Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase2 (section)

===Part 13===

They had no time.

Even now, the sniper with devil wings was escaping further and further away.

“Sorcery Hacker.”

But Ayato felt things changing when a female voice sharply questioned him.

They were on a different set or rails now.

He wanted to pursue that red leather woman right away, but he could not ignore this either.

They were surrounded by a group of around ten wearing protector-based combat armor colored a dark gray, but the one beautiful woman wore some nicer-looking armor. Why had she chosen that technologically-inferior armor? She wore her long blonde hair in a single braid down to her hips, her hand slowly reached for the large sorcery gun worn at the side of her hip, and she appeared to be the one in charge here.

He heard some solid clanking sounds from directly behind him. The elites who had survived the fury of the anti-dragon rifle had caught up and landed on the wall of the building.

But he could not take his eyes off the person in front of him.

The pressure coming from that female knight with braided blonde hair was different from the rest. There was no warmup in combat. You could not hold anything in reserve for later. If he let his focus shift even slightly, he would be devoured immediately.

He could tell.

“Disarm yourselves and surrender at once. We will give you one chance here. We have no problem at all with shooting all three of you to end this.”

“Hm, you real ''knights'' are nothing like the ones in the storybooks.”

“Excuse me, I am Striker Henrietta Split Destrius. My court rank is viscount. Unlike you, I hold a position where I need not hide my appearance and name behind a handle name. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“We clearly live in very different worlds because that just sounds suicidal to me.”

Ayato slowly raised his hands and observed his surroundings by moving just his eyes and keeping his head motionless. They were on the wall of the high-rise building. In addition to the asphalt-colored knights, there were also a few six-legged sorcery vehicles parked around them. He could Sorcery Hack those if he had a manaflow to work with, but…

(Even the cheapest vehicle is Level 8 while I only have 6 to work with. There’s nothing I can do right now. And those knights’ protector armor is more than twice that.)

Their levels were high and they blocked the way forward and back. Ayato had not stabbed his sword’s blades into various devices to build up his processing space, so he was stuck like this for now.

(Whatever the case, I need to get to a higher level. I can’t do anything without doing that.)

''Clank, clank, CLINK.'' Ayato’s footsteps rang out as he slowly walked toward the group in front of him with his hands still in the air.

Henrietta drew the large sorcery gun from her hip.

It was based on a large-caliber bolt-action rifle, but it was a carbine with a collapsible metal stock attached to the back and a giant axe attached like a bayonet either as a formality or for military demonstrations. However, he could not quite figure out what it was for. It might have decent penetrative power and accuracy with a scope by using its long-range and large caliber, but then what was that axe for? It seemed overly decorative to him, much like that armor with a miniskirt.

“Do you intend to survive this?”

“I certainly don’t intend to surrender.”

With a rough noise, Henrietta pulled back the bolt-action cocking lever to load a round into the chamber.

“(Miss Mamilis.)”

Nevertheless, Ayato whispered in the Dark Elf’s ear with his hands still raised.

“(What magic do you have loaded at the moment?)”

“(The simplest one: Primary Blaze.)”

“(Then,)” he began. “(You are my only hope. ''Fire at the window directly below us''.)”

The full-auto shotgun sorcery gun with a drum magazine attached produced a muzzle flash toward their feet and fire magic exploded out. The three of them immediately disappeared. They were standing on the side of a building and the wall they stood on had windows at set intervals. It went without saying what happened when Ayato, Teleria, and Mamilis stood on that thick glass and then shattered it.

The shotgun self-replicated the magic designated by the bullet itself and fanned it out from the barrel. The thick reinforced glass may have been designed to withstand the powerful winds and artificial air currents up here, but this was too much for it.

“Kyah!!”

The blonde girl’s scream echoed out. They had been standing where the air current pushed them against the wall, so they had slipped right inside the building. Gunshots rang out from the outside wall, but it was too late now.

Ayato reflexively tried to pull the blonde girl close when he heard her scream, but someone else responded faster. Rookie Mamilis grabbed Teleria’s hand and helped her up in his place.

“Oh?”

“Oh, no. If this student proves to be a little too capable and steals this role from me, that happy sensation will forever slip from my fingers!!”

