Episode 24: The Jobber Jailer Gets Hyped
The Guardian Dragon Baurnout.
It’s the dragon that protects Katiana’s country, but for some reason, it’s siding with the Rebel Army.
“Eret-dono!!”
Katiana, mounted on a horse, approaches the Ultimate Golem and shouts.
Her expression seemed frantic.
“That’s Baurnout!! The Guardian Dragon of our country!!”
“Oh, that sounds interesting. The Rebel Army alone wasn’t enough to satisfy me.”
“No!! He’s strong!! I don’t know if even Eret-dono’s Golem can win—”
Before Katiana could finish, Eret accelerated the Ultimate Golem with a foot pedal.
At the same time, Baurnout, who had emerged onto the ramparts surrounding the Royal Capital, slowly turned its head towards the Ultimate Golem.
It was focusing an enormous amount of heat in its mouth, clearly preparing to attack.
“Deploy all armaments.”
The eight gun barrels mounted on the Ultimate Golem’s back spewed fire, bit weapons deployed, and missile pods opened, firing all their missiles.
They all assaulted Baurnout.
Every single one of them hit, and Baurnout was engulfed in explosions and black smoke.
I almost wanted to say, “Did we get him!?” but I stopped myself, as that would be a flag for it not working.
“Did we get him!?”
“Hey, Katiana-jo! Please don’t set up a flag!!”
I thought, but Katiana, who had been watching the series of attacks, set up a flag, and the cockpit’s microphone picked it up.
When the smoke cleared, Baurnout was still there, unharmed.
The energy it had been focusing in its mouth was now white with heat, and I could predict that a nasty attack was coming.
Just as the Ultimate Golem was about to take evasive action.
Kaaah!
A blinding beam of light was released from Baurnout’s mouth.
The Ultimate Golem deployed an ‘AT-Field’ imitation to try and defend, but it was shattered in an instant.
It barely managed to avoid a direct hit, but the beam grazed its left side, destroying boosters and armaments.
Its mobility and attack power were greatly reduced.
“Tch, not bad!!”
Inside the cockpit, with the red light flashing, Eret grinned fearlessly.
I, on the other hand, was panicking.
“Hey, what do we do!? Isn’t this impossible!?”
“Indeed, it seems our current armaments are no match for that. That is, our current armaments.”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Eret took something out of his pocket.
It looked like some kind of switch, and it said ‘Serious’ on it.
“Eret-san? What’s that?”
“It’s the activation switch for the Ultimate Golem’s ‘Serious Mode’.”
“Couldn’t you have done something about the design of that switch?”
“Isn’t it cute?”
Eret said with a confident, smug look.
Well, yeah, I guess you could say it’s cute?
Eret’s sense of naming and cute things is amazing. The Ultimate Golem looks pretty cool, but…
While I was thinking that, Eret pressed the switch, saying “Click.”
The next moment, all of the Ultimate Golem’s armaments were purged.
No, not just the armaments, both arms and legs were detached from the Ultimate Golem.
Then, a magic circle appeared behind the Ultimate Golem.
“It’s an application of Summoning Magic. I summon armaments stored in another dimension, and they combine on the spot.”
“Wow, this guy can do anything!!”
Combining after purging, he really understands the heart of a man.
While I was impressed, larger arms and legs appeared from the magic circle.
If the first Ultimate Golem was a lightweight unit focused on speed, this Ultimate Golem was a heavy unit focused on power.
A backpack also appeared and docked with the Ultimate Golem’s torso, adding large cannons to both shoulders.
And then, just one more armament appeared from the magic circle.
It was a pile bunker, a pile driver larger than the Ultimate Golem itself, which had replaced its limbs.
“W-what is that…?”
“Long-range attacks don’t seem to be very effective. We’ll pierce through him with this.”
“Ooooooooooooooooooooooh!!”
This got me a little hyped.
The Ultimate Golem shouldered the pile bunker, and the crawlers on its legs began to spin wildly.
The boosters also fired.
The Ultimate Golem accelerated and charged across the ground, and Baurnout, recognizing it as an enemy again, unleashed its breath.
“Did you think you could hit me just because I’m a heavy unit? Sorry, I can dodge.”
The boosters on its shoulders, waist, and legs fired for a moment, moving it out of the breath’s line of fire.
W-was that movement a Quick Boost from Armored Core!?
The Ultimate Golem approached Baurnout, tracing an irregular path to the right and left.
It was the moment it approached the Royal Capital’s ramparts.
This time, the Ultimate Golem used an Assault Boost to close in on Baurnout, who was on top of the ramparts.
Baurnout must have felt a sense of urgency at the Ultimate Golem’s incredible speed.
It frantically tried to take flight, but Eret didn’t let that opportunity slip.
“Your torso is wide open.”
Eret mercilessly drove the giant pile bunker into Baurnout’s torso.
The opponent is going to die!!
In fact, Baurnout suffered a fatal wound and fell to the ground…
After that, the Rebel Army surrendered to the Regular Army.
Katiana didn’t suffer any terrible fate, and the event was cleared without incident…
But a small problem arose.
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Afterword
A trivial side story
Author: “Purge & Docking is romance.”
Lugus: “I get it.”
If you thought, “I laughed at the Serious Switch,” “Baurnout-san was instantly killed lol,” or “Pile Bunker is also romance,” please leave a comment, bookmark, star rating, or review.