3 bar menu

Volume 3 Chapter 8.2

Translator: Adam Seacord
Editor: Weasalopes

“Tatsu. There’s something weird.”

 On their way back from the desert, Mio whispered this in the hatchback.

“Weird?”

“A nameless, humanoid flying object with no presence.”

“Barold, probably.”

“That’s Barold.”

Makoto and Tatsuya were sure of it as they heard this description, in turn:

“Might be fake Barold or a copy?”

Hiroshi countered.

“Hey, Hiro.”

“Hm?”

“Does that matter at all in terms of dictating what’s going to happen or the actions we take?”

“Affects how strong it is, and whether or not we know that the big boss is still out there.”

“I mean, yeah, I guess…”

With a little cracking of the forth wall, they ran around in search for a field where they would have an advantages. If they went all the way back to Darl, it couldn’t turn into a big battle with civilian casualties. If Barold was responsible for the series of incidents in Darl, he would have no problem with devolving that much.

“Um. What’s Barold?”

Judith, who had been listening to their conversation curiously, mustered up the courage to ask. Sometimes this group had a tendency to get lost in conversations full of internal knowledge. She had to ask the right questions when she could to keep up.

“This little man a part of a cult that tried to overthrow Farlane. Apparently, a chivalrous thief over here had decide to cut one down over here.”

“I didn’t know about that.”

“Sure is. Pretty annoying if we have to face him head-on.”

With a vague answer, Tatsuya turned back to Hiroshi to construct a plan.

“Shield System’s up, anyway.”

“How much can we take?”

“From what we saw in Farlane, everythin’ but the Hell Inferno we saw at the end.”

“Then maybe we can let him take the first shot.”

“Might not even need to do that.”

Just as Hiroshi said so, the entire carriage shook. Someone had rammed into it. The hatchback continued to take a few hits. Thanks to Hiroshi’s special axis, they never toppled over, but it was far from a comfortable ride, now.

“When he’s flyin’ ‘bove us, ain’t easy to make a run for it.” 

“You said it.”

Relieved that the hatchback wasn’t taking any major damage despite the extremely shakiness, Hiroshi and Tatsuya continued their nonchalant conversation. A normal carriage would have been blown to bits, but it more than a little bit short of destroying the hatchback which was more durable than a tank.

“So, any retaliation tactics?”

“First thin’s we gotta stop it.”

“Do we have a feature like that.”

“You betcha.”

Tatsuya couldn’t help but crack a grin at Hiroshi’s expected response. A car full of all sorts of gadgets like this would make anyone excited, even Tatsuya who was decently passed the age of a young adult. Men, overall, tend to have a weak spot for stuff like state-of-the-art, or combat-technology, etc.

“Time to strike back, then?”

“After we draw him out to the desert.”

“Aye-aye!”

With Hiroshi’s request, Tatsuya drifted to change directions, and floored on the pedal to accelerate out of there. In a matter of seconds, it sped up to the 100 miles per hour speed (not meant for off-roading) which they hadn’t done since their first drive, and headed straight to the desert.

Of course, such rough handling didn’t leave the interior of the car unscathed. Everyone did have their seatbelts on and were relatively fine, but with the quick turn around, Makoto and Mio, who were sitting by the windows, ended up banging their head with some force. Without Hiroshi’s tech, they might have flipped over. They were lucky to get off this easy.

“Hey, Tatsuya! Can you be a little more careful!?”

“Tatsu. You have to be more gentle with girls.”

“All complaints to our forgettable villain, please!”

Foregoing the dive-attacks, the Unknown Barold had switched to sabotaging the car with fireballs. After the sudden drift and drastic acceleration, it didn’t seem to have time to go for another dive-attack. It had missed the dive-attack and crashed a lanky tree by the side of the travel road, but no one was bothered by it, including him.

Tatsuya kept headed towards the desert, fast and furious. Unknown Barold had switched from its human form to demon form at some point, and was attacking them with more fire power. Thanks to the time of day and their positions, there was almost no other traffic in and out of the desert. But this would have been a major tragedy if the attack had come during a busy time like dawn or dusk.

“There’s the desert, up ahead!”

“Get off the travel road!”

After a thirty-minute long high-speed chase, the hatchback was nearly back at the desert. This annoying cat-and-mouse was coming to an end. The driving was so rough that the Norton sisters were quivering, huddled together and praying.

“Can we keep riding into the desert like this?”

