“Killing one person makes one a criminal. Killing one hundred makes one a hero.”
It was a saying by someone.
“No, was it ten thousand people, or was it one million people?”
[TL: it was one murdered a criminal, millions a hero. By Beilby Porteus]
No matter what, what Karito had planned to do will not change by any means. From now on, Karito would be killing dozens, even hundreds of people.
From having to perform such actions, there would be no meaning to be nervous about it anymore.
The fact that Karito had killed people would not change no matter how much he tried to fix it, not to mention there’s no longer enough time to worry about such a thing either. He can’t delay anymore, because he needed to concentrate on the enemy in front of him.
He could feel the gazes of several hundreds of soldiers, illuminated by the faint moonlight and torches, boring into him. Karito’s waist almost gave out a little from the sheer pressure.
The amount of attention that Karito, the former shut-in, had faced most was at best, during the graduation ceremonies at his primary and middle school. Standing there right in front of so many intense stares had put him under extraordinary pressure, but he had to endure it. There was no way he could back down now. If he escaped, the two girls would definitely die.
The lives of the sisters that he had sacrificed himself for had a much heavier weight than the life of Watari Karito himself.
Right in front of Karito were the figures of a group of magicians surrounded by knights equipped with heavy shields. Would they be firing magic spells simultaneously now, he wondered.
First of all, let’s clean up these guys. Thinking that, he slowly pointed the muzzle of the Minigun in their direction. His right hand gripped tightly onto the joystick that fiercely resembled the airplane’s control stick, and then he pulled the trigger. The battery powered six-barrelled gun started to rotate slowly in response.
When the Alwina forces started to take measures to counter, it was already too late.
Rather than the sound of gunshots rattling one’s eardrums, the gun made sounds similar to those of huge machines instead.
The shooting rate of the M134 minigun’s rapid fire was 4000 bullet per minute. In other words, it spits out more than 80, 7.62mm rifle bullets in one second. The gunshot sounds and firing flame was especially intense.
Within the belt link, a tracer shell was mixed into the bullets with the ratio of 1:5. Since there were nearly 20 shots of tracer shells made within a second, the shots’ trajectories were akin to that of a laser beam
The moment the laser bullets touched the shields of the knights at the front row, a dreadful screeching sound echoed throughout the wasteland in the dark of the night.
The iron plates fixed onto the surfaces of the shields shattered immediately. The shields were produced by reinforcing thick wooden shields with a thin iron plate on the surface only served to protect the mage corps from hails of arrows and stones. It was impossible for the shields to stop a rain of military-grade rifle bullets.
Under the rain of bullets, the shields were smashed into two simultaneously. But, it didn’t just end there. The bullets also pierced through the armours of the soldiers easily, splitting them cleanly into chunks of flesh as their armours splintered like they were made of mere wood. The crushed shields, armour fragments, and human body parts scattered around as if they had been in an explosion, polluting the plains in the darkness of the night.
There was even a person who was instantly annihilated when the bullet hit his head, going through the steel helmet protecting it as if the helmet was mere paper. There were some lucky enough to be hit by the round parts of the bullets that repelled the bullets from each other, however they only managed to survived for a moment. Dozens of bullet followed shortly after, concentrated to kill their fellow companions. This was the power of the Minigun that shoots 4000 bullet per minute.
This weapon’s purpose was to annihilate the enemy while equipped on vehicles such as airplanes, but it was instead, being exploited in this way in this different world.
For the first time, the enemy army started to become disordered, but before it could happen, someone prevented it.
“Don’t falter! There is only 1 enemy! Mage corps are retreat to the back and reorganize! Archers, fire the arrows! Cavalry and Infantrymen surround and crush him!” The instructions from the general who survived the kamikaze attack reached the ears of the soldiers; the volume of his orders surprisingly not losing to the loudness of the minigun.
The soldiers then recovered quickly and obeyed his orders.
Watching it from the top, the formation that enemy took was the shape of an arrow. The archers were located at the left and right flanks, equipped with strong bows with the length of no less than 1.2 m, not to mention they also used crossbows. The sound of 100 arrows being fired cut through the night sky sharply.
For an ordinary soldier, the bow and arrow would be enough. But, the one they were dealing now was the powerful modern arms ‘Juggernaut’ which had the best defensive power in WBGO.
