PSA: Expect the next couple of chapters to also be fairly spicy, although maybe not as long.
Steel and Sorcerers - Chapter 11
It was 8:47pm at the JSDF's main operating base in the special region. Base commander Kenichi Matsuda was sitting in his office, which was basically just a portable room transported through the gate and set up for his standards. He was currently reviewing a report submitted to him that the troops had been seeing the faint outlines of spider-like creatures in the trees at night.
The suggested reason why they were unable to see them during the day, was that the heat from the sun would add background heat to the trees, camouflaging the creatures from their thermal sights. Then when night came, the creatures would cool down more slowly than the surrounding trees, providing a faint outline.
Matsuda personally thought this was a waste of his time. They had previously encountered giant spider creatures in the forest, so this was probably just them. What he read next however was a bit more intriguing, yet still explainable. When these creatures were spotted at night, the men would sometimes shine their flashlights into the trees to try and spot them, but they were always unsuccessful. Even when using powerful floodlamps to illuminate the trees they were still unable to see the creatures.
To him, this sounded like the spiders just had exceptionally good camouflage, or ran away quickly upon being called out. The only other alternative he could think of was that there were some sort of invisible spiders which could only be seen through the infrared spectrum. This was a fantasy world though after all, so Matsuda decided to take the more cautious option, planning to have IR cameras installed around the gate, and readily available within the base. Currently only some of their heavier vehicles like the type 89 IFV and the type 74 MBT had thermal imaging systems installed, and it would be a big problem if an invisible entity managed to sneak through the gate.
His radio suddenly crackled to life. It was a panicked message from one of his officers.
"Sir, scouts are reporting a large incoming enemy force from the north-west! Hostiles include multiple ogres and goblins, as well as others that are currently unidentified!"
The outer defensive perimeter of the JSDF's compound consisted of a ring of scouts. Huddled atop the trees in the dead of night they clutched radios, bravely whispering the number and composition of the incoming enemy forces.
As the monsters passed by, one of them stopped in their tracks just below the tree-branch where a scouts was sitting. It looked a bit like an ogre in its size and stature, however its smoother skin and pointed ears indicated that it was a troll. It raised its head to sniff the air. The scout wasn't too worried. They had anticipated that some of the creatures here had a keen sense of smell, so they had taken measures to mask their odour.
However, this didn't seem to be enough as just a moment later the monster let out a roar, attracting the attention of those around, pointing up into the tree at him. He was too high up though; they couldn't reach him up in the tree.
This moment of hope was muted by the thumping of incoming heavy footsteps. After a while, these footsteps came to a halt, revealing a huge troll, bigger and uglier than the rest of them, and wielding a huge sword. No, that thing was too big to be called a sword. Too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough, it was more like a large hunk of iron.
The beast raised that weapon as the scout watched, paralysed in fear and awe, before swinging it through the air in one mighty blow. It cut through the half-metre-wide tree trunk with a mighty crash, causing the scout to come tumbling to the ground.
Matsuda had received another report, confirming the existence of barghests and trolls amongst the enemy force. Looking through his documents he found details on what could be expected from these creatures. Barghests were supposedly some kind of large monstrous dog, although scout reports indicated that they also had some sort of chain attached to them. Trolls on the other hand were what really worried the commander. They possessed fearsome strength, but more significantly they had incredible regenerative abilities, healing wounds that would be fatal to most other creatures. They had to be killed by quickly by causing massive damage so they didn't have a chance to regenerate, or by using fire. Regrettably however, flamethrowers were not something in his possession.
The current base was a compound surrounded by large 5-metre-high walls, with a single fairly weak steel gate. Floodlights were positioned on the walls, and could be activated in case of a night attack such as this. In addition, so far the forest had only been cleared in a radius of around 30 metres from the walls. This distance would be easily crossed in a matter of seconds by attackers moving at reasonable speed.
His first order was to order a retreat of all forces to inside the base, and to declare a state of emergency, requesting for any additional forces available back in Japan. He then commanded that the floodlights be illuminated, bathing the forest in a bright white light.
Once all his forces, except the scouts who were trapped in the trees made it back into the base, he ordered the gate be left open to allow line of sight for a firing line, but barbed wire be quickly deployed across the entrance to slow down any intruders.
