So an S-rank hero really was an S-rank hero.
The force of the flames Flare emitted was clearly different from before.
Even though I’d come wearing a reinforced suit with perfect heat dissipation, the air brushing the ends of my skin felt scorching hot.
If I took a direct hit, I’d be more than charred to a crisp—but as long as I didn’t get hit, that was that.
“Then I’ll be going, too.”
I climbed onto Pureungi’s back as it lowered its body and seized the reins.
“Let’s see what an S-rank hero can do.”
“Don’t get cocky just because you’re riding a lump of scrap metal, villain!”
Wow, this was bad. She probably meant to demean a villain in her own way, but while I might be one thing, Pureungi was another.
More precisely, the anger of the Core Relic resounding inside my head was beyond imagination.
『How dare she call me what? Scrap metal? This worthless wench—!』
I could feel the Core Relic’s pride, wounded by being called scrap metal, flare up in earnest.
『I’ll kill her! I swear I’m going to kill that human!!』
Well, the tin can’s motivation had surged, so I decided to let it slide for now.
“Die!”
At Flare’s shout, a massive fireball came flying like a cannon shell.
The oppressive pressure was considerable, like a meteor was falling, but I calmly pulled on the reins.
Pureungi leapt as if springing from the spot, lightly dodging the fireball.
But my opponent was a seasoned S-rank.
As if she had already known I would dodge, Flare poured a barrage of fire bullets toward the spot where I was expected to land.
“Try dodging this too, if you can!”
It looked like an indiscriminate spray, but it was thoroughly aimed at the route Pureungi would take.
Since the ground was being destroyed with explosions wherever it set foot, it was difficult to build up acceleration.
‘Hmm, looks like she used her head a bit.’
A week had passed since I carried out the terror attack, so Flare must have seen the broadcast I transmitted.
If she knew Pureungi’s ability was acceleration, then as a veteran hero, she would naturally have prepared a countermeasure.
If the opponent was an acceleration-type ability user, remove the footing they needed to accelerate or restrict the environment.
Certainly, a half-baked speed-type ability user would have been thrown into confusion under this bombardment, but the Core Relic was no half-baked item.
“Let’s go!”
“Neigh!”
As if answering my shout, blue flames burst from Pureungi’s leg armor.
Reaching maximum speed instantly, without any separate warm-up or preparatory movement—that was the power of Core Relic-Accel.
Before Flare’s next attack could even touch the ground, Pureungi’s hooves had already passed that point.
Wondering what kind of expression that hero would be making as she watched her own attack miss so futilely, I turned my head—and she was grinning.
I wondered why she was suddenly smiling, but I found out the reason surprisingly quickly.
“Whoa! Turn! Turn!”
I saw lines. They were as thin as wires, but heat rays made from compressed flame were glowing faintly.
Because of the explosions and heat haze bursting everywhere, I nearly passed by without noticing them.
If I had touched those taut heat rays while accelerated, I might have become a piece of well-cooked bacon on the spot.
“Tch. You’re sharp for a villain.”
When I turned the mount at an almost right angle and escaped, Flare clicked her tongue openly.
At that reaction, I even forgot to keep up my act and shouted.
“Hey, Flare! That was seriously dangerous! Were you really trying to kill me?!”
“I told you earlier, didn’t I? I said I’d kill you! Villains like you deserve to die!”
“Wow, she’s really lost it!”
Whether her eyes had truly gone off the deep end or not, Flare was openly revealing murderous intent.
I’d planned to just beat her up moderately, humiliate her, and send her off, but if she was coming at me like this was a UFC deathmatch, then I had no choice but to face her properly.
“……Shall we get a little serious?”
“Brrrrr!”
『I’ll smash her to pieces!』
As if resonating with my words, Pureungi and the Core Relic burned with fighting spirit.
At this moment, the three of us resonated, becoming one in body and soul.
There was no need to speak, nor any reason to move the reins.
Pureungi moved its hooves on its own and began accelerating again.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Perhaps noticing that our momentum had changed, Flare emitted compressed flames from the tips of all ten fingers.
Like the heat rays I’d seen earlier, thin strands of flame became a massive net, trying to envelop us.
Flare’s flames were precise and threatening enough to pierce holes in a person’s body without killing them.
Ordinary nets were for capture, but that net intended to slice its target into pieces and then burn them away.
Its lethality was so high that it made me wonder if it was really a technique a hero should use.
Since Nyangsik had knocked her out in one blow, I’d thought she wouldn’t be that strong, but seeing her like this, I realized S-rank heroes weren’t to be underestimated.
It was an unexpected lesson.
That was why I, too, decided to show her properly.
What happened when a Core Relic unleashed its full power.
“Run.”
“Neeeeeigh!”
『Uooooooh—!!』
Pureungi raised its front legs.
Light flashed from the horn rising on its forehead.
When the pure-white iron horse brought down its forelegs and kicked off the earth, paang—! The moment I thought the atmosphere had exploded, sound and color vanished from my world.
The net of flame spread before my eyes, and the heat rays as well, were torn apart before they could reach us.
And when we passed Flare, who had been letting out a mad laugh as if she had already won, the world returned to its original flow.
“A-Aaaaaaagh—!!”
Soon after, a scream sharp enough to tear my ears reached me.
I slowly turned around, and there was Flare rolling on the ground, blood pouring from her side.
It had been so fast that I worried I might have made a mistake, but fortunately, it seemed I’d aimed properly.
“Just like you put a donut in me, I tried putting a donut in you. How is it, Flare? Care to share your thoughts?”
“Gghh, you bastaaard……!”
