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Chapter 8 – Idol Decisive Battle
『── The 24th is finally at the fifth round, the quarterfinals! In the first match of this round will be Seidoukan Academy’s Team Enfield, who have crushed all of their opponents with a display of overwhelming force so far and──!』
As Ayato and company came out of the entrance gate after being called by the voice of Miko, the live reporter, cheers that grew bigger each time they won and advanced to the next round shook the Sirius Dome once again.
『Their opponents are one of last ’s best 8, the team that overturned the seemingly unfavorable situation of going up against Team Tristan, who happened to be last tournament’s runners up, in the fourth round! The world-famous all-girls rock band, Team Rusalka!』
The Rusalka members advanced from the opposite gate while smiling.
When they entered the hall, responding to the cheers all the while, the air of composure they exuded made one question as to whether it was really right before a match.
While the commentator s.h.i.+zuna introduced both teams’ members, both parties went down to the stage and advanced until the fixed start position.
“──Well~ then, I apologize to you guys in advance, but as a continuation from the fourth round, we shall overturn these overwhelming odds again.”
The leader Miluše carried the guitar type ogre lux on her shoulder and grinned in a provocative way.
“Unfortunately, it seems that you girls’ way of fighting last time has been highly evaluated and the prior odds seemed to be fifty-fifty.”
Claudia, who took the provocation head on, calmly replied so.
“Hmm, I see. Well whatever. Either way, we’ll be the ones to win!”
“……I don’t think so.”
Then, Saya, who stood before Miluše as if to replace Claudia, threw an enthusiastic and sharp gaze.
Miluše, who saw the school badge gleaming on her (Saya) chest, opened her eyes wide as if she was surprised.
『──And this time, the leader role has been pa.s.sed from player Claudia Enfield, who has acted as Team Enfield’s leader in all the matches so far, to player Sasamiya Saya……』
“Heeh, so you’re the leader today. Interesting.”
“……Personally, I don’t dislike you.”
Though Saya’s gaze burned with intense flames, her words were somewhat calm.
“But, we’ll be the ones to win. I can’t yield on this.”
“Pooh-pooh! We can’t as well!”
After Saya and Miluše had their gazes meet and clash with each other to the extent that sparks seemed to appear, they turned on their heel at the same timing and went back to their original positions.
Team Enfield’s battle formation was Ayato, Kirin and Claudia in the front row. Behind them was Julis with the support role. And finally Saya, the leader, in the back row.
On the other hand, Team Rusalka was set up as followed: Miluše and Tuulia, who set up their guitars type ogre luxes, in the front row. Behind them, Päivi, who deployed her floating drum type ogre lux , and Monica, who stuck up her ba.s.s type ogre on the ground, stood in a line; and Mahulena, who prepared her s.p.a.ce projection keyboard type ogre lux , was in the back row
『──The start time is steadily approaching! Both parties seemed to have already made their preparations! Now then, which team will gain the ticket to the semifinal?!』
As if responding the voice of Miko, who could not hide her excitement, the mechanical voice’s sentence resounded.
“ fifth round first match, battle start!”
Immediately after the declaration, a brutally heavy ba.s.s sound which blew away all those sounds and washed over them, ran through the stage.
“──!”
Ayato, who was going to launch a preemptive attack, almost sank down on his knees unintentionally due to the heavy shock.
His body was heavy as if he has been stuck in a tar pit. The air was sticky; it was as if lead was embedded in his hands and feet.
(This again…… It’s stronger than I expected……)
Ayato stared at Monica ── her ogre lux that was the source of this heavy ba.s.s sound. The ba.s.s, which deployed a blade of light in an ax form, felt somewhat ominous appearance wise.
Above all, this heavy ba.s.s sound strongly affected his concentration ability. The state of “cognition” which was activated had been completely negated.
This perception expansion technique in the Amagiri Bright Dragon Style required one to concentrate their mind to the utmost, and was originally unrelated to having prana or not. However, Ayato, having previously broken his big sister’s seal with an incomplete method by breaking the key to the first level, wasn’t able to raise his consciousness to the stage where prana began to leak out and become noise, much like the situation in front of him.
At the same time, it meant that the Amagiri Bright Dragon Style’s hidden techniques, to which the state of “cognition” was required, could not be used.
