C-Rank Ranked Match — Team Battle

I-It’s started… what do I do. Maybe I should just drop off this roof and take myself out.

From the rooftop railing, I look down at the road below.

“Ohh! Nice transport position!”

“Yeeek?!”

ChaCha’s voice rings in my head.

“ChaCha!”

“Yoo-hoo~! ChaCha here~”

“U-Um, the view I’m looking at — can you see it?”

“Yep, I can see it~. Vision and radar data get shared across the whole team. Early on I’ll be focusing on supporting you, Shikki, so count on me~”

So self-destructing is off the table. Take myself out now and I’ll have made the worst possible impression.

“For now, we will rendezvous at Shiki’s position. ChaCha, give the instructions.”

Shiina’s voice, this time.

“Okie-dokie~. Then I’ll shoot everyone their transport coordinates now~. For the rendezvous point, the building Shikki’s on right now might be good. So for now, Shikki, get on inside~”

“Understood.”

To my own surprise, I can actually talk over comms. As long as it’s not face to face, the nerves stay manageable. Thank goodness.

“Huh.”

An enemy icon blinks onto my radar.

Moving at an altitude of 180?! Does that mean it’s flying?!

It’s coming straight at me…!

I turn toward the icon just as a Space Girl on red mechanical wings comes soaring off the roof of the building opposite.

“First kill — and it’s aaall mine!!”

Long crimson hair, and a scar down one cheek like something had raked her with its claws. A greatsword across her back, and that kind of mobility… she’s an Attacker!

“Eeek?! That’s Kurry of the Crimson Wings!”

“Kurenai?! Hold on! That’s a championship favorite, right out of the gate?!”

Ch-championship favorite?!

“Shiki! We are also heading your way! Please hold out somehow!”

Even if you tell me that…?!

“Shikki! Running’s not gonna work!”

“I’ll engage!”

I bring up the sniper rifle Shiina lent me and open with a single shot.

“Shield!”

A cluster of Shield Pieces stops the round dead. The distance closes to 10 meters.

“If her loadout’s the same as the last tournament, Kurry’s armaments are Wing, Wing, Shield Piece, Shield Piece, Great Saber, Saber, Foot Saber, Foot Saber!”

Foot Saber… don’t tell me…

“She shoots sabers out of the soles of her feet, so watch out!”

“Sabers from the soles of her feet…!”

Now that is my kind of weapon! —No, this is no time to be saying that!

Change armaments. GW-7!

I equip a GW-7 in each hand.

She wasn’t kidding. There’s a dagger mounted along the top of the barrel.

I level both guns on her and squeeze. As long as I keep the trigger down, the rounds keep pouring out in an unbroken stream.

Full auto!

Yellow rounds spit from the GW-7s like bolts of lightning, but she blocks them behind her Shield Pieces. Shield Pieces aren’t invincible, though. Their durability drains away in front of me, and one after another they shatter.

But—! At this rate she’ll break through!

She sets the greatsword and brings it down. The thing is mostly solid mass; only the single edge of the blade is made of energy.

“Shield!”

Copying what I just watched her do, I launch a Shield Piece from my hip and fling it straight into Kurenai’s face.

“No good! You can’t block ‘Inferno’ with that!”

The greatsword’s red energy blade burns the Shield Piece away without the slightest resistance.

No problem. Blinding her was the whole point.

The incinerated Shield Piece gives off a thin curl of smoke, and it fogs Kurenai’s field of vision.

Spraying rounds from both handguns, I open up the distance again.

“Like hell I’m letting you go!!”

She Thruster Boosts. Absurdly fast. I fling another Shield Piece into her face, blind her, and run the chain: handgun burst → evade.

“What are you, a fly?! You’re a damn nuisance!”

“Ooh, using Shield Pieces to pester her? Nice work~♪”

We’re burning through Shield Pieces at about the same rate. I spend mine to blind her; she spends hers to fend off my handgun rounds. The real fight starts once the Shield Pieces run out.

Another of my Shield Pieces gets cut down.

And that puts my Shield Pieces at zero.

At the same instant, my fire grinds the last of hers down to nothing too.

“From here on…”

“…is the real showdown!”

Dual pistols against a greatsword, at point-blank range.

She leans on her mobility, coming at me in a chain of high-speed attacks. I keep dodging on the smallest movements I can manage. My shooting isn’t really about hitting her, either; it’s about placing rounds where they’ll check her movement. I use the angle of my handguns and my fire to narrow her options, wall off where she can go, and slip clear. When an opening shows, I slash with the dagger under the barrel and shave a little off her durability.

Evade, evade evade evade attack evade!!

“Why, you—! You’re a Sniper, aren’t you?! Since when does a Sniper stay alive this long once somebody’s on top of her?!”

“I-I-I’m sorry!”

“Don’t apologize! I’m complimenting you!!”

Her leg comes up. The saber in her sole!

“Barely, barely!”

I Thruster Boost sideways and slip the foot saber as it sweeps up.

“Tch! So my hand’s already been read!”

She baits me in with the greatsword, and the instant I give her an opening the foot saber comes sliding through. This girl is seriously good. Her thruster control especially; she uses it to smooth over the recovery lag after every foot saber.

“We’ve closed to 300 meters! Hang in there, amateur Sniper!”

Another ten-odd seconds? Then I can last!

She isn’t committing. It’s because she has no shield left. Like this, I might just hold out until Shiina and the others get here.

“…”

We’re locked in a stalemate, and yet Kurenai doesn’t show the faintest trace of impatience. It’s almost as if she’s gone quiet and calm all of a sudden…

…? Something’s off—

One possibility flashes through my head.

“Just do it! Leaving this one alive is bad news!”

Kurenai’s words aren’t aimed at me. They’re going out over a comms link, to someone else.

Light glints off a power pylon 700 meters out.

Sniper shot!!

I twist my upper body aside and let the shot slip past.

A Sniper! A Sniper’s range is long enough to cover her from 700 meters out! Th-they regrouped first!!

My body still twisted aside, my balance gone, the greatsword bears down on me. Completely cornered…

Yeah. This one kills me.