So I'm a Spider, So What?, Vol. 7

by Okina Baba

  According to Potimas, it’s not supposed to drop the bomb unless certain conditions are met, but we don’t know if it’s actually going to follow those rules.

  I mean, this UFO is a relic from waaay back.

  How do we know if it’s even functioning properly?

  As it is, it’s already half on a rampage here, so it wouldn’t be that surprising if it decided to drop the bomb while it’s at it.

  And another weapon, the octopus thing, is already on its way to space to try and drop a meteor on this planet.

  So we can’t leave just this one hanging around with a literal ticking time bomb.

  We were right to start the charge once our preparations were complete.

  But we underestimated the fighters’ power.

  I don’t think we were making light of them, but whatever the reason, we still assumed we could get past them easily enough.

  But that illusion is about to be blown to pieces.

  So the battle ten thousand feet above the ground is unfolding explosively.

  Dragons versus fighter aircraft.

  Fantasy versus sci-fi.

  It’s a surreal scene.

  I mean, should this really be happening outside of a superhero show?

  However, my five senses are all screaming at me that this insane battle is quite real.

  The aircraft’s automatic weapons are spraying light bullets all over the place.

  Looks like they have the same kind of guns as the robots and the tanks.

  One of the wyrms fails to dodge the barrage of light completely, and the bullets pierce right through its scales, cutting into the flesh and spraying blood everywhere.

  The wyrm lets out a shriek of pain and plummets toward the ground.

  I don’t think I need to tell you what happens after that.

  But the wyrms are fighting back, too.

  They dodge around the trajectory of the incoming fire, zooming toward the planes as they do so.

  Then they damage the wings or the engine, sending the fighter crashing to the ground.

  Compared to the fighters, which move in simple straight lines, the wyrms can maneuver around freely and organically, sneaking into the fighters’ blind spots.

  And then there are the dragons, assaulting other aircraft with magic.

  Like the tank, these fighters have the mystery barrier around their armor, so normal magic would just bounce right off.

  Luckily, these dragons have the right kind of magic for the job.

  As wind dragons, they obviously use Wind Magic.

  And Wind Magic basically moves the air.

  When this magic hits the aircraft’s exterior, it does indeed dissipate—but the air keeps on moving.

  Spells like my Dark Magic use magic that didn’t have any physical form before, so of course they become useless once the effect is destroyed by the barrier. But since Wind Magic moves something that’s already there, it doesn’t really make a difference if the magic is canceled out after the fact.

  They just lose control of the wind after it hits the barrier.

  Violent airflow created by magic speeds toward the fighters, which spin out of control, plummeting to the ground.

  The dragons can’t control the wind after that because of the barrier, but since they’re still wind dragons, a little turbulence isn’t going to affect them.

  In fact, they use that to their advantage and keep going after the aircraft.

  It’s a midair melee, with neither side budging an inch.

  Unfortunately, if it drags on like this, we’re the ones who are gonna suffer.

  Even the leader of the wind dragons is under so much pressure in this fight that it can’t let its guard down for a second.

  The fighters can fight indefinitely, but we’re living creatures.

  Even dragons get tired eventually.

  And that’s especially true in this world, where our energy is strictly controlled by SP.

  Most stats tend to work in our favor, but that’s not always the case with SP.

  If you run out of yellow SP, which indicates immediate energy, then it gets hard to breathe. Worse, if you run out of the red SP that indicates your overall stamina, you’ll die on the spot.

  We have to get through this situation on the limited SP we have.

  And yet, even the head wind dragon has to put all of its strength into this battle.

  The fighters have no such disadvantage.

  I’m sure they can run out of energy, too, but their performance won’t suffer from exhaustion or anything like that.

  They can display their best fighting abilities right up until the second their energy runs out.

  So we’re getting more and more tired, but they can keep fighting at max power without rest.

  The more time passes, the bigger our disadvantage gets.

  That’s all too clear from the way that the number of wyrms shot down by the fighter planes is steadily increasing.

  The weakest wyrms that couldn’t keep up with the aircraft’s speed to begin with dropped out of the fight pretty quickly.

  The ones that are getting shot down now are the wyrms that are too tired to maintain their top speed, and therefore unable to dodge the aircraft’s aim any longer.

  The dragons are all still intact.

  But who knows how long that’s going to last?

  Because the biggest problem is that the number of aircraft isn’t getting any smaller.

  We’ve brought down a whole bunch of them already, yet it doesn’t look like their numbers have decreased in the slightest.

  If anything, it seems like there are even more of them flying around than before.

  That might actually be the case. Because more aircraft keep coming out of the UFO.

  The UFO must be some kind of flying base.

  It’s carrying tons of aircraft inside.

  No matter how many we destroy, more reinforcements just keep pouring into the sky.

  It’s like an endless bullet hell game out here.

  We’re definitely damaging them, but since it doesn’t feel that way at all, the wyrms are clearly starting to panic.

  I can’t blame them. We’re getting more exhausted by the minute, yet our enemies’ numbers don’t seem to be going down at all.

