Getting in the Way

“D, don't you lot chicken out!! Shoot, SHOOOOT!!”

Facing the hideout...... or rather, Hidden Inheritor, its windows glowing a menacing red, Badengaju could not stay calm.

He ordered his subordinates to continue the attack.

The subordinates were just as rattled as he was, and they began firing their magic guns in a near-frenzy!

Their target was Hidden Inheritor...... but naturally, some shots missed.

Those turned into stray bullets...... and came flying at Emi and the others!

“Ah, hih!?”

Even now, a magic gun bullet grazed the cheek of Darakerus as he tried to get up from all fours, leaving a thin cut!

“Hey, hey hey hey! ‘O earth, move and become a pit! 【Small Pit】!’”

Pale and trembling, Darakerus chanted the incantation and made a pit with magic!

It was a small pit, just enough for one person to hide in if they crouched.

Darakerus tried to jump inside and hide......

“Wait!! That pit!! Give it!! To MEEE!!”

And got grabbed from behind by Fret, whose face had turned demonic in his desperation not to be shot!

“I!! Don't want to die!! Like this...... with nothing, accomplished!! I am going to seize glory!!”

“U, UWOOOH!? Don't go screamin' stuff, that makes no sense!! You get in the pit, after you're DEEEAD!!”

Even in this deathtrap, with magic gun bullets flying everywhere, these two were pushing and shoving as usual, grabbing each other by the collar and squabbling!

Because they were acting with such a complete lack of battlefield etiquette......

Byun!!

““Uhyaah!?””

Stray bullets flew in almost simultaneously and grazed their arms; the two hugged each other in surprise, then immediately rolled onto the ground to avoid the fire!

“‘O earth, move and become a wall! 【Small Wall】!’”

Darakerus instinctively chanted the next incantation.

Then the earth swelled up, mokomoko...... forming a flimsy dirt wall a little higher than his knees.

Darakerus rolled over and over until he was pressed flat against the dirt wall, and went limp.

Fret also desperately crawled forward and hid behind the dirt wall along with Darakerus.

“Damn! I'm tapped out, hey...... gonna puke, blegh”

Darakerus now looked pale and was breathing in ragged gasps.

He'd never had much magic power to begin with, so even low-level magic, used back to back, took a toll on his body.

“Fuuu...... fuuu......”

Darakerus let out two long breaths...... then went limp and closed his eyes.

“Damn!! Damn damn damn!!”

Fret, on the other hand, still had enough stamina to hurl insults while breathing heavily.

While hiding behind the flimsy dirt wall, he looked up to see magic gun bullets flying toward the hideout with loud pan, pan sounds.

“Stop it!! You fools who don't understand the value of things!! That's mine, you know!?”

Panicking and shouting, he rolled his body toward the hideout.

A precious stepping stone, to future glory...... the move to turn the tables, on his hated brother.

Whether that hideout of Gyashikinu's, was safe or not.

He couldn't stop worrying about it.

“Ah!?”

But before he even got to the hideout, something else caught Fret's eye.

It was Emi.

This beautiful girl of ominous coloring was standing stock-still on the meadow, expressionless, even with bullets flying all around her.

And at her, a stray bullet came flying.

Magic gun bullets were formed of magic power, and they glowed.

So they were easy to see.

“Ah......!!”

Fret's heart pounded so hard it hurt, and time, as he felt it, slowed to a crawl.

The bullet some nameless thug had fired sped toward the back of the stock-still girl's head, as if drawn in......

And burst, paan.

Not the girl's head.

The bullet.

Emi was unscathed!

“Why!?”

After that, bullet after bullet hit Emi's body, but she paid it, no mind at all!

Normally, a human body shot by a magic gun couldn't take it, and burst apart and died!

Shown a sight that overturned everything he knew, Fret clutched his head despite himself!

“Energy, charging complete.”

But then, it happened.

The cold electronic voice reached Fret's ears once again.

He gasped and looked at the hideout...... Hidden Inheritor.

The chimney protruding from the mushroom-like roof...... the protrusion he had thought was a chimney.

