Sara had heard about that thing, but she hadn’t fully believed it until she saw it with her own eyes. That was why Nike was hailed as the strongest spy in the Lylat Kingdom—her martial skill was world-class, on par with “Torchlight” Guido’s.
She was a woman with no shortcomings. She had more than just the ability to win over an audience with her beauty and rhetorical skills and the tactical acumen to catch her foes in traps. If worse came to worst, she could always use her outrageous capacity for violence to turn any situation around.
Nike was holding back. She probably wasn’t even using a tenth of her strength when she attacked Sara, yet Sara was still completely unable to react, and before she knew it, she found that she’d been blasted all the way outside the lecture hall. Her left arm was shattered from where the hit had landed. Her right shoulder was dislocated, so she couldn’t move that arm, either. She could feel blood rolling down her back from where shards of glass had shredded her mid-flight.
It was hard to believe Nike was a fellow human being.
Sara summoned strength into her wobbly legs to stand, and she fixed her gaze on her foe.
“As far as spies go, you’re really nothing to write home about.” Nike hoisted her sledgehammer onto her shoulder and smiled, like she was making idle small talk. “As soon as those other two escaped, your knees started knocking together. That stunt you pulled where you and your animals took out one of the men who let his guard down was impressive, but everything else was smoke and mirrors.”
Sara smiled bitterly at the accusation. She’d been doing her absolute best, but her absolute best was no match for Nike. “That’s not very nice. That could’ve been real talent. You don’t know.”
She needed to at least pique Nike’s interest and hold her there for as long as possible. With that goal in mind, she strung her words together slowly and with purpose.
Nike thumped her sledgehammer up and down atop her shoulder. “You knew a lot about the Knights of Valor. Which is weird, considering that you haven’t shown up in any of my reports. That’s all thanks to that High Plain of Heaven of yours, right? I assume they’ve got the ability to record a couple minutes of audio.”
“………”
“So as long as you’ve got competent teammates, you can take their plans and ideas and use them as is.”
Nike sneered at her.
“All you’re working with is borrowed strength.”
Nike had already seen through her.
By using the recording function on The High Plain of Heaven, Sara was able to exchange information with teammates across long distances. The theory she’d just announced to the Knights of Valor had been hypothesized in its entirety by Grete. Meanwhile, Thea and Monika had coached her on how to sway a crowd and why it was useful to take out a single enemy, respectively. There had even been a trick to the way she’d taken out all those Genesis Army agents in the smoke screen, too.
As soon as she realized she’d been caught out, all the tension drained from her body. “You know what, you’re totally right. I really am just a normal old human.”
“You don’t say.”
“But if I was a prodigy, then I might have tried to defeat you.”
If she’d done that, it would have ended in total disaster.
Her going down would have left Erna and Annette no way to escape.
“If it means I can protect the younger ones, then I’m happy to just be ordinary.”
Nike’s shoulder twitched.
I never thought I had a quote like that in me, Sara thought in surprise, but I’m sure I have the others to thank for it. She smiled as she came to terms with the fact that her head was about to get bashed in.
Erna wanted desperately to rush to Sara’s side, but Annette was having none of it. She squeezed Erna’s hand tighter and dragged her forward.
On an intellectual level, Erna got it. Even if she did go back, she would never be able to beat Nike. Erna needed to take the hope Sara had entrusted her with and carry it onward. Turning around wouldn’t just put herself in danger, but Annette, too.
None of that stopped her from lamenting the course fate had taken.
“Big Sis Sara…”
Sara had been prepared for this outcome.
When Nike got serious, there was no escaping her. If there was, there wouldn’t have been any need for them to resort to a roundabout method like starting a revolution.
All of this was Erna’s fault.
If she hadn’t joined up with the Knights of Valor, Nike wouldn’t have zeroed in on them. If she’d been more careful at the mines, the Genesis Army wouldn’t have been able to track them to the university. If she had just made better choices, all of this could have been prevented.
She ran onward, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking back.
Off in the distance, she could see that Sara had already lost. She was collapsed on the ground with blood pouring from her head. One of the bronze statues from the quad was lying beside her. Even with how far away Erna was, it was still clear that Sara was losing a lot of blood.
Nike held her sledgehammer in annoyance as she looked down at Sara.
“This is awful… And just when we finally got reunited… It’s not fair…”
Tears welled in Erna’s eyes.
Sara lay face down in the pool of blood, unable to even move anymore.
“She came to save us… How did it come to this?”
When Erna’s gait slowed, Annette gave her a sharp tug.
Erna couldn’t bear to think anymore.
They rounded a corner of the university building and put some distance between themselves and the lecture hall. The Knights of Valor guided them to a shortcut, and they fled underground. Using Annette’s flashlight, they dashed through the foul-smelling sewers before emerging in an off-campus church that was sympathetic to the Knights of Valor’s cause.
Once they fled out into the night, they would be beyond the Genesis Army’s reach.
All told, about a quarter of the officers managed to escape the hall. Maybe a dozen or so. Jean was one of them. Given that every last one of them would have been assimilated if Sara hadn’t shown up, even that small number was still plenty impressive.