Within the compound he had a number of armoured vehicles at his disposal. 4 type 74G main battle tanks, 2 type 89 infantry fighting vehicles and 3 type 87 armoured reconnaissance vehicles. He positioned these in a semi-circle around the main entrance, so that anything entering the compound through the front would be instantly obliterated by them and the supporting infantry.
The shouts of the infantrymen accompanied the loud thrumming of the diesel engines of the vehicles as they set up for the coming assault, and they didn't have to wait long before the enemy made their appearance.
From his command tower, Matsuda spotted the monster army emerging. Hundreds of goblins, scores of barghests, and a large number of ogres and trolls charged out from the woods, heading directly for the front gate. As they approached, the bright floodlamps caused them to falter slightly as their eyes adjusted to the bright light.
Immediately his troops opened fire, causing scores of goblins to fall to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut. The sound of gunfire was deafening. Most of the troops used suppressed fire-arms to reduce the noise created on their regular patrols, but what wasn't suppressed were the numerous 50cal machineguns set up around the base, not to mention the autocannons and 7.62mm machineguns on the armoured vehicles. But right now, Matsuda didn't have time to be concerned about how much noise they were making, and how much this might affect their secretiveness.
As the monsters approached the entrance they suddenly split off into two groups, flanking around the sides of the entrance and thus avoiding the main brunt of the gunfire. Scores of them lay dead in front of the entrance, but they had adapted their tactics, indicating the possible presence of leaders amongst them.
They then began scaling the walls, trolls climbing over the ogres. They were met by intense gunfire, causing them to falter for a moment, but a troll far larger than the others appeared to yell something at them, brandishing his weapon. This forced them to carry on, shielding their faces from the bullets with their thick green arms as they swiped defenders from the walls.
It was hard to tell amongst the din, but Matsuda felt that there had been a slight decline in the amount of gunfire he was hearing. Using his binoculars, he looked down at the armoured vehicles and was shocked. The autocannon barrels of the type 89s and type 87s had become bent at an angle, preventing them from firing. This was a shocking revelation, but he couldn't think of any explanations for now. They could at least still fire using their 7.62mm coaxial machineguns.
7 normal trolls as well as the massive one had made it into the base so far. They were being slowed down by a hail of gunfire, but thanks to their regeneration ability they weren't falling. One was hit by a rocket-launcher, blowing its arm off and causing it to cry out in pain. However, it quickly regenerated, and was soon back to steadily pacing towards the retreating lines of infantry, shielding its face from the storm of bullets. Another troll's head was blown off by an RPG, causing it to slump to the ground. But even this grew back, causing the creature to get back up not long after and continue fighting as if nothing had happened.
At this point it was clear that small arms fire and even rocket-launchers weren't enough to deal with the trolls. Looking over at the main gate, most of the goblins and barghests were cowering on either sides of the entrance up against the wall, away from the majority of the gunfire. Any soldiers that got too ambitious and peered over the edge to get shots off down on them would be dragged down by chains launched by the barghests. It was a stalemate.
Feeling confident that he could spare the firepower, Matsuda ordered the type 74 tanks to break off from the main gate and engage the trolls, advising them of their regenerative abilities. He also ordered the infantry to maintain as large a distance as possible from themselves and the trolls. An order they were more than happy to fulfill.
The engine sounds of the tanks roared louder as they spun their tracks to orient themselves towards the trolls in the base, slewing their turrets around to aim at them. Looking for trolls without any infantry nearby in order to avoid friendly-fire, one of the tanks took their shot.
From its 105mm rifled barrel, a high explosive squash head (HESH) shell was fired at one of the trolls. Upon leaving the barrel, it sped through the air at 760 metres per second before coming into contact with the lower torse of the troll. As it smashed through its flesh, the head of the shell deformed, spreading the equivalent of 3.89kg of TNT outwards like a pancake inside it, before detonating.
The resulting explosion blasted the troll clean in half, launching the ragged torso high up into the air before a few seconds later, it came back down to hit the dirt with a sickening thud. Despite this damage, this segment of the troll's body still began regenerating, but a second shot from another type 74G quickly reduced it into a red mist and a rain of meat fragments, leaving a crater in the ground. There were no signs of any regeneration occurring.
