Chapter 129 - Dogfight

Less than ten minutes earlier, at the time when Rimuru was giving his warnings,

In the sky, hundreds of wyverns observed as the airships grew closer. After taming the beasts, the lizardmen had managed to breed them and even ride them as mounted riders.

In fact, Rimuru was so impressed by their ability to tame the wyverns so quickly that he named the best one hundred of them as a reward. These men became Dragonewts, led by Gabiru.

Of course, they weren't enough to battle such adversaries in the sky. Even with their natural speed and durability, they knew that the metal flying vehicles were foes they could not defeat without heavy casualties.

That was why they had a chaperone with them.

"Hohoho, to think that I'll be riding a wyvern and fighting these metallic ships," a white-haired oni stroked his beard, eyeing the airships a few hundred meters away from them. "Life sure is stranger than fiction at times."

Behind him were the others, all fourteen Onis, not including their chief, Benimaru, who were all riding on the backs of the wyverns, prepared to destroy the enemies as Rimuru had ordered.

"Rimuru-sama said to leave some for the children to play with," an older oni with purple hair reminded everyone nearby. "They should be arriving in a few minutes, so we should start."

"Then, Gabiru, move forward." With those words, Gabiru nodded and raised the trident gifted to him by his father after he was named by Rimuru and dubbed the representative of the lizardmen.

"Oh!!" The one hundred Dragonewts and the few hundred wyvern riders cheered as they surged forward.

Major General Fragga, who was in charge of the airship corps, sat confidently in the main hangar of the aircraft. With him were half of the airships, 200 in total, prepared to fight the storm dragon Veldora.

"General Fragga-sama, the aerial enemies, dragonewt and wyvern riders, are making their move," one of the officers in charge of the airships announced.

"Hm," Fragga scoffed, not even considering them a threat. "Is this all the forces of the Demon of the Forest have? This is pathetic."

"We can use them as practice before the real deal, General," one of his officers suggested with a smirk on his face. "Testing the magic canceller on multiple levels of monsters could provide useful data for the future."

Fragga laughed. "Very well. Prepare the weapons and aim them at those flying creatures!"

"Yes, sending orders to the other airships at once," one of the officers nodded, contacting the others to prepare for battle.

As the orders were placed, the airships' movements changed. They shifted from a filed formation to a semi-circular one, designed to encircle the monsters moving directly toward the center of the airships.

"Such stupidity," General Fragga sneered as the dragonewts flew forward into the very center of the formation. "Do they plan to bring down the main airship, believing it to be their most optimal solution for this battle?"

"They are a group of weaklings. A prolonged battle isn't even a possibility for them," his officer replied. The speculation was that, with the enemy monsters being too weak to take on all the airships, if they managed to defeat the leader and main airship, they might be able to turn the tide of the battle.

"Hah, these monsters truly are stupid. Do they think we won't counter their advancement?"

"General," another officer called, his attention fixed on one of the many screens in the airship. "A small group of wyvern riders seems to be moving differently from the others."

"What do you mean?" Fragga raised a brow, slightly curious and cautious about what those words meant. "Are you saying those are decoys?"

"Surely not," laughed his second-in-command. "What would a bunch of wyvern-riding lizardmen do to our forces?"

"What do they look like? Where are they located?" Fragga demanded, leaning forward.

"Yes," the officer acknowledged. "Less than a hundred wyvern riders are moving away from the main forces. It seems they're spreading out to the side of our formation."

"Do they plan on taking on the forces on both sides?" Fragga mused, placing his hand on his chin before waving his hand dismissively. "What a disappointing counterattack. A few dozen wyvern riders wouldn't be able to do anything."

As they began firing the magic canceller at the dragonewts, the beams had no effect. The aimed weapons were destroyed by something coming from the wyverns.

"What?!" Major General Fragga shouted as small explosions began erupting every time they aimed and fired the magic canceller. "What is that thing?!"

The officers controlling the airships began flipping through screens, scanning for the images and visuals they needed.

On the screen appeared the image of an old man with purple hair, holding a spear twice his size, almost like a harpoon, throwing it at the weapons of the airships.

"An Oni," Major General Fragga muttered. His eyes widened as a few more horned individuals were seen throwing similar weapons. "Why are the Onis here?!"

"Report! We've lost contact with the three airships on the farthest left of the formation!"

"The two airships on the right wing exploded!"

"One airship seems to have been split in half, as if cut by someone!"

Major General Fragga took a step back, overwhelmed by the sudden turn of the battle. The worst part was, he had no information on who or what was doing it yet.

"Hey," suddenly, a young voice resounded in the tense room. "Do you guys have any imperial guards hiding here?"

Fragga turned to find a purple-haired young girl sitting in his seat, her legs not reaching the floor as they swayed. "You're not one. I wonder if there are even any on these flying things."