“Oops, this is bad!”
Immediately after, a crus.h.i.+ng vibration wave released by Miluše and Tuulia attacked Team Enfield’s vanguard (i.e. Ayato, Kirin and Claudia). Although the air rattlingly shook and Ayato and company promptly evaded it, the ground where they were standing until just before was suddenly gouged out.
The two ogre luxes were both guitar types. Their ability was the same. However, in contrast with Miluše’s ogre lux that deployed a sword type blade, Tuulia’s deployed a trident type blade.
“Sorry, but we’re going all out from the very beginning this time!”
“Ha-ha! Be stupefied by our sound!”
The blue light that their ogre luxes’ Ulm mana dites emitted was similarly lit in the pupils of Miluše and Tuulia who said so.
Furthermore, as the fingers of Mahulena, who was in the back row, danced on the s.p.a.ce projection keyboard, multiple light bullets appeared around her ── and were shot at high speed at Ayato and company.
“Bloom proudly ── Livingstone Daisy!”
The fiery chakrams created by Julis dashed through the sky to repel several of these light bullets.
But, their movements lacked vividness and the flames became somewhat feeble as well.
In fact, these chakrams vanished like mist after Päivi beat her floating drum.
Sound pressure protective wall ── that was Päivi’s ogre lux’s ability. Upon close inspection, one could see that a s.p.a.ce of about 1m diameter was distorted like ripple. It was slightly similar to Ardi’s protective wall, but hers seemed to be able to deploy in small sizes in large quant.i.ty. Although, accordingly the hardness was not as high as Ardi’s.
“Kuh……! Sorry, but my prana’s concentration isn’t going well after all……! It looks like the support’s timing will be slightly off than usual……!”
While Julis gritted her teeth with a bitter face, she said so while defending against the light bullets with her Rectoluz. Certainly under these circ.u.mstances, the one who had it hard the most was probably Julis. After all, for a , having one’s prana’s concentration obstructed was fatal.
“Got it, then first, as we planned……!”
Ayato evaded the light bullets by twisting his body in mid-air and turned his gaze towards Monica.
But, a sideways slash of Tuulia’s approached, aiming for when Ayato landed.
“I won’t let you!”
“Guh……!”
He promptly blocked it with , but it was a surprisingly heavy blow.
Moreover, although it was divided in five, as expected of an ogre lux; Ayato was not able to burn the blade of light created by the guitar even when he blocked it with [1].
Tuulia then started a chain of consecutive attacks of slicing down from an overhead position, stepping forward and thrusting to the chest and making a whirl slash while turning her body. Her swordsmans.h.i.+p was sharp and fluent; it was so stylish that it was unthinkable from Tuulia’s usual roughness. It showed that she had gone through basic training fairly well.
Though Ayato narrowly defended against the three consecutives blows, one might say that Tuulia and the current Ayato’s close-range combat ability was almost equal.[2]
Which means──
“Kyaaah……!”
As he turned his gaze for only an instant, Kirin, who blocked Miluše’s sharp slash with Senbakiri, was blown away.
Immediately after, ’s twin blades sandwiched Miluše’s body in between them, but Miluše rotated the ogre lux in her hand, repelled them and then she drove in a sharp kick in return to Claudia.
“Oh my, this is quite intense……!”
Although Claudia somehow avoided it as she leapt back, Miluše’s attacked pursued without pause.
(She’s holding Kirin-chan and Claudia, just by herself……!)
“Hey! Don’t look away!”
At that moment, Ayato felt a chill running down his spine.
When he quickly returned his attention to Tuulia, she has already put her finger on the guitar string.
(c.r.a.p……! I can’t avoid this……!)
Tuulia’s crus.h.i.+ng vibration wave’s range was wide. With the current Ayato’s high power output, it would be impossible to escape out of the range.
──But.
“……Kaboom”
The next moment, six lines of lights as wide as an Obi cut through the stage.
“Wha!?”
One of them accurately shot out the school badge on Tuulia’s chest as it pa.s.sed through Ayato’s side ── regrettably just before it hit, it was defended against.
“W-What was that just now!?”
“……That was quite dangerous.”
