The Murder Dogs were not going to wait for Zaza and Beretta to finish their conversation, and they moved to attack any in sight.
However, Beretta acted as if he had predicted this very thing.
And the fang attacks were no use against Beretta.
The Murder Dogs had advanced artificial intelligence, and so they analyzed the reason. But they did not find the answer.
No, before that...
The Murder Dogs werenât even aware of their situation, because they were destroyed too quickly.
âAnd that was more than enough for the people monitoring the scene to determine that Beretta was a threat.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âââ
The Murder Dogâs masterâLieutenant Hiragi of the Mechanized Empire of Almsbineâs southern security force, was very shocked by this sudden event.
Recently, or as far as he could remember, even, no surface weapon had been able to go against the Murder Dog.
They were mobile weapons on four legs that moved three times faster than the speed of sound. Even the forty meter Monster Tank: Mammoth, which had once been the strongest weapon, was no match for it.
It had a 200mm Railgun as its main weapon, but it was difficult for it to target the small Murder Dogs, which were 1.5 meters in size.
And while they could have equipped them with the incredibly expensive super computing machines in order to auto-target them, the Murder Dogs were capable of dodging bullets that that moved at mach 7 speed.
All they would see is a rare reaction speed and amazing detection ability.
âBut that wasnât the only reason the Murder Dogs were valuable.
While they could not fight for quite as long as the Monster Tanks, they outstripped them in many other ways.
The Blasters they were equipped with could easily tear through the armor of the Monster Tanks.
Once you allowed them to get close, the Cyborgs that protected the tanks would not be enough to deal with them.
After all, all it took was for their fangs to rip the armor open, and then the internal machinery would go haywire and become inoperable.
The Murder Dogs were not equipped with engines, instead, they were rechargable. That was their one weakness, but it did not affect them much during combat.
They only had an ultra small output amplifier that could run for 72 hours on a single chargeâhowever, not if they went all out during combat.
As resources were currently very valuable, it was the development of weapons that were small yet deadly that became the key to becoming dominant in this new age.
The unbeatable Monster Tank had used a thermonuclear fusion engine which allowed it to move almost foreverâbut when ten Mammoths were destroyed by just one Murder Dog, the worldâs rules of weaponry were overwritten.
The age was now about miniaturization.
And for the last twenty years or so, the Murder Dog had remained the strongest of all.
It wasnât just against humans, they were known as the strongest weapons on the surface, period.
And yet...
This âthingâ had three of these high-performance Murder Dogs in front of himâdetermined they were hostileâand then ignored them in order to have a calm conversation with their prey.
It was a huge blow to Lieutenant Hiragiâs pride, but there were more important matters to deal with.
âHey! Do you have the results for the analysis of that fight? Are you sure that the Murder Dog bit into that thingâs arm?â
âYes. There is no mistaking it! However, we cannot confirm that it had any effect on the enemy...â
âI have completed my analysis as well. No abnormalities have been detected in the Murder Dogâs abilities. The system is normal!â
Ohhh. Lieutenant Hiragi groaned.
If there was nothing wrong with the system, then there was only one answer.
âThe enemy had nullified the Wave Blast from the Murder Dogâs fangs.
(Impossible. But, who even...is this person? Could itâwhat if it is one of those Bionoids, who put a lot of importance in the utilization of life forms? But only a few people even know of that technology. And I have never heard of anyone being successful with it...)
Lieutenant Hiragi was troubled.
If he was correct in his guess, if the enemy really was a Bionoid, it would explain why the Wave Blast was ineffective.
After all, Bionoids involved a modification technology that took the human body and raised the power of the cell to the very limits.
It was a new technology that allowed you to convert all of your cells to be identical and repair any part that had been destroyed.
It would be possible to adapt to any environment, turning you into a new type of human with evolved cells.
As these cells were all given individual roles and could calculate independently, an immense amount of data could be processed at once.
This meant incredible performance.
In spite of having the same capacity as the human brain, it could calculate at the same speed as the super computers on 100 meter battleships. Another way to look at it would be that it usually required a battleship of that size to maintain such a computer.
Aside from the abilities, it also came equipped with the still very secretive space dilation technology. And with the ultra miniaturized thermonuclear fusion reactor, it became a bio-weapon with extreme firepower.
It was like a dream. Like a lie.
âIt went without saying, that Bionoids were a top secret within their country.
Lieutenant Hiragi shook his head in order to dismiss this suspicion.
Bionoids were really just a rumor. And there was no way that one would exist right here.
But then, what was that thingâ
âLieutenant Hiragi! The analysis of the enemy is complete! But...â
âWhat is it? Tell me!â
âYes sir!! I have detected a change in the enemyâs energy levels. It seems to be quite low usually, but it increased dramatically and at great speed when the Murder Dog attacked it. This is not possible according to what we know of thermonuclear fusion reactors!!â
âA-and how much power are we talking about?â
âFrom what was measured with the graph, it exceeds 100,000 kilowatts...â
âImpossible!!â
Lieutenant Hiragi said in shock.
That was two-hundred times more than the Murder Dogsâit was unbelieavable.
In the first place, if it was using a thermonuclear fusion reactor to move, then it did not make any sense for the power to change like that.
It didnât make any sense.
The enemy must be a super weapon that used unknown technologyâthat was the most plausible.
Lieutenant Hiragi thought as much before giving his subordinates an order.
âPrioritize the study of this mysterious enemyâs abilities. We can kill this rebel scum any time we want. But first, we must capture that thing that has technology even we are not aware of. And steal it for ourselves!â
âYes, Sir!â
His order was promptly put into action.
And like that, this mysterious enemyâin other words, Beretta, had three Murder Dogs set on him once again.
Even if they did not get their answer this time, just watching the battle should give them a lot of combat data.
And so it had been decided that three Murder Dogs were not too much to lose.
And with that, Beretta and the Murder Dogs entered a true state of battle.
The result of which was that Beretta killed all three of them in the blink of an eye.
âââ
As the three dogs charged at him, Beretta prepared by thrusting both arms outward.
Immediately after, a sharp slab of ore shot out of the ground and pierced the first dog.
Simultaneously, Berettaâs arm stretched out like a tentacle and skewered the other two dogs with its spear-like tip.
It was an attack that used âMineral Manipulationâ from Berettaâs Ultimate Gift, âDeus Ex Machina,â and the Chaos Metalloid favorite, âLiquid Metal.â
The Murder Dogs had been feared as the strongest weapons on the surface, but they were no match for Beretta.
And so the first contact on this world which they had visited without invitation, came to a close.