Saya Aslan is rational.
She had already accepted the fact that she could not defeat Deep’s Ailey in long-range combat.
Before the second semester final exam began, it was the first problem Saya Aslan had to solve.
During the first semester final exam, Deep had once shown a bombardment type.
If Ailey used her mobility to bombard and flee, Kaiser had no way to respond.
The princess’s operator proposed two solutions in total.
One was to add more thrusters to increase mobility and reinforce the shield.
The other was to add missile ports to Kaiser and intercept missiles with missiles.
The princess’s choice between those two options was simple.
“There is no need to choose one or the other.”
Victory comes before honor.
Even if they had to plaster all sorts of things onto the imperial family’s Titan, so long as she won, that was enough.
The moment they faced each other, a full salvo.
The missiles of the two Titans shattered, broke apart, and exploded.
Saya Aslan’s pupils still stared into the explosions.
“Tch.”
Ailey had the advantage in total missile count.
It was only natural that Ailey had more missiles than Kaiser, whose base weight was heavy and whose cost had been spent on armor.
Kaiser raised its bazooka and fired at the missiles that had not been completely dealt with.
When she pressed the remote button, a massive explosion erupted, and the remaining missiles detonated in a chain in an instant.
Amid the thunderous roar, Princess Saya shouted.
“Purge missile ports one through eight, all of them!”
The trained operator’s response was quick as well.
“Beginning sub-control. Your Highness, prepare for close combat.”
Clank!
They removed the dead weight whose ammunition had run dry.
Kaiser even threw away the now-useless bazooka, raised its shield forward, and accelerated to the maximum.
The objective was to close in.
Only to close in.
Even through the dust of the explosions, she could clearly see Ailey reaching a hand toward her back.
And then she grabbed that handle.
A railgun?
At this distance, evasive maneuvers and closing in would be faster than the railgun’s charge speed.
The shield reinforcement was complete as well.
Even if it was a railgun, she could endure it by sacrificing the shield and one arm.
As expected, the range of the greatsword arrived before the railgun could fire.
“Got you!”
Click.
Ailey pulled the handle she had grabbed.
No.
She drew it.
As Kaiser swung the greatsword, a bright red trajectory struck it aside as if letting the blade slide off.
“This is…!”
A melted scar remained on the proud greatsword.
Beep.
Close-range communication connected.
“It’s a true sword duel, Your Highness.”
It was a rather insolent voice.
“I sharpened my blade for this.”
***
“A sword that cuts down evil!”
“Wow, you sounded like a total otaku just now.”
“Because I am one.”
“Aha!”
Heat saber.
The idea began with Samoyed’s heat whip.
In truth, I had seen heat weapons before.
Heat weapons had existed since Titan Core 1.
On top of that, the battle-axe Icarus used was also a heat weapon.
But I had never really bothered with heat weapons before.
To be precise, I had tried them, but they weren’t to my taste.
Rather than shaving away armor while fighting, I preferred aiming for an opening and breaking through in one blow.
If I could land the finishing blow with a pile bunker, why would I need to use a heat weapon?
I only learned the reason after this world became reality.
The pile bunker is a close-range weapon with the properties of both an armor-piercing shell and a high-explosive shell.
So if it cooks off, you won’t even have bones left.
I thought there was no way it would cook off, but after getting hit by the heat whip, it occurred to me.
Kaiser’s greatsword has a large number of thrusters attached to it.
Those flames might set it off.
The reason I fired all the missiles right at the start was to prevent a cook-off.
But that didn’t mean I could carry a mass weapon.
My skill in handling Ailey comes from mobility that surpasses everyone else’s.
Mass weapons lower the mobility of a low-mass, high-mobility Titan.
That’s common sense, isn’t it?
Then if I don’t want cook-offs and I don’t want mass weapons, there’s exactly one option left.
A heat weapon.
And among them, the one closest in shape to a stake is, of course, the heat saber.
Its reach is as long as the princess’s greatsword too.
“How insolent!”
The princess’s voice made my whole body flinch.
Her lung capacity really is something else.
The greatsword I had definitely deflected came flying at my back, ignoring the laws of physics.
I avoided its path and used reverse thrust to open the distance slightly.
A thruster-mounted greatsword.
The thrusters embedded all over the greatsword were still spewing flames without a thought for wasted fuel.
Except for the parts my heat weapon had touched and melted.
Meaning even that greatsword that defied the laws of physics was gradually dulling.
“Ailey!”
“Yeah!”
“Let’s do it now!”
If we’re going to shave it down, we shave it down surely, steadily, and to the limit.
Thrusters at full throttle.
Hovering constantly on.
Side thruster sensitivity at maximum.
