Chapter 82 - General-purpose machine gun
Chapter 82 - General-purpose machine gun
With Shia in tow, Lyss showed up at the backyard where the Barrier Stone was located.
On the way, they pa.s.sed by other maids, soldiers, officials, and other high elves, but they were all running about in panic because of the normally impossible situation of the barrier stone being destroyed.
"*tsk*—! This is horrible!"
They arrived at the place where the barrier stone used to be.
There they found a battlefield, a scene straight out of h.e.l.l.
[GAGYAAAAA GYA GYAAAAAAA!]
The ominous dragoons welling out were howling in joy.
Their bodies were covered in hard scales and were two meters tall. Their hands carried mainly primitive weapons like spears, knives, and bludgeons made of bone or stone.
The ma.s.s of dragoons gathered over the corpses of the dead soldiers, scrambling to devour them. In the worst cases, they bit on still fighting soldiers, tearing off their flesh and slurping on their blood.
Though there was still some distance, the thick stench of blood reached even Lyss" nose.
The dragoons kept on coming out of the hole on the broken barrier stone.
The high elf kingdom soldiers were in disarray from the unexpected situation and could only try to figure out how to handle the situation while launching scattered attacks.
The worst part was —
[PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!]
The Basilisks dancing in the air petrified soldiers and dragoons alike.
The petrified soldiers and dragoons became feed for the Basilisks to peck at.
It might have been a silver lining that the Basilisks stopped inside the castle.
If even one of them went outside, the residents outside the lake would have no way to resist.
"P, Princess!? It"s dangerous here so please leave right away!"
The person who looked to be the commander on the ground called out, but Lyss instead gave out orders.
"No, I"m not going into hiding. I"ll fight to buy you time, so withdraw your troops that are fighting and regroup your forces. As it is, you"re only creating casualties for nothing. After that, please go get father and the others to safety."
"U, Understood!"
He ran to execute Lyss" orders, which allowed no room for argument.
With her spirit blessing, Lyss took out an AK-47, then a belt equipped with ALICE clips, a Panzerfaust-60, and some frag grenades for defense and handed them over.
"I"ll be preparing the PKM, you use these to aid the a.s.saulted soldiers and take out the Basilisks, Shia. Can you do that?"
"Yes! Please leave it to me!"
Shia skillfully put the equipment on and jumped toward the battlefield with body strengthening.
Lyss watched her back rea.s.suredly and began setting up the PKM – the general purpose machine gun, just like she said she would.
When she had been entrusted with being backup, she was taught the general outline of how to do it by Lute, and she practiced many times in her own room.
Thanks to that, her hands moved deftly.
First, she took out the PKM and a large box magazine the size of three lunchboxes. It was made of metal and when it wasn’t packed full of cartridges, it made a hollow, metallic sound when you hit it.
The box magazine was filled with 200 7.62×54mmR rounds.
Since the tip of the PKM"s barrel was equipped with a bipod, when you set the gun down on the ground, the gunstock would slant diagonally down and the gunpoint would point up.
Next, she attached the box magazine to the belly of the PKM.
Ammo belt (cartridges linked into a belt) held in one hand, she opened a lid, called the feed cover, and insert the belt into the receiver before closing the lid.
She pulled the c.o.c.king handle on the right side of the receiver and it’s lock n’ load.
Lyss held the carrying handle attached to the gun so that she could change the barrel easily, and pointed it towards the dragoons.
“Preparation done. From here on I won’t let a single one pa.s.s…...!”
With the light of resolve lit in her big eyes, Lyss stared at the battlefield.
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
“He, help―!”
A male elf was attacked by some dragoons.
As if his arm had been bitten off, blood wouldn’t stop flowing from the place where he held it with the other arm. He fell on his back and a number of dragoons approached to eat him.
Bang! Babababababababang!
[Gagya, gyagyaaaa!]
The dragoons that were about to attack the male elf got holes punched into their heads and fell down, one by one.
“Are you okay? Can you move by yourself?”
Shia, with pistol belts attached to her maid clothes by ALICE clips and an AK47 in hand, saved the elf man from danger.
When he saw a maid on the b.l.o.o.d.y battlefield, furthermore one who had saved him, he felt it was so out of place that he even forgot the pain.
He somehow replied ‘I’m, I’m okay. I can still walk’.
“Good, then retreat to the back right now. If you see others who were late to flee, call out to them.”
Shia told him only that, and after mowing down the incoming bunch of dragoons with the AK47, began to push deeper into the battlefield.
“Where are you going!?”
