Chapter 22: Chapter 21: Hunting the Spider (4)

“The bravery of charging forward single-handedly against a multitude of enemies is praised by the Lionheart King!”

“I grant you the honor of dueling with this Lionheart King. I grant you permission to challenge me, warrior!”

There is no need to interpret the meaning of the words and Yakt Spinner aimed his railgun at the horseman, who waited with stupid honesty.

The projectile aimed at Gil Tae-sung pulsed with super-electron velocity.

[Railgun acceleration timing set. Output 13%.]

It had no choice but to conserve the limited energy in its reserve cap and shoot as much as possible but it was enough for a human-sized opponent.

There is no ‘creature’ that can survive being shot in the face by this doomsday blaster. If there is, it’s either an otherworldly being or a being with the power of metamorphosis──

“Run, my best friend.”

────!!

The stallion responded willingly and its four legs pounded the ground like a storm, charging toward the enemy in front of it.

A knight on horseback charging, with his lance pointed reminded people of a scene from history.

The sight of a knight of old, clad in honor, glory, valor, and strength, charging down the road was a sight to behold. But these weapons are nothing more than relics of a bygone era.

What is the point charging on horseback when the profession of hunter has already pushed the limits of humans?

Heavily armored, lightly armored, and armed with super-fast guns. Do I even need to put the absurdity into words?

-Quang!

The supersonic cannon reaches unrecognizable speed.

This is the difference between mechanical and biological weapons. An overwhelming difference in firepower that… Leon must have been fully aware of it.

“A knight will not be defeated by a cowardly ranged weapon!”

The holy power flowing from Leon’s entire body formed a thin film in front of him.

-Quang!

The shots and the membrane collided and the supersonic cannon was surprisingly stopped by a thin membrane. No…it wasn’t just stopped. It bent and bounced off, as if forced by something.

“……?!”

For a moment, even Yakt Spinner high-performance AI stopped computing and logic had failed to explain what was happening in front of it.

Yakt Spinner saw the mage and recorded his pitiful attempts to block his guns with anomalous physics but it understood that the intangible energies of the ritual have physical effects. But not this one, this time is different.

It didn’t go through a process of clashing, blocking, and then penetrating or defending. It just bounced off. There was no process, just a result.

With the protection of the Holy Law arrow shield any ‘ranged attack’ is ‘deflected’ ‘once’ and ‘unconditionally’.

The Holy Laws are practiced by all Holy Knights as though it were their very breath.

The miracles of the Holy Knights, mankind’s most powerful super weapon were the laws that enforce the rules.

Shrugging off the railgun fire, the knight charged forward at an unbelievable speed.

In an instant, the knight was in front of Yakt Spinner, scattering the remnants of storm.

-Beep!

The machine judged that his weapon is an old-fashioned jousting lance, and while he’s fast, there’s a limit to the impact power of mass, no matter how much speed he gains.

Unlike the Hunters, who imbue their weapons with superhuman movement and a special energy known as “magic,” this spear contains no energy, it’s pure physics and penetrating power.

Threat level 0.

A threat it didn’t even need to respond to. At most, it will hit its leg and stop, and then── Figure out a reasonable response.

The machine’s rationality has made an irreversible choice.

-Thud!

The machine didn’t understand the situation if the sensor hadn’t recorded the “leg piercing” sound it detected and if the secondary camera hadn’t captured the pudding-like penetration of the joint’s heavy armor,

Yakt Spinner wouldn’t have even hypothesized that it might have been the man’s lance that went through its leg in an instant.

[Impossible. Impossible.]

The AI denied the hypothesis because the tough armor on his joints was not meant to be broken by the ridiculous, archaic practice of lance-charging.

The framework of “common sense” established by science and the laws of physics was inescapably a product of the old civilization.

-Bam!

“……??!”

Yakt Spinner wobbled, its joints creaking from the impact of the swung holy spear.

“Sturdy.”

[Information refinement. Reanalyzing.

Unable to analyze logic. Unable to understand physics.

Enemy threat level forcibly increased.

Threat Level 5.]

Yakt Spinner response to the forced threat assessment of the battle was to retreat.

Yakt Spinner takes a huge leap, risking the strain on its joints to face an enemy it would normally ignore or crush.

One of its legs is blown off, and another joint is crushed, but Yakt Spinner secondary joints are sufficiently distant to allow it to move.

Wire cutters swung like whips as the murderous whip that had cut countless Hunters in half swung toward Leon.

It was a supersonic wire whip that Hunters with superhuman vision wouldn’t even recognize. However, the Hunter’s vision was no match for Leon’s and he simply raised his spear and coiled the wire around it.

Yakt Spinner pulls on the coiled wire and naturally, a battle of strength is established between the two.

“A battle of strength with me. This is fun.”

Leon pulls the wire around the spear.

The secondary joints, which are normally used to clear minor obstacles and explosives, are unable to withstand the force of Leon’s pull.

-Boom!

Having lost his railgun and wire cutters, Yakt Spinner unleashes a frenzied barrage of machine gun fire.

Landing on the roof of a building, Yakt Spinner focuses all of its fire on Leon, but the Stallion quickly escapes the barrage with an astonishing sequence of moves.

Even though it was a move that wasn’t expected to hit, the maneuver still managed to widen the range between them.

Machine gun fire can only go so far and the goal was to keep Leon away from it, and it worked. Once again, it fired the railgun at…….

“────!!!”

The next moment, something ripped through the air, and it took 0.02 seconds before the camera sensors realized it was the spear Leon was holding.