Seeing this show of sheer destructive force, one of the trolls broke formation, running off deeper inside the compound towards the gate. Guu brandished his sword with a furious roar, managing to rally the remaining ones into a charge at the tanks, which he had realised were a grave threat. Picking up one of the other trolls by their neck, Guu held it out in front of him like a shield as he charged towards the vehicles.
As he ran across the open ground the troll he was using as a shield was hit, its lower body being blown apart by a tank shell. It was now much less effective a barrier due to its decreased size, however, it had served its purpose. Guu dropped the regenerating torso to the ground as he charged into enemy lines, shrugging off the machine-gunfire.
The first vehicle he encountered wasn't one of the type 74s, but a type 87 ARV. Instinctively, he swung for the head, or rather the turret of the vehicle.
Its 8mm thick steel armour was no match for Guu's strength, his blade smashing straight through and cleaving the unfortunate gunner in half. Alongside Guu, the other trolls were bashing away at the other vehicles with crude clubs, which while not doing as much damage, was still hindering the vehicles' capabilities.
After taking a few more swipes at the type 87, Guu became bored, moving instead to one of the type 74 tanks. At this range he was able to easily avoid the traverse of the gun turret, swiftly cleaving off a portion of its cannon barrel, rendering it useless. Then just like the type 87 he struck for the turret. However, much to his surprise and frustration, rather than passing straight through, his sword instead became embedded in its armour, which was 132mm thick in the section he had struck.
After pulling his weapon free he prepared for another strike, however found the vehicle suddenly accelerating away from him. Matsuda had ordered the vehicles to perform evasive manoeuvres so that they could keep fighting effectively.
One of the other type 74s had been rendered inoperational by the other trolls. The vision slits were smashed in, barrel deformed, and thermal imager broken off. This left just 2 of the 4 type 74Gs combat capable, which along with the other still functional vehicles, sped away across the compound, rotating their turrets in preparation for another volley of shells.
As a type 87 ARV sped past him in retreat, Guu swung his greatsword, slicing apart one of its 6 tyres. The vehicle was knocked off course by the strike, but recovered and continued onwards. Looking up he saw a flash of light coming from one of the type 89s, and dodged to the side as an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) shot past his head, exploding against the wall of the base.
Guu bellowed in frustration. 'How dare they run from him. Such cowardice could only be expected from those who fought using only ranged weapons.' He then led the 5 remaining trolls in a charge towards the retreating enemy forces. Once again, he grabbed a fellow troll to use as a meat-shield, whose upper half was quickly blown apart by a shell fired from the tanks as he approached them. Its lower body and legs which had survived the blast fell to the ground, and were hit by a second projectile moments later, scattering chunks of flesh across the compound. A second troll charging alongside Guu suffered a similar fate, with the first shell blowing it in half before the second finished off the remains.
Just as Guu and the other trolls reached where the vehicles had stopped, they began speeding away once again. But before it could escape, Guu managed to land a blow on one of the type 89 IFVs, breaking apart one of its tracks and crushing a sprocket. Unlike the type 87s which had individual roadwheels, this was enough to completely immobilise it. Recognising the type 74s as the bigger threat, he decided to leave it there.
One of the remaining two tanks had been crippled by the trolls. Its tracks had been deformed by blunt force impacts from earlier, requiring it to drive more slowly. This enabled Guu to catch up to it despite being continuously hindered by the rain of gunfire coming from the human infantry. Like the previous one, he cleaved its barrel apart, before continuing his charge towards the single remaining type 74.
Proving to be an effective strategy so far, Guu snatched up one more of his two remaining troll allies once again. However, he was hit in the leg by an RPG, severing it and causing him and the troll he was holding onto to come tumbling to the ground. Looking to the side as his leg regenerated, he saw one of the other trolls burst apart in a shower of gore as an explosion blew apart its mid-torso, launching its head off into the distance.
As Guu got up, his leg mostly regenerated, another tank shell hit the ground under the troll standing next to Guu, blowing its legs off and knocking Guu off balance. Regaining his footing he let out a bloodthirsty growl as he began his charge at the remaining type 74 once again, which fired into the fallen troll behind him, scattering it across the dirt.
