Volume 2 Chapter 6 (2/2)

With what sounded like a breath through clenched teeth, Itou Helen grabbed her gla.s.s wand again even as she writhed on the floor.

Immediately, something like 9 translucent tails shot out from the back of her black dress's hips and rose up along her cape. They were the jellyfish tentacles she had used in the 1st round against Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid.

But her opponent interfered before she could use them.

The 9 tentacles twisted around in a way Itou Helen herself clearly did not want. They tangled around each other and kept themselves from moving like unmanaged cables.

Elflock.

That power seemed pretty boring, but it also seemed to have a wide variety of uses. I could only feel thankful if wasn't enough to directly tie knots in Itou Helen's blood vessels or intestines.

And it did not matter if she could not swing around the jellyfish tentacles. That wasn't how they were used.

”Sure. Continue as is. Please respond to Muramatsu Yukie's elfshot. If she fails to, the next attack will do serious damage to her right lung.”

”Itou-san!!”

”Right!”

Just as I desperately called out to her, the 9 tentacles rapidly dried out. They grew white, crumbled like a tower of sand, and blew away in the wind.

A jellyfish's poison stinger was still effective when dried out into a powder. The ancient ninja had even blown the powder into their enemies' eyes to blind them.

The invisible arrow was fired soon thereafter.

The wafting poison stinger powder had come from a living creature…which meant it too conducted electricity. Before, the high-voltage current had been kept just below the level that would produce sparks, but now it burst and scattered. Several bluish-white branches pa.s.sed right by the blonde witch. Her slender throat also trembled as she swallowed her own colorful potion. A giant crab pincer emerged from her sleeve and she cut the tied-together shoe straps.

Finally free, the small girl stood up.

The dark elf with her skin color showing through her sleeveless blouse pulled a small bottle of a clear liquid from her pocket. I doubted she was hoping to outdo a Circe witch with poisons. She was probably increasing the conductivity of the bowstring to send out a spray to punch her high-voltage arrow through the jellyfish powder.

But it was too late.

She was still setting everything up, but our preparations were complete.

”Itou-san! It doesn't matter how, just create some wind!!”

As soon as I gave that instruction, the blonde girl drank a colorful liquid. A flapping sound left the back of her black dress and her cape flew backwards as swan wings burst out.

They almost looked like angel wings.

But the ma.s.s of disturbed air shoved the microscopic dried poison stingers forward. Yes, they approached the dark elf like a solid wall.

The distance did not matter.

”Kyaaaaah!!!???”

With a shrill scream, Muramatsu Yukie's large bow and small bottle fell to the floor. The elfshot was an invisible arrow created by a high-voltage current that followed the path formed in the air by the conductive powder or liquid covering the bowstring. Without her weapon, that attack was over.

Unable to nock an arrow, the beautiful and healthily brown girl covered her face with both hands. When dried, the jellyfish tentacles did not retain 100% of their toxicity. Since a ninja only used it to blind an enemy, it obviously was not deadly on contact.

But it could be plenty fatal when it took out your eyes in a life-or-death situation.

Itou Helen released the large pincer and wings.

Her small, red-manicured hand manipulated the gla.s.s wand and prepared a new potion.

…Was it over?

Did she just have to sprinkle a transformation potion on the dark elf to trick the death confirmation and retrieve Muramatsu Yukie in a state of apparent death?

It didn't sit right with me.

What had happened to the Bright Cross's simulation? They couldn't afford to let Itou Helen win any longer. They couldn't allow her to develop a potion that freely switched between Archenemy and human. So would they really give us victory so easily?

”Maxwe-…”

It happened just as I called out in confusion.

Itou Helen had filled an empty bottle with a colorful potion and she used her risqué bared legs to approach Muramatsu Yukie who still covered her face with her hands. Except a moment later, the dark elf's right hand moved without warning. She held a sparking fire iron that she had apparently stored on the side of her boot that rose above her knees but below her short tight skirt.

”Warning: The elfshot is not necessarily a bow and arrow. You were also told it could be a direct attack from a fire iron.”

Oh, no. Was she hiding a close-range weapon!?

”Ah!”

That was Itou Helen's voice.

She had let go of the potion bottle in an unnatural pose. She seemed to have forcibly twisted her body to avoid a direct hit from the high-voltage current, but that had caused the bottle to slip from her red-manicured fingers. The colorful bottle spun through the air and fell straight down toward Itou Helen's head.

Oh, no. She's going to get soaked by her own potion!!

That's what I thought.

But that wasn't what happened.

As we watched, the blonde girl placed a pill in her mouth. The already torn back of her black dress swelled out and then 8 bug legs burst out along her cape.

A spider.

