Chapter 71: First Victory of the 'Inter-School Match'

Having taken sufficient distance from Alfheim, Winchester hid in a suitable rocky area. She returned the Spell Casters she held in both hands to her waist and readied the long-range rifle ‘Horizon’ on her back once more.

“Now then, it’s about time I finish it off.”

Although she had distanced herself quite a bit, she checked on the red and blue machines fighting on the highway with a sidelong glance. Advancing and retreating, it seemed their abilities were evenly matched. Their battle might drag on. In that case, depending on the outcome of this match, it might bring a conclusion to their fight as well, Quadra thought. Shion would probably hate it, but once I clean up Alfheim, I’ll forcefully intervene. Quadra shifted Winchester into precision shooting mode and took aim. Alfheim was hidden behind the shadow of a rock, but a rock of that size could be blown away with explosive shells. Don, don, don! she pulled the trigger continuously, aiming roughly at the rock. Under a bombardment like a cannon, the rock shattered into pieces in the blink of an eye, and Alfheim revealed its figure.

“Gotcha!”

Winchester’s bullet, which should have sniped the cockpit, surprisingly hit a large fragment of the shattered rock fluttering in the air, slightly deviating from its intended course. Even so, the bullet hit Alfheim’s right shoulder, and the shoulder armor blew off grandly with an explosion. Alfheim’s right arm from the shoulder down hung limply, becoming completely immobile.

“Tch, missed! You’re lucky!”

To think it would hit a fragment of the rock I destroyed. Maybe I shot into it a bit too much, Quadra thought, looking at the scenery visible from the scope. Fine fragments shattered like a sand cloud scattered, making visibility poor.

“…Nnn?”

Feeling a sense of incongruity, Quadra deactivated precision shooting mode and severed the synchronization between the main camera and the scope camera.

“Visibility is poor…? Eh, what is this?”

Small white granules were reflecting on both the main camera and the footage sent from the scope camera, slightly obstructing visibility. Thinking mud or clay might have gotten on the camera, she wiped the main camera with the washer, but the small white granules on the camera spread out thinly, making visibility even worse.

“Wait, what’s going on?!” 『Do you know of ‘Slime Powder’?』

To the panicking Quadra, Lirisha’s voice from Alfheim reached her.

『I didn’t know about it either, but apparently it’s dried and powdered slime, and in the frontiers, it’s sometimes used instead of glue. I heard a tactic of dispersing this using wind magic to rob a Frame Gear’s vision existed in the Magical Great War Ragnarok twenty-five years ago. Afterwards, countermeasures via wind magic and special washer fluids for slime removal were created, so apparently that tactic quickly fell out of use, but… are you prepared with countermeasures?』 “Slime?!”

Lirisha had used wind magic to scatter Slime Powder onto Winchester from above para-para without Quadra noticing. Like grains of sand, it adhered not only to the machine but also to the cameras, gradually and steadily burying her vision. And then the washer. Having gained water and spreading over a wide area while thinning out, the Slime Powder turned the vision of Winchester’s main and sub-cameras into a cloudy, white, turbid state. Right now, Winchester’s vision was like having frosted glass pasted over it. If this were a real battle, she might have been able to cope by opening the cockpit hatch and looking with her naked eyes. But this is a battle in a virtual space. Opening the cockpit is meaningless. To begin with, opening the cockpit during a match is considered a forfeit. In the midst of that, an emerald green mass moved to the right within the blurry all-surround monitor.

“Guh…!”

Unable to take aim in this state, Quadra pulled the trigger blindly. What she is shooting are explosive shells. Even if the aim is slightly off, she should be able to deal damage. Explosions from the explosive shells are occurring, but the emerald green mass thought to be Alfheim is still moving. And she knew even if she didn’t want to that it was gradually approaching this way. Judging that taking distance was useless in this state, Quadra let go of the long-range rifle ‘Horizon’ and took out the two Spell Casters from her waist. These can rapid-fire better, and if she lands a hit at point-blank range, it will cause major damage. It’s not like she can’t see at all. She continuously fired the Spell Casters in both hands toward the blurry emerald green mass. Unexpectedly, she receives an impact of some sort on her shoulder. It’s likely a magic attack. She took her eyes off for an instant, but perhaps her attack hit too, as the emerald green mass stopped moving while hiding in what seemed to be a rock shadow.

“Chance…!”

