Rune Troopers

Chapter 4.5

Chapter 4.5

Kuze’s group was arranged throughout the barricade. The type 89 rifles were standing balanced on two legs, ready to shoot. In front of the gun points were the empire’s army, crowded into a military position. It’s still increasing, but at the present moment there are about a thousand enemies.

“Listen up! You Mariisua savages!”

A commander-looking man wearing a helmet adorned with plumage springs out in front of Kuze’s group.

“We are the Filborg Inheritance Empire combined Southern Military, under shogun Rihyalda’s command!”

The man seemed good at raising morale and inspiration on the battlefield when talking to the enemy. His voice resounded clearly and reverberated in the surroundings, with every single word and and phrase heard easily.

“If you capitulate to our camp, your clans will be wiped out as a mercy, these are the gracious words of Rihyalda-sama! Now, Hamieea, come stand here! If you sc.r.a.pe over here, your life alone will be salvaged!”

Kuze exchanged looks with Karuda, who had turned to the barricade, when he realized the approaching danger. She seemed to somehow want to leave this to Kuze. The ones who can withstand the empire forces are the SDF, so such a course of events would be natural, and when thinking of elsewhere in the country, Karuda felt that she already gave up much around the nation. Kuze stood up with a loudspeaker in hand.

“This is j.a.pan’s military dispatch, the j.a.panese Self-Defense Land Forces. So long as you are against these citizens and your continuing ma.s.s killings does not stop, you will not pa.s.s through. Again, if you go any further intending harm, we confirm that we will use force!”

(That guy..exactly what is he prattling on about?)

The commanding man, in front of their eyes, broke out into laughter. They’re wearing weird clothes and are in a makeshift encampment made of furniture. And, they’re pointing stick-looking things at us. That encampment will likely get greatly lessened by just a charge from the cavalry.

But, the amount of soldiers like that is so small it won’t be anything to write home about. At most, it’s about 30 people. They intend to stop our advance? We’re the Inheritance Empire Knight Unit. (Man, I almost feel pity for how insane these people seem…)

While the commander was thinking this, he slowly turned to face his subordinates, and raised his voice.

“Archers, get in position!”

About a hundred archers prepared to shoot, and aimed their arrows.

“Shoot!”

This is an attack to cause losses in the enemy forces prior to the direct confrontation. The confronting guys with the strange clothes turned tail against the arrows and hid in their encampment. Sure, the arrows feel like rain, but they didn’t even reach the group in hiding.

(Heh, though that toy-looking encampment probably wouldn’t be able to stop the attack anyway.)

That simple misshapen construction made out of wooden boxes which had arrows sticking out of was laughable. For those quivering in such a thing in the face of such an attack, fear isn’t enough. After the arrows fell, they have their sticks pointed toward us like before.

If they mean to fight, they should leave their encampment and come here, with their swords or spears in hand, but that’s not what is happening. The commander was sure of victory. The pitiful groups in front of his eyes were quivering in their encampment and were too scared to come out. He broadly grinned and laughed, and raised his voice.

“All troops, charge!”

He raised his big hand, and moved the momentum. The heavy infantry behind him raised their voices, reverberating on the ground. They were the v

oices of an epic war cry. And, they pointed their spears to the enemy encampment, and systematically advanced forward.

But, the commanding man and the troops advancing forward didn’t know what was in that laughable-looking encampment made of furniture. That is, they were unaware of the existence of the blind spot made by the soldiers from another world for this encampment, that which would be called the “Emergency Firearm Encampment.”

Since earlier, counting the rear guard, there were something like a thousand people attacking in the enemy army. They met with the first wave of 200 people. Kuze gave his respective commands over the radio.

“Platoon, prepare to attack…!”

“Squad 1, prepare to attack!”

“Squad 2, prepare to attack!”

“Squad 3, prepare to attack!”

The members holding a type 89 5.56 mm rifle prepared to attack by releasing the safety and pointed their rifles to the troops which started advancing.

“Hurry and win!”

The enemy commander’s voice compounded and reverberated with the war horn and the sound of the attack. The soldiers in black armor covering their bodies had well started their attack. Against such intensity, the SDF members with no experience in actual war cowered.

 

The distance between both sides shrunk. With 200 coming forward and needing to be cut down, Kuze issued an order.

 

“Fire!”

 

He nearly equaled the enemy commander’s yelled order with his own. In response to his voice, the members pulled their triggers. With the gunshots came the sound of the empire’s soldiers falling in spite of their somber armor hardening their bodies. That their armor is inefficient compared to the 5.56 mm high-speed rifle bullets which can go through kevlar is to be expected.

