Like Kiriha had expected, once the humanoid robotic soldiers appeared, the coup d'état army gained the upper hand in the battle. The robotic weapons called Motor Knights didn’t just have more agility and power than humans, they were also a lot tougher. Because of that, the coup d'état army used these robots to replace their fallen allies and attacked Kiriha and the others. In total, 15 robots had appeared, the same amount as the number of people Kiriha and the others had defeated. However, their strength was beyond the soldiers that had fallen. Because of their strength, the robots were using the largest handheld weapons the coup d'état army had. Despite that, their movements were agile, and they could take a few hits. What was even more problematic was that the robots didn't have souls, meaning spiritual energy weapons could only deal about as much damage as a normal weapon. Usually these kinds of opponents were defeated using numbers, but that would be difficult for Kiriha and the others. To them, these were very troublesome opponents.
Of course, these robots had their own weaknesses. They stood out too much to be used in urban areas, and their decision making wasn't as trustworthy as humans were. But if it was just a simple firefight, this wasn't a problem. Using communication to coordinate perfectly, the robots pressed on towards Kiriha and the others, step by step.
“W-What's up with these things?!”
Shizuka who was fighting in the frontlines let out a shout.
She had problems dealing with them in close combat. If it was just one at a time, Shizuka could easily defeat them, but once there were two or more of them, the situation changed entirely.
“T-This is just cheating!! What am I supposed to do?!”
Forming a high-speed network to exchange information, it was possible for the robots to coordinate their attacks perfectly. Their coordination surpassed what humans were capable, and worked even in close combat, where coordination like that would be close to impossible. In other words, it was even possible for several robots to work together and unleash a combination punch.
As Shizuka was fighting against one robot, a second one would sometimes attack. A combination of supposedly three punches suddenly turned into four. There were also cases where punches that she threw should have hit, but were blocked instead.
With this, even a master like Shizuka couldn't do anything. It was like she was going up against a god of war. She was only still standing because Sanae had raised her physical abilities, but all she could do was block the enemy's attacks. What's more, her opponent wouldn't get tired or miss. It was obvious that she couldn't keep this up for long.
“You can do it, Shizuka! Show your guts!”
Sanae cheered at Shizuka while providing covering fire. She wasn't using a bow and arrow anymore, but instead was using poltergeist attacks like she did so in the past. Since the robots didn't have souls, attacks using pure spiritual energy had little effect. Sanae had no choice but to use poltergeist and send nearby objects flying towards the robots.
But as expected, Sanae was having problems too. There weren't that many objects lying around that would be useful for attacking. There were plenty of rocks, but the robots wouldn't so much as flinch if they were hit by that. Large rocks would do some damage, but the robots would swiftly dodge them. And because they were robots, Sanae couldn't use her abilities to read where they would go next. So even for Sanae, robots were tough opponents.
“Thunder Lance – Modifier – High Concentrate – Armor Piercing!”