Chapter 99
"Grrrrrron!"
The magician Izam's tamed monster, Karnagtool, charged forward with a mighty roar befitting a Lesser Dragon. His destination was an enemy that looked similar to him, yet somehow more shabby.
Cal was still a child, and probably did not understand that his enemy was not a real dragon, but a dragon-type Golem. However, the enemy's identity was not important to him. What mattered was that his beloved master had ordered him to defeat it.
'Eliminate'
The dragon-type Golem opened its mouth and spat flames from deep within. It was the work of a mechanism installed in its throat, identical to the one in the mage Golem's staff.
"Grrrraaa!"
If Izam and the others had understood the effect of the Jammer Field, they might have been surprised, just as they had been when the mage Golem demonstrated it. However, Cal was still a child despite his large body, and he did not understand it.
That was precisely why he could continue moving forward without flinching, even while being bathed in flames. If it had been true 【Dragon Breath】, that would have been another matter, but flames produced by a machine were not enough to stop Cal's advance. The distance between them disappeared in a few seconds, and he slammed into the enemy with all his momentum.
"Grrrrrr!"
'Eliminate'
After ramming it, Cal climbed onto the dragon-type Golem and bit down on its neck. Then he shook his head violently from side to side, trying to break its cervical vertebrae. It was a movement commonly made by carnivores while hunting.
"???"
Yet he could not help being confused. First, there was the sensation when he bit it. Something was wrong. No matter how he thought about it, this was nothing like the skin of the living prey he had eaten before. The taste on his tongue was strange as well. The closest thing was probably the surface of the small fry he had carried over in his mouth earlier, hoping to earn Izam's praise. To Cal, who had assumed from its appearance that it was one of his own kind, the sensation was simply bizarre.
The resistance he felt when he shook its neck was strange too. That was because this thing that resembled one of his kind seemed to have nothing serving as a core in its neck—in other words, no bones. An abnormal body with skin unlike that of a living creature and no bones within it. What in the world was he fighting?
'Eliminate'
"Ggah!"
Cal had moved beyond bewilderment into outright confusion, but the Golem attacked without hesitation or mercy. While Cal remained dazed with his teeth clamped onto its neck, it raked his torso with its sharp claws.
The dragon-type Golem's claws were made of the same material as its surface armor—in other words, the same material as the armor and shields of the knight Golems and shield-warrior Golems. Thus, they managed to shatter Cal's sturdy scales and slash the flesh beneath them.
"Grrrrrrrrrr!"
However, Cal was not some weakling who would let go just because he had taken damage. Besides, the 【High-Speed Healing】 Skill allowed him to ignore ordinary minor injuries. Instead, Cal counterattacked in a rage with his own claws.
Yet even the strength and sharp claws of a dragon were not enough to cut through the Golem's armor. Jigoro's fists and Genjuro's sword had left it almost unscathed, so Cal, still an immature dragon, simply lacked the strength.
"Grrrrrrrrrr!"
Even so, Cal did not give up. Rather, his anger at being unable to succeed drove him to continue rampaging. He never loosened his bite, swung his head in every direction, and slashed at it repeatedly with his claws.
'Eliminate'
The dragon-type Golem was not content to simply take a beating, either. It continued counterattacking with its claws and twisted its body in an attempt to escape Cal's jaws. Unable to feel pain or anything else, the Golem resisted impassively while repeatedly emitting the same voice.
"Grrraah!"
The struggle continued for a while, but at last a turning point arrived. Using only the strength of his neck, Cal lifted the Golem and threw it with all his might.
The Golem was slammed onto the ground on its back. If it had been a real dragon, the air would surely have been knocked from its lungs, leaving it unable to breathe. But his opponent was an artificial Golem. A fall like this was not enough to stop it from moving, and it continued struggling to escape Cal's jaws, which were still clamped onto its throat.
"Ptooey!"
Unexpectedly, Cal let go at this point. Until then, he had shown no sign of releasing his hold no matter what was done to him, yet for some reason he suddenly released it without a fuss.
Why had he let go at that moment? A perceptive, battle-hardened monster would have tried to crawl away from the spot, even if it had to do so pathetically. But his opponent was a Golem. It lacked the intelligence to make flexible decisions, and thus made the worst possible choice by standing up right there.
"Grrrrroaaaaaah!!!"
Immediately after letting go, Cal jumped in place, flipped forward in midair, and slammed down his tail with all the momentum and weight behind it. Even when he had still been a Dragon Puppy, a full-force blow from that tail had made a Tarasque flinch. Now that Cal had become a Lesser Dragon, the attack was even more ferocious. The blade-like tip of Cal's tail struck the dragon-type Golem directly in the back.
Kreeek-begig!!
An ear-splitting metallic shriek from the dragon-type Golem rang through the plaza. It seemed that even its incredibly hard armor could not withstand the strongest physical attack Cal could deliver. The tail had sunk deeply into the base of the wing where it had struck the dragon-type Golem's back.
'H... Yes...'
The dragon-type Golem's internal circuits had malfunctioned from the excessively heavy blow. Like the twin-sword Golem Ruby had fought, it twitched and emitted a static-filled voice. Finding the sound unpleasant, Cal jumped again and mercilessly slammed his tail down just as before. This time, however, he struck its head instead of its back.
Crack... Boom!
Cal's tail crushed the dragon-type Golem's head down to the middle of its neck as though it had been put through a press. Then that section exploded. The cause was the destruction of the mechanism that generated flames inside the Jammer Field installed in its head.
"Grrrrrrrrrron!!!"