"An enemy," Fragga glared, drawing both his gun and sword, pointing them at Ultima, who looked at him with a mix of boredom and slight annoyance. "Who are you?"

Ultima sighed, not sensing any imperial guards nearby. "My name is Ultima, given by my Master Rimuru."

"You sure are confident, coming here al, " Fragga cut himself off, his gaze falling to the ground. "Huh?"

As he looked around, he could see his legs standing there before kneeling and falling beside him. He noticed the absence of his upper half, then before he could even process it he died.

"This is harder than I thought," Ultima clicked her tongue, snapping her fingers as nuclear flame began engulfing everyone. "Finding those imperial guards are a pain."

The main airship exploded. The blast was so large that even the nearby airships, despite being at a significant distance, were caught in the flames. Shrapnel, engulfed by the fire, flew farther, causing varying degrees of damage to the surrounding area.

The resulting destruction from the explosion confirmed the loss of at least eight airships, with others suffering significant damage but still afloat.

The dragonewts and wyvern riders weren't just standing by, allowing the Onis to do all the work. After the Onis destroyed the magic canceller, the dragon descendants raided the insides of the airships, causing further disruption.

Though it took longer than if the Onis had destroyed them directly, the dragon descendants weren't there to obliterate everything. They were primarily focused on ensuring that the enemy forces weren't completely wiped out.

Hakurou's ears perked up as he turned his gaze south. "They are coming. Let them finish the job."

With his words, the Onis, dragonewts, and wyvern-riding lizardmen began to retreat. They had managed to destroy about a third of the airships, while another third were damaged and partially raided.

As they withdrew, soldiers aboard the Empire airships saw four silhouettes in the distance.

Each one was a humanoid figure, mechanical in composition and appearance, floating with large metallic wings on their backs. They stood ten feet tall, their bodies had limbs and heads, yet nothing about them resembled humans.

They resembled what one might call a robot, similar to the magisoldiers the Dwarves had been attempting to create, and comparable to the Magus the Elves possessed.

The four mechs each had their own distinct colors: orange, brown, black, and yellow.

"What are those things?" an officer muttered, staring as the four machines floated silently, almost as if they were waiting for something

Then, after half a minute, the machines began to make their move. The orange and yellow ones flew directly to the center of the remaining airships, while the black and brown ones targeted the closest damaged ones.

The orange mechanized golem rushed through the airship, crossing its arms and breaking through the walls. As it stood up in one of the pathways, it saw many engineers fleeing from the metal invader.

The orange machine grabbed a large gun, almost the size of a human, and aimed it at them before firing. The bullets flew through the air, turning the unfortunate victims into lifeless corpses, riddled with holes from the sheer size of the damage.

With its left hand, the palm opened to reveal a large blade. It began to ride through the pathway, the blade cutting deep into the walls, filled with wires and pipes, destroying the airship from the inside.

As it moved around the airship, its right hand, which held the gun, continued to fire as soon as enemies showed up to try and intercept it.

The yellow machine took a different approach. It flew above the airships. From its shoulders, two orb-like robots floated and began firing beams at the top of the airships. The beams riddled all of the nearby flying machines with holes. The beams passed through the metal like butter, hitting the soldiers inside as well.

As this happened, the airships that had not yet been victims of the onslaught took precaution and prepared their weaponry. Since the enemy was mechanical, they used the modern cannons and guns attached to the sides of their airships.

As soon as the orange machine left the falling airship, it received a barrage of hot lead and missiles from the nearby airships. Its movement staggered as its gun fell from its grasp.

It stopped moving for a few seconds, smoke rising from its metal body before it started moving again.

As the soldiers saw their weapons working, they did not relent and fired more at the enemy.

Just as the orange machine was about to receive another barrage, the brown machine moved in front of it, holding a large metal shield that covered both of their bodies.

From behind them, the black machine held a large rifle, as big as its body, and fired it at the closest firing airship. The bullet, embedded with runes, exploded upon contact, sending the airship into a descent, its fall confirmed.

The brown machine finally moved its shield to the side, revealing its other arm, which held a large lance connected to its body. It positioned itself and pointed the lance at the other firing airship.

With a burst of speed, brown slammed forward. The tip of its lance glowed red as it passed through the entire airship. The hole it left behind burned a bright red, as though it had been struck by a high-temperature laser.

Orange seemed to take the others' movements as a challenge. It looked at its blade arm and held its shoulder. Slowly, it moved its arm from the shoulder to the wrist, causing the blade to grow longer and larger.

Runes began to glow from the blade as flames started to cover it. With newfound power, the orange machine dashed forward, targeting the one that had fired a missile at it. The blade burned the missile before it could even make contact, and with a large downward swing, the blade and flames cut through the airship.

Yellow, seeing the others making large moves, decided to make one of its own. The two orbs floating beside it began to glow red. A long beam of light fired as the orbs pointed it at two airships, swinging the beam around to take out as many as possible.

