Chapter 829: Duel 2
Inside the dock, Haru could see Cecilia who had come out from her dock using her IS. He could see her blue IS which was sniper-type from the weapon which was used by her. He saw a flying drone hovering around her, reminding him of his girlfriend Claire Harvey in World of a Hundred.
Haru was wearing a skin-tight suit which was specially made to pilot an IS. He had always wondered why every world in which he came for quest needed him to wear a skin-tight suit which made his anaconda become conspicuous.
"Kasugano-kun! Kasugano-kun! You need to equip your IS now while I"m explaining the rules of this duel to you."
Maya"s voice could be heard from the speaker inside the dock. Her voice seemed to be fl.u.s.tered when she saw Haru"s figure who was only wearing a skin-tight suit.
Chifuyu was also the same and hurried him. "Hurry up! We don"t have too much time!"
Neither of them expected that there was something really big inside his pants which could make every girl pregnant easily.
Haru nodded and took out the tarot card with the "devil" symbol on it before it shattered into thousands of glows similar to dandelion seeds which enveloped his body and covered his figure in darkness.
The moment the light disappeared, both Chifuyu and Maya were surprised looking at the shape of Haru"s IS.
"Is that your IS?" Chifuyu asked.
"Yeah. Deathscythe h.e.l.l, its the name," Haru answered.
Unlike normal IS which only enveloped some parts of the human body such as leg, arms, etc.
Haru"s IS covered his entire body as if in full body armor. He didn"t wear a helmet and showed his face, but his Infinite Stratos overall was similar to armor.
(It"s similar to a Balance Breaker armor on DxD).
The color of his Infinite Stratos was black with a touch of white and red, but the thing which attracted them was the wide black wings on his back which reminded them of the devil.
Haru had thought that the usual design of IS wasn"t suitable for him, especially when his anaconda was so consipious on this skin-tight suit so it was the reason why he decided to create a full-body armor so he could hide his anaconda inside the armor and personally, it was several times cooler.
If he created scattered armor, his big anaconda would be shown during the battle which he felt would be very lethal to his female opponents. He didn"t want to cheat that much using his anaconda and decided to cover it.
"Deathscythe h.e.l.l...."
Maya and Chifuyu were surprised when they saw Haru"s IS which reminded him of the devil. From the name of his IS, they could tell that the weapon which was used by Haru was a scythe which made their impression of this IS was similar to "G.o.d of Death" or "Shinigami" in terms of appearance-wise, but after they saw his face that was covered in head armor which really reminded them of "devil" since it had a yellow horn on its forehead.
"Maya-sensei, Orimura-sensei, can you tell me the rules of the duel?" Haru asked since the duel was about to start.
"Y - Yes!" Maya was in awe looking at Haru"s IS and started her job to explain about the duel along with Haru"s opponent.
The hologram screen which appeared after he used his IS was added with one more screen showing data from "Blue Tears" which was Cecilia"s IS.
"Cecilia"s Infinite Stratos is Blue Tears. It is a sniper type IS. The IS has a system called Ultimate Defense. The system is designed to protect the pilot"s life, even in a worst-case scenario, however, it will consume a lot of field energy in the process. You knew that much, right?"
"Yes, Maya-sensei."
"You"re ready, Haru?" Chifuyu asked.
"I"ve been ready for a while Chifuyu-sensei," Haru answered.
It might be because they had spent a week together that their relationship was obviously better than normal.
Maya looked at both Haru and Chifuyu wondering what had happened between the two of them.
"Then, I"ll go now."
The launcher below him started to activate and launched him out of the dock.
*Swoosh!*
Infinite Stratos could fly because it could defy gravity along with the booster on its body. If someone equipped Infinite Stratos on their body, they would be able to reach a supersonic speed or more.
Large black wings behind his back moved slightly controlling his balance.
Haru appeared in the arena and received a lot of exclaims since his Infinite Stratos was very different from normal.
However, they had to admit that he seemed very handsome in that armor which was fully clad into his body. Even though it seemed quite evil, it gave him the charm of a bad boy which somehow made the girls scream in excitement.
Cecilia was also quite surprised when she saw Haru"s machine since it covered his entire body.
Infinite Stratos has a lot of features and one of them is "shielding".
Primary protection for IS and its pilots is provided through the use of energy shields (invisible to the n.a.k.e.d eye) that could block both physical and optical weapons. The protection level of the Infinite Stratos shield is sufficient to be impenetrable to most conventional weaponry, but it could be penetrated by high-powered IS weaponry.