“To think that she’ll suddenly aimed at the school badge……!”
Fl.u.s.tered voices leaked one after another from Miluše and company’s mouths.
It would have been quite comfortable if even one of them was defeated with the surprise attack just now, but as expected it looked like it would not go so well. Though, it was enough for Ayato, Kirin and Claudia to be able to rebuild their stances with that opening.
“Wait, what was that……?”
Miluše and company’s surprised expressions were turned towards Ayato and company’s rear.
Standing there was the figure of Saya wearing a large-scale lux. The lux, which was equipped with a huge back unit, was the particle cannon that Saya used for the first time against Ardi and Rimsi in the ’s semifinal before.
But as for the details, many parts were greatly modified. What stood out the most was probably the thruster for recoil control sprouting out from the back unit.
“……Type 41 Induction High-Angle Fire Particle Cannon Waldenholt modified”
Setting up that lux with six muzzles, Saya muttered so in a small voice.
＊
──A few hours ago, Sirius Dome’s waiting room.
“I will confirm again, but the most troublesome abilities among the ogre luxes are Monica-san’s 『Inhibition Weakening』 and Mahulena-san’s 『Active Strengthening』. Unless we crush at least one of those two, we will probably have no chance of victory.”
Claudia said that in the last strategy meeting just before the match.
As far as she guessed from the fourth round’s video recording, it seemed that Monica’s weakened the enemy group and Mahulena’s had the ability to strengthen all her allies. The latter seemed to have the ability to shoot light bullets as well, but it was not that much a threat compared to the strengthening ability.
“Therefore, our top priority targets will be those two. Judging from individual fighting strength, Monica-san is above Mahulena-san, however, position wise, she is a vanguard. I think that she is the relatively easy one to aim for. At the same time though Mahulena-san’s fighting strength is inferior to the other members, she’s always in the back row in order to devote herself to supporting. Taking into consideration Päivi-san’s defense ability, it is doubtful whether a long-range attack would reach her (Mahulena), so we would have a hard time reaching her. But, I think that it will manageable.”
Everyone was carefully listening to Claudia’s words with serious faces.
“……Based on this, I will propose a two-phase strategy.”
Claudia raised two fingers.
“The one who will be the key for both phases will be you ── Sasamiya-san. Please think of it as one part of the reason why you are left to be the leader.”
“……”
Receiving Claudia’s gaze, Saya silently nodded.
“We should think it is likely that as long as Julis is under the influence of Monica-san’s ability, her backing as a will not be performed smoothly. Therefore, I will have to remove Julis from the strategy and have her move completely freely as a mobile support. Of course, you will have to back us up as much as possible, but the vanguard members will move without a.s.suming it.”
“……It’s frustrating, but I think that it’ll be safe like that.”
While saying so, Julis bit her nail with a clearly dissatisfied face.
“I also intend to use ’s future foresight ability this time. I cannot use it too much when thinking about the future, but as Yatsuzaki-sensei said, there would be no meaning to it if we were to lose because I was stingy to use it. If possible, I would like to get it over with by using about 60 seconds though……”
While saying so, Claudia extended her hand to in the holder.
As of now, the stock with which Claudia could foresee was approximately 360 seconds. According to Claudia, in order to win against Team Lancelot, she would like to save at least 200 seconds; so when also thinking about the semifinal, she certainly would not like to use up more than 60 seconds here.
“Now then, I will tell you about the details of the strategy.”
When Claudia looked around at everyone, she began to talk in a low voice.
＊
“H-Homing laser!?”
Before Saya’s large-scale lux, Miluše drew back as she was cautious.
Monica’s 『Inhibition Weakening』 does not affect the lux itself. Therefore, Saya was Team Enfield’s pivot/keystone in this match.
“It’s fine, it’s fine! The current us can deal with it easily enough.”
“……You’re right. Her aim is certainly accurate, but the power isn’t that high. It’s in the scope where I can defend against it with my protective wall.”
“Besides, with the opponent’s leader carrying such a big thing on her back, her movements will also be limited, too. Rather, we have to think of it as an opportunity for us.”
“Hmm…… Yes, you’re right.”
It was Monica and Päivi who kept Miluše from panicking.
