35TH GEAR - TOWER HEADBUTTS ARE OUTSTANDING!
Everybody was astounded by Flu’s sudden appearance from the sea of flames. The Air Trampoline she made in a split second was perfectly timed. She used the repelling effect of the Bloodfire Nitro to store the energy on the magical trampoline and then she used Rocket Jump to multiply the stored force!
“Yaaaah!”
Zoom! Flu launched a short-ranged Phoenix Arrow with an extremely swift strike! Her fingers managed to touch Captain Haruka’s back, and a pink magical circle point indicator materialized!
Beep! Point for Fluonessia, now at 2:4!
“Aarrgh!” Captain Haruka cried as she suffered from the repelling effect of the magical barriers colliding!
Flu also suffered from the repelling effect, but she acrobatically regained her balance in midair! She swiped her fingers once again to create an Air Trampoline, stomped on it with both feet and launched for the third time!
“One more!” Flu shouted as she dashed in midair, ready to strike for another point!
“You have to be kidding me!” Captain Haruka cried.
Since Flu’s speed keeps on raising exponentially by using consecutive Air Trampolines and Phoenix Arrows, the Bloodfire Captain has no time to evade nor cast a spell. Heck, she does not even have a split second to blink!
Flu’s fingers swiped Captain Haruka’s back, and there appeared another magical circle point indicator!
Beep! Another point for Fluonessia, now at 3:4!
“One more!” Flu shouted as she created another Air Trampoline to jump for the fourth time!
Most Cool Escape members are horrified upon seeing their own Captain being beaten by a Merry Knights rookie. Even Captain Tezza who is just being the navigator is nervously sweating. She’s gritting so hard that her teeth are chattering.
“Don’t mind her! Go for the next checkpoint!” Captain Tezza commanded.
“Aaaaargh! Fine!” Captain Haruka irritatingly answered as she decided to move on and go forward. Her shoes were enhanced by Bloodfire Accel once again as she tried to make a step.
However, Flu was already aimed at an attack. She jumped from her Air Trampoline and launched with a literal speed of a 50-caliber bullet!
“Yaaaah!”
Flu has stroke the opponent’s back once again, and a magical circle point indicator with pink color manifested!
Beep! Another point for Fluonessia, and now it is tied at 4:4!
“Use the repelling effect to have a temporary speed boost!” Captain Tezza commanded.
“Aaaah, fine!” Captain Haruka irritatingly said once more as she did what she was told.
The force of the repelling effect coming from the collision of the magical barriers gave Captain a little bit of a speed boost to reach the 3rd Checkpoint Tower! Since Flu has been pushing her closer and closer to that checkpoint, the distance was already minuscule!
Captain Haruka touched the 3rd Checkpoint Tower, and it glowed dark red!
Beep! Captain Haruka regains the lead at 4:5!
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“One… more!”
Flu’s voice came out hoarse as she struggled to maintain the speed force of the next Air Trampoline. How many times has Flu chained Air Trampolines already? I’m no longer counting! At this rate, she’s an overexerting effort in just a practice match!
Never mind that, she enhanced her feet with fire energy once again! She is giving it her all in this fight!
“Is she going to unleash another Phoenix Arrow!?” Captain Tezza cried.
“Idiot! Don’t go spamming your spells in such a short amount of time!” I yelled.
“I can still go on!” Flu said as she launched once again! “Phoenix Arrow!”
Due to the speed force exponentially stacking up since she fired the second Phoenix Arrow in this game, she is now going half of the light speed. Her magical barrier is now even burning due to the air friction, and nobody would ever be able to react at that time. Even Vincent the Teleporter was caught by a Chain Trampoline.
“Shi-”
Captain Haruka was not even able to finish her swearing. Flu just flew towards her without any mercy.
Correction: Flu didn’t fly towards Captain Haruka. Since the force of speed has been doubling and doubling exponentially, it would make it hard for Flu to control in mid-air. She won’t be able to aim or react properly as the speed is far more powerful than hers to control. So instead of hitting Captain Haruka, she completely missed!
