With "Mistgun's" survival as the condition, the battle between humanity and the magic beetles began.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—!"
High above and some distance from "Mistgun," a large number of aerial mages formed a line of defense, like soldiers protecting a city. Led by the mid- and rear-ranks of the shooting and artillery divisions, they unleashed an unending barrage of gunfire, sending countless magic bullets, magic shells, and magic arrows sweeping across the sky like a meteor shower, covering the army of magic beetles forming a black tide ahead.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—!"
Explosions immediately echoed through the sky. They continued to roar like thunder beneath a clear sky, kicking up blasts of wind that swept toward the vast swarm of magic beetles.
After being struck by the aerial mages' gunfire and bombardment, countless Aruknarl-class beetles were killed on the spot before they could even react. Some even exploded outright, reduced to ash and chunks of flesh.
There were simply too many of them. The aerial mages did not need to aim carefully at all; as long as they kept pulling the triggers, they could kill a huge swath of Aruknarl-class beetles, causing explosions to erupt constantly within the magic beetle army. The light of the explosions nearly filled the entire sky, bursting into bloom like rosy clouds.
Yet even under such circumstances, the magic beetle army continued to charge forward in a mad, endless wave.
The Aruknarl-class magic beetles were like a suicide squad. They showed no fear of the aerial mages' gunfire and bombardment, continuing to advance as though they intended to use their own bodies to smash through "Mistgun's" defenses.
Even after so many had been wiped out, the black tide formed by the Aruknarl-class beetles showed no sign of shrinking in the slightest. It