Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume4 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 8===

The escort ships were fighting each other. Second Grimnoah had more than one ship protecting it. That included the powerful Radioquartz drone carrier. But the electric battleship was not sunk even when outnumbered. The other ships primarily used cruise missiles which all blew up in midair due to sensor and electric fuse malfunctions brought on by the Chrisbart’s powerful EM weapons. And the many attack drones launched from the Radioquartz were shot down by the anti-air lasers.

Then the Chrisbart struck back with its large railguns.

Those guns were so powerful the destroyer class ships were bent like a V when they were hit in the side.

Given the range of the extraordinary railguns, things might have ended differently were the others ships more than 2000km away, but they could not make use of their greater aerial forces while packed in this close together. Here, superiority was determined by pure firepower and armor. Karuta and the others watched on as the Radioquartz’s EM-guided drone catapults were forcibly torn away.

They could not rely on the adults in command of the escort fleet.

Yamane Deiri had woken up and entirely ignored his missing arm as he grabbed Karuta’s collar with his other hand.

“Get going already, you idiot.”

“But what about you, Yamanen?”

“You need to get to Aine-chan and tell her she’s got nothing to worry about because we’ve dealt with everything already. It has to be you! If we tried to approach her, we’d just be the assholes who made her cry and say she can’t obey that command. We can’t fix this without putting our own rotten lives at risk, so I’m ready to do what it takes! …Listen, don’t let that girl commit harakiri again. If you agree with me, then quit worrying over every little injury and go pursue Machibula!!”

Karuta clenched his teeth.

He left Yamane Deiri with Nekoumi Hirosuke, who happened to be nearby, and looked to the ocean from behind one of the hanging lifeboats.

His eyes met with the muzzles of a few of the guns sticking out from the electric battleship like a hedgehog. After gathering his resolve, he burst from behind cover and ran across the side deck.

Sound left him behind as several bright lights quickly flashed.

Before the sound even caught up, several wirelessly-powered motor missiles were sliced apart in midair, triggering several explosions.

Amaashi Marika stared past the ship’s railing with her pointy crystal armor open and spun her rapier device around a bit while yelling.

“Karuta, you get inside the ship so that hunk of junk can’t target you! There are other ways to pursue Machibula, right!?”

“I’d love to, but the watertight doors have been bent too much to open. That’s the only reason Machibula’s group hasn’t hidden inside the ship themselves!”

The subsequent flash of light was even brighter than lightning. It was the side effect of a crystal magic laser slicing through one of the battleship’s railguns. This had reached a point that Karuta couldn’t even follow along with the naked eye.

“And if I don’t keep their aim on me, you’ll have a harder time fighting back. I mean, what if they try to crush the entire starboard side of Second Grimnoah with their electric guns!?”

“Are you serious? Young Karuta, when did you turn into a hero in tights?”

“Isn’t that what it means to be the world’s strongest?”

The Problem Solvers had been the worst, but it was also true the people had innocently believed they were heroes like that. It was up to him to not destroy the world’s dreams a second time.

“Natalena, Letnahe, little Shouka-kun, and our parents are all on this ship. I’d rather draw enemy fire than have a stray shot hit any of them! I’ll keep their attention, so you deal with their railguns and wirelessly-powered motor missiles, Marika!!”

“I notice you’re leaving me with the hard part! But fine, I’ll do it!!”

They could not ignore the attacks coming from the Chrisbart. For one thing, they had to protect the many visitors who were mistaking this for a fireworks show or acrobatics by the crystal magicians.

And by shooting down the attacks with lasers or by gathering multiple people to block the attacks with their combined barriers, they could reduce the amount of direct firepower reaching the side deck.

A few of the slaves fleeing down the side deck came to a stop and turned back toward Karuta. They were going to stop him with a human wall.

It was time for Karuta to do his job. He could not capture Machibula unless he first defeated these slaves in black dresses and heavy chains. If that scum managed to blow up the engine room to take out Karuta along with the ship, then the priestess would win. He could never look Aine in the eye if he let that happen.

But…

(There’s too many of them!)

Their weapons were crotales. Those percussion instruments looked like a bakery’s tongs with two round coaster-sized pieces of metal attached to the ends. They could be swung down like a hammer or they could grab and tear at flesh like giant pliers. The weapons inspired a primitive fear different from a blade or gun.

In the world of professional combat, you always kept two options in mind and put together a plan to crush your opponent’s defenses, but with a wall of them, he didn’t have time to focus on each individual enemy and put together an attack plan for them. In the time it took him to face one of them, another would attack him from the side.

