“Enemy! On the right!”
The first thing that LLENN thought when she heard that was,
‘Aren’t you mistaken?’
That.
Indeed, an enemy team had survived in the swamp. They confirmed that 4 minutes ago.
However, they were 4 km away in a straight line. Moreover, there was a lake between their current position and the swamp.
If they were on a flat land that was suitable for running and had characters that had raised their agility to extreme levels, they would have to be running at a no longer human speed of 60 km per hour in a straight line; such a thing had to be considered.
‘That’s impossible, you must be mistaken’, LLENN tried to say as she stopped and looked to her right,
“Wha?”
Discovering that she was wrong herself.
Above the lake, something that she did not see until this moment could be seen.
They were black dots. Three, no, four black dots were floating on the surface of the red lake, and moreover, they were rapidly becoming bigger.
“Drop to the ground!”
Just as she lay down as M told her, several vivid Bullet Lines passed above her head.
There was no doubt about it anymore. Those black dots were an enemy, and they were targeting LLENN’s group with their guns.
She heard the sound of several bullets from those guns flying above her head; a sound that she had heard far too much shortly after the game started.
“What’s going on? M-san?”
While on the ground and pressing her head to the asphalt, LLENN asked. M, whose posture she couldn’t see, answered.
“The enemy has obtained a convenient vehicle. That’s all there is to it.”
“A vehicle?”
“Yeah, they’ll be coming considerably close to us, so you should see it.”
“…………”
LLENN slowly raised her head, and looked at the lake once again. The four black dots had decreased the gap by about 300 metres, and although they were still small,
“Aah…… I get it.”
She realised what that shape was. Small motorboats. And there were people riding it. In that case, it wasn’t strange that they closed this distance, travelling at 60 km per hour on the surface of the water.
“Those are motorboats! That’s cheating!”
“It’s not really cheating. Players are free to use vehicles within the field. First come first serve.”
“Uu……”
“Moreover, to be accurate, those aren’t motorboats.”
“Wha? Then what are they?”
“They’re hovercrafts.”
“Wha?”
“Roll to the left to get away!”
Before LLENN could process that, she rolled horizontally from her prone posture. Due to her extreme quick-wittedness, she rolled twenty times in the blink of an eye, moving several tens ofmetres away from her former position, and although she felt considerably dizzy, that action saved her.
Weren’t those red Bullet Lines that came flying at the place that she had been just a moment ago, the ground being showered in a hail of bullets right afterwards?
They were under fire from machine guns. LLENN had been under considerable fire some time ago, thus she immediately understood what was attacking them now.
The bullets were scattered, but if she hadn’t rolled away, it was quite possible that at least one of them would have hit her. If the bullet had hit a vital part of the body, it would obviously result in instant death.
“Shhit.”
LLENN, whose pink combat uniform was stained with grass and dust, raised her head, and saw that one hovercraft was merely 100 metres away, and traversing the lake from left to right at high speed.
She clearly saw it in detail. Its overall length was about 3 metres. At a glance, it looked like ajet ski, in other words, a water scooter.
However, unlike a jet ski, it had black rubber under its green hull, and an aeroplane-like largepropeller in its rear.
Its hull floating by jetting air below it, and moving with the help of its propellers; that is what a vehicle called a hovercraft is. A high-pitched engine noise, with the *būn* noise of the propellersmixed in, could be heard.
There were two men riding it in a row. The man sitting in front grasped a horizontal handle, and the man in the back had his machine gun placed sideways on the side of the vessel.
LLENN pointed her P90 at them, wondering if she should return fire, but before she could put her finger on the trigger, in other words, before the Bullet Circle appeared in her field of vision, she stopped.
She didn’t feel that she could hit the hovercraft that was zigzagging away from them. It would be a waste of bullets.
The other three vehicles were still far away, thus it seemed that only one of them charged in for a flank attack.
“M-san, you okay?”
“Yeah. I didn’t get hit.”
Hearing the answer, she sighed in relief for now. M should be about 50 metres behind her, but she couldn’t see well from her prone posture.
The vehicle that came attacking returned to the company of their comrades. Right now, all four vehicles approximately 300 metres in front of them continued zigzagging in order not to get shot.
“W-what do we do? Since we got discovered, we can’t use the trap during the next scan if we don’t get away.”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s run to the back! Into the housing district!”
“We can’t. They’ll chase after us.”
“How? We’ll be on shore after all, right?”
“A hovercraft is an amphibious vehicle that can travel on flat ground. It can chase after us even on the road. Especially in this area, where the lake turns into a highway, making it an ideal location for them to come ashore.”
