Chapter 111: Style Followers

The last shepherd puppy standing in Shinzo’s way was Henrietta Scrooge.

To put her in a single word: rich.

She owned land, possessed towns, and had money. That was the kind of family the Scrooges were, and House Scrooge played a role much like nobles, repelling foreign enemies for the sake of the people.

So she, too, came to fight for the sake of her town, but sadly enough she had no talent for military force.

Even if she was provided first-rate teachers and devoted herself to desperate training, the most she could reach was below average. For a girl fated to that, her parents recommended a peaceful life.

But she rejected it.

It was simple. She knew. The one wielding military force did not have to be herself.

If her opponent was a Rank 4, an army unto themselves, quality over quantity, then she would prepare ten thousand soldiers.

A red rose laughing amid gold ingots.

At some point, that became what people called her, and her strength was “making money.”

Quantity devouring quality.

And after making a name for herself that way, the title she chose to add prestige to that name was shepherd dog. 

Or so Shinzo told me.

“…That’s not four wheels.”

“She’s been accepted, so give it up. So, Touji?”

“I’m okay. I’m all right. …That one is mine.”

That was why we had underestimated her.

On an actual battlefield, sure, things might be different, but Crash Race had a personnel limit. With the premise being three against three, her specialty, human-wave tactics, should have been impossible to use. That was what we thought. But that was arrogance.

I could see a mass of iron heading toward the opposing starting point.

A rattling clatter rang out from the caterpillar tracks biting into the ground.

Its thick armor was dull, heavy, and by the standards of the current age, could probably have been improved much further.

Its rotating turret held three hundred and sixty degrees within its firing range.

She must have changed vehicles for the finals. There stood a vehicle I had seen before. No, a tank I had seen before.

“Touji, the reason I set my sights on becoming a shephdog was because I saw you fight. Do you remember? During that earlier defensive line against the Insectum, you said something famous.”

Now then, she laughed.

“Ladies and gentlemen gathered here in this arena! This time, in accordance with the rules, I have changed the flavor a little. Rather than quantity, I have prepared quality! Behold! My, Henrietta Scrooge’s, specialty: a human-wave tactic that even an idiot can manage!”

The tank controlled by the tank dog, Clarissa, trembled as though answering the cheers of the arena, which erupted like an explosion.

***

The preliminaries were a deathmatch.

The semifinals were assault.

Then what were the rules for the finals? Back to the preliminaries: deathmatch.

However, the starting points were decided in advance, and each team would begin together.

In other words, unlike the preliminaries, teams would be able to coordinate with one another.

And so, we held a strategy meeting at the starting point.

The Tank Dog—Lady Henrietta’s hidden trump card, made possible by registering every competitor but herself under the name Unknown—shattered our complacency in an instant.

“The fact that my Hellhound is the only thing we have that can pierce a tank’s armor is one reason, but the opponent is also a Dog. I’ll handle Tank Dog.”

“Right. Honestly, my drones can’t deal with that thing. So, Shinzo? We understand Lady Henrietta and Tank Dog, but do you have any idea who the last machine might be?”

“Nah, I don’t. But if that young lady says she’s prepared quality, then…”

“We’d better stay on guard. Hound, any Dogs come to mind?”

At Howard’s question, I thought for a moment.

“I don’t know every Dog out there, but… for this kind of fighting style, the strong ones would be Police Dog, Military Dog, Attack Dog, Guard Dogs, and finally, Lapdog. Around that many, I’d say.”

And Police Dog was in charge of security for this event. The Military Dog and Attack Dog were currently at that battlefield full of memories with His Excellency, dealing with the Insectum, whose movements had been strange lately. As for Guard Dog, we couldn’t get in contact with him, and he was about due to be declared MIA. Thinking about it that way…

“Then is it the Lapdog?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t say for sure. I don’t know,” I said, shrugging at Shinzo’s question.

For that matter, it was not as though dogs were the only strong ones out there. It could be a mercenary from some other company.

“…Well, no point thinking about it. We just need to assume they’re strong.”

“Right. As for the plan…”

“High-mobility Shinzo acts as a roving attacker and stirs up the battlefield. High-firepower Touji takes a position on high ground and attacks from a standstill. I guard him.”

“…With that, we can win easily.”

If everything goes well.

The two of them accurately picked up the words I had left unsaid and answered me with wry smiles.

***

Well, naturally, there was no way it would go that smoothly.

“Sorry! He got past me! It’s Unknown!”

