Assault Colossus of the Nemesis Warfront

ilot of that great sword-wielding Silhouette, right? I was on sniper duty and attacked the Enyo right after you split its head open.」

「Oh.
So that was you.
That was some pretty impressive sniping.」

「It kinda feels weird to hear that kind of praise from someone who’s as skilled as you.
Actually, it feels like you’re patronizing me, you know?」

Kou wondered which part of his remark made the girl upset.
He was at a loss.

He really didn’t know how to talk with girls.

「Um…… I’m sorry if I upset you.
I only piloted the Silhouette for the first time about two days ago, and today’s my third time going into combat with it.
I’m still not familiar with the norms here.」

「Just your third time going into combat? With those moves? What’s really going on with you?」

Suddenly, he was being interrogated by the girl.
No, it probably just feels that way.
Kou hesitated on how to answer her.

In the end, Kou told her about how he suddenly found himself on this planet, how he was left behind, and how he fought with a Murder for the first time using Unit 5.

「Hold up.
You’re telling me you only took a language capsule? You didn’t do anything after that?」

「Yeah.
I took one without water and fainted right after swallowing it.」

「Come with me!」

Blue pulled Kou’s hand and brought him to another room.

「Oh, hi there, Blue.
Is this your boyfriend?」

Inside was a dog-type Familiar wearing a lab coat and glasses.
That was what Kou thought at first, but in the next moment, the dog turned into a human.
She was still wearing her white lab coat.

The dog turned into a gentle-looking bespectacled woman.
It seemed she was a member of the Therianthrope race.
It was also Kou’s first time encountering one.

「Don’t give me that, Lozere.
This guy’s a transferee, but he only took a language capsule and nothing else.
Prepare a planetary environment adaptation capsule for him, please.」

「Oh my.
That certainly wouldn’t do.」

Kou took the capsule handed to him by Lozere and washed it down with some water.

「Because the gravity on this planet is stronger than that on Earth, it would gradually affect and degrade a transferee’s internal organs without countermeasures in place.
It’s great that we were able to find out early.」

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As Lozere said, it would have been dangerous for Kou if his condition was left unattended.

「I think I didn’t notice because I’m always riding inside my Silhouette.」

「That was for the best.
A Silhouette has an impeccable gravity control system after all.」

「Come to think of it, I didn’t feel much shaking when I landed after jumping off of a building earlier.」

「You sure are one reckless guy……」

Blue sighed in exasperation.

「You must really be quite the character if even Blue is reacting like that.」

Lozere chuckled good-naturedly and let the topic pass.

Afterward, Kou and Blue made their way back to the break room.

「Thank you.」

「Don’t worry about it.
Are you going to join Metal Iris?」

「I still have something I need to do at the moment.
I can’t join a Force for now.」

「Even though you transferred over only recently?」

「Yeah.」

At that moment, an announcement was made through the Carrier’s intercom.

「Blue, we’ve finished working on your unit.
As instructed, we changed the configuration from Sniper to Marksman style.」

The Marksman style changed Blue’s unit to a mid to close-ranged support shooter.
It was a configuration specialized in providing continuous support fire.

「I have to go.」

「I’m heading back out too.」

「You’re gonna charge in again, aren’t you? I’ll cover you.
Don’t die out there, okay?」

「Gotcha.」

Kou wondered if it was just him, or did Blue really sound a bit upset just now.
It felt like she really was worried about him.

Blue’s loadout changed from a huge sniper rail cannon to a smaller large-caliber combat rifle.

The pile bunker on its left arm was also removed and its backpack unit was changed to another type.

Kou boarded Unit 5 once more and headed out.

He told Master about taking a planetary environment adaptation capsule.

「That’s great.
I was worried about that as well.」

「We can travel without worries after this is over huh.」

「I think it would also be good if you joined Metal Iris after this you know.」

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「I already decided to accompany you, after all, Master.」

Kou was adamant about not backing down from his decision to accompany Maste.

And so, they threw themselves into battle once again.

Kou checked the city map.

The enemy advance has been delayed considerably, but they were concentrating their forces were poised to begin a concentrated attack to forcibly break through.

The defenders were boxing them in as they continued to reduce their numbers.
For now, it looks like the defending side had the advantage.

They were making full use of the Silhouette’s ability to freely traverse complicated terrain and the excellent mobility of the armored support vehicles.

The enemies were all unmanned weapons, and their only goal was to take over the central control tower.

There was no indication of the enemy offensive letting up any time soon.
All the defenders could do was to continuously destroy the enemies.

Kou repeated his tactic of cutting down enemies as he made Unit 5 traverse in between the narrow alleyways.

The Ant Worker-type’s numbers have already been considerably reduced.

「I was actually able to cut down so many of these guys.
It looks like everyone’s pretty surprised.」

「I’m actually pretty surprised as well.」

Master replied in a serious tone.
Kou’s combat performance was just that overwhelming.

「Even you, Master?」

「I have to say, your hobby and Unit 5 seem to be extremely compatible.」

「If my hobby-level swordsmanship can already impress you this much, then a real sword master would probably seem even more insane.」

「Your piloting style is also a good match with this guy.
Since you can’t achieve performance rivaling a true swordmaster on your own, Unit 5 is probably complementing and enhancing your skills.」

「I’m no match for Unit 5 after all.」

「Remember, the Silhouettes are machines specifically designed to expand a human’s potential.
So it’s well within reason that Unit 5 is capable of enhancing your swordsmanship skills.」

「Uh… Even so, I still put in quite a lot of effort whenever I trained in swordsmanship you know.
But it’s probably true that I can only achieve such skills while I’m piloting this guy.」

Kou simply accepted such a fact without any qualms.

He felt really good whenever he was piloting Unit 5.
It felt… right.
It felt even better than the times he swung a sword with his own hands.

「Is it just me, or have our allies actually increased?」

There were battles occurring all over the place.

The units that were fighting weren’t there when they had a hard time defending earlier.

「It looks like the evacuation is finished and the rest of the garrison has returned to reinforce the defenders.
They might have predicted that the battle’s conclusion is near.」

Was the battle really about to be over?

In any case, Kou felt that having something to aim toward was truly nice.
A few days ago, he was just another face in the crowd who continued to listlessly commute to work in the morning and went home dead tired in the evening.

Master would probably scold him, but if possible, he wanted to continue traveling the land together with Master and Unit 5.