The Juggernaut is a battle oriented, anti-explosion enhanced suit that boasted of its immense defence - it can’t be pierced by rifle shells even when they’re shot at point blank in the frontlines. Due to the layers and folds of thick Kevlar fibres with metal seams, it was also fireproof and stab proof (setup). Moreover, the anti-bullet plates were sectioned into panels so that they would not hinder movement when placed on the legs, body and shoulders. Rather than a heavy infantry armour from modern warfare, it looked more like the armour of samurai during the Warring Periods.
The rough, full-face helmet that covered the entire head also boasted of the same defence. The helmet was cylindrical and air tight, just like the ones from bomb suits. Furthermore, the muffler outside was surrounded by anti-bullet plates, so the defence around the lip and neck was perfect too.
[TL: I think the juggernaut is just a bomb suit….]
In addition, like when it was an equipment inside the game, artificial muscles were also built into the suit. In the demonstration, it can even flip an armoured vehicle over, but in exchange for this outrageous defence, the movement speed was greatly decreased. This, too, was the typical; characteristic of a high defence armour.
However, even though the wearer’s whole body was being protected by this ridiculous armour, it does not mean that his body would also be as tough as steel.
So,
(Is... Is this really alright?! I’ve heard that if the opponent uses bows, the Kevlar could still be pierced!)
Even if he tried to avoid the arrows now, he would not be able to escape the effective range of arrows raining down on him.
From the rain of arrows, several dozens fell straight to Karito. Far from piercing the armour, all of them bounced off harmlessly without piercing it.
But, that’s natural. Because Karito had dropped out when he was at high school, he only possessed miscellaneous knowledge, and other knowledge that he could gather from the net, not to mention, it was difficult to grasp the level of technology of this world. Perhaps it was around the late medieval age to the early modern age. First of all, it was impossible to pierce armour that was able to withstand explosions, and rifle bullets with just arrows. At most, the pain would only be around the feeling of being constantly hit by pebbles.
But the experience of receiving a rain of arrows was bad for the heart. The moment the sharp arrowhead was about to hit the area around the forehead, he unconsciously closed his eyes, and stayed frozen in that place from fear reflexively.
If both of his hands weren’t occupied by the minigun, he would already be searching his body for injuries. It was a miracle that neither his front nor the back didn’t leak from fear. It was honestly much scarier than being attacked by snipers.
His first kill at the village where the massacre had taken place was more of a surprise attack, so it couldn’t even be called a fight.
When they were being assaulted in the dark forest from the sky, his head was so full of plans for counterattacks and escapes that he didn’t even have the time to feel fear. That was why it could be said that this was the first time he sensed their killing intent while having counterattack plans with a clear mind.
Because he came here to kill, he could understand that it was natural for the opponent to want to kill him too, but it was just that this time, he had instinctively realized it.
Karito didn’t know where he was standing now. He didn’t even know the name of this continent, or the name of this world either, but, he understood one thing.
This wasn’t WBGO or Earth, this was the real world. This was a battlefield, the opponent was trying to kill him, and he, too, was trying to kill them. In other words, they were trying to kill each other.
Fear swiftly turned into anger upon realising that.
It was like the feeling when a bullied child (himself) who had been kicked to grovel stood up to resist, and actually crushed the faces of the delinquents.
What the hell are you shitty bastards doing?! Trying to kill children who didn’t have weapons while laughing... No, all these scumbags who have gathered here... I will kill them. Everyone here, all of them, all of them, all of them should just drop dead and die!!!
He roared in anger and resentment, and squeezed again the trigger of the minigun once more.
Once again, the muzzle of minigun started to spit out bullets. The bullets pierced into the cavalry whom had begun to charge upon receiving reinforcements. In an instant, dozens of cavalrymen became mere lumps of meat, along with the war horses they rode on. Having lost their original shape, it became difficult to differentiate which lump of flesh belonged to a human or a horse. The wasteland was instantly dyed red with blood.
While pulling on the trigger, he twisted his body in order to swing the muzzle sideways. With that, the tracer bullets perceived the approaching soldiers, starting from the vanguard troops. One by one, the soldiers lost their flesh, armour, shapes, and lives altogether. In no time, they became a mix of minced flesh and fragmented metal.
A peculiar cry rung from the air faintly. At the same time, the soldiers who kept charging over their comrade’s corpses were being mowed down by Karito in one go from a distance.
Because of bulletproof armour’s collar, his field of vision was extremely limited. When Karito turned his whole body around to investigate the source of the strange cry, the figure of a dragon nosediving towards him entered his line of sight.
