Vol 8 Chapter 8 (1/2)

Chapter 8 – Idol Decisive Battle

『── The 24th <gryps> is finally at the fifth round, the quarterfinals! In the first match of this round will be Seidoukan Academy’s Team Enfield, who have crushed all of their opponents with a display of overwhel force so far and──!』

As Ayato and co called by the voice of Miko, the live reporter, cheers that grew bigger each time they won and advanced to the next round shook the Sirius Doain

『Their opponents are one of last <gryps>’s best 8, the tea up against Team Tristan, who happened to be last tournairls rock band, Team Rusalka!』

The RusalkaWhen they entered the hall, responding to the cheers all the while, the air of composure they exuded ht before a match

While the commentator shi+zuna introduced both teae and advanced until the fixed start position

“──Well~ then, I apologize to you guys in advance, but as a continuation fro odds again”

The leader Miluše carried the guitar type ogre lux <lyre poros-calliope=””> on her shoulder and grinned in a provocative way

“Unfortunately, it seehly evaluated and the prior odds seemed to be fifty-fifty”

Claudia, who took the provocation head on, calmly replied so

“Hmm, I see Well whatever Either e’ll be the ones to win!”

“……I don’t think so”

Then, Saya, who stood before Miluše as if to replace Claudia, threw an enthusiastic and sharp gaze

Miluše, who saw the school badge glea on her (Saya) chest, opened her eyes wide as if she was surprised

『──And this time, the leader role has been passed from player Claudia Enfield, who has acted as Team Enfield’s leader in all the matches so far, to player Sasamiya Saya……』

“Heeh, so you’re the leader today Interesting”

“……Personally, I don’t dislike you”

Though Saya’s gaze burned with intense flames, her words were somewhat calm

“But, we’ll be the ones to win I can’t yield on this”

“Pooh-pooh! We can’t as well!”

After Saya and Miluše had their gazes meet and clash with each other to the extent that sparks see and went back to their original positions

Team Enfield’s battle formation was Ayato, Kirin and Claudia in the front row Behind them was Julis with the support role And finally Saya, the leader, in the back row

On the other hand, Team Rusalka was set up as followed: Miluše and Tuulia, who set up their guitars type ogre luxes, in the front row Behind there lux <lyre poros-erato=””>, and Monica, who stuck up her bass type ogre <lyre poros-round, stood in a line; and Mahulena, who prepared her space projection keyboard type ogre lux <lyre poros-thalia=””>, was in the back row

『──The start ti! Both parties seemed to have already ain the ticket to the semifinal?!』

As if responding the voice of Miko, who could not hide her excitement, the mechanical voice’s sentence resounded

“<gryps> fifth round first match, battle start!”

Immediately after the declaration, a brutally heavy bass sound which bleay all those sounds and washed over thee

“──!”

Ayato, as going to launch a preemptive attack, almost sank down on his knees unintentionally due to the heavy shock

His body was heavy as if he has been stuck in a tar pit The air was sticky; it was as if lead was embedded in his hands and feet

(This again…… It’s stronger than I expected……)

Ayato stared at Monica ── her ogre lux that was the source of this heavy bass sound The bass, which deployed a blade of light in an ax form, felt somewhat ominous appearance wise

Above all, this heavy bass sound strongly affected his concentration ability The state of “cognition” which was activated had been coated

This perception expansion technique in the Aon Style required one to concentrate theirprana or not However, Ayato, having previously broken his big sister’s seal with an inco the key to the first level, wasn’t able to raise his consciousness to the stage where prana began to leak out and become noise, much like the situation in front of him

At the saon Style’s hidden techniques, to which the state of “cognition” was required, could not be used

“Oops, this is bad!”

I vibration wave released by Miluše and Tuulia attacked Teah the air rattlingly shook and Ayato and co until just before was suddenly gouged out

The two ogre luxes were both guitar types Their ability was the sare lux that deployed a sword type blade, Tuulia’s deployed a trident type blade

“Sorry, but we’re going all out fro this time!”

“Ha-ha! Be stupefied by our sound!”

The blue light that their ogre luxes’ Ulm mana dites emitted was similarly lit in the pupils of Miluše and Tuulia who said so

Furtherers of Mahulena, as in the back row, danced on the space projection keyboard, ht bullets appeared around her ── and were shot at high speed at Ayato and company

“Bloostone Daisy!”