Just as that name came to mind, the airborne bottle came to an unnatural stop. It was caught by a thick thread. Then with a powerful swing, the finis.h.i.+ng-blow potion finally slammed into the dark elf's face.

She uttered a deafening scream like the earth had split open and a demon had emerged.

The dark elf's beautiful body bubbled up and a giant mountain of flesh and blood grew out. It grew until it reached the bug cage's ceiling and finally stopped.

Did we…win?

Can I…look at it that way?

”What's this!? Is this the end for Muramatsu Yukie!? h.e.l.lo!? She doesn't seem to be responding!! The Colosseum's 3rd round goes to Itou Helen the Witch! Has she become the Colosseum's prize queen!?”

The rumbling cheer sounded distant.

We had won and survived, but it didn't seem real. Itou Helen held her side and looked back my way, but she too looked puzzled.

”Now, now! As promised, we'll be confirming her death before handing over the corpse! Officials, bring in the gasoline and matches.”

Normally, my hair should have stood on end, but I wasn't actually that panicked.

In fact, that mountain of flesh reached the ceiling of that 15m bug cage. Even if they dumped gasoline on the outside, the heat wouldn't reach the center. Itou Helen must have come up with the idea when she heard the method. From there, we only had to take the scorched mountain and cut out the beautiful girl inside.

That was what I thought as I watched them dumping the contents of several plastic containers on it.

But I was too naïve.

It happened just as an official threw a lit match at it.

The flames did indeed cover the surface.

But more than that, black smoke erupted with incredible intensity. The die-shaped bug cage was filled with the unhealthy-looking color in no time.

And Itou Helen was still inside.

The black smoke of that incomplete combustion would contain carbon monoxide.

”What the h.e.l.l are you doing!?”

I quickly opened the door from outside and charged inside the bug cage.

I regretted it 2 seconds later.

My eyes and nose were immediately taken out. This wasn't just black smoke. Was it mixed with the dried jellyfish stingers and was the heat of the flames creating wild air currents!?

”Cough, cough cough!!”

Covering my mouth didn't help. I couldn't breathe in properly with this scorching wall hitting me. The inside of the bug cage was like a giant gas chamber.

The Bright Cross had a largescale simulator, so I doubted they were wildly reacting to unexpected developments. This had been their aim from the start. If the dark elf defeated us, that was fine. But if not, they could disguise it as an accident. The rules of the Colosseum meant nothing!

At any rate, I had to grab Itou Helen and get out of here as quickly as possible.

Where? Where was she?

I reached around randomly but felt nothing. In fact, I couldn't even read the messages on the smartphone in my hand. I couldn't even get Maxwell's help now!

And just as I realized that, I felt something in that black world tug on my other hand.

”Sen…pai…! Cough!!”

It was Itou Helen with her cape covering her mouth.

I had tried to save her, but she had saved me instead. Still, I was glad we had managed to meet up.

Immediately afterwards, a small red light silently moved across the side of her head. Thanks to the black smoke, I could see a red line of light extending out from it. Visibility was poor, but it probably came from outside the bug cage.

A laser…pointer!?

”Itou-san!!”

I quickly grabbed her slender shoulders in my arms.

A moment later, I heard the high-pitched sound of the reinforced gla.s.s wall shattering and the air current changed. The contained black smoke flowed out to escape.

…A sniper?

That had been a close shave.

I could seriously see a few strands of blonde hair floating in the black smoke.

They intended to end this here no matter what. It would normally be difficult to accurately target a girl's head in this black smoke, but the Bright Cross could pull it off.

They had a simulator greater than Maxwell.

”What do we do…?”

It would be difficult to escape the bug cage in this smoke. And even if we did, we were in a stadium. The empty field continued for dozens of meters and we could be shot at any point along the way.

Of course, the Bright Cross would want to preserve the rules of their sports tournament, so they would want to shoot her to death within the smoky bug cage so they could fool the result of the autopsy and claim there were no odd injuries on the burnt corpse. But I had no idea how far they would bother preserving that ideal hope.

The small girl in my arms tugged on my s.h.i.+rt.

”Senpai, um…”

No, was she leading me somewhere?

But she was leading me in the opposite direction of the door I had entered through.

In fact, she was leading me toward the mountain spewing black smoke.

”Unfortunately, we can't retrieve the dark elf this time. We'll be shot as we try!”

”N-no, not that. Well, that is an issue, but, um…”

Itou Helen hesitated but did not alter her opinion.

And she finally continued.

”I think that place would be best.”

And.

As the deadly furnace continued burning for more than an hour, the blue bunny girl used her mic performance to keep everyone's attention. She guided everyone to evacuate while making sure to inform them that they a clear winner had been declared, which meant their bets would pay off (or not) and the match would not be considered void.

”Ah, ahh, ahhhhh…”

The middle-aged man who acted as the dark elf's second fell to his knees.