Even if he lifted the muzzle to intercept it, the length and weight of the minigun would have backfired in this situation, and Karito wouldn’t be able to intercept the beast in time. The dragon hovered in the air for a moment before opening its large mouth, and shot out a deep blue flame with a force akin to that of a flamethrower.
“UOOOOOOOOO!!!?”
Karito’s figure disappeared within the flame. The scale of the breath’s power rivalled the napalm bomb, unexpectedly producing a huge bon-fire that lit up the wasteland.
From a distance away from the area of impact, the Alwinan army cheered despite choking from the impact of the heat wave generated. This is because the dragon, a red skinned fire dragon, was considered to have the strongest dragon breath amongst all other dragons. The coverage of its firepower was 3 melt (1 melt is about the same length as 1 meter,) and it can even completely vaporise an Orc Demon.
The army was convinced that no one would be able to be live after receiving such a hit directly. From afar, the fire dragons and their riders, as well as other sky cavalrymen, gathered slowly towards the point of explosion (ground zero), carelessly descending below their usual altitude, thinking that it was the end of the battle.
If you think with the common sense of this world, their actions and awareness were beyond rash. But, this reaction was something expected if their enemy was an ordinary opponent. It was normal for the soldiers to relax their guards after such a move.
Even though the casualties incurred numbered over a hundred, they still haven’t understood it yet, that the common sense of this world couldn’t be applied to this enemy. In the first place, he wasn’t an ordinary soldier at all.
A shadow flickered from within the flames.
“O-Oi!” One of the soldiers shouted.
“What is it? Is there something wrong?” His comrades asked.
“That! Look over there!” The same soldier who raised the alarm pointed.
*Gasha, gasha, gasha...*
A body wrapped in an unknown armour, armed with a magic item-like weapon which they never seen before... His footsteps reverberated like those of an Oni or a Devil from within the blazing flames.
At that moment, as the Alwinan infantrymen stood rooted to the spot in shock, the unforgettable laser-like bullets sped out from inside the blaze and pierced into the fire dragons that were circling in the air at low altitudes in declaration of their easy victory. Blood sprayed out under the reflection of the light from the blaze below. The cries of the fire dragons in their death throes echoed startlingly in the soundless night. Similarly, their rider’s who have also been pierced by the bullets, were already breathing their last as they fell head first towards the ground.
One after another, the anti-aircraft bullets consecutively catch the sky cavalrymen who had carelessly lowered their altitudes. The soldiers were decimated in an instant.
The flames that had lost their fuel gradually lost its power, and terrible, heavy footsteps could be heard from inside it again. A chill assaulted the soldiers, despite them already bathing in sweat from the heat wave through theirs armours. An enormous amount of sweat drenched their bodies, but it was not from the heat wave, or excitement of the battlefield.
The strange soldier appeared once again.
Surrounded by sputtering flames, the figure stood tall with his whole body stained black. Smoke was slightly rising off his armour, but he stood before the army looking fine, as though he was completely undamaged from the dragon breath.
The soldier, slowly and steadily, restarted the assault on Alwinans with his minigun once more.
In contrast to his intimidating air as he trudged towards the opposing army one step at a time, Karito was actually drenched in a large amount of cold sweat, rivalling those of the enemy soldiers.
(That was pretty scary! I thought I would be burned to death for sure!)
To tell the truth, just moments before he received the air raid from the fire dragons, Karito had completely forgotten about the existence of the Sky Cavalry above his head. If it was not for the Juggernaut’s fire protection measures (nullifies fire damage), he would have turned into charcoal for sure.
In the first place, the reason he ended up in this predicament of plunging into battle with the Alwinan army alone, was to call the Sky Cavalry’s attention to himself so that Reona and Rina could escape. It was like putting a cart before a horse. Karito was reflecting on it deeply.
But with this, the probability of those sisters successfully escaping rose considerably. He was able to reduce the number of eyes from the sky somehow, and the survivors of the Sky Cavalry were keeping their distance from Karito too. There was no sign of them flying to the part of forest where Reona and Rina had escaped into.
But, he mustn't relax his guard yet. At any rate, Karito needed to thrash around more violently to attract the attention of the pursuers (Alwinan Army) to himself.
He didn’t think much about retreating. He was aware from the beginning that this was a one way ticket. By sacrificing himself alone, he could save two people. It was a simple math problem.
(I was saved thanks to the fireproof armour, and luckily, the ammunition of the minigun didn’t go off by accident too.)
