Manuke FPS Chapter 209

Published at 10th of August 2022 01:25:22 PM

Four rockets shot from M202A1 roared across the throne room, leaving white smoke trails.  66 mm incendiary rockets were fired at the nine breathing holes near the top of the lambton worm’s head. I was originally reluctant, but ended up firing all four at once. And they hit the mark――the lambton worm’s giant body, which was 3 meter long in diameter, shook from the explosion.  Perhaps the impact was transmitted to the entire giant body, it vibrated like a wave, and it reached the invisible part buried in the ground.

“GuRaaaaaaaa!!”

The angry screams echoed over the explosion that wrapped around the top of the head. M202A1 has the effect of burning at 1200 ° C around the landing point. Now, the top of the Lambton Worm was burned by a scorching fire, like a sinner boiled in a hell pot.

However, that’s far from the end, as I opened up the FCS menu.

The images on the screen monitor floating in the field of view change rapidly, anti-tank missiles are launched from two Type 87 anti-tank guided missiles, and at the next moment, the shooting started alternately from two Sentry guns. Every minute of automatic loading, a missile attack was performed from the Type 87 anti-tank guided bullet, while the rain of bullets did not stop and continued to attack the Lambton Worm.

In parallel with FCS, I took out M202A1 from the inventory, fired it four times, and summoned it again. After three laps of such routine work, Lambton Worm barked again.

“Did it work?”

I involuntarily uttered the words that tend to raise a bad flag in fiction. The top of the Lambton Worm’s head was engulfed in detonation and black smoke and could not be seen, but the rock shell had fallen off from far above, now in tatters. The wilderness was dyed with a green liquid believed to be Lambton Worm’s body fluid.

The barrage should’ve penetrated through its shell and inflicted some damage. Thinking so, I dropped the M202A1 from my shoulder and brought out the Phase Rifle I’ve been keeping slung on my back. The FCS was temporarily suspended, and the sight of each support weapon was  aimed near the top of the head.

“ＶｕＧｏｏｏｏｏｏ!!”

Through the black smoke, the top of the Lambton Worm was exposed. About half of the sharp fangs lined up in its mouth were shattered. Dents and cracks could be seen in its black shell hidden under the rock shell. Also, it’s large body was dyed green by its own body fluid. I can do this――the moment I was convinced so, the Lambton Worm’s fangs wriggle out, and its large mouth changes like a thinly protruding nozzle.

What is it going to do!?

The moment I thought so, a large amount of earth and ore erupted from its protruding large mouth; Taking cover behind the ballistic shield, I also did a slide jump to avoid the brunt of the attack.

However, the ejected sand and ore are not single shots like ammunition. It is the skill of Lambton Worm << Earth Breath >> that is sprayed without interruption like a debris flow. Just by changing the angle at which its big mouth is facing, the << Earth Breath >> that should have been avoided kept approaching. My sight was covered by the rolling sand smoke,  the ballistic shield was compromised, causing me to be blown away.

Although I was able to regain my posture mid air and landed on my feet, the display windows in my vision were blacking out one after another.

Turning to the front, Lambton Worm’s Earth Breath swallowed and destroyed the support weapons I had installed.

That does it…

≪Earth Breath≫ stops, and the largemouth of Lambton Worm returns to its original size.

The Lambton Worm roared after finding out that its long-range attack didn’t kill me, and looked down from far above while swelling the black shell. However, a red light flashes in its big mouth.

“Ｇｙａａａａａａ!”

The full charge shot of the Phase Rifle was so powerful that it erased most of the fangs left in the large mouth and melted the area around the upper jaw. But it’s still unable to penetrate the black shell completely. The greatest weapon of Lambton Worm is neither its giant body nor the  << Earth Breath >>, but its black shell that cannot be easily destroyed.

Waiting for the charge gauge to accumulate to 100, I then fired a full charge shot toward the mouth again. No matter how hard its outer body, it is still possible to deal damage to its softer inside. At the same time as the second flashed, white smoke rose from the mouth of Lambton Worm, and the giant collapsed into the wilderness――

Its giant body violently struck the debris that it had spit out, causing a tremor that shook not just the throne room, but also the entire Mine Labyrinth. The Lambton Worm disappeared from view due to the rolling dust. As expected, it is too dangerous to rush into the dust and there is no reason for me to approach anyway. Since I found out that the full charge shot of PhaseRiffle could be an effective shot, the correct answer would be to continue shooting while keeping a distance.

I summoned and reinstalled the destroyed Type 87 anti-tank guided missiles. CP consumption is not low, but there are many sources of funding, such as the sale of the Labyrinth Core, magic water, and the wine. In order to conquer the labyrinth safely, I must not be stingy in terms of using CP.

