◈ 572. [STAGE 35] Dogfight (4)
「Silver Down! Silver down! The frigate Silver has crashed-!」
Kwajik! Quagmire!
The frigate Silver, which fell while spinning, was doomed to the forest.
A swarm of flies swarmed around the fallen silver. They started ripping off the silver like a swarm of ants disassembling their food.
Kelly Bay did not hesitate long. The hand of the old Dwarven blacksmith quickly manipulated the instrument panel.
Chiyiik-!
Tuhak… … !
The thrusters fired in reverse, and the frigate Gold came to an urgent halt in the air. At the same time, a perplexing message from Lucas came in from Geronimo.
“Isn’t Kelly Bay okay…?” … !」
“I’m sorry.”
Kelly Bay opened her eyes and looked around the inside of the airship.
“I have to go get my son.”
The crew on the Gold nodded in unison.
Currently, the crew aboard the frigate Gold are all dwarves. He was a vassal of Kellison.
Their king had fallen, and they could not leave it alone.
Gold, who spun around in mid-air, was shot into the forest like an arrow.
And at the same time,
「Entire fleet stopped!」
Captain Macmillan shouted.
The airships, which had stopped accelerating, stopped all at once. Macmillan ordered in a firm voice as if he had made a decision.
“Let’s join the rescue operation while maintaining protection mode! Right now-!」
Clap clap!
Tuhak-!
All at once, the flying ships turned back and flew towards the forest in pursuit of the gold flying ahead.
Flies poured endlessly, but their attack power was unable to pierce the magic barrier of the airship. The airships advanced, crushing the flies with their bodies.
「Damn, there are too many of them!」
「It’s to the point where I can’t secure a forward view
!」 You just have to hold on until you get silver!」
Suddenly, the flies retreated.
The flies that had been ramming into my airspace were scattered in an orderly fashion. The captains were bewildered as they checked the suddenly clear vision.
Lucas exclaimed urgently.
“Everyone beware!”
Lucas knew well.
It’s never a good sign for monsters to change their movements.
boo oo oh… … .
The Lord of the Flies, floating in the air at a distance, let out a long cry.
The three layers of halo above Lord of the Flies’ head rotated violently, and the outermost one of them began to glow white.
The Lord of the Flies stretched out hundreds of legs in all directions, and right after.
jump-!
Hundreds of feet collided in front of my chest at once.
Whoa!
Right after that, a huge shockwave came pouring out from Lord of the Flies.
In the sky, all the clouds were swept away, and on the ground, all the trees in the forest waved their branches as if they were about to break to the other side.
Airships were also caught in the shockwave. and.
Damn it!
Chaeng and… … !
The magic barrier surrounding the airships was shattered in vain.
“The magic barrier has been nullified!”
“What is this… … ?!”
“It’s completely jammed! It cannot be restored!」
The cry of the Lord of the Flies was heard in the ears of the panicked humans.
boo oo oh… … .
That ominous sound sounded like satisfaction, and again.
I love you!
It seemed to be signaling an attack on my own people.
The flies, which had retreated for a while, rushed in from all directions. The airships hurriedly opened fire and poured cannons at the flies that clung to them.
“Damn it! Too many!”
“What about Sir Macmillan?! Give me an order!」
「Sir Macmillan!」
Macmillan froze for a moment in bewilderment.
The situation where the last bastion magic barrier that makes the airship the strongest weapon of modern mankind has been nullified.
But will you go through the flies and rescue Silver?
Otherwise… … .
While the main body of the fleet stopped for a moment while responding to the flies, Gold, controlled by Kelly Bay, poured all remaining firepower and headed for Silver.
“Impact point setting complete! Fire all guided missiles!”
“Fire all guided missiles-!”
Doo doo doo doo!
Gold’s rear launch path opened wide, and Dwarf-made guided bombs rained down towards the set coordinates.
The missiles, fired precisely with long tails of smoke, bombarded the fallen Silver in a circle.
Kwakwagwagwang!
Flames rose and the flies were swept away.
As the crew strafed in all directions, Kelly Bay opened Gold’s hatch and came out, shouting at Silver directly below.
“Kellison! Are you alive-?!”
thud!
As soon as the words fell, the cover of Silver’s side emergency door fell off, and the surviving dwarves poked their heads out one by one.
“Oh, my father… .”
Kellison also squirmed and crawled out, though he was bleeding from his forehead as if he had been injured in the fall.
Kelly Bay let out a laugh mixed with relief.
“Anyway, the name string is tough, man!”
“Who do you think you look like? All right, throw me something!”
“OK! we are here!”
Kelly Bay threw the rope. Kellison snatched the end of the rope and grinned.
“… !”
Right after that, the young Dwarf King’s face hardened. Kellison shouted.
“Avoid, Father!”
“what?”
Kelly Bay gritted her teeth and turned to the side and bumped into her.
The terrifyingly gleaming red compound eyes of the pouring flies.
Boo woo woo!
Kwajik-!
A swarm of flies flew in while swirling and hit the side of the gold with their bodies.
Gold’s co-pilot desperately tried to keep his balance, but a swarm of flies hit him from the other side.
Quadduk! Kwajik-!
One more bunch.
bang! Kugoong!
One more group… … .
Quadruped!
A swarm of flies attacked Gold from all sides, and the armor of the flying ship, which had lost magic protection, was scattered like fish scales.
