Modesty squeezed her eyes shut in fear, certain she was about to be eliminated. When she realized Medeili had frozen in place, she stared blankly for a long moment before her rigid body slowly relaxed.
“Why didn’t you finish it? Do you want to see who wins over there?”
“No,” Medeili replied. “I just want to see Wang Yue win.”
“The two of you certainly are close.”
“We are.”
Modesty’s spirit seemed to leave her. She looked utterly lost as she murmured, “Do I look… really stupid right now?”
Medeili didn’t answer. She simply turned her gaze back toward the other battlefield.
Modesty unequipped the Star Annihilator, tossing it onto the ground before her like a common pebble. She then shed the Glacier Breaker, throwing it onto the pile. She stared at them, looking like she had lost her very soul.
“Do you regret it?” Medeili asked out of the blue.
Hearing those words—a direct strike to her soul—Modesty’s malice felt as if it had been punctured. Bitterness poured out of the wound, cold and harsh, filling her chest.
A wave of inexplicable sorrow washed over her. She curled into a ball, burying her head deep behind her knees.
After a long silence, a faint, ghostly voice drifted out.
“I’m so lonely…”
Dozens of meters away, Wang Yue and Lilith were still locked in a fierce struggle.
Both had sensed the arrival of the Inversion Weather and were standing still, trying to adapt.
Lilith’s fingers twitched erratically, followed by her feet. She twisted and jerked like a broken marionette. However, her physical capabilities were monstrous; she recalibrated her motor functions with terrifying speed.
Wang Yue, on the other hand, struggled for a long time. Even as she began to move, her actions remained stiff and clumsy.
A sense of dread pooled in her stomach.
The tide was turning. Lilith now held the absolute advantage.
Just as both sides had exhausted their supplies and were down to their final moves, this hellish weather had to settle in!
Dammit! Does the world really want Lilith to win? What do I do?
Wang Yue refused to lose twice. She wouldn’t let her momentum be crushed here.
She had to go for broke!
“You’re finished!” Lilith barked.
She lunged, her body moving like a lithe leopard. Her back rippled as she pounced, her speed reducing her form to a mere blur of motion!
Panic flashed in Wang Yue’s eyes. She scrambled backward, seemingly unable to withstand the pressure. In her haste, she failed to watch her footing, tripped, and went sprawling!
“Oof!”
In her scramble, she tried to raise her wand to cast a spell and halt Lilith’s advance. But instead of raising it, her arm dropped. The wand slipped from her grasp and clattered onto the ground.
In the heat of the moment, she seemed to have forgotten the rules of the Inversion Weather.
“How pathetic!”
Lilith was already upon her, a cruel grin plastered across her face. She swung downward in a vicious arc!
The Black Triple Star!
Wang Yue slammed her palm against the ground. Jagged wedges of obsidian erupted from the earth, forming a series of barricades!
“Useless!”
Lilith poured her mana into her High-Frequency Particle Blade, carving through the obstacles in a chaotic frenzy. A red shadow burst through the final wall!
“I win!”
The tip of her blade thrust forward, piercing through the Combat Regalia!
Lilith’s expression shifted instantly. Something was wrong. Where was the shield? Where was the impact? Where was the girl?
The Combat Regalia, still warm with body heat, collapsed into a heap on the ground. Wang Yue had vanished, only to reappear behind her!
Wang Yue scooped up her fallen wand and pointed it directly at the stunned Lilith.
Torrential Floodflame!
In an instant, the air churned like crashing waves, and a river of fire roared forth!
“Agh!”
Lilith shrieked, executing a sharp lateral dodge. Instead of safety, she slammed headfirst into something solid. A large bump immediately began to swell on her forehead.
“Ow, ow, ow…”
Clutching her brow, she realized she had hit the barrier of a protective light dome. Her heart sank. That meant…
She lowered her hand. Her blood-red eyes were filled with disbelief. Panting and trembling, she pushed against the glowing barrier, her voice bordering on tears.
“No… no, it’s not over. I—”
Not far away, Wang Yue lowered her wand and let out a long, weary sigh.