Quadra charged at Alfheim, prepared to take some hits. In this vision, the longer it drags on, the more disadvantageous it becomes. I must finish it here. Quadra returned the Spell Caster in her right hand to her waist, took the hatchet for close-quarters combat from Winchester’s back waist in her hand, and swung it down aiming at Alfheim hiding in the rock shadow.

“Gotcha!”

The moment she swung the hatchet down, a crisp paan! sound rang out, and Alfheim burst into pieces.

“Wha, a decoy…?!”

What Winchester had swung its hatchet down upon was a dummy balloon inflated to look exactly like Alfheim. Normally, at this point-blank range, one would rarely fall for a decoy. But with her vision obstructed and feeling impatient to settle the match quickly, Quadra had completely fallen into Lirisha’s trap. The real Alfheim, which had been hiding in the rock shadow further back, revealed its figure in front of Winchester. The chest armor hatch opened, and the twin gatling gun there spat fire towards Winchester.

“Checkmate!”

“Guh!”

The hatchet Winchester threw out of desperation grazed Alfheim’s head. Even with its head damaged, Alfheim’s gatling gun continued rotating without stopping, relentlessly turning the Winchester in front of it into a honeycomb. Eventually, when the gatling gun ran out of bullets and only spun emptily with a karakara sound, the battered Winchester fell backward onto the ground.

“I… won…?”

Looking at the fallen Winchester, Lirisha muttered to herself inside the cockpit. In the next instant, an electronic sound Pi────t! echoed throughout the cockpit.

『’Academy’ side, player Lirisha Millian, has defeated ‘School’ side, player Quadra Bash. Map data will be released.』

With the referee’s announcement, Lirisha was finally able to taste the realization of victory. Her first victory in the ‘Inter-School Match’. She was able to score the opening point. The joy of having accomplished that herself washed over her now.

“I did it…!”

That being said, it was a victory by a hair’s breadth. If the decoy had been noticed there, she didn’t know what would have happened. She won, alright, but her right arm is heavily damaged, her head is lightly damaged, she used up all her gatling gun bullets, and she doesn’t have much magic power left either. If it were a flesh-and-blood body, she would be covered in wounds.

『Che… I won’t lose next time~.』

Quadra left those words behind, the light faded from Winchester’s camera eyes, and it completely ceased functioning. Fuu, Lirisha, letting out a sigh of relief, decided to check the released map data.

“Mu… It doesn’t go that smoothly, does it…”

Haa, she sighed once more. Surprisingly, the map data sent from Winchester was, of all things, the map of the area Lirisha was currently in. Neither the ‘Crown’ nor the ‘Home Base’ was there. Unfortunately, it was a ‘dud’. She shared the obtained map data with her teammates. It had no value as a map, but it was proof of victory. It was also a message saying ‘Follow my lead’. Now then, Lirisha thought. Contrary to expectations, her match was settled earlier than Carrol’s. Originally, she should head to assist Carrol, but Alfheim is in this state. It can’t fight properly, and if she messes up, she would likely be easily subjected to a counterattack. If she were to be defeated, her map data would be released, and the position of the ‘Crown’ might be exposed. Join the battle or retreat. Lirisha thinks inside the cockpit.

『Lirisha, congratulations on your first victory. So, what’s the situation over there?』

With good timing, a communication from Carrol came in. Even though she’s still in combat, she has quite a lot of leeway, Lirisha thought.

“Right arm heavily damaged, head lightly damaged. Magic power remaining is about ten percent. It was a barely-won victory.” 『Then, retreat immediately and switch at the ‘Home Base’. If I lose, be prepared to intercept them over there with Lumiel.』 “Oh my, do you lack the confidence to defeat him?” 『Well, he’s quite strong, you know.』

Hearing Carrol’s thoughts, Lirisha’s mind was made up.

“Then I pray for your success in battle. I will be waiting for your report of victory at the ‘Home Base’.” 『I’ll do my best. Ah, and also, this might not be necessary, but…』 “Eh?”

Finally, Carrol made a proposal to Lirisha. It was one of those desperate measures where she didn’t really know if it would work or not. Lirisha turned her back to Carrol and made Alfheim run. She decided to take a slight detour to execute Carrol’s proposal.

“…It might be useless, but I should do what I can.”

Thinking she might be a little late returning to the ‘Home Base’, Lirisha let out a small sigh.