“Wha that’s cheating!”
LLENN was seriously angry, but that was just the sort of vehicle it was, so she couldn’t do anything about it.
“If we turn our backs to them and escape, they’ll accelerate and come straight towards us at once. And then, if they close the distance, it’s the end for us. They’ve probably realised that our group consists of but two people. Those guys are also a considerably skilled team.”
Even at a time like this, M’s calm voice was reassuring. However, this didn’t change the fact that they were still in a pinch.
“Then, what should we…… Should I become a decoy and run around while, you, M-san, hide? If I’m alone, I’m considerably fast, you know? Of course, not as fast as a machine though……”
“That’s a nice idea.”
“I—— I know, right?”
Feeling that her suggestion was praised for the first time, LLENN felt a bit happy, despite the current situation.
“But, I’m not running away, I’m going to shoot them from here.”
“Say what? ——M’san, you shouldn’t fall into despair, you know?”
LLENN said in a tone as if she was admonishing a person who was attempting suicide.
“Who is in despair. Do I look like I am? Right now, the enemy is far away. Try raising your head a bit.”
“Hm?”
LLENN first lightly raised her head.
No Bullet Lines could be seen in the surroundings, thus, for the time being it didn’t seem like she would be shot in the next moment. She was scared, worrying that there could be a sniper on the other side, but it should be a next to impossible task for a sniper to shoot her from atop a movinghovercraft. She couldn’t shoot them, but they couldn’t shoot her either.
Since this was the case, LLENN raised the upper half of her body. She turned her eyes at the direction she expected M to be and——
There he was. She saw a large body lying on the asphalt road that was by the side of the lake. And, she saw his M14 EBR set up on the bipod in front of him.
‘Huh? Something’s different?’
LLENN looked for what was wrong, and noticed it. His giant backpack was not on his back, as if it had run away under the cover of the night or had relocated. M had unfastened it, placed it in front of his body, and was now trying to open it. And he opened it.
“I’m going to use this.”
* * *
The team that obtained the hovercrafts——
Consisted of high-level players that have been playing GGO for a considerable amount of time. Their leader was so skilled that he participated in the main tournament of the third BoB. Unfortunately, he was shot by someone more skilled in the early stages.
The six members were all men. Their weapon lineup consisted of a HK21, 7.62 mm machine gunas their principal weapon——
Along with two ≪H&K G36K≫, one ≪Steyr STM-556≫, one ≪FN Herstal SCAR-L≫ and one ≪Beretta ARX160≫ 5.56 mm assault rifles.
All of them were European-made, high-power guns; a considerably powerful lineup.
Furthermore, in order to be able to share magazines among the assault rifle force, the two G36K users were using adapters. Because of this, the five of them could use the same magazine.
Although their camouflage and equipment belts were all different due to personal taste, they had only two common features as a team.
The first was, a team emblem sewn on everyone’s arms. A skull, holding a knife horizontally in its mouth, mark(3) in inconspicuous black, navy blue and dark grey colours was depicted on it.
The other was that they had all equipped magazine pouches on the back of their vest. Their hands obviously could not reach them, thus they were meant for their comrades standing behind them.
In case they had to fight indoors and were close to their allies, drawing out magazines from the back of the person in front of them would be faster than from their own bodies; which was the reason they were equipped.
So far, they’ve been stoically pursuing team play, thus they had a streak of easy victories in SJ’s first half. Having begun SJ in the north-westernmost tip of the field, in the prairie, they took down several teams in their surroundings.
As for the two teams that took up position in the forest, trying to defeat each other, they had split into two groups and attacked both at the same time, forcing them to leave the tournament.
The problematic case, even to them, was the team that had camped in the crashed spaceship in the swamp.
Leaving a lookout at the highest platform of the spaceship, they set up snipers facing all four cardinal directions on the spaceship, and easily brought down teams that came along the fewroutes in the swamp that could possibly be traversed.
Cowardice is cowardice, but strategy is strategy. They were probably lucky, having started SJ in such an advantageous position from the beginning.
Just as they considered giving up on attacking them, and to advance toward the centre, while ignoring them, they chanced upon hovercrafts next to a shed before the swamp. They had searched for vehicles there right after SJ started, but, at the time, they could not find anything of the sort.
Although strange, this was a game. They deduced that, as the number of remaining teamsdecreased, a way to travel became necessary to make contact with other teams, thus these vehicles appeared. And so, with them, they decided to attack the spaceship team.