 

“Guagh!?”

 

“Ugh”

 

The courtyard was an open place with nowhere for someone to hide. To the SDF members, it was essentially just like a shooting range, making it an environment easy to aim in. The empire’s forces had no reason to know that rifles existed, so those in armor fell down rather swiftly. Without knowledge  of them, they fell to the agency’s guns.

“What did they!? What happened!?”

 

The commander on the front lines for the empire’s forces didn’t at all understand what happened. After coming this far, all that should be left to do would be to capture the queen. But in this end game, “someone” was standing in his way.

 

It would probably be the Imperial Guard. But, for there to be soldiers that can defeat over a hundred elite knights in an instant shouldn’t be possible. It’s strange. They weren’t faced with anything particularly menacing. That’s all they understood.

“Arrows!! Arrows we can’t see are reigning down on us!”

“They’re using magic!”

Those were the words of those who saw their comrades fall, full of holes. Already, over half of them had become victims of the enemy’s attack.

“Get up the shields! There is no retreating for the Inheritance Empire’s military! Only advance forward!”

But the commander demanded resolute offensiveness. However, this was not just a show of valor. In the empire’s military, very often a commander who loses greatly will be decapitated, so he also commanded with this fear.

Even though he was told by Rihyalda that it would be OK even if they lose their camp here, such a one-sided battle followed by winning anyway would not be forgiven. In a battle where they don’t know at all what the enemy is thinking, what they needed to do to survive was simply to advance.

The SDF members on both sides immediately fired their MINIMI light machine guns balanced on two legs. The enemies were rained on by bullets that are shot at a thousand per minute. In addition to the terrible noise of the gunshots, the screams of the enemy and their yells of death rose and mixed together, and the normally good-natured Kuze screamed.

“Don’t let the soldiers get any closer! Continue the barrage! Prepare the rifles!”

“Preparations complete!”

“Fire!”

They aimed toward the enemy who had arisen their shields, and fired the grenade bullets from their type 89 rifles. That is, the bullets for a type 06 rifle are called rifle grenades. By just attaching a warhead, you could shoot these grenade bullets via a rifle. The accuracy isn’t the best, but it can go much further than a hand grenade, and it is a cheap, heavy weapon used by normal soldiers in the land force.

Against the exploding grenade bullets, the shields will break, and their formation will be shattered. What is happening now in front of their eyes is a collision of the might of the SDF and the Inheritance Empire Military forces.

The other side clearly held the intent to kill toward this side. Kuze was able to see the difference between the approaching southern forces and them: it was a complete slaughter. The modern equipment didn’t just make them strong, they were only 32 people. To take the initiative they needed to completely beat down the enemy.

Again, it was expected that they would lose their will to fight and retreat upon seeing this side’s overpowering fire power. The other side shouldn’t know that there is a limit to the ammunition, so there is no need for their continued fighting in waiting for them to run out of ammunition. But, they missed his intentions.

“Shoot, those guys, making me stomped over my dead comrades!d-dead bodies!”

“I’m getting mad…!”

“Move the recoilless rifle forward!”

At Kuze’s command, the one shouldering the 84 mm portable recoilless rifle decided to aim it at one unit of the heavy infantry. The loader following the shooter loaded the anti-tank high explosive projectile into the gun barrel, and made sure the breech mechanism was closed lightly.

And, to prepare for the backblast, he checked to make sure no allies were behind him. The loader gave the “ready to shoot” sign by lightly tapping the shooter on the helmet. The shooter pulled the trigger, and after the violent firing noise, together with the ear-splitting noise of the explosion, the enemy shields were altogether blown away. But, even with that, the enemy’s march did not stop.

With hundreds of dead bodies rolling on the ground, the empire’s forces raised their war cries even louder, raising their lances and swords and primitive weaponry to continue their attack against the barrage of bullets and an anti-tank missile. To the SDF members, their form couldn’t seem like anything other than their being possessed by madness. They expected their vigor to be down at least somewhere, but it only seemed to increase.

“The Inheritance Emperor, Banzai!”

“Death not to the enemies of those who will inherit the world!”

It’s been a few minutes since the start of the battle. To their resounding words, the enemy completely ignored their many fallen comrades in a reckless attack, and they continue to close the distance. It will be dangerous at this rate. Kuze, who thought this, gave Ichinose some new instructions.

“Ichinose, cover us from in the tower!”

