Chapter 68 – End It…? Yes, Indeed. I Shall End It — With My Victory!

Ethan's machine, Ribast -- a general-use medium-frame Makina in white and gray -- responded to Arden's explosive launch with something that looked almost quiet: deliberate, measured movement that put distance between them with no wasted motion.

Then, instantly, a beam from Ribast's Photon Rifle grazed precisely across Arden's intended path.

(-- That sensation again...!)

Letaria knew it from the last time she had sparred with Ethan. His shooting was unerring and it read ahead of her -- she remembered being silently herded into corners by it, her movement being guided without her noticing, the bitter lesson of that experience.

But the Letaria of now was not the novice of then.

"You will not hit me!"

Through her magic -- her sharp spatial perception -- she sensed the orientation of Ribast's barrel and the future line of each shot with all five senses. The trajectories were, for her, literally visible. She wove through them in explosive, razor-edge stops and turns, threading shot after shot by the smallest possible margin.

And she wasn't only evading.

Arden raised its right-arm Photon Rifle and laid down heavy fire toward Ribast.

The shooting itself was straightforward -- reliant on the machine's fire control lock-on system, the kind of linear attack that would be nothing to an expert like Ethan. He could slide out of it with minimal effort.

But in Ribast's cockpit, Ethan's eyes had sharpened.

(... She is never retreating into pure defense. She is placing suppressing fire into the gaps of my shooting, at exactly the most inconvenient moments. ...Extraordinary rate of growth.)

A lady who had been nothing but a novice was now, through real combat, matching breathing with the corps' best. That fact drew an involuntary smile to Ethan's lips.

In the same moment, the simulator unit itself shook with heavy vibration, a dull impact sound from within.

Arden, as Letaria piloted it, ran on Trace Mode -- a high-load system that translated the pilot's own limb movements directly into the machine. Inside the cockpit, Letaria in casual clothes had her hair flying, muscles working throughout her body, moving hard inside the seat. The simulator generated no actual g-forces -- but the physical exertion she poured into moving the machine was identical to a real unit.

"There she goes again..." Rajel smiled wryly up at the hologram.

"I mean, the way she's actually handling Arden at that level with Trace Mode is just... impressive."

Aland murmured it with genuine admiration. Herta nodded deeply.

"I knew it intellectually, but seeing it live makes it even more absurd. A normal pilot trying to Trace-Mode that level of movement with their whole body would run out of stamina in under three minutes."

For the corps members who knew what they were looking at, her extraordinary physical endurance and sheer force of will had long since become something that commanded genuine respect.

Arden, dancing through the sector, closed the distance on Ribast steadily while threading its fire by literal paper-thin margins.

(Here -- close range, I bring it to melee!)

Letaria powered up the Photon Saber output and drove to collapse the gap entirely. In that instant:

"Too open, my lady."

Ribast's main thrusters blazed -- and it was Ribast that closed in, the supposed ranged specialist charging directly at Arden.

"What -- ?! Coming at me yourself -- ?!"

The unexpected charge caught Letaria's eye for just a moment. But her magic, faster than her surprise, was already reading Ethan's next move.

Ribast's right arm drew the Photon Saber and drove a sharp slash toward Arden's neck.

A gleaming blade of light. Letaria began moving to dodge with minimum motion -- and then caught the precursor.

(No -- that is not the real one!)

What Ethan was actually after was hidden behind the saber strike -- a compact physical blade concealed in Ribast's left arm. Use the saber as a decoy, then destroy the cockpit's drive system with the close-range physical blade from a blind angle. A ruthlessly experienced and utterly merciless piece of real-combat technique.

"Ohohoho! I can see it!"

Letaria slammed her back into the simulator seat and forced Arden's attitude into a violent wide change. Thrusters firing downward, the frame bent sharply backward -- and the open front launched Arden's powerful right leg upward with everything she had.

A vicious kick-up, tracing the arc of a perfect back flip --!

The impact struck both of them hard.

The sound of metal crashing against metal rang through the simulated space.

