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“Damn it, you just had to butt in!”

Ignis spat his curse, and though Estea said nothing in reply, the hostility between them was plain for anyone to see.

Ignis simply could not grasp when to pull back. Obsessed with outshining Estea, he had no thought at all of fighting as part of a team.

The truth was, without Estea’s cover attack, Hom would have already brought him down.

“I’ll take you on, Hom!”
“Gladly!”

Estea drew Hom away from me, leading her into a duel. Since Altered had been developed specifically to counter Estea, I left her to Hom and focused on observing their clash.

“And here it is! A one-on-one between Selem Salkh and Altered! Both mecha soldiers with near-equal performance ratings! The outcome will be decided entirely by the skill of their operators!”

Hom dodged Estea’s sword strikes while driving in her own punches. She showed no sign of being overwhelmed—the two of them were locked in a near-even fight.

“Damn it! Altered is my prey!”

What I had to keep an eye on was Ignis. He would stoop to any dirty trick for victory. Whether he truly understood that he couldn’t defeat Estea in a straight fight or not, all he seemed to care about was drawing attention in this battle.

“Just you wait. I’ll cut you clean in half.”

Right now, Hom was fully focused on Estea, leaving her back wide open. If her charged cloth was targeted in this state, it would be bad.

“Don’t you dare ignore meeeeee!!”

Without a chant, Ignis flared up the Red Saw’s flames while boosting the thrusters of his Duos.

At the same moment, I activated my own thrusters, cutting in between him and Hom.

“It looked like Ignis Dulan’s surprise attack was about to laaaaaand—but wait! Arkecius’ drill is locking down the Red Saw’s hiiiiiiiiilt!”
“Hah! What can a mere Subordinate Unit hope to do on its own!?”

I used my thrusters to slip past the sweeping Red Saw and pulled back to gain distance. Perceptive as ever, Hom quickly switched positions with Estea, and the two continued trading fierce blows.

Across the diagonal of the arena, Alfe and Melua’s magic duel still raged on.

Everything was going according to plan. We had managed to split up the Student Council team and force the battle into one-on-one matches.

“Keep your eyes on me! Or are you begging to be split in half!?”
“Not really. But this—this was the opening I’ve been waiting for.”

On my lap, the pages of Ars Magna began to turn.

“Hah!? What the hell are you babbling about!? The one wide open is your Subordinate Unit! I’ll crush it just like you want!”
“Ignis! Attacks on the cockpit are forbidden!!”

Beyond Ignis, who was raising his Red Saw, it felt like I heard Estea’s scream.

But if Ignis really intended to strike at the cockpit, then that might actually work in my favor.

“O thick mass of ice, rise before me! Block their blade and shield me—Frost Divide!”

Ars Magna revealed a defensive spell, one that conjured a towering wall of ice.

“Hah! Begging for your life now won’t save you!”
“Does this really look like begging to you?”

I hadn’t cast the spell to protect my machine. My aim was something entirely different.

“What the hell is this!?”
“This is astonishing!! A colossal wall of ice has divided the Colosseum!? Just what kind of strategy is thisss!?”

Ignis and Johnny shouted in shock as the rising wall of ice carved through the battlefield. This wall was far beyond the scale of the original spell—an impossible barrier I had made real. Such a feat was possible only because of my Aether Overproduction Syndrome.

“On the scale of a Magic Soldier! A massive ice wall has been raised right across the arenaaa!!”

I had manifested a cross-shaped wall roughly two hundred meters long, bisecting the entire colosseum.

With the colosseum completely divided, the match had been forced into a series of one-on-one duels.

“Hah! Fool! What good does it do to trap yourself in here with me? Did you really just crawl into the rat’s cage of your own accord?”

Ignis slammed Duos’ fist against the ice wall, frustration leaking into his voice. His words suggested he held the advantage, yet I could sense his unease.

Well, of course he was wary. This wall was thick enough that ordinary physical attacks wouldn’t so much as scratch it. He had to be wondering what my next move would be. True, his Red Saw could probably slice through it—but the magic cost would be so absurdly high that there was no point in trying.

“I don’t have that kind of hobby. It’s just that I can’t take on Estea or Melua directly.”

Since Estea had jumped in right at the start, preventing me from finishing off Ignis, the only option left was to cut her off from Melua. The bare minimum condition for victory was to keep them from fighting as a coordinated team.

“You mean… you chose me by process of elimination? How dare you spit such an insult in my face!”

Isolating Ignis—the one opponent I could reliably manage—was hardly a bad plan. If Hom and Alfe were each able to focus fully on their respective fights, the path to victory would open.

“I’ll make you realize you can’t possibly defeat me!” The flames around the Red Saw flared higher, and the rotation of its edge accelerated. “There’s no escape! Just give up and become my prey!”

Ignis barreled toward Arkecius, swinging the Red Saw in rage.

As I had suspected from his low mecha aptitude scores, Ignis wasn’t suited to complex maneuvers. As long as I kept weaving away with the thrusters, dodging with precise adjustments, he couldn’t react quickly enough.

Even so, the flames wreathing his blade were a serious problem. Thanks to my Aether Overproduction Syndrome I could heal burns almost instantly, but every time he closed in, Arkecius was subjected to intense heat.

“O droplets of water, surge forth—Water Shooter!”

I unleashed countless jets of water straight at Ignis’ blazing Red Saw.

“Fool! That kind of weak splash isn’t even child’s play!”

The moment the water struck the blade—or even brushed against its flames—a tremendous amount of steam erupted, quickly blanketing the surroundings in a white mist.

The flames themselves showed no sign of weakening, but it was good enough. Ignis still hadn’t realized what I was really after.

“Water Shooter!”
“You really think that can snuff out my flames!?”

The fire swirling around the Red Saw flared explosively, its power surging. Ignis’ irritation at my attack was plain to see.

“Diiieeeeee!!”

By now, he no longer cared about the rule forbidding cockpit strikes. The instant the Red Saw came crashing down in a diagonal slash—

“O water’s mirror, capture and reflect the shadow—Mirage!”
“Got youuuu!!!”

Arkecius was split clean in two—only to dissolve into mist, vanishing in a spray of steam.

“…W-whoa!? What’s this… an afterimage—afterimages!! Arkecius has split into four, surrounding Duos on all sides!!”

Johnny’s voice echoed in astonishment. With the ice wall boxing him in, there was no way Ignis could instantly discern which one was real.

“So that’s why you filled the place with steam, huh? Fine! Then I’ll just cut them all down!!”

In his fury, Ignis slashed through one, two, three phantoms in turn.

“This’ll finish it off!!!”

I heard his triumphant shout as he cleaved the fourth Arkecius straight down the middle—while I was right beside him.

“Where!? Where the hell are you hiding!!?”

Duos thrashed wildly, the steam blanketing everything in a blinding white haze. But the blazing glow of the Red Saw betrayed Ignis’ position.

“I’ve always wanted to try this.”

I poured aether into Arkecius’ thrusters and wind magic, soaring above to look down on Duos from the sky.

“And now… I finally can.”

With every ounce of strength I had, I swung Arkecius’ drill downward. It tore into Duos’ head, crushing its face into ruin.

“…Wh-what’s thissssss!!!? Duos—Duos’ head has been destroyed!! That’s a valid strike! By valid judgment—Reinforce scores the opening point!! Reinforce takes the leeeeeaaad!!!”

***

#Editor’s Note:#

Ok, Leafa did score a win, but it doesn’t feel satisfying, Ignis is just mob character, there’s no pleasure in defeating him :p