PRed by Miaowdom: TY Miao-san!

Vera Naem was an incredibly level headed individual. Teachers would often discuss and praise how calm he was in any ordeal he faced.

Right now it was the same.

As he watched Renves beating on the White Wolf Princess he shook his head disapprovingly. He didn't like it when that guy made it look like an execution. Then, he noticed a shadow that was closing in with extreme speed.

It was astonishing, the shadow must have used the speed enhancement all the way from that base. To cover several hundred meters in a matter of seconds was not an easy task. With that he collided with the unsuspecting Renves resulting in Renves being blown away.

What more surprising, the shadow appeared to be the rumored 'powerless'. Though quite surprised Vera kept his calm.

[Vera: "He might attack while Renvas is still in shock. Attack."]

As he quickly decided the course of action, he drew his two handed blade and enhanced his own speed. A hundred meters was gone in a second and he arrived before the 'powerless'. With his sword raised over his head he put in all of his strength as he swung down. He didn't underestimate his enemy, his movement was decisive, fast, trained.

His opponent didn't even try to dodge. In response he moved his left hand, his fist resolutely hit neatly on the side of the blade. One must know that to perform that trick the timing needed had to be completely perfect. Too fast and the sword cuts the hand, too slow and the sword cuts the body. To be able to utilize that 'split second' one must either be a monster or be incredibly lucky... but the opponent not only did that but also decided to sacrifice his gauntlet as he carefully positioned it to further deflect the attack making it completely miss...

Vera squinted his eyes... Is this really the 'powerless'?

Then he noticed a punch. Punch performed with a hand that had no armor on it.

He had no time to dodge it, but was it even worth dodging?

Was it a desperate attack?

A little amount of pity appeared on the face of Vera. Because no matter wha...

[Alert! ...

The capsule went black.

Then it came back, but it had a bird's view perspective. Then it came to Vera. He died. He died. He died before he could finish read the alert... Wow... Amazed he looked down at his M-Armor that crashed into several others...

He turned 'dead' communication channel on..

It was dead silent...

***

Renves Zec was a boy brought up in a wealthy family. From his childhood he had everything. Every adult was praising his high aptitude. He also liked to train his swordsmanship because it was one of the times when he would be able to see his father. In his eyes Mid Circle Tier Black Bear was his idol. When he was accepted into Mars' Academy, his father's proud face made him swear to be on top!

And that happened. He quickly achieved HST level, and moved up steadily. Three years ago with 9th HST he contributed greatly towards the victory of his school. His fame boomed. The year after with 10th HST and official Swordsman title he won again. The same even happened a year later. But this year... The new being appeared. Her name was Mersa.

They named her The Most Talented Being in History. When he heard that she moved from 1st HST to 7th HST in two months he was shocked. Even for an elite like him he had to spend 18 months which was known as genius level. But 2 months?! What kind of joke was that?

After he saw her in the Scramble phrase he understood that it wasn't a fluke. She really displayed that she had the power of that level. With her innate white wolf instinct she even fought evenly with 8th and 9th High Step Tiers... Seeing her he felt something prick his soul. That something was called jealousy. Which he then directed at the 'powerless' that she valued so much. That 'powerless' was nothing! Why was it him?

He will show that powerless how weak he is, he will show him that after he defeats his princess he will personally trash him!

Just as he was about to finish the White Wolf Princess a blur appeared on the edge of his vision and with that he was sent flying.

Crash.

WTF?

As he looked over he saw the 'powerless' standing in front of the White Wolf M-Armor. How did he get there?

Barrier status: 76%

A mocking smile showed on his face. It was only a 3% drop. That powerless was nothing.

Then he saw Vera charging towards the 'powerless'. Wait! He was supposed to deal with that guy by himself!

A punch? WTF? Seriously? A bare hand against Alchemical Metal? Please...

BAM. Vera was sent back. A scrap of metal hit his right shoulder. He looked over, it was quite large piece of metal... He recognized this part... Isn't it from the torso of Vera? WTF? WTF? WTF?