“I’m not going anywhere, Ayato, so don’t look even more panicked about this than everything else that’s happened today!!”

The fading red shotgun shell finally fell into the building with a metallic clinking.

Ayato spun around to view their surroundings.

Teleria (while still held by the Dark Elf) pulled her dual handguns from their holsters, pressed the slides against her forehead, and used the power of her mind to transform the letters and numbers on the disintegrating lead bullets into something more combat-oriented.

There was a brightly-polished floor, decorative potted plants, and the giant crystal orb of a Media Summoner. A brand-new six-legged vehicle sat in the middle of the shop. This must have been a luxury shop shielded from the winds outside.

“A display store for sorcery vehicles?”

“Ugh, they’re like driven weapons…”

“Miss Mamilis, there is nothing to fear from that machine. And Miss Teleria, fire some warning shots toward the workers and customers, but do not hit anyone. Miss Mamilis, keep track of your remaining shots while firing toward the window!”

“Oh, honestly! Secondary Water Jet!!”

The blonde girl fired a straight line of pressurized water up at the ceiling using her twin handguns and the Dark Elf used the Primary Blaze fire magic to construct a giant wall of small explosions at the window through which they had entered.

The floor was soon littered with red shotgun shells covered with a hardened film of mist mana. The shells flashed like sparks as they fell.

They had sent the extra people away from here while buying time until the knights could break in. Ayato had to make his move during that time. He drew his Linkage Plug sword, stabbed it into the floor, and removed a perfectly-hidden square panel. Several pipes ran through the floor.

(The sprinkler control and the A/C equipment. That’s Level 5. I’ll take that processing space to start with.)

He stabbed his sword in, pulled the trigger, and detached the grip from the blade before replacing the floor panel.

This time, they would be fighting on a narrow field. He had some more processing space now, but that was gone if the knights found the blade and pulled it out. That meant it had to remain hidden.

The giant snowdome-like Media Summoner connected to a long and narrow path of mist mana on the wall was being used as an advertisement display for new vehicles. He reached behind that and stabbed a blade into it.

(The Media Summoner is Level 3. That gives me a total of 14. With that much resonance, I can take over that display sorcery vehicle or even a knight’s protector armor if I can get a blade into it!)

“Wah, wah! Ayato! I just heard hurried footsteps from over there. In the hallway!”

“Yeah, they would search for another way around with the window blocked by that barrage.”

“Hm? Then can I stop, Coach?”

“No, Miss Mamilis, you keep at it. Miss Teleria, fire on my signal. On the count of three!”

Heavily-equipped knights charged in through the same door the workers and customers had used to flee the warning shot. Ayato used that moment to use the sprinklers under his control to send an artificial downpour on them.

Their armored feet must have slipped in the pouring rain.

“Ahh, ah!!”

“Miss Teleria, the finishing blow.”

She did not need a laser guide or dot sight. The blonde girl pulled her twin handguns’ triggers toward the dark gray knights who had tripped quite spectacularly. Fire erupted from the muzzles and the disintegrating lead bullets created blue muzzle flashes as bright as fireworks. The mist mana spewed blue sparks in full-auto and the muffled sound of suppressed gunfire rang out as spears of pressurized water were created. More and more shots of Secondary Water Jet stabbed into the defenseless knights. Since their armor was made to be wearable, the soundproofing around the vitals was not perfect.

“Keep going! Freeze their soaked armor if you can!!”

“That would kill the people inside, so I’m not doing that!!”

A surprise attack was no more than a surprise attack, so this would not work again.

But Ayato still thought they could win.

“Lean out into the hallway and keep firing. Take out as many as you can right now.”

“U-uwehhhh!! Okay, fine!!”

The soaking-wet blonde girl did as told and released a spray of full-auto fire into the straight hallway outside the door.

She had soon created a small pile of empty cartridges covered in a film from the impurity powder and high temperature. The fading blue lights scattered at her feet and lost their color like withering flowers.

Their opponents here were experts at keeping the peace. A thoughtless spray of magic would not normally score a clean hit on them, but things were different here.

“Gyah!?”

“Dammit, what!? I can’t see it!!”

“It’s water magic, but it’s hard to see because it’s blending into the sprinkler water!!”

It was the same idea as being unable to read red writing in a red light. With the sprinklers sending down a shower of water, Teleria’s water attack magic blended into the background.

