“Smart Cannon Shells, falling at Mach 9.”
The standoff with Froz and Yarun continued from there, but the two were gradually retreating.
The Jötunn M facing them remained stationary, its main cannon still aimed.
Amidst this stalemate, red-hot warheads rained down from directly above. Propulsion units, having detached from cluster bomb units, plunged down as mass projectiles. Immediately after, a large number of submunitions showered the surrounding area.
The two ＜Fenrir＞ seemed to notice the warheads overhead just before impact. However, this was a combined attack with hypersonic missiles coming from a different direction. Smart warheads and cluster bombs churned the ground, and Froz and Yarun, who were trying to escape, had their feet blown out from under them.
Even so, the two ＜Fenrir＞ kicked off the unstable ground and barely managed to evade. With movements exceeding the speed of sound in an instant, even hypersonic missiles could not brake in time. Multiple mass warheads grazed the two, blasting away the earth.
And this seemed to be the decisive blow.
The two Threat Creatures, already losing their will to fight, turned around with tremendous speed.
A full-force retreat.
There, ＜The Tree’s＞ pursuit force pierced through.
Jötunn M and the Multi-legged Machine Group scattered Cannon Shells, and lasers filled the space vertically and horizontally.
Additional Barrier-Penetrating Missiles that had been launched flew in one after another, chasing after the fleeing two.
The Gigantia Squad—Eurytus, Theia, Leia, and Themis—began their full-force bombardment.
Attacks were exquisitely coordinated to block the ＜Fenrir’s＞ escape routes. Froz and Yarun dodged the attacks as if dancing, but this prevented them from gaining distance effectively.
The calculation AI, having thoroughly observed the two’s athletic ability, was predicting their movements. The accuracy of these predictions improved with each passing moment.
“Amazing…”
The video was completely covered in smoke and dust. Eve couldn’t make heads or tails of it anymore, so she could only watch.
For what it’s worth, each unit and the ＜Fenrir＞ were displayed in wireframes. However, Froz and Yarun in particular were moving too fast to be seen at all.
“Barrier-Penetrating Missiles launched by the attack aircraft, arriving on target.”
Smart warheads launched by Breiðablik rained down, and hypersonic missiles and Cannon Shells were fired in massive quantities, creating a hellish battlefield.
But even so.
“＜Iris＞ seems to predict that even this will not lead to their defeat, Onee-sama!”
“We could defeat them if we could just hit them…”
The problem was that the attacks just weren’t hitting.
Forcibly hitting them by blocking their escape routes wasn’t decisive, and when they concentrated, they could evade.
Without preparing something like a trap to stop their movements, it would be impossible to take down these ＜Fenrir＞.
“I wonder if it would be difficult to restrain them with something like a capture net…”
“If we had known they had this much instantaneous power, we could have considered equipment to inhibit their movement. As expected, dealing with Threat Creatures is difficult,” ＜Ringo＞ replied to Eve’s grumbling. A species that doesn’t fit into the framework of existing creatures, and even exceeds the bounds of physical laws.
They were recognizing the rain of hypersonic Cannon Shells and submunitions, accurately evading them, and presumably continuing to take optimal actions.
Unfortunately, most of the sensors that had been set up in advance had been destroyed by the bombardment. Therefore, information gathering was only being done by local automated machines.
Even so, the minimum necessary data for confronting this ＜Fenrir＞ species in the future would have been collected.
Well, the best thing would be if they just retreated as is.
“＜Iris＞ is intentionally creating an escape route! Froz and Yarun seem to have noticed it! What amazing ability!”
“Both Froz and Yarun are definitely trying to escape. ＜Iris＞ intends to let them go.”
＜Iris＞ was accurately driving the targets. While blocking their escape routes, she was creating a path to push them towards the Demon Forest. And the two were following that path, gradually increasing the distance.
“…What about future actions?”
“Yes, Ma’am. We will continue to apply pressure by deploying air power as is, and pursue them near the Demon Forest. After that, we will firmly defend the originally set defense line. We will construct defense facilities and patrol with defense machines to establish a boundary. We plan to abandon the territory we pushed into during this battle and set it as a Buffer Zone, thereby showing our intention not to expand our territory any further.”
