“He turned on us?!” Yu’s voice reached them via satellite link. “I mean, it’s not like he was ever with us, but I really wasn’t expecting him to be throwing potshots at Natsuki’s droid right at the eleventh hour!”
“I know,” said Ein. “It doesn’t seem like him.”
She was still at the top of the control tower. Speaker Nadal and Executive Sakuma stood nearby, having rushed to the clone princess’s side. Meanwhile, high in the atmosphere, things weren’t quite going to plan. Leo Makishima, Devicer Seven, had fired upon Natsuki’s MUV Avatar: Vritra.
“That boy is too clever to choose now of all times to play the fool,” she continued. “I thought that we might have finally had his cooperation, but there’s nothing for it now.”
The two-hundred-meter-long droid of the Dragon King had transmitted video and data on the situation. Leo had indeed elected to ignore the encroaching meteors in order to fire photon lasers at his own ally.
“I’ll go stop him!”
“It’s up to you, Three!” Natsuki chimed in from the reclaimed land by the coast. “I’ll work Vritra’s twin and burn up every last one of those rocks from down here!”
They didn’t have time for this. She was supposed to work with the Mark VII, and it was unclear if she’d be able to handle the task alone.
Ein pulled the Holy Shroud tight around herself as she looked up at the sky. Where her partner was currently soaring ever higher.
The plan had been for Yu to take the rear, stay on standby at an altitude of about ten kilometers, and destroy any meteors that happened to make it through. Leo had gone and tossed all that out the window, though. So on his way up, Yu equipped three types of droids to the Mark III. To his arms, MUV Crow Gauntlets with razor sharp talons. To his legs, a pair of long, metal casings outfitted with guns and rocket launchers—MUV Launcher Boots. On his torso, two upside-down V-shaped armor plates that fixed together around his chest and back, creating wings like a jet plane—MUV Wing Cloak.
Yu faced Leo for the second time, armed to the teeth in Full-Armor form. The white-haired Devicer was indistinguishable within the enormous, glowing avatar of Agni he inhabited. Although this made his snarl imperceptible, his voice came clearly over the commlink that instantly connected the two Devicers.
“There you are, Three!” he shouted. “Here to show me a good time?!”
“Is that what this is to you?!” Yu shot back, incredulous.
“You heard me. I want an opponent worth my time! And right now, you and the redhead are looking like my best bets!”
“That’s it?! That’s why you ruined our plan?! You can’t be serious!”
“Oh, I’m serious,” Leo growled. “I’m more serious than I’ve EVER BEEN!” The light giant crossed its arms and emitted a superheating ray of photons. Yu dodged out of the way by shooting upwards. “I’m going to beat you. I’m going to win and be stronger than ever before!”
A volley of photon lasers followed, cutting Yu and the Mark III off anywhere they tried to run.
He’s predicting my every move!
Was that even possible? Yu knew that the Devicer’s mind and the Asura’s onboard intelligence melded during armorization, and that this allowed for superhuman reaction times. Otherwise, combat at supersonic speeds would have been physically impossible. But that wasn’t the same as precognition.
No, this had to be all Leo. He was reading Yu’s movements through sheer instinct and aiming with split-second timing. Credit where it was due, the boy had a natural talent.
“Rudra!” Yu cried. “Counterattack!”
Full-Armor mode offered the Mark III a remarkably expanded arsenal, and around the calf area of its legs were eight barrels from which supersonic guided missiles would fire. Each responded at once to Yu’s command, launching sixteen rockets in total that raced towards the giant from every angle.
They struck true, but Leo’s frenzied laughter cut through the explosions. “You’ll need more than that to crack the Photon-Frame!”
“So it’s not just bigger,” Yu mumbled to himself. “It’s stronger too.”
The giant spread its lustrous wings. Its very body was the force field itself, and it was even tougher than last time. Leo might as well have been locked inside an impregnable fortress. One crammed with cannons of every size at every embrasure. The Mark III weaved around one such new attack as the colossus of light emitted electromagnetic heat waves from its empty eye sockets. Invisible and deadly, it could incinerate anything with a single glance.
Yu zigzagged out of range of the heat waves. But Leo immediately followed with a photon laser, and it would have landed had Yu not been intentionally moving erratically. The kid really was a prodigious marksman, and he had a fiery passion to match his skill. If only it weren’t the uncontrolled blaze that it was. His hunger for victory was downright malevolent, his emotions unpredictable, his temper explosive.
Professional soccer saw a few players like that. Being a pro meant being at the top, having peak fitness. Add that to an insatiable craving for being number one and you had a downright demon on the field, aggressive to a terrifying degree.
The question was, what could you do against such a monster? Yu Ichinose was not the type to slam an unstoppable force against an immovable object and expect a solution.
“We’re not going to win at his game, so we need to play a different one. New strategy, Rudra!” Yu cried.
The perfect tactic for one play wouldn’t apply to a different one. Yu’s style was knowing when to change to fit the current state of the game. Adaptability.
The Prayer Wheel whirred and the black and gold Asura Frame accelerated. Lasers, heat waves, and all manner of nanomachine missiles assailed him from all sides in an attempt to slow him down, but Yu swerved through it like he was dodging droplets of rain. The King of the Storm moved as the wind itself, and like the lightning that coursed through his clouds, he flew right up to the enemy.