Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Straight Ahead Pursuer

Even if it’s a showdown

Even if you’re stubborn

Whoever the enemy might be

Point Allocation (The Strongest)

●

At first, Tenzou didn’t understand what had happened.

…Sassa Narimasa made a high-speed attack!?

His very first thought was “so it’s finally happening”. They had fought Sassa at IZUMO, on the Musashi, and at Magdeburg. Sassa’s Lily Flower spell increased his striking power and he had used it to increase his speed during each of those past encounters.

But that boosted running speed was more to close the gap with his opponents than anything.

“His speed should actually drop over long distances!”

But not this time. He had moved from Honnouji’s main entrance to here instantaneously.

…That might put his speed on par with Mitotsudaira-dono!

Of course, that had been a straight line path. It was unclear if he could manage cornering or quick evasions, so he couldn’t be compared to Mitotsudaira so simply.

But, thought Tenzou as he realized something. I finally understand what happened.

He could analyze it now. It was obvious enough looking at this opponent’s body. Tenzou wasn’t a spell expert, but ether light was scattering from Sassa’s entire body as he attacked Mitotsudaira.

He had been given a spell called Israfil. It converted the power of the earth and, based on what Tenzou had seen from IZUMO to now, it concentrated his steps and his punches.

But not this time.

The ether light scattering from his feet, legs, hips, and back was not stopping.

That meant Sassa wasn’t using Israfil in conjunction with Lily Flower to power the moving parts of a punch. He was using them on his entire body instead. And the end result was…

“He’s accelerating his entire body!”

●

I’m certain of it, thought Tenzou. He could see the lily flower emblems appearing and scattering from different parts of Sassa’s body when he moved.

Whenever it happened, Sassa accelerated.

He had already begun his fistfight with the wolf. He swung his body, threw his fists, countered the four chains that acted as the wolf’s fangs, and dodged the jabbing hands that acted as her claws.

The wind-blowing sound was intense. Instead of a long, extended howling, their movements produced small explosions of air like the wind crashing into a wall.

They were fast. The Musashi group was hurrying toward the main entrance, but those two were repeatedly attacking and evading in the midst of that.

But Tenzou noticed something.

The force of Sassa’s punches had dropped.

Before, he would break through the air itself when he threw a punch, but not now.

The fuel efficiency of his punches had dropped because he had to distribute his speed to his full body.

He was probably only supplying his punches with the “minimum necessary”.

An offensive fighter on Sassa’s level was focusing on efficiency.

The Musashi group knew why he had done that. Yes, anyone who had seen the records of the fighting at IZUMO would understand immediately.

That was where Sassa had fought the one person he had failed to reach.

The Reine des Garous.

His attacks had failed to hit her and she had split IZUMO with a greater blow than he was capable of. That may have been why he had converted his punching spell into speed so he could attack the Reine des Garous’s daughter as a form of retaliation.

“Mitotsudaira-dono!”

“Judge!” replied Mitotsudaira, accelerating toward her enemy. And…

“Nate,” interrupted the idiot. “I need you with me.”

“Judge!”

The wolf instantly leaped toward her king and Sassa’s attack found only air.

●

“God damn you!”

After missing his target and splitting the air, Sassa turned toward the enemy.

Past them at Honnouji’s entrance, Mitsunari was rotating her right arm to say “wrap it up, wrap it up”. God, that’s annoying, but I am only an ordinary warrior right now. You can’t expect me to understand any complex orders.

…Wait, now I’m starting to sound like that idiot!

Is it contagious? I could lose my style. But I can’t afford to let the enemy escape either.

Lily flower emblems opened on the parts of his body needed for running. He still couldn’t manage any fine tuning, but…

“Lily Flowerrr!”

He used his speed to crash into the enemy ranks racing toward Honnouji.

●

Adele got up.

Raging Beast’s auto-balancer assisted her movement as she stood up. She only needed to use the foot pedals and the positioning of her back to make the mobile shell stand up.

“Okay.”

She released the connection between her shoulder hard point parts and Raging Beast’s seat. Then she redid the physical connection. A complete reboot like that was faster than rechecking all the settings. This was an old model, after all. The boot-up process was blazing fast.

Once the boot-up check was complete, she was kind of frightened to discover Raging Beast was perfectly fine. She had at least expected something wrong with the tail ballast she had opened, but nothing.

The only “damage” was the popcorn strewn all over the place. She had bought that popcorn from Tres España after the meeting with them.

…Wow, the salt and butter flavor is a complete loss!

That scent made her even hungrier. And it’s oily, so I hope it doesn’t stain the cockpit, she worried.

