A provocation, really.
It’s funny that the one who came up with this operation wasn’t me, and it wasn’t Ian—it was Ran.
It feels like watching the one normal person wedged between abnormal people slowly get contaminated.
Of course, compared to Ian, I’m normal. I’m only very slightly abnormal compared to Ran.
Even so, when we were wondering what to do about the shotgun, I never expected this to be the plan she came up with.
“There’s no need to respond honestly to the enemy’s shotgun and prepare defensive measures.”
“Th-then?”
“It’s better to break their pride head-on.”
It’s still funny when I think about it.
Ran was the one who said that?
I ignited the reverse thrusters and side thrusters at the same time, hiding my body behind cover.
I cut the hovering and planted both feet on the ground to steady myself.
Boom!
The shotgun pellets left clear gouges in the sedimentary rock.
“If that hits, we’re done.”
“Be super careful!”
Just from the bullet marks, I could tell.
They had designed the shotgun pellets to concentrate as much as possible in one spot, drawing out a decent amount of penetration for a shotgun.
Since the pellets carried more force, I’d have to watch out for ricochets too.
Most importantly, its range was probably a little longer than ours.
“She’s coming.”
I could hear it.
The heavy exhaust sound unique to hovering was rapidly closing in.
I fixed the sub-legs on my back to the ground, and at the same time tucked the railgun on my left sub-arm firmly against my side.
“Light!”
KABOOM!!!
A flash of light pierced through the sedimentary rock.
I watched the clearly carved peephole through the omnidirectional monitor.
Then I immediately folded away the sub-arm and sub-legs.
“She dodged!”
“What, you shot from somewhere she couldn’t even see? Seriously?”
I had no idea how she knew to dodge, but that was definitely in the realm of prediction.
It was hard to believe Lucia had watched my combat footage dozens of times and anticipated the railgun.
I had to assume it was instinctive sense.
If so—
“She’s probably the same type as me.”
Someone who could rely on instinct in a fight and still press the opponent without a single hitch.
Or, to put it another way.
“A genius, you mean?”
“That’s right.”
It wasn’t a statement overflowing with self-esteem, but one meant to keep things objective.
No. To be more honest—
“It’s not like I’ve ever fought someone who wasn’t a genius.”
“That’s true!”
Far more often than not, my opponents had been geniuses on my level, or above it.
It honestly felt unfair that I’d ended up picking restrictions that turned me into an otaku loser.
Drag that genius down.
If they’re prideful, provoke them.
If they use traps, make them approach first.
And if they’re well-versed in gunfights—
“This distance…”
Close in until our bodies collide.
“Is our distance!”
Clang!
The barrels of the two shotguns struck each other.
“What the?!”
Lucia’s startled voice rang through the comms.
Thoom.
The pellets from both shotguns cut through the air past each other.
A distance where body met body.
A distance where you had no choice but to fight with hand against hand, reaction against reaction.
“Then we, with the higher sync…”
“We, who match better, win!”
Huntress spun her body once.
I immediately blocked with my arm and stopped the rotation.
With a rapid tat-tat-tat from its backpack, stakes were fired out and exploded in midair.
Huntress instantly shoved Ailee away and retreated a few steps.
I didn’t chase.
At the same time, I stepped back and fired the shotgun into the ground.
Boom!
The stake installed at Huntress’s foot immediately exploded.
Piercing through that explosion and dust, I closed in again.
“She got faster!”
“That’s right.”
Even though I wasn’t hovering, I was fast.
Because the techniques I’d acquired while making the flight unit had been installed into these thrusters as they were.
The armor followed the form of the heavy armor type, strengthened so that attacks from the side would ricochet, while maintaining the same weight.
I hadn’t kept the rapid-fire capability unique to the bombardment type, but I had kept the railgun as is.
Since it was an integrated custom with the traits of all three custom types, if I had to give it a name—
“It’s thanks to becoming Destiny Ailee.”
“Seriously, don’t go around naming things.”
But it’s a fundamental name.
The moment I broke through the explosion, Huntress’s muzzle came out to greet me right in front of my eyes.
I turned my head and fired at the same time.
Dodging the pellets, our two barrels clashed once more.
Lucia shouted in irritation.
“Do you have some kind of romantic fantasy about point-blank shooting?!”
“N-no, I don’t.”
It was nothing but a thorough strategy.
An opponent used to mobile warfare with trap installation would never prefer close combat.
And just as expected, Lucia acted instinctively.
Raw, uncalculated movements could be avoided.
Her barrel aimed at me.
I slipped to the side of the muzzle and pushed Lucia’s shotgun away with my own.
Thoom!
The moment her barrel was knocked upward, the pellets grazed past Ailee’s chin.
“You fired that?”
“You dodged that?”
She’d thrust the barrel forward as a feint, hidden the shotgun in her other hand outside my field of view, and fired.
She seemed a little more accustomed to close combat than expected, but—
“What the hell are you? Why is a commoner who’s never even seen a battlefield so used to close combat?! Just how many times have you fought?!”
“Do you remember the exact number of slices of bread you’ve eaten?”
“What is that supposed to mean?!”
I had fought high-mobility killer builds in close combat over and over again in ranked matches.
And I had won, over and over again.
“Grrr!”
With both akimbo shotguns pressed against each other, we began pulling the triggers at the same time.
Thoom!
Pellets bounced over the muzzles.
Thoom!
Over the barrels.
Thoom!
Over the pauldrons, over the core armor, deflecting without pause.
