Pythie Frederica
Frederica directed about 80 or 90 percent of her attention to Old Blue, and 10 or 20 percent to the Lightnings. Compared to Old Blue, who used some unknown martial art, the Lightnings were not all that threatening. Their lightning bolts, thunder, or swords were unlikely to hurt Frederica now.
So when the Lightnings started moving strangely, Frederica was slow to react. This was partially because she was simultaneously reacting to a strike from Old Blue—basically, she had been clearing their way.
The Lightnings separated into groups and swung up their weapons. Behind Frederica, diagonally to the rear, ahead, over the wall—these four small groups slammed their weapons down on the ground as Old Blue slid back to the rear. Before Frederica could follow her, there was an explosion.
Frederica smothered a groan under her breath. It rattled through her flesh and bones. The explosion from all four directions struck Frederica, but her body could bear it now. Her eyes and eardrums were also fine. But still, it wasn’t as if she had gotten through it with zero damage.
Old Blue came forward, and Frederica struck back. There was no time to be on her knees.
This technique…
It was a combo attack that had appeared during the time when R&D and the Lab had been working in cooperation. Ultimate Princess Explosion. It was possible to execute by gathering multiple artificial magical girls.
The Lightnings gathered and split up once more, comprising multiple small units. They moved smoothly, like an amorphous organism. Old Blue was constantly moving her fingers—that had to be her giving them signals.
Right, left, as the rubble blasted away by the explosion was pattering down, she and Old Blue struck one another, and the Lightnings swung up their weapons.
I’m not letting that happen.
When Old Blue tried to get out of her range, Frederica pursued her. She was prepared for this to open her up a bit. If that made the Lightnings cancel their Ultimate Princess Explosion, then good, and if they didn’t, then Old Blue would be caught in it. If Old Blue wanted to make this a contest of who could take more hits, then she should just go and try.
Frederica maintained space between them. She thrust out a fist. An explosion came at the same time. It was from behind. The Lightnings in front had just swung up their weapons and didn’t swing them down. The explosion that happened behind Frederica pushed her forward, and Old Blue punched, blocked, kicked, and stopped her, and they clashed a few more times. Right before separating, Frederica took a hit on the side, and when she tried to lower her elbow, Old Blue grabbed her wrist.
This put Frederica off-balance. She immediately braced herself. Even as she took one strike, two, she never stopped thinking.
She understood the reason why Old Blue had moved away from the ruins. It was the Ultimate Princess Explosion. Since it would be a problem if she were to catch the ruins in an explosion and it went out of control, she had moved someplace new.
Was this the real ace that Old Blue had kept up her sleeve? But mysteries still remained. The Lightnings repeatedly gathered and then separated, continuously forming new groups. The scale of the second explosion had been different from the first. They were measuring the precise distance to keep Old Blue out of it when activating Ultimate Princess Explosion. Frederica seemed to recall that the power of the explosion changed depending on the number of participants in the technique. But thus far, between the groups with fewer Lightnings and the groups with more Lightnings, sometimes the ones with fewer were more powerful, and conversely, sometimes the ones with more Lightnings were more powerful.
There was another explosion. Frederica tottered. She clenched her teeth and dealt with each one of Old Blue’s continuous attacks. Her body pitched forward. Just from having her wrist grabbed, she was at Old Blue’s mercy. This was what made some unknown martial arts such a problem.
Frederica pulled out her crystal ball with her free hand. And then she pitched forward hard. She somehow kept herself from falling forward, but the crystal ball got kicked with a clunk, she let go of it, and it rolled away. She was thrown on top of it, and she thrust her arms out to leap up again. What had seemed to be just one crystal ball rolling out became twenty or thirty, which she scattered all around like shotgun shot.
✦ ✦ ✦
Old Blue
The crystal balls scattered out in a radial pattern. Old Blue let go of her wrist and backed away. She gave instructions to the Lightnings and had them disperse, avoiding direct hits.
Frederica thrust her fist out in front. She was moving as sharply as ever, despite having been struck quite a bit by the explosions. She dodged attacks, and Old Blue went to grab her arm, but Frederica evaded it as well. Old Blue gave a hand sign, and struck at Frederica, then blocked, sticking close and refusing to back away.
Close enough that they could touch, Old Blue observed the enemy. Her movements were sharp as ever, but it wasn’t as if she’d taken no damage. It was building up. She was tired, too. She would break the skin soon. Blood would flow.
The crystal balls she had sent shooting out were still in the air. They were maintaining their position, surrounding this fight. If Frederica meant to send them flying in again, Old Blue would strike back. There was no need to strike them down as Frederica expected. They just had to catch them in an Ultimate Princess Explosion.
The Lightnings swung their weapons. An explosion was coming. The terrain had already become like the dark side of the moon, and it would transform again. There was a constant back-and-forth between Old Blue with her defensive movements and Frederica with her physical abilities. Old Blue moved around in a flowing manner, keeping the Lightnings from getting close, but she didn’t leave them uninvolved, placing them in just the right spots to disperse them again once more. The crystal balls followed her around from a fixed distance.
Old Blue could not let herself get distracted. The original purpose of the crystal balls was not to be thrown like bullets. She only gave the crystal balls minimal attention, while investing the most meticulous caution in her coordination with the Lightnings.
The force of the Ultimate Princess Explosion increased depending on the number of participants. But the Lightnings were different. Their force was affected not just by numbers but by their suit and card number. Frederica was unaware that how powerful it would be depended on the total—you couldn’t even tell from looking in the first place which number a Lightning had been assigned.
Old Blue could give new instructions with full awareness of the Lightnings’ numbers. She could adjust the force to keep herself from being caught, to put Frederica within their range.
Numerous explosions followed in succession.
Old Blue stepped toward her opponent as rubble collapsed around them.