The ultimate goal of the plan was to push the ＜Fenrir＞ family back into their original territory in the Demon Forest. Extermination was also one plan, but there was a possibility that the territory dispute between Threat Creatures would become chaotic again, so retreating them was the best result.
“Onee-sama, escort fighters have reached the combat area.”
“Breiðablik’s bombardment will be the last~”
“Fighters are starting their ground attacks~”
Furthermore, additional air power arrived overhead as a final measure. They didn’t have the attack power of hypersonic missiles, but supersonic missiles were still a sufficient source of damage. Some aircraft were equipped with unguided bombs, but these had no effect beyond blinding the enemy, and were just dead weight since they were moving too fast to hit anything.
“Ground attack units are starting missile deployment.”
The bombers widened the bomb bays in their bellies and released the missiles they were carrying one after another. The missiles released into the air sequentially ignited their rocket motors and began flying towards their targets.
An overwhelming number of fire lines colored the sky.
Furthermore, the fighters lowered their altitude to strafe with machine guns, following after the missiles.
Perhaps feeling threatened by the large number of missiles approaching at supersonic speed, and the multiple fighters.
Yarun turned around and unleashed a flash. Froz covered for Yarun, whose movements had slowed, with his own body.
“Yarun executed an attack resembling a Fireball. Initial velocity, 800m/s to 1,000m/s. Multiple Fireballs confirmed.”
“The ground attack units are falling!”
“Some missiles shot down~”
Anti-air attack. An explosion occurred in the middle of the bombers, which were densely packed for concentrated firepower, resulting in half of them being judged as shot down.
Furthermore, six Fireballs exploded in multiple locations, engulfing the missile groups and fighters in flight.
“Bomber attrition rate 13%. Fighter attrition rate 7%. Missile loss 22%. Quite the attack power and range.”
“But in exchange, Froz seems to have taken another Barrier-Penetrating Missile…”
The pressure from the ground attack decreased, and the two ran off in one go during that gap. Froz was bleeding because he blew away a missile with a body check, but he fled with a force that didn’t make him feel the injury.
“Report from ＜Iris＞: Yarun and Froz have retreated into the Demon Forest.”
If there was no longer any interference with their movements from Cannon Shells, their maximum speed was supersonic. The two ＜Fenrir＞ disappeared in an instant.
Although they had escaped, the operation objective was cleared with a perfect score of 100 in that ＜The Tree＞ was able to correctly convey its threat.
“…Okay. A lot of things happened that I didn’t expect, but all’s well that ends well!”
“Yes, Ma’am. ＜Iris＞ has declared the completion of Operation Walking the Dog.”
In this way, ＜The Tree＞ succeeded in driving the ＜Fenrir＞ back to their original territory while consuming a large number of automated machines and Cannon Shells.
Comparing only the simple consumption of resources, it was much more than the Prawa Theocracy invasion operation.
Multiple Jötunn were heavily damaged, and three mockup-type Jötunn M were ultimately judged to be heavily damaged. The number of Quadruped Tanks and Multi-legged Tanks that were completely destroyed was too numerous to count. Of these, more than a hundred evaporated without a trace.
The consumption of Cannon Shells and missiles goes without saying. The amount of energy poured in was also enormous. A corresponding amount of nuclear fusion fuel was also used.
Even so, compared to the resources that can be acquired in the future, it would not be a significant loss.
＜The Tree＞ once again secured a vast amount of land as territory. Although surveys had not been possible because it was under the territory of the ＜Fenrir＞, judging from the surrounding land prices, a considerable Lode should be sleeping there.
“Let’s confirm the Results later, everyone. Is there any urgent work?”
“Yes, Ma’am. Everything is fine. Let’s hold a慰労会 first, including ＜Iris＞.”
We finally drove them back.
Aren’t the Monsters in the “Let’s Become a Novelist” fantasy world too strong? Attribute compatibility is essential…
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Volume 2: https://www.kadokawa.co.jp/product/322306000178/