Chapter 455

Excavator

In the middle of my 20-meter high jump, I stretched out black chain tentacles straight towards the castle walls so I could pull myself back to them. In my head, Hitsugi was enthusiastically yelling “Eii!” as she started to pull her tentacles. At the same time, Lily was carrying Fiona, who had thrown herself out of the golem, back to the castle walls.

By the time I got back on top of the walls, Lily had already dropped Fiona on the corridor. I could move really fast through mid-air using Bind Arts, but even they are no match for actual flying.

For the time being, we had safely returned to the castle walls. So I could finally take it easy and ask Lily about what happened.

“Hey, Lily… Why did we have to leave the golem we defeated so soon?”

Looking behind us, we could see the golem we had gotten into fall forward to the ground. Since it was so huge and heavy, the sound and vibration it caused just by falling sounded very much like an explosion. Lily’s reply had to wait until the roaring sound caused by the tremor that caused the snow around it spray upwards like smoke was over.

“I used telepathy to collect as much information I could about these ancient golems from its pilot.”

Back then, I had thought that she was taking quite some time dealing with the pilot after having opened the hatch. So that’s what happened. Perhaps I was half-expecting her to be doing that, but she really did it –that’s our Lily! You clever girl.

“I came to understand quite a few things, and I have bad news…”

At that moment, we heard shrill that made our ears buzz. It started out quietly, but it gradually became more of a screech until it started to become unbearable.

When asking Lily, she too thought she had heard that somewhere else before.

It was a mechanical sound, the sound of a machine being operated. It’s definitely not a sound naturally produced by any living being. That structured sound reminds me of one thing.

It sounded similar to an airplane. That’s the sound you can hear at an airport, the sound of a jet engine rotating those gigantic turbines.

“…Those ten golems were just throwaways.”

The eerie, thunderous roar of jet engines echoed on the other side of the thin curtain of falling snow.

There were three of them.

Of course, they were 30 meters tall, making them as big as those ancient golems we defeated earlier.

“Those ancient golems… no, those are completely restored ancient ‘Power Loaders’: ‘Fulltune Taurus’.”

At first glance, we could see that they were a bit different from the other golems. First of all, their armor had several openings throughout their entire bodies, which vigorously let loose particles of pale blue light. We could see Those particles of light were bright enough to be seen from where we were standing.

However, the part of their bodies that shone the brightest was their backs. The bluish-white light that came out from there was pouring down like a waterfall, making me think for a moment that they were floating in mid-air.

They certainly weren’t flying through the air, but those steel giants were definitely not touching the ground. There was light emanating from under their feet as they were hovering a few meters above the snow.

Perhaps the one on their backs is their main booster, and the ones on their waists, legs and soles are auxiliary sub-thrusters.

I couldn’t tell exactly how much speed those lights’ propulsion would bring about, but the magical sensation on my skin made me sure that they had about the same horsepower as a rocket engine from Earth. No, they might have been even beyond the science of the Earth, since they are able to make those huge bodies hover in mid-air.

“Oh, no way…!”

There was no time to be dumbfounded. There was also no time to come up with any countermeasures to those three new giants, which seemed to be in a totally different league than the golems from before.

The three ‘Fulltune Taurus’, as Lily had said these golems were named, started moving before we had time to think about anything.

With a sudden burst from the boosters on their backs and a thunderous roar that shook the air, the three Taurus began to rush towards us in a straight line.

Though it would have been more accurate to say that they were almost flying. They were gliding over the snow as if they were hovercrafts.

“Damn, they are fast!”

The amount of snow they had kicked up with their dash made it look as if an avalanche was heading our way at full speed.

The two on each side took the lead, while the Taurus in the middle did not move. Given our current position, the one we can intercept is the one coming at us from the right.

However, there was no time for me to charge up my ‘Plasma Breath’, since they were dashing through the snow so quickly that it made it look like they had been pretending to be slow all this time. Lily and Fiona also have no time to cast their spells.

“This is the only thing I can use –’Grenade Burst’!”

“There’s no time — ثلاثاء اللهب الرمح يخترق ‘Ignis Kris Sagitta’.”

“مشرق حريق يدمر الابيض انتشار النار ‘Lux Force Blast’.”

There was nothing left to do but try to meet the Taurus with all the firepower we could muster in the few seconds we had before they got to the walls.

Adventurers were all over the place, already desperately trying to intercept these apparently more formidable new enemies.

Both martial-skill-powered arrows and advanced magic attacks rained down vigorously on the Taurus. However, the attacks did not even manage to scratch their polished steel armor.

Perhaps they were anticipating our attacks, but there was nothing else we could do at the moment.

The attack I used was a ‘Grenade Burst’ from each of the six barrels of my gun simultaneously. If they were to hit, their destructive power would be enough to blast even a rampaging Doltos into pieces.

Fiona used the Short Spell ‘Ignis Kris Sagitta’, while Lily went with her rarely used, high-level Light Magic spell, ‘Lux Force Blast’. It goes without saying that they are both very powerful.

My six grenades flew towards them, leaving behind a trail of black smoke. Then a tornado of fire and a burst stream of light soon followed. All of our attacks exploded on the Taurus, which continued to dash towards us without even trying to dodge them.

“Damn! It didn’t even flinch!”

The Taurus emerges unscathed from the smoke caused by our attacks’ explosions.

At that moment, it was already 200 meters away from the castle walls.

A chill ran down my spine after seeing that giant robot draw nearer to the walls. It was useless. We could no longer stop it.

“Kurono! Look out!”

I ducked just as I was told, taking Fiona down with me by the shoulder. Clearly, no one would anticipate that it would be hitting the wall not even ten seconds later.

However, it had not just collided with the wall.

I had just noticed. Unlike the other golems, the Taurus’ right arm is definitely equipped with a weapon.

The other noticeable alteration these guys have compared to the other golems aside from their jet thrusters were those right arms of theirs. To put it simply, they had drills instead of right hands. There was no other way to describe them.

Those drills they have reminded me of my own ‘Pile Bunker’. That’s the first impression they gave me.

Those huge drills, fitting the Taurus’ enormous build, were spinning at full speed without a care in the world.

The Taurus held up the spiral of destruction that was its right hand with all of its might. That was the last thing I saw before I threw myself to the floor.

The next thing I heard was the sound of the giant pile bunker bursting into the great Galahad castle walls.

“—Gwoohhh!?”

Then, as I covered myself on the floor on top of the castle walls, I felt as if an earthquake had hit us. I felt the tremor and heard the sound the proud walls that defended Spada made as they started to collapse.