Tatsuya jumped off the motorcycle and landed on the road, maintaining his stance as he touched down. This was due to him using magic to control his position. He watched his favorite motorcycle split into two.
Precisely speaking, he watched a katana split his favorite vehicle in half, contrary to the common sense of an assassin.
Juumonji magician’s vehicle came over in pursuit.
They had originally planned to stop their vehicle and then battle, but Tatsuya yelled first.
“Ichijou, go pursuit Gu Jie! You guys as well, continue the pursuit!”
An enemy wielding a katana ?? probably a sword-shaped armament device, directed killing intent towards Masaki. But before this enemy began his attack, he had jumped widely to the side. A short blade fell from the sky at very high speeds, stabbing the ground where he had been standing.
The short blade did not fall down naturally. It was a movement type acceleration magic that shot the blade out in an arch. It was Tatsuya’s attack.
“Go! I will take care of this.”
“We will rely on you!”
Tatsuya held off the enemy.
Masaki and Juumonji squad continued to chase down Gu Jie.
Tatsuya stopped impeding the enemy and changed to a battle stance.
His weapons of choice today were fully thought-operated CADs. On his wrists were the thought-operated bracelet shaped CADs.
There was an automatic pistol holstered near his chest.
His waist bag contained two knives attached with padded fist guards.
One of those knives was stabbed on the road.
Tatsuya used movement-type magic to pull the knife back into his hand.
Using his left hand to wield the knife, his right hand would be ready to draw his pistol anytime.
The katana wielding man glared towards Tatsuya with the attitude to face him directly. Without a blade guard, it was most likely a cane sword.
The man faced Tatsuya, the dimly lit street lights exposed the man’s face.
Tatsuya had an impression to who this face belonged to.
“Detective Chiba Toshikazu!?”
A pale white face, as though he was wearing a mask showing no emotions. However, looking at his figure and attitude, it was definitely Erika’s oldest brother Chiba Toshikazu.
“The Eldest son of the Hundred Families’ Chiba Family, why are you standing on the side of the terrorists!?”
The other party did not answer.
His reply was not through words, but rather through action.
Toshikazu attacked Tatsuya with sword techniques.
Optimized, therefore the simplest and fastest.
A sword style brought to the point of perfection. Even Tatsuya could only evade without energy to spare.
Tatsuya jumped backwards substantially to widen the distance. He intended to avoid the opposition’s combination techniques.
However, Toshikazu followed Tatsuya and rushed over.
The speed of these attacks was one of the highest tier that Tatsuya had faced to date.
However, it was not ‘something unheard of’ thus it did not reach a level where he could not handle.
Tatsuya looked at Toshikazu’s release of Psion.
Proceeded to cancel the self-acceleration magic with Gram Demolition.
Toshikazu’s dash acceleration became slower; however, this was only for one instant.
Toshikazu’s body filled with Psion. Using the same speed from before the activation of Gram Demolition, he attacked Tatsuya once more.
However, Tatsuya had used that instant of delay to escape from the attack range.
Tatsuya had wanted to ask ‘Why are you on the side of the terrorists?’
again, but he realized this question was insignificant now.
That was because he read Toshikazu’s Eidos.
(Dead? That’s not right……)
Toshikazu ran along the surface of the asphalt road and jumped towards Tatsuya.
Tatsuya aimed towards his leg and attacked with Partial Decomposition.
The same instance that Tatsuya released his magic, Toshikazu also set himself firmly on the ground, raised his katana and struck downwards.
A soundless explosion. The released flash was not in a wavelength that could be discerned by the naked eye.
Toshikazu’s entire body released compressed Psions.
A magic that could disable others’ magic that was applied to his body, Gram Demolition.
Tatsuya could not contain his shock. However, he was not surprised that Toshikazu could use Gram Demolition.
Tatsuya had never heard that the eldest son of the Chiba Family was capable of using Gram Demolition. It was not just Tatsuya, but there has never been such rumor.
