Chapter 609: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: The Final IX

Back to the present...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Vera controlled the hovering BAR M1918s surrounding Maxwell in the air, directing their muzzles toward him from different angles before sending a storm of bullets in his direction.

The machine guns fired almost at the same time.

The sound rolled across the arena, and the stream of bullets tore through the air so quickly that the spectators watching from the Holographic Screens could barely distinguish one shot from another. The hovering BAR M1918s did not need hands to support them, nor did they need soldiers standing behind them. Vera’s Cognis had turned them into weapons that moved according to her thoughts.

Their muzzles flashed repeatedly as hot gases and sparks burst from the barrels.

The bullets flew toward Maxwell from different directions, forcing him to deal with several attack angles at once.

Maxwell’s golden eyes moved across the battlefield.

Golden flames gathered around him.

The flames came from the halo-like ring of golden flames floating above his head, flowing down from both sides of his body before gathering into his palms. He did not try to block every bullet individually. Instead, he moved his entire body.

"Ahhh!"

Maxwell twisted his body in the air.

A bullet passed close enough to his face for him to feel the pressure of its movement.

Another passed beneath his arm.

Another crossed behind his back.

He rolled sideways, then turned his shoulders while allowing his legs to follow the movement.

KLANG!

KLANG!

The golden flames surrounding his hands rotated with him.

Several bullets struck the flames and were deflected away, sparks bursting from the points of impact as the projectiles changed direction.

But Vera’s attack had been prepared before Maxwell even went airborne.

That was the dangerous part.

The bullets were already covering the spaces he might use to escape.

Maxwell twisted again.

A bullet grazed the sleeve of his training clothes.

Another passed close to his ribs.

A third struck him.

A thin cut appeared across his skin.

Maxwell gritted his teeth as he continued moving.

He had avoided most of the bullets, but the few that reached him had done so because Vera had forced him into positions where his defensive timing was slightly late.

She was not simply firing.

She was controlling the space around him.

Click.

Click.

The BAR M1918s suddenly stopped.

Their magazines had run empty.

For a brief moment, the battlefield became quieter.

Maxwell stopped his rotation.

Gravity immediately began pulling him down.

His back was already descending toward the platform.

Then...

Whoosh!

A BAR M1918 flew down from above him.

The machine gun was moving directly toward his stomach.

Maxwell sensed the shift in the air.

His golden eyes snapped toward the incoming weapon.

The BAR M1918 was already so close that there was barely enough distance for him to react.

And this happened at the exact moment he had only just stopped his rotation.

Maxwell moved his hand.

He caught the muzzle.

Bang!

Bang!

BANG!

The BAR M1918 fired.

Maxwell’s eyes widened for a moment as the bullets erupted from the barrel at point-blank range.

He immediately forced the muzzle away from his body.

The bullets passed beside him instead of entering his stomach, tearing through the air where his body had been a moment earlier.

One of them grazed his clothes.

Another disappeared into the arena floor.

Maxwell descended another few meters.

He turned his body so, his feet would be the part to land on the platform.

Then his senses caught another incoming attack.

Not a machine gun.

Something much faster.

The blue bolt bullet.

Maxwell’s head turned.

The projectile was already coming toward him.

He still had the BAR M1918 in his hand.

There was no time to throw it away.

Maxwell swung his arm.

The body of the machine gun smashed into the incoming blue bolt bullet.

KLANG!

The collision produced a sharp metallic sound followed by a burst of sparks.

The bolt bullet was knocked away from its original path.

Maxwell landed.

BOOM!

His feet struck the platform hard enough to crack the ground beneath him.

Broken pieces of rock jumped away from the impact point, while hot steam and heated air rushed around his legs.

Maxwell bent his knees to absorb the landing.

He had barely finished the motion when his senses caught another incoming attack.

Another group of BAR M1918s.

Reloaded.

They were already hovering above the battlefield and moving toward him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The machine guns opened fire.

Maxwell had not even gotten the chance to brush the dust from his clothes, and he had barely straightened his body before another stream of bullets came toward him.

He stared at them.

"I have had enough of this."

His voice was low, but there was clear irritation in it.

Golden flames flowed from the halo above his head.

They gathered beside his body and condensed into a long staff.

The weapon formed in his hands as the flames compressed, creating a solid shape of golden heat.

At the same time, Maxwell used the flames in his other hand to melt the BAR M1918 he was still holding.

The metal began to glow.

Then it softened beneath the heat.

Maxwell let it fall away.

His senses spread across the battlefield.

He could feel the bullets.

He could feel the movement of the hovering weapons.

And he could also sense Vera.

She was standing at a distance.

The V-01 VOLT was already in her hands.

Its long, slim body was pointed toward him.

Maxwell’s golden eyes focused on her for only an instant.

KLANG!

He swung the Sun staff.

A hovering BAR M1918 moving toward him was sliced apart.

KLANG!

Another was cut through.

Maxwell continued the movement, turning his body as the remaining BAR M1918s moved upward after coming within only a few meters of him.

The gunfire stopped for a brief moment.

But that silence lasted less than a breath.

Bang! Bang!

Gunshots came from behind him.

One from the right.

Another from the left.

They had been fired almost at the same time as he sliced through the earlier bullets.

Maxwell turned his body.

The Sun staff moved with him.

KLANG!

A bullet was deflected.

Another came toward his shoulder.

He shifted his head.

The bullet passed beside him.

Maxwell continued turning, the golden staff cutting through the air as he redirected incoming bullets while keeping his balance.

At the same time, his other hand stretched toward Vera.

Golden light gathered in his palm.

The golden flames from his halo flowed through his arm.

Several concentrated Sun lasers shot toward Vera.

BOOM!

The blue-coated lightning bullet from the V-01 VOLT collided with the incoming Sun lasers.