But that aside, she had managed to stand up. And the spear was still in place on her right side.

There was only one problem at present.

“I’m so far away!”

She was around 150m away from the others.

She had been hit by a punch. For a punch to send her that far made that Sassa guy seem absolutely absurd, but…

“He’s the one who destroyed Raging Beast before, isn’t he?”

When the enemy had boarded the Musashi, she had performed a falling attack past Musashino’s bridge. So essentially a vertical tackle. But it had been Sassa Narimasa who intercepted her from the side and knocked her away.

That had damaged Raging Beast’s head armor connection, causing an unprecedented situation where the head came off. That could have even taken her own head off and she would have died if she had fallen head first afterwards.

She had later received a health checkup at the Asama Shrine and then gotten her face buried in Asama’s chest, but that was a separate issue.

It was Vice Principal Yoshinao who had repaired and tuned up Raging Beast. And not just the head – he had apparently fixed up the power system too. But…

“I really only had to adjust the fitting of the parts, but I also made a few other adjustments. Climb in and sit straight. Can you feel the difference?”

That was what he said when he gave it back to her.

She had noticed the parts moved a lot smoother since then, but…

…C-can I catch up!?

She hoped she could by the time they arrived at the entrance. Raging Beast was an old model, so it had no power assistance. It had two control modes: automatic mode where it mimicked the pilot’s movements and manual mode where her movements operated it in real time. She selected the latter with the foot pedals.

And when she moved her legs…

…I-it’s so heavy!

She always used this mode in important battles, but it really was heavy. After all, she was moving that heavy thing with only the accumulation of power. She had more or less grasped how it worked when maintaining it in the past, but it was like the ballast acted as an engine? For that reason, she made sure to go running every single day. Running on the Musashi also let her complete her dog-walking job and receive dinner leftovers, so it was two or three birds with one stone.

At any rate, she had to hurry. She had to catch up with the others. Because she was a vassal. Her combat style was meant to lead the charge with a shield in hand. But…

“Huh?”

Someone ran out ahead of her.

It was Sassa.

…But why?

Hadn’t he been battling with the 5th Special Duty Officer and the Adele ball before? Then why was he back here chasing after the others now?

“Because the Adele ball isn’t there anymore.”

Mystery solved. Case closed. But that led to another problem.

“Th-they’re all in danger!”

She considered stopping her running feet. Getting out and running on her own would definitely be faster than having Raging Beast run in these circumstances.

But given what would happen once she got there, she needed Raging Beast. Because it also acted as a shelter.

…Not good!

The system was so heavy until the force managed to accumulate.

But Sassa was charging toward the others from behind. And since she was a vassal…

…Not good at all!

“Wait!”

●

The situation refused to wait.

Mitotsudaira had taken up a position in front of her king to cover him, but…

“Are you alright back there!?”

Without Adele in front, she had to hold out defense barriers with her silver chains to deflect the gunfire from the enemy gunner unit far ahead.

Meanwhile, Sassa was closing in fast from behind. His pose made it look more like he was making a jumping knee strike rather than running. And…

“Lily Flower!”

He landed with a stomp and slid forward to strike the warriors guarding the rear of the group.

In that moment, a figure burst in from the side of the warriors.

They intercepted the enemy attack.

The timing made it a perfect counterattack. The only question was who they were and what they were doing, but…

“Have some curry!”

We’ve won! thought Mitotsudaira with absolute conviction.

●

Sassa identified the counterattack as a cloud of powder.

He knew what that powder was.

…Curry powder!?

He knew curry was one of Musashi’s greatest weapons. Toshiie had talked his ear off about it.

“Na-chan! Isn’t it wrong to waste food like that!? Oh, and I’m not just saying that because I’m mad I lost. Isn’t that right, Ma-chan? We aren’t mad at all, are we!?”

“I’m super, super, super maaaaad!”

“Ha ha ha. You’re so honest, Ma-chan. Yes, I’m mad too!”

Those two were definitely enjoying themselves.

But while there were ghost warriors here, Sassa was alive. That meant the curry was a tactical error on Musashi’s part. A mistake worth an entire meal. So he continued his charge and raised his voice.

“That attack doesn’t work on me!”

The powder got in his eyes.

●

Mitsunari saw Sassa crouch down to the side of the charging Musashi group.

Since he removed his sunglasses and covered his face with his hands, his eyes must have been stinging.

…Being human must suck.

