The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 109

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#109. Starship Troopers

“Hahahaha! Die! Die! You bug bastards!”

A soldier wielding a karambit while leaping between insectoid Corrosion Entities shouted with a maniacal smile, his entire body drenched in bodily fluids.

Then a soldier beside him, cutting down enemies with a massive two-handed axe, yelled at the man with the karambit.

“Thompson! Fall back! Don’t go too deep! You’re interfering with friendly fire!”

The 3rd Reconnaissance Unit’s weapons were, to put it nicely, highly individualistic, or to put it bluntly, chaotically inconsistent.

There were even soldiers in the 3rd Reconnaissance Unit carrying chainsaws that looked more like construction tools and sledgehammers.

The reason the personal armaments of the 3rd Reconnaissance Unit members, considered the elite Awakened forces among the Western Region Defense Force, were so individualistic was due to the unique awakening abilities possessed only by American-born Awakened.

“Everyone uses quite unique weapons.”

Yeonse-a, who was watching the fierce battle of the 3rd Reconnaissance Unit, spoke to a soldier beside her who was providing support fire with a mortar.

The soldier, picking up another mortar shell from a pile of boxes, said to Seoa.

“The unique ability possessed by American-born mutants is ‘Weapon Arts.’ Since which weapon ability manifests varies by individual, they have no choice but to use diverse weapons.”

“Weapon Arts?”

“It’s hard to explain in words, but it’s an ability that makes you proficient with specific types of weapons… For example, my specialized armament is mortars. Mutants like me who have developed mortar-type specialization abilities receive bonuses when using all weapons in the mortar category. For instance, I can fire mortar shells without much aiming and adjust them to fly to the area I want. As the ability grows stronger, the destructive power and range of the shells I use also increase. Which weapon specialization you receive varies by individual. For example, that soldier swinging a sledgehammer up front is named Tyler Walker, and Sergeant Walker receives bonuses when using two-handed hammer-type tools. Conversely, he doesn’t receive bonuses when using one-handed hammers like claw hammers.”

“That’s a very unique ability. Then Captain Cooper’s specialization is…”

“His is spears. What’s interesting is that during the battle on D-day, his spear broke, so he had no choice but to fight with a broken flagpole nearby, and the broken flagpole also received bonuses. Since then, he’s been using a spear wrapped with the Stars and Stripes as his main armament.”

“Then are there people with tank specialization or fighter jet specialization abilities?”

“If you look for them, there probably are some. Though it’s questionable if they’re still alive. If there are mutants with fighter jet specialization abilities, they’d be where Seoa’s Teacher is.”

“Where Teacher is?”

“Because having fighter jet specialization ability without fighter jets available makes you no different from a regular soldier.”

Even while conversing with Seoa, the soldier, Ethan Collins, continuously sent mortar shells from the boxes to the enemy without rest.

At a pace that seemed like he would exhaust all the shells piled around him.

The shells that flew out drew long parabolic arcs as they fell to the ground, exquisitely dealing damage only to areas where there would be no harm to allies.

‘I can’t lose either.’

Watching the increasingly intense battle, Yeonse-a crossed her hands to form seals.

Countless spells she had practiced whenever she had time since the day she decided to take Sung-jun as her teacher.

Though they weren’t high-circle powerful spells like those used by Sung-jun or Shirasaki Miyu, her support magic, appropriately deployed according to the situation, served as reliable support that saved lives whenever soldiers at the front were in danger.

“Is that magic? It’s not as flashy as I thought?”

In a rear area not too far from where Seoa was, a soldier providing support fire with a massive anti-materiel sniper rifle spoke up.

The man wearing goggles that looked like swimming goggles was Lucas Bennett, the deputy squad leader and sniper of the 3rd Reconnaissance Unit.

-Bang!!!-

As the bullet he fired cut through the air and burrowed into a giant Corrosion Entity’s body, after a slight time delay, the Corrosion Entity’s body swelled up greatly.

Then it exploded with a massive blast as if a grenade had detonated inside its body.

“That’s closer to missile-level power than a gun. Is that the ability of ‘Sniper Specialization’?”

When Shirasaki Miyu, who was rapid-firing high-level magic with a Grimoire in one hand, spoke to Bennett, Bennett answered while pulling the bolt to eject the cartridge.

“Right. From Barrett to M2010 ESR, I can receive bonuses with most sniper rifles that have scopes.”

“Then would that bonus apply if you put a scope on a pistol?”

“That’s an interesting idea and I’ve already tested it, but the presence of a scope isn’t an absolute condition for ability activation. For example, just putting a scope on a regular rifle doesn’t guarantee ability activation, but pistols originally made for sniping can activate the ability. This is my personal opinion, but I think the condition for activation is the ability holder thinking ‘this gun is a sniper rifle.'”

Bennett said this while loading the next round after embedding another explosive bullet into a giant Corrosion Entity’s eyeball.

Then Miyu’s magic pushed the Corrosion Entity’s corpse, which was losing balance and about to fall toward the allies, in the opposite direction, and Bennett gave a thumbs up toward Miyu without taking his eye off the scope to express his gratitude.

“I appreciate the consideration, but you didn’t need to go that far. None of the mutants over there are dull enough to get crushed by a falling monster’s body. So it would be better to focus on attacking now. So we can take down as many as possible while the enemy numbers are low.”

Miyu’s pupils dilated greatly upon hearing Bennett’s words.

