The Grabber

The sky began to darken slowly, while Belobog Heavy Industries' losses soared.

A scattershot spray of bricks randomly battered the facilities and buildings around the site.

The out-of-control intelligent heavy construction machine designed for Hollow operations, the "Grabber," was roaming the open lot used to store construction materials and equipment.

Compared with the other two machines, the tunneling machine and the pile driver, the Grabber had the least destructive power overall. Unlike those two, however, its functional design copied its prototype in full.

Mounted on top were two different mechanical arms, both exceptionally flexible and extendable, designed to make the most of its fitted bucket and grapple.

As for just how far that went, it could already use them to box like a human.

It was not only excellent at loading and unloading cargo and digging up earth and stone. It could also beat up Ethereals during Hollow operations, serving as the construction crew's strongest bodyguard.

But right now, it was beating the hell out of its own company's property...

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After throwing all the nearby bricks, the Grabber, which was more "straightforward" than the tunneling machine, began beating up a brainless member of its own kind-an ordinary "excavator."

Under the repeated pounding of the Grabber's bucket and grapple, the excavator kept denting and deforming, as though the Grabber would not stop until it had beaten it into an iron ball.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. This machine sure is brutal!"

Hiding behind a large wooden crate in the distance, Red One clicked his tongue repeatedly as he watched the Grabber.

Blue Two pulled Red One's peeking head back down and said:

"Be careful, will you? Don't you know how conspicuous that big tuft of hair is? Are you worried we won't get spotted?"

"What's there to worry about? You think it's a bull that charges at anything red?"

After saying that, Red One looked at Yellow Three, who was sitting quietly on the other side, and asked:

"Hey, Yellow Three, have you sent that data log back yet?"

Yellow Three: "Done."

In fact, while Koleda was still leading them around aimlessly, they had also received the unidentified signal that had caused the intelligent heavy construction machinery to go out of control. Or rather, most intelligent constructs had received it.

However, after they received the signal, their systems had automatically ignored it in the background.

So far, it had only been seen to affect Belobog Heavy Industries' intelligent heavy construction machinery. They were now sending their system logs back because the master had just messaged them asking for them.

Red One: "Right, where did that little president called Koleda go, anyway? Didn't she say she was getting a hammer? Why hasn't she come back yet?"

Blue Two: "She probably went to round up some help while she was at it. Fighting it alone would be pretty tough, after all."

Red One: "Hey, say, should we lend them a hand in a bit?"

"No way. This place isn't our responsibility."

Blue Two objected:

"They've only suffered a little property damage so far. There haven't been any casualties. There's no need for us to go looking for trouble. Why not just sit here quietly and wait for them to finish?"

Red One: "I was just thinking we could farm some favorability with them. That would make things easier for us later, wouldn't it?"

Yellow Three: "...Sounds reasonable."

Blue Two: "Then do whatever you want. Don't expect me to pitch in."

Red One: "Hey, you unambitious slacker! Honestly..."

Before he could finish, the three of them heard a tremendous crash behind them, like something heavy hitting the ground. It was very close.

They turned around and saw the wooden crate they had been hiding behind swatted away by a bucket, revealing the Grabber, which had already discovered them.

Red One: "Holy crap, how did this thing find us?!"

Blue Two took a fighting stance. "Forget that for now. Get ready to engage."

Yellow Three: "What."

Red One: "Didn't you say you weren't getting involved?"

Blue Two: "...Then I'll leave right now."

"No, no, no! If we're fighting, let's fight! Why would you leave? Shame we didn't bring our weapons this time, though. That would've made things easier."

As he spoke, Red One also took a fighting stance.

Just as both sides stood ready to clash, with the Grabber spreading its bucket and waving its grapple,

the Grabber detected a series of hammer blows against the ground behind it, while Red One and the others saw a red figure soaring high into the air behind the machine.

"Stop right there!!!"

After spinning countless times in midair, Koleda slammed her flame-boosted sledgehammer into the Grabber with a dull, heavy thud.

The blow was so powerful that it nearly knocked the Grabber onto the ground, even making the flickering red-and-white pixels on its display freeze for a moment.

Having landed the hit, Koleda used the recoil to launch herself away and put some distance between them.

After landing, she drove the large industrial pincers in her other hand, shaped like a short dagger-axe, into the ground to halt her backward momentum.

Koleda raised the pincers and pointed them at the Grabber. "Hey, Grabber! Over here!!"

Recovering from the blow, the Grabber turned toward Koleda, who was shouldering a mechanical sledgehammer, and expressed its anger with humanlike foot-stamping and ground-pounding.

"Oho, I didn't expect the little president to actually have some skills!"

Having taken the opportunity to run away, Red One and the others huddled in a corner by a wall, watching the battle about to begin.

Blue Two: "Didn't you two say you were going to help and farm favorability? Why are you hiding here with me?"

Red One: "Aw, what's the rush? We'll jump in when she can't handle it. Think of it as training for her. We just need to back her up."

Yellow Three: "Yes. Red One. Correct."

Blue Two shrugged:

"Whatever. Do what you want. I'll just stay here and watch."

While the three were talking, Koleda and the Grabber had already begun fighting.

The Grabber swung both arms with tremendous force, whipping up gusts that sent cloud after cloud of dust into the air. The site grew increasingly shrouded in dust.

Koleda was even more over the top. Although her petite build certainly gave her an advantage, she was also carrying a sledgehammer and a large pair of pincers that definitely weighed over twenty-five kilograms combined.

Under the Grabber's relentless barrage, she relied on her physical abilities and the hammer's ability to change her direction in midair to dodge with ease, occasionally finding time to land a few hammer blows that barely fazed it.

Every so often, she even threw out a couple of lines:

"I'll hammer you into the foundations!" "Pulverize!" "Don't underestimate me!" And so on...

Watching this, Yellow Three's eyes widened:

"Impressive."

Red One: "I never would've guessed the little president was this strong. She's pretty hot-tempered, too!"

Blue Two: "...Judging by this, her chances of soloing this machine aren't that low. At least a thirty-seventy split."

Red One: "Who's thirty, and who's seventy?"

"She's thirty. It's seventy."

Blue Two pointed at Koleda and said:

"Koleda has a thirty percent chance of winning if she keeps up her condition and exploits an opening or weakness to hammer it out of commission. It belongs to her company, after all. Maybe she knows some weakness?"

Then he pointed at the Grabber:

"This machine has a seventy percent chance of winning, meaning it can hold out and keep wearing down Koleda's stamina until it wins.

"Koleda is flesh and blood, after all. And under normal circumstances, a mechanical body inherently has far greater endurance than a human body. One doesn't tire, while the other does. A pure battle of attrition.

"Once it wears Koleda down completely, she won't have any strength left to resist. And judging by its power, even if Koleda gets lucky, she'll still be temporarily unable to fight."

"Oh~"

After listening, Red One nodded and said, "Blue Two, after all that babbling, what you're saying is that the little president might still need our help!"

Yellow Three: "Understood. Then. Go?"

Red One stepped out of cover, faced the Grabber in the center of the battlefield, and said bluntly:

"Yeah, let's go! Right now! We haven't stretched our muscles in ages, anyway!"

Seeing this, Blue Two glanced at Koleda, whose movements had slowed slightly, sighed, and joined the group:

"Whatever. Let's go together."

Yellow Three: "Prepare. Support."

Just as the three were gearing up for action, they heard a gradually intensifying rumble behind them.

All three froze and looked back.

Red One: "No way. Again?"