In fact, from a biological standpoint, acquiring information on the outside world using organs with exposed blood vessels was, logically speaking, a highly risky evolutionary choice for Earth creatures. But that aside…

Nari Nari Nari: “Don’t head-defense spells normally affect the air to stop poison gas and arrows from reaching you?”

Kimee: “We remove them when we want to feel the wind on our face. And when flying at high enough altitudes, we aren’t going to come across any of those dangers.”

6: “Isn’t all the fighting there on the ground? Who is this about?”

Nari Nari Nari: “Oh, testament. Sassa-senpai took some curry to the face.”

Massive Katou: “My!”

AnG: “Nari Nari! C’mon! As a fellow Nari, you’ve got to give him some support! Don’t hesitate to say whatever’s in your heart!”

Mitsunari thought following that advice would end badly, so she chose to stay silent. She was also extremely curious how this was getting through to Kiyomasa.

Meanwhile, her gunner unit was speaking:

“It’s so much easier to shoot Musashi with Sassa-senpai crouching.”

“Yeah, it’s so hard to do when he’s standing up.”

“Oh, he stood back up.”

They were viewing it in an extremely negative light, but Sassa was back up. Mitsunari decided to give him some advice.

“Sassa-senpai! Watch out! The enemy has a curry warrior!”

“Are you making fun of me!? It just got in my eyes is all!”

Isn’t that danger enough!? she thought, but she wasn’t about to say it out loud.

Because Sassa reapplied his head protection and resumed running.

●

Sassa accelerated. The enemy had pulled away some while he was dealing with the curry, but he could catch up in no time using Israfil.

So he raced after them like he was flying.

“I’ll get them this time!”

He was only a warrior here, but he was an upperclassman to Mitsunari and the rest. So he wanted to prove himself at least a little useful.

So once he knew he could reach the enemy in a single acceleration, he sent out his strength.

“Lily Flower!”

He struck. He leaped into a stomp and let his momentum slide him forward as he punched.

He had speed. He had developed this spell so that he could hit even the Reine des Garous.

…Go!

Just as he was about to hit, someone moved in front of his target.

They were responding. The realization made him laugh.

“Hah!”

…That’s right!

With Musashi, he’d be disappointed if they didn’t.

They’d been so damn weak when he ran across the Musashi and at Novgorod, but…

“They’re so irritatingly persistent!”

While vocalizing his thoughts and throwing it all out in front of him, he found a large figure there.

He recognized this person.

When Musashi lined up, there was one person Sassa assumed had to be their main attacker or their tank. The giant with the bucket helmet.

He had just moved out in front. He held a nail bat in his hands.

“Not bad!”

Sassa sent in his attack.

●

Persona-kun did not like fighting.

But not because he disliked competition. In fact, he felt competition was a better form of communication than words.

But in physical sports, some had an undeniable advantage over others.

In most sports, the result was determined by one’s physical build.

He was over two meters tall. Even this year, he had grown a little more. He was a growing boy. It helped that he ate plenty every day and always got a full night of sleep, but his friends were also always bringing him bentos and snacks. After growing this far, playing physical sports would either lead to him being on the winning side or him being alone at the very top.

That was why he played video games.

He had first been invited to play them in elementary school.

“Hey, Pe-yan! Can you open a sign frame!? Once it’s open, lend me a hand!”

He had time. And money. The Musashi had plenty of physical labor to be done and his strength had real meaning outside of sports.

Even when he did well and ended up at the top, he wasn’t alone.

They would form temporary teams so that an opponent in one match would be an ally in the next, so there were no hard feelings.

The matchups were even. His teammates would be excited to have him, but the enemy would have people just as good and they could support each other.

There were always new games and new genres coming out, so it was hard to keep up.

But it was fun.

So he felt like physical fighting could generally be avoided.

Yes, generally.

Now was not a general time.

And there was one genre of video game he was better at than anyone else: defense missions.

You had to defend against an enemy attack, calculate the loss rate of your allies, and hold the line.

Everyone would be nervous and afraid of making a mistake, so on that kind of battlefield, the entire group was influenced by how the top ranker behaved.

What time was it?

He knew the answer. Oriotri’s mock battles were practice time. This was the real deal. You were supposed the handle a real battle the same as in practice. But he didn’t have Suzu on his shoulder, so what was he supposed to do?

Defend.

He knew how.

“…!”

He readied the nail bat in his hands and gave it a swing.

This was not an attack.

He was using his full strength to knock the enemy attack away.

●

Sassa was delighted by what the enemy was attempting.

…Now we’re talking!

The bucket helmet guy was enormous, but he was no Shibata. Sassa had spent his days roughhousing and eating with an idiot of that level. He knew a big body and species traits weren’t enough to oppose someone like that.

