Chapter 089 - Secret weapon
Chapter 089 - Secret weapon
After we defeated the basilisk above the lake, the airship continued to press toward the inside of Woodcastle, just like that.
Originally, if we tried to fly over the castle, we would get shot down and couldn’t even complain. However, since the barrier stone was destroyed, there was no one to criticize us.
Or rather, we could save Lyss from a pinch exactly because we quickly rushed in from the un.o.bstructed sky.
There was a basilisk hovering over the castle. Chrisse shot a 7.62x51mm high-explosive magic stone round through its eye socket, making the bullet explode inside its skull, and killed it.
Noticing Lyss, Luna called out from the airship and waved her hands to let Lyss know that she was all right.
“Oneechaaaaan!”
Having confirmed her sister’s safety, Lyss showed a relieved expression.
However, the current situation was an urgent one.
Shia had been wounded. Her maid clothes were stained with blood and her eyes were closed. It looked like she was unconscious.
From the destroyed barrier stone, dragoons were coming out in large numbers.
As I thought, it would really reach the number 10000 that was written in the record book.
Considering the barbed wire was gone, they did good holding out with just the PKM.
To not let their hard works be in vain, I couldn’t let the damage increase anymore.
“Snow! Meiya! Have you finished the preparation!?”
“It’s ok!”
“It can go anytime!”
I nodded at their powerful replies, and called out loud to Lyss, who was hugging Shia below.
“Make a foxhole right now and take cover inside it! I’m gonna shoot a really big firework!”
Lyss heard my words and instructed the soldiers behind her.
The magicians cooperated and made a big, deep hole, and they hid inside it.
Lyss also made a foxhole by herself and hid in it with Shia.
After I’d confirmed that everyone had taken cover, I went and stood in front of the automatic grenade launcher that was based on the Mk19, which I made at the same time as the PKM (general purpose machine gun) as insurance.
Now then, what was an automatic grenade launcher?
Grenade came from the Spanish word ‘granada’, which means ‘pomegranate fruit’.
A grenade that was designed to be thrown by hand is called a hand grenade.
In regards to a grenade launcher, you didn’t throw it manually like a hand grenade; it was a tool to launch the grenade forward ― called a grenade launcher (its name changes depending on if it’s a rifle model, or pistol model etc., but for now let’s just call them all grenade launcher).
Normal grenade launchers could only shoot one shot before having to reload, and other models could reach 5~6 shots, but the automatic grenade launcher I made this time used a belt link to link the grenades together (like a machine gun’s ammo belt) and could continuously shoot 30~50 shots.
If you could continuously shoot grenades that would explode and shower fragments around, then it would be more effective at defeating enemies hiding in bushes or on the riverside than the machine gun; it was a weapon that was made with that ideology.
The construction was also simple, just applying the shooting mechanism of a heavy machine gun to grenades.
However, the ammo for the automatic grenade launcher was 40mm big, so it couldn’t be helped that the launcher was also big.
So normally you would attach a tripod to stabilize it, or attach it to a vehicle or boat.
This time, I attached the automatic grenade launcher at the nose of the airship with a tripod and pointed the barrel toward the barrier stone where the dragoons were pouring out.
‘Pomf!’, the sound of the grenade launcher was a lot less intimidating than the general-purpose machine gun PKM.
However, the effect of one shot didn’t even begin to compare.
“Gyaaaagyaa!!”
The dragoons coming out of the barrier stone were planning to surround Lyss and everyone else, but the 40mm round shot from the airship hit the ground.
The magic stone packed inside the round got destroyed and raised a column of flames.
At the same time, the small iron b.a.l.l.s packed inside the 40mm round, as well as shrapnel, flew out into the surrounding area at high speed. Even the dragoons 100~200m away from the impact point fell down.
Frankly speaking, compared to the 40mm rounds in the previous world, the power was overwhelmingly higher.
It was because of the idea I got from the time I fought the twin dragon: using a magic stone.
The magic stone used was bigger than that of the 7.62x51mm high-explosive magic stone round, and the power of one shot boasted the destructive power of a high-end intermediate level spell.
It also had the special perk that the manufacturing process was simpler than the normal 40mm round.
Once you pulled the trigger, it became a monstrous mechanism that could continuously shoot 50 shots (buckshot) at the level of high-end intermediate level spell.
As for the demerits, you may get criticized by other merchants as a result of h.o.a.rding a large amount of magic stones.Another was because of using magic stone that costs around 3 gold (300 thousand) per shot. Magic stones not charged with magic power were way cheaper though…… But we didn’t have time to charge them, and we couldn’t use empty magic stones either.
But thanks to that, I had created a total of 300 rounds of 40mm explosive magic stone buckshot.
A simple calculation shows that they cost 900 gold (90 million yen).
The source of the funds was from borrowing from Meiya, the bounty money from capturing the twin magicians, and the estimated money for the twin dragon’s corpse.
Of course, I would send the bills to the High Elf Kingdom properly later.
Pomf! Pomf! Pomf!
TL note: Wah, what are we gonna do on the ship? - yuushin
Due to the cartridge being big, the shooting speed became lower than the machine gun, at 300 to 400 rounds per minute.
Even so, in reality, the audible shooting sounds were absurdly fast.
Once the rounds impacted, fierce flame burst forth.
Scattering iron b.a.l.l.s punched holes into the enemies’ faces and bodies.
Said flames entered the holes opened by said b.a.l.l.s and roasted the dragoons from inside.
On the ground was the very picture of h.e.l.l.
“HAHAHA! The ones running away are the dragoons! The ones who can’t run away are the dragoons who had practiced a lot! Really, the High Elf Kingdom is h.e.l.l!”
“Is that so?”
Standing beside to support me was Snow, and she tilted her head and asked.
With a troubled face, Lute answered with his usual tone.
“No, I just screamed like that because I was excited, so don’t mind me.”
“Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!”
An ear ringing neigh.
While I was conversing with Snow, a basilisk showed itself from the destroyed barrier stone.
The one that came out this time seemed to be the biggest.
However, before this Mk19 model automatic grenade launcher, it was just a slightly bigger lizard. Nothing more, nothing less.
Before it could take off, I pounded a round of 40mm explosive magic stone buckshot onto its back.
“Piiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!”
With just one shot, the basilisk’s chicken wings were burned down into pieces and it was robbed of its ability to fly.
I shot a few more rounds, aiming at the ground to nail it in one place.
At the end, I aimed at its head, and the iron b.a.l.l.s packed inside turned it into a beehive.
I overwhelmed it without giving it any time to use the petrifying magic eye.
Since the dragoons were flooding out from the destroyed barrier stone, I aimed at the opening and shot. The grenades went inside the hole and exploded.
Pomf! Pomf! Pomf!
Over and over and over, I kept shooting while aimed at the opening hole.
The dragoons coming out became prey to the flame, explosion, and iron buckshot immediately.
By the time I spent all the ammo, most of the basilisks and dragoons were annihilated.
We landed the airship at the barrier stone square.
“Oneechan!”
Luna jumped down the airship, ran towards, and hugged her big sister, Lyss.
Lyss also hugged her little sister, who returned safely.
When we reached where they were standing, they stopped hugging and wiped the tears from their eyes.
“Lute-san, everyone…… Thank you for saving my sister, and my country.”
Without minding the soldiers, she bowed her head really low.
I smiled at her.
“Don’t sweat it. Aren’t we comrades?”
“Yes, you’re right. We are precious comrades.”
While her eyes were still soaked with tears, her chest throbbed as she raised a beautiful laugh.
Just like that, we had successfully avoided the High Elf Kingdom Enol’s destruction crisis that was written about in the record book.