(We don’t have to defeat all of the knights. It takes one of them to treat another, so we just have to take out half of them. And we just want to run away, so we don’t have to defeat their big boss either. If we crush the underlings to trip them up, we can make our getaway!!)

He had built up a path to victory while outnumbered.

He chose not to confront them head-on because he recognized their skill. The more a Sorcery Hacker respected a formidable foe, the craftier a plan they would put together. If a clash could be avoided, nothing would be better. Direct combat was not the only way to fight. Whatever that blonde braided knight…no, that Striker thought, Ayato’s group’s win condition was escaping safely from this place.

Or so he thought.

However, the interior wall right next to him was suddenly smashed by brute force from the other side.

“Wha-?”

This assault operation entirely ignored the preexisting pathways.

The explosive destruction sent chunks of wall larger than his head flying like a scattershot. Teleria had been by the door to the hallway, but Mamilis was in the danger zone while holding the full-auto shotgun at her hip and firing toward the window from the center of the display area. He immediately grabbed the Dark Elf around her slender hips and knocked her to the floor.

“Mgyuh!!”

“Miss Mamilis, you really do have some ‘happiness’ despite your slender build.”

“Are you making a joke so I won’t worry about you, Coach? A piece of rubble just hit you in the back.”

He smiled and did not respond, but the blonde girl who did not know how to appreciate the little things in life interrupted them with a warning shot of water magic.

“C’mon, c’mon! Get up, get up!! This is serious!!”

“Yes, yes…ow.”

He slowed his breathing and tried to get up again.

The person who had destroyed the wall and now strolled in from the adjacent room was the blonde-braided Striker wearing the old model of tight skirt protector armor and carrying a bolt action carbine with an axe-like bayonet.

This was Henrietta Split Destrius.

A sniper rifle with a scope gave no advantage in an indoor battle like this, but she approached all the same.

“Nh!!”

Dark Elf Mamilis fired her full-auto magazine while still lying on her back after he pushed her down. It spat out a Primary Blaze blast along with the shotgun shell. The bright red muzzle flash spread out, the mist mana that pierced that produced explosion magic, and the many pieces of self-replicated fire magic fanned out to create a thick wall of explosions.

Yet it did not hit.

Magic’s range was equal to the reach of the gunshot sound, but this was not thanks to the partial soundproofing around the Striker’s vitals. A much larger system had prevented the magic from working.

A gust of wind blew in through the broken window and surrounded Henrietta’s slender body. The small tornado twisted and bent Mamilis’s lines of fire, sending them in the wrong direction. The walls and potted plants were caught by the explosions, but Henrietta remained unscathed. Shotgun shells the size of fingers were ejected to show the power being consumed and the last trace of their light scattered like sparks while their color faded like a withering flower.

“Sorcery Hacker, you are no more than a pest abusing but a portion of this city’s system.”

“Kh.”

“But we Strikers are the ones who built this city’s system. I hold the jackpot that allows me to draw out the city’s full power through the proper lines, so did you really think you could stand up to me with the power of a few chips you managed to swipe?”

Ayato did not bother listening to any more than that.

(I’m at Level 14. That display vehicle is 7!!)

He stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the headlight of the six-legged sorcery vehicle sitting nearby and removed the grip from the blade. Then he started up the vehicle and had it drive right toward Henrietta.

While hearing the fearsome sound of impact, he grabbed the silver-haired Dark Elf’s slender arm and pulled her up from the floor. Then he ran to the hallway door where Teleria was.

But the threat was not gone.

With a deafening crash, the beetle-like sorcery vehicle meant to crash into the Striker at full speed was knocked aside.

She seemingly swept it aside with just the one hand.

Dark-skinned Mamilis gulped.

“What was that? I know she’s wearing combat armor made from oxidized mana-conducting silver and large monster tendons and leather, but that doesn’t strengthen her physical abilities!!”

“That wasn’t that wind defense using the city infrastructure either, was it!?” added Teleria.

There was only one other option.

Henrietta carried a carbine with an axe-like bayonet. However, she did not bother aiming at them. She had pointed the muzzle overhead and did not even look through the scope.

And she made a single shot.

“Buff: Primary Ex Massive.”