So if this enemy simply tried to hit him, he would just blow him away.

But that wasn’t what happened.

The enemy’s target was Sassa’s right arm. That arm contained Lily Flower’s power and the enemy was aiming near the wrist.

Clenching a fist meant gathering strength in the wrist and hand. So clenching it hard made it hard to bend the wrist. That was because the fist was made using tendons connected to the wrist.

So how could you redirect a fist?

There was a better way than blocking and redirecting the blow.

You could hit the base of the fist at a point just a bit down of the wrist.

When an extending arm struck, it would bounce outwards. So by using the elbow-extending motion to knock the wrist and hand upwards, the elbow’s own force would redirect the fist outwards.

That was what this enemy did.

He didn’t just rely on his strength or on his weapon.

He used a tactic that made use of his strength and weapon to deflect Sassa’s attack.

…Great job!

Really great. I could laugh. Of course I could. Cause I’m always doing this to that idiot upperclassman.

Yeah.

This is what I wanted. I wouldn’t want anything else. Because…

“You get it!”

Sassa’s fist had been redirected outwards, but he still shouted.

“I’m here in place of that idiot who couldn’t come!”

●

Sassa laughed. His Israfil power converted the power of the earth. It was originally meant to heal, but he used it to boost his body and give him strength.

And he had just run across someone who could deflect that as a means of defense.

That enemy probably wasn’t even a name inheritor. He stood out from a crowd, but he wasn’t even a warrior.

He was just a student.

But what did that matter when he was capable of analyzing Sassa’s attack and deflecting it?

…Now this is getting interesting!

Most likely, “Sassa Narimasa” wouldn’t have found himself in this situation. He was glad he had come here in that idiot’s place. If he could run across “benefits” he didn’t normally receive, this trip was well worth it. But…

“–––––”

He had a thought. If he went back and told that idiot about this, the idiot would probably make fun of him and pick a fight with him: “Oh, what’s that? You had trouble fighting some weakling commoner, Naru Naru-kuuuun?”

Had he already said his goodbyes?

Or would they be their usual selves where none of that was necessary?

It would probably come down to his mood. But…

…The Genesis Project will get rid of all that, I guess.

That was more something Toshiie would think. But things were different for Sassa. At the very least, he was currently in battle and enjoying a festival that was linked to Shizugatake by the fact that it was happening tonight.

This is fun.

He had clashed with Musashi a few times before. He honestly felt like he had actually fought them more than any of the others.

But he hadn’t seen it all.

Musashi was known for coming together as a group. So said Toshiie’s analysis and the other nations had started saying it too. So even if they weren’t all name inheritor and even if they didn’t all have decent weapons or spells, they would send out the best person for the job and they would all help each other out. And while they were fighting as a group…

…I’m all alone right now.

You’re on.

This isn’t about the Reine des Garous.

He simply sped up and went for it.

●

The attacks kept coming.

Persona-kun swapped out weapons in response. Sassa’s attacks came heavy and fast, but Persona-kun concluded he could respond to them if he focused his aim on the right spots.

He also changed weapons.

The wooden nail bat was lightweight, but he was worried about its durability. So he switched to a pair of metal nail bats, holding one in each hand. Sassa’s attacks didn’t form any real combos, so Persona-kun had to deal with each attack separately.

The bats were hollow inside. The blows rang loud, with the nail-pierced portions distorting the sound.

The sounds rang out as they ran, increasing in speed and number.

But the sounds suddenly increased a lot faster than the distance they had run.

Sassa began using his left arm instead of just his right.

The sounds now had far more pressure and sparks flew. Behind Persona-kun, Ohiroshiki stuck a hand into the metal basket on his back, and…

“Persona-kun! Use these maces!”

Persona-kun swapped out his worn-out weapons in the middle of his strikes.

Me: “Ohh, way to go, Pe-yan!”

Horizey: “Toori-sama, he is making himself useful, unlike you. You should refer to him more politely.”

Me: “P-Persona-kun-sama?”

Wise Sister: “Wrong, my foolish brother! The Great Persona-kun! The Great Perso! No, the Great Pero! Did you hear that, Mitotsudaira! The Great Pero Pero Pero Pero Pero!”

Silver Wolf: “I get that those supposed to be licking sounds, so you can stop now!”

There was a lot of noise behind him, but there was a lot of noise in front of him too.

“…!”

10ZO: “Persona-kun is really into it!”

He sped up.

●

Sassa was enjoying himself.

He hadn’t expected to get into a pure competition of strength here.

