"Th-there!"
"Insane......."
—Captain, do we retreat?!
—Fuck, retreat, what retreat! Don't you know those sons of bitches killed Yun and Kwa?! We have to take revenge!
—And if people die this time too, where do we get the manpower?!
—You're the one talking nonsense! Manpower or whatever, don't you know that once word gets out we were pushed back by half-wits like those, there's no fixing it?!
Fundamentally, power struggles between expedition teams were illegal. Natural enough, if you called it natural. No nation permits disputes among its citizens without clear cause. All the more so when those citizens have been granted conditional armament.
Those who take up weapons carry a certain degree of danger regardless of their character.
—All of you, shut your mouths.
But did the existence of rules ever mean everyone followed them? The essence of an expedition team was throwing one's life away to earn money, and most such people regarded money as more fearsome than the law. Needless to say if the district one was born in was a slum where even a legal status was hard to come by.
Dying while hunting mutants, or being killed in the course of killing fellow humans. So long as they could earn money, it made no difference to them.
—Withdraw without even fighting? Ha! That would only please the bastards who call us yellow dogs. And why should I do a thing like that for them?
—But Captain, this hunt has a novice in it.......
—Yul! I will ask you in advance! Do you want to run?
In that respect this fight, too, could not be avoided. All the more so when the other side was trying to seize their territory as a means of surviving an oversaturated market.
The moment they withdrew, the others would nibble away at their interests bit by bit and in time take everything they had enjoyed. In the end it was all a matter of timing.
—Are the men who killed your brother so frightening and fearsome that you want to run back to the nest this instant?!
"C-Captain... that kind of language is—"
"Captain."
No, in truth such fine circumstances did not matter. Expedition Team: Freedom was not the only place where Odysseus could build strength, nor were they anything precious to him, so what did any of it have to do with him?
"Never mind that, I may kill them all, yes?"
It was simply this. When killing was permitted, when he could kill, when there was no reason to avoid it, going out of one's way to withdraw from a fight was not a thing for a man of Ithake to do.
Not that it changed the fact that if the fence called Expedition Team: Freedom vanished right now, gathering information and strength would become a step more troublesome.
—I will pay a bonus for every neck you take. If you succeed in leaving the equipment intact and killing only the people, I will give you all of those spoils as well.
"Well now, that gives me a reason to try harder."
On that account, Odysseus tapped one side of his goggles as he had learned to over the past two weeks. And with his other hand he drew out the weapon he had specially prepared and pressed a button.
CLICK.
"That word about giving me the spoils as they are, you'll keep it, won't you?"
The small rod transformed in an instant into a longbow as tall as his upper body.
It was the moment a marksman counted among a handful in the Trojan War, friend and foe alike, took the mound in a war of the future.
—Fuck, Yul, you're a crazy son of a bitch!
—Haha! Look at those white-dog sons of bitches flustered and floundering!
In truth, if he was after ranged attacks he could have used a gun. Considering that the cost of rounds and the cost of arrows came to much the same, the gun, which he could manufacture himself, might even have been better.
And yet he had brought the bow, and that was a matter of familiarity. The time he had spent handling a gun was at most a little over two weeks, whereas it was fair to say he had held a bow for half a century.
TWANG!
"Ah, missed."
Of course, even a war hero of Troy did not find shooting a bow so easy with the conditions of his body entirely changed.
TWANG, THUNK!
—One more bastard down!!
—You're the best, our little darling!!
But what did a slightly lower hit rate matter? If one rapid shot could not strike the enemy, then he need only draw once more.
Body armor might stop a bullet, but since it was easily pierced by a single arrow, there was nothing more to hesitate over. Even hitting once in three, he could shoot dead every enemy present.
—Hawk! Eagle! Block those fly sons of bitches! Do not let them near the Air Boat!
—Yes, ma'am!
—Trying to get to our Magician, are you!
Separately, he benefited somewhat from his improved magic-power sensitivity and control as well. It had become far easier to cover with magic power the work muscles would ordinarily have to do.
As a stopgap for putting the body to use in an urgent moment, it was more than enough.
BANG!
"Hooo, kid! Does being a magician make you good with a bow too? Or are you flinging the arrows with magic in some slick way?!"
"Who knows, what do you think?"