When firearms break, an “unusable” icon will be displayed, but since there was no such indication even after the main body of the minigun has been scorched by a high temperature flame, it should be still alright to fire it, or so he judged. Thus, he fired it repeatedly again.
Whenever he saw the massive mountain of minced meat produced, he felt something gradually rising from the back of his throat. He had almost vomited all of his dinner, and possibly, some blood. However, Karito suppressed it and continued to shoot.
“This... Is this guy a monster?!” One of the soldiers shouted in despair.
Indeed... To the humans of this world, the present him must have looked like a monster. It couldn’t be helped. Karito somehow calmly agreed with that soldier as he listened to the screams of the soldiers between each gunshot.
If such an atrocious person like that existed, I would like to meet him... No, I would like to stop him, because the ending definitely wouldn’t be pretty. Even he, himself, wouldn’t think of wanting to approach such a guy, especially in this fantasy parallel world. Who knows what kind of races and monsters exist here.
He glanced at the corner of his field of vision. The number of remaining bullets on the weapon that was equipped was displayed by the goggles. The remaining bullets loaded inside the mini gun belt link was under 1000. As for the indication of damage on all parts of armour, it was all green.
He wonder if the remaining soldiers still number around the hundreds? he had easily killed around 100 or 200 people. How much more should he kill? How much more do he need to kill until the other side would retreat?
Fatigue attacked Karito’s whole body. After witnessing the slaughter of the whole village and annihilating the soldiers who did it, experiencing his first kill, trying to escape inside the forest in the dark night, and now, he had started a war with several hundreds of soldiers alone... It was too much for one day. The burden on his mind and nerves have started to affect his body.
That was why he was late to notice it. He became short-sighted under the protective mask. On top of that was the heavy machine gun, as well as the armour that was heavier than the bomb suit, and that the existence that approached him was faster than a man running on two legs. So, he was late to notice it.
While the soldiers charging from the front was annihilated in an instant, 3 heavy cavalry units deviated from the main army, and assaulted Karito from his flank with steel spears from atop their horses.
“Ya?!”
When Karito had finally sensed them and turned around, there was no longer any time to intercept it.
Luckily, he is able to twist his body in order to avoid the first soldier lance thrust, so the tip of the lance deviated from his body and hit his shoulder armour instead. Nevertheless, the shock was tremendous. It gave him the illusion of taking a direct hit from a rifle. Karito didn’t understand why he didn’t fall down just yet either.
The second soldier struck. At that time, Karito was in the middle of twisting his body to dodge the first strike.
(This aim... There is no time!)
There was not enough time to intercept or dodge it. The only thing Karito could do was to stretch his legs, lower his waist, and be prepared for a direct hit from the enemy.
The second soldier easily aimed at his torso, and commenced the attack. This time, the impact felt like he had been run over by a Humvee (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle).
But, the heavy cavalrymen wouldn’t expect that with the defence of Juggernaut with added armour plates, even a 7.62 mm rifle bullet would not be able to pierce it. In addition, there was also the physical strength generated by artificial muscles hidden beneath the suit.
The moment the heavy cavalry’s cone shaped tipped lance came into contact with the armour, instead feeling the sensation of piercing flesh, the impact felt more like that of crashing into a huge lump of iron ore. The eyes of soldier widened in surprise at that.
Immediately, the body of the soldier who tried to pierce Karito’s body floated up from his horse. In short, it was the effect of the law of reaction. With the acceleration of the sprinting horse added to the piercing power of the lance being stopped, the person that was holding onto the lance would be ejected backward.
The body of the second soldier rolled down on the ground. For that soldier, it was unlucky that the third cavalry soldier was following right after him.
“Hya?!” His cramped scream was lost in the thundering steps of the rampaging, riderless horse.
As for the second soldier, his whole body, along with his armour, had been trampled by his comrade’s horse, and became a corpse. The third soldier mounted on the horse fell off, and his own horse delivered the final blow by breaking his neck, resulting in instant death.
“Gaaah..!”
After hearing the footsteps of the first cavalry soldier fading away in the back, Karito couldn’t help but to fall down onto his knees.
Karito’s internal organs felt like they had been turned upside down from the shock of the impact. It’s stifling, it’s painful... It felt like the contents of his stomach would exit from his mouth any moment. It was a mystery why he didn’t roll over from this intense of pain.
It was too fatal a weakness to show on a battlefield.
Light spheres came flying from behind the line of infantrymen, landing perfectly in Karito’s surroundings, and exploded. The dragon riders that attacked him in the forest simultaneously bombarded him with magic cannons as well.