“I’m going to defeat the basilisks on hime-sama’s order. It’s going to get ugly, if you don’t want to die then hurry it up and retreat. You don’t have luxury to worry about others.”
“Un, understood!”
The man swallowed his saliva before immediately turning around and moving.
Shia threw away the depleted magazine, took out a new one from the magazine pouch, and plugged it in.
Bang! Bababababababang!
[Gagya, gyagyaaaaa!]
She fired with the AK47 in a sweeping motion, and the dragoons fell down like dominoes.
The basilisks that were eating petrified soldiers and dragoons also noticed Shia’s existence and flew into the air.
[Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!]
One neighed, as if saying new food had come dancing, looked at Shia, and dived towards her.
The effective range of its magic eyes was about 500 meters.
However, before it got into that range, Shia took out a defensive ‘frag grenade’ and pulled the pin with her mouth.
She applied more magic to the body strengthening technique and threw the hand grenade straight towards the basilisk. The effective range of the grenade was 15 meters.
The grenade exploded.
At the same time the basilisk cried out in pain, due to the unexpected attack.
[Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!]
The basilisk fell to the ground, crashing into a number of dragoons.
Shia’s hands were steady.
She took the panzerfaust type 60 she had been carrying on her back.
She pulled out the safety pin near the warhead.
Erected the sight.
Pulled the safety lever forwards, and it was ready to be fired.
The distance to the basilisk was about 20 meters.
Shia carried the panzerfaust type 60 on her shoulder, and took aim.
She heard the footsteps of the dragoons coming from behind but she ignored them.
“Prepare to fly, to infinity, and beyoooooooond~”
TL note: lmao I just can’t help it, it was just something like ‘get blown beyond the stars’ - Yuushin
She copied the finisher line Lute had said in the cave when they were attacked by the twin dragon.
The warhead went ‘Woosh!’ and flew at the speed of 45m per sec.
The dragoons approaching her from behind were blown away by the backblast of the panzerfaust.
TL note: lolololol brilliant idea, needs good timing skill though
About 3kgs of magic TNT explosive impacted the basilisk’s head.
After a core shaking explosion, the basilisk’s head was completely gone.
Shia threw away the remains of the panzerfaust type 60 and readied the AK47 again. She turned around and finished the dragoons that were squirming on the ground due to the backblast.
Having completed Lyss’ order, she retreated back to where Lyss was.
She strengthened her body and ran back.
When she arrived Lyss had already finished preparing the PKM.
“Hime-sama! I’ve made you wait!”
“Shia! Stand behind me, quick!”
Lyss’ voice was impatient.
Behind Shia were tens, hundreds of dragoons rushing over.
It was because the soldiers that had been serving as their food were all gone.
The dragoons desired fresh meat, so of course they would aim for Woodcastle, where the elves were all at.
“Hime-sama! Evacuation complete!”
“Here I go! FIREEEE!!!”
Lyss squeezed the trigger at the same time!
Bababababababababababang!
The rifle’s 7.62x54mmR rounds were being shot at the speed of 650 shots per minute.
‘Shots per minute’ is a measurement of how many rounds a gun can shoot in one minute. The higher the number, the faster the shooting cycle.
General-purpose machine gun trivia―guns that can be used for anti-air purposes, like Germany’s MG42, can shoot up to 1500 rounds per minute. At that speed, the sounds would be different, you would hear it as a continuous sound, like ‘Brrrrrrrrrrt’.
TL note: not quite, this is true brrrrrrrrrt - yuushin
During WW2, it was feared by the Allies as ‘Hitler’s electric saw’.
However, that was just a ‘theoretical value’. Even though it was written in the specs that it could shoot 1000 rounds per sec, it actually couldn’t continuously shoot that number.
Why? The ammo belt could only be so long. If it was any longer, it could get twisted, or cut, etc… and it would be hard to carry as well. It also depended on the size of the cartridge. So, in actuality, a belt’s limit was about 200 rounds.
[Gagya, gyagyaaaaa!?]
The dragoons were covered in hard scales, but they couldn’t withstand the power of 7.62x54mmR round and fell like dominoes.
Lyss was staying more than 300 meters away in a safe place, and she showered the enemies with a storm of bullets.
The PKM’s barrel overheated and started producing white smoke.
“Oo…...ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!”
Behind Lyss.
The soldiers who had escaped from the dragoons and basilisks all cried out at once.
It was cries of joy, like they had already won the battle.
However, Lyss realized their disadvantage with that gun shot.
She murmured like she was confessing a crime.
“At this rate they’re going to break through……”
The contrast between the cries of joy and Lyss’ gloomy expression.
They started to raise to the surface, as different as light and dark.