Moron sons of bitches. Did they think magic was omnipotent? This was simply him shooting well. He had replaced only his lacking muscle with magic power; all the rest was skill.
Odysseus held down the urge to bellow as much and quietly left the praise of those around him alone. Naturally, rather than have strange misunderstandings arise over archery skill that had come out of nowhere, hearing that magic was omnipotent was better from where he stood. Even if it did make his insides burn a little, in any case.
—Agh!
—Goddamn it, Tangka!
Just then came the first fatality on their own side. It was someone belonging to the harpoon squad.
SPLASH!
Despite performing an evasive maneuver, he took a gunshot square on and fell straight into the sea. The fight was too fierce for anyone to go and pull him out.
"H-help—!"
CRUNCH!
Faintly, from beneath the sea, came the sound of a mutant tearing into a person.
BANG, BANG!
"Fuuck, only the monster sons of bitches are cashing in."
It was the smell of blood that had first spread when they took the shark mutant. On top of that, with the fighting going on and lumps of flesh and blood falling together every time a casualty occurred, could mutants with good noses possibly let it pass?
It was not for nothing that these people had not saved Yun. The moment a person fell into the sea, that person's life had to be counted as dead.
One side of Odysseus' lips slanted crooked.
TATANG!
"Yikes!"
Just then an enemy muzzle turned their way. It was not the first time. The Air Boat they rode was large and sluggish, so if one meant to target it, it was really easy to hit.
TATATATANG!
And yet the reason they were not shooting the Air Boat down was that they were thinking of after the fight. Just as Captain Songha had promised to hand over all the spoils if he succeeded in leaving the equipment intact, for example.
"Those sons of bitches look properly spiteful now."
But the situation had grown too bad for them to aim at a prize like a twenty-seat Air Boat. They had lost two people before the clash even began—Odysseus' work—and three more had already died since.
With the combination of fierce sea wind, the Air Bike's characteristic quick evasive maneuvers, and body armor, dying by gunshot was that difficult, and yet five on the other side had already dropped dead.
—Lost one! One's heading toward Porter!
"......!"
Perhaps that was why. The defensive line that had desperately blocked the enemy's approach was pierced. One Air Bike passing over the Air Boat and raking it with gunfire was the natural next step.
"——!"
From the instant the transmission came in, Odysseus predicted the path based on the drive noise reaching his ears and rolled his body swiftly. Thanks to that he escaped the shower of bullets sweeping across the deck, but another person did not.
THUMP
The man who had been chatting with him a moment before clutched his neck and collapsed. A truly unlucky human. Considering the coverage of helmet, mask, and body armor, the neck was a part hard to hit square on.
"H-haaagh!"
Fortunately, if it could be called fortunate, unlike the luckless man the driver crawled beneath the wheel and survived. Odysseus himself, though scattered shot had tapped against his clothes, was unhurt and whole.
"One life for one life."
But did the fact that he himself and the driver were unharmed ever make the price of one life disappear?
Odysseus quickly raised his rolled body, then stepped on the mutant's carcass and leapt. The boy's arms gripped bow and arrow each and were drawing the string.
THUNK!
The chest of the enemy who had passed over the Air Boat's upper surface and was flying downward sprayed blood. Such was the power of an arrow that pierced even body armor.
THUD, THUD.
Instinctively certain the enemy had been hit, Odysseus shifted his weight onto his right shoulder. The squishy shark surface combined with a center of gravity he had deliberately disrupted, and his body tipped over toward the deck as though falling.
TATATATANG!
A step too late, bullets hammered the Air Boat's side surface and the empty air above.
—Porter, are you alive?!
"That Air Bike is mine. Be sure to collect it."
Current-generation craft had a function that kept them floating in place until the fuel ran out if the pilot suddenly disappeared. Which meant there was no need to worry about the Air Bike plunging into the sea just because the bastard sitting in the cockpit had died.
Odysseus used that to assert his rights boldly, and the other side accepted.
—That makes three Air Bikes already falling to your share. If you wish to receive them, survive.
"Mmm, that's good."
The boy ignored the shoulder throbbing from its impact with the floor and crawled toward the railing. The artifact called a gun was still unfamiliar, but that sticking close to cover raised the odds of survival was something he had picked up at once by a warrior's instinct.