With a gashan, gashan, it was transforming into the barrel of a magic cannon, which didn't even try to hide its hostility!

“【Yellow Magic Orbs】 firing in 5, 4, 3......”

The yellow light gathering at the tip of the barrel grew stronger with the countdown!

“............”

Watching it, Emi sighed, her face still blank.

At this point, she had given up.

On living?

Of course not.

On getting her hands on ‘the lovely house in the forest’.

Emi had always given up on various things other than her own life.

So she had become skilled at what might be called “the art of giving up.”

Whether to persist or give up...... her judgment was fast.

For someone walking as hard a road as hers, quick and accurate judgment was a virtue.

It was, a shame.

The peaceful life she had thought was within reach.

To think she had to smash it to pieces herself.

But, Emi gave up.

She smothered her soft heart, longing for peace, in murderous intent, and by giving herself over to the urge to destroy, she forced down the part of her that wanted to hesitate.

“【Black Arm】.”

Emi muttered a single word...... and “grew” a giant, intimidating, pitch-black arm from her right shoulder.

Then, she tightly clenched the rugged fist of that arm and wound it back.

Smash it to pieces before being shot.

Strike first and win...... but!

“STOOOOOOP!!”

Someone was there to stop her.

It was Fret!

Unlike Emi, this man, blinded by greed, still hadn't been able to give up even at this stage.

To him, that hideout was...... a symbol of his comeback!

He couldn't let her destroy it.

Fret impulsively rushed toward Emi and lunged at her.

It came almost the same instant Emi let fly the fist of her 【Black Arm】!

Emi had never imagined that Fret would jump at her to interfere, regardless of the possibility of being hit by stray bullets.

After Darakerus's chantless 【Crack】, the second surprise of the day!

Though strong, Emi's body was still small and light compared to an adult man, and she staggered slightly from Fret's charge.

The trajectory of the 【Black Arm】 shifted slightly.

The pitch-black fist, which should have punched straight through the second floor of the hideout, missed its mark and gouged out the right wall of the second floor!

“Firing.”

And at that same moment, Hidden Inheritor's 【Yellow Magic Orbs】 were launched!

On impact, 【Yellow Magic Orbs】 set off a magic explosion.

In order to efficiently annihilate the enemy in one blow, Hidden Inheritor had set the impact point exactly halfway between the positions of the Dongozugozu Society members and where Emi and the others were.

If an explosion occurred at that point, it would catch all surrounding hostile entities and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

That was the calculation.

But the blow from Emi's 【Black Arm】 knocked the 【Yellow Magic Orbs】 off course!

To be specific, Hidden Inheritor had reeled back slightly, so the point of impact ended up a little past the target...... just diagonally behind the Dongozugozu Society's men......

“““““GWAAAAAAAH!?”””””

The damage from the explosion was suffered only by the Dongozugozu Society!

The Dongozugozu Society's members, clad in black, were blown away by the blast and stuck headfirst into the ground, zubozubo!

The people of this world could use 【Body Strengthening】 without even knowing it, so they were sturdy, and depending on the ground, gag-manga stuff like this could happen!

But however it looked, the damage was without doubt grave...... whether they were alive or dead, Badengaju included, was unknown......!

“Failure to annihilate hostile entities confirmed. Continuing attack.”

Though Emi and the others escaped the damage from the magic explosion, Hidden Inheritor did not stop.

Having declared it would keep attacking, Hidden Inheritor...... reshaped its walls with a gagon, gagon, forming two arms.

The tips were sharpened into cones...... and were rotating at high speed with a high-pitched sound!

In other words, drills!

【Small Pit】 and 【Small Wall】

Both spells appear here for the first time, but advanced versions of them were used in Arc 12 by the perverted old geezer, Earthcell.

【Yellow Magic Orbs】

A magic weapon used in the Sky Kingdom in Arc 20.

As far as the gods are concerned, it is technology they would rather not see spread beyond the Sky Kingdom, but Gyashikinu quietly reproduced the weapon from the information he got his hands on and fitted it to Hidden Inheritor.