The dust is clearing――I rested the phase rifle on top of the ballistic shield and looked for the Lambton worm through the optic.. 

Not there….?

The lambton worm that should’ve been lying among the debris that it spat out was not there. The only thing left was the crown, which turned into a gray porous stone resembling pumice. There was still the broken off scythe-like fang――left there like molted skin or cutting the tail of a lizard.

The moment I thought about it, I felt a slight vibration from my feet――

I knew it, that thing is not dead yet. I don’t know what kind of body structure it has, but it seemed that the injured crown was cut off before it burrowed back into the ground. I thought that the top of the head was a weak point, but it seems that I was wrong――the tremor is getting bigger――it’s rising to the ground.

I did several backwards slide jumps, taking a distance from the epicenter, then waiting for it to come out of the ground. A part of the wilderness sank into the ground again, and Lambton Worm appeared with an angry sign instead. The rock layering on its shell, as well as the scythe fangs had been fully regenerated somehow. 

That’s strange――I’ve been having this feeling over and over while going down through the labyrinth. No matter how much I hurt the top of its head, if it can separate that part and create a new big mouth, there should be a main body somewhere in the core or invisible part. Is it likely that the part is buried in the ground? I thought, but maybe Lambton Worm hated being shot from a long distance, all the giants crawled from the ground, and while swelling in the wilderness, they opened their mouths and charged.

Is the total length of Lambton Worm about 30m? In the rock shell that extends to the tip of the tail, there is no visible part that seems to particularly protect the main body. It approached while swallowing earth and sand as if scooping the earth. Moving faster than I expected, but also conveniently having such a big mouth open right in front of me.

I aligned the reticle of the optical site with the cone-shaped tongue that wriggles in the back of the mouth and pulled the trigger.

However, that didn’t stop it. I don’t know how it’s checking my position, but it managed to follow me despite my changing location with each shot I made. Two newly installed Type 87 anti-tank guided missiles have also launched anti-tank missiles and continue to attack the giant intermittently. At the time of its launch, it emits a roaring sound that is comparable to the Lambton Worm’s roar. It’s probably not the sound that determines my position.

Heat…? No, it’s through smell.

It makes sense that it has nine breathing holes. However, while the other side knows the exact position of the prey, this one has lost sight of where to attack.. I dodged the incoming mouth, dodged the body slam, all the while aiming and shooting at the mouth and nostrils. But, every time I dealt any substantial damage, the worm would detach its crown and regenerate a new one even without having to dive underground.

This is going nowhere――. I was forced to keep my distance, forced into a battle of attrition. All the while the giant worm continued to track and follow me.

Do not get fazed…

For once I did――aiming the Phase Rifle would be a lot more difficult. So far I managed to stay away from the worm’s attack despite having to stop for a moment to shoot. The ballistic shield had already been destroyed, and the phase rifle was running on its last energy pack. I’m out of bullets――the dreaded moment crossed my mind for a while there.

The attack method of Lambton Worm is very simple. An assault that tries to swallow directly with a large mouth, a body that swells a huge body and hits a huge mass, an attack that changes the large mouth and injects a debris flow from the mouth, and so on. Aiming at the moment when the distance is wide open, I operated TSS to open the inventory. I scrolled through the screen at high speed, selecting and deciding the necessary weapons and ammunition.

Particles of light appeared in front of me and converged into the shape of the supply BOX――but just before the summoning process was completed, the lambton worm breathed out rocks, aiming at the supply BOX. Dispersing the particles of light.

Again with the same move!

This Lambton worm is not just any monster. It is the labyrinth master for a reason. Evidently, it’s not ignorant nor incompetent. It observed the summoning process of the support weapons I did several times, and devised a way to prevent it. If the summoning process is disturbed, it will fail. Facts I didn’t know are now being informed in this situation――in terms of the hassle, I can only say that this is the worst.

The remaining amount of energy pack was 300, meaning only 3 full charge shots were left.

Take a distance and shoot at the top of the head――summoned again the moment the Lambton Worm sways to its power as the mouth flashes.

However, because the distance was not sufficient, the rear end, which can be said to be the tail, was shaken sideways while scraping the ground, and the particles of light were swallowed and disappeared. I tried shooting at the breathing hole――the black shell wriggles to protect the eyelids, but the Phase Rifle has zero travel time performance, making the projectile land on its target the moment you aim and pull the trigger.

The breathing hole was blown off, and the crown of the head jumped up greatly. I tried summoning stuff while listening to the screaming of Lambton Worm. However, the top of the head that has risen to the sky reacts to it, and the debris flow is blown down and the summoned supply BOX is washed away and buried in the soil. I jumped around between the thrones that had become a field dungeon in the wilderness and continued fighting for a long time, but this time has finally come. 

Energy remaining 100, only one full charge shot remaining.

Chapter end