Fire extinguisher foam was sprayed throughout the bug cage and the dark smoke was finally cleared. But what remained was truly awful. Not only was there a scorched mountain, but burst hunks of flesh had splattered everywhere. Which had come from the mountain and which were Amatsu Satori or Itou Helen? It was impossible to tell them apart.

”Wh-what happened to my daughter…!?”

”Yes, that's a good question there.”

”You told me she was sure to win if I did what you said!”

”No, I told you she was sure to defeat her enemy if you did what we said. And look: there's nothing left of that enemy, is there?”

He did not seem to even have enough strength left to shout in anger.

He needed the core of his life to call up such dramatic emotions, but that had completely broken.

An official asked a question over the blue bunny girl's earpiece.

”What should we do?”

”There's no need to hand over the corpse this time, so…oh, I know. Carry it out to the 'bathtub'.”

A large trailer truck quietly left the staff entrance at the back of the stadium.

The young male driver spoke in an uncomfortable voice as he held the steering wheel.

”How far should we carry the 'bathtub'?”

The woman in the pa.s.senger seat readily answered while munching on a cookie.

”To the iron and steel industrial complex by the harbor. We've always disposed of inconvenient things by dumping it into a blast furnace or freezing it underground at the South Pole, right?”

”Yes, yes. Be clever about it. Anything inconvenient to the Bright Cross is a definite negative to your life.”

The large truck drove through the dark streets.

And finally…

The container held by the trailer forcefully burst open from within.

There was no need to silence the Bright Cross people. The trailer was a large vehicle with its weight balanced for use with the heavy container on top. With the container suddenly gone, it lost control and crashed into a telephone pole on its own.

Meanwhile, a few people emerged from the burst container: a human, a witch, and a dark elf.

”…We're saved,” said Amatsu Satori as he wiped sweat from his brow.

With the black smoke and the sniper rifle targeting them, they had fled ”inside” the mountain of flesh and blood that Muramatsu Yukie the Dark Elf had become. It had been designed so the heat would not reach the center even when it was drenched in gasoline and set aflame and the rifle bullet which could break the reinforced gla.s.s could not pierce the meters-thick s.h.i.+eld of flesh. From there, they only had to be taken out of the stadium as a corpse and wait for a good opportunity to escape.

Of course, they might have run out of oxygen within the sealed s.p.a.ce of flesh. But Itou Helen had once more come in handy. Simply put, she had used a potion to chemically(?) produce oxygen. That could not have been too difficult a task to a witch who could directly use something as ridiculous as wind magic.

”You just keep saving me this time, Itou-san…”

”A-all I've done is have you carry me around on your back, Senpai.”

The blonde witch leaned forward as she clenched her fists in front of her chest and breathed from her nose.

The brown-skinned dark elf toyed with her bangs in exasperation.

”So what do we do now? I doubt the Bright Cross will allow it to end like this.”

”For the time being, I have to confirm what Itou-san's standing in the Bright Cross is after this incident.”

Since they were paying out on bets, the match itself counted as legitimate, but if they found fault in Itou Helen for leaving the stadium without permission, they could always order that the escapee be shot on sight. That meant returning to the Bright Cross with her hands in the air might only earn her a bullet between the eyes.

So would they stay on the run? The Bright Cross was a giant organization that covered not just j.a.pan but more than 100 countries around the world. Even if they did skip town in the night, they would not be safe. In fact, a boy and girl without any real preparations would have trouble merely running away from home, so skipping town was completely out of the question. In a long-term battle, they would obviously be tracked down by the Bright Cross.

But they were also close to reaching the Bright Cross's Achilles' heel.

The group had a mysterious simulator boasting accuracy greater than Maxwell's. And he had an idea where it might be located.

Even if they could not crush the Bright Cross all across the world, they might be able to drive the group out of Kukyou City.

They had a chance of winning a short-term showdown.

”For now, let's hide somewhere the Bright Cross won't find us.”

”I-is there anywhere like that…?”

Itou Helen sounded doubtful, but Amatsu Satori waved his smartphone.

”Maxwell, where's the closest entrance?”

”Sure. There is a stairway leading into a subway station 10m northwest of your current position. That should lead to one of the doors.”

”Once we're inside, interfere with the door's control program. Rewrite all the pa.s.sword locks.”

The two girls tilted their heads, so Amatsu Satori added more.

”It's true the Bright Cross's influence can be found almost everywhere and I get the feeling they'd see us on security cameras no matter where we hide. But there is one large area which I know the Bright Cross doesn't cover.”

He raised his index finger and then pointed straight down.

”The underground facility they pulled out of themselves. They removed all of their equipment, so there aren't any cameras or sensors. They can't possibly cover that area.”

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