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As I activated [Rift Shift], the scenery around me changed, and my body relocated elsewhere.
In an instant, not only had I broken through the encirclement of the beasts, but I also ended up in a position where I could unilaterally strike them.
'Should've used it earlier.'
I still wasn't entirely used to using it, so I found myself a little flustered.
It was natural—after all, [Rift Shift] wasn't a skill that originally existed in the base version of The Defense.
'Regardless...'
The flying-type beasts that had gathered to surround me had conveniently clustered together in one spot.
All I had to do was land a clean hit right in the middle of them.
Clack─
Inside the rift space, I pulled out the Zeus-444 Railgun.
The weapon with the highest solo firepower currently in my arsenal.
[Lv.5]
I could've gone all the way up to Level 10 output, but that felt like overkill, so I dialed it back to Level 5.
And even that was more than enough.
Tzzzt, tzzzzzt──!
Sparks violently burst from the Zeus-444 Railgun, and the shot was fired toward the clustered beasts.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!
There was no time to swap magazines, so the preloaded 120mm A-985 High-Density Explosive Shell detonated with immense force.
To the tightly packed beasts, it must have felt like a bolt from the blue.
[Kaaaargh....]
With a violent explosion, the grouped beasts were obliterated, and their aerial formation collapsed in an instant.
And this chaotic skirmish—this was exactly what I had aimed for.
[Lv.1]
With their formation shattered by the first shot, I lowered the output and pulled the trigger again.
KABOOM!
KRAAANG───!
Every time the 120mm A-985 High-Density Explosive Shell exploded, the skies and ground trembled, and roars and thunderous booms filled the air.
Beasts and monsters incinerated whole.
Wings torn asunder.
Lungs burned to a crisp.
There may be countless reasons to survive, but it didn't take much to bring an end to a life.
["Master! Boney!"]
Esther's desperate shout.
As I turned my head, I saw Horus trapped, overwhelmed by beasts converging from all directions.
He was doing his best, extending bone tendrils in every direction, but each new fallen flying-type beast turned into a new weight and barrier, pressing Horus down.
[Kiiihek!]
Horus let out a pained shriek and thrashed, but it wasn't enough.
'Looks like he's reaching his limit.'
I'd been pouring out considerable firepower, but judging from Horus's state in the distance, he was completely surrounded and couldn't escape.
If I left things as they were, I'd lose a carefully raised and valuable creature.
'Can't allow that.'
I instantly closed the distance to Horus using [Rift Shift].
Then, I signaled to Janus.
"Janus."
[Gigit!]
"Do it."
There was no need to specify what I wanted.
Janus already understood my intentions perfectly.
[Gigigit──!]
Bone tendrils began to slither out from all over Janus's body.
At first, they emerged slowly, but they soon accelerated and burst forth at an incredible rate.
Bloom.
Petals of bone began to unfurl.
Not only from Janus, but also from Horus—bone petals erupted violently from his body as well.
[Kaak, Kaaaak!]
[Grrrrrrrr!]
In a flash, the entire area was overtaken by blooming bone petals.
It was a breathtaking spectacle.
This alone was enough to break Horus out of his encirclement, but I wasn't satisfied with just that.
"Detonate."
Full Bloom.
[Kihet!]
[Gigigit!]
The bone petals that had sprouted from Janus and Horus exploded simultaneously.
KUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGU────!
Two bone flowers—fully bloomed.
Though they were used mid-air and thus slightly more limited in range than on the ground, the destructive power was still more than sufficient.
The beasts that had so fearlessly surrounded Horus were swept away like insects in a massive natural disaster.
[Kaaaargh!]
[Grrrrr....]
Two colossal flowers of bone blossomed in the sky, and flying-type beasts and monsters began to drop from between them like rain.
THUD!
KUGUGUNG!
The beasts that fell from the air crashed onto those on the ground, creating a second wave of casualties.
["Nice one, Boney and Bonehead!"]
Even after unleashing such a massive technique like Bloom and Full Bloom, neither Janus nor Horus showed much sign of exhaustion.
It meant both had grown significantly, far beyond what they once were.
[Kiheeeeeek───!]
Horus let out a joyful screech.
At the same time, as if echoing Ankelenth's Roar, the surrounding beasts visibly flinched.
'Interesting.'
Maybe due to frequent nutrient exchanges with Janus, Horus had started to inherit traces of Ankelenth's power.
It wasn't enough to say it was a full inheritance, but it was a good sign nonetheless.