I heard Shinzo’s shout over the communicator while I was in the middle of moving to secure a sniping point.

Unlike a normal battlefield, inside a divided ring course, the places suited for sniping were obvious to the enemy from the start. Their target was probably me.

It felt a little disheartening.

A sniper whose position was already known was less than half as frightening.

“Howard, Unknown got through. Deploy your drones and move forward.”

“Understood, Hound.”

Three propeller drones and three wheeled drones deployed from Howard’s buggy, arranging themselves to surround my Jagd.

Then, just as Howard moved ahead…

Beep, beep, beep! Rat Unit sounded a warning. 

On the overall map displayed in the upper right of the front monitor, a red arrow was closing in on us at tremendous speed.

I checked Shinzo’s position. Roughly seven hundred meters away in a straight line. Only about a minute had passed since the transmission. What kind of speed was that? What kind of route had he taken? Questions. But before they could even surface, I made my decision.

Right now, we were halfway up the slope to the high ground. The worst possible place to be. We either had to finish climbing or go back down.

“We’re going down!”

I slammed the gear into reverse and floored it. The tires squealed, kicking up clouds of dust as the Jagd backed away. That decision was the correct one.

It flew.

There was no other way to describe it.

A low-slung sports type.

A flat, sharply edged, angular body.

The thing that had been at the enemy starting point used the slope as a launching ramp and literally leapt over Howard, slamming a body press down onto the spot where I had been moments earlier.

The instant it landed, it began to turn. The enemy silhouette slid like a shadow, dodging the Jagd’s volley.

As I kept backing away, it kept flickering into view, showing no intent to attack. Naturally. He probably had no weapons.

According to the tournament regulations, the number of Monoz that could be used was six. The machine had to have four or more wheels.

And on the underside of the vehicle, which I had glimpsed during that body press, there had been six Monoz.

Just like Shinzo. No, a high-mobility type that went even beyond him. A sports-car type. Because it could not attack with handheld weapons the way Shinzo did, its only weapon was probably ramming with that angular armor.

That was Unknown’s machine.

Not knowing how he had fought in the preliminaries and semifinals hurt. A specialized opponent was strong once he fit into his niche. Crash Race had never been something suited to me in the first place, and right now, at this distance…

This was completely his territory.

“Howard!?”

“Sorry! The road’s blocked! Mines!”

Mines? Ah, he must have dropped them while driving. So that was his weapon. Since I had no intention of getting close to begin with, they were not that frightening. 

“Rat Unit.” 

Even so, just to be safe, I had Rat Unit map out his driving route. From right to left. The enemy silhouette moved while deliberately showing itself to me. Low to the ground and fast, so almost none of the gunfire hit. The armor looked tough too. Bad.

“Dragon Unit, scatter the drones! Rear guard!”

Put distance between us. That was my decision.

I turned the wheel to the right, opposite the enemy, who had fled to the left. The road ahead was narrow. The wasteland, with no trees or grass and only bare rock showing, offered nowhere to hide and had excellent visibility.

In other words, it would be easy to land one of Dragon Unit’s shots or my Hellhound.

Even so, I did not let my guard down.

Even in a vehicle, close range was not my range. So I put distance between us.

Using the opening created by Dragon Unit’s ball drones, their cords stretched to the limit as they kept Unknown in check, I widened the gap. I checked the rear monitor. He was farther away. And he had entered the passage. I waited three seconds. Now he could no longer escape. I would finish this before he reached the next corner. That was what I decided.

All of a sudden, I felt the back of my neck burning.

The front wheel had rolled over it.

Bad. That judgment. I instantly cut the wheel left. Even if I crashed into the wall, I had to get off this course. But I would not make it. Even at full throttle, I could not escape.

An explosive roar, the right rear wheel, I couldn’t get away. The blast lifted the vehicle. With its balance broken, I could not control the speed, and we plunged into the corner. Impact. My neck snapped forward.

“Hiiiit! It looked for a moment like we were about to have a crash, but this is the Hound! As expected of the Hound! Even so, this is massive damage! And now, we have an announcement as information is being unlocked! The true identity of Entry Number 95, who drove the leading MVP candidate of this tournament, the Hound, into a trap, is… the Last Puppy! The final puppy, Banri!”

Louder than the commentary ringing out almost obnoxiously was the heart pounding inside my body.

When I slowly lifted the head that had been slammed into the steering wheel…

I saw Unknown, Banri’s car, flashing its headlights as if to taunt me.