Looking at the impact when the spheres touched the ground, he estimated the explosive power to be roughly at the same level as an RPG (Anti-Tank Rocket) class. A large hole appeared on the ground, and the shockwave hit Karito. Before he could notice it, his body which was bulked up by reinforced armours had been intensely blown away by invisible hands.
“Gofu?!”
He was attacked by a nauseating sensation. Even though his whole body was in pain, it was thanks to the stun nullification of the Juggernaut that his senses of sight and hearing were still working properly. His consciousness seemed to fade away because of the damage. It took Karito several seconds to realise that he had fallen down while facing the sky, the night sky filling his entire field of vision.
Although the surface of the armour was slightly damaged, the armour itself didn’t have any problems. The problem was that the person wearing the equipment was about to reach his limit, but thanks to the bomb suit’s ability most of the explosive power was reduced such that he got off to a degree that didn’t rob him of his consciousness somehow.
It was the result of a close hit. He didn’t want to think about what could happen to the armour if it was hit directly.
On the lower right of his view, the area that shows the current equipped weapon and remaining bullets icon flashed on and off, along with an indication of ‘weapon damaged, impossible to use’. He struggled to look up while lying down on the ground, and saw that the electrical parts of the minigun was giving off sparks, and one portion of the gun barrel was also deformed.
In between Karito and the army was a cloud of dust that resulted from magic fired in succession. The battlefield was suddenly enveloped in silence, and then, he could hear the soldiers buzzing.
“Did we do it!?” One soldier asked agitatedly.
(Too bad, but you just raised a flag.)
I would love to answer with that, but my voice wouldn’t come out. The only sound that Karito, who was on the verge of dehydration, could make was a quick and intense raspy breathing like a panting dog.
While being tormented with the extra clothes that he equipped, he was able to stand up somehow. Even though Karito’s movements was hidden by the dark night and the rising dust cloud, it was only a matter of time for him to become visible to the other party.
He unequipped his destroyed minigun, and equipped a new HK416. This rifle was adopted from the M4 carbine that was issued to US military, and improved by the H&K Company. The original was highly famed for its reliability. This rifle had dot sights with a 100 bullet drum magazine capacity. It was also equipped with a M320 Grenade Launcher that improved its firepower drastically.
[TL: so it become more or less like this]
The ammunition he chose to use against enemies equipped with protective gear was the armour piercing bullets. It wasn’t as powerful as the 7.62MM bullets, but the power was sufficient.
Furthermore, he added one more thing to increase his firepower. He materialized the gun from his equipment list. It was the improved mini submachine gun that was adopted in many countries, F (Fabrique) N (Nationale) MK46. He equipped it with a box magazine that could fire 200 5.56mm Nato bullets consecutively, the same bullets used by the HK416.
Switching to infrared night mode, Karito proceeded to look at the present state of the Alwinan forces through the dust cloud. As soon as he did that, the silhouettes of countless people indicated with red and a tinge of orange were projected in his sight.
Most of the silhouettes had parts of their body looking darker than the others. The infrared night vision mode visualized the temperature of the objects it displayed. As it displays the difference in the temperature of the human body, the parts covered by metallic equipment looked oddly out of place.
The infantry lining in the front row were those equipped with protective gear covering their body and heads, with the exception of their face, and carried long spears and long swords. Right behind them was the heavy infantry equipped with strengthened armour covering most parts of their body, creating a blueish silhouette. He also discovered several knights sitting astride on their horses. Thinking back to how their formation was at beginning, an archer unit should be arranged right behind the shield bearing soldiers. He could see the silhouette of those holding canes in one hand emitting a reddish heat source, in other words, soldiers without any kind of armour on their body, the survivors of the mage corps that leashed concentrated fires at Karito some time ago at the furthest end.
If only the <SwitchBlade> was still functioning, he would probably be able to faintly see the presence of a group of white robed people. Their appearance would surely stand out, even at night.
“All units, charge!” With the order of the commander as the signal, a large number of soldiers who still maintained their fighting spirit started an all-out charge with a loud battle cry.
The survivors of light infantry alone reached 3 digits. Roused by their survival instincts, their intimidating footsteps carried a destructive force resembling that of a tsunami or a landslide.
The charging steps and roars of robust soldiers shook the night air. Even Karito could sense the air tremble with fear through his heavy armour.
(From now on, it’s the crucial point.)
He lowered his centre of gravity, and prepared himself.
8 out of 10 chances, he would probably die here. He had already prepared himself when he decided to part from the sisters.