If it was only this, then it could be thought of as Chiba Family keeping their eldest son’s skill a secret.
Tatsuya used decomposition once again. The target was the ankle, shoulder and blade.
Toshikazu’s body released a large amount of Psions three times, consequently, his existence became thinner.
(Exchanged his existence information into Psions?) A fact that had originally been impossible to happen had left Tatsuya in shock. Misappropriation of information was equivalent to annihilating oneself. Conscious creatures would never be able to do such a thing to themselves. Moreover, the Eidos that recorded the existence of the body did not provide enough Psions to be used to activate Gram Demolition.
Tatsuya wrapped ‘Decomposition’ on the blade and received Toshikazu’s attack. This magic was using the blade to decompose matter on contact, it also ignored the material, it would look as though the knife had severed the material.
However, Toshikazu’s katana withstood Tatsuya’s magic.
(Was the katana also defined as a single entity?) The instant Tatsuya’s magic activation area, which was also the tip of the knife, contacted Toshikazu’s katana, the information regarding Decomposition’s failure to activate was sent into Tatsuya’s consciousness.
The reason was due to Chiba Family’s secret sword technique ‘Tetsuzan’. This magic did not treat a sword as steel or iron crafted object, but rather defined the ‘blade’ as the only concept. This allowed the blade to follow a slashing motion path set by a Magic Sequence, belonging to the Movement Type Magic category. Since magic temporarily defined it as the only concept, there was no other constituent that it could further decompose into.
Magic that had failed to activate originally would immediately dissipate due to flaws in its definition. However, Tatsuya’s Decomposition magic area was extremely small, thus he was able to maintain it.
One second.
Steel crashed together.
Two seconds.
Katana and knife mutually resisted the force of each other.
Three seconds.
Then, without a sound.
Tatsuya’s knife severed Toshikazu’s katana.
The blade of a sword was made up of countless polymers of metal molecules, the main component being iron. A magic that disguises it as a ‘single entity’ could not be maintained forever. ‘Tetsuzan’ was originally a magic sword technique that would slash through a target instantly. Toshikazu’s ‘Tetsuzan’ lost its effect before Tatsuya’s ‘Decomposition’.
The blade was severed without any resistance. Toshikazu had slashed with his full force; thus, his body was leaning forward. However, Tatsuya had no opportunity to counter attack. Toshikazu purposely dashed towards Tatsuya, reducing the distance to where knives and fists could not attack.
Tatsuya circled to the back of Toshikazu.
Toshikazu waved the halved length katana around and impeded Tatsuya.
Tatsuya did not attack carelessly, but backed off instead.
Analyzing the opponent’s information collected by his ‘eyes’.
Chiba Toshikazu’s existence felt weaker.
(Could it be, he was exchanging ‘life force’ for magic power?) Tatsuya was not aware that such a technique existed. In addition, current science ?? including magic ?? could not confirm the existence of ‘life force’.
But the existence of this energy was mainly considered ‘confirmed’ in the field of ancient magic. Tatsuya frequently heard Yakumo mention this. During the Parasite Incident, Mikihiko also used ‘seiki’ to describe this energy. He said magical beings did not absorb flesh and blood, but instead absorbed ‘seiki’ as nutrients.
If Gu Jie possessed a magic technique that could utilize life force, then the question from before could be answered.
The dead without death. Just like an Eidos in the process of death.
If you consider the living to have life force, then the dead are those who have lost that life force. The act of ‘killing’ the living would release that life force. If one managed to pool that surplus energy and use it as magical power, it would change into the state of a ‘living corpse’. The body, once emptied of this surplus, would become a ‘true corpse’.
The mystery of Toshikazu utilizing Gram Demolition that he was not originally able to use could only explained by the exchange of life force.
His existence information was waning. If it was regarded as the process of the gradual disappearance of the ‘information body of life’, then it could be understood.
