Chapter 132 – …There Is Only One Option I Shall Choose…!

"Grain, you have fallen... but leave the rest to me!"

Letaria's ringing declaration carried over the comm.

"I was one step short. I'm counting on you, Letaria."

Receiving Grain's reply, Letaria renewed her resolve.

"We've both taken a bit of damage, it seems... but there is only one option I shall choose!"

With Letaria's cry, Arden's main thrusters erupted, and it launched into a straight-line hyper-speed charge at Priscilla's machine.

"She's fast...! Every bit as fast as Miss Adelina's Makina, just as they said!"

To meet the deep-indigo shadow closing head-on, Priscilla readied the bayonet-style Photon Saber on her right arm and took up an intercepting stance.

-- Letaria widened her eyes, relying on more than just her magic, so as not to miss even the slightest motion from Priscilla's machine.

An instant before impact, Arden dove into Priscilla's machine's inner range, slipping past at the very edge of the Photon Saber's reach, close enough to graze it.

"A feint..."

Priscilla immediately fired her back thrusters at full power, wrenching her machine into a sharp turn to bring Arden back into view.

-- But.

"She's not there--?!"

Arden, which should have circled around behind her, had vanished completely from her naked-eye view. Priscilla held down her confusion and flicked her eyes to the cockpit's sensor display for just an instant.

"Below--!! In that single instant?!"

"This shall finish it!"

The finishing rising strike, delivered by Arden after chaining a series of right-angle maneuvers.

Without giving Priscilla's Radure even a moment to reset its posture, the Photon Saber, driven up from below, cut a single flashing arc across the Radure's silhouette.

A vivid burst of flame dyed the surrounding space.

...But what had exploded and shattered was not the Radure's main body.

"Whew... that was really cutting it close..."

What Letaria's flashing blade had actually caught was the bayonet-style Photon Saber Priscilla had thrown up on pure reflex, along with the large back thruster unit, severed clean off.

"To think... that she could dodge a move like that...!"

Letting out a ragged breath, a single line of sweat traced down Letaria's cheek from her brow.

Priscilla's machine purged the ruined back thruster by a hair's breadth, and had nearly exhausted its armament by this point. The Radure drew a spare Photon Saber from the weapon rack at its waist and gripped it firmly in its right hand once more.

"...Let us settle this."

◆

Priscilla said this quietly, wringing out every last bit of remaining thrust to close in on Arden.

Having lost its large thruster, the Radure no longer had the overwhelming acceleration of before. But even on the machine's base specs alone, it was still turning out more than enough speed to be a serious threat.

"Just as I hoped. Here I come!"

Letaria, too, sent Arden surging forward toward the Radure.

Letaria fixed her eyes on Priscilla's closing machine, focusing every one of her senses across the space around her. She caught the telltale motion of her opponent's actions instantly through magic, let her own body react, and transmitted that directly into Arden through Trace Mode.

Priscilla's machine showed a brief preliminary motion as if to sweep sideways, then thrust the Photon Saber forward sharply. Her target was Arden's chest cockpit block.

Letaria tilted her machine at an angle and, in kind, thrust her own Photon Saber straight ahead. Arden pushed forward regardless, its outer armor scorched by Priscilla's blade of light, while Priscilla's machine, in turn, snapped its posture on reflex to evade the thrust.

-- In that instant.

Letaria threw the machine violently backward, twisting hard, and slammed home a dynamic kick that carried the full force of that spin.

"Kyaaah--?!"

At the unexpected maneuver, a scream tore from Priscilla despite herself.

Arden closed the distance on Priscilla's machine, its posture completely broken and now utterly defenseless.

"And with this -- it ends!!"

Arden's right fist slammed with tremendous force into the Radure's abdominal armor.

Struck by the tremendous impact, Priscilla's machine was sent flying and slammed with furious force into a massive chunk of debris behind her. Venting a burst of high-energy particles, it went completely, finally still.