Just as she had made a hole in my side, I had personally drilled a hole into Flare’s side as well.
Hmm, but on closer inspection, it looked like flesh had been torn away entirely.
I’d only grazed her side, and this happened?
“Uuuuuaaaagh!!”
Making my worry that she might die seem pointless, Flare used her own flames to sear the entire wounded area shut.
Thanks to that, there was no further bleeding, but still—searing it without even a moment’s hesitation?
I couldn’t help thinking she really was a tough woman.
“I’ll kill you… I’ll kill you… I’ll definitely kill you……!!”
A massive shockwave of flame spread out from Flare.
At first she attacked with points, then lines, and now she was attacking with a plane?
Thinking her attacks really were varied, we leapt high into the air.
Fortunately, the shockwave did not spread up into the sky.
“Got you!”
As if she had been waiting for the moment we leapt into midair, Flare was bringing both hands together and compressing flame.
If that hit us, there wouldn’t even be powder left.
“You can’t move in midair, can you! This is the end, villain!”
Perhaps she had seen on my broadcast that Pureungi was defenseless in midair, because Flare’s face was filled with certainty of victory.
But Flare, don’t you know that famous saying? Life never goes the way you think it will.
“Die!!”
When we stopped in midair, Flare fired the densely compressed flame.
An overwhelming heat unlike any flame I had seen so far rushed toward us, but—
“Boost.”
Blue flames erupted from the nozzles of the leg armor, and we accelerated in an instant.
In technical terms, should I call it an aerial dash?
In any case, thanks to that, Flare’s decisive blow vanished through the clouds in the dark night sky without even grazing us.
“What?”
When we dodged far too easily, Flare turned pale with shock.
“How… How did you move in midair……?”
After landing lightly on the ground, we answered Flare’s question.
“What do you mean, how? Just like you saw, we used propulsion in midair.”
“But you didn’t do that on the broadcast! You were attacked the moment you were floating in midair!!”
That was because when I fought Nova, it was WWE, so I was going easy.
Our Nova still lacks real combat experience and can’t use the Core Relic’s power properly, so I couldn’t fight at full strength from the start, could I?
But since I couldn’t tell Flare that, I gave her a suitable explanation.
“If there’s such a fatal weakness, isn’t it only natural to prepare a countermeasure?”
“Grr…!”
Since it was an argument so sound she couldn’t refute it, Flare ground her teeth.
“It looks like there’s nothing left for you to show me, and the match is already decided.”
Having made a donut in Flare just as she had made one in me, I achieved my objective and dismounted from Pureungi.
But Flare, apparently not finished yet, staggered to her feet while clutching her side.
“Who… says… it’s over…! It’s not over yet! Not until I kill you, villain, never……!”
“I wonder. Are you going to keep fighting after seeing this?”
“What?”
Only after I pointed around us did Flare turn her gaze.
Whoosh. Roar. It was a street with little foot traffic, but because Flare had recklessly fired off her ability, shops and various buildings were burning or collapsing.
“W-What is this? The buildings are……?!”
“What do you mean, what? They’re all things you did.”
“I… did this……?”
With a pale face, Flare pointed at herself.
“You became a hero, and yet you fire off wide-area attacks like that without checking your surroundings? You’re disqualified as a hero.”
“S-Shut up! You were the one who bombarded me out of nowhere…!”
“Unlike you, I’m not a hero. I’m a villain. And while I did launch a bombardment, I only broke the road a bit. I didn’t touch the buildings.”
Even those traces of the bombardment were barely visible now because the asphalt had melted under Flare’s flames.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up! Don’t run your mouth when you’re just a villain!”
“Sure, sure. This villain will keep his mouth shut now.”
Though I said that, I soon opened my mouth again.
“Ah, before that, I shouldn’t forget my duty as a villain, should I?”
I slowly raised my hand and pointed behind Flare.
At first, she seemed to think I was pointing at her, but soon realized I was pointing somewhere else and glanced back.
“Ughh, is anyone there…? Help… me……!”
A human figure slowly emerged from within the burning wreckage of a building.
It was hard to see because of the smoke, but it was a survivor who had lived through this disaster.
At the sound of a little girl’s voice, Flare’s eyes widened, and she looked back at me. As if answering that gaze, I grinned.
“Deal with her, Accel Unicorn.”
“You bastaaard—!!”
No sooner had my words fallen than Pureungi’s form vanished.
The place it reappeared was none other than right behind the survivor!
With this, there was no one beside me.
I was defenseless, with no one to protect me.
What would she choose?
Would she come to kill the villain, or would she go save the citizen?
“Ggh—!!”
With a face consumed by rage, Flare wreathed her whole body in flames, then thrust both hands only toward me.
Seeing her compressing flame, I felt genuine contempt.
‘Ha. So the villain matters to her until the very end.’
An S-rank who had completely forgotten her duty as a hero. How truly disappointing—
“—Don’t make me laugh!!”
Boom! Instead of firing toward me, the flames exploded.
Before I even had time to grasp what had happened, Flare used the force of the explosion as propulsion and hurled herself toward the survivor in a single bound.
At the same time, Pureungi’s accelerated foreleg fell toward the survivor.
As a result of two beings leaping toward a single person with different purposes—
“Aaaaaagh—!!”
Flare, who had exploded flames beneath her feet while flying to accelerate once more, arrived first.
“Kyaa!”
Having arrived first, Flare shoved the survivor away.
“Guhak!”
Struck by Pureungi’s foreleg, she was driven straight into the ground.
Perhaps she had already reached her limit; Flare, embedded in the ground by a single blow, ultimately lost consciousness.