AIKA STORMHUNT POV

So slow. Should I pressure them to go faster? No... This is their debut match. I should just let them have it with minimal interference.

Five minutes into the run, I'm already feeling bored doing nothing but basic dashing and jumping to maintain my position at the center. I wish the Pathfinder could go faster. Then again, maybe it's a tall order for a bunch of freshies.

On second thought, the Pathfinder had been doing quite well guiding the team throughout a place with lots of ledges and overhanging platforms. He also made sure that there were always a couple of branching paths that did not require long-distance jumping or outright vertical traversal for the Diva. But throughout the run, we had been doing nothing but tricks and more tricks to speed up our pace.

Sure, at this rate, contact with the enemy team would be made in less than five minutes, but I couldn't help but wonder if the rest of the team's stamina was going to hold out. Their breathing seemed stable, and while their heartbeat was quicker than normal, it didn't seem to affect their tricks and performance. Perhaps it was just anxiousness from the first match.

"Kuh! Am I doing it right? I'm pushing my run to the limit, but she easily kept up with just basic movements. That silent stare of hers. Is she telling me to go faster? Why is she not saying anything?"

"A-as expected of Vice-captain, she is running us ragged."

"Poor guy, being constantly stared at from the back. Wait, did she just yawn?"

"Haah Haah, I wish my queen would stare at my back instead."

I can hear you; you know? So, I was pressuring them to go faster, huh? Should I slow down a bit?

On second thought, no. It will serve as good training for them. Or maybe I'm just bored and want to get this part over with? I can't tell. Let's just maintain this pace for now.

Thankfully, our predicament and boredom would soon be over. I felt my nose twitch as I sighted the enemy group to my right at ten o'clock.

So, either they went for it with just a song instead of a hymn, or their Pathfinder is superior to ours. Either way, it doesn't matter. We have caught up in decent record time, and all that's left is to proceed to beat them down.

“Contact in 3, out! 10 -2, 1 -3! What now, vice-captain?”

Our Pathfinder sure has decent eyesight, but wait... I raised an eyebrow as I witnessed the enemy team's position. There was quite a gap in the middle, with two people at the front and three people at the back.

Bizarre was an understatement; yet, they managed to run the entire time using this strange formation. The magician positioned himself right behind the Pathfinder, mirroring my position while looking directly at me, an obvious taunt. Meanwhile, the three individuals at the back, arranged in a triangle formation, slowed down slightly, widening the gap.

If they intended to trap us in a vertical pincer, the attempt could not have been more blatant. I'm excited; let's see what they have in store for us.

“Maintain. Compact. Slipstream.”

As we positioned ourselves just behind the magician, the enemies in the rear accelerated, closing the pincer around us. Now, our team is completely sandwiched between the enemy groups.

"What a fine day it is, am I right? Could use less downpour though," the magician was the first to speak up, as my pathfinder began to catch up to him. "And now, for my first magic trick. I shall make this guy disappear."

My crisis alarm blared the moment Magician finished uttering those words. He displayed an advanced mastery of inertia by instantaneously halting his forward momentum and jumping backward, delivering an overhead kick to my Pathfinder. All in less than a breath's moment.

BANG!

It would have connected had I not propelled myself with a quick dash and intercepted him with a kick of my own. We separated a blink later, but not before I noticed how he mimicked my aerial recovery to land down and continue running parallel near me.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

A Rondo (Duel), is it? Very well. I inwardly smirked as I barked out the next order.

“Switch! Cloud formation. Cage. Root.”

As soon as I finished speaking, several things happened simultaneously. The rest of my team, including the Pathfinder, pivoted, and spread out to face the enemy, aiming to encircle them. However, instead of attempting to break free from the encirclement, the enemy chose to drop and hunker down on a sizable abandoned building, assuming a defensive formation.

Are they trying to buy time? No... This guy is confident he can take me down.

“Show me.”

“As you wish, Mademoiselle.”

For the first time since the race began, my mind focused. The external awareness I had of my teammates grew duller as I detached myself from Diva's hymn. The distance between us grew further and further until it was just me against the world on my own. But instead of feeling uneasy, I felt right in my element.

Whenever I donned the gear, it has always been this way, so why care?

In front of you is a delectable specimen that taunts you to smash it apart. So again, why care?

Just LET LOOSE.

