Chapter 106: Deathmatch

The presentation was surprisingly elaborate.

They blindfolded me, led me by the hand, and put my hands on the steering wheel.

The starting points for the deathmatch were different for everyone.

Inside a ring surrounded by chain-link fencing and rocks, nine teams, twenty-seven machines in all, had been scattered at random. Every driver had been guided to their machine blindfolded. They were thorough about it.

“Lock releasing.”

“…”

At the woman’s voice inside the Hound Model’s head armor, the lock over my vision was released.

Rat Unit and I made eye contact.

“Rat Unit, status.”

Beep.

Answer: Two minutes, forty-three seconds until race start. Dragon Unit, Horse Unit, Rooster Unit, Dog Unit, Boar Unit, all green.

“Thank you. …And you?”

Answer: Green.

His green eye blinked in time with the words.

Watching that, I let out a breath. Switched my mind over. Started the engine.

The vehicle trembled. With a low hum, the front and side windows, no, the monitors, showed the outside. For now, there were no other vehicles in sight.

Where was this?

“Rat Unit, position.”

A short question. I knew it would not work, and sure enough, the answer came back: current answer unavailable. Until the starting signal sounded, information from the Monoz was forbidden.

If I had known anything about electronic warfare, I might have been able to break through the wall the organizers had built, but…

Unfortunately, that was not my field.

I gave up and started checking what I could see for myself.

I started up the check tool Akito had built. On the right edge of the monitor, a three-view diagram shaped like a jeep appeared. Green. No trouble at present.

Two minutes passed like that.

External interference reached my head armor.

What appeared was the signal.

“Horse Unit.”

Answer: Understood.

The vehicle growled.

Horse Unit roared.

And then,

Red, red, red.

Green!

“Rat Unit, position!”

I engaged the clutch and slammed down on the accelerator. The start from idle ended, and Horse Unit’s power, already at full spin, ran into the wheels.

Jagd was slow compared to other cars.

But for one instant, once per race, there was a moment when it was faster than anyone else.

Now. At the start.

Wheel-type machines could not pre-rev, since their engines were their tires. But Horse Unit had already been spinning before the signal. That let Jagd launch just a fraction faster than the rest.

Sudden acceleration. We leapt over a step and dropped. Maybe because my organs lifted, the bottom of my stomach went cold for an instant. The corners of my mouth rose.

A transmission came from Rat Unit through the headset. Surrounding terrain and enemy positions.

Something impossible under tree crystal interference. But communication was allowed here, so radio waves could be picked up. In other words, we could determine enemy positions over a fairly wide area.

Left. No height difference.

Choose the prey. Choose the route.

The tires churned through the sand, spinning slightly and throwing up a large cloud of dust as I turned the wheel.

Do not kill your speed. Kill the weakness called braking.

I followed a phrase I had read somewhere in distant memory, kept the pedal floored, tilted the vehicle, and forced it through the turn.

There.

“Fire.”

So I gave the order.

Boar Unit on the front scattered bullets in a rough spray, while Rooster Unit and Dog Unit on both sides aimed and fired. A propeller drone popped out from the enemy vehicle with a soft pshh. Too late. We had already taken the right front wheel. Its mobility was gone.

Once mobility was gone, it became a firepower contest.

And in a firepower contest, we did not lose.

“Rat Unit, machine guns.”

At my words, the two machine guns shot down the dragonfly. Meanwhile, Boar Unit’s LMG shaved away the armor, and Dog Unit and Rooster Unit picked off the Monoz serving as its tires.

First one down.

I rolled the words around in my mouth without saying them aloud as we passed by.

Perhaps it had not been timed to match that, but at the same moment, a white flag rose from the other vehicle. Rooster Unit and Dog Unit stopped firing, and Dragon Unit’s charge, which had been building to finish it off, stopped as well.

When I brought up the rear monitor, the driver was climbing out, bleeding.

Wonderfully insane.

Entertainment in this era was terribly savage and terribly life-threatening.

***

Five minutes passed.

Our crushing advance ended after about the first three machines.

The front right and rear left tires were flat, and the monitor on the left side had been cracked after the armor was pierced. Noise ran across it, and it only showed me a narrow slice of the image.

Maybe I had gotten too carried away. Maybe it was bad that the commentator had said my name too many times. Maybe it was bad that everyone had realized we were slow.

Whatever the reason, they swarmed us like gnats and started shaving us down.

Using their mobility, buggy types slipped past Jagd from behind, from the side, and in crossing passes. Each time, they tried to cut into our tires with blades mounted on their sides. Their bodies drew close, a horrible scraping sound rang out as they gouged our armor, and the propeller drones following them swept past while firing machine guns.

Rat Unit’s controlled machine gun shot them down.