Turn the direction, block, fall back, follow, guide.
Click.
Click.
The two Titans pulled their triggers at the same time.
At the same time, the empty hammers struck the air.
Huntress confidently retreated, spreading both arms out to the sides.
Sub-arms popped out from its elbows and rapidly reloaded the shotguns with speedloaders.
“In the end, you don’t even normally use shotguns!”
She was right.
Unlike Huntress, which had a system built for reloading shotguns, we weren’t originally in a position to use shotguns at all.
“I bet you felt clever using shotguns just to provoke me!”
Huntress’s reload finished in an instant.
Its muzzles slowly moved to face forward.
“That’s a little different.”
The shotguns weren’t simply for provoking Huntress.
Close combat.
Going further, they were to gain plausibility for a point-blank fight.
The moment I started making a name for myself at the academy was the midterm exam.
And the moment I began drawing proper attention was from the finals and the dispatch mission.
If all three battles had one thing in common, it was that I had fought at range rather than up close.
At most, I’d used the pile bunker for finishing blows; there was no record of me properly using close-combat equipment.
But there was something people surprisingly failed to remember.
When I fought Kaiser, I had carried out a point-blank fight fierce enough that I slammed my whole body against him and made him lift off.
When I fought Icarus, I used a Titan build that charged with blades attached to its torso.
If you only looked at my most recent combat records, there was no way you’d know.
That was why I deceived her.
“I’ve always liked point-blank combat.”
So I could enter a distance where a sword was more efficient than a shotgun.
One side skirt flipped forward, revealing a muzzle.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Four bullets fired all at once struck the barrels of Huntress’s shotguns.
As expected of equipment from the Dis Pater family.
Even after being hit by bullets, they didn’t break; they merely bounced upward.
“That’s—!”
“It looked useful.”
There are things to learn from more than just the winner.
Levant’s side skirt equipment, which I had fought against in the midterm exam.
It wasn’t as conspicuous as the skirt rifle attached to Professor Zeke’s Balmung, and despite being covertly hidden, its practicality was obvious.
Then there was no reason not to use it.
I threw away the shotguns, which had already become dead weight in both hands.
The armor on both forearms opened, as did the elbow armor.
I pulled the stick forward.
The thrusters spewed out blue light.
The elbow rocket on my right arm spat blue flame, accelerating me a second time.
From the opened forearm armor, a whip blade slid out with a rattling sound.
And as the joints pulled tight, it aligned into a single solid sword.
It was twice the length of an ordinary hidden blade—no, as much as three times longer.
Inspired by Fafnir’s tail whip blade, I had hidden a blade like Professor Zeke’s Balmung.
“Tch!”
Lucia clicked her tongue.
At the same time, she crossed the two shotguns in front of her.
Claaang!
The hidden blade pierced through both shotguns at once.
At the same time, Huntress’s foot lifted.
But it wasn’t just a kick.
Equipment that fired explosive stakes was attached to Huntress’s feet. If I took it head-on, I’d be pierced through, or it would explode.
“We still have…”
“The left one left!”
Clack!
A stake was loaded.
It was shorter than the original and contained less explosive, in order to fit inside the forearm, but—
“People die even when they’re shot by small guns.”
And Titans are destroyed even when hit by small pile bunkers.
“Detonate!”
KABOOM!!!
The stake pierced through Huntress’s knee and reached its thigh.
Then it exploded.
With a shattering crash, one of Huntress’s legs completely blew apart.
If I hadn’t escaped at the same time with reverse thrust, it would have been dangerous for us too.
“The stake stored in its leg must have sympathetically detonated.”
But Huntress was still standing.
Using the thrusters on its back, its side thrusters, and everything else, it clearly stood its ground.
“Ha.”
Lucia’s laugh rang out.
“Aha, ahaha! Hah! Ha, ha! Ahaha!”
What the hell, did she lose her mind?
“Hey.”
“Y-yes?”
“Do you have a fan club?”
A fan club?
Was she asking whether I had a fan club, or whether I was part of some fan club?
“N-no.”
Either way, I didn’t.
“Really?”
Huntress’s body leaned forward.
Acceleration that used its collapsed center of gravity in reverse.
Huntress could no longer stand on its legs alone.
Considering the limit of its thruster fuel, this would be the final exchange.
I pushed the stick.
At the same time, Huntress thrust both muzzles forward.
Thoom!
At this awkward distance, with this awkward acceleration, there was no way to block the shot.
Trusting my armor, I barely covered only the generator and sensors with my left arm.
A crunching sound rang out as it crumpled.
Not only my armor, but Huntress’s shotgun, which had reached its limit, broke at the same time.
And in that same instant, Huntress vanished from view.
“Where did she go?!”
“Below!”
Using the recoil from firing, Huntress’s body had fallen flat to the ground.
At the same time, it drove its remaining foot into the floor to anchor itself.
“This is…”
Thooom!
At the moment of collision, Ailee’s body flipped upside down into the air.
“Ghk!”
If it were automatic control by artificial intelligence, instantly recovering your center of gravity in midair would be impossible.
Just as I had expected from Kaiser.
And just as that expectation had been betrayed.
Like now.
Clack!
“It has sub-legs, so it can stand!”
I drove the sub-legs into the ground and regained balance in midair.
I extended my one remaining arm to the left and gripped the railgun on the sub-arm.
“Aha.”
I wasn’t trying to shoot.
“That’s true.”
As I swung it down, Huntress’s head was smashed apart.