Gear Soldier.
Words from the warrior of the God of Mechanical Devices who couldn’t get his shit together.
A monster that only barely retains its form, rotting flesh, and a metallic body that resembles a skeleton.
In a way, it’s similar to a Human Golem, but the difference is in their purpose.
The Human Golem is granted a second life by giving a new body to a warrior who has faced death or is near it.
It could be seen as a leisurely retirement life.
As such, their assigned tasks are mostly guard duty or patrol. The first Human Golem we met was wandering around the Safe Zone on the Third Floor… likely a residential area for regular worshippers.
On the other hand, the Gear Soldier, although defeated and broken, with rust and corrosion in many places…
Still modified to participate in war… that’s right, the War of Annihilation.
Their combat power cannot be underestimated.
Creeeak-!
Reeking of rot, it lifts a hefty stake.
Is it some kind of file bunker? Definitely a weapon equipped to take down foes stronger than itself.
Even modified with the power of the God of Mechanical Devices, there are limits to what an ordinary soldier can do in the War of Annihilation.
That it aimed this weapon, which looks weak to me at a glance, means… no, it’s conscious of Lydia and Benny behind me.
This cocky thing.
Grinning with its corners turned up, it took its stance.
“It’s time to retire.”
With that mutter, it stomped the ground. The distance closed in an instant.
Did it not expect me to charge first? It paused for a moment before turning its gaze toward me.
Clicking gears peek through its empty eye sockets. And then.
Clunk!
As if reloading, the stake retracts to a length of an arm.
I don’t know how much it’ll shoot out, so I guess I’ll dodge instead of trying to adjust the distance.
“First shot!”
Waving my hand to the side, I shot the three loaded arrows from my Wrist Crossbow.
Swish!
Not a point but a horizontal line as the arrows flew. The Gear Soldier raised its opposite arm in response.
The shield, half-broken and rusty, must have once featured elegant designs.
Given the complicated machinery attached to it, it seems it had more functions than just a simple shield…
But, even that was probably broken at the moment of defeat, leaving only traces that are hard to guess from its original shape.
In other words, it was just a thick and sturdy shield that failed to cover a third of its upper body.
Though the arrows were shot at a reasonably fast speed after multiple enhancements, piercing such a metal mass was beyond my abilities.
Ping!
The arrows bounce off with a light sound. But that’s fine. I actually hoped for this.
As the arrows scattered all around, the Gear Soldier was about to pass by without taking any damage when suddenly.
Wham!
A massive burst of light erupted from the arrow tip.
Unlike the explosive arrows I used against the Human Golem before, this was a illumination arrow.
Originally used to light up areas beyond reach, when triggered nearby like this…
It could temporarily blind one’s sight.
Thanks to having it prepared in advance, I opened my eyes just before the flash burst forth.
Its eyes had already rotted, and with only mechanical sensory assist left, I thought it might not work on it…
But it staggered quite a bit as if still relying on visual information.
Seizing that moment, I activated the Transparent Cloak and Sound-absorbing Footsteps simultaneously.
It felt like I was hiding my body behind a thin veil that separated me from the world. At the same time, my body became uncontrollably fast.
This overwhelming speed was a combination of the Sound-absorbing Footsteps effect and the boost from the Haste spell.
I entrusted myself to that tremendous speed and circled around behind the Gear Soldier.
Maybe because I completely muffled my presence in addition to the invisibility, it couldn’t find me despite having barely just recovered its sight.
Its neck moved incessantly. I aimed my dagger, loaded with aura, at what seemed to be an important black metal box located slightly above.
Clang!
With a sharp metallic sound, the box distorted hideously.
Thanks to my lacking Muscle Strength and the limitations of the dagger as a weapon, I couldn’t fully destroy it.
“Tsk.”
I thought it would work since I poured my aura into it.
The metal of the Third Floor was tougher than I expected. Plus, it wasn’t living in a sense, nor was it a vile entity, so the special effect of the Unicorn Dagger barely took effect.
Until now, I’ve managed to fight comparatively easily due to advantage in elemental relations, but it looks like I’m on the losing side this time.
Next time, I’d better use my Greatsword if possible.
Screeech-
Upon feeling the attack, the Gear Soldier turned its neck 180 degrees to look at me. Then its body followed suit, spinning around.
Rotting flesh crumbled to the ground, and an overpowering stench wafted through the air… but more dangerous than that was the loaded file bunker swinging toward me.