—The bastards are trying to pull out!
—Don't let them go! Break their insolence completely!
DUDUDUDUDU!
TATATATATA!
With one more bastard dead, the other side seemed to be losing their nerve. The gunfire of enemy and ally alike began to grow gradually more distant.
"Mister."
"Uh, huh?"
"Let's follow them."
Ordinarily, an Air Boat could not catch an Air Bike's speed if it died and came back. Perhaps if one slathered money on it and fitted a jet engine, but at least not this model.
"Wh-why?"
"Then shall we just stay put here?"
However, the particularity of the present situation had to be taken into account. Busy firing at each other, they could not run in a straight line, and whenever a curve came the speed tended to drop sharply.
The Air Boat they rode had no need for evasive maneuvers, so if done well, catching up was possible.
"C-couldn't we just stay?"
"I don't think the captain would like that remark much."
Odysseus looked beyond the railing at the ownerless Air Bike. No, beyond looking he even gave a slight jerk of his chin. It was a courtesy in case, on account of his slit eyes, the man failed to notice the movement of his gaze.
"Or shall I take that and go by myself?"
"...Please don't. I'll really die."
"We have a compromise."
To belong to an expedition team and yet have so little nerve. Odysseus adjusted his assessment of the man downward and counted the arrows he had brought.
Because of bulk and budget, only a few remained. If he had to use them, it seemed better to use them when a decisive moment came.
"...Might as well practice while I'm at it."
So Odysseus took up the sniper rifle stowed on the Air Boat. He was not using the pistol because, with heavy wind and a fair distance opened up, there was no guarantee a pistol round would fly true.
'Flag did say to use it only on enemies trying to board the Air Boat, not to use it deliberately for engagement.'
The sniper rifle, by contrast, was a weapon made with medium to long range in mind from the start, so it was less affected by wind and distance than a pistol. In the present situation it was a far better choice.
CLUNK
If there was a drawback, it was that being made to fit an adult, and a well-built male Teeming Folk at that, its size was somewhat burdensome... but that too could be solved with enhanced strength.
A sniper rifle larger than the boy's body was laid across the railing.
"C-can you even shoot that?"
"I learned how to use it from Bro Flag."
The recoil being worse than a pistol's, take an exact stance when firing and be careful not to blow out a joint. The impact-point calculation program mounted in the goggles is effective, but since the human hand does not follow it perfectly, never rely on it.
He had heard cautions like these and tried some practice shots. Only ten of them, since bullets were expensive.
"This being real combat, no one will complain about the cost of bullets."
Still, it was fine. He could hit.
The program built into the goggles would help with calculating wind and bullet drop, and matching the wavering focus with the timing of the shot was a problem he could solve.
"Hnnnn, hooooo."
The moment his body was composed by that single breath, Odysseus set all the magic power within him to touching his own sensory nervous system. It was not an easy act. Had it been as easy as drinking soup, he would long since have gone about using this technique freely.
—Kill!
—...don't lose!
—...ill!
Still, yes. The fight was nearly at its tail end now, and a little experimenting on his part would not change the shape of it. It was just the right timing to bring back a portion of the heights he had reached in life.
So he stimulated his nervous system with magic power, endlessly, endlessly. He drove his senses until he could feel every strand of muscle, every branching of vein, the song of his bones.
Until his sharpened five senses heard and saw and felt everything, while hearing nothing and seeing nothing and feeling nothing at all.
—.......
—.......
And at the end of it, time and consciousness finally diverged.
The world, perceived yet existing outside his senses, was now flowing along sluggishly, like a grub crawling. The wind grazing his skin was like a brush creeping over it.
And the shouts and gunfire passing back and forth on all sides receded to a far-off distance. In their place, the head of the enemy Odysseus had marked came onto the same line as the impact point displayed on the surface of his goggles.
It was just then that Odysseus' finger pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The noise that burst out at discharge was slower than the bullet. Or faster. From the moment the trigger was pulled, the world's time came back and the world grew abruptly loud.
"One, for now."
But what received the boy's attention was not noise of that sort.
Watching the fleeing enemy's skull burst apart, the boy, his back full of cold sweat, grinned. The smell of blood from his first kill was nauseatingly enrapturing.