“Kyaaaaah!” Flu cried.
Boom!
She crashed on the 3rd Checkpoint Tower with her forehead first! But due to the magical barrier of her Speedmage Suit, she did not incur any physical damage. If it weren’t for that, Flu’s brain would have just splattered all over the field.
Beep! Point for Fluonessia, now tied at 5:5!
“H-Huh?” I muttered.
Wait, is that the 3rd Checkpoint Tower!? If I remember, we yielded touching the 3rd Checkpoint Tower earlier to materialize our Plan B: Phoenix Arrow!
According to the rules, a Speedmage can yield Checkpoint Towers but he or she will not be able to score another point by touching checkpoints unless she touched the Checkpoint Tower that was yielded. So since we gave up on touching the 3rd Checkpoint Tower earlier, we can only touch that one to score a point!
“Owowowowow!” Flu rubbed her aching forehead. She still got hurt because of the impact, but it is not severe.
“Nice work, Flu!” I cheered!
“E-Eh!?” Flu cocked her head in confusion.
“You touched the 3rd Checkpoint Tower! You tied the score! Nice aim!”
“B-But I was aiming for Captain Haruka…”
“It doesn’t matter if it is a coincidence! You still scored a point!” I cheered.
Meanwhile, all the spectators, the Speedmages from different guilds who are witnessing this fight were flabbergasted. They did not know if the move Flu just did was genius or incredible luck. And some people even cringed at me for praising such a kind of suicidal coincidence.
“Haruka, twenty seconds left! Go touch the next Checkpoint Tower!” Captain Tezza commanded.
“Aaaaah, fine.” Captain Haruka irritatingly scratched her head as she turned around and continued to boost forward with her Bloodfire Accel.
“Flu! Get up and follow her!” I said.
“R-Right!” Flu immediately rushed with her Wind Accel activated.
Fifteen seconds before the time runs out. The score is tied at 5:5, so the next point will be the deciding factor here!
Captain Haruka’s Bloodfire Accel is way superior to Flu’s Wind Accel. The opponent has a few meters lead, and the gap is getting wider every second!
Twelve seconds left!
Flu will not be able to catch her at this rate. We will have to do something drastic to catch up!
“Flu, can you still use Phoenix Arrow?” I asked.
“I think I can!” Flu said.
Although I can still see that Flu’s mana capacity can handle a couple more Phoenix Arrows and Chain Trampolines, her body might not be able to handle the fatigue. That is why I have to ask first if she can still cast one more big move.
Since she said that she can still do one more Phoenix Arrow, we have two options: First, we can try to strike Captain Haruka’s back. However, the Bloodfire Captain might use Bloodfire Nitro to blast her away.
The second option is to aim at the Checkpoint Tower. It is way less risky to aim at an unmoving target, but the distance is way far. I think I will go for this safe option.
“Use it one last time, and aim for the 1st Checkpoint Tower!” I said.
“Roger that, Coach!”
Flu immediately made a backflip, and while in midair, she created one last Air Trampoline at a 45-degree angle. She also enhanced her Speedmage Shoes with fire magic and bent her knee, ready for a horizontal Rocket Jump!
Five seconds before the match ends!
“Phoenix Arrow!”
Flu launched herself from the Air Trampoline, and she immediately caught up with Captain Haruka who is just focused on reaching the last Checkpoint Tower! There are just a few meters between Flu in the air and Captain Haruka blazing in the ground. Their eyes locked unto the goal- the 1st Checkpoint Tower!
Two seconds left!
“Aaaaaaargh! This is not fiiiiine!” Captain Haruka cried as she expelled all her remaining mana on her Bloodfire Accel!
“Yaaaaaaaah!” Flu also cried by soaring in midair! She is just one meter above Captain Haruka!
One second!
Both Flu and Captain Haruka spread out their hands, ready to reach the checkpoint!
Time went slow for the last second. During that time, Flu’s eyes opened wide as she noticed something.
Beep!