I, Yuhaka, am hungry!

As the vehicle sped across the wasteland with the sound of its engine starting, Exusiai whistled, looked out the window, and said:

"Wow! This modified off-road vehicle is amazing! It's much faster than our van."

Texas, who was chewing on a Pocky stick and focused on the road ahead, said to Exusiai in the passenger seat:

"Nonsense, how can a modified van compare to this modified SUV?"

Ehaka, who was behind Exusiai and Texas, had just seen Exusiai whistling and curiously tried to imitate it. Unfortunately, Ehaka could only produce a whooshing sound at most.

Croissant, sitting next to Yuhaka, looked at Texas and said:

"Seriously, this operation to defeat the Brachydios clearly doesn't need a heavy-armored operator like me, right? Why did they call me here?"

Regarding Croissant's question, Exusiai, sitting in the passenger seat, gestured and said:

"Of course, they're there to act as meat shields for me, Yuhaka, and the others. Otherwise, why would we bring heavy armor? Haha~"

"Croissant~ Meat shield~ (*σ??`)σ"

"Ah ha ha……"

Unlike Exusiai and Ehaka, who both gave sarcastic laughs, Sora let out an awkward laugh.

Yuhaka, standing nearby, joined in the teasing and mocking of Croissant, calling out to her. Croissant immediately gave an angry smile, pulled Yuhaka into her arms, and tickled her, saying:

"Hmm? Is this the little rascal who's been mocking me? Hmm??"

"Meowhahaha(>Д<;))~"

Yuhaka, tickled, tucked his large tail between his legs, twisting his body and laughing as he tried to dodge.

While Yuhaka's current form can withstand some minor attacks, it has no way to defend against its weakness to being tickled.

"Huh? You dare to do it again? Huh?!"

Croissant, while tickling Yuhaka and rubbing her face, said this to Yuhaka, who quickly surrendered and said:

"Haha~ I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare~"

Just as Croissant and Yuhaka were playing around, they were almost at the town center abandoned by Lawrence.

Chapter 162 [The Battle to Slay the Shattered Dragon (Part 1)]

Above the abandoned town of Lawrence, Rhodes Island headquarters was controlling drones that were circling over the city.

Through the camera on the drone, Kal'tsit on Rhodes Island could clearly see the city ravaged by the Brachydios and a hint of surprise in her eyes. Previously, Kal'tsit had thought that the characteristics of the migratory Brachydios mentioned by Warfarin were a bit exaggerated.

But after seeing the somewhat dilapidated city ravaged by the Brachydios, Kal'tsit no longer felt it was an exaggeration, and she felt that Warfarin's information underestimated the creature known as the Brachydios.

Kal'tsit then had the Rhodes Island operators upload the footage captured by the drone to Amiya and the others, saying:

"Amiya, I've had someone send you the map of that abandoned town."

Amiya, who had received the map uploaded by Kal'tsit and the others, also sent a message saying:

【I received the map message, Dr. Kal'tsit, but why can't I see the location of the Brachydios?】

After seeing Amiya's message, Kal'tsit explained to Amiya:

"There's a high probability it's inside a building or in a lower level of the city, so we must be very careful."

Upon hearing Kal'tsit's message in the city, Amiya nodded, twitched her long ears, and said:

“I understand, Dr. Kal'tsit, we will be careful.”

After saying that, Amiya looked at the Rhodes Island operators and Penguin Logistics operators present and said:

"As you all heard, our mission target, the Brachydios, has temporarily disappeared."

The operators present nodded in understanding, and then Amiya spoke:

"Since we don't know the location of that shattered dragon, I plan to send out a team of Vanguard Operators and Special Operators to scout the city."

Upon hearing Amiya's words, the operators present did not object, as it is normal to conduct reconnaissance work before combat.

........................

Soon after the reconnaissance team was assigned, it set off into the city. Yuhaka was working with Texas. Although Yuhaka was wielding a huge mechanical crossbow, she was essentially a special operations operator.

Texas and Yuhaka walked along the street, observing the buildings on both sides with vigilance.

Texas, chewing on a Pocky stick, stared silently at a crater blasted out by a Brachydios for a moment. Then, looking around, Texas saw the damage caused by the Brachydios, which made her wary of this creature known as the Brachydios.

Texas~

When Texas heard Yuhaka call her name, she turned around and looked in Yuhaka's direction. Yuhaka, holding Texas's clothes, pointed to her open mouth and said to Texas:

"Pocky, I want some~ (? ??﹃?`?)"

Seeing Yohaka drooling over the Pocky stick in her mouth, Texas gave a helpless smile. Then, Texas took out a Pocky stick, handed it to Yohaka, and said:

"Now we need to find the trail of that broken dragon. You can only eat one."

Upon hearing Texas's words, Yuhaka nodded in understanding and then ate the Pocky in Texas's hand in one bite.

