Chapter 604: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: The Final IV

At the seating section of the First-Year students...

The moment Vera took out the unfamiliar firearm, several people immediately leaned forward.

The weapon did not resemble any of the usual firearms they had seen before.

Cyrus narrowed his eyes as he stared at it.

"What the hell is that firearm?"

He looked genuinely surprised, his gaze moving over the strange weapon in Vera’s hands before shifting toward Ezra.

"Both you and Vera always seem to be pulling out something new."

Ezra stared at the firearm without much reaction.

He had already seen several weapons Vera had created since they left the Trial of Steel.

From everything he knew, there were two things that stood out.

The first was the Acu-Vector Series, which she created three different models.

The second was the firearm he had seen Vera create when he came to meet her about a week before the Combat Festival.

This was that firearm.

The same weapon she had shown him before the festival even began.

Ezra remembered what Vera had told him about the gun she wanted to create back during the Trial of Steel.

She wanted to design a firearm capable of growing alongside the Gun Alchemist who used it.

That made the weapon a No Rank firearm, since there was no fixed rank attached to it.

The power of the firearm depended on the Alchemist rank of the Gun Alchemist using it.

Ezra’s eyes remained on the battlefield.

He remembered what Vera had called it.

V-01 VOLT Rifle.

He kept quiet and continued watching the battle between Vera and Maxwell.

On the fight platform, Vera was already down on one knee.

Her posture was steady despite the pressure coming from Maxwell.

One hand supported the strange rifle while the other remained near the trigger. Her long black hair moved slightly in the hot air rolling across the platform, but her expression barely changed.

Maxwell was still moving toward her.

His golden flames burned around his body, and the heat coming from him continued to distort the air.

Vera did not rush.

She simply raised the rifle.

Her eyes settled behind the scope.

Then her finger pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The recoil moved through the firearm and into her arms.

The blue bolt bullet shot forward.

Before the first shot had even disappeared into the distance, Vera shifted the rifle slightly.

Her aim changed.

Her finger moved again.

BANG!

Another blue bolt bullet tore through the air.

The gunshots echoed across the arena.

The bullets did not look like ordinary rounds.

Blue blot-like energy surrounded them as they flew, and faint traces of lightning crawled across their surfaces.

BOOM!

BOOM!

The rapid shots crashed into the incoming Small Sun Spears.

The collision happened so quickly that the small golden attacks and blue bullets seemed to disappear into each other before several explosions erupted across the battlefield.

Maxwell stopped his charge.

His foot struck the ground, and he immediately jumped backward.

Five blue bolt bullets crashed into the place where he had been standing a moment earlier.

BOOM!

The ground broke apart.

Pieces of stone were thrown outward as blue lightning sparked across the damaged surface.

For a moment, the lightning crawled over the broken ground before weakening and disappearing.

Maxwell looked at the damage.

His golden eyes narrowed.

"This Gun Alchemist keeps coming with something crazy."

He muttered to himself, a little surprised that another Gun Alchemist had produced a firearm capable of firing lightning.

His eyes returned to Vera.

She was still kneeling.

Still aiming.

Still looking at him through the scope.

Click.

Vera removed the magazine from the V-01 VOLT.

At almost the same moment, she reached into her Space Bag.

Thirty Springfield M1903As emerged.

The sniper rifles floated around her in an organized formation, their barrels turning toward Maxwell.

Vera caught the magazine she had removed from the VOLT as she controlled another one out from her Space Bag.

Her movements were smooth enough that she barely needed to look at what her hands were doing.

Click.

She slammed the magazine into the rifle.

The sound was small compared to the explosions around her, but the movement was immediate.

White Cognis surged from Vera’s body.

It flowed through her arms and into the firearms suspended around her like streams of white light.

The Springfield M1903As began to vibrate.

Their mechanisms strained under the sudden increase of power.

Vera pushed the sniper rifles into their Overload state.

Maxwell reacted immediately.

The large Sun Ball hanging above the battlefield, the same sphere that had been releasing Small Sun Spears toward the platform, shifted under his control.

He moved both hands downward.

The Sun Ball descended.

As it came down, the battlefield filled with another series of gunshots.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Thirty Springfield M1903As fired at almost the same time.

The sound rolled through the arena.

White bullet trails crossed the air from every direction, converging on Maxwell.

The bullets moved so quickly that many spectators could only see brief streaks of white.

Maxwell raised his hands.

The Sun Ball changed.

The golden mass transformed into a Sun Barrier before the incoming bullets reached him.

BOOM!

BOOM!

The sniper bullets struck the barrier.

Each impact produced a small explosion against the golden surface.

The barrier shook under the repeated attacks.

Maxwell dashed away from the position where he had been standing.

A blue bolt bullet struck the ground behind him.

BOOM!

Blue lightning spread over the damaged earth.

Maxwell glanced over his shoulder.

More blue bolt bullets were already coming.

Vera had not changed her kneeling position.

She continued firing.

Her finger moved again and again while her eyes remained fixed through the scope.

Maxwell ran in an arc.

The Sun Barrier moved with him, intercepting several of the incoming bullets.

BOOM!

Another bullet struck.

A small crack appeared across the golden barrier.

Then another.

The blue bolt bullets were beginning to put pressure on it.

Maxwell’s expression changed slightly.

He stopped treating them as ordinary bullets.

Their impact was forcing his Sun Barrier to absorb more power than he had expected.

He brought his hands together.

Clap!