Then it came. A summoning. A M-Armor. WTF?

What is that? It looks like reptile type sub-race. Two green eyes, but the rest of the face was a smooth surface. Is she hiding her identity? Then the thing with powerless was a fluke?! Reptile-type Sub... It looked stronger than a normal Reptile-like type... It didn't have a child's look, it had adult's shape. Who is she? There was no information about Reptile girl that was close to this level...

Dark golden M-Armor charged at him. Two spheres, one black, one white flew past him. He immediately took an defensive stance.

Object 1: Nano-photon level 3 LST

Object 2: Nano-photon level 3 LST

...

17 levels of difference, irrelevant. Was it supposed to be a distraction?

Renves focused on his opponent.

She closed in... She disappeared?!

In the corner of his eye he noticed that a blur went past his right side.

[Alert! Barrier status: 44%]

WTF? He turned to his right but the only thing he saw was black object flying away...

[Alert! Barrier status: 9%]

Totally confused he had no idea what was happening. Why was that sphere going away? What hit him?

[Alert! Bar...

Everything turned black.

WTF?!

Then he appeared on the sky... He was in Birds eye view mode... He was dead? WTF?

He looked down at the Dark Golden Mechanical Armor that was standing next to his still standing 'corpse'... WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

***

Nemu Elina was a very diligent woman. Every day she would work in a popular bar that hosted hundreds of guests. She was capable, level headed and careful. Right now she was staring at one of the many holo-monitors in the bar. It was a famous annual event, the Lower Inter-school Battle Tournament. The battle was nearing its end, as a fan of Mersa she stopped to watch the last moments of the genius girl. Well, she just started and she will definitely do better next time!

...

A plate fell down. For the past two years she never dropped anything, but right now beer stained the floors. No one paid it any attention. The owner's eyes, and in fact everyone's gaze was on the monitors... Vera was sent flying... And that Renves died too...

***

VIP

[...]

[...]

[...]

***

[Place: Special lounge]

Silence was ruling the room where the teachers of two biggest cadet schools were sitting.

Silence continued...

[Mistglan: Brilliant. That usage of bots was brilliant.]

It was broke by a praise from the legendary war hero. And with that an uproar immediately rose in the room.

[???: Wait! What is THAT?!]

[???: I never thought that Athena would resolve to trickery!]

[???: This is against rules!]

[???: What trickery! If you had a reptile-type then you could just put her in!]

[???: Silence. All of you.]

With the voice of the man silence returned to the room. His name was Dermea Nerms. 'B' Ranker and Headmaster of Mars' Academy.

[Dermea: Mistglan-sensei, please continue.]

When Dermea was still young Mistglan was his personal instructor, the amount of respect that Dermea had for him was enormous. At first he also was quite furious, but as he heard liger's voice he immediately calmed down.

In this situation even Claire was shocked enough to remain silent.

[Mistglan: A brilliant usage of bots, he used them to create footholds. We all know that it is incredibly difficult to quickly defeat an opponent of similar level. It's all because of the barrier one has to hit it several times to break it. And the clean hits are most difficult to land. The easiest way to land a clean hit is through speed type strike, but the main drawback of that method is inability to continuously deal blows. In the flat surface after you land a speed type strike before you can attack again you are forced to either make a large circle or stop, but you all know how hard it is too stop while you are going with high velocity. He used bots as footholds to deal three continuous blows in a triangular movement. Immediate kill.]

Liger nodded approvingly.

[Claire: That speed... It wasn't burst.. was that accel?]

[Mistglan: It was many levels above burst but it wasn't at the level of accel. I'd say an incomplete accel?]

Burst - movement step, it gives user a burst of speed, HST level.

Accel - movement step similar to Burst but at Circle level.

[Dermea: Wait Mistglan-sensei, I think I heard you say 'he']

[Mistglan: Indeed...]

[Dermea: Then he is the 'powerless'?]

[Mistglan: I have no idea.]

He turned at Claire with expectant look.

[Claire: I'm not sure. I have never received any report about that Golden Reptile M-Armor... Besides there is no way 'powerless' can pilot a M-Armor...]