The basic armor plates of IS offer minimal protection against incoming attacks, since any weapon powerful enough to pierce the shield would also be powerful enough to penetrate the armor plate.
It is also the reason why the pilots are so scantly covered by armor plates rather than full body armor.
However, Haru"s IS was different since his IS covered his entire body. Then he made the head armor on his Infinite Stratos vanish to show his face.
"Cool...." Ichika had to admit that Haru"s IS was very cool.
"Yeah....." Houki also thought at the same time. Even though she was a girl, she was more interested in boyish stuff which was why the appearance of Haru"s IS somehow made her jealous since it was very handsome.
"But what is his weapon?" Ichika asked.
"I"m not sure." Houki shook her head and couldn"t wait to see the battle.
Cecilia had to admit that Haru was very handsome in his IS, but she couldn"t be swayed because of that.
"I can"t wait to see you in butler uniform serving me every time, Kasugano-kun."
Her voice was full of confidence and haughtiness.
"I also can"t wait to see you in a maid uniform later. I can see that it"ll be very cute on you, Cecilia." Haru thought that this girl was really cute.
"C - Cecilia?!" Cecilia blushed.
"Is it alright to call you that?"
"W - Well, I don"t mind."
"Then, you can call me Haru."
"Cough! Cough!" Cecilia blushed and said, "Even if you try to seduce me, it won"t work! I"ll win this duel!" She pointed her finger and shouted.
"......"
Haru was speechless and said, "Then try to defeat me."
"Yes, I"ll beat you!"
Cecilia raised her beam sniper rifle and aimed it at Haru directly. "Start the battle!"
IS also has one component known as the Energy Barrier or Absolute Defense.
The Absolute Defense is activated by IS itself and not by pilots. If an attack is deemed nonlethal by the IS, it wouldn"t activate the Absolute Defense ability; even if it results in minor to moderate injury to its pilot. This ability is said to be able to protect the pilot from any kind of attack, but it also has seriously high power consumption; depleting the power of the IS with just single activation (In that sense, it is more like a pilot safety mechanism rather than combat defense mechanism). In any compet.i.tion, the pilot has declared the loser if their shield level hits zero to avoid injuring the pilot.
It is the case now, to win this duel, Haru and Cecilia need to make the Energy Barrier on their opponent to hit zero levels.
The moment the match had started Cecilia started to shoot a beam sniper rifle at Haru.
*Swoosh!*
A powerful blue beam was shot, but she missed her target.
Cecilia frowned since she felt that Haru had read the trajectory of her shooting, but she wouldn"t be defeated because of that.
*Swoosh!* *Swoosh!* *Swoosh!*
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Cecilia"s blue beam which was shot from her rifle missed the target and only hit the ground which created a large crater on it.
"Is that all? Cecilia?" Haru asked while floating in midair.
"Hmph! Let"s see whether you can be calm after this!"
The hovering drones around her started to release six small beam cannons that moved on their own as if it had its own consciousness.
The six small flying beams moved around in different directions shooting at him at the same time.
*Swoosh!* *Swoosh!* *Swoosh!*
Even though the firepower of these small flying beams was smaller than the sniper rifle, its number compensated for its strength.
However all of the attacks were missed, it was as if Haru could have predicted the trajectory of attack beforehand.
"Why?!"
Cecilia didn"t understand why he could dodge all of her attacks. She also felt annoyed since she hadn"t seen him take out his weapon.
"Well, Cecilia, if it is all of your ability then I might end the duel soon."
Haru had seen more of Cecilia"s IS"s ability, but he knew that she kept her trump card for last.
"Hmph! Let"s see whether you can do that!"
Cecilia combined the attack of the flying cannons together with her sniper rifle.
The volley of the beams was very dangerous and attacked him from a different direction at the same time which made the audience exclaimed in surprise.
"Amazing...."
Watching the battle between the two of them, Ichika had to admit that IS was more amazing than he had thought. He also wanted to have his IS, but he wasn"t sure whether he could get it.
"What are you doing, Kasugano! Hurry up and use your weapon!"
Houki screamed since she was very impatient to see him being attacked by Cecilia. Though little did she know that all of Cecilia"s attacks had missed their target and she couldn"t see the battle clearly since the arena was covered in dust because of Cecilia"s frantic attacks.
However, Houki had a feeling that Haru was going to win this duel.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Cecilia didn"t give up, but she was wondering whether Haru"s machine could give her optic illusions or predicted the attack of his opponent which made it very hard to attack him. She had always wondered how he could dodge all of her attacks while she continued to attack him.