Not only was it a corpse, but magic used to fool around with one’s life was unpardonably evil.
Tatsuya admits that magic does not have a holy or evil distinction. After all that was said and done, it was the ‘ability’ used by humans. Good and evil was determined according to the results of those actions. On top of that, this was judged by human values. There was no absolute righteousness or evil. This was his thoughts.
However, at this moment, he violated his own philosophy. He felt that Gu Jie’s magic was evil. He should not trample humans, trample magicians to this level. Generators and Sorcery Boosters have already spurred disgust, but this magic made Tatsuya hold unconditional rejection and resistance.
Tatsuya was furious.
“Chiba Toshikazu!”
Tatsuya yelled out the name of the swordsman who was already dead.
“Are you conscious!? Can you understand me!?”
Toshikazu did not respond.
He threw away the katana that only had half a blade remaining and drew out the Tachi from his back without uttering a word.
“Chiba Toshikazu! That is your name. It is a name that represents who you are!”
Witnessing this scene, Tatsuya continued to yell at Toshikazu.
This behavior was not Tatsuya’s style.
Toshikazu’s katana aimed towards Tatsuya with a clear intention of engaging in combative action. Before, Tatsuya would have already engaged in countering. Even if he knew that the opposition was being controlled, ‘protecting’ only came after completely removing the enemy’s combative capabilities. This was Tatsuya’s style.
Tatsuya, nevertheless, requested a conversation with his opponent before actual combat. He was well aware that the opposition was dead. The chance for him to respond was close to zero, but he had still requested.
Toshikazu did not respond to Tatsuya. Or, to be exact, could not respond.
Instead, he slashed at Tatsuya.
Tatsuya did not receive the vicious attack with his knife, but instead he dodged these attacks by sidestepping.
Compared to the defense of the attack earlier, Tatsuya felt more relaxed this time. He felt that Toshikazu’s sword swipes were a bit rough. It seemed that the Tachi had a higher curvature which was not as suitable for Toshikazu.
The Chiba Family was also known as the “Magic Swordsman”. The eldest son would never carry a weapon that was not suited for himself.
This was probably given to him from a third party, most likely a weapon given to him by Gu Jie. It was not a “Yanagi Blade” that belonged to the wider type of blade that you would get from China, but was a tachi that was popular during the Northern and Southern dynasties. It was probably prepared by the collaborator within the country.
Tatsuya was not familiar with swords. Although he had trained with Uchigatana and Odachi while practicing martial arts, he had never studied the history and artistic value of weapons.
Though this was the case, Tatsuya seemed to have noticed that Toshikazu’s Tachi was shaped strangely. The blade was clearly curved, as if it had been curved from an arc mold. The shaft was made of metal, with rounded corners at both ends. Looking at the handle, it was similar to the ‘Kenukigatatachi’ style from after the Peaceful Period.
Tatsuya was only able to observe the Tachi up to that point. It was limited by the short time of Toshikazu stabilizing his body, just before he attacked again. Tatsuya was not only strong in magic vision, but his visual acuity was also very strong. However, he was not an expert in sword identification, he did not know the crucial points for katana analysis.
Tatsuya used his knife to block the tip of the Tachi that was swept over horizontally. Though the strength of this part was the strongest, Tatsuya used the blade’s arc to cause the knife to slide. He escaped Toshikazu’s attack distance as if he had been pushed away.
Tatsuya used flash cast to activate inertia neutralization magic to aid his own retreat, while speculating that the Tachi was a magic tool. It was probably not remodeled from an existing Tachi, but was crafted by the collaborator of Gu Jie. The effect was probably to adversely affect wounds or something.
If he could ‘see’ more details, then he could analyze what magic the blade activated. However, Tatsuya did not have that much time to spare.
Tatsuya tried to use ‘Mist Dispersion’ on the Tachi. The target was not the magic set within the Tachi, but the Tachi itself. He purposely tried to avoid contact with the magic that had not activated to prevent any unexpected side effects.
