Chapter 70: The Battle of the Central Route

“That was dangerous… If I hadn’t heard the opponent’s information from Nero-san beforehand, I might have taken a direct hit and been retired.”

Lirisha, who had deployed a defensive wall of wind magic over the cockpit and head just in case, let out a small sigh of relief.

『Reaching from that distance is a bit of a threat… What should we do?』

“I apologize, but I will leave the rank number four red Ritter Frame to you, Carrol-san. In my Alfheim, if I am drawn into close-quarters combat, I will likely end up purely on the defensive and eventually lose. Please defeat it while I somehow hold back that Clock Frame.”

『That’s quite a tough order… But I guess we have no choice but to do it.』

If Carrol’s Siegfried, which has a shield and a method to defend against sniping, heads towards Quadra’s Winchester, it might be possible to defeat it. However, if Lirisha’s Alfheim took on Shion’s Ignis, the one defeated would be Alfheim. Ultimately, it would become a battle between Ignis and Siegfried.

In that case, Lirisha judged it better to hold down Winchester with Alfheim, have Siegfried and Ignis fight from the beginning, and if Siegfried wins, have her join this side.

『The sniper machine veered off the highway. Is it planning to hide and snipe?』

“I won’t let it do that. Then, Carrol-san, I pray for your success in battle.”

『Same to you.』

Alfheim veered off the highway and headed towards the rocky area where Winchester presumably hid.

Carrol ran Siegfried straight ahead, and eventually confronted the ‘School’s’ red Ritter Frame that came into view nearby, Ignis piloted by Shion Blitz, head-on.

Both are Ritter Frames. Weapons are a long sword and a shield in the left hand.

Both were very similar machines. The colors were contrasting as well, ultramarine and red.

“Shion Blitz… Yuna-senpai’s younger brother. It seems he won’t be dealt with easily…”

Shion is the younger brother of the ‘Academy’ fifth-year, rank number eight, [Iron Hammer] Yuna Blitz.

Yuna is in the same Black Tortoise Dormitory as Carrol, and knowing her younger brother was chosen as a member for the ‘Inter-School Match’, she leaked various pieces of information about him to Carrol, her junior in the same dorm. An inside leak.

Coincidentally, Carrol was the one among the ‘Academy’ first-years who knew the person named Shion Blitz best.

Is it the decree of fate, or the mischief of a demon? Carrol drew the long sword from Siegfried’s waist, thinking she would find out once they fought.

The opposing Ignis similarly drew its long sword from its scabbard, brought the hand gripping the sword in front of its chest, and held it with the tip pointing towards the heavens.

It is an etiquette commonly performed during knightly duels.

I see, the Blitz family is a lineage of Belfast knights. It’s equivalent to declaring he will fight fair and square as a knight.

To be honest, Carrol thought that was completely meaningless.

It might be one thing for a general duel, but this is the ‘Inter-School Match’. They couldn’t complain even if a surprise attack or interference came from anywhere. In this situation, knightly etiquette has no meaning.

“But, I don’t dislike that sort of thing.”

Carrol also held her sword out front and made Siegfried strike an etiquette pose similar to Ignis.

『I appreciate it. I will fight with all my might.』

“The same goes for here. Because Yuna-senpai told me holding back is unnecessary.”

『Kuh, Sister did…? …Did she say anything else?』

“No, not particularly. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, so rest easy.”

『What did you hear?!』

Piercing through Shion’s opening as he got upset, Siegfried slashed in. By the way, that was a bluff on Carrol’s part. She hadn’t heard any of his dark history from Yuna.

What she heard from Yuna were things like what kind of personality Shion has, and what kind of tactics he prefers.

He has an earnest, honest, and arguably simplely honest personality, taking pride in his knightly lineage. He purely loves swords, and apparently became good friends with Kokonoe Kojuro right after enrolling.

Because he is serious, he is also weak to feints and unexpected attacks. A similar type to Kokonoe Kojuro. Birds of a feather flock together, I suppose.

Ignis caught the slashed-in sword of Siegfried with the shield in its left hand.

Pushing the shield forcefully, as Siegfried was about to lose balance, a thrust from Ignis attacked.

Siegfried avoided it with a spin kurun, and while making a half-rotation, unleashed a horizontal sweeping strike using centrifugal force, but it was dodged by Ignis jumping backward.

“You’re good.”

『You too.』

As if declaring the end of testing the waters, sword strikes at full power were repeated.

There wasn’t that much difference in their skill levels; Siegfried had a slight edge in speed, and Ignis in power.

The moment she swings her sword, she is certain the opponent will catch it. The moment she thrusts her sword, she has a premonition it will definitely be dodged.

Even though they are strangers, they understand each other’s hands. Both were experiencing such a strange sensation.

Of course, if they lose concentration, they would take a merciless strike. To prevent that, they sharpen their senses and move as one with the machine.

Every time they exchange sword strikes, both their voltages rise and their moods elevate.

“This is fun!”