Indeed, seeing it like this, the team’s role division was well done as well.
Claudia quickly grasped Team Rusalka’s trend while setting up in a low position.
Even in battle, the type who put substantial preparation like Monica and Päivi seemed to support the type who displayed their power by riding on with the momentum such as Miluše and Tuulia, so that they would not fall apart.
And──
“U-Um, Tuulia-san, you rushed in too fast……! And Päivi-san, too, in your current position, a blind spot in the protective wall deployment range will be created, so please come back!”
The most troublesome one above all was Mahulena in the back row.
Though she was not the type to control the team, she was quick to find an opening, which looked like it might result in a fatal hole, and correct it.
“I won’t let you!”
Finding an opening in their battle formation disordered, Julis’s voice resounded.
“c.r.a.p……!”
The Rectoluz’s six swords slipped through Päivi’s sound pressure protective wall and attacked Monica from overheard.
“Hmph! What, is such a thing…… wait, eeeh?”
Monica swung the blade of light unfolded in axe type and brushed it off, but of course Julis’ aim was not there.
The repelled Rectoluz circled at equal intervals as if to surround Monica.
“──Come out, Gloriosa!”
At the same time as Julis shouted so, a magic circle unfolded at Monica’s feet and six huge pillars of flames rose up like a demon’s claws.
“What!?”
Monica stood stock still as she was caught in the huge palm of flames.
Since Julis did not show the shortened activation of the setting type ability using the Rectoluz in the preliminaries, Monica could not react as expected. The flames’ claws closed so as to crush her.
──But, Päivi’s protective wall unfolded as to stop it and just barely prevented it.
“T-That was dangerous, jeez!”
Monica tried to break out from the encirclement at that opportunity, but the other side was not so naïve as to overlook it. It would become quite comfortable if they were to bring down Monica here.
“Monica!”
“I won’t let you do that!”
Kirin’s sword strike blocked Miluše who was about to go to Monica’s support.
On the other side, Ayato also seemed to be skillfully holding back Tuulia who was similarly going towards Monica.
Which means that from here on was the start of their strategy to decide the match. Claudia, who judged so, set up , dashed and shortened the distance to Monica.
“……I won’t let you go.”
Standing in her way was Päivi who unfolded the huge floating drum type ogre lux like a s.h.i.+eld.
“No, I am afraid to say──”
While smiling, Claudia said so and focused her consciousness on .
At that moment, the world lost color and stood still.
──First, she dodges Päivi to the right. Immediately after, 12 light bullets are shot by Mahulena, who fired them around Päivi stealthily to the blind spot, and six shots among them will directly hit Claudia in the case that she goes straight ahead to Monica as is. She goes back a half second. She evades them by rolling down. Still, two shots. .h.i.t her directly. She goes back a half second. She evades them by jumping. One shot hits her foot. She concentrates prana there and endures it. But, Päivi’s sound pressure protective wall is unfolded as to push aside Claudia when she loses her balance (after being hit by one shot and having endured it). She goes back one second. She swings and cuts off six light bullets. It is impossible by das.h.i.+ng at full speed. She gets. .h.i.t by two shots. She goes back a half second. She lowers her speed and cuts off all the light bullets. Immediately after, she dodges the sound pressure protective wall unfolded to the front with a side step…… Or not. She goes back one second──
As Claudia eventually spent 16 seconds from the stock of the future foresight, the world began to move again.
“──that you cannot stop me only the two of you.”
When Claudia made a feint by moving one step to the left, she rotated her body as if dancing as she dodged Päivi to the right. ’s swords’ slashes which drew two arcs repelled the light bullets shot by Mahulena from every angle, and Claudia went through the sound pressure protective wall, which Päivi unfolded as to hold her ── which was late for a moment, by bending over and shortened the distance to Monica who just broke out from the cage of flames.
“Impossible!?”
“Is this ’s future foresight……?!”
Päivi opened her eyes wide in shock and Mahulena muttered with a dumbfounded face.
(Well then, it’s good so far. The problem is after this……)
She slashed with hung down in a low position, aiming at Monica’s school badge.
“Wawawawa!”
Fortunately, Monica has not yet rebuilt her stance.
“How naïve~!”
But, her sword strike was blocked by Miluše who broke in.
