Meltdowner shot from Mugino Shizuri’s palm.
However, it failed to connect with Tachiuo Mary who stood straight in front of her. It flew right past her cheek.
Mugino’s aim had not been off.
Tachiuo Mary had sharply thrown her makeshift Bijiacha with the power of explosives and one of them stabbed into Mugino’s thigh.
“Gah!!”
“Like I told you, if Lady Carol asks me to, I will win even if it means fighting you.”
(She has guts. What kind of idiot would challenge me of all people to a head-on shootout!?)
Mugino clenched her teeth at the pain that felt like being stabbed by building rebar, but the corners of her lips also rose.
She formed a violent smile. She revealed her identity as a battle freak who didn’t care what she gained or lost from the fight.
She had determined this girl was worth fighting.
The air roared as it blew down from above.
The Sheng Biao, a large piece of metal attached to a thick wire, flew towards Mugino’s head like an axe kick.
She had no choice but to jump back and bear with the pain.
The attached wire gave this weapon a different trajectory from an ordinary projectile, but that also limited its range.
“Tch!!”
Mugino raised her right hand and took aim with Meltdowner, while Tachiuo Mary used a swing of her slender ankle to cut away the Sheng Biao, abandoning it on the wet floor.
Unarmed Tachiuo Mary walked slowly forward. Her long braid swayed side to side, sending water droplets scattering as she approached Mugino with no hesitation whatsoever.
This was no ordinary person.
For one, no one with a stable mind would block Mugino Shizuri’s way in an open space with no cover. This was obviously suicide, but she boasted the specs needed to survive it. She was even more of a threat unarmed than with those brutal weapons because she was now free to move however she liked.
Mugino was having fun.
She enjoyed feeling the chill of death crawl up her spine.
It had been far too long since someone had forced her to push past her limits!!
(Tachiuo Mary. When your enemy’s options are unlimited, thinking too hard is a good way to lose!!)
“Ha ha!!”
Mugino arrived at that answer and held her palm straight out.
She heard a lot of high-pitched metallic clinking sounds and noticed Tachiuo Mary had kicked up some junk and scrap metal from the wet floor and grabbed it in her hands.
The large paper airplane surrounding an explosive lithium ion battery was a Shen Huo Fei Ya.
Was the old-fashioned grenade made by forcibly opening a hole in a spray can and stuffing tissues inside supposed to be a Zhen Tian Lei?
“Ohhhh!!”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
Neither one ran or hid.
They launched their attacks from head on. A beam surged out and triggered an explosion in midair. The exploding paper airplane erupted with flames like a firework to weave through a gap in the explosion, sharply curving in toward Mugino.
Fighting this girl was fun.
She was a being of pure death and violence who dragged out enough of Mugino’s endorphins to put her in extreme battle freak mode. At this point, Kinuhata and Frenda were reluctant to try and assist. An explosion sent talon-like metal shards slicing through the air, grazing Mugino’s cheek and stabbing into her upper arm, but Mugino only corrected Meltdowner’s aim. Instead of aiming for the vitals, she aimed where she expected Tachiuo Mary to be after a jump to the right.
However…
“Hm!?”
She missed.
Her Meltdowner beam unnaturally veered off course and very nearly grazed Kinuhata Saiai who had been preparing a surprise attack on Tachiuo Mary from the side.
(I didn’t screw that up. She did something to me!?)
“We are both giving this our all, so I will hold nothing back. These projectiles are not my only weapons.”
This was supposed to be a clash between espers, after all.
Meanwhile, Tachiuo Mary slammed her fist into a nearby wall and yanked out a thick steel beam. Since the end was split and spread out like a palm tree, it looked a lot like a Chinese Zhuazi Bang. A hit from the steel beam itself would kill instantly and even a graze from the many “talons” at the end would tear the flesh away like a bear slashing a human.
It scored a direct hit.
Kinuhata’s range of motion had been severely restricted thanks to her teammate’s Meltdowner beam, so she was caught in the flank. This time, she was knocked to the floor. If not for Offense Armor, her upper and lower halves would have been torn apart.
“Check.”
As a deterrent, Mugino launched two blasts without trying to hit, but the beams exploded in her palm.
Her attack had failed.
She was blasted to the wall, but Tachiuo Mary didn’t even bother looking while she spoke to Takitsubo.