Ethan was the one caught off guard. The compact blade extending from Ribast's left arm was caught perfectly on Arden's sole and kicked violently skyward, its trajectory destroyed.

"What -- ?!"

Clear, unmistakable shock in Ethan's voice. For the first time.

An announcement sounded: "minor damage" to Arden's leg plating. In practical terms, essentially nothing.

From the twisted, near-upside-down attitude she was in, Letaria did not hesitate for a single instant. She thrust Arden's right-arm Photon Rifle directly into Ribast's face and pulled the trigger to its limit.

Point-blank range. A blinding flash.

Ethan's superhuman reflexes had Ribast attempting a barrel roll back, but complete evasion of every shot was impossible. A devastating beam punched through Ribast's right shoulder and arm, and the monitor blazed red: "Right arm: critical damage. Functionality ceased."

"What the -- !"

"She took out the Sergeant Major's right arm!"

The training room audience erupted. Outmaneuvering Ethan and landing a clean hit on him was not something that happened easily, even in the corps.

But Ethan was every bit the veteran he was. Arm gone, balance disrupted, he still worked the remaining left arm with precise control, defending against Arden's follow-up pursuit perfectly. What followed was a relentless, breathless exchange of Photon Saber passes and firing lines, pure technique and stubbornness colliding.

"Hh... hh... what are you... you stubborn... man..."

Letaria's casual cut-and-sew was soaked with sweat. She was breathing hard from her shoulders. Trace Mode's full-body exertion and the sustained, extreme concentration were draining her physical reserves at speed.

Ethan, by contrast, had not disturbed his breathing.

In terms of machine damage, Ribast -- right arm gone -- was clearly worse off. But in terms of pilot fatigue, physical and mental, the experienced veteran still had far more in reserve.

(Well done, my lady... To push me this far.)

Deep admiration. And a decision: this remarkable talent deserved to be concluded with the fullest respect he could give.

"You... with one arm... you're really..."

"You're at your limit too. Fatigue is showing. ...This has been a magnificent bout. Let's end it."

As Ethan spoke, Ribast moved.

Left arm only. He mounted the Photon Rifle onto the right shoulder hard point, using it as a fixed shoulder cannon, firing continuously -- while the freed left hand drew the Photon Saber in a reverse grip.

Firing a hand-held weapon from a shoulder mount was technically possible, but fire control difficulty rose sharply and the firing angle became extremely restricted unless the machine's orientation changed. Very few pilots anywhere in this sector, let alone in Seldia, could actually make this work in close-quarters combat.

Irregular fire from the shoulder mount and a flash of the left blade, bearing down together.

Letaria's vision tilted slightly from fatigue. But her spirit had not given a single inch.

"End it...? Yes, indeed. I shall end it -- with my victory!"

She twisted her body hard and evaded Ribast's fire. Or -- not a complete evasion. Photon rifle shots grazed Arden's shoulder, her leg, armor sparking. But Letaria had made the calculation: if it isn't hitting the drive system or the cockpit, it's not a problem. She accepted the grazes entirely, evading only what she had to, and drove forward in the shortest possible line. Cut the flesh to reach the bone -- a charge of a completely different character than anything before.

The two machines faced each other.

Both Photon Sabers crossing in the simulated void. The absolute instant.

"-- Grave Arc!!"

With Letaria's battle cry, Arden's trump card activated.

The strike that had erased Restful. In this simulator bout it was nearly uncharged -- the output was a fraction of what it had been in that battle, considerably reduced.

But even so -- a mass of light that utterly overwhelmed any standard Photon Saber.

In the moment of collision, Ethan's field of vision was filled with pure white radiance.

"...Got me. Well done, my lady."

With a quiet, wry murmur from Ethan, Ribast -- Photon Saber and all -- was bisected by the blade of concentrated light.

【SET SETTLED. WINNER: LETARIA ADENIAM】

The simulator's system voice rang through the room as silence returned.

The holographic image faded quietly. What remained was the standing form of deep-violet Arden, and the data of a single noble lady who had proven, in name and in fact, that she was Seldia's strongest.