[Dermea: ... What do you mean? You don't know yourself? Is that a joke Claire-sama?]

At that time an excited voice suddenly appeared. Quel Kin, the administrator of the Game that hosted the tournament finally found his tongue.

[Quel: Well! Why don't we check? Capsules identify the Crystal Core thus not only allowing all object stored in PSpace to appear in the game but also read the information of the user. We have already received all of the data of participants from all schools and they are in the database. If their Crystal Core match then we will know who the Reptile-type is.]

With that he made several gestures on the small holo-monitor that appeared in front of him. Just few second later a small box opened next to the Golden M-Armor.

Name: Vorst

Sub-race: Neo-Aris

Crystal Core: 1st HST

...

[Mistglan: It's really him?!]

Claire was no less wide eyed than liger...

[Dermea: 1st HST?]

He looked at Quel with a questioning gaze.

[Quel: It's no mistake, our system reads the power level directly from capsule...]

Now silence fell in the room again... Because there were two problems with that number.

First: They couldn't believe that 'powerless' would achieve that number!

Second: Because 1st HST should not be able to beat 2 10th HST! Not to mention the speed in which he did so.

Thus first problem was telling them that the level should be lower, while second that it should be higher...

Dermea leaned on the backside of the armchair, his face reflected only one thought: WTF?

[Claire: He is a genius engineer and alchemist. If he wanted, he really would be able to make M-Armor by himself. It makes sense...]

Headmistress of Athena's Institute was nodding. If you just ignore the main subject about his 'powerlessness' then everything fit into the picture.

[Mistglan: Sense?! What makes sense?! It's nonsense!]

[Claire: At first I thought we found an unpolished gem but I was mistaken. Mist, we found a gem mine, a ridiculously huge one at that.]

She looked totally convinced straight at the liger. Everything fit, his attitude, his confidence, now his abilities. She really had great Insight, just as Marc said. Liger squinted. He quickly opened portable terminal and started clicking...

[Claire: What are you doing Mist?]

[Mistglan: Checking Vorst's Armor log...]

[Claire: Show it.]

Liger nodded, after a minute information flew in and an enormous amount of logs filled the holo-monitor in special lounge...

Thousands of warning messages...

Monsters much stronger than one's level...

Solo cave clearing...

WTF...

***

For the rest of the universe time finally started flowing again. A huge uproar was raised. Thousands of citizens demanded to know who the Reptile-type really was, because no one believed that 'powerless' was able to beat two official swordsmen. They believed that they were tricked, but on the other hand they couldn't believe Athena would trick them! So everyone's face was united in expressing: WTF is going on?!!!!!!!!!!!!

In mere seconds millions of chat rooms were filled with billions of questions about Reptile-type M-Armor that could beat both Vera and Renves.

[WTF? WTF? WTF?]

[WTF? But she must be cute.]

[WTF? Damn, she better be!]

Then on the screen information about the pilot of Golden M-Armor appeared...

In the span of next few days on the UPWC (Universe Photon Web Connection) phrase WTF was repeated more times than it was during in the last five years.

***

On the station commentators finally collected themselves from a shock.

[Commentator: Wow, that was a great surprise! Please share with us what do you think about this development Mr Renvas.]

Renvas Muir, 'E' ranker, Red Bear.

[Renvas: I have to say, I'm shocked. I guess just as shocked as everyone. Renvas Vec underestimated his enemy because she was hidden as 'powerless'. I must say it's a ingenious strategy, with Mersa, the White Wolf Princess, the presence of one 'powerless' is not strange. Brilliant. The Athena's Institute have been hiding their trump card. But it's strange.]

[Commentator: What is?]

[Renvas: It was played this late into the game. Just look at the battle field, Athena has less than 10 soldiers left, most of the elites are gone. If only this card was played sooner...]

[Commentator: I see. I guess no matter how strong a person is, they are still limited against group right? W-wait... Mr Renvas! The information about Reptile-type appeared! It's piloted by powe... by Neo-Aris.]

