite unit, apparently. They blocked a strike from another multi-legged tank that moved in to support, and even counterattacked.
“—KAH!!”
A barked shout.
That man, holding the seat of deputy commander of the Royal Guard Knights, used an ability that Ringo would later abandon as “un-analyzable,” and surged toward the multi-legged tanks.
His step was so violent that the ground exploded. Yet his soles gripped the earth, and his body accelerated beyond ordinary limits.
Fast.
The multi-legged tank’s work arms swung, but couldn’t track him. His acceleration outstripped the reaction speed of the actuators controlling the arms.
He slipped past the work arms, deflected a rubber round fired from the side with the shield in his left hand, closed to point-blank range, and without losing speed, swung his knight’s sword in his right hand from low to high—so fast it carried a shockwave.
The blade tore through the multi-legged tank’s front armor like cutting butter.
Then, along the extension of the blade, he generated an invisible slash, cleaving vertically down to about a third of the tank’s body.
Even a machine made with beyond-advanced tech couldn’t function after being wrecked that badly. Fortunately, physical destruction didn’t reach the decoy Brain Unit installed at the core, but fatal failures occurred in part of the circuitry, and the control board for the multi-legged tank shut down.
The tank collapsed in place, still slightly leaning back.
“One!”
The Royal Guard Knights destroyed one multi-legged tank, losing many men in the process. The deputy commander—the keystone of their attack—and the elite group forming his perimeter drove like a wedge ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) into the center of the tanks.
At that point, the multi-legged tanks’ massive bodies became a handicap.
The surrounding tanks tried to pull distance, but their spacing was physically constrained. The instantaneous distance they could open wasn’t much, and they couldn’t outrun the deputy commander’s step-in speed.
“Two—!”
His sideways sword sweep, and the invisible slash that followed, split another tank.
With every work arm and all legs on one side severed, and severe damage driven deep into the body, the tank couldn’t control its momentum, flipped over, and stopped moving.
And that was the limit of the Royal Guard Knights’ elite First Company.
The surrounding multi-legged tanks, after sacrificing two units to reset their posture, increased railgun launch voltage and began continuous fire of non-lethal rounds with precisely tuned timing.
Rubber warheads fired at near-sonic speeds swarmed the knights along trajectories calculated to account for blade parries, shields, and every defensive surface of their armor.
If they used the sword, rounds went where the draw-back couldn’t reach in time.
If they blocked with a shield, rounds went to the spots it couldn’t cover simultaneously.
If they kicked up with greaves, rounds struck the supporting leg.
Beaten again and again by rubber warheads, the knights crumpled onto the ground in poses like broken mannequins.
“—AAAHHH!!”
But the deputy commander endured.
With abnormal durability, he rode out the impacts slamming into his whole body, and forced himself upright.
Three multi-legged tanks charged straight at him. Working their six arms in coordinated precision, they snuffed out, dodged, and seized every resistance, then lifted him up.
Wrenched off the earth that was the origin point of his power, he still dug his fingers into the work arms gripping him—
“—!!!”
A high-voltage, low-current electric shock discharged from the work arms, and his entire body convulsed.
Confirming that he was immobilized, multi-legged ground-attack aircraft swiftly bound the knights rolling on the ground with metal wire.
Thus, the defensive force at the royal capital’s main gate was annihilated, and every last one of them became prisoners.