「And so I’ve decided you’ll be in charge of the stealth unit. Is that alright?」
「Uhmm…I’ll fulfill the mission you’ve given me!」
When Mira was first explaining their strategy, she had mentioned that whoever lost most of their Ashen Knights first would receive a special mission. Now Christina was given that one.
To Christina that sounded like whoever performed the worst would be assigned a different task, so now she was preparing herself mentally to be put into a really awkward and shameful position.
「Wait so, once everyone is distracting it, I’ll…」
Christina began to repeat that mission to herself in preparation. But the more she thought about it, the more it felt like she was filling a rather important role.
「Wait, and I’ll be the leader of that?」
Her preconceived notions of that mission had clouded her judgment at first, but now she started to realize that it was something usually done by the protagonist of a story.
「Ah…now I’m kinda looking forward to it.」
Once she realized that, there was no stopping. She was already daydreaming, thinking of how important she would look doing that as she hurried to get ready.
「Hmm, that anti-air laser is still annoying.」
Mira went to look at the battlefield again, seeing Isenfald’s majestic figure as he flew around drawing the attention of Machina Guardian.
Despite his enormous size, Isenfald flew deftly around, showing his mastery of the skies as its rightful emperor. Machina Guardian fired an anti-air laser in short bursts like a machine gun after him, but he dodged it with ease, and sometimes even spat back some beams of light.
That was probably dragon magic. Isenfald was still a novice so even though it had such an impressive name, he was not doing much damage, and attacking with his claws would likely be far more effective.
But at the same time it was still more powerful than a middle level magician, and likely concealed unfathomable potential.
At that level it did little against an enemy like Machina Guardian though, so it eventually resorted to ignoring Isenfald to focus on its other opponents on the ground instead.
There the Sisters commanded over the Ashen Knights, attacking Machina Guardian’s legs and sometimes jumping to strike at the main body.
It was hard to pierce through the thick armor, but just like they had done so far, they continued to pile up smaller amounts of damage.
Then Machina Guardian’s machine gun-like laser attack was aimed at them, and the Sisters dodged it by a hair’s breadth.
『Sweep incoming, get ready!』
Alfina’s order reached all the troops. After fighting for so many hours, she was starting to understand what the enemy’s movements meant. So now she anticipated the incoming attack and warned the rest.
The rest of the Sisters obeyed and quickly took their Ashen Knights back a distance and had them take defensive stances.
Soon after Machina Guardian’s legs sweeped around causing explosions in their wake. The Sisters jumped high to avoid it, which they could accomplish thanks to their agility.
But the Ashen Knights were not as adept, so after a short clashing sound they were flung away. Most of them managed to land on their feet at least, and quickly went back to formation.
Machina Guardian’s sweeping attack covered a large radius and height, making it tricky to avoid, so even players would usually resort to taking cover behind their shields instead.
But the hits still left them staggered, creating an opening for Machina Guardian to shoot its lasers. The same happened with the Ashen Knights, and just as everyone expected, the boss stood still and took aim at the staggered army. That created an opening for Isenfald’s tail to strike, while Soul Howl shot his cannons.
The unexpected hit threw Machina Guardian off balance, which opened it to be attacked by the Sisters and the army.
Employing that strategy could hurt the army, but allowed them to deal massive amounts of damage.
(This is only possible thanks to the Ashen Knights’ defense and attack power. I really am Kong Ming.)
Mira praised herself, seeing her strategy work perfectly.
Unless the Ashen Knights were destroyed in a single hit, the Binding Arcana Circles would heal them. If Machina Guardian started attacking them consecutively Mira would need to change her strategy, but for now they would recover on time, and deal enough damage in return.
「Don’t you think it’s about time? Something tells me we’re almost at the 20% mark.」 Soul Howl continued to control the cannons as he asked Mira.
「Yes, I believe it’s about time for that.」 Saying that, Mira gave Christina the order to depart, since she had been standing behind the wall until the right moment.
『Understood!』 Christina gave a firm reply and departed with her troop. Then Mira also spoke with Isenfald, telling him to return to the ground and focus on defense.
『Got it, Mother!』 He gave an energetic reply and landed while dodging Machina Guardian’s anti-air lasers. When he was on the ground, Machina Guardian tried to attack directly, but was stopped by the cannons from the wall, letting Isenfald take a defensive stance.
The fight then entered a bit of a stalemate. If the Sisters tried to attack, they were fended off and could not get close. Isenfald also stopped launching major attacks, instead standing a distance away and just using his Dragon Breath in short bursts to keep Machina Guardian’s attention on him.
It was like everyone took a step back from the fight, being less assertive. But that was all part of Mira’s plan to restrain the enemy’s movements.
「Good, everything is in place now.」
Mira checked that Christina’s troop had arrived at their designated spot, then gave Soul Howl a signal while also telling Isenfald and the Sisters to attack.
All the cannons on the wall also fired simultaneously, carefully aiming between Machina Guardian’s legs and hitting the main body.
As the explosions shrouded the enemy, the Sisters and the army charged in as well, no longer caring about defense and purely focusing on attacking one of the legs.
When the leg moved up in an attempt to fling them away, Isenfald’s tail struck with full force against it, rendering the leg momentarily useless.
But Machina Guardian recovered swiftly, aiming the lasers at the ground and firing rapidly. It was hard to aim at a specific target as there was a lot of smoke in the way, but there were so many Ashen Knights that aiming was not necessary and many of them fell. Even as the number of Ashen Knights decreased by a third, the Sisters continued attacking.
Its enormous body began to tip on one side, letting Machina Guardian understand that this was a major threat, so it began to focus on attacking the Sisters instead.
『Good, now!』
Seeing that Machina Guardian was focusing entirely on the ground now, Mira gave Christina the signal.
Christina and her Ashen Knights suddenly appeared above Machina Guardian’s head, which was a blindspot as it no longer watched for aerial attacks. Garuda had carried the troop there, and Worthramble had concealed them, allowing them to sneak all the way there.
The Ashen Knights jumped off and nosedived with their swords aiming down, piercing into Machina Guardian’s back. That also allowed them to tear off another of its legs.
A total of seven swords pierced through the metal armor, and as the Ashen Knights stood up, sparks came out from the cuts. The falling momentum had helped the swords pierce deeper than any of the previous attacks.
The deep wounds disturbed Machina Guardian’s internal mechanisms, which led to it tipping to the side even more.