[Renvas: Wow... I'm... I'm speechless.]

***

[Celina Nec: Battle formations! NOW!]

It was what the Mars' cadets needed. Orders. Right now they were so shocked that they lost most of their reasoning. Celina Nec knew that he had to take command after the other two or they might really lose.

While Vorst looked at them passively, the white bot made a bit of noise and grew four arms. With that it flew back and grasped the still-confused Mersa and moved towards the last base that Athena still had.

At first Mersa fought back a little but Vorsts voice came from the white bot. "It's going to take a while. Wait for me." Gentle tone made her feel at ease, she could nearly feel his hand petting her head. White wolf immediately turned meek.

Seeing that manoeuvre Celina Nec squinted. What did the enemy want to do? Why is she not hurrying back? Is she seriously going to fight them alone?

[Celina Nec: Stranger! If you are not going to retreat... Why don't you name yourself?]

White tiger quickly arrived at the same conclusion as the most people in the universe. Meanwhile Mars' cadets still needed a bit more time to form ranks.

[Vorst: ...]

[Celina Nec: You hid yourself well so far, but now you won't be able to surprise us anymore, and I'd like to know the name of the opponent that I'm fighting with.]

[Vorst: ... If you want my name then introduce yourself first.]

Lily actually knew the guy but Marc wasn't informed because he didn't care, as long as the opponent wasn't interesting he didn't need to know his name. He just needed to cut him down. Celina Nec was surprised, normally one would at least memorize strongest fighters from another team, and he was in what they called strongest trio.

[Celina Nec: Celina Nec, White Tiger, 10th High Step Tier.]

Vorsts eyes squinted...

[Vorst: Celina? Are you related to Celina Za?]

[Celina Nec: Yes... She is my sister.]

[Vorst: I see... If you are senpai's brother then I'll name myself. Name's Vorst. Neo-Aris. 1st High Step Tier.]

Silence...

Mars' cadets who were busily positioning themselves also froze.

[Celina Nec: Then you are the powe... the boy that is with the White Wolf Princess?]

[Vorst: That's me.]

[Celina: ... And you will fight us alone?]

White sphere finished dropping off Mersa and just came back.

[Vorst: Do you think I'm not capable of that?]

A green eyes on M-Armor shone brightly.

[Celina Nec: Are you for real?]

The Golden Dragon raised his head as it looked at the sky.

[Vorst: The sky is wide after all...]

Celina was totally confused...

Silence continued... Then Vorst suddenly charged forward.

[Celina Nec: Guns! Fire!]

Over 100 photon guns pointed at the Golden Armor, and with the command machine guns fired. Though they were weak, a 100 of those can shave off quite an amount of barrier.

Vorst only smiled as he pointed his white sword forward.

Shield in the shape of hexagram appeared before him.

[Renves: THAT! I can't believe a 1st HST is capable of using a hex shield!]

There was an amazement in the voice of the Ranker. Vorst already shocked them so much that now it stopped working...

A hex shield 'broke' in the middle and was folded to create a triangle like protection. With it Vorst was moving forward, thanks to that modification bullets were hitting the shield under the angle, thus their weak force was weakened even further.

500m.

300m.

100m.

He reached them...

Then a black and white whirlwind of death appeared and was consuming everyone.

***

10 minutes. 10 minutes of total carnage. But for all the viewers it felt like instant. If a person was holding a cup of coffee before his slaughter began, after it he was holding it in the same position. It was a bit colder though.

***

In the end only two people remained in the field with hundreds of freshly broken M-Armors surrounding them.

They were both facing each other...A white flash suddenly rushed at the Golden Dragon. Then a golden line suddenly intersected it and Vorst appeared behind the White Tiger.

***

During those 10 minutes Celina Nec clearly felt the difference between them. His opponent definitely spared his life countless times... There was no chance to win... Therefore... He charged in recklessly! It was just a game after all... This time.

Celina Nec appeared in the birds eye view...

And there he thought he was strong for 10th HST...

What a monster...

He turned his head upwards and he looked at the sky...

Yes, it was incredibly wide...