And…

“Really? Why are you following their lead, you idiot?”

Someone shot past Karuta from behind. But not to the side. They placed their hands on his back and leaped over him like he was a vaulting box.

It was a brown-skinned soldier with long silver hair trailing behind her like the tail of a comet.

Letnahe Kurent, the combat machine in a white uniform, got one of the leading black dress girls in a wristlock and then spun her around to the side. The girl swept away the enemy formation like the grim reaper’s scythe.

“Do you still not get it, you amateur killers? The only reason I’m not using my axe is because a soldier must go easy on civilians.”

She was not coming up with two or three plans for each individual opponent. She used the body of one defeated foe to start a domino effect among the entire group. She sometimes used one captured slave as a shield and other times threw an enemy to crush the other black dress girls. She used the fact that the enemy was a group against them in a way that was simply beyond Karuta.

“Hurry. This is only the opening battle. Your real opponent is Machibula Delphi, isn’t it? The official tournament rules mean only you can deal with her.”

“Right!!”

Karuta jumped over a chained slave collapsed on the floor and continued on ahead.

But that had not taken care of all the slaves protecting their priestess.

“Do not fear! There’s only one of him!!”

Karuta heard a husky female voice from beyond the crowd of people up ahead.

“On this narrow side deck, numbers matter more than skill. He has no projectiles weapons, so swarm him and-!?”

The voice was cut off by the crackling of sparks. The scarlet light that shot horizontally from Karuta’s hand weaved between the slaves and struck their commander in the forehead.

“A signal…flare?”

She fell to her knees. A flare was not as powerful as a bullet, but it had to have shaken her brain as much as a fist.

The side deck had a surprising amount of stuff on it, including the hanging lifeboats. After throwing aside the single-use handgun-style flare launcher, Karuta grabbed another metal box and pulled out the AED bag within. He grabbed the flat electrodes in his hands and charged into Orpheus’s Orchestra which had lost any sort of strategy with their commander temporarily down.

(Did you think you knew more about Second Grimnoah’s layout and equipment than us? Whose home turf do you think this is!?)

“Gahhh!!”

He took out some with the electric shock and another group rushed in to tackle him before the AED could charge again, so he made them flinch by shoving the firework-like flame of a lit smoke bomb in their faces. He didn’t want to use the fire axe against them, but he didn’t want them to use it against him either. He grabbed it from the wall and chucked it into the sea.

But he still hadn’t taken them all out.

The colorful smokescreen split open to reveal and a black dress girl who had gotten separated from the group. Her collar and thick chains shined dully.

In the instant their eyes met, time seemed to stop.

Time resumed with a fist thrown toward Utagai Karuta’s face.

“Sh!!”

He ignored the fist itself while throwing a low kick (something that Letnahe had banned him from using). The strike swept in from the outside, forcibly sliding her legs and putting all her weight back on her heels.

Now that he had done it, he could tell she was standing straight up “at attention” and a light push on her chest would make her topple backwards. She failed to control the momentum of her swinging fist and was spun around by it. Without coming close to hitting Karuta right in front of her.

He grabbed the side of her unguarded head with one hand and slammed it against the railing, knocking her out.

''I get it now,'' he thought, analyzing his success while kicking away her guitar-like kithara that could be used as a wire from a distance or a striking weapon close up.

(Just like them, I can only use one kind of defense, so they’ll have plenty of methods ready to get around my defenses. I need to be two steps ahead of them. If I know what I don’t want them to do, I can figure out what they’ll do, prevent it, and retake the initiative!!)

The smoke bomb’s smokescreen and the fire extinguisher powder hung in the air as a cotton candy-like curtain even though they were outdoors. Maybe thanks to the ceiling jutting out overhead.

Now that he had confused them by blinding them in multiple ways, he only had to worry about the girls directly in his path. For them, he would grab their collars or thick chains and throw them over the side deck’s railing. He weaved his way through the combat group to break through to the other side.

Not even Orpheus’s Orchestra had an unlimited supply of personnel. Their priestess only had a few bodyguards left.

He recognized one of the black dress girls who looked over her shoulder at him.

He even remembered her name.

“Kildna!!”

“Tch. Did I send too many forces to set up that trick!?”

That trick. Even with all the automation included on a cutting-edge warship, the Chrisbart had still carried a crew of more than 1000 who knew nothing of magic.

These people’s values placed so little value on a human life. But maybe that was just what you got with a group that had devoted themselves to the same religion since ancient times.

They were not just tools used to cast magic.

This organization followed a mythology or religion.