The smoke cleared up. Aiming towards Karito, the horde rushed forward at full speed, the speed clearly visible to the naked eyes. Every single one of them brandished their swords, glaring at Karito with bloodshot eyes.
Faced with such a scene, not even fear surfaced any longer.
In his right hand was the drum magazine attached HK416, and in his left hand was the MK46. With both weapons loaded with a myriad of bullets, they dangled against his hips, and Karito’s fore-finger squeezed both triggers simultaneously.
[TL: the position was just like this guy]
Its barrage was several levels inferior compared to the mini gun. Nevertheless, it still held enough power to instantly make a beehive out of one or two vehicles, and those bullets were aimed towards the Alwinan infantry that was charging forward in front of him.
His first target was the survivors of the cavalry which was much quicker than the infantry units. The recoil from the large assault rifle and light machine gun made it impossible to make an accurate aim, but, he had memorized the bullet paths since the tracer bullets loaded into the MK46 ammunition belt at the ratio of 5:1 made it easy to correct the line of fire.
As soon as they were caught by the barrage of bullets, the cavalrymen fell from their horses as if pushed by an invisible rod. Among the bullets fired, some penetrated their horses. Surprised by the pain, the horses shook the soldiers off. Many ended up trampled even with their armours by hooves and bodies weighing several hundreds of kilos.
After the cavalry unit was decimated, next were the infantry units. By the time he had switched his targets, the distance between him and the mass of soldiers had diminished to less than 100 m.
In any case, he shot at them randomly. With the 5.56 mm rifle bullet, an armour piercing bullet, the thin iron plate which the infantrymen equipped was incomparably powerless. Along with a satisfying sound, the bullets pierced through the armours of the Alwina troops as they fell one after another. The fallen infantrymen would not wake up for a second time.
Without stopping, the foot soldiers stepped over the bodies of their friends and marched onwards, because it was an everyday occurrence for the soldiers next to them to die instantly in a battlefield.
Although the barrage from modern firearms showed an overwhelming result over the infantry units, there were still only two guns.
Just like the cavalrymen who landed a successful hit with their spear charge moments ago, with sacrifice of their comrades, ten infantry individuals had successfully approached Karito from the rear, and drew their swords to stab Karito.
They used all the power they had, and swung their blade towards his shoulders.
*Ding! *Ding!*
Dull sounds echoed as their swords were repelled. Looking at how it was able to endure even the cavalry’s charge, he could see how high the defence was. The unfaltering Alwinan soldiers lunged with their swords, spears and axes again. If he kept getting ganged up by them like this, his scheme would be exposed.
“As if I’ll let you do it!” Karito roared.
Realizing how dangerous it could be, Karito took action. Having lost the minigun, he was freed from the dash penalty. Juggernaut itself has a powerful defence despite the compensation of debuffed speed, and even though it didn’t allow a powerful dash that could transcend a sprint athlete easily, he was still able to run.
Karito charged towards the infantrymen who tried to surround him. As Karito had his whole body hardened and reinforced by the armour plates, one unlucky soldier smashed his face on it as he rammed into Karito’s shoulder. Karito could feel the sheer force of the soldier smashing into his shoulder as the sensation transmitted over his armour.
On his back was the knocking impact of several attacks from dangerous weapons. He turned vigorously and landed a hit with the MK46 on his left hand. Even without bullets loaded, the lump of iron weighing more than 5 kg could be used as a club to the heads of unlucky enemies. A strange crashing sound echoed from the impact. The infantryman who had his head twisted to an unnatural angle collapsed on the spot. Without a pause, Karito swung the submachine gun around while discharging ammunition.
Another infantryman who held a shield in his left hand and a glaive (naginata) on his right pounced to reap Karito’s neck. The bomb suit was designed to protect the head and chest, as well as the vital points, and the back of his head was entirely covered by the armour plate, so the collar easily stopped the blow of the glaive.
However, the shock of the attack near his head shook his field of vision and brain. A large part of the damage was reduced by Juggernaut, but, in the end it was only a reduction, and not nullification.
In reality, the attacks of the soldiers who flung themselves to Karito had been slowly eating away at the HP gauge that only Karito could see. It was unthinkable that the Alwinan forces would allow Karito any time to use a recovery potion.
Would Karito reach his limit first, or would the Alwinan forces?
“You bastard!!” Karito gave a kick to the infantryman who swung a glaive at him while roaring angrily.
