Otherworld Company Chapter 173.1: Cooperation With Other People Can Be Useful When Working.

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　The main floor boss of the forty-second floor, we call it the Soldier Commander, but it is not humanoid in appearance.

　And although we call its cronies tanks, they are not the same as the weapons that exist today that have turrets and launch artillery shells.

　First, there is the Soldier Commander, at a quick glance, looks like a monolith.

　Ah, judging by the shine, it looks like a perfectly polished iron plate.

　It is located at the far end of a space the same size as the Tokyo Dome, or slightly larger, and emits mysterious luminous signals from time to time.

　In actual battle, I know that his fighting ability itself is not that great, but the troublesome thing about this boss is that it can see the whole space from the air, grasp the whole space, and command its surroundings as if they were its own body. That’s what we’re dealing with.

　And the tanks are his pawns…

“Two of them are drifting toward us from the left side!?” (Amy)

“Kitamiya! Freeze the ground and send them flying outside, that you should!” (Minami)

“Don’t be so absurd! I’m using too much magic here and I don’t have enough magic power!!” (Karen)

“Well then, Senior Kaido! Let’s go!!” (Masaru)

“We’ll end up getting run over!?” (Kaido)

　Kaido, Minami, and Kitamiya are frantically trying to deal with a golem, which has a lower body that resembles a unicycle.

　Its maneuverability is unparalleled in large, leveled spaces.

　In addition to running around in all directions, it also has attacks that add acceleration, and since it’s a golem, it has more than a certain amount of weight.

　Because it moves on wheels, it cannot move as finely as a biped, and even a simple assault would surely result in a fatal injury due to its height of over five meters and weight.

　In addition, when they take turns charging at us with a shield in one hand and a spear in the other, they will attack without pause, as if they were the blades of a chainsaw.

“Well, I’m always suffering from the improvements I’ve made, but this is so annoying!!” (Kaido)

“We made it that way.” (Masaru)

“Ugh, my attacks aren’t hitting.” (Amy)

(In Amy’s case, she doesn’t have enough attack power either.) (Mike)

　We are choking ourselves, as we always do in this job, but we seem to have created quite a troublesome monster.

　Hearing the sound of tires, like those heard on a circuit track, I swear while I move to intercept the golems.

　Originally, the bosses on this floor was a Soldier Commander and ordinary Knight Golems guarding this place.

　But that would have made it easy to conquer.

　In fact, we were able to conquer the place easily and with some time to spare.

　So, as an improvement plan, we proposed a high-mobility golem with a unicycle for its lower body so that it could effectively use the large space.

　The golem we prepared was implemented with performance that exceeded our expectations.

　Thanks to that, we are having to struggle like this.

　I complain about it, but it honestly hurts that I can’t bring it to the meeting.

　If it is constantly moving around at speeds of over 100 kph, by the time we launch an attack, it will be able to escape to safety.

　That’s what I suggested, but after experiencing this, I realize that I don’t have enough speed as a vanguard.

“Tsk, my slash missed.” (Jiro)

“Still, Seniors is still able to do it.” (Kaido)

　I can temporarily catch up with them when they step in, but I can’t catch up with them.

　The only one that can achieve equal speed is Amelia, but she has difficulty in sustaining it and her attack power is also low.　

　If she lets one of them outrun her, she will become the prime target.

　So, if we can’t catch up by running, we basically turn to a wait-and-see tactics, in essence, aiming for a counterattack.

　If this is the case, the position is naturally fixed, and there is less chance of chasing the opponent.

　The enemy will be able to position themselves freely, and the Soldier Commander will be able to place its allies at its convenience, which will gradually put us at a disadvantage.

　To prevent this from happening, Kitamiya’s long-range attack is effective regardless of speed, but her attacks also have a limit of magical power and cannot be used infinitely, so she cannot be relied on alone.

　In addition, if the damage ratio is tilted toward the rear guard, the firepower of the vanguard will be reduced.

　This is a drawback of this party, in which the vanguard is the maid damage dealer.

“This is another area that needs improvement.” (Jiro)

“Did you say something, Senpai?” (Kaido)

“I’m just talking to myself! Don’t stop, Kaido!” (Jiro)

　I told him to focus and cut off the enemy’s arm as I passed the oncoming golem, and the arm that was holding the shield fell to the ground, but I had the intention of cutting off its torso just like before.

“Huh?” (Jiro)

　One after another, points of improvement emerged.

　The fact is that mentally and physically, the party including me can still be strong, but now that I’m exposed to this situation, I feel more inadequate.

　It is quite difficult to attack a spear that is coming at you at high speed while avoiding it.

　I have to do it in the way of a counter, which is an advanced boxing technique.

　It is difficult to counterattack in a state of mind where there is a risk that if you make a mistake, you could be skewered.

　Subconsciously, our thoughts turn defensive.

　The unconscious steps of going defensive intervened at both the timing of stepping forward and the timing of lowering the weapon, shifting the position of the attack.

　I still need to get used to it, even if I want to eliminate it.

　Now, although we are struggling in this way, there is still room for conversation.

　This is what I call a stalemate.

　But…

“Gaa!? Who is it, that they are!? Who said we should make something like that!?” (Minami)

　The situation was getting worse and worse.

　Finally, Minami, having reached the end of his patience, stomps on the ground and points to an arm extending from the ceiling.

　The arm she pointed to didn’t exist until just a moment ago, but it appeared when the golem whose arm I had cut off passed directly under it.

　The ceiling slides open, then multiple arms appeared out through the gaps between them, dexterously repairing the golem with hands that held the golem’s parts and hands that worked.

　I once saw a video of an F1 car pit crew changing a tire in less than three seconds, and this arm was just as fast or faster than that.

“I thought they would eventually have a healer, but I didn’t expect them to introduce one at the level we had conquered.” (Kaido)

“I think it’s a bit different from a healer, though.” (Amy)

“Well, it’s more like a repair than a recovery.” (Masaru)

“It doesn’t make much of a difference, the enemy returns to an injured state.” (Jiro)

　Enemies move around at high speed and are difficult to capture.

　Even if we attack it again, if we don’t kill it in one hit, it will be repaired.

　The environment has been created to intentionally force a war of attrition.

“Now, has the chief strategist, Minami, come up with a plan?” (Jiro)

　We can’t sit in this fight forever.

　I asked Minami, who was in charge of making strategies.

　In my mind, I don’t feel that I am by any means inferior to my opponent in terms of ability, so I think we can win if I make everyone move back and go at it with a steady release of slashing techniques.

　However, I would like to avoid that if possible.

　This is a pinch, but it is also an opportunity.

　Rather than relying on one method, I would like to increase the number of cards in our hand when we can.

　If there is a different way, I would prefer it.

“We have to take them down in order, that we do.” (Minami)

　Even now, we are exposed to attacks with the sound of tires scraping the ground, but we listen to Minami’s countermeasures as we deal with each one of them.

　Minami presented a classic method.

“First of all, we have to do something about the arm, that we should. As long as that arm is there, the opponent will recover, and our attacks will be meaningless, that they are.” (Minami)