“Systems all green.”
“Let’s go!”
As expected of Ian.
Thanks to the added thrusters, the zero-to-hundred time had plummeted to around one second.
But Kaiser had added thrusters too.
Whoosh!
The greatsword came flying in, aiming for my upper body.
I immediately ducked and turned, slipping behind Kaiser.
At the same time, Kaiser threw its hovering off-balance and turned its body backward.
I don’t think I showed that move more than a few times, but now everyone who can use it is using it.
“I’ve got targeting!”
The target was the hover unit.
If we broke that, it would become harder for Kaiser to switch between forward and backward, making it easier to aim at.
The instant I swung the heat saber, Kaiser turned off its hover and landed on the ground.
The heat saber only scraped past Kaiser’s knee armor.
“How does she respond that fast?”
“Super dangerous!”
At the same time, Kaiser’s greatsword came crashing down.
“I know!”
I blasted the side thrusters and dodged the greatsword.
The greatsword slammed into the ground, sending sand bursting up.
At this rate, everything except the magnetic sensor would be useless.
The moment I tried to thrust backward and escape the sand cloud, Kaiser’s hand grabbed one of Ailey’s arms.
“I’ll take one arm first!”
“Elbow rocket.”
Boom!
The seized arm slammed straight into Kaiser’s head.
Kaiser staggered and let go.
“Eeei!”
The greatsword once again smashed into the ground where Ailey had been.
Hiding in the cloud of sand, I tilted Ailey’s body sharply forward.
“Ailey.”
“Of course, I’m already calculating the gyroscope!”
We exclude balance of the center of gravity.
With Ailey’s body, we reproduce the high-mobility movement I used when fighting Icarus.
Acceleration.
Only acceleration.
Only.
“Dive.”
Into the sea of speed made by vectors of magnitude and direction.
I thrust the saber forward and accelerated.
Bzzzzzzzt!
The tip of the saber left a long scar on the shield.
It failed to penetrate and slid off.
She added armor to the shield, damn it.
Kaiser knocked the saber away with the shield and swung the greatsword down.
Sudden stop.
At the same time, I scraped Kaiser’s knee armor again.
The greatsword stabbed into the ground in front of Ailey, and a powerful thruster sound rang out.
It wasn’t from the greatsword, nor was it from Ailey.
“Bullshit…!”
“Awesome!”
Clang!
Using the greatsword as an axis, Kaiser kicked Ailey away.
“The elbow rocket is damaged?”
“It’s on the side not holding the heat saber, so it’s fine!”
While rolling across the ground, I stabbed the heat saber into the ground to regain balance.
Immediately, the thin heat saber made a grinding sound and crumbled.
“Have you lost your weapon?!”
Kaiser burst out of the sand cloud.
“As if.”
Why do you think I came out with a weapon container the size of a railgun?
It was so I could make maximum use of heat weapons, which could shave armor using heat but had weak durability.
I detached the crumbled heat saber parts and inserted them into the weapon container.
There was no need to draw the long blade by hand.
Clank!
The container retreated backward, drawing out the blade.
Full throttle, accelerating again.
“That shield is annoying!”
“I’m thinking of a way to get rid of it too!”
Then I’ll leave the thinking to Ailey.
The greatsword and heat saber collided.
The two Titans crossed the wasteland, repeatedly accelerating and decelerating.
They swam through the wasteland like a sea, spewing flames without pause.
I shaved down Kaiser’s knee armor several times.
“How about we punch the shield connector until it breaks?”
“I think our arm will break first!”
No matter how well I used the heat saber, I couldn’t completely neutralize the power of the greatsword.
The second blade broke, and I drew the third.
“What if we kick it too?”
“The generator might get damaged!”
“Not that leg!”
Not that leg?
“Ailey, are you a genius?!”
“I kind of am!”
The instant Kaiser swung the greatsword, I blasted the side thrusters and turned.
“Are you coming around behind me again?!”
It was the moment Kaiser turned backward.
What she saw was not the heat saber, but Ailey’s back.
The sub-leg rotated in the opposite direction from Kaiser and slammed into the shield.
Clang!
The shield was sent flying off, and the sub-leg was smashed apart and fell away as well.
“Ailey!”
“Yeah! Purging the sub-leg too! It was dead weight, so this is actually good!”
The shield was gone.
At the same time, Kaiser kicked the ground.
“Ghk?!”
Clang!
The shield came flying and smashed the heat saber.
As I retreated, I immediately drew the fourth blade.
Before I could even fix my stance, Kaiser closed in.
I immediately flipped the side skirt forward.
Tat-tat-tat!
Kaiser’s head flinched slightly backward, then accelerated again.