After Texas looked around and saw no trace of the Brachydios, she spoke into the walkie-talkie:

"This is the Texas reconnaissance team. No target found in area B4. Call ended."

[Received. This is command post. You are now proceeding to area B5 to begin reconnaissance. Communication over.]

"receive."

After saying that, Texas put the communicator back and spoke to Yuhaka, who was munching on a Pocky like a little hamster:

"Alright, Yuhaka, we should go."

Upon hearing Texas's words, Yuhaka wagged its large tail and followed Texas toward the B5 region for a search mission.

........................

In the field command post deployed in the Rhodes Island wilderness, Amiya looked at the map slowly being revealed on the screen with a slightly nervous expression.

Amiya is currently worried about whether the Brachydios is still in the upper city. If the Brachydios is not in the upper city, the reconnaissance team operators will have to go down to the darker lower city to search for it.

After all, the power to this area has been cut off; otherwise, we could have searched for traces of the Broken Dragon below.

But now...

After the power went out, the lower city was completely dark, and the signal inside L was also poor, making communication systems easily susceptible to interference. In addition, drones could not go down to conduct reconnaissance work, which gave Amiya and her team some headaches.

But just then, Amiya's communicator rang again, and she said:

[This is the XX reconnaissance team. We have spotted the target Brachydios inside a large supermarket near Area D. The Brachydios appears to be resting at the moment. End of call.]

Hearing the report from the xx reconnaissance team brought a sigh of relief to everyone in the field command post. At least they no longer had to be in a place where they couldn't see the others and have to direct their actions.

Amiya also quickly informed the members of the reconnaissance team:

"Received, command post here. Do not alert the target now. Continue to monitor the target without revealing your presence. Call ended."

【receive. 】

"call……"

Amiya breathed a sigh of relief and then told the other reconnaissance units to come back. Meanwhile, some special agents planted explosives in the large supermarket, preparing to send the supermarket and the Shattered Dragon to hell together.

Of course, this was with Mayor Lawrence's permission, so Amiya felt free to do it.

Finally, prepare the other sniper and caster operators responsible for combat to begin their operation.

Soon, after the special operations operators had set up the Originium explosives, the combat operations operators also arrived at their respective positions and were ready.

Amiya looked at the combat troops in their positions on the big screen and spoke to the operators on the walkie-talkie:

"Attention all combat units, the countdown to the detonation of the Originium Bomb is 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"

Just after Amiya finished counting down, the sound of the Source Stone Bomb exploding came from the large supermarket. After the explosion, the building collapsed. However, even though the building collapsed, the Shattered Dragon still crawled out of the ruins, shaking its head and letting out an angry roar at the sky!

Amiya then addressed all the combat troops:

"Operation Crusaders of the Dragon! Begin!"

Chapter 163 [The Battle to Subdue the Shattered Dragon (Part 2)]

In the abandoned town of Lawrence, an SUV speeds along the road.

“ko～ko～da～yo～～”

Following a slow-paced sound from a rabbit-eared girl, she pulled the trigger of her crossbow and fired three bolts at the wrathful dragon behind them.

But the sound of metal clashing and the sight of arrows being deflected proved that the rabbit-eared girl's attack was ineffective against the dragon.

"Ara ara~ I can't break through it~"

The rabbit-eared girl, seeing that her attack hadn't even scratched the wrathful dragon's carapace, covered her cheek and said... Platinum, watching the wrathful dragon approaching them in the distance, said to Finn, who was driving the off-road vehicle:

"Hey! Little Fenfen! Drive faster! The intelligence says the Shattered Dragon has a very strong jumping ability, I don't want to get blown up into the sky along with the car!"

"No, Miss Platinum! If we go too fast on roads like this, we'll crash!"

"Kasimir swears!"

With that, Platinum raised his composite bow and fired an arrow at the eyes of the Brachydios. However, the attack missed the Brachydios's eye and was blocked by the Originium Crystal Armor covering its eye.

"Tch, as expected, it's hard to destroy those Originium Crystal Armor without explosive arrows. They're really difficult to attack..."

Attacking the small eyes of a rapidly moving target from a swaying off-road vehicle is indeed very difficult, not to mention that the target may have defensive capabilities.

However, the sound of Amiya's voice coming through their earpieces soon brought a sigh of relief to Platinum and her team, who were struggling against the Brachydios.

[This is command post. Platinum Attack Squad is retreating for resupply and rest. The Shattered Dragon will soon regenerate its Originium Crystal Armor. The Texas Squad is now in charge. End of call.]

"Understood, we'll leave now. Call ended."

Then, Platinum said to Finn, who was driving the vehicle:

"Xiao Fenfen, we need to prepare to retreat!"

Upon hearing Platinum's words, Finn quickly steered the SUV towards Texas and the others, saying:

"Understood! ...But Miss Platinum, could you please not call me Little Fenfen?"

Whoosh—Boom!

An arrow pierced the air and caused a massive explosion on the shattered dragon.

"Hooray! Hit!"