  There must be a limit to their numbers, of course.

  But we have no idea what that limit might be.

  Their mother ship, the UFO, is huge, so it’s impossible to tell how many aircraft might be inside.

  The only silver lining is that they’re coming out steadily to replace the fighters we destroy, instead of all swarming out at the same time.

  That seems like a stupid strategy to me, but I’m guessing it must be some kind of control issue that prevents the UFO from sending them out all at once.

  These things don’t have pilots. They’re totally controlled by a computer.

  So I suspect there’s probably a limit to how many the computer can control at the same time.

  There must be, or it wouldn’t make any sense.

  If the UFO did unleash all the aircraft it has in one big push, we’d be doomed.

  We’re barely holding them off to begin with.

  This guy I’m riding on and the other dragons can still fight, but even the middle-range wyrms are starting to show warning signs at this point.

  They’re the ones making up our front line right now, so if they go down, the upper wyrms and even dragons might start taking damage, too.

  I’m providing backup with Wind Magic of my own, but the situation doesn’t look good.

  Besides, if I use my Wind Magic to its maximum power, the wyrms will get caught in my attacks, too.

  In this jumbled-up battle with allies and enemies on all sides, my wide-range magic would hit both friend and foe.

  The wyrms have the Wind Nullification skill, so they wouldn’t die from my magic. But that technically just protects them from the magic itself, not the aftereffects of the spell.

 
Just like the fighters, they’d get caught up in the resulting wind and fall to their deaths.

  And with the power of my magic, that’s the only outcome I can possibly imagine.

  So instead of using any big spells, I have to shoot down each aircraft one at a time.

  Between my power and the Demon Lord’s, we could probably wipe all of them out with magic.

  Maybe we should have the wyrms and dragons withdraw for now so we can hit the aircraft with one giant blast?

  “Damn these chumps! They stay on my ass no matter what I do!”

  The wind dragon lets out an aggravated yell.

  Ah, I guess not.

  The wind dragons are able to avoid the fighter attacks because they specialize in speed, but the enemy is still locked on to us.

  They’re staying hot on our tails, literally.

  At this point, there’s no way the dragons could retreat.

  “Hang on tight, girlie! I’ll show ya speed you’ve never even imagined!”

  Despite the situation, the wind dragon is boisterously picking up speed.

  It shakes off the aircraft chasing us, then spins around and knocks it out of the sky on its way past without even slowing down.

  Whoa, cool.

  That was flashy and all, but…sorry, pal.

  My speed stat’s actually higher than yours.

  I have experienced speed higher than this.

  I know you were trying to show off, but…yeah, sorry.

  Still, I guess it’s only natural that a wind dragon would be so acrobatic in the sky.

  It’s carrying me on its back, but it still keeps pulling these amazing moves as it dodges the fighter attacks.

  Guess its thirty-thousand-plus speed stat isn’t just for show.

  And its other stats are all at least ten thousand, too, which isn’t too shabby.

  Despite the fact that this guy acts like a lackey, its stats are pretty impressive.

  Even the puppet spiders wouldn’t be able to take it one-on-one.

  Four-on-one, maybe, but even then, it’s hard to say.

  If anything, I’m left questioning why this guy talks the way it does when it’s so crazy strong.

  Shouldn’t you be a little more dignified, dude?

  What, me? Pshhh, I’m the heroine. I don’t need to have a personality like that.

  Okay, fine, sorry. That was over the line.

  Anyway, having a personality or not doesn’t make a damn difference against our current opponent.

  They’re emotionless machines.

  They don’t have feelings or even thoughts.

  Just programming that’s optimized to destroy the enemy.

  More dangerous still, their programming seems to be capable of learning.

  They’re taking very precise strategies against these crazy fantasy creatures, after all.

  They turned this into a chaotic melee so we can’t just blow them all away with magic.

  They raised their altitude as well, reducing the amount of air available to weaken the effects of Wind Magic.

  We’re higher than ten thousand feet right now, but this battle started a lot lower.

  And yet, they’ve been gradually leading us higher without us even knowing.

  Deliberately leading us into thinner air, where we’re at a disadvantage.

  With less oxygen, the wyrms and dragons won’t be able to perform as well.

  On top of that, Wind Magic moves the air around, so it’s obviously weaker if there’s less air to move.

  They led us onto a field advantageous to them.

  The only way they could do such a thing is if they are able to analyze their opponents.

  At first, I stupidly assumed they were just machines that could move only in designated ways.

  But the more of them I destroy, the less effective those same methods become.

  They’re learning and adapting.

  This is bad.

  At this rate, it’s only a matter of time until the wyrms get wiped out.

  I’ve got to come up with some kind of plan, and fast.

  “Hey, White lady.”

  As I start to panic, the wind dragon sends a telepathic message in a strangely calm voice.

  “Take out that thing from before.”

  That thing? You mean the giant bazooka Potimas gave me?