First, the wall cracked, then the shockwave registered a moment later as I propelled myself with a kickdash like a missile homing in on the Magician. Mid-flight, I drew back a fist tightly to my side and prepared my leg to knee the magician in the gut. Not to be outdone, the magician adopted an open-palm stance and spun himself to meet my incoming knee with a knee of his own.

BAM!

We clashed midair and let the momentum of our dash carry us forward. Amid our arching flight, jabs, and kicks were thrown. The magician parried most of them. A few got in, but most were deftly blocked. He countered my straight punch by hooking my elbow and throwing me into the side of a building.

In a fit of catlike agility, I performed a front flip to recover my bearings on a ledge before dashing into a wall run in a near instant, as if the throw had not affected me in the slightest. After that brief exchange, I can say with certainty that the guy is not a simple one-trick phony.

That pulling arm technique, was that Wing Chun? He displayed the physical endurance of a forward, and yet this is the second time he performed a gentle aerial recovery befitting of a Diva. Gentleness in a run is not an option but rather a necessity when performing as a Diva.

Why bother going through an extra length to keep your landing, jumping, and dashing smooth, when you can just brute force them with your leg and arm strength?

The reason is simple.

The recoil and feedback impact of those activities tend to disrupt the seamlessness of your constant calculation, and Diva needs to calculate constantly. Too bad the brain and vocal cords do not exist in a digital world. So, he is not a Diva, and yet the magician is calculating something. Interesting, show me more.

[Wall Ride: 1800Grab - Moon Drop]

With swift agility, I seamlessly transitioned from a wall run to a wall ride, initiating the movement with a sweeping kick from my left leg. Harnessing the inertia, I spun my body, followed by a reverse sweeping kick from my other leg, propelling me forward with increased speed along the wall. Ascending as if defying gravity, I continued upwards through the walls, culminating the maneuver with multiple somersaults aimed at intercepting the magician’s landing path, my drop kick poised like a thrown tomahawk.

The magician, seemingly growing an eye out of his back, prepared himself the moment he landed on solid footing against the approaching drop kick, and parried the incoming pain train with a redirection technique. Despite most of the impact bleeding through, the force pushed him off and made him stagger nonetheless. I managed to break his stance.

All that’s left is to chase him down and grapple him, and yet, at the last second, a scaffolding seems to appear out of nowhere for him to vault over, regain his stance, and barely escape my attempt at grabs.

We separated into a run and found ourselves at an impasse again, though I could see his left arm trembling in pain. He hadn’t fully redirected my moon drop.

It’s not a coincidence. The Magician's pathfinder predicted the outcome of the clash and decided to shift the path to favor his right side. She read that the moment I decided to opt for a grapple. No, even further than that. The moment I performed the wall ride.

As if reading my mind, the Pathfinder began picking up speed, heading towards a more building-populated area.

Good. Very good. Despite my growing excitement, an unthinkable question came to mind. He is inexperienced, and yet that near-instantaneous response. Is he… No, it’s too soon to jump to a conclusion. Let’s test it out a bit more.

With that, I instantly positioned myself directly behind the magician and unleashed a dash that far surpassed my previous speed. The magician’s surprise lasted a brief second before he prepared to intercept me as I traversed dozens of meters with a single leap.

I feinted a Crescent Moon kick to his left arm before pulling back and snapping a back kick with the other leg instead.

The attack launched him through a window. I thought for sure that the kick had connected properly, but at the last second, he managed to block it with his right arm.

Again, he absorbed the impact by jumping backward awkwardly. It’s certainly not on instinct. Before he even crashed, the pathfinder had already jumped up and entered the window above him, seemingly knowing where he would land when we clashed for the third time.

I am beginning to see the pattern.

I followed him through and noticed that he was already up and running. If he is banged up, he certainly didn’t show it.

Dashing through, I caught up with him and began to use the enclosed hall to throw various striking moves and kicks while maintaining running speed. The magician did not relent and executed open-palm techniques to parry and deflect my strikes. Some strikes went through, and yet he persisted, looking for an opening to counter me with throws.

I have to admit that he has endurance in spades despite being severely outmatched, both in techniques and physical condition. His left arm must be hurting badly if he is using it for nothing other than deflecting and blocking.

Seven more moves and this will be over.

I sharpened my concentration as I began to deliver a series of attacks.