They had arrived at an outdoor café that took up a large portion of the side deck. It was set up a lot like a hospital waiting room. Beach chairs, side tables, and parasols had been set up to provide a view of the ocean. Karuta vaguely recalled the place offering an optional service for sunbathers where a drone like a disco ball could fly around and shine the sun on you. He was also relieved because the café was closed during the tournament and there was no one there to be hurt.

“Oh, what’s this about, Kildna? Is this something I should perhaps know about?”

“Priestess, use your magic on my signal!!”

“Will do.”

(Hm? They’re willing to use their contestant’s registered magic outside a match!?)

A dull rumbling blasted Karuta to the side.

If he hadn’t grabbed at the metal railing, he might have been flung into the ocean. The beach chairs and side tables were all bolted to the floor, but they were torn away and then slammed back into the floor. His flimsy barrier and his sense of equilibrium were both obliterated. But they hadn’t actually done anything to him. It was the 600m three hull ship that was shaking so violently.

“A…wave!? Are you controlling the ocean itself!?”

“Greek astrology is magic that controls the stars.”

With a mechanical hum, something crawled out from the fluffy blonde goddess’s chest and onto her shoulder. It used four legs resembling small sticks or crab legs to cling to her soft skin and it looked something like an eyeball larger than a baseball, but it was in fact a small indoor planetarium.

The artificial stars expanded across the faint mist surrounding them and the priestess smiled while enclosed in her own little universe. The false lights moved around her to match her finger movements.

Was it a physical device that supported complex calculations and images, similar to an abacus or a slide rule?

“''It could be the moon or Mars, but by adjusting the positions of the stars, those celestial bodies’ gravity acts upon the earth. Altering the tides is child’s play.''”

(Dammit, she can do all that!?)

“Kildna, what next?”

“Over there.”

Just as Amaashi Marika, Yamane Deiri, and the others attempted to sink the Chrisbart with a unified attack, the electric battleship seemed to hop up out of the way of the crystal magic plasma strike.

No, it rode a wave several hundred meters tall. The 300m, 40,000ton warship was lifted from below and freed from the bonds of gravity. It almost seemed to be flying a loop-the-loop. Flipped upside down, the Chrisbart aimed its railguns down at Second Grimnoah.

The slave named Kildna whispered into the miniature microphone installed in her wrist shackle.

“Fire.”

A series of explosive booms followed.

Marika and the others in the air were slow to respond when the railguns fired from an entirely unexpected angle. They all activated their barriers and sacrificed their own arms and legs to forcibly make up for the defensive power they lacked.

The scattering crystal shards created a brilliant rainbow above the equatorial ocean.

The electric warship leaped straight over Second Grimnoah and flipped back around before landing in the ocean on the other side. The ocean water spread out like a crater, violently rocking Second Grimnoah again. Karuta had been holding onto the side deck railing for dear life, but he was thrown in the opposite direction, flying clear across the outdoor cafe and slamming against the metal wall.

“Gah!?”

The few remaining bodyguards were struck by the flying cash register and side tables, knocking them over the railing and into the sea. They apparently weren’t considered all that valuable. Kildna did not even glance in their direction as she brushed off some glass shards from the fluorescent lights shattered overhead.

“Priestess, use the power of the Coriolis force next. Create a large vortex.”

“A hurricane?”

“They apparently call them typhoons here. They do not appear to have enough power to handle a natural disaster caused by an observation point combined with the arrangement of the stars. Continue to strike them and we can escape beyond their reach.”

“Using the moon’s pull and the ebb and flow of the waves to have tens of thousands of tiny red crabs eat them alive sounds like more fun, but fine. We can do things your way today, Kildna.”

(So it’s the slave making things so much more complex. This isn’t like with the Problem Solvers. Their talents and strategies are mixing together, making them harder to read.)

Without Kildna leading her, Machibula would likely have greedily hoped to turn the tables on him and win this. That would have let him lure her in and strike. But with the slave tapping the brakes, she was reminded that her objective here was simply to escape.

The miniature planetarium on Machibula’s shoulder hummed again and the Greek astrology priestess was surrounded by artificial stars even in the bright sunlight. Her outstretched fingers manipulated their arrangement.

(If she keeps this up, Second Grimnoah itself is going to break apart.)

“Ohhh!!”

Karuta swallowed his fear and forced himself forward. Fortunately, Machibula’s magic required time for the calculations. She could not activate it just by pulling the trigger, so he had a chance to intervene.

Kildna stepped forward to make up for that.

