Chapter 95 - Tank Tarantula
Chapter 95, Tank Tarantula
Akira was able to locate the Tank Tarantula sooner than Shikarabe and his friends. It was all thanks to Alpha’s detection ability.
Alpha pointed her finger toward the vast wasteland.
“Akira, the bounty monster is over there.”
Akira grabbed his binoculars and looked at the direction where Alpha was pointing at. He quickly spotted a huge monster in that direction.
“That’s the 800,000,000 Aurum worth bounty monster, huh… It’s huge!”
The Tank Tarantula was a spider-like monster as big as a 3-storey house. 16 legs extended out from its abdomen and its whole body was covered in reinforced plating. The upper portion of its abdomen was equipped with 2 big cannons that you would usually only find on tanks. There were wheels and caterpillar tracks outfitted on the bottom part of its body.
It used one of his legs to push a scorched half-destroyed vehicle into its mouth and munched on it. The hard vehicle frame was easily crushed under its gigantic teeth before getting swallowed into its huge body.
“It’s eating a vehicle… Is it in the middle of a meal?”
“It might be one of the vehicles of the Hunters who tried to hunt it. If you approach it carelessly, your vehicle will meet the same fate. So let’s be extra careful.”
“If it only eats metal, did the Hunters escape? Or did they get eaten first?”
“Monsters like that are usually omnivores. Moreover, Hunters’ weapons and equipment are usually made of metal, and I’m sure it won’t even bother to separate them.”
“Well, that’s true. Even if it’s not an omnivore, I have no plans to feed it my vehicle.”
Akira spent a lot of money on his vehicle. Thus he had no plans to let the Tank Tarantula eat it.
“The amount of food that monsters eat is usually proportional to its size. If you leave it alone, it’ll only grow bigger and bigger with time, and with that, the amount of food it eats will also grow. Usually, monsters will get eaten by the other monsters before they can grow that big. But this one came from Yonozuka station ruin where it had an abundant amount of food.”
Akira remembered when he went to Yonozuka station ruin, he found a hallway filled with the leftover of battles but no corpses. When it was still small, the Tank Tarantula must have eaten the corpses and grown to a size where it could still fit the hallway. It then must have escaped the hallway to the surface and eaten all the wreckage around the area as it grew even bigger.
They approached the Tank Tarantula carefully while closely observing it. Its metallic exoskeleton body looked extremely tough and its huge powerful legs looked strong enough to crush a vehicle. Not to mention that the twin cannons on its back looked extremely powerful. Akira looked completely amazed by the appearance of that powerful-looking monster.
“But then again, if I can defeat that monster, it would earn me 800,000,000 Aurum, huh. I wonder how strong of a monster it is to be worth that much.”
“The amount of the bounty prize is not decided based on how strong a monster is. But at least, there’s someone who wants that monster dead as soon as possible to the point that they would even pay you 800,000,000 Aurum. It might be because it’s sitting on an important trading route, or it might be because it attracts strong monsters to gather in that place and worsen the monster distribution. There are basically a lot of factors that decide how much a monster is worth. And when you add the fact that it’s a strong monster that Hunters’ can’t easily kill, then it would be identified as a bounty monster. Think of it as a monster that’s way stronger than any of monster that you’ve fought until now.”
“You don’t have to tell me that, it’s rather obvious from what I can see. Like hell I would stand having monsters like that roaming the wasteland.”
“If you go further to the east, you can find a lot of monsters like that, you know?”
“I-I see.”
“And there are a whole lot of Hunters who can defeat that level of monsters without having much trouble. That’s why, even if there are monsters like this in that area, those monsters would not be identified as bounty monsters.”
“I guess there are still a lot of things out there that I don’t know, huh…”
Akira sounded contemplative as he mumbled those words.
Shikarabe’s voice came out from the communication device, he told everyone to start the battle. Akira quickly pulled himself together, Alpha smiled at him invincibly.
“We’ll start the fight against the bounty monster soon, are you ready?”
“Of course!”
“Alright then, let’s start!”
“Ah, wait for a sec.”
“What’s wrong?”
Alpha seemed a bit curious.
“There’s one thing that I want to make sure first.”
Akira turned to Togami and said.
“I won’t follow orders, I fight the way I want. Shikarabe had agreed with that too. I won’t try to work together with you, if you want to board off, then this is your chance.”
Togami who was already in a bad mood quickly exploded when he heard Akira’s words.
“Hah!? Are you kidding me?!”
“So you’re staying, huh? Got it then.”