She couldn’t understand Bennett using the expression “low” for the wave of insectoid monsters swarming so blackly that the horizon wasn’t visible.

However, as if to prove Bennett’s expression, half of the 3rd Reconnaissance Unit members, who could be called the elite of the 2nd Assault Team, weren’t engaging in battle and were waiting for something.

“Sam. How are the enemies moving?”

Sam O’Connor, who was monitoring enemy movements with drones, answered Captain Cooper’s question.

Since Sung-jun needed to activate at least 80% of the nests to draw up enemies for smooth operation execution, Sam O’Connor, who used drones among the 3rd Reconnaissance Unit members, was assigned surveillance duty to monitor enemy movements.

“They’re not waking up. It seems they’re judging that the monsters we’ve awakened now are sufficient for handling.”

“Really? Then we need to show them that’s not enough for the rest to wake up. Hayes, Kevin, Miguel. Join the front lines.”

“Yes! Let’s go!”

“I was just getting restless waiting, so this works out well.”

A man with a shotgun, a man with a drone-equipped backpack, and finally a man carrying a large minigun stood up.

Then they lightly bowed their heads to greet Captain Cooper and ran toward the battlefield where countless monsters and Awakened were mixed in combat.

-Whirrrrrrr!-

The barrel of the minigun, a weapon so massive it was absurd to consider it personal firearms, rotated at high speed as a storm of 3,000 rounds per minute pierced through enemy bodies.

And simultaneously, six drones that flew up from the backpack-wearing soldier’s back wielded blade-like rotating blades to slash the skin of small Corrosion Entities.

Every time Brandon Hayes’s double-action shotgun muzzle spat fire, fine pellets that spread in all directions embedded in enemy bodies and caused explosions, and the enemy momentum that had been overwhelming allies with numbers began to visibly break.

“Now! Push forward!”

At the moment when the Awakened seized the opportunity to counterattack while the enemies’ momentum faltered, David Miller, who had been closing his eyes to synchronize his vision with the drones he’d deployed, urgently called Captain Cooper.

“Captain!”

It’s coming.

Probably the strongest enemy that would demand the greatest sacrifice from allies today, and the key target whose feet must be held down at all costs to prevent it from reaching Sung-jun.

That thing which inspired uniquely overwhelming terror even among the swarm of bugs emerging so blackly from the ground that the surface wasn’t visible.

The giant bug that had single-handedly decimated the strongest Awakened of the Western Region on D-day was carving deep holes in the ground as it stepped forward with front legs as massive as siege weapons.

***

“Sergeant!”

As soon as the enemy with overwhelming presence appeared on the battlefield despite being at a distance difficult to confirm with the naked eye, Seoa felt the mana inside her body boiling strongly.

Overwhelming terror that made her want to drop everything and scream while running away immediately.

But she couldn’t retreat.

The moment that terrible being rushed toward where Sung-jun was, this operation would end in failure.

Of course, Seoa had strong faith that if it were her teacher, he could sufficiently win even against that terrible being in a 1:1 fight.

The problem was that while Sung-jun faced that thing 1:1, the other Corrosion Entities that appeared together would completely annihilate all the regular soldiers who weren’t Awakened.

Moreover, since Sung-jun’s main mission wasn’t combat but recovering equipment remaining at the Sierra Army Depot, the giant monster that just appeared had to be dealt with by the 2nd Assault Team where Seoa was.

“Hmm, certainly something Captain would be wary of.”

Then, Argen, Sung-jun’s undead summon who had been waiting at the standby position like Captain Cooper, stepped forward.

Then Karcerion, the armored knight who had been waiting with Argen, also pulled his horse’s reins and stood beside Argen.

“Can you handle it?”

To Captain Cooper’s worried question, Karcerion swung his long spear through the air and said.

“Whether I can defeat that thing isn’t important. What’s important is only my lord’s command to fight that thing. Argen. I’ll take that one. I’ll ask you to clean up the surroundings.”

“You mean secure space for the horse to run around? Very well. It’s a difficult enemy to face with brute force alone.”

After finishing his words, Argen’s figure disappeared from where he stood.

And shortly after, an invisible scythe began creating fountains of blood as it started cutting off the necks of medium-sized monsters guarding around the giant insectoid monster.

“Queeeeek!!”

As the monsters being one-sidedly ravaged by the sudden ambush shrieked and swung their front legs at the air, Argen’s disappeared figure revealed itself again.

And at that moment, sharp strikes wielded by countless monsters poured down behind Argen’s back as he was exposed while blocking enemy attacks.

-Ratatatatatatatatatatatatang!!!-

What saved Argen from crisis was thousands of bullets poured out in an instant.

At the end of the bullet cluster that turned thousands of monsters blocking the front into minced meat, the muzzle of a minigun glowing red-hot and spewing heat was rotating violently.

“Break through! Sweep away every single monster you can see!”

With the explosive sounds of mortar shells poured out in all directions at exquisite timing, the real battle finally began.

A fierce survival fight against hundreds of thousands of monsters until they could see the signal flare Sung-jun promised to fire after recovering all supplies.

While the 2nd Assault Team was beginning their desperate fight to hold the enemies’ feet, in another operation area located in the exact opposite direction from the 1st and 2nd Assault Teams, 3,000 civilian forces waiting for signals with Sung-jun were looking up at the sky with tense expressions.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————