As Guu approached the tank, he dived to the side when he saw its gun barrel aimed at him, causing a shot to miss and go careening into the wall, blowing a hole in it which goblins and barghests began flooding through. As Guu got up, sneering in satisfaction at his accomplishment, he was hit from behind.
The type 89 that Guu had crippled earlier had fired off one of its two side-turret-mounted ATGMs. As the missile hit Guu's exposed back, its fuse was activated, detonating the TNT equivalent of 5.5kg of explosives. This blast caused a cone of metal in the warhead to become deformed and projected into a jet of particles moving at hypersonic speed, blasting a hole through Guu's chest and continuing on through the air to spray against the wall.
Guu stopped in his tracks for a moment, the gaping hole in his chest causing him considerable pain despite all the adrenaline coursing through his body. After a few moments, the wound had sealed over and he finally looked up, straight down the barrel of a 105mm rifled gun.
Inside the gate, guards sat alert at their stations in the numerous checkpoints that had been set up. They had received the message that the base was currently under attack, so were currently on edge.
The gate itself had a certain structure to it. If one were passing through it from Japan, you would first enter the archway itself. Then, after about 20 metres one would encounter a dark 'veil', masking any vision into the interior of the gate itself and absorbing any electromagnetic radiation. Passing through this veil, one would find themselves in a dark tunnel approximately 200 metres long. The floor, walls and ceiling of this tunnel absorbed all light, and seemed unbreakable, making it appear as if one was trapped in some endless void. However, its dimensions were currently clearly marked out with the placement of reflective beacons across its surfaces. Looking down the tunnel in the direction of the special region, one would see a bright white veil at the end. Passing through this would cause you to emerge in the special region in an identical entranceway to the one found in Japan, and looking back towards the gate, there would be a dark veil, just like when entering from the other side. If you were to then enter the gate again, the white veil would then appear to be at the other end of the tunnel, on the side of Japan rather than the special region.
Spending time inside the gate would tend to give one an uneasy feeling, but no real side-effects had been encountered so far.
After several minutes of anxious waiting, the guards heard panicked cries echoing down the dark tunnel. At first they were too faint and jumbled to make out, but as they came closer they could hear them more clearly.
"Help! Run! Get help! We're being chased!"
'Being chased by what?' they thought.
However, squinting down the length of the tunnel they saw them. A group of 5 soldiers being chased by a huge monster of similar size to an ogre. The soldiers would sometimes turn around briefly, emptying the magazines of their assault rifles into the creature, causing it to slow down slightly and cover its face. However, despite this it was barely slowing down. The monster strode forth, using its massive legs to gain a speed advantage, using its momentum to plough through the various roadblocks that had been set up along the passageway.
Despite the beast taking multiple rounds to the head, it kept on coming, causing the guards to abandon their posts, and join the fleeing soldiers on their way back to Japan.
Back in Ginza, it was around 9pm at night. However, the usual thrum of construction equipment was soon accompanied by an additional sound.
Yotiaru had finally stopped procrastinating, and was on her way to the converted shopping centre in hopes of taking covert photos of the area. Due to her cosplaying hobby she had some fairly high-quality camera equipment. However, these had been confiscated by the government in the opening days of the Ginza lockdown. Well, at least she still had her phone, which had quite a powerful camera of its own.
Still, she felt a little overshadowed in achievements. Just the other day, a video had been leaked and circulated online of a soldier in some forest fighting what appeared to be a giant worm, with huge fangs and teeth. Meanwhile all she had done so far was take photos of some trucks. They all had black tarps covering everything, so the images were basically useless.
Anyway, with regards to the giant worm, this was all in line with her current theory. Some little green creatures had attacked the citizens of Ginza, which had the obvious appearance of goblins from fantasy, alongside a few large ones that looked like they could be ogres. Yet the government had said that it was actually a terrorist attack involving biological and chemical weapons, and it claimed that the video of the worm was fabricated using CGI, and was unrelated.
Very few people actually believed the government's explanation after this video emerged, and demanded a proper answer, larger and larger groups of people gathering out in front of the National Diet building. In addition, a number of countries around the world were now denouncing Japan's secretive stance towards the investigation of the incident.
