It didn't take long for the soldiers inside the truck to realize that something was wrong.
"Enemy attack!"
With the shout from the communications officer, the soldiers from Ark gripped their weapons and scanned their surroundings—but there were no signs of any beasts or monsters.
Naturally so.
Whatever was targeting us now was right beneath our feet.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble───!!!
The truck shook violently.
The ground we were driving over was collapsing.
Rumble!
Thud──!
"Have we located the enemy?"
"We believe it's a subterranean beast."
"A subterranean beast… don't tell me it's 'that one'?"
"…We can't confirm yet, but we can't rule it out either."
'Tch.'
Sergeant Gregory, a veteran of countless battles, clicked his tongue.
As expected from a seasoned soldier, he too had already grasped the gravity of what was happening.
Thuuuum!
Thud! Thud!
Meanwhile, the truck's swaying worsened by the second.
At this rate, a rollover was imminent.
"Hold on tight!"
Fortunately, the soldiers were all strapped in, so no one was tossed around like a ragdoll—but that didn't mean the situation was good.
'It's definitely the Sand Devourer.'
The 'Sand Devourer'.
In Ark, it's often regarded not so much as a creature's attack, but as a kind of phenomenon.
That's how complex—and nearly impossible—it is to counter.
'A Calamity-level beast: the Sand Devourer.'
Its power and elusiveness are comparable to a region's apex predator—a disaster in every sense of the word.
Its method of hunting is simple.
It collapses the ground, pulling everything deep, deep underground.
That's why Ark interprets these events more like natural sinkholes than active monster attacks.
'This won't do.'
It was only a matter of time before the truck was swallowed by the sands.
If it hadn't noticed us, that would've been one thing—but now that it had, we had only two options:
'Fight… or die.'
The second option was obviously unacceptable. That left only the first.
BEEP—!
With a shout, I slammed the truck's emergency stop button.
It didn't actually stop the truck—it just sent a signal to the driver.
Screeeeeeech—!
Soon after, the truck began to slow, and I leapt out first.
"Everyone off the truck!"
Apparently, the soldiers trusted me enough by now. They hesitated for just a moment before following my lead.
Of course, getting off didn't mean we were safe.
In fact, one could argue we were in even more danger than when we were on the moving truck.
'But we can't fight the Sand Devourer while trapped inside.'
The die was cast.
All that remained was to act.
"Hurry!"
"I'll brief you! The number and strength of enemies are unknown! Believed to be subterranean beasts or monsters! Everyone stay alert!"
Sergeant Gregory scrambled to take command, but with the truck already buckling beneath them, not many could fully hear his orders.
Now that the truck had stopped, the Sand Devourer began triggering a full-blown collapse.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!
"W-What the hell?!"
"Sergeant Shapiro!"
Some of the soldiers who hadn't made it out in time were being dragged into the sand along with the truck.
"Hurry, get out!"
"L-Losing balance—!"
The truck began to sink into the sand, whole.
At this rate, nearly half the soldiers inside would be lost.
'I can't let that happen.'
BZZZT—
My Ark-34 automatic conversion rifle began its conversion with a mechanical hum.
My strongest offensive option:
Ark-34 Railgun.
The rifle shifted into Railgun mode, sparks crackling as I gripped it tight.
Zzt—
Zzzt, zzzt!
Despite the name, the Railgun didn't fire an energy blast—it used actual projectiles.
But its power far exceeded any conventional firearm.
Zzzing...
The loaded round: the A-985 explosive shell.
My most powerful bullet.
Click—
The next moment, a single flash tore through the air.
A bullet faster than sound.
The sound followed only after a short delay.
PEEEEEEEWWWWW!!!─────
The Railgun's shot vanished underground in an instant.
But what followed was far from subtle.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE─!!!
The earth trembled.
The A-985 had pierced the target's surface, inflicting meaningful damage.
I was about to pull the trigger again—but stopped.
The sparks around the Ark-34 had mostly dissipated.
Zzt-zzzt...
[Charging electromagnetic energy.]
[Current charge: 4%]
'So, I really can't use this too often.'
Apparently, Railgun mode required significant cooldown time.
It didn't mean I couldn't use the weapon at all—just that I'd have to switch to other modes.
'It's like a built-in cooldown period.'
Also, because the electric charge was still building, the electric rifle mode was unusable too—but that didn't matter.
In this situation, a short-range weapon like the electric rifle would be virtually useless.
'Still...'
Although I'd managed to buy us a few precious seconds, the battle was far from over.
If anything, I'd probably just made the Sand Devourer furious.
"I-I'm alive…"
Thanks to the opening I'd created, the soldiers still in the truck had managed to escape just in time.
A second later, and they'd have become nothing more than a meal.