The soldier raised his shield to stop the blow immediately, but it was useless. The kick that was combined with a heavy mass of armour and strengthened man-made muscle his body, blowing the soldier off parallel to the ground, and hitting several of his comrades along with their shields, just like in kung fu movies. Using the HK416 in his right hand, he shot at them rapidly, finishing them off.
The situation would only gradually worsen, or so he judged. As the result of him having kicked the enemies away, he was able to escape and create some distance through the small gap he earned. While escaping outside the range of the enemies’ suicidal charges, he fired the two guns blindly once again.
Karito fired the MK46 for a long time until the bullets loaded on the ammunition belt were exhausted, so he chose to abandon the submachine gun. It was because reloading bullets would take time that he did not have.
Karito’s left hand picked up a flashbang (stun grenade) precisely from the various grenades which hung at his waist. He then threw it to a group of infantrymen, and a dazzling flash of light was born in the centre of the plains that was stained with rivers of blood.
[TL: not sure why the author only said that he throw it without pulling up the pin. I have search some place and it was said that a flash bang need it pin pulled out before it can be used.]
Instead of injuring the enemy with blasts and fragments, stun grenades aimed to snatch away the sight and hearing of the enemies within the area temporarily with a thunderous roar and flash.
It wasn’t as effective when used in an open space, but it brought immediate results as the Alwinan army had gotten used with the darkness of the night. The majority of the infantrymen approaching Karito had their sight blinded, and instinctively held their faces as they writhed in agony.
One part of Karito’s Juggernaut was an integrated-type reinforced helmet with goggles which covered his whole head, invalidating the effects of the stun grenades, leaving him safe.
While the infantry was overwhelmed, he immediately threw the second batch of grenades. This time, they were regular grenades. Small scraps of iron scattered across the whole area, shredding the bodies of the soldiers to pieces as the shock wave produced destroyed their internal organs. The remnants who escaped the grenades were met by the gunfire of the HK416.
Then, he could see a wave of attacks emitting light come flying down. It wasn’t only light spheres this time, there were fireballs as well.
“Uoottooo!!”
Fireballs the size of a hand-ball slanted behind Karito, missing him. When the fireball hit the ground, the flame roused up to a diameter of several meters before engulfing the area in flames. Its destructive power wasn’t as potent as the fire dragon’s breath a while ago, but what surprised Karito was the fact that they had attacked their allies who were still in the midst of the melee battle. The infantry troops who were already half dead from the grenades were burned to death by the magic of their magician allies.
From the bottom of his heart, Karito was glad that the mask blocked the smell of burning flesh completely.
There was an interval until next magic could be fired. This time, a barrage of arrows came raining down. Knowing that the arrows would not be able to pierce him, Karito calmly loaded a new magazine into his HK416 while being showered by the rain of arrows. However he didn’t fire it immediately. Instead, he loaded a magazine into the M320 Grenade Launcher in his right hand.
“Is the angle like this?” He mumbled.
The grenade launcher attached at the bottom of the rifle barrel was slanted upwards, and the ammunition inside was launched. A 40 mm grenade flew through the smoke.
After a short pause, a new explosion resounded. Screams began to overlap with each other. He understood that it had exploded in the centre of the mage corps through the image reflected. The force of the blast and the splinters were taking their lives.
The next grenade was then loaded. Usually, grenade launchers compatible with assault rifles had a slide type gun barrel, but, the M320 was a horizontal swing type.
The smoke had almost disappeared after the second bombardment. At this moment, few surviving magicians were in good condition, and the soldiers guarding them were nearly annihilated when they took damage from the blast thrown into the centre of their small group. Even though they weren’t equipped with modern weaponry, the magicians with the power unleashed from their infamous canes truly deserved to be called a human fort.
It really is a fantasy world, Karito thought idly as he ignored the smell of gun powder all over his body, and fired another grenade shell, completely annihilating the magician unit this time. He then fired the HK416 for good measure.
Despite of the enormous casualties from the infantry troops, the enemy general ordered the archers to fire another volley in vain, not knowing when to give up.
Karito anticipated the order and turned to fire the M320 at the archer units first before they were able to execute the command. Following after the magicians, the archer units were engulfed in the explosion, sending them into disarray, rendering them unable to shoot.
Ignoring the submachine gun that he had thrown away, he reloaded the HK416 with 5.56 mm bullets and continued his pursuit.
Long periods of firing wasn’t suitable in cases of aiming at distanced targets. So, he approached them while taking an exemplary shooting position, smoothly getting into the rhythm of rapid gunfire that was engraved deeply into his body from the game.