At the instant that Tatsuya activated his magic, Toshikazu held the Tachi directly to the front. He was not reacting to Tatsuya’s use of magic, since he would not have reacted in time. It was probably a muscle memory battle technique in dealing with magicians.
The Tachi released compressed Psions that blew away Tatsuya’s Mist Dispersion Magic Sequence.
Magic was Systemic in characteristic; the Magic Sequence was exposed.
Even if it was Tatsuya’s magic, it could not escape this fate.
With the magic that was his forte was rendered ineffective, Tatsuya rushed to the front of Toshikazu.
Unknowingly, not only his left hand, but his right hand also held a knife attached with padded fist guards.
Tatsuya’s swept his left hand horizontally.
The blade of the knife, while releasing Psions, passed through the base of the Tachi.
The body of the Tachi was severed, leaving only the hilt.
Toshikazu, who had just blown away Mist Dispersion, could not have rendered Decomposition ineffective. The counter magic set within his body, could not keep up with Tatsuya’s speed in his continuous activation of his forte magic.
The blade fell to asphalt surface. Just before this, Tatsuya’s right fist which was covered by padded fist guards hit Toshikazu’s chest.
Toshikazu, who received a heavy blow to the ribs, had fallen towards the road. Tatsuya’s hand did not feel any bones breaking upon impact.
However, it would not be a surprise if a normal person receiving such an attack fainted.
While his body fell towards the ground, Toshikazu did a backflip. He was now kneeling on one leg. However, he did not stand up again. It would seem that the nearly dead body could still receive trauma.
“Chiba Toshikazu!”
At this time, Tatsuya continued to do something uncharacteristic of him.
He continued to yell at Toshikazu.
“Do you not know this name? Do you not know who you are anymore?”
‘Death’ could not be overturned by ‘Life’. Even Tatsuya’s ‘Regrowth’
could not revive the dead.
Then, what is the boundary between life and death?
The brain stops working? The heart stops beating? Metabolism stops working? Or was it having no soul?
In Tatsuya’s ‘Eyes’, Toshikazu ‘looked’ dead.
At that same time, Toshikazu also used magic stemming from his life force. Tatsuya’s ‘eyes’ definitely ‘saw’ that his magic was not fed from an external source. It was produced internally.
If he did not completely die, then maybe he could be revived with ‘Regrowth’.
Even if he did not completely die, if he continued to attack then maybe his death would be inevitable.
Furthermore, right now there was no time to spare for a detailed analysis. Gu Jie was on the run.
Thus, Tatsuya shouted towards Toshikazu.
If Toshikazu had any self-awareness, then Tatsuya would avoid the fatal blow.
If Miyuki was here, then he would not need to worry about such things.
She could temporarily freeze him. Tatsuya, of course, did not regret this.
Miyuki’s safety was the absolute priority over Chiba Toshikazu’s life.
If his priorities were based on rationality, then this would not be a worrisome matter. Quickly disposing the enemy was the correct response. Besides, the current Chiba Toshikazu was not someone Tatsuya could deal with leniently.
“Answer me! If you are conscious, then answer me!”
Even so, Tatsuya did not want to kill Toshikazu.
What was considered ‘death’? What was considered ‘life’? Tatsuya sought such knowledge internally. If he let Toshikazu live on, he may be able to grasp a crucial clue into finding the answer.
However, despite the desire for such knowledge, Tatsuya could not accept a magician’s life being expended in such a way.
Magicians used to be a tool of war.
Tatsuya had once thought of himself as such a tool.
Up until now, Tatsuya had taken so many lives that he would not be qualified to discuss the dignity of life.
Because no matter which method of death was the cause, or which method of killing was used, death is death.
Though at the very least.
You should die after resisting.
You should die while struggling.
You should die in fear.
You should die after giving in.
You should die after accepting the truth.
You should die after cursing at your unreasonable fate.