Based on the letters and numbers carved into the disintegrating lead bullet by her willpower, a muzzle flash burst out like a scarlet firework and her body explosively swelled out. The soles of her boots dug at the floor and she charged toward Ayato with fearsome speed.

(That sorcery weapon isn’t a projectile weapon meant to safely fire elemental magic from afar. It’s specialized for buffing her own physical abilities for a direct clash!!!???)

The power and accuracy of the sorcery gun itself did not matter.

She had never considered hitting her enemy with it.

“Hh!!”

Ayato pulled the Dark Elf in close and placed himself in front of the blonde girl while just barely managing to swing the trigger-equipped sword he used for Sorcery Hacking. Henrietta’s axe-like bayonet was not just a decorative formality or for military demonstrations. She used ultra-close-range tactics where that was her primary weapon and everything else was no more than accessories.

He could not hope to defeat a fully-equipped professional at point-blank range.

As soon as the blade and bayonet axe collided, his entire body lost balance to the side.

(Damn, and I could hack that sorcery gun if I could only stab it!!)

Henrietta spun around and made another strike with the axe blade from a completely different angle more than twenty times faster than the boy could recover. A hit from that would kill him instantly.

“(Secondary Rupture. Um, and then!!)”

Teleria was supposedly safe behind him, but instead of relying that, she pressed the slide of her handgun to her forehead, changed the type of magic being used, and pulled the trigger at extreme close range.

With the muffled sound of the suppressed gunfire, an ultra-pressurized line of water shot out, burst, and produced an explosion of water. Instead of hitting Henrietta, it was meant to launch Ayato and the other two through the door and into the hallway.

And that girl had ''two'' handguns.

She fired that water magic with one, but she had apparently used a variant of recovery magic with the other.

The Dark Elf spoke with her healthy skin soaking wet while the boy continued to hold her in one arm.

“That stings.”

“You should be thankful it only stings after being hit by a blast like that!!” insisted Teleria.

The knights who had yet to be defeated were waiting for them in the hallway, but Teleria’s water magic and Mamilis’s fire magic made short work of them (while those two were still collapsed on the floor). The floor was covered with empty cartridges with their red or blue light rapidly fading like withering flowers.

If they kept fighting blindly, they would end up cornered.

Ayato had to think.

“Outside!! This labyrinthine building is perfect for Henrietta’s close-range specialty!!”

They had a plan now.

They all ran for the emergency exit sign inside that hallway extending to the left and right.

The wall collapsed near the door where they had been lying on the floor a moment before, the dust cloud was torn apart, and Henrietta walked calmly out into the hallway with her intentionally outdated armor and her carbine equipped with an axe-like bayonet.

Ayato’s cheeks tensed as he clenched his teeth.

“I guess a real knight is a step above the rest!”

“A compliment like that only serves to irritate me coming from a Sorcery Hacker like you who does not even carry a sorcery gun. Even though I do know that is irrational.”

“I know it’s a weird thing to say when these two are using them, but I’ve sworn to never use one of those again.”

“Did you think setting up little rules for yourself places you on the side of good, sorcery criminal?”

She pulled back the bolt-action cocking lever, an empty cartridge was ejected while it lost its golden color and faded like a withering flower, a new round was loaded with the surface of its mist mana hardened like a thin film, and she once again ignored the scope to fire it up at an angle like a gun salute.

“Another buff: Primary Ex Massive.”

Again, Henrietta’s beautiful body seemed to explode out.

Running would not be enough to escape.

“Miss Teleria, the door!!”

“Secondary Water Jet!”

The blonde girl obeyed his instruction by placing the slide portion of her guns against her forehead, changing the magic, turning around, and firing spears of pressurized water using the laser guide and dot sight to accurately hit the doorknob of a metal door partway down the long hallway.

The door flew open and crashed into Henrietta. She plowed right through it, but the direction of her fierce tackle was changed. She strayed from her straight path, her protector armor crashed into the interior wall, and she passed by Ayato’s group while her scraping armor sent sparks flying.

“Miss Mamilis, rapid fire!!”

Like the amateur she was, she stuck with Primary Blaze. The full-auto shotgun sorcery gun produced small explosions that were self-replicated and spread all over, but the wind complexly swirling around Henrietta diverted them all away.