The azure light s.h.i.+ning in both her eyes drew an ominous, yet beautiful trace.
“Oh my, you have arrived quite early……!”
Though it was something that she understood, it was basically impossible for the current Kirin to restrain the current Miluše by herself.
At the same time, that also meant that it was impossible for the current Claudia alone to outwit Miluše and bring down Monica.
Unless she overdid it greatly, that is.
(……Well, I guess I have no choice.)
Claudia focused her consciousness on again.
Since it was a rare opportunity as the opponent team’s leader was before her eyes, she would rather really like to smash her school badge. However, it would be difficult for the current Claudia, whose physical ability was decreased due to Monica’s ogre lux, no matter how much stock she spent. In that case, there was only one way.
──30 seconds. ──40 seconds. ──50 seconds.
Not enough yet.
──60 seconds. ──70 seconds. ──80 seconds.
Not yet.
──90 seconds. ──100 seconds.
(……Around here is the limit, huh.)
At the same time as Claudia smiled wryly, the world regained color.
“HAA!”
Claudia swung down the right hand’s blade towards Miluše, but it was easily blocked. Although she thrust the left hand’s blade with a slight delay as to skim through Miluše’s side and aimed at the school badge of Monica behind her (Miluše), Miluše deflected the blade’s trajectory by striking its inner part with her right elbow. Furthermore, she swung down her blade of light, aiming at the school badge on the chest of Claudia left wide open due to her attack. Claudia dodged it by twisting her body, and then drove in a scathing whirl slash at Miluše. Miluše promptly guarded with her guitar, but even Miluše was forced to stop her movement for an instant due to the sword strike that Claudia launched with all her strength.
Although she lost her balance, Claudia forcibly took a step forward and launched a slash to Monica, but──
“Don’t look down on me!”
The unreasonable strikes repeated one after another was warded off by the blade of light of Monica, who had already rebuilt her stance.
Though Claudia tried to restore her stance, Miluše drove in a sharp kick to her abdomen before she could.
“Guh……!”
Although she reduced the damage by focusing prana there as she could not avoid it, she was blown away and went down on her knee on the ground.
“Kyahahaha! A chance there, I won’t miss it!”
“!”
Monica, who engaged in pursuit there, swung out her blade of light unfolded in axe type and smashed Claudia’s school badge in two.
“I did it! The Daikinbos.h.i.+!”[3]
“──Kaboom”
And almost at the same time, a torrent of light that gushed out from behind Claudia like surging smashed Monica’s school badge.
“……Eh?”
It was Saya’s homing blaster.
“Claudia Enfield, badge broken.”
“Monica, badge broken.”
Overlapping mechanical voices announced Claudia’s and Monica’s defeats.
In other words, it was a draw.
After the trial and error of a future foresight close to 200 times, the best result that Claudia picked out was this. The enemy lowered her guard the most the moment when she defeated her prey ── she aimed there.
In a team battle, the defeated players naturally could not interference in any way afterwards regarding both allies and enemies.
The effect of the 『Inhibition Weakening』 which had made Claudia and company suffer so much until now was no longer.
“N-No way”
Throwing a sidelong glance at Monica who sank down to the floor with an expression on the verge of tears, Claudia took a breath of relief.
In any case, the first phase of the strategy was cleared.
(I leave the rest to you, everyone……)
As Claudia inwardly muttered so, she s.h.i.+fted her gaze to her comrades while withdrawing to the edge of the stage.
＊
“Everyone, we will reset our battle formation once again. Please come back……!”
“Even if you say so……!”
Tuulia, who barely blocked Ayato’s thrust, distorted her face while stepping back.
By the fact that Monica was now out, the course of the battle, where Ayato and company were overwhelmingly pushed back, greatly changed its flow. On the general outlook, they were still about equal; but at least in Ayato’s and Tuulia’s local fight, Ayato completely got the upper hand.
Still, the reason why he could not settle the fight was because Päivi’s sound pressure protective wall broke in as support each time with precise timing.
“Bloom proudly ── Snapping Firebloom of the Engulfing Dragon (Antirrhinum Majus)!”
Although on their side, Julis’ backing as a was restored. Ayato re-set up while feeling the heat of the dragon of flames dancing in the stage.
