Chapter 112: Go Ahead, Shoot Me If You Can

I see, I thought. So this was what it felt like to be “forced” to choose an escape route rather than “choosing” it?

I was usually the one doing the forcing, but being on the receiving end was… pretty damn nasty.

You think you’ve picked the optimal route, only to find that the thing waiting at the end of your escape route is the finishing blow. That hits harder than expected.

A valuable lesson. I would be making full use of it from now on.

I checked the three-view diagram in the lower right of the monitor. I had seen the tire go flying, but—yeah. The damage around it was bad. And that included Dog Unit, which had been serving as a gun pod on that side.

Damage rating: orange. It would need repairs before it could perform properly. I ordered it back inside the vehicle and had Rat Unit patch it up on the side.

Banri, who had no long-range weapons, had already fled. For the moment, I didn’t have to worry about being attacked. But only for the moment. Now that I’d been left stranded in the L-shaped corner, the moment Tank Dog, who was capable of long-range fire, showed up, it was over.

I shifted into reverse and tried stepping on the accelerator. Still tilted, the car moved, technically, but it couldn’t build up any speed. If this were a battlefield, I’d abandon it and walk—but we were in the middle of a race, and getting out of the vehicle would be judged as a forfeit.

Besides, never mind the way I’d come from, I had no desire whatsoever to keep going forward. There was almost certainly still something “there.” 

What now? Have Boar Unit or Dragon Unit shoot up the road ahead? If I set it off first, then it shouldn’t be a problem. Right. Let’s do that.

“Boar Unit, start firing ahead. Rat Unit, I don’t care if it’s a long shot—try searching for mines.”

Two electronic beeps answered me. Then the three barrels of Boar Unit’s LMG began to spin, kicking up little pillars of sand ahead to mark the impacts. By sheer luck, one of the rounds hit.

An explosion. Then another.

The blasts roared in a chain, each detonation shifting the point of destruction farther along. Then the rock wall exploded—and blocked the road.

“…Whoa.”

That was enough to draw a sigh out of anyone.

If I’d stepped on that, I’d be dead. I wanted to be grateful I hadn’t, but now my path forward was completely sealed. My only choice was to go back the way I’d come, but doing that on an unstable three-wheeler through this narrow passage was going to be a high-difficulty challenge.

I would have liked to ask Shinzo or Mr. Howard for help, but—

『Crash and craaaaash! Two machines have left the finals stage almost simultaneously! The ones hunted down were Henrietta Scroote and Howard Wargman, and the hunters were both Sheepherd puppies—Shinzo and Banri! That leaves two dogs and two puppies! Which dog will rule this battlefield, where you can practically hear the barking already? And still, while this was already true by the finals, the fact that every remaining racer belongs to Doggy House is turning into fine advertising for Doggy House—and by extension, the Artisans’ Guild, isn’t it?』

Yeah. Didn’t seem likely.

Banri’s car, which I’d marked earlier, tore through the tangled course without the slightest concern, charging at terrifying speed straight toward Shinzo.

A two-on-one, with one of them being Tank Dog, felt so checkmated it wasn’t even funny.

“Shinzo, Banri’s headed your way.”

『If it’s one-on-one, I can manage somehow, yeah?』

Can you come support me? The part he hadn’t said was probably something like that. So I followed his lead and answered in a way that left my second half unheard too.

“One rear wheel’s gone.”

So no, I can’t.

『Got it. Nothing for it, then. I’ll bring him your way.』

“Please do. I’ll try to manage something too.”

Communication ended. Out.

“Rat Unit.”

At my short call, map data was projected across the front monitor. Using the known movements of Shinzo and Banri, I estimated the flow of the battlefield. I picked out sniping points that could cover a wide area. There were several possible candidates, but none of it mattered if the car wouldn’t move. What now? Could repairs fix this somehow? No. Repairs weren’t going to magically grow a new tire. Then I’d have to make a tire—which was not realistic.

A sandbag, maybe, I could make without a blueprint. But a tire would be rough without one. And to begin with—

I didn’t have the materials.

“Boar Unit, switch with Horse Unit and take the engine. Horse Unit, you’re going to be the tire.”

For now, it was first aid. Nothing more.

It did make the car run again, but Horse Unit and Boar Unit weren’t coordinated, so the whole thing lurched and bucked as it moved.

High-mobility combat was out of the question like this.

…Well, not that it had been an option in the first place.

***

『Which do you wanna hear first, the good news or the bad news?』

Just as I somehow managed to back out of the L-shaped turn, a transmission came in from Shinzo.

“Good news first.”

『I can see a way to win now. Banri’s the only one I’ve got left to deal with.』

“…Next.”

『I can see how the team loses now. Tank Dog’s headed your way.』

“That is—putting it mildly—the absolute worst.”

Clarissa, the Tank Dog’s heavily armored tank. On our team, the only one who could deal with her head-on was my Hellhound.

In other words, the moment I went down and Tank Dog remained in play, whatever Shinzo’s personal situation might be, the team’s victory or defeat was almost decided.

“I’m moving too slowly. Depending on the distance when we make contact, I think I’m going to lose… Is there any chance you can come this way?”

『Not right away.』

“…Figured.”

Their driving skills were on the same level. Shinzo probably had the edge in tight turns, but Banri had him beaten on top speed. And right now, the two of them were fighting in what you might call the central ring, an open area with no obstacles. He wouldn’t be able to slip out easily. Most likely, that was exactly why Tank Dog had waited until now.