The colorful used shotgun shells were ejected all the same.

But that was fine.

The intense barrage of explosions completely destroyed the outside wall, giving them a view outside the building. Targeting a nearby wall meant Mamilis’s flames nearly blew back in and burned them, but that was actually a good thing. They now had a shortcut outside, so it no longer mattered that Henrietta was blocking the route to the emergency exit.

There was no reason to hesitate.

Before Henrietta could extract that half of her body from the inner wall, Ayato’s group jumped down from a height of more than 1000 esoule<ref>Approximately 1200 meters.</ref>.

They were below the sunny and starry sky once more.

They rode an artificial air current pseudo-visualized by the flower petals in it and hurried away from there.

“This won’t be enough to lose her!” pointed out Teleria. “We need to figure out what to do!!”

“Based on our brief clash there, that Henrietta is on another level. On the other hand, the other knights weren’t all that impressive. A head-on clash might be dangerous, but if we plan things out, we can have them dancing in our palm.”

“Coach, would it break their spirit if we defeated that braided ponytail woman?”

“Right now, I don’t think she’s going to let us just run away!”

With an explosive sound, Henrietta crashed through the wall of that building and rode an air current just like them. Her blonde braid and miniskirt fluttered behind her as she pursued them at incredible speed. She must have been used to this because she looked right at home slipping between the giant walkways and mobile shops made from sorcery vehicles.

She was faster.

It was obvious why. It was the same as with the sniper from before. While Ayato’s group was avoiding the buildings and staying in the air, she was using her ridiculous strength to place her feet on a building wall and then kick off to accelerate herself whenever she had a chance. Doing so on the smooth vertical walls would be hard enough, but she also used the shops on those walls and the gaps between people. A normal person would have shattered their legs trying it, but she forcibly reduced the burden using the reinforcing function of the equipment supplied by the central Light Castle and the muscular-amplification magic she had created for herself.

It was gradual, but she was definitely closing the gap.

She would catch up if they did not come up with a plan and then those powerful arms would grab at their ankles and swing them around. Once that happened, it was all over.

“Wh-wh-wh-what do we do, what do we do, wait, huh, wait!?”

“We head northeast for now. Do not change direction. Also, Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis, have you kept track of your remaining ammo? Do you have much left?”

“I’m fine there…”

“Coach, I am fine too. Also, directions like that don’t mean much in a sky city.”

When the two girls answered him, Ayato made up his mind.

“Miss Mamilis, that large sign on the wall.”

“Hm?”

“Miss Teleria, destroy that window washing gondola!!”

Fire and water magic erupted out and a storm of Primary Blaze and Secondary Water Jet tore through a heavy metal mass’s bolts or wires to drop it into the air current. The heavy wreckage of metal and a thin Media Summoner passed by directly behind them and flew straight toward Henrietta as she pursued them.

“Back in that shop, she did not stop the six-legged sorcery vehicle with her wind defense. I do not know exactly where the limit lies, but it must not be able to stop objects above a certain weight!”

Those masses would kill a normal person and they now blocked Henrietta’s path.

However…

“Uwehhhh!!”

Teleria could not be blamed for shouting in surprise. Henrietta never even considered dodging. She let her buffed body do the talking and deflected wreckage taller than she was with nothing but a swing of her fist.

“Th-that-that didn’t buy us any time at all!”

“Hm, there really are more of those big windmills the closer we get to the center. And there are fewer walkways. I also saw some of those windmills while we were pursuing that sniper.”

“Hellooo!?”

The large cross-shaped windmills had four blades which each measured 35 esoule<ref>Approximately 42 meters.</ref> long. Ayato checked behind them while slipping between two windmills that were quite close together.

Henrietta really was a powerful enemy.

She grasped at the air currents more easily than Ayato’s group and avoided the windmills more accurately than them as she closed in on them.

“There aren’t any restaurants or mobile shops around. We must be almost to the Bright Castle in the center.”

“Eh? Coach, that means this is a dead end. There’s a thick aurora-like barrier called the Free Audience Restriction. It’s like a massive wall of energy.”

“Then let’s settle this before we run into that,” he said. “Miss Teleria, focus on the steel beams dangling from that ballista crane. Fire on my signal.”