“I hear that His Excellency the Blue Knight was the same at first. But he is without a doubt our hero,” the captain said.
“Yes, I suppose so...” Harumi said with a small smile and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was no longer that unconfident girl.
“Then I will hold my head up high too. I will fight too, for the sake of the people.”
“I was sure you would say that,” the captain answered and saluted once more.
“We’re advancing,” Harumi said. “Display all of the Imperial Army’s power as we advance. Our allies are exhausted, and our way of fighting shall replenish their strength!”
“As you wish, my princess!”
Harumi would later be called a princess of illegitimate birth, and according to the Imperial Army’s official records this would be her first battle.
Harumi’s attack began to take a major turn. The Liberation Army was forced to split their attention between enemies on both sides, which stalled them. Clan and Maki took advantage of that opening to operate behind the scenes once more. They only had one target: the antiair weapons that were keeping Theia grounded.
“Theiamillis-san, you can fly now!” Clan said.
“You got them?!”
“Yes. Not all of them, but with so few left, you can handle them with your skill,” Maki answered.
“Good job!”
Hearing their report, Theia shot up into the sky. Like they’d said, the antiair attacks had greatly decreased, and she would be able to handle them by herself.
“Koutarou! It looks like we can handle things on our end! How are things for you?!” Theia asked.
“I’m about to finish things up here too! Sorry, but I won’t be able to help you out!” Koutarou replied.
He and the others fighting the gray monsters were quickly reaching the end. Yurika’s efforts had allowed for the small monsters to be wiped out, so Koutarou could focus on the big one.
“That’s fine! We will meet later!” Theia said.
“Yeah!”
The call with Theia ended, and he pointed his sword at the monster once more. The giant monster was twice War Emperor’s size, but despite that it wasn’t slow. It also had regenerative powers, allowing it to ignore Yurika’s acid swamp. They couldn’t let their guard down around it.
“Yurika, how much longer will the swamp last?” Koutarou asked.
“Only another thirty seconds, and I don’t have the strength to cast it again!” Yurika answered.
“Got it!”
Koutarou moved forward with War Emperor. The giant monster could ignore the acid swamp, but it wasn’t unaffected. It was taking damage from the acid and was constantly regenerating, meaning that it was weakened by the energy it was using. So Koutarou wanted to finish things in the thirty seconds they had left.
“Yurika, we’ll finish this with the next attack!” Koutarou said.
“Okay, please give me five seconds!”
“I’m counting on you!”
Yurika was going to use the last of her mana for a final spell, and she needed five seconds to cast it. Of course, the enemy wasn’t just going to stand there and wait for it. Judging that it wouldn’t be able to catch War Emperor with its speed, the monster created solid bullets of chaos and shot them at the machine.
“Urk, that’s a good plan!”
The bullets weren’t rapidly fired like from a machine gun; instead they were shot out all at once in a spread pattern like from a shotgun. Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to dodge all of them, Koutarou braced himself with the shield in his left arm. It was a distortion field, just like with the Blue Knight.
Thanks to his quick reaction, the power of chaos just barely missed hitting him directly. However, the distortion field was collapsing. The power of chaos made everything hazy. Not even a distortion field was an exception.
“ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR!!!”
Seeing the weakened distortion field, the monster readied another volley.
Oh no! I won’t be able to block a second one! Koutarou thought.
The distortion field would completely fall apart if it took another shot. Signaltin’s power could block it, but then he would temporarily lose the energy to attack. The thirty second time limit would run out if he waited for that energy to recover.
“Let me help.”
At that moment, there was a small explosion in front of the monster’s face. Having no small monsters to deal with, Nana had thrown a grenade. Naturally, that wouldn’t do any damage to the giant monster, but it was enough to disrupt its senses.
“Thank you!” Koutarou said.
“You owe me one, Satomi-san.”
“Let’s go, Yurika!”
“Yes please, Satomi-san!”
The monster of chaos came to a momentary stop thanks to the explosion. Koutarou made War Emperor take a drastic turn and attack the monster. His choice of attack was a stab. It would make the most use of War Emperor’s speed and mass.
“RAAAAAAAGGHHH!”
The monster brushed away the flames of the explosion and moved its head around to find Koutarou. It instinctively understood the danger. When it cast its glance to the left, its murky eyes found War Emperor and Koutarou within it. The flaw with a thrust was that movements were direct, which meant that a scatter shot would be very effective. Moreover, the bullets of chaos were still floating around it. If the monster had a consciousness like a human’s, it would have been convinced of its victory.
“ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR!!!”
The monster launched the bullets, and War Emperor charged forward. The bullets directly hit War Emperor, or so it seemed.
“You really are a genius, Yurika,” Koutarou said.
“That makes me very happy. You almost never praise me, Satomi-san,” Yurika answered.
Before the monster knew it, War Emperor was behind it, its sword impaling its back. A bright white light spread out from the tip of the sword, causing the monster to lose its shape.
“Brilliant, my pupil...”
Nana, who had seen everything from up close, was surprised. It hadn’t been Koutarou who had stabbed the monster of chaos. Yurika had used a short-distance teleport to move War Emperor, resulting in the sword stabbing into it. Or rather, it wasn’t so much “stabbing” as the teleport having placed the sword inside of it. With Yurika’s remaining mana, she could have only teleported War Emperor a few meters, even with the support of Blue Line. The teleportation had also avoided the enemy attack, making it perfectly timed. With Signaltin’s power unleashed in the depths of the monster’s body, it simply stood no chance, and the enemy vanished without a trace.
Nana couldn’t do anything but agree with Koutarou. Yurika was without a doubt a genius, and Nana was proud of her.