She would probably have to use her power to exclusively deal with Päivi. That being the case, Ayato would be able overcome Tuulia soon.
While looking over, Kirin had completely regained the sharpness of her techniques and was pus.h.i.+ng back Miluše with “Conjoined Cranes”.
“……Don’t underestimate me, !”
“──!”
However, suddenly receiving a sharp forward blow from Tuulia, Ayato was astonished by her drive. It looked like it would not go so smoothly.
“Certainly, I’m no match for you when it comes to natural fighting strength. The fact that I’m able to exchange blows like this with you is thanks to Mahulena’s ── her ogre lux’s power. But still, even I got a strong will, you know?!”
As expected, her strong will seemed to be no joke.
So, she won’t let herself easily being defeated, huh.
“Eei, no choice! Now that it turns like this, we’ve but to do it! Everyone, 『Resonance』 release!”
Miluše suddenly shouted so.
(『Resonance』……?)
was an ogre lux with many mysteries. So it would be no surprise even if they were able to hide some sort of trump card.
The moment when Ayato temporarily moved back for caution’s sake, Tuulia began to intensely pluck her guitar’s strings.
──Immediately after, when he heard the heavy ba.s.s sound that sought to squash him into the stage, Ayato received a tremendous shock and was greatly blown to the rear of the stage.
“Kuuuh…?”
While twisting his body in mid-air, he somehow managed to land while kneeling.
“……Ayato, are you all right?”
Saya, who was near, ran up to him, but Ayato raised his hand and held her back.
“Yes, somehow. But, just now……”
It was not the crus.h.i.+ng vibration wave. Otherwise, although it was abrupt, Ayato should have escaped from its range.
(Right. Rather, that just now was Päivi’s……)
While thinking so, Ayato who looked closely was shocked.
Before his eyes ── the s.p.a.ce surged, crossing dozens of meters as if it was warped over.
“This is…… Don’t tell me that it’s the sound pressure protective wall?”
Kirin too was similarly blown away with the attack just now, but she asked so while holding her head with one hand.
“If so, then it’s quite crazy. The scale is dozens of times more than the ones so far.”
Julis with a grim face also joined them and muttered so.
When the sound pressure protective wall disappeared before long, the four Rusalka’s members also gathered on the other side.
“Hmph! How is it? Are you surprised?!”
While revealing a fearless smile, Miluše pointed out the guitar in her hand at Ayato and company.
“It’s the killer move that restrictively draws out this ’s original power by making the ogre lux of each of us resonate! You guys no longer have even a one in ten thousand chance of victory!”
“……Considering all that, you girls seem to be quite in agony.”
“Uguh……!?”
Miluše openly changed her complexion at Saya’s pointing out.
In fact, all the Rusalka members were sweating as they were in pain.
The burden was probably big even for them when using that 『Resonance』.
“H-Hmph! Well whatever. Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re done for with this!”
Miluše set up her guitar again as she said so.
At that moment, a chill ran down their spine.
“Don’t tell me……!”
The others seemed to have noticed it, too.
If the sound pressure protective wall, which was usually around 1 meter in diameter, was deployed in the current scale, then──
“You won’t get away from this!”
Tuulia shouted loudly and raised her arm.
“Everyone, move back behind me!”
Julis rushed out forward and rapidly swirled the surrounding mana. She probably intended to activate some kind of defense ability.
However at this rate, she would not make it in time.
But then, another person, Kirin ran forward.
“Yaah!”
She first took a big step forward from a javelin throwing-like stance and threw Senbakiri.
Ayato had once heard it from Kirin. Like the art of sword drawing, it was a heretical technique of throwing thought out by the Toudou style’s branch family; it name was “Devouring beak”.[4]
“Uwah!?”
The silver blade, which cut through wind and flew in a straight line, stuck up to the middle of the blade of Miluše’s guitar.
“Bloom proudly ── Great Crimson Heart Blazing s.h.i.+eld – Multi-Ring Blossom (Anthurium Multi-Floss)!”
With the little time that Kirin gained, Julis deployed multiple s.h.i.+elds of flames.