『Yeah!』

With the setting sun at their backs, the red and blue machines continued fighting as if dancing.

◇ ◇ ◇

A bullet was fired toward Alfheim, which tried to peek out from the shadow of the rocky area. Lirisha pulled her head back in the nick of time, somehow dodging the bullet, but because this has been repeating since earlier, she can’t make a move.

“Kuh, I can’t get close…”

Inside Alfheim, Lirisha gnashed her teeth in frustration.

Earlier there was distance, so she managed to stave it off with a wind defensive wall, but at this distance, it’s doubtful whether she can deflect the bullet.

“[Earth, Come Forth, Earthen Defensive Wall, Earth Wall]!”

She created an earth wall tens of meters ahead, and using it as a relay point, moved further to the rocky area ahead. Even during that time, sniping bullets were fired, and their accuracy increased as the distance closed.

Creating earth walls, [Earth Wall], consumes a fair amount of magic power depending on the size. Repeating this to approach the opponent is quite tough.

How to fight a sniper machine depends on how you can pinpoint the opponent’s position and close the distance.

Fortunately, in a rocky area like this, places to hide are limited, and the opponent’s position is known. Now, if only she can close the distance and get within her own range…

Currently, Lirisha’s Alfheim is a mid-range magic combat type.

Lirisha isn’t someone with a large magic capacity, so she can’t blindly fire magic one after another doka-doka. Thinking she must endure until she reaches a distance where she can definitely finish it, she was cautiously closing the distance.

Furthermore, she also needs to keep its attention drawn to herself. Otherwise, there’s a possibility Carrol, who is fighting over there, might be sniped.

Well, from the perspective of Quadra, who knows Shion’s personality, she knew he would definitely get angry if she interfered with his duel by sniping, so she didn’t intend to do anything unnecessary until the very limit, though.

“Well, even saying that, at this rate, she looks like she’ll be able to close the distance, huh~. Let’s attack a bit more boldly.”

Quadra replaced the rifle’s magazine and took aim at the rocky area where Alfheim was hiding.

Pulling the trigger without waiting for Alfheim to come out, the fired bullet hit the rocky area and simultaneously caused a massive explosion.

It is an explosive shell enchanted with [Explosion].

The rocky area was blown to pieces, exposing Alfheim’s figure to the setting sun.

She fired a second shot aiming there. An explosion occurs again. However, before that, Alfheim fled from there and hid its figure behind an even larger rock shadow.

“Running away is useless~.”

With a few explosive shells fired doga, dogan!, the rocky area loses its shape. Alfheim only ran and hid, having absolutely no leeway to get closer.

For Lirisha, she was hoping to buy time and have Carrol somehow defeat Shion and come to this side. Of course, there is the opposite possibility, but in that case, she intended to retreat without hesitation and wait in ambush together with Lumiel protecting the ‘Home Base’.

However, in this situation, waiting leisurely for Carrol is close to impossible. She came to the conclusion that she must defeat that Clock Frame alone.

“[Wind, Come Forth, Piercing Barrage, Wind Arrow]!”

Alfheim unleashed blades of wind magic while jumping out from the rock shadow.

Her magic with the longest flight distance, [Wind Arrow], would barely reach the opponent.

The unleashed wind blades did not hit the opponent’s machine, Winchester, but hit the rock next to it.

It didn’t hit, but it reached. This is a major progress.

Due to this, the advantage of Quadra being able to attack one-sidedly from her side disappeared.

Winchester moves to put distance between them. To begin with, a Mountain stage is a bad match for a sniper-type machine.

Because there are few places to hide, it inevitably forces one to consider attacking while exposing themselves.

As for Quadra herself, she thought she should have been on defense together with the ‘Guardian’ protecting the ‘Crown’. Though there’s nothing that can be done about it now.

When she showed her back to take distance, [Wind Arrows] flew from behind as if not letting her escape.

“Scary, huh. But it’s not like I can’t fight at mid-range, you know?”

She temporarily stowed the long-range rifle ‘Horizon’ on the mount latch on her back, and drew two Spell Casters (Magic Guns) from her waist.

Magic bullets are fired from the two muzzles. Unlike ‘Horizon’, which fires live bullets, the Spell Casters fired by magic power have no worry of running out of ammo. They can continue firing as long as magic power lasts.

Winchester fires magic bullets in rapid succession. Alfheim hides behind the shadow of the rocky area to let them pass.

Unlike the explosive shells from earlier, there’s no worry of the cover being destroyed, so Lirisha decided to calm down for a moment.

The opponent likely intends to put distance between them again like this and switch back to sniping with the long-range rifle. If this is repeated, it was clearer than seeing fire that this side would eventually be defeated.

“To think I’d end up using the trump card recommended by Lara-san this early… Things don’t go as you want.”

Lirisha removed a cartridge disguised as a grenade launcher magazine attached to Alfheim’s waist. I wonder if this will go well… I must do it without the opponent noticing.

Lirisha carefully took out what she had put inside the cartridge and began activating a certain magic.