If the infantry completed their encirclement, then no matter how agile Tsukishiro Yanagi was, she would die beneath the dense hail of bullets.
However, for the rebels, the encirclement seemed to be only the first step of their tactical plan.
The Command Mech in the center, which had yet to make a move, directly activated the second phase of its attack protocol.
Armor plates unfolded from its back, revealing a set of external propulsion modules.
The armor covering its fists also rotated open, exposing discharge electrodes beneath—not ordinary electric shocks, but something resembling a capture net.
The Arc Net’s coverage area was more than twice as large as before.
Tsukishiro Yanagi recognized it.
She had only seen it in intelligence briefings.
It was Anti-Proxy Equipment developed by the Defense Force specifically for high-speed targets.
The Section Chief had even been invited to test it, though she had sliced it apart with two strikes.
Even so, the Section Chief had evaluated it as an extremely effective tactic against most Agents who used Ether Aptitude.
A wide-area Arc Net would paralyze the target’s nervous system, robbing them of mobility before infantry units moved in for the kill.
Tsukishiro Yanagi tightened her grip on her Naginata until faint creaks sounded beneath her fingers.
…If this doesn’t work, then I’ll have to gamble everything.
Even if all I can do is help Asaba escape.
Just as that thought crossed her mind, the corner of her eye swept across the narrow alley beside the factory.
She saw someone.
A person wearing a Fox Mask.
The masked individual leaned halfway out from the alley entrance and waved at her.
With his other hand, he pointed toward a patch of oddly colored loose soil on the ground not far ahead.
Tsukishiro Yanagi was a former officer.
She didn’t waste time wondering why he was there.
Nor did she consider whether the gesture was a trap.
Because with a single glance, she understood the pit trap beneath that loose soil.
A shallow layer of cover.
Fresh excavation marks around the edges.
Refilled soil darker than the surrounding ground.
It had been dug recently.
And something beneath the pit was radiating visible waves of heat.
She didn’t hesitate at all.
“Asaba, east side.”
“Got it!”
“Don’t let them get away!”
Lowering her body, Tsukishiro Yanagi practically skimmed across the ground, slipping beneath a mech’s punch as she dashed toward the alley.
In the exact opposite direction from Asaba Harumasa.
The mechs reacted with incredible speed.
The Command Mech behind her immediately launched an Arc Net in pursuit.
But although the net covered a vast area, its deployment speed was slower than her straight-line sprint.
Aside from the mech blocking Asaba Harumasa, the other three mechs simultaneously activated their pursuit protocols.
They didn’t care whether the alley contained a trap.
For Autonomous Mechs, traps were merely obstacles requiring route recalculation.
Emotions like hesitation did not exist.
Human soldiers, however, could hesitate.
The infantry squad leader in the rear instantly judged that something was suspicious about the alley the moment Tsukishiro Yanagi changed direction.
He raised a hand, signaling his troops to slow their advance.
But the mechs were much faster than the infantry.
The damaged mech at the front had already charged into the alley.
Its tracks crushed the gravel-covered ground without slowing in the slightest.
Then it rolled over the patch of “loose soil.”
In reality, it wasn’t loose soil at all.
It was a brown Wool Carpet.
In MC, Wool Carpets were both sturdy and fragile.
Sturdy because they could be placed atop fences and used as stepping blocks.
Fragile because the moment the support beneath them disappeared, they would instantly collapse in a chain reaction.
And under the rules of physical reality, the Wood Fence supporting the carpet could not possibly bear the weight of a three-ton mech.
The mech’s own mass punched straight through the thin disguise in an instant.
The entire machine plunged vertically into the pit.
Its emergency stabilization system activated during the fall.
But the shaft was too narrow.
The mech’s shoulder armor jammed against the walls, preventing any aerial posture adjustments.
Then it hit the bottom.
At the bottom of the pit was Lava.
Not natural lava.
Natural lava would not cause armor to burst into open flames the instant it made contact with a mech.
This was some kind of substance whose heat completely defied the laws of physics.
Flames erupted simultaneously across every surface touching the lava.
They did not spread.
They were simply determined to exist.
The automatic fire suppression system activated within fractions of a second.
But the flames refused to go out.
Firefighting foam coated the burning armor like water poured onto a ghostly fire that refused to extinguish.
The mech’s sensor arrays descended into chaos.
Temperature readings overflowed.
Error codes cascaded across its combat motherboard like a waterfall.
The emergency shutdown protocol was triggered.
But only the weapons systems shut down.
The fire continued to burn.
The armor began softening under the “high temperature.”
Residual hydraulic oil inside the lines ignited, detonating bursts of orange-red fire from within.
The remaining two mechs braked simultaneously.
Even the fourth mech, which had been blocking Asaba Harumasa from the perimeter, redirected its attention.
Processors did not feel fear.
But their tactical AIs immediately reassessed the battlefield.
The unknown substance at the bottom of the pit had already been classified as a high-threat hazard.
Now the pit separated Tsukishiro Yanagi from her pursuers.
The two mechs immediately abandoned direct pursuit and began recalculating flanking routes.
Even the fourth mech received a reassigned mission.
Meanwhile, Tsukishiro Yanagi had already run more than a hundred meters away.
The man wearing the Fox Mask—Russell—opened a half-rusted iron door a short distance ahead and stepped aside to clear the passage.
Tsukishiro Yanagi did not hesitate.
She squeezed through the gap and immediately reached back to close the door.
But the moment the door shut, she heard a dull explosion.
Yanagi instantly realized what it was.
The mech that had fallen into the lava pit had exploded.
Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have been remarkable.
She had personally destroyed a double-digit number of mechs before.
But immediately afterward, a shockwave erupted from the bottom of the pit.
A purple Ether blast mixed with countless fragments smashed through the walls lining both sides of the alley.
The entire area’s space began to tremble.
“…What happened?”
As the person responsible for all this, the Fox Masked Russell had no idea what was going on.
So he was somewhat dumbfounded.
From his perspective, all he had done was dig a pit and pour in a bucket of Lava.
Yet now, according to his minimap, the passageways within more than a dozen meters of the pit had simply disappeared.
Tsukishiro Yanagi gave the man who had just helped her a quick once-over and naturally answered his question.
“I happened to have read the Typhon’s specifications before.
If I remember correctly, the Typhon Destroyer’s battery is a modified one-hundred-kilogram Etherized metallic hydrogen battery.”
“What does that mean?”
Russell was just a gamer.
He knew absolutely nothing about New Eridu’s technological details.
“It means that mech was carrying the equivalent of a four-ton thermobaric bomb.”
“And just now, that thermobaric bomb exploded.”
After explaining, Tsukishiro Yanagi suddenly remembered Asaba Harumasa, who had escaped in another direction, along with the Investigators still inside the factory.
“…This is bad!”
★ ★ ★
Shilling time!