Akira then turned to Alpha.
“Let’s start!”
“Roger that. If he gets thrown off the vehicle, it would all be his fault. So there’s no need to help him and just leave him alone.”
Alpha smiled when she said that as she took over the control of Akira’s vehicle and immediately turned up its speed.
Togami could not help but shriek as the vehicle suddenly accelerated and pushed his body deeper into his seat.
Since they were going to fight a bounty monster, Alpha’s driving was rather rough. Akira, who was wearing an augmented suit with Alpha’s support, could move around with no problem. But that was not the case for Togami.
Akira moved to the back seat, took his CWH anti-material rifle, and aimed at the Tarantula Tank that was still quite far away from them.
Although with its big size, the Tank Tarantula looked just like a blip with naked eyes from that distance. Not to mention there was the shaking and swaying from the vehicle too. Akira aimed at the Tank Tarantula through the aiming device on his rifle, Alpha added a lot of extra information in his vision.
Akira fixed the TP line created through Alpha’s support such that it accurately targeted the Tank Tarantula. He focused his concentration and compressed the time as much as possible, the moment he felt the shaking from the vehicle slow down, he fixed his aim and pulled the trigger.
The bullet pierced through the air and flew straight to its target. It pushed against the air barrier formed on its tip due to its velocity which reduced its power on its travel before hitting its target.
But when it did, it just ricocheted after hitting the hard metallic exoskeleton of the Tank Tarantula.
The Tank Tarantula had already noticed Akira and the other Hunters. But since it was in the middle of its meal, it chose to focus on its meal rather than the Hunters that were still rather far away from it. Now that it received an attack, albeit a harmless attack, it quickly shifted its attention to Akira.
The huge cannon on the Tank Tarantula’s back started to move. It was as if the Tank Tarantula was trying to aim its huge cannon.
Akira noticed its movements through his aiming device.
“Did that one hit?”
“It did, but it didn’t inflict any damage. It won’t do any damage no matter how much you shoot at it unless you go closer.”
“I see, then I need to get closer first. My job is to keep it occupied as a diversion, so let’s do my job properly.”
“Well, you’re doing fine, it’s already focused its attention on you. My driving will be a bit rougher to evade its cannon, so be careful.”
“Roger that!”
Akira shifted his left hand from the rifle to grab his vehicle.
The Tank Tarantula already fixed its aim at Akira, its big cannons spewed out huge warheads with a loud bang. The kickback shifted its huge body, but not enough to throw it off-balance. It was able to hold off the powerful kickback using its multiple legs. But it did not stop there as it shot multiple warheads in succession, the huge warheads drew multiple parabolic lines on the sky as they flew toward Akira.
They rained down and created craters around Akira. Alpha quickly finished her calculation and predicted where those warheads would hit the ground, she then ignored the people on Akira’s vehicle as she controlled it to move away from the fallout area.
The sudden acceleration threw Akira and Togami off-balance. Akira used the power of his augmented suit to get a secure grip on his vehicle and avoid getting himself thrown off the vehicle while still standing. As for Togami who was sitting on the driver assistance seat, he got himself pushed between his seat and the door, thus he was also able to avoid getting thrown off.
The explosions from the warheads that rained down from the sky threw dust, smokes, and rubbles to the air. The shockwave and the pounding from the explosions shook Akira’s vehicle. It even threw the vehicle off the ground, but thanks to Alpha’s driving capability, it was able to land safely and all its luggage was also undamaged.
Alpha smiled casually.
“It seems that it has a bad aim. In this case, we can safely approach it.”
“That’s good to hear!! By the way, can you keep us further away from the warheads?!!”
Akira could feel the shaking transmitted through his legs. If he was not grabbing on his vehicle with his left hand, he might have been thrown off the vehicle by now.
“Don’t worry, with that level of firepower, we can at least take one direct hit.”
“You’re talking about the vehicle, right?!”
“Well, even if you’re using an augmented suit, there’s no way you can handle that warhead, you know. That’s unless you buy a better one.”
“Don’t be crazy, just how much do you think it would cost?”
“If you can defeat that Tank Tarantula alone, you should get enough money to buy one.”
“I don’t have that kind of money!!!”
“In that case, you should gather more money. Let’s work hard to earn that much.”
“Yeah, I can’t agree more!!”
Looking at Alpha who was smiling like usual, Akira got a bit worked up.
Shikarabe looked at that exchange between Akira and the Tank Tarantula through an on-board camera. The scene of Akira fighting against the Tank Tarantula that was border-line reckless was shown in a big monitor inside Shikarabe’s vehicle. Shikarabe, Yamanobe and Varga who were looking at that monitor seemed to be enjoying the show.
