Chapter 137
"―――Ruuuuuuoo..."
At the sudden appearance of that enormous figure, the people remaining at City Hall stared in shock.
Hearing the roar, people inside the building streamed outside.
Everyone trembled as they looked up at its massive body.
This was City Hall—the “safe zone” where monsters couldn’t enter.
They understood that in their heads, but they still couldn’t stop trembling.
Why had it appeared here? That was what everyone wondered.
"Ruuuuoooo..."
The Golem slowly advanced.
"I-It’s coming this way..."
"No way. Surely it isn’t going to come in here, is it?"
"W-We should be fine... Fujita-san and the others said monsters can’t get in here..."
"But it’s coming straight toward us..."
Most of the people left at City Hall were noncombatants with no Skills or Jobs.
With every step the Golem took, the ground shook, and unease and fear spread across their faces.
Then a question began to rear its head.
――Was this place really safe?
As if answering that question, the Golem kept advancing. When it was about a hundred meters from City Hall, “that” happened.
With a sharp crack, the Golem’s body arched backward as if something invisible had struck it.
"Ooh!" the evacuees watching cried out.
This was the area enclosed by the mayor’s Town Building Skill.
It was an absolute boundary with a radius of one hundred meters centered on City Hall, which monsters couldn’t cross.
"Ruuoo..."
The Golem slowly reached out again.
Once again, an “invisible wall” repelled its hand.
"――Ruu..."
The Golem let out an irritated growl, then raised its fist.
It slammed its enormous hand against the invisible wall.
A tremendous impact thundered through the area, and the tremor reached City Hall.
Short screams rang out, and everyone crouched down where they stood.
When the clouds of dust cleared, the Golem still hadn’t managed to advance a single step.
"Ruuoooooooooooooooooo!!"
The Golem slammed its fist against the invisible wall again and again, but every blow was stopped.
Everyone was terrified by the sight, but they were certain of one thing.
――That thing couldn’t get in here.
Just as the mayor had said.
This really was a “safe zone” where monsters couldn’t enter.
Eventually, the Golem seemed to decide that there was no point in continuing and slowly began to back away.
Cheers rose as they watched the Golem leave.
The evacuees rejoiced in their relief.
Some even collapsed on the spot and wept.
Amid it all,
"...Hey, what’s that thing doing?"
The first to notice was an older man keeping watch near the barricade.
He’d been left off the roster for this decisive battle because he’d been injured during the exploration two days earlier.
In the direction of his gaze, the Golem was crouching and scooping up the ground with its huge hand like a shovel.
"Ruuuu..."
The paved asphalt peeled away as easily as thin ice, exposing the bare earth beneath.
Beside the deep crater, the Golem held the rocks and dirt it had dug up and twisted its body.
Its stance looked just like that of an athlete preparing to throw the shot put.
"H-Hey, hey..."
No way. No, no way―――.
Only then did the older man understand.
What the Golem intended to do.
"Everyone, get inside the building and take cover!"
As if to drown out his shout, a rain of dirt and rubble poured down on City Hall.
"―――First of all, City Hall’s ‘safe zone’ isn’t perfect."
The previous night.
With that introduction, “he” began to speak.
"There are a few loopholes. As far as I’ve been able to find, there are at least three."
He raised one finger.
"First, if a monster forms a party with a human, it’s treated as an ally and can enter and leave City Hall. I don’t know whether its Skills would be restricted once it’s inside, though. ...Still, that method won’t work for you. You hate humans too much to want to cozy up to them, don’t you?"
"..."
The ground beneath his feet shook with a hint of irritation.
He raised another finger.
"The second is that injuries or Skill effects suffered outside won’t be cured even if you enter the ‘safe zone.’ Bruises, broken bones, paralysis, poison—and even mind control. If you mind-controlled some people who’d gone outside and made them start a riot, the others would destroy themselves for you. ...Well, neither you nor I have a mind-control Skill, so that won’t work either."
"..."
The ground beneath him shook violently.
He was probably urging him to stop with the preamble and get to the point.
