Chapter 45

We crossed the bridge and arrived in Gunman City.

"Any enemies?"

"None."

"Understood. This zone will definitely be outside the next shrink. Let's keep moving."

"Yes!"

Sheena-san and I tore through Gunman City on the bike, crossed the wilderness, and headed for the next town—Resort City—a sprawling place packed with buildings. Souvenir shops, cafés, rental-car dealers, hotels, amusement facilities, casinos... almost everything caters to tourists. The ground is concrete, and you can see the sea from here, too. Feels like Hawaii, maybe? (I've never been, so it's just a guess.)

After two zone shrinks, the third is announced, but Resort City remains inside the safe zone. From its position, it should survive another two shrinks.

Sheena-san pulls the bike over to the shoulder.

"Shiki-san, how's your EN?"

"Below thirty percent already..."

"Then let's scavenge EN bottles here."

One EN bottle restores 30 %. Two is plenty; three is overkill. We'll search quickly and move to a sniper-friendly spot.

(Ugh.)

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they'll let us take it easy. Enemy blips on the map.

"Five hundred meters ahead—hostile!"

And they're on the same road. I put my eye to the scope: a Space Girl on a bike, coming straight at us. That Space Girl is—!

"It's Tsubasa-san!"

"She's already making her move, huh."

Sheena-san guns the engine and flees from Tsubasa-san. A sound call.

"Shiki-san!"

"I know!"

Tsubasa-san has no range. Even that shield-cannon tops out at sixty meters.

Current distance: two hundred meters. Speeds are equal. We just need to kite while sniping her down.

I line up my assault rifle on Tsubasa-san. She blocks the shots with her Aegis.

(No problem. I'll chip it away.)

Even an assault rifle can't be completely nullified. The Aegis's durability is dropping steadily.

I hold down the trigger. Tsubasa-san switches her Aegis deftly, dispersing the damage, but that won't last forever. Sooner or later it will break.

"We've got this."

We weave through the streets. We're painfully obvious, but at this rate we can drop Tsubasa-san.

...Wait. Tsubasa-san knows that too, doesn't she?

Tsubasa-san is smart—Sheena-san said so. Would someone that clever really start a pointless chase like this?

Not a chance. I'd bet on it!

"Sheena-san!"

Just as Sheena-san turned right at a crossroad—

a wire bit into her chest.

"Wha—!?"

A wire had been rigged between the buildings on either side.

(We're one step too late!!)

Sheena-san snagged the wire, and the two of us tumbled off the bike like a pair of dumplings.

We rolled across the hot concrete. Tsubasa-san, still on her bike, bore down on us as we scrambled to hands and knees.

"Sheena-san! The railgun!!"

"Yes, that's the plan."

Sheena-san equipped her electromagnetic cannon and began charging energy. At that instant, light flashed at the edge of my vision. Far behind Sheena-san, atop a domed building, I saw the glint of a laser.

(A sniper!?)

In one-thousandth of a second I read the enemy's aim.

Normal thinking: either Sheena-san's vitals or mine—no.

(That's wrong!!)

There's a third option that, if it works, could inflict fatal damage on both of us!

I kicked my thrusters and put distance between me and Sheena-san. Simultaneously I deployed Shield Pieces between Sheena-san and her railgun.

The distant sniper shot pierced the railgun while it was still charging. Instantly the weapon went critical and detonated.

"—!?"

A plasma blast. An electromagnetic shockwave erupted.

I'd kept my distance, so I was only thrown by the blast. But Sheena-san lost the railgun—and the right arm that had been holding it. Half my Shield Pieces were vaporized as well.

(That shot had to be Len-san! He waited until the railgun was fully charged, then triggered the explosion. As an enemy, it was brilliant...!)

Those wires were probably Len-san's handiwork, too. From the moment Tsubasa-san approached on her bike until this very instant—every step matched the scenario the Crimson Wings had envisioned!

"Of course Tsubasa can... make anything go her way."

Tsubasa-san closed in on us as we lay in the rubble.

(Don't you dare look down on us!!)

I pulled the saber terminal I'd clipped to my belt into my right hand.

"Ah-ha! Shiki-chan, what do you think you're going to do with that ordinary saber?!"

"Cut you down, of course."

I switched the saber to high-output mode and swept it in a wide arc.

"—!?"

Sensing the danger, Tsubasa-san abandoned her bike and leapt into the air.

—ZAN!!

My saber extended fifteen meters, packing more firepower than any normal blade could hope to match.

With one swing I sliced through the surrounding buildings and the bike alike.

"Shiki-san... that just now was...?"

"A one-shot wonder with every point in Extension."

SCH-100: a customizable saber. I sank every last point of customization capacity into Extension.

The more you boost Extension, the greater the power and reach in high-output mode.

But every other stat is locked at one, so high-output lasts only half a second (since activation time is proportional to the saber's EN storage). After that it's a two-minute reload. Once those five hundred milliseconds are gone, the weapon's useless.

A single slash that burns every resource—a one-off saber.

"I won't let you have everything your way, Tsubasa-san."

Tsubasa-san alights in front of us.

"...Honestly, you're the most amusing one of all!!"

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