Above Your Head

Chapter 39: The Great Battle of Seppard (4)

"Yes. What's the matter?"

Get a move on right this moment!

"Huh?" I questioned back because I was puzzled. I just got on, so what's this bear talking about?

However, another voice butted in as it wasn't a situation where they could be considerate of the situation I was in. It was Deputy Captain Natalie.

A mining team that went out for the sake of the Albatross ship's repairs was attacked. They're retreating right now, but they're in danger! We need to secure a retreat path!

"What about the other troops?"

They're already engaged in battle!

I looked around as I listened to her dire voice.

I had to ride an elevator down for a long time to reach this place, but there was an exit in this maintenance room that could be used to exit the ship.

"Hmm? No, wait! Where are you going?"

As I headed toward the exit, I could hear Hye-ran's flustered voice, but soon she stopped. Seeing that her communicator was flickering, it seems that she was contacted by the bridge deck.

"Open the exit."

"No... no, what the hell is the bridge deck thinking? Is this the Captain's order? Are you going to fight on a Gigas you just started riding?"

"I get it already, so just open the door."

"Ahhh, no, wait! I know you have no choice but to go, but at least equip the auxiliary armament! Napoleon is a Gigas that specializes in bombardment! Since you've got the Sniper Ability, you should have the right kind of weapon for that!"

I was taken aback at the sight of her shouting.

"Who said that I have the Sniper Ability?"

"Ehh? That's what I was told. So does that mean it's not the Sniper Ability, but another long range Ability?"

"I don't have a long range Ability though?"

"What!? You're going to ride Napoleon without a long range Ability?" Hye-ran screamed as though my response was something appalling. I ignored her and thoroughly looked through Napoleon's Ability.

'I see. I thought the armour was unreasonably light, but it was because he's a Gigas specialized in bombardment. But why bother going for bombardment with this skill composition?'

The basic Ability of the Iron Heart was said to be set at the same time as the Iron Heart was manufactured. The manufacturers had no idea of the directionality of the Ability, neither could they interfere with the specifics. Hence, engineers called the process of making Iron Hearts as 'giving birth' rather than manufacturing.

'It's not hard giving birth to a child, but perhaps because the similarity lies in how the intrinsic nature and talent of a child is determined entirely by the heavens.'

In any case, the form, appearance, and performance of a Gigas were completely determined by the performance of the Iron Heart and the Ability contained in it. If a Gigas had the performance or Ability that was suitable for close combat, then a body suitable for fast mobility and thick armors would be made. On the other hand, if a Gigas had the performance or Ability that was suitable for long-range combat, then the armors would be made thinner and armaments were attached.

"Hey, stop blabbering and give me the Lightsaber, alright? Lightsaber."

"What crazy bullshit are you spouting! Why would Napoleon hold a Lightsaber!? Do you want to die as soon as you go out there!?"

"Phew, that's noisy. Napoleon, where is the equipment?"

There's an armory on the left. I'll open it now.

Fortunately, without needing to give an order, Napoleon cooperated with me without much difficulty. I took out the photon cannon and Beam Sword from within the gently opened wall on the left side of the room.

They were the rifle-type photon cannon, Satina-55, which was typically used in close combat but also widely used in mid and long-range battles, as well as the traditional Lightsaber, Rage Saber, which was mass-produced but famous for its high reliability.

Although Hye-ran was puzzled by the sight of me nonchalantly choosing weapons, it was natural that I had a weapon I preferred, as The Great War didn't just last a day or two.

"Great, these two will be good enough. Now for this partition to… Oh, it's open."

Hye-ran was squealing from below me, so she probably didn't open the partition. But, the important thing was that the path out was open.

I could see the catapult deck through the open partition, and beyond that, I could see countless lightning strikes outside.

"This is nerve wracking."

Although I had controlled countless Gigas, this was the first time I was physically piloting a Gigas. I had been to countless battlefields, but I wasn't actually there. In actual fact, this was my first appearance.

