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There were four soldiers behind the attempt on Lina’s life: Captain Alexander Arcturus, commander of Team 3; Lieutenant Jacob Regulus, first star of Team 3; Captain Charlotte Vega, commander of Team 4; and Second Lieutenant Layla Deneb, first star of Team 4. Meanwhile, another three helped Lina escape: Major Benjamin Canopus, commander of Team 1; Second Lieutenant Ralph Hardy Milfak, second star of Team 1; and Second Lieutenant Ralph Algol, another second star of Team 1. Of these three, Milfak drove Lina out of the base in a prototype pickup truck and managed to escape with her. Meanwhile, Canopus single-handedly fought Arcturus, Regulus, and Vega. Then Algol took on Deneb, who had been on Lina’s tail until the commander managed to escape. From the bed of Lina’s pickup truck, Algol tackled Deneb, and the two tumbled to the ground.
“Layla!” Vega screamed.
She had rushed outside with Deneb, chasing after Lina once Milfak had picked her up from the experimental vehicle warehouse. But when Canopus got in the way, Vega had to give up the chase and face him.
“Major Canopus! Don’t you know about Commander Sirius’s treachery?!” she shouted.
Canopus wasn’t sure whether this was simply the mutiny’s flimsy justification or if she was truly convinced that was the case. It was probably the latter, but he was still simply speculating.
Second Lieutenant Ariana Lee Shaula of Team 11 had claimed that all the members of Teams 3, 6, and 11 (minus Shaula herself) had been infected by parasites. Shaula had exceptional sensitivity to abnormal pushion waves and a strong resistance against mental interference magic. Canopus was confident he could trust her when it came to identifying parasites.
If Shaula’s assessment was correct, Vega and Deneb from Team 4 weren’t infected. They were probably just misled by false information the parasite-infected renegade leaders had been spreading.
It was no secret that Vega disliked Lina—although many of the star class could see it was pure envy. Possibly due to Vega’s influence, Second Lieutenant Deneb was also standoffish toward Lina. Lieutenant Spica was not as obvious as the other two, but it was easy to see that she felt similarly. Exploiting the feelings of these three was easy work for the parasites.
Soldiers were not supposed to act on their emotions. Officers, especially, were trained to always keep their feelings in check. Unfortunately, humans are weak to noble causes. When given a righteous purpose, they can easily deceive themselves to believe they are acting out of duty. Believing they are serving a noble cause allows their emotions to unconsciously take over.
Canopus not only was aware of this but had seen it happen with his own eyes hundreds of times. He knew his words would have no effect on Vega, but he still felt compelled to try.
“The commander said she never betrayed the Stars!” he shouted. “Your actions are what’s treasonous, Captain Vega!”
Vega cast the weighting-type spell, Double Press, in response. This spell generated gravitational fields on a flat plane, applying pressure from two directions simultaneously. It was typically used to crush a target.
Casting two parallel weighting-type Press spells, Canopus neutralized Double Press. Instead of countering Vega’s attack directly, he forced the spells to cancel each other out.
“But how?!” Vega gasped in surprise.
Vega knew of the spell, thanks to the Stars’ training program. It was Canopus’s use of such a complex technique in the heat of battle that caught her off guard. To do this, a magician either had to read their opponent’s magic quickly enough to cast their own spell at the appropriate coordinates, or accurately predict the spell their opponent would use. The former involved a difficult spell identical or at least similar to Program Dispersion. The latter meant Canopus would have had to anticipate Vega’s attack.
Her surprise gave Canopus the opening he needed. He approached not with the intention to slash at her with Atomic Divider, but to incapacitate her with a sustained electric shock.
After taking four steps, he froze unexpectedly. Without looking back, he cast Mirror Shield to his four o’clock. This spell, designed to deflect high-energy lasers, did just that to Regulus’s shot. At the same time, Canopus’s own laser grazed Regulus’s cheek.
A cold sweat spread across Regulus’s back. He hadn’t expected such quick reflexes from his colleague. He scurried away, weapon in hand.
But Canopus had not yet actively attacked. Regulus wasn’t sure if the major couldn’t see him, or if he was instead choosing to prioritize Vega and Arcturus. Regulus had been sniping until now, but his colleague’s unexpected counterattack put the pressure on.
Although Regulus’s specialty skill, Laser Sniping, allowed him to attack stealthily, his opponents would be alerted to his location after a single shot. While there was a similar risk with traditional bullet-based sniping, conventional magic could be cast from behind cover for increased stealth. Regulus was well aware of his attack’s flaw. After each shot, he swiftly repositioned himself with his rifle-shaped weapon in hand. He also minimized moving with magic to avoid detection, while still constantly changing locations to ensure his opponent couldn’t easily pinpoint him. The fact that Canopus could do nothing more than counter his attacks spoke to the effectiveness of Regulus’s strategy. That said, any attack, even if they were purely reactive, still took a mental toll.
The lasers deflected with Mirror Shield never failed to graze Regulus somewhere, each time sending a chill down the lieutenant’s spine. Laser beams traveled at the speed of light, meaning there was virtually no time between the shot being reflected and it hitting its target. It was impossible for Regulus to cast a shield to intercept the beams in time.
