The Murder Dogs were not going to wait for Zaza and Beretta to finish their conversation, and they moved to attack any in sight.

However, Beretta acted as if he had predicted this very thing.

And the fang attacks were no use against Beretta.

The Murder Dogs had advanced artificial intelligence, and so they analyzed the reason. But they did not find the answer.

No, before that…

The Murder Dogs weren’t even aware of their situation, because they were destroyed too quickly.

–And that was more than enough for the people monitoring the scene to determine that Beretta was a threat.

◆◆◆

The Murder Dog’s master–Lieutenant Hiragi of the Mechanized Empire of Almsbine’s southern security force, was very shocked by this sudden event.

Recently, or as far as he could remember, even, no surface weapon had been able to go against the Murder Dog.

They were mobile weapons on four legs that moved three times faster than the speed of sound. Even the forty meter Monster Tank: Mammoth, which had once been the strongest weapon, was no match for it.

It had a 200mm Railgun as its main weapon, but it was difficult for it to target the small Murder Dogs, which were 1.5 meters in size.

And while they could have equipped them with the incredibly expensive super computing machines in order to auto-target them, the Murder Dogs were capable of dodging bullets that that moved at mach 7 speed.

All they would see is a rare reaction speed and amazing detection ability.

–But that wasn’t the only reason the Murder Dogs were valuable.

While they could not fight for quite as long as the Monster Tanks, they outstripped them in many other ways.

The Blasters they were equipped with could easily tear through the armor of the Monster Tanks.

Once you allowed them to get close, the Cyborgs that protected the tanks would not be enough to deal with them.

After all, all it took was for their fangs to rip the armor open, and then the internal machinery would go haywire and become inoperable.

The Murder Dogs were not equipped with engines, instead, they were rechargable. That was their one weakness, but it did not affect them much during combat.

They only had an ultra small output amplifier that could run for 72 hours on a single charge–however, not if they went all out during combat.

As resources were currently very valuable, it was the development of weapons that were small yet deadly that became the key to becoming dominant in this new age.

The unbeatable Monster Tank had used a thermonuclear fusion engine which allowed it to move almost forever–but when ten Mammoths were destroyed by just one Murder Dog, the world’s rules of weaponry were overwritten.

The age was now about miniaturization.

And for the last twenty years or so, the Murder Dog had remained the strongest of all.

It wasn’t just against humans, they were known as the strongest weapons on the surface, period.

And yet…

This ‘thing’ had three of these high-performance Murder Dogs in front of him–determined they were hostile–and then ignored them in order to have a calm conversation with their prey.

It was a huge blow to Lieutenant Hiragi’s pride, but there were more important matters to deal with.

“Hey! Do you have the results for the analysis of that fight? Are you sure that the Murder Dog bit into that thing’s arm?”

“Yes. There is no mistaking it! However, we cannot confirm that it had any effect on the enemy…”

“I have completed my analysis as well. No abnormalities have been detected in the Murder Dog’s abilities. The system is normal!”

Ohhh. Lieutenant Hiragi groaned.

If there was nothing wrong with the system, then there was only one answer.

–The enemy had nullified the Wave Blast from the Murder Dog’s fangs.

(Impossible. But, who even…is this person? Could it–what if it is one of those Bionoids, who put a lot of importance in the utilization of life forms? But only a few people even know of that technology. And I have never heard of anyone being successful with it…)

Lieutenant Hiragi was troubled.

If he was correct in his guess, if the enemy really was a Bionoid, it would explain why the Wave Blast was ineffective.

After all, Bionoids involved a modification technology that took the human body and raised the power of the cell to the very limits.

It was a new technology that allowed you to convert all of your cells to be identical and repair any part that had been destroyed.

It would be possible to adapt to any environment, turning you into a new type of human with evolved cells.

As these cells were all given individual roles and could calculate independently, an immense amount of data could be processed at once.

This meant incredible performance.

In spite of having the same capacity as the human brain, it could calculate at the same speed as the super computers on 100 meter battleships. Another way to look at it would be that it usually required a battleship of that size to maintain such a computer.

Aside from the abilities, it also came equipped with the still very secretive space dilation technology. And with the ultra miniaturized thermonuclear fusion reactor, it became a bio-weapon with extreme firepower.

It was like a dream. Like a lie.

–It went without saying, that Bionoids were a top secret within their country.

Lieutenant Hiragi shook his head in order to dismiss this suspicion.

Bionoids were really just a rumor. And there was no way that one would exist right here.

But then, what was that thing–

“Lieutenant Hiragi! The analysis of the enemy is complete! But…”

“What is it? Tell me!”

“Yes sir!! I have detected a change in the enemy’s energy levels. It seems to be quite low usually, but it increased dramatically and at great speed when the Murder Dog attacked it. This is not possible according to what we know of thermonuclear fusion reactors!!”

“A-and how much power are we talking about?”

“From what was measured with the graph, it exceeds 100,000 kilowatts…”

“Impossible!!”

Lieutenant Hiragi said in shock.

That was two-hundred times more than the Murder Dogs–it was unbelieavable.

In the first place, if it was using a thermonuclear fusion reactor to move, then it did not make any sense for the power to change like that.

It didn’t make any sense.

The enemy must be a super weapon that used unknown technology–that was the most plausible.

Lieutenant Hiragi thought as much before giving his subordinates an order.

“Prioritize the study of this mysterious enemy’s abilities. We can kill this rebel scum any time we want. But first, we must capture that thing that has technology even we are not aware of. And steal it for ourselves!”

“Yes, Sir!”

His order was promptly put into action.

And like that, this mysterious enemy–in other words, Beretta, had three Murder Dogs set on him once again.

Even if they did not get their answer this time, just watching the battle should give them a lot of combat data.

And so it had been decided that three Murder Dogs were not too much to lose.

And with that, Beretta and the Murder Dogs entered a true state of battle.

The result of which was that Beretta killed all three of them in the blink of an eye.

◆◆◆

As the three dogs charged at him, Beretta prepared by thrusting both arms outward.

Immediately after, a sharp slab of ore shot out of the ground and pierced the first dog.

Simultaneously, Beretta’s arm stretched out like a tentacle and skewered the other two dogs with its spear-like tip.

It was an attack that used ‘Mineral Manipulation’ from Beretta’s Ultimate Gift, ‘Deus Ex Machina,’ and the Chaos Metalloid favorite, ‘Liquid Metal.’

The Murder Dogs had been feared as the strongest weapons on the surface, but they were no match for Beretta.

And so the first contact on this world which they had visited without invitation, came to a close.