You should die in a state of unawareness, as though one was sleeping.
Death should only belong to the person who was dying.
Even if they were to die for others, even if they were to kill for others.
Even after death, their lives were exploited without respect, without feeling and then be killed once more, this was something that should absolutely never happen.
Even slaves have the freedom to die.
Even dead livestock were simply meat, simply bones, and simply materials. A lifeless object.
If lives were messed with, even after their death, simply for the exploit of magic, then magicians, as tools, were inferior to that of livestock.
Tatsuya could never agree with such things.
For Miyuki… In order to never let Miyuki bear the fate of a weapon, Tatsuya secretly prepared by himself, the method to allow magicians to live life beyond being weapons or tools. The way that he is, he could not agree with weaponizing magicians regardless of what was said to him.
“Chiba Toshikazu!”
In the end, Toshikazu never responded to Tatsuya’s words. He did not have this ‘function’ any longer.
Toshikazu stood up and took a sword stance with the severed Tachi.
The instant that Tatsuya followed suit in a fighting stance, Toshikazu’s body suddenly became bigger. Even Tatsuya’s motion vision could not keep up with the high-speed acceleration, resulting in an illusion.
In an instant, Tatsuya’s line of sight had lost track of Toshikazu.
Although it was said in such a way, he was only too late to focus on Toshikazu. His field of view was still able to capture Toshikazu’s silhouette.
He had, indeed, saw the enemy take action.
Toshikazu raised his right hand, the Tachi that had lost half its blade was ready to slash down on Tatsuya.
This slash would not hit its mark.
As if intuitively sensing the danger, Tatsuya used his knife to intercept the residual blade.
The Tachi that was held with one hand received strong repelling force causing the remaining blade to bounce upwards with the shaft head pointed downwards.
Toshikazu’s left hand grasped the area close to the tip of the downwards facing shaft head.
Toshikazu used both hands to maintain the straight grip, he then stabbed towards the area underneath the left hand that Tatsuya used to hold his knife.
From a vertical slash, he had changed the course to a horizontal slash.
The Tachi that had lost most of its blade swept towards Tatsuya’s body.
Tatsuya used his right fist, that was protected by padded fist guards, and punched towards the Tachi’s blade edge.
“Gah!”
Blood shot out of Tatsuya’s stomach. He could not help but cry out.
The jacket that possessed the bulletproof and anti-cut capabilities was easily torn. The exposed skin was sliced and teared open.
At the position that was almost touching skin, the leveled black line was camouflaged by the darkness of the night. Just above and below the black line a repulsion field that could slice through anything it touched was formed. This was the Weight Type Magic ‘Pressure Slash’. This magic was originally applied to the tip of a blade or metal coil to activate a repulsion field. However, Toshikazu had activated it on the severed blade edge, extending the repulsion field in the space that contained nothing.
Although he had blocked it before it came into contact with his body, the pressure force from the slash was still able to slice through skin, damaging the muscles underneath.
?Self-Restoration / Automatic Start.?
(Force stop Self-Restoration)
Tatsuya used his willpower to halt the automatic activation of Self-Restoration. He then used his mental fortitude to overcome the pain of his injuries, and constructed another magic.
Gram Dispersion.
Using Gram Dispersion to decompose the black slash line formed by the magic ‘Pressure Slash’.
Tatsuya quickly followed up with the next magic activation.
Gram Dispersion.
Tatsuya had already ‘seen’ several instances of the magic that forcefully extracted Toshikazu’s Psions and transformed it into Gram Demolition.
He would decompose that magic.
Tatsuya’s ‘eyes’ discovered that Psions were concentrated in the center of Toshikazu’s chest, where the heart resides.
Tatsuya ignored the tearing of his own wounds, and punched his left fist towards Toshikazu’s heart.
Mist Dispersion.
A hole that pierced through Toshikazu’s chest into his back appeared.
Toshikazu’s body released Psion light. Psion dissipated gradually.
