“They got shot…”
Llenn noticed the light show in the sky above while she pulled herself back up the rope.
It was their shot in the dark, their ace up the sleeve, the one secret weapon she thought might actually get them the win: a full twelve-grenade sweep from Fukaziroh’s plasmas. She unloaded everything she had on hand. A total going-out-of-business sale.
But they got shot in the air.
Llenn understood that this was possible.
At the start of SJ3, Fukaziroh had launched one straight upward and M shot it with his M14 EBR in order to send a signal to Llenn.
Since GGO had the concept of bullet lines, a large, slowly flying target could certainly be shot down by certain folks confident in their accuracy. The freaks.
And once a single one was shot, the rest would fall prey to the chain reaction after it.
“Whoo-hoo! These are the only fireworks I need to see this year!” marveled Clarence, who was climbing up the wall using the rope and her feet on the surface, just like Llenn. She had a shotgun over her back on a sling: her secondary loadout.
It was an Italian-made weapon, the Beretta 1301 Tactical. This was a semiautomatic shotgun that could keep firing if you held down the trigger.
It was about three feet long, with a tube magazine that could load seven shells into the gun. There was also a shell holder on the left side of the body for more ammo storage.
The stock and fore-end had Magpul custom accessories. To the left of the muzzle was a powerful flashlight, and to the right was a laser sight. They weren’t necessary in GGO, but she put them on because they looked cool.
This was what Clarence had happily purchased for herself after M offered her some advice upon seeing her combat style.
She had materialized it once earlier, but it hadn’t been helpful for defending the tower. She used double-o buck that fired nine pellets at once, so its range was short. But it would be perfect for the upcoming fight.
The three SHINC members climbed as fast as they could. Even with a rope and one’s feet planted on the side, it was very difficult to make a vertical ascent. It required a lot of arm strength, and extra weight and guns made it even harder. If you lost your grip on the rope, you were also in danger of falling back to where you started.
If it wound up tangling around your neck, you would essentially hang yourself. If it grabbed a limb, you’d be stuck dangling, perhaps upside down. And you were unlikely to recover on your own.
But at this point, it was their only hope for survival.
It was Rosa, no longer with them, who had taken on a crucial role that made the whole strategy possible.
Her job was to lean out of the top of the tower and make a big show of attacking, both to slow down or delay the enemy’s attack on the tower, and to make them think that everyone else was still inside.
And she was absolutely certain to die.
Rosa popped her head out at the best possible time, fired her gun like crazy, and got David to fire his first RPG-7 rocket at her.
If not for that, he would have destroyed the tower sooner and likely killed the whole squad with it. In that extra window of opportunity, the others finished prepping and were able to hang from their ropes.
“Don’t let Rosa—!” Boss shouted, thick hands pulling her up the rope, bit by bit, lifting her weight.
“Have died—!” followed Anna.
“In vain!” finished Tohma.
Their final chance—the true last opportunity of all—hinged on climbing back up as quickly as possible and attacking before the other teams could regroup.
Llenn took advantage of her small size and weight. She was very nearly up at the surface when she shrieked.
“Hya!”
A gust of blast wind hit her, blowing her tiny body backward.
✦ ✦ ✦
The result of Fukaziroh’s dozen plasma grenade barrage was that they all exploded in the air, in a chain. It was a very impressive and attention-grabbing fireworks show that did not succeed in eliminating a single enemy player.
The reason for this was Fukaziroh’s excellent skill. She had shot them too accurately.
With a rope around her waist and thighs. Hanging with her feet planted on the side of a sheer wall. Aiming at targets above her on a slight forward angle.
If Miyu Shinohara weren’t a total unhinged gamer—pardon me, an aficionado and lover of all things video games—who had practiced shooting for hours on end until she had mastered the multi-shot grenade launcher, and she weren’t the most Fukaziroh Fukaziroh that had ever Fukaziroh’d, the shots would have spread out a bit more.
Or if she had thought ahead and intentionally spread out her projectiles better, they might still have gotten shot out of the sky, but they wouldn’t have all automatically exploded against each other after that.
If one or two had slipped between the aerial explosions and hit the ground, they might not have eliminated all the enemies, but it could have at least taken out a member or two of ZEMAL and MMTM.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Is everyone all right…?”
It was one of those GGO things that people often asked out loud, despite the fact that a simple look at the team status in the corner would tell them the answer.
David was slammed to the ground by the blast, then knocked backward, and slid about sixty feet along the ground, but it wasn’t enough to be ruled as damage. It was a sign of his skill and experience that he didn’t lose his grip on the gun.
All the MMTM members had survived.
Kenta had lost a solid chunk of HP, about 30 percent, because he’d slammed his head against a barricade. But as long as they were alive, things would work out. He used an emergency med kit and got the slow healing process started.
✦ ✦ ✦
“On your feet, boys. We’ve still got some fun left. You’re going to shoot those machine guns of yours,” Vivi instructed. She always gave her orders with good cheer.
“Yeah!”
“Hell yeah!”
“Open bolts!”
Her teammates were healthy and motivated.
They’d been knocked around by the explosions, and some had lost HP, but so what?
As long as they blazed their targets with their beloved machine guns, those hit points would come right back. Well, no, they wouldn’t. But it felt like they would.
From a distance of about sixty yards, the four members of ZEMAL readied their machine guns and began to march, issuing brief bursts of gunfire, on their goddess’s peculiar order.
“Shoot, enjoy yourselves, and move forward!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“They’re fine, too! Don’t let the machine gunners beat us!” David yelled, lashing his squad into shape. “Advance, but don’t get too close. Always watch out for grenades.”
He steadied the assault rifle against his shoulder.