“…Understood.”

『Can you win?』

“Easily.”

Whether I meant easily win or easily lose, I left unsaid.

I swept my eyes roughly over the mini-map and chose my battlefield. If I could make it there, I had a chance. If I couldn’t, I lost. It was a race against time. Well, well. Up until now, all the crashes and destruction had stolen the spotlight, but here at the end, the race itself was finally making its presence known.

I gunned the accelerator.

The two Monoz, still just as hopelessly out of sync as before, made the buggy lurch with a hard, awkward jerk.

***

I was headed for the high ground overlooking the central ring where Shinzo and Banri were fighting.

『Search and destrooooy!』

On my way there, I ran into Tank Dog.

No—“ran into” was not accurate. Tank Dog had predicted my route and hit me with an ambush. With that shout, he came tearing up the slope to my side.

I’d been aiming for a one-sided fight: close enough for me to hit him, too far for him to hit back.

That ideal was dead. Now we were both in each other’s range. Still, there was distance between us, and the range advantage still leaned toward me.

“Rat Unit, Dog Unit, assist driving!”

At times like this, I really regretted not going with Monoz-powered ball wheels.

I abandoned the steering wheel, took my foot off the accelerator, kicked myself up from the seat, stuck my head out through the open roof, and grabbed the Hellhound I had set in place.

Below my feet, I could see Dog Unit desperately holding down the accelerator, while Rat Unit gripped the wheel with the repair sub-arm extending from its mouth. I wanted them to hang in there. No, please, for the love of everything, hang in there.

I wished, prayed, begged—and then shoved the rest of it out of my head with a deeply irresponsible, I’m leaving it to you.

I looked through the Hellhound. I could do this. I could shoot. So I would shoot. The instant I decided that, Clarissa’s turret spat fire.

Good. At this distance, even Tank Dog couldn’t hit m—

No.

Exactly because he couldn’t, this wasn’t just a shot.

Instant / decision.

I snapped the Hellhound upward. “Hff.” I cut off the breath I had been exhaling. One-tenth of a second into the future, I fired. Shell and bullet crossed in midair and burst apart.

A shot that would likely have been impossible with the Type Five. And what I had punched out of the air was—

“A flechette round?!”

The contents spilled down, little submunitions like child machines packed inside it.

Against an armored jeep, it was the wrong ammunition to use, but—

『You showed off too much in the qualifiers, Hound.』

That was it. The fact that Jagd had no roof was already public knowledge.

“Tch.”

He was good.

The tracks carved through the wasteland in a caterpillar drift. Dragging dust behind it like a tail, Tank Dog’s Clarissa slithered from side to side as it closed in on me.

I could shoot. I could punch through. There were chances—plenty of them.

But if I took the shot, I was out.

He was going to shoot. Then I was out.

I worked the lever, baiting him, and pulled the trigger. As if answering me, Clarissa’s cannon roared, closing in all the while.

The distance was being eaten. My advantage was being eaten away. But there was a chance. One tiny opening at the end.

The instant he got too close to keep distance, the instant the turret could no longer take the angle, the instant the flechette round lost its meaning.

The instant Tank Dog’s method of attack changed from shelling to charging.

That was where I would shoot.

My pupils creaked. My bones creaked.

Suddenly, somewhere, the second hand of a clock—

“Hey, Hound! If you think you can shoot, then shot-me-shoot-me-if-you-can!”

A drift. With me as the pivot, without losing speed, Clarissa drew an arc under Tank Dog’s control and slid behind me.

He had slipped out of my line of fire.

Bad.

My judgment came at the same moment I confirmed the movement.

“Gh—Dragon Unit, ram the right rear! Horse Unit, stop, rise, then turn!”

I stretched out a leg, hooked it on the steering wheel, and forced it around. At the same time, Dragon Unit—obeying me without the faintest idea why—threw the vehicle’s center of gravity completely off-balance.

Following the revving accelerator, the remaining left rear wheel kicked off the ground, leaving behind the stopped right rear wheel—Horse Unit.

The vehicle rose at an unnatural angle. A one-legged stance possible only because it was a ball-wheel type. The unstable frame forced its posture to shift in time with the turning Horse Unit.

And at the end of my line of fire, after that full swing around—

Clarissa.

“What happened to ‘say please,’ bitch?”

I pulled the trigger. The bullet flew. The body of the vehicle, unable to support itself any longer, toppled. The sandy ground rushed up toward me.

『Craaaaaaash! Hound has flipped oveeeer! There’s no way he’s running now! His final acrobatic driving show ends in vain, while Tank Dog is still mobile! Even so, driving a bullet straight into the turret and bending it out of shape—well, that is exactly what you’d expect from Hound! Now this makes it two-on-one, an overwhelmingly unfavorable battlefield for Shinzo—and that is what I’d like to say, buuuuuut!? A white flag! Tank Dog gives uuuuup right here! What happened, what happened? Some kind of trouble!?』

“Clariiissaaaa! Ah, shit, damn it, that’s awful, that’s just awful, Hound! This, Clarissa, this much, to Clarissa, to Clarissa, to Clariiiissaaaaaa!?”

For the moment—

“Could you please speak in a language I understand?”

I’ll listen to the complaints properly, I promise.

Sorr—running late—