[TL: the position was like this while charging]
The sound of Karito’s heartbeat and rough breathing was louder than the sounds of gunshots, and the movement of his arm was almost like a conditioned reflex. While sluggishly closing the gap between him and the Alwinan forces little by little, he shot accurately at all soldiers which his eyes could see. Every time he squeezed the trigger, someone would fall down.
He killed, killed and continued to kill them. He didn’t even remember how many people he had already killed.
“M-Monster! This guy is a monster. I don’t want to fight someone like this anymore!” One man wailed.
“Immortal... He is immortal! There is no way we can go against such an opponent! We will all be killed!” A soldier yelled agitatedly.
“W-Wait! Don’t falter! We can’t flee when the enemy is standing in front of us! We are proud soldiers of Alwina!” The commander protested.
“Don’t joke around! We are mercenaries! We can’t do anything if we lose our lives!” One of the men shot back angrily.
Amongst all of the soldiers who had turned their backs towards Karito due to indecisiveness, Karito found himself looking at a single entity clad in noticeably superior equipment, shouting from atop his horse.
(That probably is the commander.)
(Strike down the head of the enemy if possible.)
His thoughts regained composure for a moment. He aimed the luminous dot (the bullet will fly towards the figure of the target that was captured by the luminous point) at the commander’s large torso, and shot.
Because of the recoil, several bullets flew upwards and drilled through the commander’s chest, neck, and face. The commander who had his face partially destroyed lurched to the side slowly before sliding down to join the corpses of ordinary soldiers laid out on the wasteland.
That became the decisive blow.
At first, it was only several people, and in the next moment, it became dozens of people. Before long, the survivors of the Alwinan army that amounted to a little less than 300 turned tail at once and fled into the forest.
Originally, the total number was around 750 people, and now it has been reduced to less than half, with a casualty rate of more than 50%. The damage received was to the point that the forces needed to be reorganized. It is amazing that they were able to hold out for so long.
All that had happened fell to the responsibility of the commander who didn’t let them retreat, but since he had already compensated with his life, there was no possible way for him to be held responsible any longer.
All the soldiers that were able to move disappeared from Karito’s line of sight in a matter of minutes.
What remained in the wasteland were the mountain of corpses and Karito. Other than Karito, there was no other living being. There as a possibility that some injured people were abandoned, but he didn’t have any energy left to confirm their deaths one by one now.
Karito needed some time to register the meaning of the scene laid in front of him. He remained on his feet for a while with the HK416 dangling by his side. All he could hear was the sound of his own breath, his heart beating like a drum, and the sound of fire crackling from the continuous smouldering.
“...It’s over, huh?” He muttered as he was stood dumbfounded and overwhelmed.
The assault rifle slipped out of his hand, and he stretched his hands to his head to touch his helmet. For a while, he didn’t know how to take it off. After a little hardship, he was able to take off his helmet, and turned around slowly to face the heaps of bodies. The moonlight illuminated a massive number of corpses that were scattered around the plain.
He looked back from his original position. A similar landscape spreads out.
His fatigued body felt like it had multiplied in weight as he heaved out a large sigh. As he took a light breath, intense nausea attacked him.
Where he stood was the centre of the area where the war occurred. The bodies of several hundreds of people lay around the surrounding area, the smell of iron rust, guts, as well as gunpowder and flames fused into the strong stench of death. The smell of death struck Karito hard. He had just massacred several hundreds of people.
Even though he understood that he had already turned into a killer a long time ago, feeling it with his five senses now, and being able to withstand it was another issue.
Unable to endure it any longer, he went down onto his knees and regurgitated the contents of his stomach. The ground where his hands touched was awfully damp. If it wasn’t for the dark night, he might have noticed that the ground in front of him had turned dark red from the fresh blood it had been doused with.
He wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. But, his body didn’t seem to be listening to him. His remaining HP had fallen into a dangerous level by now, but even so, he felt that it was too troublesome to summon a restoration potion to cure himself.
Unable to withstand his fatigue, Karito exerted the last of his strength to avoid the vomit and excretion, and laid on the ground while still wearing the plate armour.
The night sky filled with countless stars and gentle moonlight shone down upon Karito, who was sprawled out right in the middle of this dreadful battlefield. Looking at this scene, he couldn’t help but think of how small his existence was.
“...Looks like this is my limit...” The man murmured as he finally fainted in the midst of the mountain of corpses.
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