All four of his limbs lost strength. His legs crumbled and kneeled onto the ground; his body collapsed onto the side.
The magic that had been casted on Toshikazu, seemed to have used his heart as the medium for continuous activation.
A corpse that marched towards death, now became a complete corpse.
Life force could no longer be felt from the corpse.
Although he became a corpse, Toshikazu’s hand never released the Tachi’s shaft.
Tatsuya lowered his head and gazed at Toshikazu attentively. It was not known if he was having a moment of silence.
“Tatsuya-kun”
Somebody had suddenly called him from behind. Without sensing the opponent’s presence, he almost attacked that person.
Just before he threw the knife in his hand, he had realized the origins of the voice.
Tatsuya turned around and saw Yakumo smiling bitterly with his hands raised.
“I did not plan on scaring you. Ignoring this, would it not be better to treat your injuries first?”
After Tatsuya heard those words, he had finally remembered that sword wound to the side of his stomach.
The wound disappeared instantly. Not only the wound, even the blood that had been spilt and the clothing that had been sliced open were restored.
“Every time I would think, this ability is so convenient…”
Yakumo was not being polite, but was actually envious.
“Master, why are you here?”
Yakumo’s reflections at this time was not important. Tatsuya ignored his master’s words and asked.
“Did I not say so this morning? I will help resolve this matter.”
Yakumo’s grin indescribably left Tatsuya angry, however, what he said was not wrong. Especially now that time was precious.
“Thank you. Then I will have to trouble Master with dealing with this body.”
Tatsuya did not waste anymore words. He then left the aftermath to Yakumo and immediately turned around.
“Oi, Tatsuya.”
Tatsuya ran away from the scene without saying another word.
Yakumo watched as Tatsuya’s back ran off into the distance. He then softly muttered “Really now…” while shaking his head.
“Indeed, we cannot just leave this as is.”
Yakumo turned around.
In the darkness, several people dressed like monks appeared.
“Offer condolences to him.”
Yakumo’s disciples took Toshikazu’s body onto a stretcher. They then transported it into the van parked on the side of the road.
The van drove away towards the East. For some reason, there had been no vehicles passing by on this road. But suddenly the scene changed back to one of normality, with the occasional car passing by.
While Tatsuya was still hesitating over finishing off Tomokazu (his corpse), the vehicle Gu Jie was riding was arriving at its current destination.
“To the left just ahead!”
Doe was directing their path.
Their driver was the puppet Inagaki, who followed the instructions and weaved the car through an opening in the windbreak, and exited out on the beach.
In an agile movement, Doe exited from the vehicle and opened the door for Gu Jie sitting in the back seat.
“My Lord, we’re changing vehicles!”
Even Gu Jie could understand the reason Doe was in such a hurry.
From inside the windbreak forest, the headlights of the pursuing vehicles drew closer.
“Hold back the enemy here.”
Gu Jie ordered this to Inagaki’s body and followed behind Doe. Just in front of the beach, a box-wagon sized amphibious car was parked.
To Gu Jie’s rear, the sound of a gunshot rang out.
The sound was that of the corpse-puppet Inagaki, firing his gun at the pursuants who had made their appearance on the beach.
“Major-dono, Heigu is about to be caught by the Japanese tracking force, please permit us to open fire.”
With the destroyer anchored in international waters as his destination, Canopus, who was passing the southern tip of peninsula received a request for instructions from the illegal special task force.
The current progression of events was not to his tastes. Canopus hoped to avoid a large-scale war with the Japanese. The decision to send troops here was already a political gamble.
The current mission was to avoid leaving official records of any type.
Balance, who had tasked him with this mission, will pretend to know nothing when it is necessary.
If Doe, who had been assisting Gu Jie’s escape, had his identity revealed, it would be a huge scandal. Although Doe was an illegal special agent, on the surface he had no relations to USNA, but the military and the diplomats could not be naïve enough to believe in such an excuse.