Gold, who had been beaten and staggered, could not recover his balance. The flying giant turned over on its side and fell to the ground.
Kellison roared, eyes wide.
“Father!”
Quagmire!
Gold fell a short distance from silver.
Kellyson, who was looking at it in awe, heard a scream from the communication device inside the silver in his ear.
“Gold down! Gold down! Following frigate silver, gold is also down!」
「The following flies are coming from Lord of the Flies!」
「Barrier cannot be recovered! I can’t stand it anymore-!]
The rest of the fleet tried to come down to the doubles somehow, but it was too much to clear up the flies flying towards the ships.
As if the flies already knew how to avoid the fleet’s fire, they were clinging to the barrage with skilful evasion maneuvers.
The magic barrier was also invalidated.
At this rate, it was obvious that the main unit would soon become the same as Silver and Gold.
Kellison, who had clenched his fists and trembled, pushed himself back into Silver. Then he grabbed the communication device and shouted.
“Retreat! right now!”
In an instant, silence rose over the communication device.
Kellison yelled again.
“If you do this, you will be annihilated! Silver crashed in the first place because I didn’t properly maintain it. No need to feel guilty, come on! betimes!”
Macmillan hesitated.
But Lucas didn’t hesitate.
“Order a retreat, Sir Macmillan!”
“Ha, but!”
“Do you want to lose the entire fleet here? A little more hesitation and we’re annihilated! Come on!」
Lucas shouted like thunder.
“We must retreat now!”
Macmillan held his breath.
The silence was short, but it felt like an eternity. And finally Macmillan gave the order.
“The battleship retreats… ! Continue your firepower projection and retreat at full speed!」
The non-empty ships turned around in unison. It was already an unbearable situation. Some non-airships had already had their armor ripped off and the insides exposed, and some were even on fire.
Tuhak-!
The fleet began to retreat.
As Kellison looked up blankly at the fleet moving north, he heard a voice from the communication device. It was Lucas.
“Mr. Kellison.”
Lucas offered no condolences or apologies. instead.
“I wish you good luck,”
he greeted briefly.
Kellyson replied with a smirk.
“Good luck to the Airship Fleet and the World Defense Front.”
Kellison grabbed his hammer, which had been rolling around in Silver, and raised it in his hand.
“Please make sure to exterminate these damn vermin.”
Knock-
down of communication.
Kellison grabbed the hammer and staggered out of Silver again.
Buuuuuuu-
thousands of flies were spinning in the sky right above the fallen silver and gold.
and… in the southern sky.
The Lord of the Flies, who had stopped advancing for a moment, slowly approached.
Only two layers of the halo above his head remained, and the halo that shone white during an unknown shockwave attack a moment ago was being scattered into powder.
“If you are also non-empty.”
Kellyson smiled involuntarily.
“I don’t know who made it, but it looks amazing.”
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Thousands of flies swirling around in the sky towards Kellison and the dwarves poured down in a whirlwind.
***
The second day since the Lord of the Flies appeared. At noon.
I gritted my teeth in front of the returned non-empty ships.
Two of the 16 airships that sortied did not return. The frigates were gold and silver.
Kelly Bay, Kellison, and their subordinate dwarves… … .
They could not escape from the crashed airship. Even if they were dead or alive in the fall, they would have been taken as food by the Lord of the Flies.
“… I.”
I shuddered.
“This happened because we hastily ordered a sortie to a non-empty warship that wasn’t even in perfect maintenance… .”
I cupped my forehead.
Why did you do that?
It wasn’t like me. It was a sortie order that was not like me at all.
Was I also shaken by the appearance of an unknown enemy?
The memory of the attack I knew was useless, so I lost my composure and used my forces unreasonably. As a result, these damages occurred.
‘I only believed in the defense power of the airship and made a complacent decision… … why… .’
When I thought I lost Kelly Bey, who had been dedicated to me and Crossroads for a long time, a normal accident did not continue.
Lucas spoke in a firm voice to me, who tightly closed his eyes and blamed himself.
“Lord. Now is not the time to blame yourself.”
“… !”
“Even at this time, Lord of the Flies is advancing on the crossroads. We need to find a way to delay its advance and find a way to end it.”
The words that followed made my mind go cold.
“You must protect the world.”
“… .”
Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and looked at Lucas. Lucas nodded.
“I will continue to report the damage to the airship. The entire fleet has undergone magic barrier repairs, and the frigates Kite One and Kite Two have been particularly damaged and have undergone emergency maintenance… … .”
Due to the mysterious shock wave emitted by the Lord of the Flies, all magic barriers were nullified, so the fleet suffered damage even during the retreat.
In conclusion, even if the magic barrier device was repaired, the number of fleets that could sortie again was reduced to about ten.
I saw Macmillan in front of the fleet, ordering repairs with a sad face. I bit my lip softly.
‘While repairing the airship, we have to use other methods to delay him.’
Although an additional defense line is being urgently built on the second day of the Cross Road from the Black Lake. This alone won’t be enough.
What other methods do I have?
As I was counting in my head, someone from inside the city came running in a hurry.
“majesty!”
Let’s look back, it was Serenade and Dear Mudin.
The serenade shouted with a bright, sweaty face.
“I’ve found historical records!”
I opened my eyes. Serenade held up the old book in her hand.
“This is a history book that records the end of the Lord of the Flies!”