Yamanobe smiled and said.
“Not bad at all! As expected of a Hunter worth more than 100,000,000 Aurum. He’s doing pretty good there.”
Varga smiled casually.
“He’s doing a good job as a diversion. It might be sooner than we planned, but we should head out too. Shikarabe, open the door.”
Shikarabe pushed the button on the terminal and opened the rear door of the APC. He then left some words for Varga and Yamanobe.
“No need to be reckless, return back as soon as you finish your job.”
Yamanobe smiled and answered back.
“I know. Even for me, I can’t help but get a little excited after seeing that. But I have no plans to put myself in danger just to show off my skill.”
Varga laughed mockingly.
“I have no plans to crash and burn in glory, that’s the job for another person.”
Looking at how both of them reacted, Shikarabe looked relieved.
“Number 2, operation start!”
“Number 3, operation start!”
Yamanobe and Varga jumped out from the vehicle on their bikes. They accelerated their bikes while still on the air, the wheels were spinning furiously as they landed on the ground. Both of them left Shikarabe’s APC behind and separated into two teams as they headed to the Tank Tarantula.
Akira kept heading toward the Tank Tarantula while avoiding the warheads. In the middle of that, he also kept on sniping the monster using his CWH anti-material rifle loaded with CWH special ammo. Thanks to Alpha’s driving skill and her ability to predict the warheads’ trajectories, Akira’s vehicle was still doing fine.
When the CWH special ammo hit the Tank Tarantula’s armour, it bent and eventually stripped off that armour plating of the Tank Tarantula. As that armour part fell down to the ground, another undamaged armour plating was exposed under it, it was then pushed out and replaced the stripped off armour plating. At the moment, Akira realised he could not inflict any meaningful damage to the Tank Tarantula.
Akira tilted his head while still looking at the Tank Tarantula.
“My shots did hit, right?”
“They did. It at least inflicted some damages, enough to strip off the armour plating from that monster.”
Akira made a long hum. Until now, he was able to defeat anything that he met with one shot using CWH special ammo. The only exception to that was the powered armour that he fought in Kuzusuhara ruin the other day. But even when he was fighting against that powered armour, the CWH special ammo obviously affected the powered armour when they hit. Unlike that powered armour, the CWH special did not seem to have any effect on the Tank Tarantula. It reminded Akira that it was indeed an 800,000,000 Aurum bounty monster.
“I really have no other choice but to get closer, huh?”
“It’s dangerous to get any closer than this. You’ve done your job well as a diversion. I’m sure Shikarabe has some kind of plan, so let’s keep our distance while keeping it occupied.”
“That’s true. Alright then, I’ll leave the driving to you, please drive safely.”
“Roger that.”
“It’s kind of weird to say this myself, but you do get the ‘drive safely’ part, right?”
Alpha smiled mischievously.
“Oh my, I always drive safely, you know. Or like, did you get hurt somewhere?”
“Well, no.”
Alpha was not lying, Akira himself knew at least that much. It was just a matter of standard between her and the people on the vehicle that she was controlling. Moreover, Akira himself was rather preoccupied with the monster, so he had no leeway to worry about other things.
Togami was desperately grabbing on to the blazing vehicle. Both of his arms and legs were used to keep himself inside the vehicle so that he would not get thrown off-board. He kept his mouth shut since he felt like he would bite his own tongue if he tried to say something.
As for Akira, he was able to adjust his posture before the vehicle swayed thanks to the support from Alpha, thus he was able to stand without much trouble in the intensely rocking vehicle.
But that was not the case for Togami. Alpha’s rough driving and the shockwave from the warheads threw his body around, he desperately grabbed onto the vehicle as he felt like he would be thrown off-board the moment he loosened his grip. He did not even have the leeway to aim at the Tank Tarantula.
Togami finally understood why Akira asked him if he wanted to stay. Just like he said, Akira did not care about Togami. Even if Togami got thrown off-board, it did not seem like Akira would stop to pick him up. Togami understood that fact very well.
And if he wanted to complain, he felt like he would bite his own tongue the moment he opened his mouth. And if he lowered his guard even for a second, he felt like he would be thrown off. He already had his hands full making sure that he would stay inside the vehicle.
Togami faced a lot of trouble in just turning his head toward Akira from the assistant driver seat. While Akira only looked a bit challenged as he kept on sniping at the Tank Tarantula.