But that machine gun was destroyed too.

Another vehicle came from the front. A jeep-type, dragging wheel-type drones with it, passed us while firing and very politely destroyed it for us.

“Dragon Unit!”

So here, have my thanks.

The beam strike had not made it in time for the buggy type. Instead, it punched through the rear of the jeep type as it showed us its back. Its connection points were shot through, and with the explosion, two large Monoz went rolling away.

“Craaash! Number 41, Hound Touji, has scored his sixth kill of the match! Even on a different battlefield, the same weapon of slaughter is right here! Now only six remain. Who will stop him? Who will kill the Iron Hound and become a hero? And the leader of Hound’s team, number 40, Shinzo, is still alive too! Has the team advancing from Block B already been decided!?”

“…”

The commentator was loud.

As an aside, number 42, Mr. Howard Wargman, had already been eliminated.

On the three-view diagram of the jeep displayed at the right edge of the monitor, most areas were orange or red, with the occasional yellow.

Only one of Rat Unit’s machine guns remained. Rooster Unit had already withdrawn. Boar Unit’s LMG had jammed, and at this point, he was serving as nothing more than frontal armor. Dog Unit was heavily worn down too. Dragon Unit still seemed to have room to spare, but Horse Unit, who had been running full throttle since the start, was in bad shape.

Horse Unit’s self-report said green.

Rat Unit’s external diagnosis said orange. If we did not let him rest, things would get bad.

It could not be helped.

“…Shinzo.”

“Can’t move?”

“Moving is rough. I’m going to stop, so use me as a turret.”

“Yeah. I’ll handle things on my end.”

Communication ended.

At the same time, the target point came into view. The course, or rather, the chain-link fence at the edge of the ring. But at the same time, an enemy shadow. On the rear monitor, I could see the buggy type from earlier.

“…”

What should I do?

Think.

What could I do?

Think.

Do it.

Conclusion.

“Horse Unit, one last time!”

My heel slammed down on the floor.

Reading my intent, Horse Unit spun at tremendous speed. The tires turned, and the vehicle shot forward.

RR. Rear engine, rear-wheel drive. For Jagd to do what I wanted, it needed speed.

Top speed.

“Rat Unit, support!”

I shouted and hit the brakes. I wrenched the steering wheel around, kicked the clutch, and pulled the handbrake. Then I leaned my foot down and pressed the accelerator even harder. Horse Unit roared as if he were screaming. Thinking that, I connected the clutch.

The vehicle swam.

The rear wheels spun loose, lost to the grip of the front wheels, and began to slide.

Not yet.

I told myself that.

Wait.

I looked at Rat Unit. Green lamp. Flash, flash, flash.

And now.

At Rat Unit’s strong blink, I shifted gears. The body slid, turned, completed a hundred-and-eighty-degree spin, and went into reverse. The buggy type appeared on the front monitor.

Its glass was covered with steel plates too, so I could not see the driver’s face.

I could not see it, but I hoped they were surprised.

Thinking that, I left the steering to Rat Unit and stood.

I planted my rear on the headrest, raised as high as it would go, and took up the one gun that had not fired once during this match. I looked through the scope. The buggy type swayed as if trying to shake me off.

But I would not let it escape.

Hellhound.

The anti-tank rifle bit through the buggy’s frontal armor from above.

“Crash, crash, craaaash! It’s Hound again! Of course it’s Hound! Out of the twenty-seven machines fighting in Block B’s preliminary round, seven have now fallen to this bastard’s fangs!”

As the commentator screamed, Jagd slammed into the chain-link fence. We had not killed enough speed, and inertia hit me hard, jerking me forward.

“Dragon Unit, let Horse Unit out.”

At my order, Dragon Unit came outside and exposed Horse Unit to the open air.

Even in the scorching desert, Horse Unit had grown hotter than his surroundings. He vented steam with a shhhh, and yet somehow, he looked satisfied.

Seeing that, I reached out to praise him, then stopped.

I would burn myself.

“You saved me, Horse Unit.”

So I gave him words instead.

“Ohhh? What’s this? What happened, Hound? What happened, Touji? Machine trouble? He’s not moving! But don’t get careless, ladies and gentlemen! Even so, there is no white flag, and he has not given up. That means Hound the sniper is still alive! If you don’t want to die, stay out of his kill zone. And, wait! Hound’s teammate has done it this time! A passing Ripper and Blast! A shotgun blast slammed into the cut, tore through the armor, and Shinzo has now taken his fourth machine! Now there are finally only four left!”

As the commentary echoed, Horse Unit blinked.

Two weak flashes.

Then one strong flash.

I’m fine.

I received the message from him, even though nothing had been sent to my terminal.