'Now then...'
I shifted my gaze.
The battle was still far from over.
* * *
As the main body of the beast horde reached the Rose Line in earnest, casualties began to appear even among the previously unshakable Kronos Union.
"Shit, we're screwed!"
"Chen!"
"Guh!"
The warriors of the Kronos Union, as if used to death, met their ends with nothing more than a curse.
To Staff Sergeant Alex Hope, the scene felt bizarre.
But to the Kronos Union, it was just another day.
Alex Hope didn't stop fighting either. He had a duty to defend his assigned gate.
Even if he didn't have real authority on this battlefield, he was still in a position to advise those who did.
"RS15-11 Point requires reinforcement. Are there any reserve troops available?"
"Damn it! Can't you see everyone's dying? We've got no one to send!"
"Then make someone available! If RS15-11 falls, the rest will fall in a chain. Do you want to collapse the entire front?!"
"Shit... Hey, Jun! Take your squad and go help out where this guy's pointing. Otherwise, we're all dead!"
"What about this place if we leave?"
"I don't know! We'll figure it out!"
...As unprepared as they seemed, the Kronos Union still held the line effectively.
Likely due in part to the invisible efforts of Rose Line's own gate supervisors.
"Shit! What's that huge thing? Rockets! Don't we have any rockets?"
"Ask that Ark guy! Maybe he's got one stashed somewhere!"
"Hey! Got a rocket?"
"…Follow me."
Alex Hope didn't hesitate to supply the Kronos Union with Rose Line's weapons.
It could have gotten him court-martialed—but only if he lived through this to face it.
"Whew… Look at this shiny baby. Ark gear really is top-tier, huh?"
"Less talk, more carrying. At this rate, everyone's gonna die."
"Don't worry. I'll wipe them all out with this."
As they joked among themselves while arming up, Alex Hope couldn't help but question whether he'd made the right decision—but he shook his head.
Regardless of everything, they were bleeding for Ark too.
"We need to move quickly."
"I know, I know. If you're gonna nag, help me carry it."
"…Hand it here."
"Oh, really? You'll help? Aren't you some high-ranking officer?"
"Would a high-ranking officer be getting dust all over himself out here with us?"
"Fair point."
As they laughed about him, Alex Hope stopped thinking entirely.
Normally, a military unit like this should've had strict discipline, but the Kronos Union had none of that.
'Is this really okay…?'
The thought lingered in his mind.
But it was too late to change anything now.
"Don't use high-destruction weapons like rockets once the beasts are on the wall. You might damage the wall itself."
"We're all about to die, and you're worried about the wall?"
"…If the wall falls, the entire defense collapses. You trying to get everyone killed?"
"Hmm, good point, brother."
"Whose side are you on?"
"I side with whoever makes sense."
"You and I are gonna talk later."
They were hard to manage, but they didn't entirely ignore Alex Hope either.
After all, he was here as Ark's gate supervisor, and no matter how wild the Kronos Union was, they hadn't forgotten that.
"So, what do we do if some house-sized beast gets on the wall? We can't just shoot it with rifles."
"…I said not to use them carelessly, not to never use them."
"Oh? More flexible than I thought."
"It's called being realistic."
"Same thing."
When they reached the front, they couldn't believe their eyes.
Beyond the horizon, mountains had appeared—ones that hadn't been there before.
And not just one—five.
That left only one explanation.
"No way…"
Colossal Behemoths.
Not one or two—but five had revealed themselves all at once.
"Hey, we can use this now, right?"
One of the Kronos Union warriors grinned, and Alex Hope could only nod with a grim expression.
* * *
Fsssshhh....
How long had I been swinging the BLT-47 Plasma Launcher and ICE-54 Plasma Cooler?
The heat radiating from the dual plasma weapons was beyond intense.
Without protective armor, I'd have suffered burns.
Maybe that's why…
The number of beasts around me had noticeably dwindled.
They were either all dead or had bypassed me to head toward Ark.
It had been a brutal fight.
No, maybe there hadn't been a single easy fight since I came to this damned world.
Even with every enhancement serum, reinforcement system, and Janus's bodily support, I was still human—and humans get tired.
'...But I can't just rest here.'
While I had been holding off the vanguard of the flying-type beasts in the sky, the rest of the horde had already pushed toward Ark.
I was stopping them from the center, but realistically, it was just a small slice of the overall wave.
'It's time to move.'
It was time to join the battle at Ark.