I definitely hit the part corresponding to the main camera.
“Are imperial Titans’ main cameras tough too?!”
“Looks like it!”
“That’s seriously too much!”
I stopped her.
Using the thrusters all over Ailey’s body, I corrected my stance and accelerated.
The instant the heat saber and greatsword collided, I twisted the wrist and shaved the surface of the greatsword.
Clang!
The greatsword fired all its thrusters at once and pushed the heat saber away.
Ailey separated the blade from the heat saber faster than I could react.
“Thanks!”
“You have to praise me more later!”
Better to lose the saber blade than the handle.
The greatsword slammed into the ground, and Kaiser flinched.
She can’t swing it.
“Because the thruster melted!”
Thud!
I activated the elbow rocket and slammed her head.
With a cracking sound, at long last, a fissure appeared in that sensor lens.
With only that much, there probably wouldn’t be much obstruction to her vision.
The moment I tried to hit her with my fist again, Kaiser fired its reverse thrusters.
The heat and thrust gradually heated Ailey’s body and pushed her away.
“Ghk!”
I didn’t have enough acceleration to break through.
I gave up, kicked Kaiser’s knee, and retreated.
“Ugh.”
Acceleration, deceleration, stop, re-acceleration.
After repeating it over and over, my stomach finally started churning.
“Are, are you okay?!”
“Ha, ahaha.”
“Don’t laugh so scarily!”
It’s funny.
“I’m fine.”
“Okay!”
This is fun.
In the past, if I did this shit just three or four times, I would have felt like I was going to die. Now, even after doing this shit so many times, I only feel nauseous.
Kaiser gripped the greatsword embedded in the ground with both hands.
The greatsword opened with a clank.
“That… looks like it comes out. Awesome.”
It was just as Ailey said.
“I have never drawn this even on the battlefield.”
Shrrrrrrrng.
Huge pieces of metal scraped against each other, making a sound almost like a sword’s cry.
It had a pattern like a coiled snake, which gave me chills.
So damn cool.
I hope Ailey can wield a sword like that someday too.
Titans really are all about looking cool after all.
The sword’s form was an arming sword—no, more like a Viking sword, with a somewhat broader blade.
“Gram.”
It was the shape of a sword made to cut.
“I ask you. Do you have enough fuel remaining?”
At the princess’s words, I checked the remaining fuel.
“No.”
“I see. It is the same here.”
The battle had gone on far longer than expected.
I hadn’t thought I would use this many heat saber blades either.
I fixed the last blade in place and drew it.
I purged even the weapon container.
Neither of us moved first, nor did either of us give a signal.
The container merely fell to the ground.
The two Titans accelerated at the same time.
The moment Kaiser raised Gram and swung it, I pulled the stick backward.
Turning off the hover unit, I forced Ailey to stop with reverse thrust.
Gram was a sword drawn from the greatsword Kaiser originally possessed.
Naturally, it was shorter than the greatsword.
The advantage in reach was mine.
As I pulled back, I swung the heat saber.
Kaiser blocked the heat saber several times in succession.
Gram’s edge did not dull.
On the contrary, the heat saber was gradually being shaved away.
It seemed to have some special mechanism to disperse heat and maintain its strength.
Kaiser fired her thrusters without even caring about the remaining fuel.
At some point, the two Titans’ feet stopped moving.
All the fuel meant for maneuvering was used solely to shave away the enemy and move the swords.
Naturally.
“I shaved it down.”
When it comes to handling a sword, I cannot beat the princess.
“Have you ever shaved a sword down this much?”
Crunch.
The heat saber broke.
It was the result of being shaved and shaved away.
“No.”
That was why I had turned it into a reach battle.
So I had kept aiming only at the place where the sword had first touched.
At the same time, Ailey’s foot kicked Kaiser’s knee.
With a crunching sound, Kaiser’s knee buckled.
It was the result of being shaved and shaved away.
“What the…!”
I flipped the opposite side skirt and fired.
With a tat-tat-tat, Kaiser’s main camera shattered.
At the same time, I grabbed the arm holding Gram.
“You intend to contest output?!”
“I know this very well.”
Kaiser tried to brace herself on one leg.
I pushed the stick forward.
I still had fuel.
The thrusters spewed fire.
I know because I recently tried taking off my support device.
“If one leg is crippled, you can never win in close combat!”
Kaiser’s massive body lost the contest of output.
That body fell straight backward.
Ailey’s knees pinned down Kaiser’s arms, and I drew the hidden blade from the forearm.
With a clattering sound, the blades aligned, and the tip pointed toward Kaiser’s core.
I gasped for breath.
My hands trembled.
[ Victory. ]
I won.