Wiiiiingggg—

Napoleon climbed onto the catapult and as soon as he got up, he moved to position skillfully. The cloak behind his back fluttered elegantly as Aura clumped onto his spread out arms and legs. The cockpit's point of view was not just simply from a first-person perspective, so Napoleon's figure was clearly visible on the screen.

Napoleon, take off.

With a heavy voice, the surrounding space became distorted.

The Specter was making a sortie.

*

Based on my experience, basically the Tool-rank Gigas had one Ability, and the number of Abilities increases by one with each increasing rank. In other words, Beast-ranks had two Basic Abilities, Human-ranks had three Basic Abilities, Star-ranks had four Basic Abilities.

Of course, that wasn't the absolute rule.

Even on the same rank, the standard of all Gigas varies widely, that was to say, a problematic Gigas would have lesser Abilities than a Gigas of the same rank, and an outstanding Gigas of the same rank could also possess the same number of Ability as a Gigas of a higher rank.

The Thunder Dragon that I controlled during the demi-humans raid was the perfect example, as even though it was a Beast-rank, it had 3 Abilities no less. But that wasn't all. It was a cheat-like Gigas that had the top three Abilities - Penetration, Stealth and Sniper. Hence, the battle became considerably easy.

It may sound slightly exaggerated, but the bottom line was that the higher the rank of a Gigas, the more Abilities it had. And to me, who naturally took that at face value, Napoleon's words were quite unexpected.

The Word Impossible Doesn't Exist In My Dictionary.

"...And?"

What do you mean 'and'? The Unique-class Ability 'The Word Impossible Doesn't Exist In My Dictionary' is a very powerful skill.

Looking at Napoleon's confident answer, I thought he was lying.

No, I just asked because I thought it sounded weird to write it off casually, but what's up with this guy?

"You only have that one Ability?"

What a strange remark. How many Human-rank Gigas do you even think actually possesses more than two Abilities?

"…"

I was speechless because I thought it was ridiculous.

Even at this moment, I was evidently staring at Napoleon's Ability, which made it even more puzzling.

Why are you being like that?

"No... How old are you?"

If you're asking how long has it been since I was manufactured, then 21 years. If you're asking about how long I was active, it's 18 years.

"Ughhh. You're an old model."

Wha-, what!? I'm basically a new model! Brand-new, okay!

I was lost in thought while Napoleon raged.

So it has been 21 years since he was made, and until now, he doesn't even know his own Ability? 

I glanced at Napoleon's Ability.

He had three Abilities, and surprisingly, all of them were of the Unique-class which was only befitting of a Gigas called Napoleon.

For starters, was a cheat skill that had the power to amplify the Iron Heart's mystical power by 300%, but ridiculously enough, it didn't have any sort of cooldown time.

But the problem was…

'The energy consumption rate is 500%. That's why Napoleon became a Gigas that specializes in bombardment.'

In exchange for being able to exert three times the power of other Gigas, it consumed five times as much energy. If he thought that this Ability was the only one he had, then it was natural for him to specialize in bombardment.

Of course, can be used in close proximity and as long as it was used well, it was possible for a One Shot One Kill, but what if one went into the middle of the enemy and successfully killed the enemy, but the Iron Heart ran out of mystical energy? No matter how thick the armours were and how fast the mobility was, death would be the only thing that awaits.

'But the rest of the Ability is the problem.'

I placed my hand on my forehead for a description of this Ability. I was surged with annoyance at the explanation stating that it was a high-speed movement towards an Iron Heart within a certain distance.

"For it to be a Speed Dash, what kind of crazy… What's the point of a Speed Dash if he has such paperlike defense…"

Although I was rarely defensive in nature, such a low defense would lead to a mishap in which damage would be accumulated due to fragments of the dead enemies instead of an attack from the enemy. Of course, a Gigas had something called a Barrier, but the problem was that I usually deactivate the Barrier when I was fighting most of the time.

The third skill was also a sight to behold. The description was simple. When a defense impairment happens, it would activate emergency repairs, but that was it.

