Boom, boom, bang!
Explosions echoed all around, and the sounds of explosive attack magic began to echo even in the distance. The combined forces of soldiers, hunters, elves, and beastfolk that made up the first layer would form the front line and crush all of the B-rank monsters that Mile and her group on the front lines had left behind, as well as as many C-rank monsters as they could. Behind them, the second layer was made up of amateurs, the volunteer army, and only a portion of the battered C-ranks and those below D-rank were allowed to be sent to them. Even if they were orcs, if they were new species—mutant species—and still in an unharmed state, they would be too much for amateurs to handle, no matter how many of them there were. In order to let them through to the volunteer army, which was a group of amateurs, they needed to be injured even a little, in order to weaken their fighting power.
The volunteer army would not let any goblins or kobolds pass through, except for the edible horned rabbits, and ordinary people stood in the way, clutching farm implements, tools, and mop handles, prepared to die. Adults, seniors, and even underage children. Men, women, and those of uncertain gender.
"It's okay for the Orcs to fall back a little. Trust the soldiers and Hunters! ...But Ogres, they're no good!!" (Glenn)
On the front line, Glenn, the leader of Mithril Roar, fought hard against Ogres. The new breed of ogres were too much for ordinary soldiers or hunters below C-rank to handle. Well, Crimson Vow was also a C-rank hunter, but—Although Crimson Vow was at the forefront, they did not have the ability to command others. Therefore, they left the command to others and focused on attacking as a single combat unit.
[Mile-sama, should we broadcast images from various parts of the battlefield? Mariette-sama might be in a dangerous situation...] (Nano)
(Oh, please! Show the footage of the battlegrounds at the discretion of Nano-chan and the other Nanomachines. Show it to other people who have the means, too!) (Mile)
This would allow support forces to be sent to any areas in danger. Thinking this way, Mile immediately accepted Nanomachines's proposal.
[Understood!] (Nano)
Mile could see Nanomachines with the naked eye. So of course, otherwise she also got to see the evil smile that Nanomachines had on their face at that moment—
Boom!
Many screens were set up around Mile. In each one, Mile's friends and acquaintances were depicted. It seemed that Nanomachines prioritized whether or not the person was an acquaintance of Mile over the degree of danger.
There was no fairy tale of zero casualties in a large-scale battle. And it was impossible to extend a helping hand to everyone. Therefore, the Nanomachines likely gave priority to people who Mile knew and who Mile cared about. This was a perfectly natural decision for the Nanomachines, who had no interest in the individual lives of the human species. The Nanomachines always killed many intelligent creatures without regard for justice, good or evil, under the guise of "exercising magic"...
"A combined force of orcs and ogres is coming! Behind them are manticores, griffins, hippogriffs, and a few moles and earth dragons. We will encounter a dragon species!" (Mile)
"Oh, leave the small fry to me!!" (Glenn)
Glenn shouted in response to Mile's declaration—By "small fry" it meant monsters between B- and A-rank.
"Phaser beaaamm!" (Mile)
"Burning hell!" (Reina)
"Hot Cloud!" (Pauline)
"…………" (Mavis)
Mile, Reina, and Pauline unleashed attacking spells one after the other. Mavis's Wind Edge didn't have much effect on high-rank monsters, so it's best to use it when she got closer to them in close combat. There's no point in wasting her stamina.
In this world, there was no god of the battlefield (artilleryman) who could rain down shells on the enemy. And both sides would fight to the last man, never retreating or admitting defeat. If the humans retreated, one after another, their cities, towns, and villages would be engulfed by the hordes of monsters, and many people would die. For the monsters, there was nowhere to retreat or run back to. Until each of them was annihilated. There was no concept here of deciding that a force had been annihilated and retreating once 30% of the troops had died. It would go beyond "annihilation", where 50% of the people would die, until it reached "annihilation", where 100% of the people, including soldiers, generals, and commissioned officers, would be killed—So, naturally, the battle would drag on.
And then Mavis broke the seal.
"In the name of Mile, Mavis commands! First Sword, return to your original form!" (Mavis)
Then, golden powder fell from the blade, revealing its true form, both godly and sinister. And—
"The second sword too, returned to its original form!" (Mavis)
The spare short sword was also back to its original form.
