Chapter 24: To Bomb or Not to Bomb

“Awooo~”
The beast in the form of a hound let out a howl.
Its feral cry echoed beneath the lightless veil of night, more than a hundred wild beasts rampaged across the vast factory grounds, determined to search every corner and hunt down every enemy to the last.
A translucent hunting dog lay prone, its nose twitching.
It seemed to have caught a scent, but before it could alert its companions, its body was smashed by an invisible force, reduced to a puddle of foul water.
The hidden assailant, cloaked in darkness, seemed to act with spite. The liquid that once constituted the hunting dog was scooped up by the same force, divided into several blobs, and thrown in different directions—enacting a macabre variation of quartering.
For a moment, tranquility returned to this area.
Fifteen seconds later, the foul water gathered from all directions, reconstituting itself into the shape of the beast.
Another few seconds passed before an enraged pack of hunting dogs, accompanied by a handful of bats and three massive wild beasts, arrived—frantic in their search for the villain who had ambushed their comrade. Yet their efforts were doomed to fail; the true culprit had already moved to the rooftop of a distant building.
“This is troublesome…”
The hunter crouched at the rooftop’s edge, observing through binoculars the spot where the hound had ‘fallen.’
Gongsun Ce tapped his arm. “I tore it into nine pieces and flung them in different directions.”
“Your efforts at dismemberment delayed its reformation by five seconds,” the hunter replied, rising from the edge. “It’s clear that mere physical attacks are pointless against these beasts—hit one, and a pack comes running. They must have some means of communication.”
Alice brushed dust from her clothes.
Her graceful figure made such gestures awkward for onlookers; maintaining the principle of propriety, the esper turned his head aside, pretending to survey their surroundings.
Beside him, the masked woman seemed to cast a look of disdain.
An illusion, surely an illusion.
He feigned ignorance, adjusting his glasses. “How did your anti-magic arrows fare?”
Alice’s short arrows were imbued with the concepts of launching and dispelling magic. He remembered the hunter mentioning this in her duel against Tyros. From prior encounters, the black short arrows had proven highly effective against the changeling mage and his creations—the green-crested foe had been pinned to the ground by two arrows, and Tyros’s flesh became inert when struck.
Yet the hunter’s expression now suggested the arrows had failed.
“Small monsters can be killed outright with one arrow; large beasts lose most of their bodies. But after breaking Takizawa’s influence, the beast turns to foul water and reforms within about half a minute.”
The masked woman, silent until now, asked, “What about large beasts?”
“Repairing the destroyed parts also takes nearly half a minute, but even when reduced to a mangled form, the foul water beasts can keep fighting. Considering that, it’s hard to say we have any advantage against multiple foes.”
“How odd. Why can they recover?”
“…Aren’t you the empire’s expert? The carrier is the main reason. Tyros’s ability is tied to his own flesh—an arrow causes local tissue necrosis, so the effect is clear. Takizawa’s carrier is the foul water found in the real world. As a changeling mage, he can use relatively little power to create a multitude of beasts. When a beast is pierced and reverts to water, most of the carrier separates from the arrow…”
Gongsun Ce understood.
Only a few drops of foul water remained on the arrow after the beast dissipated; the rest reverted after the anti-magic effect faded.
He calculated mentally: recovery time after an arrow strike was about thirty seconds; to temporarily incapacitate a large beast would require two arrows… If Alice could reuse arrows, she could disable several beasts within a short span.
Gongsun Ce devised a rough plan. “Miss Alice, let’s approach Takizawa’s main body using Shadow Canglan. You’ll use your arrows to deal with his guardian beasts, I’ll assist and provide defense with white matter. That will give us at least thirty seconds—enough for our combat expert to knock him unconscious and bind him.”
“It’s nighttime; I do have a method for attacking with multiple arrows over a wide area, but… ah, it won’t work.”
“It won’t.”
The changeling mage and combat expert both denied the idea.
The masked woman tapped the rooftop with her knife hilt. “See, see, that’s a gesture of exasperation at your carelessness. Takizawa occupies the sedimentation pool. After a beast is incapacitated, he doesn’t need to repair it—he can simply make new ones.”
“I don’t see it; that gesture seems more like restlessness than exasperation.”
“See, see, that’s a subtle slash expressing disagreement.”
“You’re expressing disagreement, but where’s the subtlety?!”
The young man clamped the expert’s blade between his palms.
He bickered while pondering her point. Indeed, Takizawa’s speed at creating beasts far exceeded restoring them—he would choose the most efficient method in close combat, so there would be no thirty-second window.
What a troublesome ability.
He half-joked, “If there’s no foul water, he’s helpless. Should we just blow up the sedimentation pool?”
“…”
“…”
The two women fell silent, seemingly deep in thought.
What the—
Were they seriously considering bombing the dirty water pool as a tactical option?
“If we could halt the inflow… then destroy the place completely…”
“Someone else will handle the aftermath… Can we make a simple bomb?”