Chemical agents capable of inducing such mutations or creating such monsters were clearly beyond the capabilities of a simple terrorist organisation, so the question was whether these entities were produced by the Japanese government itself, or a foreign power. There was also the question of what the gate's role was in all this. Since the creatures had been spotted emerging from inside it, there was the possibility that it was a secret lab. However, it's sudden appearance indicated to Yotiaru that it was more likely some kind of rapid-deployment device for the bio-weapons.
She was sneaking through the bushes on the side of the road, when she came across a figure squatting amongst the leaves, their heels on the ground. He wore a black adidas tracksuit, and was looking out at the road through a camera. As Yotiaru tried to move away to avoid him, she stepped on a twig, making a cracking noise. He looked over at her, and simply said "Blyat", before sprinting off. That was a little strange, but she continued onwards.
Looking out at the road, she saw that she was quite close to the gate itself, the entrance visible from where she was currently hidden. She was about to continue onwards towards her planned destination when she noticed a faint vibration in the ground, which was steadily increasing in strength. This was the same kind of feeling she got when there were large convoys moving through the area.
She then suddenly heard panicked cries from the gate. Seizing the opportunity, Yotiaru quickly got out her phone and began recording the unfolding events, the numerous floodlamps around the area providing adequate lighting even in the darkness of night.
The gate entranceway soon became a hive of activity. Improvised obstacles were being set up, and numerous armed soldiers crouched in various positions, aiming into the structure.
Suddenly a couple of shots rang out, causing Yotiaru to jump a little. This was followed by some intense shouting, then a loud crashing sound. A number of soldiers and guards came sprinting out of the gate, yelling and making frantic gestures back towards it as they joined the others taking positions around it's entranceway.
Yotiaru could barely believe what she saw next. A massive lumbering creature emerged from the gate. Upon spotting the soldiers all gathered around the entrance it let out a ravenous roar. It looked like it was a troll, and seemed to even have regenerative abilities. Yotiaru could just barely make out bullets emerging from its green flesh and clattering to the ground.
All the soldiers suddenly started firing, causing the troll to cry out in pain and charge their lines. The sound of gunfire was so loud Yotiaru had to covering her ear while still trying to film.
As the troll smashed through their makeshift barricade, the soldiers began to break formation, running a safe distance away before resuming fire. Some unlucky ones didn't make it out alive, being grabbed by the troll as they tried to run. Yotiaru could swear she heard the sickening crunch of their bones being crushed over the sound of all the shooting.
Things didn't look good for the soldiers and guards. The troll was barely faltering, and they were steadily being driven back. All of a sudden though, she heard the sound of cheering. She also noticed that the steady rumbling of the ground had stopped. Looking around, she soon spotted them.
At the other end of the street was a formation of three tanks. Behind them a number of armoured jeeps. Yotiaru recognised the tanks as American M1 Abrams'.
There was a loud bang and explosion, and the troll staggered backwards, clutching at the missing left half of its torso. The muzzle of another M1 flashed, as a second shot blew apart the monster's pelvic region, leaving behind just its right torso and head, groaning as it lay on the ground. The third tank fired, disintegrating the remainder and leaving a smoking crater in the asphalt.
Infantry disembarked from the jeeps, sprinting over to the scattered remains of the creature and inspecting them for any signs of regeneration.
Yotiaru tried to hold the phone steady, but her hands were shaking. The sounds of the tanks firing had been deafening. The whole of Ginza must've heard that, along with the automatic-rifle fire from earlier. She quickly saved a copy of her recording to the cloud before continuing, as what seemed to be a clean-up crew arrived. They began gathering the pieces of organic material into clear plastic bags, cleaning off the blood from the street with hoses.
It was cold and uncomfortable, but Yotiaru didn't stop recording until several hours later, when the tanks and cleaners had all left. She knew that what she now possessed would likely force the government into providing a proper explanation if released. With that in mind, she hurried back to her apartment, a feeling of anticipation washing over her.
PSA: With regards to the troll regen ability, let me know what you think its capabilities are if you disagree. In the LN, one quote implies they can regrow from even minced fragments, but another says that they can be taken out as long as the attack is damaging enough to reduce its HP to 0.