Ichika, Houki, and Cecilia stayed in the monitor room together with Maya and Chifuyu. They stayed together since they could see the match better from this place.

Ichika was Chifuyu's little brother and it was very easy for him to ask permission to enter, especially with both Cecilia and Houki who were an IS Representative from England and Shinonono Tabane's little sister respectively.

The three of them entered the monitor room without trouble.

Chifuyu sighed and could only let the three of them enter the monitor room so they wouldn't cause trouble.

"What is Rin's IS?" Ichika asked.

"Her Infinite Stratos is Shenlong. It's a close-quarter, melee type, just like Haru's Deathscythe," Maya explained.

"But well, Haru is going to win in close-quarter combat!" Cecilia was confident in Haru's ability.

Houki didn't say anything, but she nodded.

"If it is that simple, then this match will end in a second, but ShenLong isn't that simple," Chifuyu said.

"What do you mean, Orimura-sensei?"

"Well, just watch."

No one knew what Chifuyu meant and could only watch the match between Haru and Rin which had just begun, however, they knew that this match would be interesting since it would be a match between close quarter combat IS.

Rin, who was facing Haru, had prepared a lot of preparation before the battle to get information about Haru's IS, but she didn't expect Haru's speed to be very fast.

In just a moment, Haru was right in front of her and swung down his scythe toward her.

*BAAM!*

The Ultimate Defense on her ShenLong protected Rin from the beam scythe, but this attack kept decreasing her energy and she knew if this continued then she might be in trouble. She swung down both of her blades at him, but he easily avoided it.

Haru, who had moved back, shot out a small Gatling gun on his side to Rin who was a few meters right in front of him.

*Baam!* *Baam!* *Baam!*

Bullet after bullet kept pouring, decreasing the energy of Rin's IS.

'This guy....!'

Rin thought that this guy was more troublesome than she had thought initially. She connected the two blades in her hands and spinning it around deflecting all of the bullets which were coming toward her. She flew once again at Haru to start close combat with him using her twin blades. Spinning her twin blades again, she swung it down hard toward him.

However it was easily dodged by Haru again.

"What?!"

Rin was startled since Haru's movement was very fast then suddenly a scythe suddenly came struck down her side.

*BAAAAM!!!!*

Rin was thrown by the force of Haru's attack and slammed down to the ground, creating a large crater on it.

*BAAAM!!!*

"Damn!!!"

Rin had to admit that Haru was very strong, but it would be wrong if he thought that she would give up this easily. Looking at the energy of her Ultimate Defense which was originally 600 had decreased into 400 very quickly, she knew that she needed to find a way to defeat him.

"Tch!"

"Rin, you should give up while you can," Haru said calmly. Looking at Rin who was on the ground, he really felt uncomfortable bullying a little girl.

"Damn, don't look down on me!"

Rin stood up once again and the spherical device floating above each shoulder started to glow in a yellow light before shooting out something.

Haru frowned, but he hurriedly dodged that attack. He didn't see anything, but his guts told him that there was something which was about to hit him.

*BOOOOM!!!* *BOOOOOM!!!*

Two loud explosions happened right on the spot where he stood earlier.

"That is..."

Haru knew about those weapons since he had also gone to China in the past, stealing the IS Core and the data of their IS which was known as Shenlong.

Shenlong also is known as Koryu, is a Close-Combat 3rd Generation type provided by the Chinese government. It is optimized for CQC. It has two abilities which are known as Souten Gagetsu and Ryuhou.

Souten Gagetsu is a pair of Chinese scimitar which could be combined to double-bladed form with blades on both ends and the hilt between them. It was also a weapon that was used by Rin to fight against Haru earlier in close combat.

Ryuhou or Impact Cannon, is a state-of-the-art Impact/Shock Cannon utilizing third-generation technology, a spherical device floating above each shoulder that forms a barrel by compressing nearby space and shooting out a linear-trajectory shockwave like an invisible projectile. It is, however, damaging to the cannon and user if fired at point-blank range.

Haru knew that it was a very interesting weapon, but its power was quite weak if it was shot from a distance and its power could only be shown from a close distance. It was the reason why he didn't have that much of an interest in that kind of weapon since it was useless for him.