"All right, don’t rush me. I don’t much care for conversations that hurry straight to the conclusion or result. I want to talk for as long as possible. Still, there’s no point if I make you hate me..."
With a sigh, he raised a third finger.
"The third loophole is this――attacking from a distance, from outside the ‘safe zone.’"
The shaking stopped at once.
Perhaps the Golem was ready to listen now.
"Let me make one thing clear first: an attack launched from outside the ‘safe zone’ can’t hurt anyone inside. For example, if you throw a stone at someone inside, the moment it enters the ‘safe zone,’ it loses its force and simply falls. The same goes for ‘Shadow’ and ‘Roar.’ You can’t extend ‘Shadow’ inside, and ‘Roar’ loses its power and becomes nothing more than a shout."
"...?"
The shaking grew stronger again.
Wasn’t that at odds with what he’d just said?
Even if it attacked from a distance outside the ‘safe zone,’ it couldn’t kill anyone inside. What good would that do?
"That’s not true. Didn’t I just say? The stone only loses its ‘force.’ It can still enter. That, at least, is possible."
In other words...
"What do you think would happen if you used your power to do that on a much larger scale?"
A sudden rain of dirt and concrete.
The moment it fell into City Hall, it lost its force and rained harmlessly onto the ground without hurting anyone.
"Ruuuuoooh!"
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Next, the Golem grabbed a nearby building and threw it.
It yanked up massive buildings and other structures as easily as pulling up daikon radishes or carrots, then kept hurling them toward City Hall one after another.
Those, too, lost their force the moment they entered the ‘safe zone’ and collapsed where they landed.
Buildings, railway tracks, roads, cars—it kept throwing anything and everything in the surrounding area.
What happened then?
Simple.
They were buried.
City Hall and the entire surrounding area were quickly buried beneath a mountain of rubble.
‘―――If they can’t get in, just trap them inside.’
That was what he’d said.
There was no need to kill them directly.
If they were buried alive beneath the rubble, they would eventually die on their own.
And if they tried to escape, that was exactly what he wanted.
The moment they left the ‘safe zone,’ he could crush them.
It was a ridiculously powerful tactic that only a Golem with a body as big as a building and monstrous strength could pull off.
"N-No way..."
"W-Wait... Aren’t we going to be buried alive if this keeps up?"
"W-Where’s the mayor? What happened to the mayor?"
"How should I know?! He’s holed up in his office and won’t come out!"
I’ll say it again: almost everyone who’d stayed behind here had no Skills.
They were overwhelmingly weak in this world, and there was no way they could dig themselves out of this mountain of rubble.
Panic and fear spread in the blink of an eye.
The mound of rubble continued to grow, and the prison called the “safe zone” was about to be completed.
"Ruuuuoooooooooo!"
The Golem threw another building.
But then—
"――Reflection."
A dazzling light enveloped the building, and the next instant――it bounced back.
"!?"
The Golem froze for an instant, caught off guard.
It immediately raised an arm to shield itself.
The impact jolted through it, but that was all.
It had thrown the building with one hand, so it could block it with one hand.
That was only natural.
"...Ruuuu..."
More importantly...
It recognized that phenomenon.
An unpleasantly recent memory came back to it.
That accursed Skill had temporarily taken one of its arms.
Where was it?
Where was the wielder?
Then it spotted someone standing on the roof of a building a short distance from City Hall.
A woman.
A frail woman who looked as if a gust of wind could blow her away was staring at it.
And on her shoulder was that detestable vixen.
"Ruuuu..."
Change of target.
That human came first.
It smashed a building and clenched the fragments in its hand.
This time, it would throw a barrage of rocks instead of just one.
A simple counter to Reflection, but it should work.
"...Ruo?"
But just before it threw them, the Golem saw it.
The woman’s shadow spreading unnaturally wide, and a huge “something” emerging from it.
What was that? ...A weapon?
No, whatever it was, it didn’t matter.
What could a puny human weapon do?
There was no way something like that could stop it.
"――Eh?"
It thought it heard a faint voice.
The next moment, a sound like something shattering rang out――and then.