It was especially unexpected with Musashi who were mostly pretty scrawny.

But the noise rang loud.

“Lily Flower!”

A full-power strike passed through the ground.

“…!”

His momentum passed through his arms as speed, sending each heavy attack through

This was a real challenge. But…

…I’ll be winning soon!

His opponent’s weapons were running out. He could tell the blunt weapons were nearly used up.

He was fine with his opponent using a bladed weapon. He could smash the blade with his fists. Israfil’s power had originally been for recovery. So if his opponent pulled out a blade, victory was Sassa’s.

So…

“It’s about time!”

He threw his right fist, knocking his opponent’s attacking mace upwards.

The bent hunk of metal flew through the sky.

The fat kid behind his opponent supplied another weapon.

It was a maul. That wouldn’t work. It was too long. His opponent could swing it around in his hands well enough, but its reach was different and the total power was weaker than with two weapons.

So it ended here.

…Damn.

It’s over already? thought Sassa, but that disappointment was unavoidable. He used his other hand to knock the downward-swinging maul inwards.

And in that instant, the impact vanished from his fist.

What he should have struck was gone.

His opponent had let go of the maul.

And Sassa’s fist clearly lingered. He had been expecting the same resistance as before and he really had hit the weapon at first, so the loss of force there affected his fist all the more.

He couldn’t pull his fist back until the force of his punch had left it. But his opponent was moving. The fat kid who had handed over the maul stuck a long mace in next to the bucket helmet.

“Support arts!”

And attacked with it.

●

Sassa had been hit.

On the inside of his right shoulder, near the connection between his chest and shoulder.

The pain seemed to seep into him and his collarbone made a light sound.

…Is it broken?

Interesting, he thought in all seriousness. After all, I’m just an ordinary warrior here.

I see. So this is how ordinary people fight against a powerful opponent.

He had forgotten. Musashi fought as a group. He had experienced it several times and thought he understood it, but…

“Ohh…”

His right shoulder ached, but that had given him the force needed to pull his right arm back. The fist’s momentum wasn’t entirely gone, but he still managed to pull it back.

He felt pain in his collarbone, but Israfil was taking effect.

He adjusted his stance. The enemy was right in front of him. That enemy had gotten in an attack, but hadn’t managed to fall back. In fact, he hadn’t even noticed Sassa preparing to attack. He must have thought he was watching until Sassa collapsed.

Yeah, that’s not happening.

Sassa had his fist back. He pulled back his right and sent out his left. And he would send that into this enemy.

The enemy no longer had a weapon, so Sassa stomped forward and…

“Lily Flower!”

●

Adele saw it all happening.

…Oh, no!

What was she concerned about? Ohiroshiki’s position. Persona-kun wanted to fall back, but Ohiroshiki was leaning against his back and around his side. If the 4th Special Duty Officer saw this, it would definitely inspire a drawing. Oh, and Persona-kun can’t fall back.

Persona-kun couldn’t dodge the attack like this. And the enemy seemed to know it.

Gold Mar: “Piroshki is so in the way!”

10ZO: “Noriki-dono! Could you give Ohiroshiki-dono’s butt a triple punch to get it out of the way!?”

Me: “That’ll teach him to butt in.”

Worshiper: “You’re not being very nice!”

…He secretly relishes the attention, doesn’t he?

Anyway, Adele wished she could run over and help, but…

“…!”

She was still 30m away.

…Kh.

Raging Beast was slow. But she could see it all. She was moving into position so the line between Sassa and Persona-kun was a straight line out ahead. Now she only had to hurry, but…

“Forward!”

The remaining distance filled her with despair, but she pushed her knees forward.

●

Mitotsudaira hurriedly operated the silver chains holding the defense barrier.

In today’s battle, she was learning to send her bursts of speed to the very ends of her chains.

So she only had to send a defense barrier in between Persona-kun and Sassa.

But she noticed something when she turned around. And…

“Everyone, split to the sides!”

As soon as she finished speaking, Sassa’s attack struck.

●

The impact was colored blue.

Sassa was launched backwards by the recoil of his blow.

…What the-!?

He had definitely thrown a punch. He knew it had landed. But he had hit something a lot harder than flesh or bone.

He had punched the blue object that suddenly rushed in front of him.

He didn’t know what it was.

But the enemy must have known. In an instantaneous reaction, the entire enemy group split to the sides to avoid the straight line between the bucket helmet and Sassa.

They were already running as two groups and the thing Sassa had hit had moved past them.

It was lying near the edge of the path. He had knocked it there. It was…

“That blue mobile shell!?”

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