Mavis took a dual-sword stance, holding a sword in her left hand and a short sword in her right. If the left hand of a powerful machine had been released from its seal, she could swing the sword with ease using just one hand. And in her bare right hand, she held a short, light dagger. When facing an overwhelming number of monsters, it's better to have more moves. It's not like the opponent was facing her with particularly excellent swordsmanship—
"E.X. True Lightning Speed Sword!" (Mavis)
The Mystic Sword and True Mystic Sword were no match for monsters of B-rank or higher. Therefore, from the start, Mavis used Micros and E.X. True Mystic Sword Dual-wielding. Mavis's body had been magically modified to withstand the recoil of her left arm, which had been mechanized by the Nanomachines, and it was now able to withstand the strain on her muscles, tendons, and skeleton caused by using Micros, and as long as she avoided excessive or violent movements as much as possible, she was able to continue fighting for quite some time. Furthermore, she wielded a sword specially made for her by Mile, and as an added bonus, the restrictions on the support parts of her left arm and entire body had been lifted—And so, this was the battle against invaders to protect the world, after being appointed as a Holy Knight. It was the height of her happiness...
"Ahhhhhhh!!"
Suddenly, screams rang out from the front lines.
"Ah……"
Apparently, the hot magic spell that Pauline had cast was blown towards her ally by the wind. Hot magic didn't have a very long reach, so things like this happened. However, when the elite soldiers on the front lines were harmed, the damage was greater for allies than for enemies.
"Pauline-san, please stand back! Use healing magic instead of attacking!
"For those seriously injured, we'll heal them so that they don't die. For those who look like they can return to the front lines, we'll heal them so that they can fight. There's no need to heal them perfectly, first aid will be enough! Complete healing can be done slowly after the battle!" (Mile)
"Understood!" (Pauline)
At Mile's instruction, Pauline stepped back. Originally, Pauline was not good at attack magic. However, with hot magic, she became a powerful attacker, but in a crowded melee like this, it was hard to use. In that case, it would be much more useful for them to help reinstate those with high combat abilities who had dropped out of the front lines.
(Maybe it would be better for Marcella and her group to lower their ranks and focus on healing. It'll be safer that way, plus Marcella and her group didn't have much talent for magic to begin with...
However, their knowledge was only raised by what I taught them, and they shouldn't be good at things like offensive magic... However, I have taught them healing magic in detail along with the structure of the human body, so I'm sure they'll be able to achieve better results than Pauline-san...) (Mile)
Thinking this, Mile glanced up at the screen in the air where Wonder Trio was being projected. The Nanomachines was clever enough to create an audio duct between the location shown on the screen. And what was shown there was—
"Marcella-sama, let's do that!" (Aureana)
It seemed that Aureana had suggested using some kind of special move.
"Yeah, that's fine." (Marcella)
"I got it!" (Monica)
And Marcella and Monica answered—Then, the three members of Wonder Trio struck a pose.
"Wonder……"
"Pulse……"
"Machine gun!!" (All WT)
A magical weapon capable of rapid fire that appeared in the Japanese Stories that they heard about from Mile, or rather Adelle. Using that as a basis, the three of them came up with an original decisive battle magic. Monica created a gun barrel using magical power in space. Aureana took control of the barrel and aimed. And Marcella supplied magical power there.
Papapapapapapapa!
Tiny masses of magical power were fired in succession at high speed, sweeping away the monsters. Because it was pulsed and each shot uses a small amount of magical power, it consumed less magical power than firing a thick beam or a wide flame—And considering that, it had high penetrating power, so it had a fair amount of power. The firing speed was fast because they didn't have to aim, and since the gun barrel was 'Shake the barrel while looking at the point of impact', although there were many wasted shots, the hit rate was quite high.
It was the ultimate technique for use in group battles, devised by the three who didn't have much magical power, just in case. At first, the power of each shot was weak, and the magic's lethality wasn't that high. Therefore, it was intended to be used mainly for confusion, but—However, thanks to the presence of an exclusive Nanomachines and an increase in their authority level, it was now able to fully function as an offensive spell against larger targets. What previously had the power of a submachine gun had now leapt over from a light machine gun to a heavy machine gun, and its power was roughly the same as that of a pistol bullet and a 12.7mm bullet.
(…………) (Mile)
And then, Mile quietly looked away from the screen...