But it was too soon to relax.
As I'd said before—the Sand Devourer was just getting started.
'Hmmm.'
With the current firepower of Ark's troops, doing real damage to something lurking deep underground... was nearly impossible.
The Ark-34 Railgun I actually used only managed to momentarily stagger the Sand Devourer—it didn't inflict any critical damage.
'There's a reason it's called a Calamity.'
If the Sand Devourer had been a middling threat, Ark wouldn't have even bothered to classify it as a disaster phenomenon—it would've been eliminated outright.
However, even Ark had deemed the Sand Devourer too horrific a monster to properly counter, an enemy they could barely respond to.
"Watch the ground! The enemy appears to be a non-classified entity, presumed to be a Sand Devourer!"
Sergeant Gregory, a seasoned veteran in his own right, shouted out.
At his words, the faces of the Ark soldiers turned pale.
They might not have had the experience to recognize this phenomenon firsthand, but they knew very well from theory what a Sand Devourer was.
"...Did he say Sand Devourer?"
"Goddamn it..."
"Isn't that the one where personal firearms don't even scratch it?"
Sergeant Gregory had merely stated a fact, but the morale of the troops plummeted instantly.
No matter how many hellish fronts Ark's soldiers had survived, encountering a Sand Devourer out in the plains beyond Ark carried a particular meaning.
At that moment—
GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHH───
The Sand Devourer launched its attack.
It didn't need some grand offensive.
It simply moved, collapsing the ground beneath it, dragging scattered soldiers into the earth one by one.
"Ahhh!"
"Shapiro!"
I quickly activated the Z-74 jetpack.
Whether it was because it had been created and upgraded by Maybell Pilgrim or not, I managed to snatch the soldier by the scruff of his neck just as he was about to be sucked into the sand.
"Ugh!"
I tossed the soldier to safety and looked out over the spreading phenomenon of collapsing sand.
'This will only turn into a war of attrition at this rate.'
But escaping in a vehicle wasn't an option either.
Once the Sand Devourer marked you as a target, no matter how much you ran, it would eventually catch you.
'The Railgun hasn't finished charging yet. In that case...'
I drew my BLT-47 Plasma Launcher.
Excluding the Ark-34 Railgun, it was the strongest short-term firepower I currently possessed.
'Its power will likely be reduced on the sand... but there's no other option.'
A crimson flash surged from the BLT-47 Plasma Launcher across the sand.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!!!
"Take cover!"
The soldiers hurled themselves aside to avoid the sudden plasma barrage.
It was a completely unexpected attack.
'Still didn't reach the Sand Devourer, huh.'
No matter how powerful the BLT-47 Plasma Launcher was, it wasn't strong enough to pierce through that thick sand.
But I wasn't without options.
'I'll just have to dig through all that sand.'
Of course, the BLT-47 wasn't exactly the right tool for excavating sand.
However, I had access to the right kind of heavy weaponry for this situation.
'I'll need to distract the soldiers momentarily to pull the heavy arms from the rift space.'
That wouldn't be hard.
There were plenty of materials around to block their line of sight.
Plan and method—decided.
Soon, A-985 explosive rounds burst from the Ark-34 automatic conversion rifle without mercy.
BOOM!
KWA-BOOM─!
Thick dust clouds and explosive flashes.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to retrieve the heavy weapon from the rift space.
Amid the explosions, the ground beneath not just our vehicle but others nearby began to cave in.
Another sand collapse.
'Did it shift targets?'
The Sand Devourer was truly worthy of the Calamity title—tricky beyond belief.
The moment it judged us too difficult to reach, it immediately switched targets.
KUGUGUGUGUGUGU!!
Just as the trucks began to sink one by one into the ground—
SCREEEEEEE──────
The trucks, which had seemed moments away from collapsing into the earth, suddenly began to float into the air.
An unnatural physical phenomenon.
I knew what this meant.
[Huh, lift?]
[Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift. Lift.]
[Let's... lift.]
Ether roiled violently.
At this moment, in this situation, there was only one person I knew who could make this impossible scenario happen.
"Hmmph."
A snort of interest.
The Young Lady had appeared midair without anyone noticing, looking down at the ground with a noble poise.
The Young Lady.
She had begun to act.
And it wasn't just her.
Major Arden, Kalakin, even Cowardly Belle and Kurilta—each of them emerged from the trucks with their weapons, ready to fight.
"Carl! What should we do?!"
Kurilta asked for my opinion.
My answer was simple.
"Run."
"...Huh?"
"Now."
It wasn't because I looked down on them.
What was about to happen left them with no role but to avoid it.
[GUUUUUUUUUUUUU────]
The ether raged.
And then, as if the entire region's soil would be hoisted skyward, the earth began to rise.