[…Wh-what the heck is with this boy!? Is this really the power of a Rank 21 Hunter?! You gotta be kidding me!! Like hell I would accept someone like him as only a Rank 21 Hunter!! What the heck is going on here!? How the hell did I get roped in this situation?!]
He was utterly confused and kept on cursing his situation, that was all that he could do there.
The Tank Tarantula did not stop spewing warheads toward the Hunters who interrupted its meal. After all, there was nothing more obnoxious than those people who kept attacking you although it was barely effective at all.
Its first priority was Akira, then Shikarabe. Shikarabe was also shooting at the Tank Tarantula using rifles fixed into his APC. Although each shot was enough to blow a monster into minced meat, for Tank Tarantula, it did not have any effect at all. But at least, it was able to prevent the Tank Tarantula to stay where it was. With those continuous shots, the Tank Tarantula could not get a good aim.
Among the Hunters, the number 4, Nergo, was a Hunter with a battle cyborg body. It was obvious from his appearance that he was a cyborg as he raised up all his 4 arms equipped with powerful weapons and released a volley of warheads at the Tank Tarantula.
Nergo joined the hunt not for the prize, but he was aiming to make a connection with the Hunters from Drankam. The only thing that he asked in exchange for his participation in that hunt was to credit his name in that bounty hunt. As such, unlike the other Hunters who joined the hunt for money to pay for their debt, Nergo had to properly contribute to the hunt.
Just like Akira, Nergo exchanged shots with the Tank Tarantula in a rather close range as he kept on shooting at it with his huge guns. With his advanced driving skill, he evaded the warheads from the Tank Tarantula’s big cannons, readied his own big guns, and released huge warheads back at the Tank Tarantula.
The other Hunters started shooting at that Tank Tarantula too. They were contributing to the fight just like Shikarabe expected them to, i.e. they were not helping at all.
As warheads from the Tank Tarantula landed around those Hunters, they repositioned themselves in panic and started shooting at the monster again, but their attacks did nothing other than revealing their position to the Tank Tarantula. Since the Tank Tarantula was shooting at them, it at least recognized those Hunters as enemies. Or it might be just trying to immobilize them and eat them later.
Yamanobe and Varga kept on heading toward the Tank Tarantula without even shooting at it. Although they had prepared themselves to face some bombardments, it seemed that the diversions were working better than they expected so that they did not have to worry about the warheads.
After Yamanobe got close to the Tank Tarantula, he stopped his bike and looked at Nergo.
“There are other Hunters who are working as hard as Akira, huh. If he’s that powerful, he should’ve been able to strike a deal with the Drankam management instead. From what I heard yesterday, he doesn’t seem to be in so much trouble anyway… And with that power, there’s not even any need to hunt for a bounty monster, right? He can still acquire some money on his own like that, right? Or is it that he doesn’t have the money to do that?”
Although it bothered Yamanobe a bit, he decided to forget about that for now.
“Hey hey, remember that we’re in the middle of a job. It’s all thanks to the diversions that we’re not having a hard time, so let’s quickly finish our job here.”
Yamanobe was still on his bike as he raised up his rifle, aimed it at the Tank Tarantula, and pulled the trigger. The bullet-like projectile spewed out from the rifle’s muzzle, hit the Tank Tarantula, and stuck on its body. It was a small device wrapped in strong sticky glue.
He did not stop there as he kept on shooting at the Tank Tarantula. Since the sticky projectiles were completely harmless, the Tank Tarantula was ignoring him while more and more of those sticky small devices got stuck on its huge body.
“This is number 2, marking done.”
Varga’s voice could be heard from Yamanobe’s communication device.
“This is number 3, roger that. You can go back first.”
“It would be bad if you miss your shot, so I’ll stay.”
“Yeah yeah.”
Varga laughed and said that in response to Yamanobe’s joke.
Varga was approaching the Tank Tarantula from another direction. Thanks to the diversions, he was able to get pretty close to the Tank Tarantula and the Tank Tarantula would not attack him as long as he did not attack it, but the Tank Tarantula might aim at him if he got any closer. After that short exchange with Yamanobe, he then decided to get closer.
While still on the top of his bike, he quickly closed the distance to the Tank Tarantula, he then aimed his kickback-less cannon at the Tank Tarantula and pulled the trigger before the Tank Tarantula could aim its huge cannons back at him. The projectile from the cannon exploded before it hit the Tank Tarantula’s body and covered the area in thick smoke.