The fiery chakrah the sky to repel several of these light bullets

But, their movements lacked vividness and the flames became somewhat feeble as well

In fact, these chakra drum

Sound pressure protective wall ── that was Päivi’s ogre lux’s ability Upon close inspection, one could see that a space of about 1htly similar to Ardi’s protective wall, but hers seee quantity Although, accordingly the hardness was not as high as Ardi’s

“Kuh……! Sorry, butwell after all……! It looks like the support’s tihtly off than usual……!”

While Julis gritted her teeth with a bitter face, she said so while defending against the light bullets with her Rectoluz Certainly under these circumstances, the one who had it hard theone’s prana’s concentration obstructed was fatal

“Got it, then first, as we planned……!”

Ayato evaded the light bullets by twisting his body in aze towards Monica

But, a sideways slash of Tuulia’s approached, ai for when Ayato landed

“I won’t let you!”

“Guh……!”

He proly heavy blow

Moreover, although it was divided in five, as expected of an ogre lux; Ayato was not able to burn the blade of light created by the guitar even when he blocked it with <ser-versta>[1]

Tuulia then started a chain of consecutive attacks of slicing down fro to the chest andher body Her swordsmanshi+p was sharp and fluent; it was so stylish that it was unthinkable froh basic training fairly well

Though Ayato narrowly defended against the three consecutives blows, one e combat ability was almost equal[2]

Which means──

“Kyaaah……!”

As he turned his gaze for only an instant, Kirin, who blocked Miluše’s sharp slash with Senbakiri, was bloay

Immediately after,

’s twin blades sandwiched Miluše’s body in between there lux in her hand, repelled them and then she drove in a sharp kick in return to Claudia

“Oh my, this is quite intense……!”

Although Claudia somehow avoided it as she leapt back, Miluše’s attacked pursued without pause

(She’s holding Kirin-chan and Claudia, just by herself……!)

“Hey! Don’t look away!”

At thatdown his spine

When he quickly returned his attention to Tuulia, she has already put her finger on the guitar string

(crap……! I can’t avoid this……!)

Tuulia’s crushi+ng vibration wave’s range ide With the current Ayato’s high power output, it would be ie

──But

“……Kaboom”

The next h the stage

“Wha!?”

One of thee on Tuulia’s chest as it passed through Ayato’s side ── regrettably just before it hit, it was defended against

“W-What was that just now!?”

“……That was quite dangerous”

“To think that she’ll suddenly aie……!”

Flustered voices leaked one after another from Miluše and company’s mouths

It would have been quite comfortable if even one of them was defeated with the surprise attack just now, but as expected it looked like it would not go so well Though, it was enough for Ayato, Kirin and Claudia to be able to rebuild their stances with that opening

“Wait, as that……?”

Miluše and company’s surprised expressions were turned towards Ayato and company’s rear

Standing there was the figure of Saya wearing a large-scale lux The lux, which was equipped with a huge back unit, was the particle cannon that Saya used for the first tiainst Ardi and Rimsi in the

’s semifinal before

But as for the details, reatly modified What stood out theout from the back unit

“……Type 41 Induction High-Angle Fire Particle Cannon Waldenholt modified”

Setting up that lux with six muzzles, Saya muttered so in a small voice＊──A few hours ago, Sirius Do room

“I will confirre luxes <lyre-poros> are Monica-san’s 『Inhibition Weakening』 and Mahulena-san’s 『Active Strengthening』 Unless we crush at least one of those till probably have no chance of victory”

Claudia said that in the last strategyjust before the match

As far as she guessed fro, it seemed that Monica’s <lyre poros-roup and Mahulena’s <lyre poros-thalia=””> had the ability to strengthen all her allies The latter seeht bullets as well, but it was not thatability

“Therefore, our top priority targets will be those two Judging froth, Monica-san is above Mahulena-san, however, position wise, she is a vanguard I think that she is the relatively easy one to aith is inferior to the other members, she’s always in the back row in order to devote herself to supporting Taking into consideration Päivi-san’s defense ability, it is doubtful whether a long-range attack would reach her (Mahulena), so ould have a hard tieable”

Everyone was carefully listening to Claudia’s words with serious faces

“……Based on this, I will propose a two-phase strategy”

Claudia raised two fingers

“The one ill be the key for both phases will be you ── Sasamiya-san Please think of it as one part of the reason why you are left to be the leader”

“……”

Receiving Claudia’s gaze, Saya silently nodded

“We should think it is likely that as long as Julis is under the influence of Monica-san’s ability, her backing as a <strega> will not be performed smoothly Therefore, I will have to rey and have her move completely freely as a mobile support Of course, you will have to back us up as uardit”

“……It’s frustrating, but I think that it’ll be safe like that”

While saying so, Julis bit her nail with a clearly dissatisfied face

“I also intend to use

’s future foresight ability this ti about the future, but as Yatsuzaki-sensei said, there would be no y to use it If possible, I would like to get it over with by using about 60 seconds though……”

While saying so, Claudia extended her hand to

in the holder

As of now, the stock hich Claudia could foresee was approxiainst Team Lancelot, she would like to save at least 200 seconds; so when also thinking about the semifinal, she certainly would not like to use up more than 60 seconds here

“Now then, I will tell you about the details of the strategy”

When Claudia looked around at everyone, she began to talk in a low voice＊“H-Ho laser!?”