The impact produced a violent explosion in the air.

Smoke spread outward from the collision.

For a moment, the battlefield between Vera and Maxwell disappeared behind the smoke cloud.

Then golden beams tore through it.

Whoosh!

Several Sun lasers flew toward Vera.

But she had already moved.

Vera dashed forward.

With a small movement of her fingers, the Repeater Sword Rifles controlled by her Alchemy Levitation moved out from her Space Bag and rushed ahead of her.

The rifles positioned themselves between her and the incoming Sun lasers.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Multiple explosions erupted almost together.

The Repeater Sword Rifles were struck by the golden attacks, their bodies being pushed aside by the force of the impacts.

Vera did not stop.

She continued running through the explosions.

Her boots struck the platform one after another as she moved through the gaps between the attacks.

A long Sun Slash suddenly came from her right.

The attack traveled horizontally across the battlefield.

Vera lowered her body.

The golden slash passed over her head.

A few strands of her long black hair were cut away and fell onto the ground.

She continued sliding forward before planting her right hand against the platform.

Her palm touched the ground.

Vera pushed herself back up.

Then her boots dragged across the surface.

Krrrkkk...

The sound of her soles scraping against the damaged platform followed her movement as she turned her body.

Her eyes locked on the new position of Maxwell.

He was above her.

Golden flames flowed from his legs, carrying him through the air.

The heat had already burned his boots away, leaving his feet surrounded by the glow of Sun Alchemy.

Vera raised the V-01 VOLT.

She aimed directly at him.

Maxwell brought his hands together.

DOOM!

A Sun Blast erupted.

The golden attack rushed toward Vera.

She pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The blue bolt bullet shot from the V-01 VOLT.

It crossed the distance between them in an instant.

BOOM!

The two attacks collided.

The explosion shook the air.

Golden light and blue lightning scattered from the point of impact, but the Sun Blast did not disappear.

It continued forward.

Vera’s eyes followed it.

She did not retreat immediately.

Instead, she watched the movement of the attack.

The Sun Blast came closer.

Boom!

Another explosion erupted as the attack struck something in its path.

Vera remained there.

Only inches separated her from the incoming gunshot’s position when she finally moved.

She shifted her body.

The attack passed.

At the same time, Vera fired again.

Bang!

The gunshot echoed through the arena.

The bullet traveled from Maxwell’s back.

Maxwell sensed it.

His body turned sharply while he was still airborne.

His right hand rose.

A Sun Vortex appeared.

The spinning golden mass swallowed the incoming bullet before it could reach him.

Maxwell turned again in the same motion.

Another Sun Vortex appeared.

Then another.

And another.

Multiple Sun Vortexes spawned around the battlefield.

They appeared from different directions, trailing Vera and the remaining BAR M1918s and Acu-Vector Mk.IVs hovering around her.

Vera moved before the vortexes had fully formed.

She already knew where they would appear.

She stepped to the side.

A vortex opened where her body had been.

Vera moved again.

Another vortex appeared ahead of her.

She changed direction before it could catch her.

At the same time, she controlled the hovering firearms, pulling them away from the spinning golden attacks before they could be swallowed.

Maxwell continued rising.

Golden flames pushed against the air beneath him, carrying his body higher.

He fired again.

More Sun Vortexes appeared.

Vera evaded them.

Another appeared beside her.

She had already moved.

Maxwell’s golden eyes sharpened.

He increased his speed.

The flames around his legs burned brighter as he flew through the air, creating more Sun Vortexes, attacking Vera from different directions.

But Vera was not caught even once.

She could see them.

Not just the attacks.

Maxwell himself.

His movements.

His intentions.

The actions he was about to perform.

She could see his body shifting before the movement was completed.

She could see the direction of his next attack before his hand finished moving.

She could see the Sun Vortex forming in her field of vision before it actually appeared.

That was the reason she continued avoiding them.

It was also the reason her head was beginning to hurt.

Vera’s eyes remained fixed on Maxwell.

Her breathing had changed.

It was still controlled, but she had begun measuring every breath.

Every movement required another calculation.

Every firearm needed another command.

Every bullet had to be accounted for.

Every Sun Vortex had to be avoided.

And every possible action Maxwell could take appeared inside her vision before he performed it.

The amount of information continued increasing.

Her brain was receiving too much.

Vera understood the problem.

She could not continue using this ability for a long time.

There was a limit.

She could feel herself approaching it.

Her perception was becoming heavier.

The battlefield was still clear.

Too clear.

And that was the problem.

She could see Maxwell.

She could see his flames.

She could see the firearms around her.

She could see the trajectory of bullets.

She could see the formation of the Sun Vortexes.

She could see the thoughts that produced those actions through the movements of his body.

The information kept coming.

And her brain had to process all of it.

Vera continued moving.

She reloaded.

She fired.

She changed the position of the hovering firearms.

She evaded another Sun Vortex.

Then another.

Her body continued performing each movement while her mind counted the passing time.

She knew exactly what would happen if she allowed the overload to continue for too long.

Her hippocampus.

Her visual cortex.

Her prefrontal cortex.

Those parts of her brain would need to be coated with Cognis before the strain became dangerous.

Otherwise, the amount of information flooding through her perception could cause serious damage.

Vera did not want that.

She especially did not want to leave the fight with her brain damaged simply because she had allowed herself to keep using an ability beyond its limit.

Her eyes remained on Maxwell.

The boy was still flying through the arena.

Golden flames carried him upward.

More Sun Vortexes formed around her.

Vera moved before they could catch her.

One step.

A turn.

A shift of her shoulder.

A change in the direction of her firearms.

A reload.

A shot.

Then another movement.

She kept counting.

The battle was still continuing.

But Vera had already reached one conclusion.

She needed to end the fight sooner.