With the help from the automatic reloading device in the back of his bike, Varga kept on shooting that smoke warhead while still moving around. He shot some of the bullets to thicken the smoke around him while the rest went straight to the Tank Tarantula.
After that, Varga sped his bike out from within that thick smoke. The Tank Tarantula tried to shoot at him, but it could not get a good aim due to thick smoke. As such, the warheads just landed randomly around the area away from Varga.
If it was only normal smoke, the Tank Tarantula would not have any trouble aiming at Varga. The smoke not only blocked the visible light but also dulled all light spectrum as well as sound. Thus preventing any information to be perceived correctly and completely throwing the monster’s aim off.
The smoke that Varga used was an advanced jamming smoke.
Varga then contacted Shikarabe.
“This is number 3, I’m done here too.”
Now that their victory was almost guaranteed, Shikarabe smiled and said.
“Roger that, get away from that place. You’ll also get blown off if you guys stay too close.”
Varga and Yamanobe swiftly replied back.
“Understood.”
“Just start the barrage.”
Shikarabe then changed the broadcast to all the Hunters there.
“This is number 1! You guys can use the rocket launcher now! Make sure to get close enough to get a lock on the Tank Tarantula! Pull the trigger together on my mark!! And don’t be late!”
Akira looked at the Tank Tarantula that was covered in smoke.
“Smokescreen, huh? I can’t spot the monster at all now.”
“That’s jamming smoke, you know. Since they gave us the information about the smoke beforehand, you can still check the insides of the smoke.”
Alpha then enhanced Akira’s vision, thanks to that, he was able to see clearly the Tank Tarantula inside that thick smoke. Akira was a bit surprised by that.
“Whoah, I can see it very clearly though. And it’s not like it can look at us too, right? Jamming smoke is really nice.”
“It seems that they’re using a pretty high-quality jamming smoke. It blocks as much information as possible for the Tank Tarantula while suppressing its effect on the information-gathering device at the same time. There are many cheap jamming smokes out there that are nothing more than just normal smokescreen. It seems that they spent quite a lot of money on this hunt… I just hope there will still be enough money to share after subtracting the equipment expense.”
“…I-it would be okay, right?”
Akira sounded worried.
Shikarabe then contacted everyone again to get the rocket launcher ready. Akira quickly put down his CWH anti-material rifle and started preparing his rocket launcher.
Due to the jamming smoke, the Tank Tarantula shot its cannons to a direction where there was no one present. It did stop shooting and tried to escape the smokescreen, but since some of the smoke canisters were stuck on its body, it did not take long before it got wrapped in a thick smoke again.
Since it was unlikely to get shot in that situation, Alpha stopped the vehicle. Togami was finally able to stand up.
“…H-hey!”
Togami actually wanted to complain to Akira, but Akira misunderstood him and threw a rocket launcher and its ammo to him. Togami was somehow able to receive it, but it did throw him off-balance again.
Akira quickly finished preparing his rocket launcher, the aiming device on the rocket launcher already indicated that it had locked on its target and that the homing feature was already on.
Shikarabe voice then could be heard from the communication device.
“We’ll start the barrage in 15 seconds!! This is the reason why we brought you guys here!! So if you don’t join the barrage, we’ll reduce your share of reward!!”
Togami started preparing his rocket launcher in panic.
“5! 4! 3! 2! 1!”
Akira was ready to launch his rocker launcher, Togami was barely able to catch up with him.
“Zero!!”
Together with that count, Akira and the other Hunters pulled the trigger.
Countless missiles soared and flew towards the Tank Tarantula. When they got close enough to the Tank Tarantula, they flew up to the sky, gathered up, recalculated their trajectories, and then hit the Tank Tarantula almost simultaneously.
They exploded with an amazing bang and blew everything around the area away. A blinding light flashed through the wasteland followed by a huge raising smoke, the shockwave finally reached Akira and the other Hunters.
Akira stood against the already weakened shockwave as he looked at the explosion with a dumbfounded face.
“…That was amazing. So you need to go this far to defeat a bounty monster, huh?”
Alpha then warned Akira who thought that he had already won.
“Akira, we don’t know if we defeated it or not.”
Akira inadvertently turned to Alpha, from the outside, he looked like a suspicious person who suddenly looked in a direction where no one was present. That was just how surprised he was.
“Eh!? No no no, there’s no way it survived that explosion!? And even if it did, there’s no way it’s fine after taking that explosion head-on. So we can just take it easy later while showering it with more missiles to deliver the finishing blow…”
Alpha then pointed her finger toward the Tank Tarantula.
“Look.”
