Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume3 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

Sword crossed with sword.

The crystal sword branched off at the base like a jitte and the metal sword had a protrusion resembling a tonfa or handcuffs.

The wet rubble floated unnaturally from the floor, light flashed out, and a shockwave and deafening boom shook the entire gym.

Karuta and Aine should not have been able to deal with that using just the one sword, but Karuta just barely dodged the sword that the 3m Warrior Doll swung down heavier than a guillotine and faster than an airplane. Aine instead moved in to hit it with her crystal blade.

It was a lot like bullfighting.

The infrared from the modified military flashlight was just as important as the crystal sword.

This was not part of the basic tactics taught in Second Grimnoah’s textbooks. Imi and Tayori were overwhelmed and could not join the fight.

“Don’t relax just because we’re pulling off this tightrope walk, Aine. Its excess energy might make the rubble float up, but we can’t trust that signal too much.”

“I am already aware of that. If it can pull off a feint with that, the mistake would cost us our lives.”

After determining when it would attack, they would work to confuse it first before making their own attack. That Threat could achieve rapid movement with its green thrusters and it could break the sound barrier if it was allowed a running start. That was well past what a human could hope to match, so Karuta would be killed instantly if he could not reduce its movements.

But even that was far from delivering a critical blow.

After he sent in another IR blast to blind the Warrior Doll, Aine slipped past its right-side defenses and sent her blade toward its arm, leg, and torso, but the wounds were shallow. In fact, the sword was deflected with a high-pitched clang, barely leaving a mark on the reddish-purple armor.

It was fruitless.

But they kept at it regardless.

“Pant, pant!!”

Because Karuta knew his life was not the only one riding on this.

This was for Kazamuki Gekiha and the other old friends from the first ship, it was for his classmates from the second ship like Amaashi Marika and Yamane Deiri, and it was for all the people living the wide world outside of Grimnoah. If the world’s strongest fell here, all of that would be lost.

And then there was Aine who shared his fate.

It was all of those thoughts that prevented him from being cut down. Nor would he be crushed by the shockwave or roasted by the heat of the plasma jet. In fact, he moved out ahead of Aine and threw off the timing of a slash he should never have been able to dodge.

He used his flashlight’s infrared to fry the Threat’s eyes and throw off its timing. If possible, he would hide behind one of the tadpoles to avoid the explosions. If not possible, he would spread out a thin sheet of metal foil (which was probably a piece of a Threat) to at least deflect the great heat.

He doubled over and heard some popping sounds inside his body.

But the shockwave that hit him was not the end of it.

“Aine…”

“…”

“Don’t think about buying time for you to move out front. We’ll both go down if we break our rhythm.”

The Warrior Doll would not stop. If they did not head out to face it, it would likely circle behind the tadpoles itself. And if it made the attack, it would be in control.

“What you did was wrong.”

But even with all that going on, he had something important to say. He once more adjusted his grip on his flashlight while hearing the sounds of crystal fragments breaking away.

“But that was my fault too. Listen, Aine. Once this is over, let’s relearn everything from the ground up. We can return to our dorm room, sleep like a log, get some food, and get through those boring classes. But to do that, you need to do everything you can to learn how to survive.”

Crystal Magic regeneration would heal any nonlethal wound in 30 seconds. If it was discovered that shattering the healing crystals with another attack would prevent it from ever healing, then the enemy could make a series of rapid-fire attacks, but the Threat had only begun to learn the details of Crystal Magic in the gym here. If they had not learned everything and the knowledge had been erased before it could spread, then he could trick the enemy. He focused on that while wiping away the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Then he had to laugh.

(Nonlethal injuries don’t matter, huh? I’ve really gotten accustomed to staying just outside the line of an injury that would bring my life to an end.)

It almost felt quaint that Imi found herself unable to trust anyone after having her severed leg cauterized. Karuta would just say thanks. Imi’s response was of course the correct one. The more power he gained during his fight against the Threat, the less human he felt.

Those tadpoles who had enjoyed their pointless actions while gaining knowledge had also responded in the correct way. Of course they had screamed and gone wild when they were being sliced to pieces.

“Even if we do defeat this thing, I might only be proving how frightening humans can be.”

“If you say so.”

He had a vague premonition about that while he followed after Aine as she made an attack. The Threat did not seem able to close up its wounds like they could, but its reddish-purple armor was too tough to make a dent in. Aine had sliced right through the tadpoles, but that same sword could not cut the armored warrior.

Neither side could make any real progress.

Karuta and the armored warrior glared at each other while wearing each other down with small wounds.

The armored warrior said nothing, but he could sense confusion coming off of it.

It had gathered every form of justice it could think of to create the greatest attack, yet that was not enough.

The Warrior Doll was radiating irritation with itself for its inability to deliver a finishing blow.

Karuta snorted with laughter. That was awfully haughty for a monster. That anger was a sign of worry and panic over its inability to kill someone it should have been able to kill. Elicia and Yukino of the Problem Solvers had begun to panic near the end and started criticizing the rules of the world for not doing what they wanted.

“Did you…”

His side had a crystal sword and a flashlight.

He staggered up alongside the crystal girl and faced the reddish-purple armored warrior.

“Did you think every action has a purpose behind it? Humans are full of inefficiencies. How we master those inefficiencies is what shapes our lives. Perfect efficiency would make for the most boring kind of strongest imaginable. That would only lead to a dystopia.”

There was no response.

That thing may not have even had a complex enough tongue or throat to speak human language. Even those things were a type of inefficiency.

“But you really should know that.” The boy who got by on trickery grinned and held out his flashlight. “I mean, you’re standing there on two feet, wearing armor, and holding your weapon with needlessly complex hands.”

Again, the Threat probably did not understand human language.

But for whatever reason, its red eyes glowed brighter here.

Like they were burning.

Wreckage larger than the average car defied gravity to float into the air one after another.

“''You’re pouring all your strength into the fruitless and meaningless act of revenge. You’re learned everything there is to know about how we humans enjoy our inefficiencies.''”

The armored warrior gave a roar and swung its sword down with all its might.