At that moment, a sound similar to the screaming of guitars strummed by Miluše and Tuulia roared, and a raging crus.h.i.+ng vibration wave blew towards them violently.
“Guuuuh……!”
Their clothes were torn, their skins were cut and their bones creaked. They invested their prana to defense and protected their faces and school badges while crossing both their arms in front of themselves.
That violence, not knowing when it would stop, blew away half of the stage as if gouging at it.
Even so, when Ayato somehow endured it and raised his face, the emotionless mechanical sound announced.
“Julis-Alexia van Riessfeld, badge broken.”
“Toudou Kirin, badge broken.”
Having fallen on their knees there were the figures of the two girls.
“──! Julis! Kirin-chan!”
He hurriedly rushed over to them, but Julis stopped him while gasping painfully.
“……Sorry, I couldn’t get through it. But since you two are safe, we still have chance of victory. I leave it to you.”
“Ayato-senpai, Saya-san…… We count on you.”
Kirin also said so while smiling with a face full of bruises.
It was thanks to the two of them becoming their s.h.i.+elds that Ayato and Saya were safe.
“Yes, leave it to us.”
“……”
Saya silently nodded as well.
“d.a.m.n……! How stubborn……!”
“Don’t mind it! We’ll do it no matter how many times!”
Miluše and Tuulia, who breathed heavily, set up their guitars again.
There was too much distance between Ayato and Miluše and company. No matter how you looked at it, he would not make it in time by attacking with his sword. In that case, there was only one way.
“Get blast awaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!”
At the same time that Miluše and Tuulia played the screaming-like sound again, Ayato poured prana into .
──It was the Meteor Arts.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
He raised which turned tremendously gigantic and slashed down along with a loud scream.
The Ulm mana dite emitted deep crimson brightness and bisected the crus.h.i.+ng vibration wave, which was going to attack them, just like in the legend of Moses.
“Saya!”
“……”
Behind him, Saya was just over with the firing preparations.
“……Kaboom!”
Towards the path that Ayato opened up, light was shot from all the six muzzles and swooped down on only Miluše ── more precisely, her school badge.
──But.
“As if I’ll let you do!”
“Guaaaaaaaaah!”
Tuulia and Päivi stood in the way so as to protect Miluše. They literally put their bodies and protected their leader.
“Mahulena!”
“Yes!”
And then, as if responding to Miluše’s shout, Mahulena’s keyboard played a powerful, yet beautiful note in a very loud volume.
At that moment, azure flames flared up into Miluše’s pupils.
“No way, 『Resonance』 of the 『Active Strengthening』……!?”
Ayato started running at once to stop her (Mahulena), but Miluše shortened the distance with Ayato in an instant ── and ran past his side so as to evade ’s slash.
(She’s too fast……!? Her aim is Saya, huh……!)
Her speed was no joke. It might possibly be equal to that Zhao HuFeng’s or even more than that. Although Ayato was going to brake at once and turn around, he would hardly make it in time.
“With this, it was oveeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr!”
Miluše raised her guitar and shouted as she was convinced of their victory.
＊
It happened exactly in the blink of an eye.
When one wondered that an azure trace flashed, the figure of Miluše, who raised her guitar, was before Saya’s eyes. It was the perfect timing to attack the enemy in her unguarded moment.
But, Saya was calm to the bitter end. This was because Claudia’s strategy was the second phase being “close range combat by Saya”.
She purged Waldenholt modified and dodged Miluše’s blow to the very last moment. The blade of light was struck into Waldenholt modified’s huge back unit. Aiming for that moment, Saya pulled out Senbakiri that was still stuck into the guitar.
Miluše’s eyes were dyed with surprise.
Saya fixed her breathing and swiftly swung Senbakiri.
It was a skill of the Amagiri Bright Dragon Style that she had Ayato taught her only just a little in order to keep him company with his training.
The movements and techniques that she learned watching Haruka and Ayato’s training scene.
“Amagiri Bright Dragon Style First Sword Fighting Skill ── “Twin Water Dragons””
Cross-like sword flashes were executed smoothly, surprising even herself──
“Miluše, badge broken”
“End of the Battle! Winner, Team Enfield!”
In the next moment, Miluše’s school badge broke into four pieces, and fell onto the ground with a dry sound.