Akira turned his gaze to the Tank Tarantula. Since the smoke was blown away by the explosion earlier, he was able to clearly see Tank Tarantula even without Alpha’s help.
Although it took the explosion head-on, it still survived.
Some of its legs were already blown away. The cannon-like object perching on its back was also missing. A chunk of its huge torso was completely destroyed as well as its caterpillar tracks and wheels on its lower body. But even so, the Tank Tarantula tried to force its legs to move just to get them broken and crumbled down with a loud bang.
Akira dropped his jaw and said to Alpha.
“I-it can still move even after taking that attack?! No, wait, it seems that it can no longer move. It should be okay, right?”
Shikarabe suddenly gave his next order through the communication device.
“One more time! We’ll execute another barrage once we get the guidance device attached on its body!! Make sure that your rocket launcher is ready!!”
Yamanobe voice was heard next.
“Number 2 here. Roger that, I’m on it.”
Then followed by Varga.
“This is number 3. What about me? Should I put the jamming smoke again?”
Shikarabe quickly answered Varga’s questions.
“Wait for a sec, let me check for a bit… It seems that it no longer has any long-range weaponries, it should be fine without the smoke. So save the smoke for the next bounty monster. Or you can use it later if things get dicey.”
“Roger that. It seems it did lose its huge cannon after all, so I guess there’s no need to put up the smoke, huh… What the heck is that?!”
Varga’s sudden surprise was conveyed to everyone through the communication device.
Everyone in that place had a different reaction after watching that explosion, some of them thought that they already won and relaxed their guard, while some of them did not lower their guard thinking that it was still alive. Although there were differences, all of them thought that they already had the upper hand and they could just take it easy from there.
But a sudden turn of events that was out of their imagination suddenly happened in front of them. The Tank Tarantula’s abdomen that was already crushed, suddenly cracked open and vomited hundreds of small Tank Tarantulas.
The tiny spiders quickly crawled out and flooded the area. Although they were tiny, it was only in comparison with the big Tank Tarantula. In reality, some of those so-called tiny spiders were even 2 meters long. Those tiny Tank Tarantula used the caterpillar track and wheels equipped under them to run toward Akira and the other Hunters.
The small cannon fixed on their backs moved and aimed at Akira before firing a warhead at him. It landed somewhere near Akira’s vehicle and exploded. Although they were way weaker than the big Tank Tarantula, even a durable vehicle for exploring the wasteland would not be able to take that many shots from those tiny Tank Tarantulas.
Alpha quickly mustered the vehicle back on. The countless tiny Tank Tarantulas released another barrage that landed behind Akira’s vehicle. When that happened, Togami started screaming.
While standing on top of the rocking vehicle, Akira aimed his CWH anti-material rifle and pulled the trigger. The released CWH special bullet hit one of the tiny Tank Tarantula and blew it to small pieces.
Akira’s face turned grim.
“It seems that CWH special ammo works on these monsters! So is it like their body is weaker than the big one?! But there is just too many of them!”
Their number was just too large, destroying a few dozens of them would not change the situation much.
Alpha’s face also looked grim as she said.
“But even so, you’ll at least need to shave its number. Aim for the next target, quickly!”
“I know!”
Akira quickly took an aim at another Tank Tarantula and pulled the trigger, the CWH special ammo pierced through that Tank Tarantula and blew it to small pieces.
The other Tank Tarantulas just trampled over its dead brethren’s pieces as they pushed forward while shooting at Akira, but Alpha was able to evade those barrages easily thanks to her advanced driving skill.
The explosions from the warhead propagated through the air and reached Akira’s skin. He just gritted his teeth and said to Alpha.
“You won’t let them hit us, right?”
“Of course, don’t worry.”
“I see.”
“If it’s only that much, we can at least take some shots and still be safe, you know.”
“You’re talking about the vehicle, right? Then how about me?!!”
“If you don’t want to get hit, then do your best in reducing their number. The chance of you getting hit falls by a lot even if you are only able to take out a few dozen of them.”
“Okay okay!! I just need to keep shooting at them, right?!!”
Akira got a bit irritated there, but he tried to keep himself calm as he took his aim. He focused his concentration, compressed his time perception, and aimed as best as he could before pulling the trigger. With Alpha’s support added to his aiming, he was able to hit his shot without wasting even a single bullet.
But even so, his situation was still dire. While he was taking out the tiny Tank Tarantulas, some of them were able to get closer to him and their shots were getting more and more accurate. As a matter of fact, his situation was getting worse with time.