They really were Orpheus’s Orchestra. When Karuta pulled his modified military flashlight from his hip, Kildna pulled out a metal trumpet. Its design was simpler than those the concert band used and it lacked the three piston valves. Thanks to that, it looked something like a metal pipe with one end opened wide. But he seriously doubted she was just going to hit him with it.

And in fact, she placed her lips on the trumpet.

He could not just raise his arms to guard himself. He focused on putting together two different plans while considering the possibilities.

(Is it an acoustic weapon that rattles my head with a loud noise? Or is it a blowgun? The difficulty of dodging this changes a lot depending on whether it shoots a single dart in a pinpoint shot or spreads a powder in a cone-like shape.)

He heard the roar of a flame consuming oxygen.

He was again caught by surprise. The color red filled his vision because that weapon was…

(A flamethrower!?)

“Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

Greek fire was perhaps the best known ancient flamethrower, but that came about in CE times, an era already ruled by the cross.

But the finished product had not just popped into existence one day. Earlier, during the 9th Century BCE, before the Ancient Greek migration or the completion of the city-states, they were already launching unnamed incendiary weapons at each other, whether they were handheld or burning arrows.

This sticky fire was launched across a surface rather than a point, so it filled the space out ahead like a wall. Karuta had no way of dodging. His barrier was lost and crossing his arms in front of his face wasn’t going to cut it. His summer sports shirt and his short-sleeved dress shirt would melt like cheese on toast and fuse with his burned skin.

So what?

What was that compared to Aine disemboweling herself in front of everyone?

(As long as I don’t breathe in the scorching air and take out my lungs, this shouldn’t be lethal!! I can breathe out, but not in! I can ignore the burned skin, so I’ll be fine. As long as it’s nonlethal, any wound will heal in only 30 seconds!!)

“!!!!!!”

He tackled right through the wall of fire. The electronic components of his flashlight were dead now. He didn’t even need to raise the burned-out blunt weapon. He didn’t need the weight. He went for a quick jab instead. He slammed the red hot flashlight into the back of Kildna’s hand.

With a sizzling sound, she felt the pain of being branded.

She dropped the trumpet.

“Gyahh!?”

(I only burned that one point and it was with your own fire. Meanwhile, I’ve been burned all over by the very clothes I’m wearing, so don’t expect a spirit of ladies first from me right now!!)

The black dress slave grimaced but still pulled out another weapon. The nine-stringed lyre she held was the symbol of Orpheus. Karuta had seen those wires used as a weapon already, but then he felt his body ache.

The crystallization of all his burns had begun. And during regeneration, he could not afford to take even the smallest injury. If those fragile crystals broke, that part of his body would never recover.

She did not use the wires to slice at him.

When the wires intersected to create some kind of string figure, the fire extinguisher, the fire axe, and the cleavers and thick skewers the café used for churrasco all defied gravity to float into the air. Karuta had to laugh. Any one of those could be fatal.

Their weight was apparently controlled similarly to a suspension bridge.

Kildna shook her thick chains and clenched her teeth.

“You cannot win,” she groaned.

“Are you sure about that?”

“No one will come to save you. You are trapped here!!”

“What do you know about our class?”

Battered and covered in crystal, Karuta smiled and stiffly swung his head to the side.

As if clearing the line of fire for someone.

“?”

Kildna raised her guard, thinking someone might be providing supporting fire, but then confusion filled her mind.

Who could possibly do that? Karuta himself was helpless.

Amaashi Marika, Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, and the other crystal magicians were all struggling against the Chrisbart. Even Letnahe Kurent had her hands full with the other slaves.

Then who could it be? She found no answer.

Nevertheless, a powerful beam shot over Karuta’s shoulder and struck her.

The dangerous lyre burned and melted. The many steel wires supported by wire reels could not withstand the heat and snapped one after another, leaving shallow lacerations on Kildna’s cheeks. The floating weapons dropped to the floor one after another.

“Gah!? What?”

“Maybe Amaashi Marika, Yamane Deiri, and Nekoumi Hirosuke are busy, but there’s still someone from my class left!!”

“Who!?”

She hadn’t given up. She wasn’t out of the fight. Even if she could no longer join the others in the classroom. Utagai Karuta had not forgotten about the classmate who spent her days in the infirmary fighting desperately against herself.

A welding-like light had struck the thick watertight doors to knock out the many slaves like a stun grenade and lasers had intercepted the ship’s railguns. Those laser shots had come from out at sea. But Karuta had watched it happen with Marika by his side. That meant it hadn’t been her. Then who had done it?

He knew exactly who.

“''Isn’t that right, Matsuda Imi''!!!???”