Three Novarite stones were controlled out of his Space Bag.

They floated in front of him.

At the same time, Vera continued firing.

The Springfield M1903As around her began to suffer under the strain of Overload.

The metal cracked.

One rifle broke apart.

Another followed.

Then another.

Fine dust scattered into the air as the firearms reached their limit.

Vera did not stop.

She simply controlled another rifle from her Space Bag.

The new Springfield M1903A replaced one of the destroyed weapons.

She immediately pushed it into Overload.

At the same time, she reloaded the V-01 VOLT.

Her movements never broke rhythm.

The rifle was reloaded.

The next weapon was positioned.

Her aim returned to Maxwell.

She fired again.

Maxwell’s Sun Alchemy formed.

The three Novarite stones exploded.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Golden flames erupted into the sky.

The heat spread across the fight area almost instantly.

The snow falling into the arena could no longer remain snow.

It melted as soon as it entered the heated air.

Water turned into steam.

The steam rolled across the battlefield, covering the lower parts of the platform and making the distant figures harder to see.

Maxwell stopped running, then he slammed both hands against the ground.

His Sun Alchemy Circle formed beneath him.

BOOM!

Numerous bullets and blue bolt bullets crashed into the Sun Barrier around him.

The barrier shook.

Cognis visibly flowed from Maxwell’s body, appearing almost like smoke through the heated air.

The Sun Alchemy Circle spread across the fight platform.

Its light pushed against the steam and smoke.

Vera’s eyes moved toward the enormous Alchemy Circle.

She saw the golden flames hovering above Maxwell.

They began flowing downward.

The flames entered the Alchemy Circle in large streams.

The heat became stronger.

Hot air swept across the platform.

The ground trembled slightly under the force of the Alchemy.

Even from the spectator sections, the heat wave could be felt.

Ordinary spectators struggled to see what was happening.

The steam moved across the fight area in thick waves, and every time the wind shifted, another part of the battlefield disappeared behind the haze.

Vera moved the V-01 VOLT to the side.

Then she stood.

Her right hand rose.

Her fingers spread slightly.

"Because of you, Diane, I have lost some of my stock of firearms. I should scold you after this."

She spoke lightly, as if she were discussing an ordinary inconvenience instead of standing in the middle of a battlefield filled with explosions.

Her fingers moved.

Fifty BAR M1918s emerged from her Space Bag.

The rifles appeared around her and immediately stopped in midair.

Some floated behind her.

Others hovered above her.

Several remained to her side.

Their barrels turned toward the smoke-covered position where Maxwell stood.

The formation looked almost like a wall of firearms suspended in the air.

Vera glanced toward the golden light appearing through the smoke.

BOOM!

A rapid shot of Sun energy blasted through the haze.

Vera shifted her head slightly.

The attack passed close enough to her side that the heat brushed against her skin.

Its speed had been fast enough to almost slip beyond her perception.

"Ara...."

Vera’s voice remained strangely casual.

More Sun lasers moved through the battlefield.

They tore through the smoke, clearing sections of it before the steam quickly filled them again.

Vera’s white Cognis flowed out from her body.

Her figure faded.

BOOM!

A Sun laser struck the ground where she had been standing.

Vera had already moved.

BOOM!

Another attack crashed down.

Again, she was gone before it arrived.

Afterimage after afterimage remained behind her.

Her body kept fading and reappearing as she moved through the battlefield.

The Sun lasers struck empty ground.

Each impact broke stone and sent heat through the surrounding steam.

The spectators erupted into cheers, because the fight had reached another level.

Even those who could not properly follow the movements could still understand the pressure from the repeated explosions.

Maxwell suddenly dashed forward.

To the ordinary spectators and even the Low-ranking spectators, he looked like nothing more than a golden flash.

The distance between him and Vera disappeared within milliseconds.

BOOM!

His fist, wrapped in Golden Flames, struck one of the BAR M1918s.

Vera had moved the rifle into the path of his punch.

The firearm bent from the impact.

Vera’s body was forced downward by the force of the collision.

She bent at the knees and lowered her center of gravity.

Maxwell pushed harder.

"AHHH!"

More Golden Flames surged around his fist.

The BAR M1918 began to strain under the pressure.

The rifle was pushed backward.

Maxwell’s fist broke through its position and continued toward Vera.

Vera straightened.

She shifted her body just enough to move away from the incoming fist.

At the same time, three BAR M1918s turned toward Maxwell.

Their barrels lined up.

Maxwell noticed them.

He moved only three fingers on his right hand.

The Golden Halo floating above his head responded.

Golden flames flowed from it and entered those three fingers.

Three small Sun lasers shot forward.

They were aimed directly toward the muzzles of the BAR M1918s.

BOOM!

The collision produced a small explosion.

The three rifles were blasted slightly backward.

But Vera’s control did not break.

The BAR M1918s rotated away from her, spinning through the air before stabilizing.

Then they immediately flew back toward her.

Maxwell was still facing the direction of the three rifles when he sensed something behind him.

He turned.

Thin needles had been fired from behind.

But before they could reach him, the heat radiating from his golden body met them.

The needles stopped in the air.

Then they melted.

Vera had already jumped backward.

Her hands remained behind her as she moved.

She still held the V-01 VOLT.

The remaining BAR M1918s followed her through the air.

And among the firearms moving with her, another weapon appeared.

An Acu-Vector Mk.IV.

It floated alongside the other firearms as Vera continued moving backward, her eyes already returning to Maxwell.