The machine’s reaction was too late, and the penetrating power of the spear pierced Yakt Spinner left side and shattered the railgun fuselage.

With half of its sensors and its railgun destroyed, Yakt Spinner staggers as its drive joints are slow to calculate their movements. Meanwhile, the fire continues.

At this point, the only hope for retreat is to keep the enemy at bay.

To a human, the wound would have been instant death, and the creaking of the crushed joints was like a roar of rage or pain.

-Crunch, crunch, crunch!

Yakt Spinner disappeared into the darkness of the sandstorm, leaving behind the creaking mechanical sounds of a killing machine from a cheesy B-movie.

* * * *

With the sandstorm still raging outside, the Hunter’s Camp is deserted.

Yakt Spinner had attacked and killed many. It was the sense of urgency that brought the individualistic Hunters together.

“How many people are dead?”

“Seventeen that we can piece together. I didn’t count the ones crushed by the building.”

“That’s about thirty dead.”

A third of the Hunters in the Hunter camp had been killed in a single raid.

If Yakt Spinner hadn’t retreated, the damage would surely have been worse.

“Was it fortunate or unfortunate that the railgun was destroyed…….?”

The Hunters’ eyes fell on the man who had single-handedly defeated Yakt Spinner.

‘……Who is he?’

‘A Hunter that is not even recorded in the latest data.’

‘This guy…didn’t use magic or anything? Did he actually defeat that monster using only his physical abilities?’

There were many guesses, but nothing was certain, and no one could answer their questions.

What was certain was that this man was the only one with the power to single-handedly defeat Yakt Spinner.

“You are much stronger than I thought.”

Golden Chul was convinced by Leon’s display of power. This man is a survivor, and an incredibly powerful one at that.

‘Maybe he’s out of the norm.’

If he is, we need to be completely cooperative with him because once he’s established in Korea, the country will revolve around him.

“…….”

This was also true for Hwang Yeon-ha and Gil Tae-sung. If it wasn’t for him, the damage caused by Yakt Spinner would have been much greater.

Gil Tae-song, in particular, was getting impatient.

“If you don’t mind, why don’t you make a deal with us? As long as we get the Orb of Wisdom, we’ll give you our full support in the future──”

“You’re boring.”

With a single word, Leon shattered all possibilities.

“I expected you to be a spellcaster and a powerhouse, but in the end, you’re just a joke. The only one worthy of being a true knight is you.”

His gaze and expression were drained of even the slightest hint of interest, but his arrogance remained unwavering as he glanced at the hunters and mages.

“At least be qualified and know this king. It’s not easy to earn the right to face the Knight King…”

Maintaining his arrogant and dismissive demeanor to the end, he walks away. Only the bushy-haired swordswoman hurriedly followed him, bowing her head.

“Ah~ What a strange survivor.”

Golden Chul smiled bitterly in disbelief and Gil Tae-sung’s lips trembled with shame…….

“Shit… Stay the fuck away.”

Unexpectedly, Hwang Yeon-ha sent him a longing glance like a child.

* * * *

Yakt Spinner dragged his creaking joints as he entered the maintenance building.

“Guard the seal. Don’t let anyone get close.”

In all his years of serving the Supreme Order, he’d seen parts replaced as they wore out, but he’d never seen them smashed and crushed like this.

Yakt Spinner slowly dismantled the bolts that held the joints together in the way.

-Thud!

[Falling joints. No spare parts.]

Yakt Spinner diligently searches through the remaining armament and parts inventory in the repair shop.

Main armament unavailable. Five standard rounds, thirty-six homemade rounds, provisionally discarded.

Sub-armament 60 mm machine gun available. 657 rounds of ammunition. Need to make homemade ammunition.

Resupply wire cutters. Secondary joints diagnosed, damaged. Causes severe imbalance in weaponry.

Dispose of Secondary Arms.

Primary armor discarded.

Conclude that it is not possible to kill a Threat Level 5 with only a secondary weapon.

Threat Level 5, originally intended for enemy main battle tanks, attack helicopters, or Class 1 bio-weapons.

Yakt Spinner recognizes Leon as something beyond a Type 1 bio-weapon, a new entity from a hostile force that hasn’t appeared in nearly a millennium.

How to react to a new entity that is more agile than it, and capable of unknown destructive power?

The AI compared forces, ran battle simulations, identified effective tactics, and selected and executed the most likely winning options.

It outfitted itself with modular robotic arms from the garage and began tearing its body apart piece by piece.

No need for thick armor that can withstand the guns of a main battle tank. Peeling away.

No need for load-bearing legs. Remove two more of the six remaining legs. The remaining legs are also dismantled with minimal armor.

After removing the railgun’s remaining barrel, which had become obsolete as a weapon, and the dedicated battery for energy, the 100-ton multipurpose machine was down to 46 tons.

Consolidated the city’s collected remnants to replace ammo-limited firearms due to lack of constant supply.

Supplied with steel wires and equipped with additional robotic arms for maintenance, Yakt Spinner looked very different from the original catalog.

The legs had been stripped of armor to the point where they could only defend against rifle bullets and explosives,

The joints were skeletal, but sufficient to handle the reduced weight.

What the spider lost in firepower and defense, it gained in mobility.

The machine’s strict rationality had stripped it of everything unnecessary, preparing it to repel its foes.

And yet──

[Yappy. Thank you for protecting the city.]

In the old memory module, the undestroyed voice was still playing.