With a tremendous impact, a deep crack appeared in the Golem’s forehead.
"Ruuuuoooooooooo!?"
What!? What had happened!?
As if unable to believe it, the Golem’s body trembled.
Fragments crumbled from its forehead.
Had it really been wounded? By a tiny bullet from a puny little gun like that?
But the next instant,
An even greater confusion swept over the Golem.
――She was gone!?
The rooftop of the building.
The human woman who should have been standing there had vanished without a trace.
And the next moment――that impact struck it from directly behind.
The scene now shifted to Ichinose.
"Phew..."
She took a deep breath and stared at the Golem.
"It’s probably noticed us by now, right?"
"Kyu..."
The Golem had probably realized that the phenomenon just now was “Reflection.”
No, it had to have realized that.
She’d used that “Reflection” to protect City Hall from the attack, but more than that, she’d done it to draw its attention to “them.”
"...I-It’s looking this way."
The Golem had noticed them.
The first stage was complete.
Then it was time for the next.
"Momo-chan, please."
"Woof!"
Momo, who had been waiting behind her, stepped on Ichinose’s “shadow.”
The shadow stretched far behind them.
A sniper rifle emerged from it.
No, it was far too long and bizarrely shaped to be called a sniper rifle.
It was well over two meters long, with a number of bulky parts attached to it.
It was clearly different from the sniper rifle she’d used until now.
A few days ago, she’d obtained a new Job and Skill through the gacha.
Her Job was “Weapon Craftsman,” and her Skill was “Weapon Enhancement.”
Just as its name suggested, the Skill let her enhance weapons.
Enhancing a “sniper rifle” required a large number of magic stones and materials, as well as MP, but they’d managed to do it over the past two days.
They’d hunted monsters with single-minded determination, gathered the materials they needed, and successfully enhanced the rifle.
This was the result.
Their anti-Golem weapon――the “Ichinose Special ver. 2.0.”
Incidentally, the number in ver. 2.0 had no particular meaning. She’d just named it that because it sounded cool.
She took a bullet out of the backpack she’d been carrying.
This, too, was a special model created with the “Bullet Creation” Skill.
She loaded the ridiculously huge bullet with practiced ease. It was so large it could probably kill someone if you hit them with it.
"... (trembling)."
Finally, a duplicate of Aka transformed into a gun rest to support the barrel.
Everything was ready.
She knelt and raised the gun, then steadied her breathing.
Slowly, she pulled the trigger.
"Take this!"
With a thunderous explosion, a single bullet shot toward the Golem.
The kinetic energy imparted by the bullet was simply astounding.
A deep crack appeared in the Golem’s forehead.
"Ruuuuoooooooooooo!!"
Even her original sniper rifle had been enhanced by a Skill until it packed the power of an anti-materiel rifle.
How powerful would it be after being enhanced even further? It was no longer in the realm of an “anti-materiel rifle.” You could call it an “anti-fortress rifle.”
"Next!"
But only a third-rate fighter would let their guard down now.
She immediately loaded the next round.
Looking closely, her hands were trembling slightly.
(That recoil is incredible... even with Aka blocking it.)
The recoil of the gun.
That alone was making Ichinose’s entire body scream in pain.
Her stats had been drastically weakened by “Shut-In.”
“Physical Enhancement” was barely enough to compensate so she could move normally.
――She couldn’t keep up with the enhanced gun’s capabilities.
How many more shots could she fire properly?
With sweat beading on her forehead, she gave a fearless smile anyway.
――Everyone else was giving it their all. She couldn’t be the only one to show such a pathetic side of herself.
"Momo-chan!"
"Woof!"
The bullet had worked.
Now it was time to move the plan on to “Stage Two.”
Momo’s “shadow” spread.
It enveloped Momo and Ichinose, and they began to sink into it.
Had only a few seconds passed from their perspective?
A duplicate of Aka welcomed them as they reemerged into the light.
They were on a building behind the Golem.
Just as planned.
She raised her gun and pulled the trigger.
"Ruuuuooh!?"
A deep crack appeared in the back of its head, completely exposed to her.
"Next!"
"Woof!"