Unaware of any of that, Cal raised a victorious roar. His enemy had not been particularly strong, but he seemed proud to have carried out the order of his beloved master. For several minutes, until his excitement subsided, Cal continued roaring while stomping on the remains of the dragon-type Golem.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
"Gah! Cal's done too?!"
"E-everyone's too fast!"
While listening to Cal's victorious roar, Iris and I were huffing and puffing as we fought the six remaining things that appeared to be guard-use Golems.
Their appearance and methods of attack were the same as those of the α-type and β-type guard-use Golems. There was a good reason, however, why I had called them things that merely 'appeared to be' guard-use Golems.
"Ngh! As I thought, these things are way too hard!"
My scythe merely scraped shallowly across the surface of the β-type that had approached from behind, then slid away. That was the reason: their armor was far too hard.
The guard-use Golems we had encountered up to now had been covered in nothing more than ordinary iron armor—rusty, battered armor that I could easily destroy with a swing of my scythe. But these were different. The fact that they showed no deterioration from age had already told me that they were not made of ordinary iron, but this was on another level entirely! They were clearly made of some special metal!
"Staff! Talisman! And now... nngh!"
I struck the β-type I had damaged with my scythe, knocking it out of the air, then threw several talismans at it before stabbing it with the tip of my tail. This way, I could somehow pierce the Golem's armor.
The reason I could do that with my tail, or rather the tip of my tail, when it was impossible with my weapon, the scythe, was thanks to the Tarasque's thorn core used in its construction. Tarasques repeatedly regenerate their spines using this thorn core. Because my tail inherited that trait, I could spend mana to extend something closely resembling a Tarasque's spines from its tip.
I was using the extra mass created that way to forcibly break through the Golem's armor. However, this came with a major problem.
"S-so heavy!"
I say 'mass sufficient to break through a Golem's armor' as if that were simple, but that inevitably meant it was quite heavy. With my strength, it was right at the limit of what I could lift. Each swing of my tail was therefore a tremendous effort.
"Whoa, it's already coming off!"
I hurriedly used a new talisman on myself. It was a talisman containing 【Light Armor】. Hm? Why was I using defensive magic? Because I was currently in the middle of a storm of bullets!
'Eliminate'
The Golems were not content to simply take a beating, either. Even now, they were firing bullets at Iris and me like a torrential downpour. Iris had sturdy cell walls, but I was frail; if a bullet hit one of my bones, I would take damage I could not ignore.
However, dodging the bullets raining down without pause was impossible for me. That was why I fought while using 【Light Armor】 talismans one after another.
"Hah!"
Iris, meanwhile, was beating a Golem black and blue with a wooden mallet and a hatchet. Since she used weapons with a fair amount of weight, she did not seem to be struggling as much as I was. It looked like she had just destroyed an α-type as well!
"Four left! Hnnngh!"
I put all my strength into lifting my tail, then struck the nearest α-type Golem from the side and sent it flying. I felt its armor crumple at the tip of my tail and its interior collapse. Oh, another β-type was coming up behind me, was it? I wasn't falling for that trick twice!
"Hmph!"
I turned and swung my scythe upward in a scooping motion, launching the β-type into the air. As expected, I could not cut through its armor, but the impact sent it spiraling through the air, where it crashed into the α-type that had somehow become the last one standing.
"This..."
"It's over!"
My tail and Iris's hatchet came down almost simultaneously. My tail pierced through the β-type and halfway into the α-type, while Iris's hatchet cleaved the α-type in two and sank into the β-type's wing. The last two had fallen silent, which meant...
"Ah... i-it's finally over..."
"I'm exhausted..."
I dropped to my knees and exhaled. From a game-mechanics perspective, an Undead like me did not feel fatigue. However, mental exhaustion inevitably accumulated. The person inside was still a living human, after all, so it could not be helped.
"Hey, good work."
Jigoro approached while carrying some kind of rod. Apparently, he had destroyed the device that had been projecting the Jammer Field.
"That was a somewhat brute-force battle, was it not?"
"...The scythe literally couldn't cut them, so what choice did I have?"
Genjuro, please don't give an overall assessment as your opening remark. Besides, I'm bad at close combat. There are problems with my Race and Job as well. Apparently, the experience required to raise my 【Scythe Arts】 level is higher than normal. I suppose that's natural for a magician?
"Still, they were unusually hard. There must be some secret behind it. Should I use 【Appraisal】?"
I lightly picked up the nearest β-type Golem and used 【Appraisal】 on it.
――――――――――
Annihilation Golem β-Type Quality: Scrap Rarity: C (Common)
A mass-produced Golem developed to annihilate intruding monsters or armed terrorists. It possesses higher specifications in every respect than guard-use models.
It is heavily damaged and cannot move in its current state.
――――――――――
A-an annihilation model? No wonder it was so strong. It was packed with so much murderous intent that it nearly brought tears to my eyes.
Jokes aside, when I examined it, the α-type was also classified as an annihilation model rather than a guard-use model. I thought the γ-type would be the same, but it turned out to be a little different.
――――――――――
Annihilation Golem γ-Type (Knight Type) Quality: Scrap Rarity: R (Rare)
A Golem developed to annihilate intruding monsters or armed terrorists. It possesses higher specifications in every respect than mass-produced models.
It normally disguises itself as an ornament and activates only when the facility is under a high level of threat.
Its interior is heavily damaged and it cannot move in its current state.
――――――――――
Could it be that from this point onward, I should assume all the ornaments are γ-type Golems? This is going to be an adventure where I can't afford to let my guard down.