Ichinose, who accepted the order, ran off toward the tower Kuze was pointing to.

“Trust me to guide you there.”

Rarona, who left to run together with Ichinose, said this.

“Thank you.”

Rarona, somewhere in his heart, gave Ichinose a little relief while being full of tension from the battlefield.

“Go!”

The two faced one of the castle’s four minarets. Ichinose truly felt like he was going to collapse from overworking his body since this morning. But, seeing  Rarona, who was a girl younger than him, be so resolute meant he could not say such complaints. Run. Run.

On the way, they would meet the citizens-made-refugees. They all had the same look about them to Ichinose. And, this would pose to Rarona, who they knew to be a soldier, questions.

“How far has the enemy broken through?”

“What was that noise we heard earlier?”

Rarona, against her will, made a face of self-confidence and answered them.

“It is alright, since we are holding them back!”

Her words were full of a determination to do all that she possibly could. Ichinose realized that her “we” included him. Rarona was now recognizing him as a warrior. As they climbed the spiral stairs to the minaret, he realized he has never experienced anything so uplifting. He, someone so pitiably he was recognized as a soldier by someone, like Rarona. That made him happy.

“This is it! From here, you can see the whole courtyard!”

Rarona confirmed this by looking down out of the window of the highest stair of the minaret. In the courtyard continued the violent battle. In the sharp flash still left from the flash bombs, you could see enemies.

Sometimes, the sound of a grenade’s explosion would reverberated around. Thinking about the violent machine gun fire, it didn’t seem they would run out of ammo any time soon. The enemy commanding power needs to hurry and retreat already. Ichinose’s prepared his sniper rifle from the window. But, he didn’t know if the essential enemy commander was anywhere near.

“There! There is the subordinate holding the war flag, and next to him might be the knight corps leader, with the clothes with the plumage.”

While Ichinose was being impatient, Rarona spotted the one who looked to be the commander.

“You can see that well from up here?”

“It’s because I grew up as a mountain person!”

Mountain people are amazing, Ichinose whispered, as he found the target Rarona scouted out using the scope reticle. He took about 3 seconds, then pulled the trigger. The gunshot rang out, and the war flag 400 meters ahead of him fell. He shot the subordinate carrying it. Rarona made a face as though she were scared at her wits’ end. She wasn’t expecting one shot to kill.

“You hit him from this distance!?”

“For sure, I am a semi-special level sniper after all.”

Ichinose pulled the c.o.c.king handle—the handle on the back compartment of the gun—and ejected the empty sh.e.l.l and loaded the next bullet.

In the SDF, the level of snipers are divided into 5 groups: beginning level, middle level, upper level, semi-special level, and special level are the 5.

Among these, Ichinose is 2nd from the top as a semi-special level sniper. He has the skill to shoot through the eye of a needle on a pitch-black night.

“Ichinose, where did you polish your skill to be so great?”

Rarona guessed that he must have trained under some famous, legendary archer. But, Ichinose gave a grin and answered.

“A game center on the way home from school!”

And, he aimed for the commander with the plumage outfit and shot. The parade sword turned around as the enemy commander, who had been yelling at his subordinates, writhed with his but on the ground. With this it is over is what Ichinose thought, but it didn’t go so well. The fallen enemy commanders’ subordinates were left to continue to hold up the flag again.

“Why did they picked up the flag?”

The target was killed easily enough , but they seemed to just get over it very easily.

“The flag is a symbol of the corps. The time for the flag to fall is when the whole corps has been annihilated. The empire is especially like that.”

 

After hearing what Rarona’s words, Ichinose whispered, “I see.” And——

“Cheeky!”

Ichinose once again aimed for the soldier holding the flag. He took a little breath, suddenly stopped, and pressed the trigger. The backlash and the sound of the gunshot reverberated around the minaret.

The soldier holding the flag fell over on the ground from the shock. And, he gazed in amazement at the hand holding the flag. The flag staff broke as he shot it in the middle of the shaft.

“How’s that!”

Ichinose screamed as he held onto the c.o.c.king handle.

“Wow, that ‘Game Center’ really trained you well! Ichinose!”

With happiness, Rarona tapped Ichinose on the back, and he, without thinking, stared at her. With a smile, she seemed unreservedly happy. With grat.i.tude, it would seem she thinks the game center is some sort of training grounds with archers or something.

…Well, that’s fine.

“Who’s next?!”

“Over there! The magic knight corps are preparing to use the attack magic!”

“Understood!”

Following Rarona’s instructions, Ichinose prepared the sniper rifle.
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