However suddenly Haru stopped moving, Cecilia thought that it was a chance. "It"s a chance!" She didn"t hesitate to shoot her sniper rifle together with her flying bits.
"It"s over!"
*BOOOM!!!*
Seven blue beams were shot at Haru at the same time creating a huge explosion.
Haru was covered in dust which made everyone worried that he had lost the battle after that attack.
"It"s my win, that"s what you think, right?"
Cecilia thought that she was the winner, but she heard his voice. "Y - You haven"t lost?" But she saw a grim red light inside the dust and she saw it slice apart the dust on the surrounding clearing area showing the figure inside.
"!!!!"
Everyone was surprised when they saw Haru holding the weapon in his hand.
Beam Scythe.
To be exact, it was Twin Beam Scythe.
As implied by its name, the twin-beam scythe has an extra beam emitter giving it two beam blades. It also has a rocket thruster to give it extra momentum in use, effectively quadrupling the power of the scythe.
The color of the beam was grim red which gave an image that this weapon was used to destroy their enemy without mercy.
"W - What a weapon...."
Everyone who watched the duel would have never expected Haru"s choice of weapon to be a scythe.
Maya and Chifuyu were the same, even though they knew the name of Haru"s Infinite Stratos was Deathscythe h.e.l.l, but when they saw it for the first time, they couldn"t help but exclaim.
It really surprised them since even if the scythe was strong, it was very hard to use since it wasn"t fit to be used in the battle.
Ichika and Houki were the same. In the past week, they spent their time training together, but they would have never expected that Haru was a scythe user.
"Cecilia, be careful."
Haru closed his face with a helmet once again making his appearance more intimidating.
Cecilia was also quite startled by Haru"s weapon, but she thought that scythe was very hard to use and she didn"t think that she would lose against him.
"You should prepare yourself to call me "Ojou-sama" later!"
"Then, you should prepare yourself to call me "master" when there"s only two of us alone..."
Cecilia blushed hearing his words and shot a volley of beams at Haru.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Haru only waved his scythe lightly destroying all of the attacks.
His scythe is very powerful and the heat and the powerful magnetic field it produces can begin to disintegrate the target even as the beam blade approaches. It can also be used underwater which can cleave anything.
Haru started to move and severed the six flying cannons on his surroundings very quickly.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Cecilia was in shock, but she didn"t have time to relax since he appeared right in front of her. She gulped, but she smiled since she had other weapons in her a.r.s.enal. She shot out two missiles from the bottom of her skirt.
However...
it was useless since it was being cleaved by Haru in a single stroke.
*BOOOOOOOM!!!*
Haru appeared right in front of Cecilia and raised his scythe to cleave her into two.
Cecilia raised her hands unconsciously, but the sniper rifle on her hand was destroyed in one swing by Haru. She closed her eyes in fear when the scythe was about to reach her.
*Boom!*
Cecilia thought that it was her end, but she waited for her attack to hit her, but she only felt a pat on her head.
"Huh?"
"I"m sorry to make you scared, alright?"
Haru released on his hands and also part of armor on his hands.
"I - I - I"m not scared!" Cecilia"s eyes were red at this moment, denying that she was scared since she was an IS Representative, but she was crying at this moment.
"Alright, alright, you"re not crying. Let"s go back. I"ll treat you to something good."
Cecilia wanted to refuse, but when she thought that she didn"t have a weapon anymore.
"Sigh... I lost."
"You"re very strong, Cecilia." Haru had to admit that if her opponent wasn"t him then she might win the battle.
Cecilia had a complex feeling, but it was good being patted by Haru at this moment.
"Let"s go to my room."
Haru took Cecilia"s hand to the dock since the duel was over.
"E - Eh - Eh?!" Cecilia forgot all the things which had just happened and thought about what this guy wanted to do once she had brought him to his room, but at the same time, she also had an anatic.i.p.ation inside her heart.
Haru was the first male who had defeated her, and she also had a good image of him before.
"He"s also very strong...."
Cecilia thought that it wouldn"t be bad being eaten by him.
"........."
Every audience in the arena, especially the girls, were very jealous of Cecilia at this moment.
Houki only shook her head looking at her new friend. She had a complex expression when she saw both of them go to the dock together and seemed to talk about something. She didn"t know what they were talking about, but she didn"t have a good feeling about it.
Only Ichika didn"t know what had happened and thought about the match more since he knew that Haru was very strong and so strong that Cecilia didn"t have a chance to fight back.
"Amazing..."
It was Ichika"s thought at that moment, and he really wanted to own his own IS as soon as possible so he could compete with them on the arena.