NOVEL WEB Chapter 585: After Traps, It's A Boss Fight?
Just saying, this spider tank was even bigger than the ones that I had seen before.
This one had six legs and was about the size of a B Class ship, easily towering over us. On top of it was a giant main cannon mounted on a turret at the centre while four smaller turrets surrounded it, each of them with twin cannon barrels to cover all directions of the tank.
"Spread out!! Take cover!!" The Pirate Lord ordered while he charged towards the spider tank fearlessly.
Guess we're doing this then…
I charged in after the Pirate Lord, right as the tank's main cannon lowered to point at him.
"Look out!!" I warned him.
My warning turned out to be unnecessary since the Pirate Lord raised his right hand and fired a shot at the spider tank, his cannon shell exploding against the tank's side and causing it to be knocked back a little.
That also threw the tank's aim off as its main cannon ended up firing towards the side instead, its shell exploding against the wall of the cavern and leaving us unharmed.
The smaller turrets on the tank then activated and I thought they would aim at the Pirate Lord but…
All of them turned to target the pirates that were trying to flank it from the sides, firing several shots that exploded in their midst and sending them flying like ragdolls.
Amongst them was that Matsumoto guy and I could do nothing but watch as the guy crashed on the side of the cavern before slumping onto the ground.
Oh shit…
The Pirate Lord let out a roar and started firing several shots at the tank, "Your opponent is right in front of you, bastard!!!"
As though accepting his challenge, the turrets on the tank turned to fire at the Pirate Lord.
His shield flared to life to protect him from the explosives but the force was still enough to send him skidding back a few metres.
I flanked towards the right, backing the Pirate Lord up as I fired the mortar mounted on my shoulder, the explosive smashing down on top of the tank and blasting several of its armour plating apart.
The tank shifted one of its turrets to point in my direction and it fired a single shell towards me, my shield taking the brunt of it as it exploded against it.
Unfortunately, my Power Armour wasn't as sturdy as the Pirate Lord's so I found myself being flung back from the shockwave, my vision flipping upside down as I flew through the air before landing on a knee a short distance away.
The Pirate Lord took advantage of the opening to fire several more rounds at the tank from the cannons on his arms and shoulders, blowing apart the turret that had fired at me.
The rest of our team also started shooting at it but the armour plating on the tank was simply too thick for them to do any damage to the tank since we weren't expecting to deal with a heavily armoured target in here…
Heck, even my main armaments were focused on taking down masses of unarmoured targets… If I knew there would be a tank here, I would have equipped myself with one of those cannons instead…
Fuck it, that means I have to use the only weapon I have that is effective against such a target.
I climbed back up to my feet and activated the Wave Blades on my arms and charged towards the tank, making use of the fact that the Pirate Lord has its attention right now to get close to it.
He fired a few more shots that blasted against the tank's armour, blowing several chunks out of it and forcing it back a few steps.
That actually worked in my favour as it brought the tank closer to me so I rushed in and slashed my Wave Blade at one of its legs, aiming to cut it off.
The blade sliced through the metal but I didn't manage to cut deep enough to completely sever it.
That was no big deal since I brought my other hand around, aiming a second cut at the spider tank's leg.
Unfortunately for me, the tank managed to recover and it jumped away from me.
Have you seen a giant tank jumping through the air? Me neither.
That's why I was completely caught by surprise as the tank leapt towards the side of the cavern and… What the heck?! It's standing sideways and sticking to the wall! Spider tanks can do that?!
The turrets on the tank had no problem rotating around to point their barrels towards us and both the Pirate Lord and I were forced to scatter as several tank shells were fired at us, the explosions barely missing us as they hit where we had been just a moment ago.
I was wondering how we were supposed to get close to it when the turrets turned away as though losing interest in us and started shooting at the pirates that were near it instead, blowing them all away.
I could hear the Pirate Lord let out another roar of rage before he fired a few shots at the tank.
The tank once again showed incredible dexterity by jumping from the wall, this time landing up on the ceiling and hanging upside down instead.
Well fuck, now it's completely out of range of my Wave Blades, what do I do now?
The Pirate Lord then skidded to a stop and turned to me, "Buy me a few seconds!"
I'm not sure what he plans to do but I'll put my trust in him for now… Not like I could do anything else anyway.
I ran up ahead and started firing at the spider tank, drawing its attention as its turrets turned to me.
I had to jump away to avoid the tank shells fired at me, putting me at just the right angle to see the Pirate Lord standing at where he had been earlier.
Something dropped from the side of his feet to clamp onto the ground and the large cannon on his back shifted forward to rest on his shoulder, the barrel pointed at the spider tank above.
He then fired it without hesitation and even though he was clamped to the ground, his entire Power Armour still slid back from the recoil, clawing up the ground and leaving two tracks where his feet had been.
The kinetic shell that was shot out from his cannon flew straight towards the spider tank and it looked like it only just noticed it was being targeted and tried to drop down from the ceiling to avoid the shot.
Too bad for the tank, it was already too late as the huge kinetic shell punched through the front of the tank, shredding open the armour and body as if they were made of paper to fly straight into the main body.
There was a pause before an explosion ripped through the space above, blasting the tank and the ceiling up with enough force to cause a part of the ceiling to collapse.
The remains of the tank crashed down onto the ground which was quickly followed by the ceiling that was broken by the explosion, the rocks smashing on top of the tank and burying it in a pile of rocks.
Holy shit… I mean… I already knew the Pirate Lord was packing a lot of firepower in that armour of his but… He just basically one shotted that tank. The tank that was as big as a B Class ship by the way…
Why couldn't you have used that from the start?
Hmm… Maybe he only has a single shot on that thing?
Anyway… I doubt whoever was piloting that tank could have survived the explosion, much less the rocks falling on top of them.
I stayed where I was and only just realised that I had been breathing hard this entire time and fought to calm myself down and slow down my breathing.
The Pirate Lord released the clamps on his feet and turned to the side where his crew had been shot at.
"Matsumoto! Matsumoto!!"
"I'm here, my lord…" The bearded man groaned, pushing himself up on his feet.
He looked quite battered but at least he was still alive.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for several of the pirates as their lifeless bodies laid on the ground, a few of them even had their limbs blown off from the spider tank's attacks.
Damn… Now we're down even more men…
The Pirate Lord stomped over to where the dead pirates were and I moved to join him as well. Thankfully, my girls were completely fine and I would take some dead pirates over my girls getting hurt any day.
"Fuck… So this is how things are going to be huh…" The Pirate Lord growled, looking down at the corpses of his dead comrades.
Matsumoto bowed his head, "Forgive me, my lord. I was not able to--"
He waved his hand, "It's not your fault. I should have seen this coming. I did not expect them to have a tank of all things in here…"
"Do we retreat, my lord?"
All of us turned back to look at the lift which had turned back on after we had defeated the Spider Tank.
Then we turned to see the other end of the cavern where a large industrial shutter door stood.
"No, we head forward. We're not backing down now."
If this guy says so…