Of course, since it was a Unique-class of Ability, it was good enough to use it in combat, and the defensive and restorative powers would be powerful, but the problem was . A Repair Skill in a situation where there obviously wasn't sufficient mystical energy? It would be better to aim for a situation where you didn't get damaged or get hit at all.

'Ahh, what the hell is this... He's not half as good as Thunder Dragon even though he's a Human-rank. So what if the overall specs and output are higher?'

I continued piloting Napoleon even though I was frustrated at the hopeless condition of the skill composition. There were thunderstorms raging around Napoleon, who was rapidly descending.

Kwareureukkk! Kwareukkkkkkk!

Though it was an enormous thunderstorm, the Barrier made with mystical energy wouldn't be damaged by the lesser electric energy of the natural world.

If this lesser-energy could damage the Barrier, who would use Iron Hearts on a giant battleship or a Gigas? It would be better to just use a nuclear fusion engine.

"Are we still very far away?"

We're close. We'll be on the battlefield in five minutes, so get ready.

Napoleon answered stiffly. He sounded as though he was still sulking over the word 'old model', but I didn't really care.

A control persona was an existence that had individuality and emotion, but they operated on a strict set of rules. There was no way he could do anything that would interfere with the battle even though he was sulking. So I didn't pay him any heed and continued looking through the rest of the Abilities.

Obviously, I wasn't looking at Napoleon's Ability because those three Abilities were all he had. What I was checking was inherent Ability, in other words, my Ability.

'Ahhh, please... Please just give me one offensive skill.' 

My Inherent Skill changed daily. If others were to hear of this, they would think I was spouting some crazy bullshit, but it was true, so it can't be helped.

In fact, I used to think it was the characteristic of the main character when I participated in The Great War last time, but I knew it wasn't the case when I boarded the Albatross ship and wandered around the Net. Generally, it would take extreme discipline and training to barely awaken one Inherent Ability, and one would have to live with it for the rest of their life. If they knew what was going on for me, countless pilots would be enraged.

'But this isn't a good thing either.'

The Ability changed every day, so it was literally pure luck. There are days when an extremely good Ability came out, but there were also days when it was a total crap, and there were also countless times when a rare Ability was awakened, but the composition was shit.

Moreover, the bigger problem was that I wouldn't know in advance what Ability I would be getting that day. To find out what Ability I had that day, I must first ride on a Gigas. It was necessary to at least turn on simulations that mimic The Great War.

"Ugh, vague." I groaned at the first Inherent Skill.

Battle Foresight wasn't a bad Ability because it could defend against enemy ambushes or snipings, but it wasn't of the offensive-type.

"Amplification again?"

This wasn't bad either, but with already, this was a vague Ability. I checked the third Ability anxiously.

"Oohh… NOT!" I groaned while rejoicing over the Legend-class Ability.

This Ability, which reset all skill cooldown by destroying the enemy's Iron Heart and instantaneously absorbed all the energy was so powerful that it didn't just mess up the whole battle once or twice. But the situation was dire because the offensive Abilities aren't appearing.

"Aghhh, please, the fourth." While muttering so, I confirmed the fourth Ability. But there was none. It was the end.

"Huh, what?"

I groaned. This was because I would have four or five Inherent Abilities. Usually. But I had only three this time. Come to think of it, it was a common case that the number of Ability would be reduced if a Legend-class Inherent Skill was awakened.

"No, what is this... Not even Penetration?"

Though I said it was the top three Abilities, it was because of its practicality, and not because it was a rare Ability. On unlucky days, it would appear as one of the Basic Abilities, and also awakened as one of the Inherent Abilities. It was the kind of the Ability that I wouldn't mind appearing twice.

But for Penetration to not even awaken once.

"There's not even a single offensive Ability…?"

...Erm, partner. What are you muttering to yourself? We're reaching the battlefield soon.

I could clearly hear the hint of worry in Napoleon's words asking if I was okay, but I couldn't even respond.

"I'm screwed…" I groaned while grabbing my head.

"We're fucked…"