The “shadow” once again covered them and swallowed them up.
This time, they emerged on a building directly beside the Golem.
(I tested it over and over, but... this Skill really is amazing.)
With cold sweat on her forehead, Ichinose realized just how incredible Momo’s Skill was.
Momo’s new ability――“Shadow Crossing.”
After leveling up over and over, Momo’s “shadow” had steadily grown more powerful.
Before, she could only enter Kazuto’s shadow. Now she could pull not only herself, but her companions into the shadows, too.
What’s more, she could enter or emerge from the shadow of any party member.
She still couldn’t match Kazuto’s Item Box, but she could store a few items inside.
And this Skill had incredible synergy with Aka as one of their companions.
After all, they could move wherever they wanted as long as one of Aka’s duplicates was there.
Beforehand, they’d placed duplicates of Aka at fourteen locations around City Hall.
Momo’s “Shadow Crossing,” with its countless “entrances and exits,” combined with Ichinose’s sniping.
“High-output, hit-and-run rapid fire.”
That was the deadly anti-Golem tactic they’d come up with.
(I won’t give it a chance to recover. I won’t let it retreat. I’ll just keep firing.)
The second and third bullets slammed into the Golem’s body, and the cracks grew wider.
Even if the Golem spotted Ichinose, the sniper, she’d already have moved to a new point by then.
"Ruuuu... uuuoooooooonnn!!"
"What...?"
But this was where the Golem changed tactics.
It crushed the fragments in its hand into even smaller pieces and scattered them across the entire area.
They were tiny fragments to the Golem.
But they were more than deadly enough to kill a person.
The surrounding buildings were destroyed, and one building after another began to collapse.
Aka’s duplicates were caught in the destruction, and their presence vanished, too.
(Damn it, it figured us out...!)
Ichinose gritted her teeth inwardly.
It intended to destroy the places they could move to from the ground up.
(It wiped out almost half our points in one go... One attack did all that...)
It seemed intent on overpowering them with sheer force, no matter what.
Her hands were trembling.
Was it the gun’s recoil? Fear? Or both?
Even so, she couldn’t stop now.
"Momo-chan!"
"Woof!"
They moved to another point.
She raised the gun, and her whole body screamed in pain.
"...Take this!"
Even so, Ichinose put all her strength into pulling the trigger.
A crack appeared in the Golem’s body.
"Ruuuuooooo!"
Ignoring that, the Golem scattered fragments across the surrounding area.
She felt another of Aka’s duplicates vanish.
The remaining points were... zero.
"Hah... hah..."
With sweat beading on her brow, Ichinose glared at the approaching Golem.
Perhaps it was wary of her, because it didn’t come any closer than necessary.
"Haha... You seem pretty wary of me... but is that really a good idea?"
"Ruu...?"
The Golem stopped moving, as if it had heard her.
"You’re focusing all your attention on me."
Ichinose stuck out her tongue and smiled fearlessly.
It had seemed like her last act of resistance, but then she suddenly realized something.
Come to think of it――where had that vixen on her shoulder gone?
Right after that,
"――Yes, nice work, Ichinose-san."
The voice of the man she trusted most came from behind the Golem.
The voice rang out suddenly from behind it.
The Golem recognized it.
That was right. It was that voice.
The voice of the human who’d wounded it yesterday――.
"Ruuuuooooooooooon!"
It roared.
It twisted its body around, bringing him into view.
A part of its body crumbled with a crack.
"...Ruo?"
The moment it saw the man, a simple question came to the Golem’s mind.
What――was that?
His appearance matched that of the human it had seen yesterday.
But his right arm had grown abnormally huge.
From the elbow down, it was covered by something like an enormous pipe, and a massive metal tip gleamed menacingly inside the opening, which was dozens of centimeters across.
Yes, it looked just like a gigantic “nail”――.
The Golem was seized by a chill it shouldn’t have been able to feel.
That――was dangerous!
"Take this, Titan! This is our trump card――the Pile Bunker!"
The next instant――THOOM!!
A tremendous “impact” struck the Golem’s body, blasting it apart.