If all the behind-the-scenes actions to assist Gu Jie’s escape was exposed, Canopus would not be able to leave unscathed. Not even his status as Stars Captain would do him any good. His identity would be eliminated. He would be declared dead to the world and he would be moved to completing illegal missions. To have a high-level magician who could be used to conduct destructive work, the military higher-ups would be rather optimistic instead.
Even so, the way things were now, handing Gu Jie over to the Japanese magicians, as in the Ten Master Clans, was no longer an option.
“Permission granted for use of live ammunition.”
“Understood.”
Canopus switched the communication mode of the terminal device to enemy search mode.
Referring to the ally-identified signal, he confirmed his current distance from the destroyer.
As long as they lure and assassinate Jiedo Heigu (Gu Jie) in international waters, this mission will be complete.
Even if they got to the result smoothly, recalling it afterwards would seem tasteless. Canopus, who had been thinking about this, sighed.
As Masaki observed Gu Jie’s vehicle driving into the path in the windbreaker, he thought: “Great!”
That path led to the beach. Due to the problems in dealing with the cleanup, Masaki had been reluctant to use ‘Rupture’. But this place during this season, a beach in mid-winter, it shouldn’t be a problem if he made a bigger disturbance.
Ships with a deep draft could not be used on the beach. If they had used an inflatable raft, then the beach would not be an obstacle. However, if this type of object got onto the beach, it would have been impossible to disguise. Gu Jie probably intended to ride the small ship further out into the ocean before transferring to an ocean liner. Getting off the vehicle and transferring to the ship would require a bit of time. Masaki thought that he could successfully apprehend Gu Jie at the time when he switched to the boat, even without damaging the ship.
Masaki passed through the windbreak that led the way to the beach and proceeded to dismount his bike. He would not continue to ride his urban motorcycle on the sand. The automobile overtook Masaki at his side, then he used movement-type magic to follow from behind.
The car that Gu Jie used as the escape vehicle stopped in the middle of the beach. The pursuing sedan passed by Gu Jie’s vehicle.
Then, gunfire resounded.
The tires on the vehicle were pierced by the bullets.
The bullets easily penetrated in the bulletproof tires, so perhaps it was enhanced by magic with additional penetration force.
The sedan slid on the sand, and with much difficulty, it came to a halt without rolling over.
The sedan that was following the first braked just before they collided.
Ten magicians in total came out of the two vehicles. They came out directly without using the vehicles as a bunker.
Someone from Gu Jie’s vehicle shot at the magicians.
The bullets that could penetrate the bulletproof tires were stopped by Anti-material shields.
(As expected of magicians under the Juumonji Family.) Masaki sighed in silent admiration.
But he wasn’t just observing the fight.
Masaki retrieved the bright red CAD from his holsters.
He activated ‘Rupture’ on Gu Jie’s vehicle.
The car then caught fire. It was the enemy’s bad luck that the car was an ethanol fueled model. When ignited, the ethanol gas fuel would cause an explosion.
A young man wearing a suit came out of the back of the burning vehicle.
His right hand was holding a pistol type CAD, it was certain that he was the one who had opened fire.
Masaki decided to leave this man to the Juumonji magicians while he continued to pursue Gu Jie.
Juumonji Family magicians surround the young man ?? Inagaki.
However, Inagaki completely ignored the magicians who surrounded him and opened fire on Masaki.
The magician between Masaki and Inagaki blocked the bullets.
In the next instance, Inagaki rushed at the magician who had been using the Anti-material shield to protect Masaki.
As if he were thrusting a sword forward with the pistol, he pulled the trigger.
A dazzling Psion light was released with the bullet, and the sound released was unlike that of a pistol being fired.
The Anti-material shield was penetrated.
A Juumonji Family magician fell to the ground. There was a hole gaping open on his throat, and his neck was nearly snapped.
Without verifying, he was dead at the scene.