As they have had practice driving vehicles in GGO, with just a bit of practise, they managed to handle their new vehicles, and made use of their new speed to quickly traverse the swamp.
It was difficult to hit a hovercraft travelling at high speed, and due to Bullet Lines, it was possible to avoid the snipers’ line of fire. After infiltrating the spaceship, they ended up in close quarter combat on board the confined ship.
Spreading out their forces to control all four cardinal directions was the cause of the spaceshipteam's defeat. They were defeated one by one on board the confined ship, until finally, only theleader at the highest platform was left.
“Gentlemen! It seems that you have defeated all of my comrades! Splendid work! I probably have no chance of winning anymore! HOWEVER! I am NOT going to resign! I am not going to let you kill me either! I’ll show you! THIS, is how you lose a battle!”
The leader gave a speech in high spirits, distributed all the plasma grenades she had throughout her body, and pressed the activation button of one of them,
“Uooooooooooooooo!”
And jumped down.
A flashy, bluish-white explosion was created in the air, the explosion induced by other grenadesspread out, and its inside shined, with red polygon fragments mixed in; my-my, that was really beautiful,
“Taamayaa……”(4)
One of the attackers muttered unintentionally.
Corpses being left behind was a feature in the BoB and SJ, but, unsure of how it would work in this case, when the body is blasted into very small pieces, they looked at the sky where the explosion occurred, and saw that the scattered red polygon fragments gathering soundlessly.
And then, the created corpse, with a 【Dead】marker attached, suddenly began to fall down, as if it just remembered to do so. *Bozun*, it fell into the swamp and sunk, disappearing from sight.
“How surreal……”
Another member of the group muttered unintentionally.
They then checked the 14:50 satellite scan that began immediately afterwards. Finally, the surviving teams numbered three, and the group accelerated their hovercrafts to attack the closest team, which was in the residential area, in other words, LLENN’s group.
They closed the distance in the blink of an eye, and discovered their targets. Finding out that the opponents only had two members remaining (though this was a mistake), they attacked twice with their machine gun, and examined the enemy’s forces by their reaction. It was a thing called scouting out the enemy’s capabilities.
And so, they witnessed M’s shield.
“One of them deflected our 7.62 mm bullets with a shield expanded into a fan shape. His weapon is unclear, but based on the long and narrow barrel, it appears to be a sniper rifle. The other pinkone is small and fast. Armed with a P90.”
While returning to their leader’s side where their four comrades were, the machine gun man reported.
“It can deflect despite the distance…… wow.”
“It’s definitely custom-made.”
“How I want one. But it’s probably expensive.”
Mutters from his comrades reached his ears via his communication item.
The leader, armed with an STM-556, rode on the back of one of the vehicles and took command.
The remaining three men were operating the hovercrafts by grasping the handle with their right hand while holding their respective assault rifles with just their left hand.
The leader glimpsed at his wristwatch. 14:56. He thought for a moment, and instantly decided.
“Let’s settle this before the next scan! Everyone, prepare for the assault. Watch out for Bullet Lines coming from the shield; if you see one, dodge it immediately. We’ll land in the blink of an eye, and attack them from behind. Spread out, 10 metres front and back, and 20 metres in width. Jake’s group, since you’re the farthest to the right, prepare to provide covering fire.”
‘Roger’, he heard five consecutive answers. Since all of them understood that this plan was the best.
If they endlessly spent their time on the surface of the lake, the battle would never be settled. The hovercrafts had a fuel gauge, and the first half had already been depleted. The movement speed of the vehicles was an overwhelming advantage for them. They wanted to defeat the enemies ahead of them already and preserve enough fuel for the last battle that would decide the victor.
In that case, the only action for them to take was to resort to power play. By making the best use of their mobility and attacking, they could instantly land. After that, they could make the best use of their numerical advantage and bring down their enemy; that was their plan.
What put them at unease was the sniper behind the shield, but, just like with the attack on the crashed spaceship minutes ago, they should be able to deal with him by moving in zig-zags and dodging the Bullet Lines one by one.
The hovercraft with the HK21 user called Jake passed through behind them and assumed the rightmost position. The moment that they lined up in an almost horizontal line,
“Attack!”
While giving the order, the leader tapped the shoulder of the man sitting ahead of him.
The hovercraft’s two stroke gasoline engine made a high-pitched exhaust sound, and the noise of the propulsion propeller’s wind joined in. Setting aside the question of why such an old engine was used despite this being set in the future, the four vehicles began advancing forward, as they sent a thunderous roar throughout the lake.