  “Things aren’t lookin’ good here, sweet cheeks. I gotta get you onto that ship, at the very least. If we move on our own, I can shake off these suckers long enough to get you over to the big guy there, no problemo.”

  …What is this guy saying?

  If the wind dragon and I leave now, the front lines will seriously buckle.

  Even if the wind dragon puts me on the UFO and turns around right away, it won’t change the losses we’ll incur in the meantime, not to mention that I won’t be there to help anymore.

  Is this guy so stupid that it doesn’t even realize that?

  “I know what you’re thinkin’, lady. But at this rate, we’re all goin’ down. The least I can do’s carry out the mission I was given in the first place, see?”

  For a second, the wind dragon flashes me a grin.

  I mean, I can’t read a dragon’s expression, but for some reason I could definitely tell it was smiling.

  A cheerful smile totally unsuited to the situation we’re in right now.

  Come on—you’re just a grunt, so why would you pull such obvious foreshadowing?

  Are you planning on dying or what?

  “See, you oughtta know something about dragons like me. We’re all here because we got some kinda job to do.”

  Hey, cut it out, stupid.

  Don’t you know that suddenly talking about yourself is like one of the top ten signs that you’re about to die?!

  Seriously, is this guy getting ready for a suicide mission or what?

  “My job was cleanin’ up this here wasteland. Around the same time this big fella was made, the whole area was hit with a nasty bomb that sprayed a cloud of poison all over the place. It was my job to get rid of that poison. And damn, did that take a long time. I had to chase all that damn poison up into space, bit by bit, see?”

  A bomb that produces a toxic cloud?

  …No way. Could he mean a nuclear weapon?

  In that case, was the poison radioactive or what?

  I mean, I don’t know for sure, but that could be the case.

  That explains why wind dragons are here, though.

  I’d been wondering that for a while. Since it’s a wasteland, earth dragons seem more natural, right?

  But if they wanted to make sure the poison didn’t seep into any other areas and wanted to send it out into space, it makes sense that wind dragons would be the right ones for the job.

  “The poison made it so’s not a single blade of grass grows in this here wasteland, but it was our job, so we watched over it right.”

  I see. I see…

  Hoo boy. I feel like I might’ve realized something I probably shouldn’t have.

  Was this so-called poison bomb dropped here on purpose?

  To hide the ruins where that UFO was?

  Or maybe the bomb was even supposed to destroy the underground ruins?

  The truth is lost to time now, but either way, I don’t think that bomb was used for any wholesome reason.

  “So we finished getting rid of all that poison. Give it a whole lotta years, and plants should even start growin’ in this here ground again. But we don’t gotta be the ones to see that happen. Our job here was done as soon as the poison was all chased out.”

  The wind dragon’s tone sounds pensive.

  “When ya think about it, ain’t this the perfect place for us to kick the bucket? Our roles are complete, and now we get to die on the battlefield with the fate of this whole damn world hanging in the balance! Ain’t that just about the best thing you ever heard?!”

  Uh-oh. This dude really is planning to die.

  Since when are lowly grunts supposed to die in t
he coolest way possible?

  But its determination is coming through way too clearly.

  “All right! Hang on tight, girlie! I’ll show ya the fastest flying around!”

  The wind dragon puts even more speed into its flight.

  We’re heading straight for the giant UFO up ahead.

  It’s planning to use up the last of its strength to charge through and get me there.

  Countless aircraft stand between the UFO and us.

  The wind dragon is going to scatter them, leaving behind even our wyrm allies, to clear a path to the UFO.

  Then, as if in deference to its powerful determination—

  —the fighters around us start to explode.

  The huge number of aircraft suddenly starts decreasing.

  Some of them explode, while others simply nose-dive to the ground.

  Looking closely, I can see a tiny black shadow jumping from one aircraft to the next.

  Not flying. Jumping.

  Some wingless being is destroying the fighters right here in the air.

  It’s the Demon Lord.

  She’s jumping on one aircraft, neutralizing their ability to fly, then using it as a foothold to jump onto the next one.

  And since she’s doing it at a crazy speed, it looks from my angle like the fighters are just dropping like flies.

  If I didn’t have such good eyesight, I might not even be able to tell that it’s the Demon Lord.

  She was riding on a dragon before, but I don’t see it anywhere now.

  Checking around, I spot the dragon far in the distance.

  She must have left it behind.

  I guess to the Demon Lord, even a dragon is just one more thing holding her back.

  So she shook it off and started jumping around, defeating fighters ten thousand feet above the ground. No big deal, right?

  Ha-ha. Boy, this just shows all over again how crazy overpowered the Demon Lord is.

  Maybe we should just let her deal with the rest?

  “……”

  “……”

  The wind dragon, who was all ready to make a cool, dramatic sacrifice, is stunned into silence.

  It’s kinda awkward, to be honest.

  I guess a grunt is just a grunt in the end.

  Characters like that aren’t allowed to have cool deaths.

  See? The universe is telling you you’re not supposed to die here.

  “All right, then! Looks like the way’s all clear! I’ll carry ya there nice and safe!”