Outside the fortress, Brad and Hubert were still battling.
“Kuh!”
Brad’s lances, and the drones Luxion had left him to control, were evenly matched by Hubert’s squadrons.
“Squadron Two, fall back,” Hubert ordered. “Squadron Five, continue firing on the enemy. Squadron Eight, focus on destroying his lances.”
They’d already managed to destroy three of Brad’s lances and a number of drones.
He commands his knights as expertly as if they were extensions of his own body, Brad thought. I have to admit he’s tough.
The Demonic Knights whom Hubert commanded wouldn’t be all that skilled on their own, but led by Hubert, they reached greater heights. One charged at Brad, swinging his weapon. Brad parried with the lance in his hand just in time, but he was forced back by the blow’s weight, unable to fully defend against it.
His opponent was obviously young and hot-blooded. He was the only one of the bunch who didn’t invariably coordinate with the others; he occasionally darted out of formation to attack Brad directly, making him an unpredictable element on the field.
“Looks like you can’t defend yourself so well in close combat!” the knight exclaimed. Although he didn’t follow commands as well as his peers, he was easily the strongest among them.
“I wouldn’t be half as charming if I were entirely perfect,” Brad said. “I need at least one weakness to offset all my strengths.” His face dripped with perspiration, contradicting his bravado.
“Enough of your babbling!” The knight raised his blade, threatening to cut Brad down entirely.
Before the knight’s sword could do the job, though, Jilk sniped him. The bullet only grazed his left arm, but its anti-Demonic Suit properties affected it like a strong venom. The shot inflamed the limb, inflating it grotesquely until it burst completely.
“Aaaah!” The knight’s shrill voice rang through the air like a siren.
“Laimer, fall back!” Hubert snapped at him.
“Dammit!” Laimer cursed, even as he obediently followed his superior’s order.
“Return to the fortress and get that wound healed. We can take care of things here,” said Hubert.
Despite his reluctance to leave the battlefield, Laimer withdrew, but not before shouting over his shoulder at Jilk, “You—the bastard in the green Armor—you’re going to pay for this! Mark my words!”
In the brief reprieve while Hubert ordered Laimer off the field, Jilk said to Brad, “We can’t keep going like this. We need to retreat too!”
Jilk was having a hard time assisting. A number of Demonic Knights had swarmed him to end his continued sniping. Each time he popped his head out to try a shot, they used magic to stop him. It had taken considerable effort to bypass them and graze Laimer a moment earlier. The lengthy battle had also damaged Jilk’s Armor severely. On top of that, he was running out of ammo, which prompted his suggestion that they run for it.
Brad wouldn’t back down. “I can’t withdraw until I defeat Hubert,” he said. “Besides, he’d never let us retreat.”
He was right, of course. Hubert was too alert, too determined to finish their battle.
“It’s your fault I’ve lost so many of my men. I never imagined you’d be so formidable,” said Hubert, as if on cue.
Brad and Jilk were having a tough time against him, but still, they’d taken out half his subordinates.
“See?” Brad said. “I’m so stunning that he can’t bear to let me go.”
“Is this really the time to crack a joke?” Jilk shot back, exasperated by Brad’s ridiculous narcissism. He must’ve assumed that, if Brad sounded so arrogant, he was still going strong—but he was mistaken about that. Although force of habit made Brad sound and act like his normal self, he was reaching his limit.
“Joke? Jilk, you wound me,” Brad said dramatically. “I’m always serious.”
The two enjoyed their banter, even as—with renewed determination—Hubert commanded his men to attack.
“You really are something else, you know,” Jilk sighed. “Fine. I’ll stick with you until the end.”
Brad expertly wielded his remaining lances. There were fewer now, so his focus was less divided, and the weapons’ movements were more refined.
Hubert himself seemed to sense how much deadlier they were. “Even after all the damage you took, you’re getting stronger?” He shook his head.
His knights surrounded Brad, whose lances whipped around to protect his blind spot. One by one, the lances took down knight after knight.
“You’d better not underestimate me!” said Brad.
He gradually reduced his enemy’s numbers until at last Hubert’s subordinates began ignoring their commander’s orders. All the knights who’d been busy blocking Jilk turned away from him, charging Brad’s lances and the drones.
“What are you doing?!” Hubert cried at them.
To his dismay, they ignored him.
“What’s going on?” Brad blurted in surprise, firing his lances at the group. They pierced their intended targets, only for the wounded knights to wrap their arms around the lances and effectively hold them in place. “Are they really sacrificing themselves?!”
By the time Brad caught on, it was already too late. Their aim had been to render him defenseless.
“Without these, victory belongs to Lord Hubert!”
“Lord Hubert, please finish them off!”
“Who ordered you to act as sacrificial pawns?!” Hubert angrily demanded of his men. However furious he was with them, he wouldn’t let their efforts be in vain. His fingers squeezed tight around his sword hilt as he charged toward Brad.
“What a crazy bunch,” Brad said. Though he was terrified of the end coming, he also had to respect the bravery throwing one’s life away for a greater purpose required. Hubert’s subordinates could do that only because they loved their commander so much.
Joined by his last three subordinates, Hubert flew forward, closing the remaining distance between him and Brad. Jilk cast his rifle aside and shot out of the fortress, using his blade to carve through the few remaining knights who’d stayed behind to block him.
“Brad,” Jilk shouted, “hold on, and I’ll be there!”
Hubert swung at Brad, who blocked the blow. He’s not just an expert commander, he found himself thinking. No, what makes him so fearsome is that he’s incredibly strong on top of that. It wasn’t out of weakness that Hubert had turned to a command role. He was actually much stronger on his own than his subordinates had been together. No matter how Brad tried to parry his attacks, Hubert was quickly carving the outer plating from his Armor.
“It seems Laimer was right that you’re weak in close combat,” said Hubert.
“Dammit.”
In the corner of his monitor, Brad saw how hard Jilk was fighting, defeating two Demonic Knights at once in his desperate attempt to reach Brad in time. He was pushing himself past his limits, and he’d somehow lost his left arm in the process.
“You’re way overdoing it, Jilk. It’s not like you,” he said.
Brad had already run out of ammunition himself, and the hidden weapon on his left arm was unusable. All he had left was one lance and an extra shortsword. Hubert knew Brad had no more tricks up his sleeve, which was why he’d seized the opportunity to engage Brad in melee battle.
“I’m ending this now,” Hubert announced. He made no lofty proclamations about doing it to avenge his fallen subordinates, but that was exactly why he was handling this personally. Charging full speed at Jilk to land his final blow and bring this battle to its conclusion, he sank his blade into the outer plating protecting Brad’s cockpit.
Brad let out a strangled laugh. “You’ve bested me flawlessly.”
The sheer momentum of Hubert’s attack sent the two crashing into Arcadia’s outer wall. The blade penetrated the remainder of the plating on Brad’s Armor, skewering Brad and pinning him to the fortress.
“Flawlessly, my foot,” Hubert rasped. “You’re the one who has bested me. It seems I really did…underestimate you…”
Brad’s shortsword protruded from Hubert’s abdomen. He’d jabbed it into the Demonic Knight when the two clashed. Sporting the fatal wound, Hubert slowly lost altitude, falling away from Brad.
“See? I can…pull it off…if I try,” Brad managed to say through gasps of air. “I won’t let anyone…say I’m bad…with the sword…ever again.”
Only after Brad fell completely silent did Jilk manage to cut down the final knight and reach his friend. “Brad?” he called desperately. “Brad!”