As ten airships exploded, the remaining Empire soldiers focused their fire on yellow.

Yellow took rapid fire from the airship that it lost some of its flight functions for several second almost dropping to the ground.

As it fell, it was carried by the orange one while black keep firing at the enemies while brown shielded the barrage of missiles and bullets.

"What are these things!" The soldiers shouted as their casualties grew higher and higher. Another airship exploded as the black one fired another from his long gun.

"What is that!?" One of the soldiers pointed outside, in their line of sight was a new arrival. Similar in appearance of the others, this one was red in color.

It moved awkwardly as it slammed into one of the airships. It fell slightly as it tries to float and balance itself.

Missiles hit it as barely moved from its location moving around and missing its targets with its blade and gun.

The other machines began supporting it as its began getting used to fighting.

....

In the south of the continent lies a smaller yet bountiful land. It is the place where the Demon Lord known as the Platinum Saber resides and has created his country.

In the vast expanse of his city, at the very center, where the castle of the Demon Lord stands, the sound of children playing can be heard.

Shizu returned to the room where the children were, with her friend Pirino beside her. Pirino, a large wind fox about waist-high, trotted alongside her.

"Oh, Shizu-sensei!" Chloe waved as she moved towards her mentor. "Pirino-sensei as well."

Pirino scratched her cheek, embarrassed. Ever since Shizu was allowed to enter El Dorada, she was always welcome, and she had brought the students along with her a few times. The children had met and interacted with the knights, as well as with Shizu's childhood friend Pirino and her pet Pizu. The knights and Pirino had taken the time to teach the children various things.

They had learned swordsmanship, better use of their spirits, and even engaged in sparring. As the children became elementals, most of Leon's subordinates, they were able to become great teachers for them. With the number of knights available, each student had someone who was proficient in their type of spirit. Even Kenya, who had the rare light spirit, found himself under the tutelage of Alrose, Leon's Commander of the Magic Knights.

"What are you guys doing?" Shizu tilted her head, finding the children sitting on their beds, with Kenya on the floor leaning against the bed, all of them focused on small objects in their hands.

"They're playing, Shizu-sensei," Chloe sighed, exasperated at their focused attention on the game in front of them. "Rimuru-sensei gave them these, and we can play games similar to our old world. It holds many video games."

"Video games?" Shizu repeated, as if hearing the words for the first time. "Ah, is it like the things Yuuki used to tell me about?" She clasped her hands, overjoyed.

Chloe tilted her head. She didn't know what games Yuuki had mentioned, but since Yuuki came from a more modern era, similar to Hinata, they must have talked about games from that time.

"Yes, it's something similar," Chloe nodded, guiding the two to sit on an empty bed. "I don't know what video games you mean, though, sensei."

"Hey, are these video games good?" Pirino asked, her eyes gleaming with curiosity. Chloe hadn't realized it until then, but she wondered how many of her Big Brother's subordinates came from the modern era, compared to those from an older time like Shizu-sensei.

Chloe looked at the bed and grabbed a rectangular object, similar to what the others were using, and passed it to Pirino. "Rimuru-sensei made this. It has a screen in the middle, and you push the buttons with the symbols and the small sticks in the middle to play."

"Oh," Shizu and Pirino listened with great intrigue. "The future sure has many modern things I didn't have back then."

Kenya laughed hearing Shizu's words. "Sensei, this isn't even the most modern tool used for gaming. Rimuru-sensei called it a PSR, which is an imitation of an old video game console."

Gale nodded in agreement. "The only time I've seen something similar to this was when I found an old one in my dad's drawer. He said it was an old PSP he used before."

"So this is considered old already?" Shizu asked, as Chloe turned on the RSP. The screen began glowing white, and a loading image appeared.

"Not exactly," Ryota answered next, his eyes never leaving the screen. "What Rimuru-sensei used as a reference is an old game console, but he made his own version, which is comparable, if not better, than most we had before we were summoned."

"Hey, stop talking and focus on the game! I almost died!" Alicec shouted as they returned to their game.

"So they're all playing the same one?" Pirino turned to the children. On their screens was a metallic humanoid figure flying through the air, slashing and firing at something.

Chloe laughed dryly. "It's a limited game. Rimuru-sensei said this game is only available today, during this exact time. It will never be shown again, so we better take it seriously."

"Aren't you going to play?"

Chloe smiled and handed the RSP to Shizu. "I don't really play games, but how about you try it, Shizu-sensei? I'll teach you how to play."

A/N: I just thought it would be hilarious to have the children fight indirectly without knowing. Also, what the children sees on their 'game' is animated version of the Airships and the soldiers. They aren't realistic enough that it looks like are actually doing it, but with enough details to make it seems so.

Chloe does not know but has an idea of what was going on. She's between exasperation and acceptance of the messed-up idea.