Chapter 31

As we made our way towards the assigned target of interest, running swiftly between the collapsed buildings and the sand dudes I was enjoying the stamina and strength my magic brought to my largely untrained body until my pod blared out a warning. "Get to cover! Goliath class Machine Lifeform incoming!" With a loud thrumming noise his warning was confirmed as a massive Machine Lifeform started unfurrowing from what looked to be a park on the other side of the road, we were running on that turned a large sand dune into a hundred-meter-long centipede-looking Machine Lifeform from made on what looked to be dozens of ten-meter-tall balls armed with lasers and swords were joined together to form the body with an especially large one being the head.

Seeing how large the Machine was I didn't bother probing it for weaknesses and just brought the metaphorical hammer of God upon it the world lit up in a bright flash of light as more than half of my mana was instantly burnt through to summon a massive bolt of lightning that exploded upon hitting the centipede.

"That ought to slow it down," I muttered seeing the Machine break apart into halves as I almost missed the Machine altogether with the lightning instead of hitting his head, I hit around the middle of the interconnected spheres, and I wasn't really surprised when the broken pieces fell off and the two halves continued to run at us but now were shooting round balls of plasma at us as it attempted to cross the distance to bowling us over.

"Girls you take that one and I will deal with the head," I ordered and all the girls dashed forward to engage the half without its head but was still made out of more spheres than the one I called so it was likely that they would be dodging more attacks than I would be having to deal with.

Even as I thought that I was likely to have the easier target, the mouth of the large front head opened up and I could only use condensed wind to blast myself into the air to avoid the massive solid laser that almost instantly turned the sand around the laser into glass. 'Well, that proves this thing is Goliath class.' I thought remembering how the reports I read back on the YoRHa station said that the hallmark of Goliath and above-class Machine Lifeforms is the trademark huge solid beams of magic they would launch at ships in the sky and destroy whole buildings in a single blast.

Pivoting in the air I launched more wind to shoot myself over the head of the Machine Lifeform as it crashed through the buildings, we were running through previously as it passed by me with its huge momentum.

Reaching for the brown mana within me I was able to grasp the more solid ground beneath the buildings were upon and force them to violently move side to side and bring the large office building it smashed into down upon the Machine Lifeform.

I didn't believe that would have been enough to deal with it and I was right as the Centipede shaped Machine broke through the debris with a mechanical screech that honestly hurt my ears but on the plus side the majority of the smaller batteries on the side of the Machine were broken and I could see it was unable to shoot from them anymore.

I kept away at a decent distance and worked with my Pod to simply blast the Goliath with long-distance magic and was focusing on using Lightning as even with its much higher mana cost, it was far more efficient than using fire or even earth magic with the earth around here being predominantly sand and the earth I could use was buried quite deeply so it was difficult to use, and lastly, the fire just wasn't all that great against Machines unless I literally melted them into slag with it whereas Lightning would destroy the Machines internals as well as turn the area's hit into slag.

With a loud yell of triumph, my vision was moved away as I saw 6E and 2B slam their large great swords through the final moving ball of the other half of the centipede they have been fighting while 9S was already running over to help me with the other three's pods already having reached my battlefield and were frankly bullying the Goliath with a rainstorm's worth magic bullets being sprayed into the Machine Lifeform and every few seconds there would be the signature whine of the high powered laser being charged and shot which would carve furrows into the Machine Lifeform.

'I wonder why YoRHa hasn't just released thousands of Pods to fly around the world and clean up the weaker machines.' I thought to myself, and I was torn between thinking that the Androids didn't do so partly because they had so much pride and self-invested in taking the world themselves, they simply didn't think about it like the orbital bombardment idea I threw to them, or lastly, they were afraid that should they make the pods into too strong of a force that the Machine Lifeforms would develop a logic virus specific to the pods.

Finally with the inclusion of 2B, 9S, and 6E the battle was swiftly ended as the destruction of the head made all the other pieces of the centipede basically go berserk and lost all cohesiveness was easy enough for me to lob solid spears of lightning within the balls and then let the lightning explode within.

"Alright, girls you can strip the Machine for loot while I regenerate my mana," I ordered as I literally had zero idea what parts the Goliath had were super valuable or just scrap metal not to mention without my Guardian doing too heavy lifting, I certainly wouldn't be able to tear apart the thick metal plating without destroying more parts within the Goliath.

9S threw herself into my chest and hugged me tightly. "Don't worry 2B, I will keep Jake warm!" She yelled out obviously trying to get out of work.

2B simply rolled her eyes and deadpanned. "This is a desert 9S... Get back to work or I will forbid hugs from Jake as your commanding officer." Even though it wasn't aimed at her even the more stoic E6 started working more franticly, hearing the threat as 2B was the commanding officer of this mission even if I could get away with countermanding her order, I wouldn't do so without a very good reason.

9S pouted and stomped away and as she was halfway between me, and the Goliath remains the pods buzzed to get our attention and 2B's pod spoke and pointed at one of the buildings the Goliath shot. "The target of interest is that building over there, new scans show an expansive underground network and an odd open circle area filled with Machine Lifeforms congregating together."

"Well as soon as the girls get all the loot, we will go finish the mission," I said and the girls nodded and sped up their dismantling while I relaxed against a flat piece of rock.