Chapter 81: Rear Guard

The enemy had advanced to within walking distance of His Excellency’s headquarters.

Well, this was probably what people meant when they said something was more than halfway checkmated. Getting out of this would require pushing ourselves quite hard.

Kirie and Touka’s Monoz had been wiped out, except for the one unit each had kept as an escort. We had recovered their tree crystal cores, but this was going to be a fairly painful expense.

Our current situation was so bad that I was not even sure I would get to report that to Howard-san and receive a scolding for it.

“…”

I switched from the Type Five Model B sniper rifle to the Type Seven light machine gun. It felt like it had been a very long time since I last used it in actual combat.

While hiding in the shadow of a tree crystal, I scattered bullets down the path we had come from.

The front of the enemy line pursuing me, composed mainly of Ants, hid as if to avoid it. I stopped their feet. But that was all.

I succeeded in crushing the head of their line, but the forces behind them only caught up, and the line that had been made of points simply spread out into a surface.

The situation was too bad.

There were too many enemies.

The fate of a reconnaissance unit discovered by the enemy was not very bright.

On top of that, this distance was not my distance.

“Boar Unit, switch.”

I left the shooting to the Boar Unit and hid behind a tree crystal.

What should I do?

I set a timer. Three seconds. Three, two, one. I reached a conclusion.

“Dog Unit, Monkey Unit, Rooster Unit, return.

“Horse Unit, transform into a Monoc and take His Excellency. Ox Unit, Dragon Unit, Sheep Unit, escort him.

“Kirie, Touka, you two as well. Stay with His Excellency.

“Snake Unit, hand the recovered Monoz cores over to the Ox Unit. Rabbit Unit, Rat Unit, continue searching for enemies.

“We’re the rear guard. For a samurai, this is a great honor, so let’s get fired up.

“…Well, I don’t want to do it, though.”

I topped it off with my honest feelings and tried giving a grin.

***

I hid behind cover and fired. Swapped places with the Monoz and reloaded. Swapped with the Monoz again and fired.

That was all I was doing.

Simple. Repetitive. That was what made it painful.

The fact that it was not working very well made things even worse. We could not stop them completely, so we were gradually falling back while keeping the line intact, but the enemy had too many reinforcements. The swarm of Ants used the corpses of the comrades we had shot through as shields and closed the distance all at once.

And then that moment came.

We had not fallen back fast enough. The bullets I fired had not killed enough. All sorts of factors piled up, and an Ant stepped over the corpses and leaped at me.

I pulled the trigger.

No bullets. A failure worse than a rookie’s, not even keeping track of my remaining rounds. I did not even have time to regret it.

“Gh… oh.”

I…

“Oh, oooooh!”

I shouted.

I gripped the barrel and used the gun I had been holding as a blunt weapon. I did not have the muscle to smash an insect’s carapace. The firearm I swung like a batter struck the Ant’s head dead-on.

Unfortunately.

With my strength, even a clean hit could not finish it.

I forced it to face right for a few seconds. Then the ant-man turned back to me all too easily, its compound eyes filled with murderous intent. Ah, damn it. I wanted a bayonet. They said blades were difficult to handle, but I wanted one anyway.

“…Haha.”

Actually, this was bad.

A laugh slipped out. The Ant pushed me down. From a distance, its four arms had looked like nothing more than thin insect limbs. But now, as they pinned me down, they reminded me of tubes packed full of something solid.

Thin. But hard and strong.

Gichii. The Ant closed its mouth. The Type Seven light machine gun I had shoved between its jaws changed shape. The tip of its mouth scraped my cheek. A stinging pain. Ah, I only now realized I was not wearing head armor.

Pathetic.

As I thought, this distance was not my distance.

When the distance between me and the enemy closed, I could not even make judgments that basic.

I understood that. I had known it before, but now I was forced to recognize it again.

The Ant pinning me down was blown away.

Ripper. The Monkey Unit had done it by spinning its body and slashing through.

“You saved me.”

I thanked it. Then I looked around.

Ah, this might be a bit much.

We were surrounded. Gichi gichi gichi gichi. A creaking sound. It came from the Ants’ mouths. They closed, then opened. From that motion alone, I could understand what they intended.

Die.

That was what countless Ants told me.

This distance was not my distance. I had no weapon in my hands. Ah, this really was…

Impossible.