“Changed the mode, just now. We good to go.”

“What kind of hatchback am I driving…?”

With the push of the button, this hatchback could switch from desert mode, tropical mode, and arctic mode, etc. Even though it was technically a ‘golem carriage’ and not an automobile, Tatsuya couldn’t help but think that there was too much of a creative liberty. Even Japanese cars, who prided themselves in environmental adaptability couldn’t run straight into a desert from a snow-covered road.

“It’s fine. How far are we drawing him in?”

“Far enough that a big one won’t reach the travel road, at least.”

Hiroshi inputted a general destination into the navigation system as he covertly manipulated the touchscreen in the passenger seat. Tatsuya headed straight to the destination. The Unkown Barold kept flying at them, almost seeming to prefer an open space. When they were finally nearing the destination, Hiroshi made a move.

“Alrighty, let’s do it!”

He navigated the touchscreen to hold Barold (a slightly different design from the time they saw him in Farlane) at the center of the screen, and pressed a button just as it was about to make another dive attack.

“First up, our special birdlime!”

With that, a giant patty of birdlime expanded in front of Barold. His increased speed in preparation for the dive attack forced him to charge straight into it.

“Alright, bingo! Stop the car, brother!”

“We got him tied down, now?”

“Please. Here’s comes the parade! Hardening agent! Debuffing net! Capture Barrier!”

However they were all installed in the hatchback, all sorts of questionable weapons shot out of it. The hardening agent solidified the birdlime like rubber, and the debugging net decreased each of Barold’s abilities before completely immobilizing him with the Capture Barrier. Tatsuya didn’t know if he should be astonished or impressed at the overly thorough method. One thing was for certain. This hatchback was more badass than the Bat Mobile.

“No holds barred, huh?”

“It’s annoyin’ to let him fly ‘round the place.”

“I mean, you’re right…”

From the amount of affliction oozing out of him, they could tell that this Barold was just as formidable as the Barold they fought in Farlane. Now that he was completely shut out like this, it made them feel a little weird.

“That pesky little thin’ could recover. Let’s take care of it.”

“There’s more…?”

“No duh. We don’t know when he might break loose. We gotta blow that type to bits. So, move the car so we’re facin’ away from the travel road, please.”

“Aye–aye…”

Tatsuya gave on objecting to Hiroshi’s plans (since it was Barold, after all) and turned the car around so they were facing away from the travel road. Even as he turned the car around, they could see Barold’s birdlime jiggling, having been solidified by the hardening agent.

“Now the cherry on top. Mio, anyone ‘round?”

“No one for a kilometer in any direction.”

“Alrighty, no problem, then. Disengage safety. Connect energy by-pass. Initiate charging. Stabilize vehicle.”

Each time Hiroshi followed a step, some foreboding noise came from a corner of the car. Combined with the ridiculous capturing system that was just deployed, the party couldn’t help but feel nervous. Could they really afford to let him go wild, like this?

“Release by-bass. Expand barrel set. Energy charged. Sightline set. Expand anti-impact shield.”

Hiroshi continued the steps with eerie matter-of-factness. At “barrel set,” they saw a giant arm swing past the car window, but they decided to wait until the end to make any commentary, understanding the meaning behind the term ‘barrel.’

“We ready! Might feel a lil’ shove, so hang on tight and keep your head down!”

“How big of a cannon are we talking about, here!?”  

“Ya’ll see! Worldshaker, fire away!”

Hiroshi declared with a bizarrely energetic smile, and pressed a button away from the touchscreen. The next instance, an incredible concentration of magic was fired from the roof of the hatchback, and struck Barold head-on after a beat or two.

The aftermath was a lot of work. The Worldshaker had swallowed up the Barold-ish creature with ease, create a giant crater in the ground, wiped out off the monsters in the area, and ended up causing a massive earthquake and an enormous dust cloud. The hatchback was stabilized to the ground and had an anti-impact shield up to keep it unscathed, but the same could not be said about everything else in the 2 kilometer radius.

That being said, the scale of this attack was bigger do it spreading the damage around, but in terms of actual attack power, Titanic Roar and Mio’s Extra Skill had it beat, by far.

“Maybe fully chargin’ it was a bit overkill.”

“A bit overkill!?”

“Hiroshi-kun, I don’t think we should go around terraforming places…”

“And now we can’t see crap. We’re stuck her.”

First the ruins and now this… Leaving mad scientists run on their own was proving to be more and more complicating.