Before Saya’s large-scale lux, Miluše drew back as she was cautious

Monica’s 『Inhibition Weakening』 does not affect the lux itself Therefore, Saya was Team Enfield’s pivot/keystone in this match

“It’s fine, it’s fine! The current us can deal with it easily enough”

“……You’re right Her aih It’s in the scope where I can defend against it with my protective wall”

“Besides, with the opponent’s leader carrying such a big thing on her back, her movements will also be limited, too Rather, we have to think of it as an opportunity for us”

“Hht”

It was Monica and Päivi who kept Miluše fro

Indeed, seeing it like this, the team’s role division ell done as well

Claudia quickly grasped Tea up

in a low position

Even in battle, the type who put substantial preparation like Monica and Päivi see on with the momentum such as Miluše and Tuulia, so that they would not fall apart

And──

“U-Um, Tuulia-san, you rushed in too fast……! And Päivi-san, too, in your current position, a blind spot in the protective wall deploye will be created, so please come back!”

The most troublesome one above all was Mahulena in the back row

Though she was not the type to control the teaht result in a fatal hole, and correct it

“I won’t let you!”

Finding an opening in their battle formation disordered, Julis’s voice resounded

“crap……!”

The Rectoluz’s six swords slipped through Päivi’s sound pressure protective wall and attacked Monica from overheard

“H…… wait, eeeh?”

Monica swung the blade of light unfolded in axe type and brushed it off, but of course Julis’ aim was not there

The repelled Rectoluz circled at equal intervals as if to surround Monica

“──Come out, Gloriosa!”

At the saic circle unfolded at Monica’s feet and six huge pillars of flames rose up like a demon’s claws

“What!?”

Monica stood stock still as she was caught in the huge palm of flames

Since Julis did not show the shortened activation of the setting type ability using the Rectoluz in the preliminaries, Monica could not react as expected The flames’ claws closed so as to crush her

──But, Päivi’s protective wall unfolded as to stop it and just barely prevented it

“T-That was dangerous, jeez!”

Monica tried to break out from the encirclement at that opportunity, but the other side was not so naïve as to overlook it It would beco down Monica here

“Monica!”

“I won’t let you do that!”

Kirin’s sword strike blocked Miluše as about to go to Monica’s support

On the other side, Ayato also seeoing towards Monica

Which y to decide the ed so, set up

, dashed and shortened the distance to Monica

“……I won’t let you go”

Standing in her as Päivi who unfolded the huge floating drure lux like a shi+eld

“No, I am afraid to say──”

While s, Claudia said so and focused her consciousness on

At that moment, the world lost color and stood still

──First, she dodges Päivi to the right Iht bullets are shot by Mahulena, who fired them around Päivi stealthily to the blind spot, and six shots aoes straight ahead to Monica as is She goes back a half second She evades the down Still, two shots hit her directly She goes back a half second She evades the One shot hits her foot She concentrates prana there and endures it But, Päivi’s sound pressure protective wall is unfolded as to push aside Claudia when she loses her balance (after being hit by one shot and having endured it) She goes back one second She swings

and cuts off six light bullets It is iets hit by two shots She goes back a half second She lowers her speed and cuts off all the light bullets Ies the sound pressure protective wall unfolded to the front with a side step…… Or not She goes back one second──

As Claudia eventually spent 16 seconds froan to ain

“──that you cannot stop me only the two of you”

When Claudiaone step to the left, she rotated her body as if dancing as she dodged Päivi to the right

’s swords’ slashes which dreo arcs repelled the light bullets shot by Mahulena froh the sound pressure protective wall, which Päivi unfolded as to hold her ── which was late for aover and shortened the distance to Monica who just broke out froe of flames

“Impossible!?”

“Is this

’s future foresight……?!”

Päivi opened her eyes wide in shock and Mahulena muttered with a dumbfounded face

(Well then, it’s good so far The problem is after this……)

She slashed with

hung down in a low position, aie

“Waa!”

Fortunately, Monica has not yet rebuilt her stance

“How naïve~!”