I twisted my body in a panic. Just as the file bunker grazed the spot where I’d just been.
And it wasn’t over yet.
KABOOM!
With a deafening sound, the fired file bunker soared past my ear.
Had it not been during the effect of the Haste spell, I surely would’ve lost an ear.
“Guh!”
Even though it hadn’t directly hit me, the tremendous noise and pressure made my ear tingle.
Grinding my teeth, I sheathed my dagger and drew my Greatsword, swinging it upward from below. The Gear Soldier responded by extending its shattered shield.
Clang!
The Greatsword lodged into the edge of the shield with a terrifying noise. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough power to pierce through it.
Taking advantage of the gap where the Greatsword was stuck, the file bunker of the Gear Soldier began to reload.
Screeech… clunk.
The firmly locked file bunker targeted me.
“Damn…!”
Swallowing the curse that nearly slipped out, I leaned hard against the Greatsword as a brace.
With my natural physique, youthful age, and various beauty powers bestowing me with unreasonable flexibility, my body contorted like a page in a notebook.
Thanks to that, I managed to escape the trajectory of the Gear Soldier’s file bunker just as it was fired.
The bolt it shot was crafted with robust materials as a fixative… but even the metal had corroded over time.
Clang!
With a dull sound, my dagger smashed part of the fixative. Naturally, the bolt lost its brake and was fired off, with any internal components inside the Gear Soldier possibly being struck by the shock.
Iron scraps clattered down from a small gap where the body and file bunker were connected.
It seemed to be holding on with the remaining internal devices, but in this half-broken state, even that was challenging. As a result.
Whoosh!
The fired bolt completely detached and shot off like some rocket, sticking into a mire far away and sinking slowly.
“Now you have no weapon, huh?”
I chuckled as I completely released my grip on the Greatsword and once more drew the Unicorn Dagger.
The fact that the Greatsword was stuck in the shield, making movement difficult, also meant that the opponent couldn’t handle the shield well anymore.
The file bunker’s bolt disappeared, resembling a mute glove.
And the Gear Soldier swaying its body like a child with one arm outstretched appeared desperate.
“A bit of a hassle.”
With a dagger, I didn’t need to cut through thick metal anyway. But did I really have to cut through that iron mass, spewing out rotten vapor?
“Hmph!”
The first task was to remove the flesh stuck between the metal bones and gears.
Scrape. Scrape.
In the blink of an eye, the dagger glided across the gear soldier’s skeleton. Each time it did, rotten flesh fell off in chunks.
It was like peeling meat off a chicken leg. But even after peeling all the flesh… even the brain inside that was swarming with maggots, the soldier continued functioning normally.
“Hah…”
Clearly, the body was merely a remnant of the past; all control was likely being executed by the out-of-control machinery.
I should’ve smashed that black box from earlier.
Swallowing a deep sigh internally, I played with the dagger again.
This time, I targeted a hydraulic hose running from around the heart, extending through the entire body.
Squish… scrape.
It seemed sturdy, but it took a moment before it finally snapped.
From open ends spewed forth a vast amount of rotten vapor, releasing a foul stench.
“Ugh.”
An instinctual wave of nausea hit from the smell, but this was effective.
The Gear Soldier, moving much more sluggishly now, swung its bolt-less file bunker like a fist.
Would it hit me now when I’d dodged before when it was perfectly fine?
I dodged that easily and immediately went for another hose with my dagger.
Swiish-!
A cloud of thick vapor erupted at that moment. The grease-laden gears began working fervently, but… this was merely a last gasp.
After a brief struggle, the Gear Soldier grew quiet, not moving much at all.
However, I could see the intricately turning gears in its eye socket were still intact, suggesting it wasn’t dead, only immobilized for now.
Given time, it might recover, but…
Now wasn’t that time.
In front of the Gear Soldier, completely motionless, I twisted my Greatsword free from the shield. Then.
“Stop moving.”
Using the very weight of my light weapon, I swung at the head of the Gear Soldier.
Splat!
One hit clearly wasn’t enough, so I kept striking down.
Splat! Splat! Splat!
After a few strikes, the gears in its head finally ceased spinning, its skull caved in.
“…Hah.”
Took this long just to take down one soldier.
Taking out the magic stone from the twisted gears around the heart while still in a stance to intervene at any moment, I asked Lydia and Benny, who had been just watching.
“Shall we catch a few more and head back to the surface for now?”
It’s not just about getting used to the battle. We needed to properly maintain and craft a strategy.