In his opinion, a long-range weapon that had lost the ability to shoot from a distance was useless.

Haru thought that Cecilia's sniper rifle was better than Impact Cannon's of Rin. Though he had to admit that the element of surprise of Rin's Impact Cannon was quite good since the bullet which was shot from her weapon was made from the air and it was impossible to be seen using open eyes.

Rin flew up again to Haru and started to attack him continuously using her Souten Gagetsu which had been combined into one. Spinning it around and attacking him with very fast movement with the intention of defeating him quickly.

When Haru tried to run away, Rin kept chasing after him and closed the distance between them as short as possible since once she was in close distance, she could sneak attack him with her Impact Cannon.

However, she didn't expect the moment she tried to get close, Haru also got closer to her which made her dumbfounded.

Haru didn't waste this chance and swung down his scythe to destroy one of her Impact Cannons.

*BAAANG!!*

"Uwaaaaa!!!!"

Rin was startled, but she didn't give up and saw a chance to shoot him down with her other Impact Cannon.

"You've been caught!"

Rin's eyes were excited since she thought that she had trapped him.

"You know the disadvantage of your cannon is obvious..."

Swinging down his scythe, Haru had destroyed all of Rin's Impact Cannon.

"It takes a few seconds to prepare and it is very easy to counter."

Rin was blown away because of the impact of the explosion, but her eyes started staring at him. "Don't look down on me!" She was annoyed since her two trump cards had been destroyed and she swung down her dual-blade wildly. However, the thing which made her angrier was how non-chalant he was when he defeated her. She was the representative of China and she couldn't lose so easily!

However, Haru was very relaxed and slowly attacking her until her energy hit the red mark.

Monitor room.

Everyone who watched the match couldn't help but gawk at how easy it was for him to defeat Rin.

"Haru is the winner, right?" Cecilia seemed quite proud at that moment.

Houki nodded and didn't seem that surprised.

"Why is he that strong?" Ichika was confused. He had been training together with Haru, but he felt that he couldn't reach Haru's strength.

"...."

Cecilia and Houko rolled their eyes at the same time and didn't answer Ichika's question since they also didn't know the answer to that question.

Chifuyu thought that she had underestimated Haru since she didn't expect him to understand Rin's Infinite Stratos ability so it was very easy for him to defeat her. She knew that Rin didn't have a chance to win against Haru after both of her Impact Cannons had been destroyed. She also didn't think that Rin was able to defeat him using her dual-blades alone.

"Well, it seems the winner has been decided."

Everyone agreed with Chifuyu's statement and the champion of the Inter-Class Tournament had been decided early.

Looking at the battle which happened in front of them, the high ranking from various countries and organizations knew that the winner had been decided.

"Hyaaaa!!!"

Rin swung down her dual-blades, but it was countered by Haru using the blunt part of his scythe, slamming it to her head.

*BAAAM!!*

Rin felt dizzy, but she couldn't help but curse inwardly since he was too annoying!

'Damn!'

Rin couldn't see her chance to win this battle which made her sigh, but she also didn't want to lose this easily. She charged toward him again, but this time she didn't have a chance since Haru rained her down with several strikes using his scythe.

*Baam!* *Baam!* *Baam!*

Her energy kept decreasing and there were only 10 points left.

'I lost...?'

Rin couldn't accept conclusion of this match for a while and saw a scythe which was about to strike her down suddenly stopped.

"Huh?"

Rin looked at Haru who was looking toward the sky and thought that he ignored her.

"Bastard, don't pity me! Just defeat me quickly! Don't look down on me like this!"

"Shhh!"

Haru told her to be quiet with a gesture.

Rin didn't understand Haru's meaning and became angrier since she thought that he had been looking down on her, but suddenly the barrier of the arena dome was destroyed by a powerful purple beam.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!*

A loud explosion happened in the middle of the arena causing a powerful shockwave that shocked the surrounding area and the stadium.

"W - What's happening?" Rin was startled and confused.

"It's an enemy."

From the middle of the explosion there was an unidentified IS that suddenly appeared and locked at both of them instantly. They knew very well that this thing wasn't a friend, rather an enemy which was coming without a good intention.

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