He had used a Kenjutsu with a pistol.
Masaki had never known about this technique, but he understood how dangerous it was just from seeing it.
Pointing the bright red CAD at Inagaki, Masaki pulled the trigger.
Inagaki’s body shone with a brilliant Psion light.
Gram Dispersion had rendered Rupture a failure.
Masaki was shocked ?? but not stunned.
Although he was surprised, another part of his mind calmly constructed a magic sequence.
In the summer of 2095, after Masaki lost to Tatsuya in Monolith Code, he had been training for another battle. He trained repeatedly, while conducting many battle simulations, in order to deal with any strategy that Tatsuya could come up with.
One of which included countermeasures to Tatsuya’s use of Gram Demolition.
Even if the magic failed because of Gram Demolition, he would have to immediately follow up with the next magic. As long as he prevented the opposition from having time to attack, sooner or later, they could not defend against the magic from this side.
This was the proposed countermeasure from Kichijouji after analyzing Gram Demolition’s nature of having to release a large number of Psions.
Masaki had trained for this countermeasure in practice until it was drilled into his consciousness and became his body’s reflex.
Just because Gram Demolition had paralyzed the magic attack once, it was not enough to stop Masaki.
Masaki used ‘Rupture’ again.
In contrast, the magic sequence that Gu Jie implemented in Inagaki’s body was not able to gather Psions fast enough.
The half-hearted Psion release was not enough to block Masaki’s magic.
Inagaki’s body tore open, with blood splattering everywhere.
Blood sprayed to where Masaki was. The blood was then slowly absorbed by the sand.
Masaki turned his body.
Their force had lost one person, and the enemy force had also lost one person.
Other than Gu Jie, there was one more. They both rode in the van.
No, rather, though it looked a van from the side, it could have been an amphibious vehicle.
In any case, there was no harm.
Masaki pointed the bright red CAD towards the vehicle.
The instant Masaki was about to pull the trigger, someone jumped him from behind.
He was knocked down onto the beach.
The person that had knocked him down was a member of the Juumonji Family magicians.
Why, he was about to ask.
As Masaki thought about this, gunfire resounded.
The magician protected Masaki while laying down, his Anti-material shield shaking.
A sound that was far greater than pistol gunfire resounded. Masaki had heard this sound before in the Yokohama Incident.
An Anti-magician, high-power rifle.
A bullet storm of high-power Anti-defense magic bullets rained down on them from the rear-end side of the windbreak.
Masaki speculated that the number of the enemy forces was twice their own.
As expected of elites brought by the Head of the Juumonji Family, who bore the alias, “Iron Wall,” they beautifully blocked the gunfire from the high-power rifle designed to kill magicians. But the quality and performance of the enemy’s weapons was that of the highest class, and from time-to-time, grenades would rain down from the sky, making them unable to focus their magic shields towards the direction of the windbreak.
The Juumonji Family magicians were completely focused on defense without any energy to spare.
(To have such high-performance equipment… perhaps Gu Jie had the support of the USNA military!?)
Though Masaki’s reasoning was hasty in coming to a conclusion, it was not wrong. Though the USNA government did not instigate Gu Jie to launch the terrorist attacks, the ones who had been attacking them were indeed USNA soldiers.
The van that housed Gu Jie rushed to the sea.
(So it really was an amphibious vehicle.) Masaki pointed his CAD towards the amphibious vehicle while in a prone position.
But at this time, the enemy focused fire at him.
Masaki switched from ‘Rupture’ to activating an Anti-material shield magic. He was not using the all-round defensive type shield that the Juumonji Family magicians were using, but rather, a shield that was limited to the direction of the rifle’s shooting path.
Masaki left the grenades to the defense of Juumonji Family magicians, while he defended against the high-power rifle.
Without any spare time to attack the amphibious vehicle, Masaki was forced to temporarily focus on defense.
Wow… I really wasn’t expecting those deaths..