The bespectacled youth shouted, “No! Could you spare a thought for the nearby residents?! If the wind picks up tomorrow, the whole district will reek of stench and toxic fumes! The Fixed Wing District will have to be renamed to Stench Wing District, and the Dragon of the Firmament will weep in the heavens!”
“If the bodies are already transformed like this, the Dragon of the Firmament would have cried itself to death if it had a soul.”
“True enough. But that’s not the point—”
The hunter waved her fists. “If the giant dragon is summoned, there won’t be a tomorrow anyway, so who cares about stench or toxins—let’s do it!”
“Agreed, let’s do it.”
The two female experts now behaved like mischievous children ready to toss firecrackers into the sewers.
The esper racked his brain, desperate to find a more reasonable solution to stop them from bombing the sewage pool.
He scanned his surroundings for inspiration: trees, lawns, gray buildings, the circular pool, bio-walls, sewage bats…
Sewage bats?
He stared at the beast flying overhead. “I recall bats use ultrasound to navigate in darkness and pinpoint obstacles.”
“The technical term is echolocation—what about it?”
“Let’s assume the beasts have the same abilities as their originals. I see a bat up here…”
“You should have said so sooner!”
Boom!
The rooftop entrance was blown apart, and a giant mantis charged at the trio, its scythes swinging! Flanking it came a tiger and a lion, while ferocious hawks swooped in from above!
The esper clicked his tongue. “I’ll handle the airborne ones; you take the ground. How long for teleportation?”
“Quickly, once I find a spot… Five…”
By the count of three, only a lion remained before the masked woman; two seconds later, nearly all beasts had dissolved into foul water.
As another wave arrived, the three had already vanished from the rooftop, leaving the beasts to howl in sorrow for lost prey.
Beside the sedimentation pool, Takizawa Yoshihisa fell into contemplation upon receiving the beasts’ report.
“They’ve disappeared again—that hunter’s ability. Nighttime limits visibility; if Tyros were here, it’d be easier. I need to devise a plan…”
He pressed his hands together, summoning new beasts.
“Mosquitoes.”
By sacrificing two large beasts, he unleashed a swarm of sewage mosquitoes across the factory.
Five minutes later.
“The good news is, mosquito-shaped beasts have no real attack power and shatter easily!”
The esper pinned a mosquito to the wall with his ability, then asked, “And the bad news?”
The hunter shouted, “The bad news is, they’re everywhere and recover super fast! Ugh, I can’t take it—Tyros, the sewage pool, and now a swarm of mosquitoes—what did my stomach do to deserve this triple disgust today?!”
The masked woman, battling a bear-shaped beast, nodded in agreement. “I’ll have no appetite for dessert tonight.”
“You’re still thinking about sweets?!”
“One must replenish strength after battle.”
A truism among ability users. Yet to bring up food in such circumstances, Gongsun Ce had to admire her composure.
Since the appearance of the mosquito beasts, their role as scouts had increased the speed at which beasts arrived. At this rate, they were simply being worn down.
The bespectacled youth began to seriously consider bombing the pool.
Blowing the foul water skyward was a disturbing prospect, but in these conditions it was a simple and effective solution. Destroy the sedimentation pool, and dealing with the dragon cultist who’d lost his supply of materials would be straightforward.
What they needed was an explosive of sufficient yield… Apologizing repeatedly to his dinner, the youth hesitantly spoke. “Combat expert, you used your air fixation ability just now, right?”
“Yes.”
He pointed to the distant circular pool, where the bio-walls’ green veins glowed faintly in the night.
“See that pool? The lab coats crafted bio-walls, and the bio-mud clinging to the roots is decomposing organic matter from household wastewater. The main byproduct is methane, with a bit of hydrogen sulfide… which means flammable biogas.”
“Hey.”
If poorly managed, a stray spark could trigger a reportable industrial accident.
What they were planning was far worse.
“If you could solidify and compress a large amount of biogas into a portable size, could you do that?”
“If you handle ignition and delivery, I can.”
“No need for a bombardier! We can use Shadow Canglan—just have Miss Alice teleport it—”
Alice shrieked, “No! Absolutely not! This arduous task is best left to the sole male present, namely you!”
“I’m just a student, not up for such responsibility; let the experts handle it! Even a one percent chance of getting caught up in that scene—I’d rather not witness it up close!”
The masked woman raised her right hand. “Seconded. I don’t want to experience being expl—”
“We’re doing our best to avoid that, so don’t say the word!”
There was no other way.
Do it—there was no choice! All of this was undoubtedly the dragon cultist’s fault. Convincing themselves with this reasoning, the three steeled their hearts—the plan to blow the foul water skyward was about to begin!
(This plan is quite feasible. Ahem… Seeing everyone so energetic reassures me. Just to be safe, let me ask—do you need any other suggestions?)
Just as Gongsun Ce resolved himself,
a gentle voice sounded in his mind.
The speaker even paused mid-sentence, as if struggling to suppress laughter.
The esper roared inwardly, (If you’re asking if I need advice, I do! If you’re asking when, it’s now! I don’t want to be the one to blast filth into the sky—if you have a good idea, hurry up and tell me, Shigure!)