Energy projectiles could be defended against by two types of shields. The first blocked a certain energy threshold, typical of conventional defense shields. The second—which included Mirror Shield—reflected electromagnetic waves.
This latter was more effective against lasers. Mirror Shield only reflected incoming light—it allowed light out. If Regulus cast Mirror Shield himself, it wouldn’t hinder his Laser Sniping. Maintaining the shield, however, would effectively reveal his position, turning his sniping to nothing more than a long-range attack.
In principle, Regulus could deploy Mirror Shield just before sniping to intercept Canopus’s counterattacks. Laser Sniping involved an inevitable time lag between casting and firing. In other words, deploying Mirror Shield immediately after initiating Laser Sniping wouldn’t pose a practical disadvantage.
Unfortunately, Regulus’s weapon didn’t include a mechanism that allowed him to do this. Without one, Regulus wouldn’t be able to cast Mirror Shield quickly enough. His parasite-enhanced magic may have allowed him to manipulate energy projectiles, but the benefits didn’t extend to his shield casting.
If his target were Lina, there would be no issue. To avoid collateral damage, any light reflected by her Mirror Shield was set to land on the ground two meters ahead, regardless of the incoming attack’s angle. While it was undoubtedly a sophisticated technique, the naïveté behind it rendered her much less of a threat to her opponents.
Canopus’s Mirror Shield, on the other hand, was configured to reflect energy projectiles at almost one-eighty degrees. Since it wasn’t perfectly precise, Regulus had managed to avoid any direct hits so far. However, there was no guarantee that his lucky streak would continue.
Accounting for instability caused Canopus’s Mirror Shield to reflect light at an imprecise angle. In other words, the shield was set to reflect light at one-eighty degrees, give or take three degrees. When this margin of error aligned unfavorably, the shield would reflect laser beams directly at Regulus. His resilience was slowly being worn down by the fear that one would eventually land a direct hit on him.
About two hundred meters away from Canopus and Vega, Lieutenant Layla Deneb from Team 4 and Lieutenant Ralph Algol from Team 1 were engaged in combat. Using movement spells, Deneb had leaped onto Lina’s vehicle, but Algol, who had been hiding in the truck bed, ambushed her, causing them both to tumble to the ground.
The two quickly got to their feet and began fighting without exchanging a single word. Deneb believed Algol was helping the traitor Lina. She lunged at Algol, who was happy to fight back regardless of Deneb’s allegiances.
Deneb fired her handgun. But all of a sudden, Algol was no longer in the line of fire. He had rushed close enough to brandish a twelve-inch combat knife with a single-edged blade. Unlike an army knife, it lacked a tapered point and had a curved hilt on its spine, possibly for trapping an opponent’s blade. It was a sophisticated weapon better suited for a knife fighter than a magician.
Deneb and Algol were both close-combat magicians specializing in high-speed movement magic. Deneb had already cast a series of movement spells to shift her position continuously—a technique that made use of the flight magic technology developed by Taurus Silver. Flight magic allowed the caster to glide nimbly by intermittently activating gravity-control magic for less than a second.
It took effect only when the magician intended to move by propelling the body linearly. If the magician didn’t consciously define their destination, the spell would remain inactive and disperse.
Flight magic technology fixed any lag in CAD operation and allowed close-combat magicians, like Deneb, to make sudden movements without delay. With such magic continuously at her fingertips, Deneb could have evaded Algol’s attacks whenever she wanted. However, she chose instead to intercept Algol’s knife with the knuckle guard in her left hand. Even if she had moved backward, Algol—who used the same flight-enhanced movement magic—would immediately catch up. Evasion could lead to a stalemate. Above all, Deneb was itching for a fight.
She was deeply convinced of Lina’s betrayal. And nothing enraged her more than the commander tarnishing her inherited title. The Sirius name represented the military magicians of the USNA. Betraying that was nothing less than a black mark on national pride. Deneb’s violence was driven by righteous anger, however misguided her reasoning was.
Once again, she aimed her handgun at Algol. His left hand immediately shot up to block the gun between his knife’s hilt and blade. The long, curved frontal hilt wasn’t typical of a regular combat knife. In fact, it more closely resembled a parrying dagger or Okinawan martial arts baton.
Algol used his knife to twist the gun outward. Deneb released the weapon to avoid a sprained wrist and swiftly retreated several meters before the gun hit the ground.
“What the hell was that?!” she screamed.
Algol cackled eerily.
“Didn’t know knives could be used like this?”
The long hilt allowed him to grapple with his opponent’s weapon, much like a parrying dagger. His combat style shone through his attachment to the blade.
“You knife maniac!” Deneb spat.
Algol cackled again.
“Doesn’t matter if this is a gun fight or a knife fight when someone’s as half-baked as you!”
He shifted, and only his shadow remained where he had stood. In the next moment, he appeared behind Deneb. Then, with a deft motion, he slashed diagonally. Deneb tried to parry with the knife in her left hand, but Algol subtly shifted the trajectory of his own weapon, intentionally clashing his blade with Deneb’s. He slid the knives together, placing the two in a deadlock. He took aim at Deneb’s exposed left side. Her face twisted with fear and urgency.