Spreading out in all directions and turning the rudder to travel in zig-zags, the four hovercraftsbegan their assault. The gale made by the propellers spewed out four sprays of water on the lake.
At the same time, a small body stood up at the lake shore, and began running to the left.
“Chibi confirmed!”
While shouting this, the ARX160 man riding on the second hovercraft to the right tried aiming at LLENN with just his left arm.
The repeatedly contracting Bullet Circle entered his field of vision, but it moved wildly due to the vibration of the hovercraft, and because he was holding the gun with one hand. It just couldn’t line up with LLENN as she was running nimbly. Even if he shot right now, it would definitely be just a waste of bullets, thus he did not fire.
“Not yet. We’ll bring them down after we get closer.”
He heard the leader’s calm voice. 250 metres until shore.
Protected by the fan-shaped shield, M’s large build held the M14 EBR. He was in a prone posture. Under his bush hat, his right eye peeked through the scope.
In his round field of vision was a black crosshair linking the top, bottom, right and left to the centre. It included small, black dots in several places at regular intervals.
The hovercraft floating on the surface of the lake was, right now, in the centre of it. Slightly deviating from it.
“200 metres remaining. Jake! Begin your diversion fire!”
Upon the leader’s giving the command, the man in the hovercraft to his right began firing.
“Roger! Rock ’n’ roll!”
“Uhyaaaa!”
The pressure of the blast joined in—— and with the combination of the vectors, it resulted in a splendid and long jump.
“Byahaaaaa!”
With an interesting shout, the man and hovercraft went into the air.
From the left to the right side of LLENN’s field of vision,
“Aaaaaaaaaaa!”
Went the scream of the man wearing light brown, desert-use camouflage.
The jump was around 10 metres in height and 30 metres in distance. And it was still ongoing.
Despite LLENN thinking that, flying at this rate, the man would cross the K-point(5), land with a magnificent turn and begin his counterattack——
Such a movie-like scene did not occur.
Beginning to fall forward in the sky, the hovercraft finally completely toppled over, and the man inside fell out as if it spit him out.
On the road about 20 metres away from LLENN,
“Hyaaa—— guke!”
The man fell on his back.
Late by a beat, the hovercraft fell even further, and the loud sound of the hull breaking resounded. The water scattered by the explosion sprayed the surroundings.
“Bring him down! LLENN!”
“Gotcha!”
LLENN began running towards the man at a fierce dash. Running at a superhuman speed, she stopped in front of the man with his face up while sliding with her feet, and
“Huh?”
Met eyes with the man with a blank facial expression.
“Sorry!”
Along with that samurai-like word, LLENN pointed the P90 down and fired in full auto rapid-fire.
In order to ensure that he wouldn’t counterattack, she had no choice but to shoot him. If he pressed the activation switch of a plasma grenade, she would also die alongside him.
Although she only fired for about 2 seconds, but in that time, thirty hit effects were created on the man’s body. With his hands bouncing and a red effect flashing from his face and body, it was a considerably nasty scene.
Just as she stopped firing, *pikon*, the 【Dead】 marker appeared.
“Haa”
LLENN’s body shook for a moment, and she extended her right hand index finger.
It was a bad idea to shoot him more. It’s not that it would be a waste of bullets, but that it would be one of the worst manners - shooting a corpse would be ≪overkill≫—— in other words, „killing too muchkoroshisugi“.
“Haah……Whew……”
LLENN took in a long breath, and finally transferred her P90 to her shoulder, and then,
“I am really sorry.”
She joined her palms together.
NOTES
1. ^ The word used here is 弾頭 (dantou), which usually refers to a warhead, but may also refer to the projectile propelled by a firearm. Unfortunately, in gun terminology, that part is called a “bullet”, while colloquially the word “bullet” may be used to refer to the whole cartridge/shell rather than just the actual bullet. The Japanese word 弾丸 (dangan) is equally ambiguous.
2. ^ The actual word used here is アングル (angle).
3. ^ ドクロのマーク (dokuro no mark) literally means “mark of skull” or “skull mark” and refers to the skull and crossbones symbol. The formal name for the symbol is actually 髑髏と骨 (dokuro to hone; skull and bones), but it doesn’t seem like it’s used that often. But, since the author uses "emblem" in another instance, I figured I'd just leave the literal translation.
4. ^ Explained here.
5. ^ The K-point (construction point) is a line across a ski jumping hill which indicates the hill's steepest point in meters. It was formerly used to classify the size of a ski jumping hill, and to calculate the number of points granted by a given jump.
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