“Whew…”
Finally. She had won.
She was exhausted, but the rush of victory was sweet.
Though… the price had been a bit high.
In the heat of the moment, she had just “streaked” in front of the entire school.
Escaping from the Combat Regalia naturally meant leaving her clothes behind. Thankfully, this was an all-girls school; being seen by a bunch of little girls wasn’t the end of the world.
She looked down. Fortunately, three well-placed band-aids covered her most vital areas.
Band-aids don’t count as being naked, right? Yeah, let’s go with that.
“Heh… hehe…” Wang Yue started to giggle foolishly.
“What are you laughing at?!” Lilith’s lips trembled with rage as she shrieked hysterically. “You cheated! This doesn’t count!”
“Classmate Lilith, is it so hard to admit defeat? Think back to when you beat me—how did I handle it? Shouldn’t you try to emulate my grace and magnanimity?”
Wang Yue paced around Lilith’s “Isolation Barrier,” her mouth running a mile a minute.
“Humph! I’ll never admit you won!” Lilith snapped, turning her head away.
When Wang Yue paced to the other side, Lilith jerked her head in the opposite direction like a windshield wiper.
Wang Yue did another lap.
Lilith finally snapped, screaming, “Go away! You band-aid pervert!”
Wang Yue threw up her hands. “The safe zone has shrunk right to your face. Where else am I supposed to go?”
Still, she needed to dress. She stepped back into the Black Triple Star regalia and waited for the match to officially conclude.
On the airship.
Class Five had secured the final victory, but there were few smiles to be found among the students.
They had won, but the news of their internal infighting was scandalous. It was a complete embarrassment. Everyone felt the sting of shame, lowering their heads to avoid the strange, mocking looks coming from the other classes.
The match ended, and the twenty participants changed back into their uniforms in the locker rooms before returning to the airship.
In the airship’s lounge, Lilith sat in the shadows, hugging her knees and remaining perfectly still.
The dim light hit her small face, making her delicate features look like fragile porcelain. Her pupils were fixed and cold, resembling frozen pigeon-blood rubies. The elegant curve of her neck disappeared into her collar, revealing the slight, sharp lines of her collarbones. She radiated an aura of freezing resentment that kept everyone at a distance.
She clenched her fists so hard her knuckles turned white, her nails digging into her palms.
Dammit, dammit, dammit…
I lost again…
I want to win… I want to beat her so badly…
This is so frustrating…
Next time… next time, I’ll definitely win!
Wang Yue sat nearby, picking her favorites out of a bowl of mixed nuts and dried fruit. Her little maid, Dorothy, stood behind her, kneading her shoulders to relieve the tension.
“That was amazing! Master is the strongest in the entire grade!” Dorothy chirped, her eyes brimming with adoration.
“It was just luck. I’m actually not very good at fighting…” Wang Yue muttered. She didn’t know what else to say; after winning, anything she said felt like bragging.
“Especially that streaking move at the end! It was incredible! Everyone is saying you’re truly ‘unconventional’…”
“Shut up!” Wang Yue’s face turned bright red.
The airship hummed to life, turning in the sky as it began the journey back to the academy.
In a corner of the lounge, Moira removed her colored contact lenses, revealing her natural turquoise eyes. She rubbed them gingerly; wearing foreign objects for so long had left them dry and irritated.
She then lifted her dyed blonde hair, looking at it with a frown. She didn’t particularly like it. Her captain’s “perverted” tastes were becoming a real problem.
Before she knew it, Modesty was standing behind her.
Two hands settled on her shoulders.
Moira’s heart gave a violent jolt. She was instantly plunged into a bottomless pit of fear, as if a grey monster had risen up behind her and laid its claws upon her.
“I’m sorry, my eyes just hurt, I wanted to rest for a second…” she apologized frantically, trying to shove her contacts back in.
Modesty’s fingers slid slowly down from her shoulders, eventually capturing her wrists. Those cold fingers wrapped around her skin like snakes.
“Don’t dye your hair anymore. Go back to the way you were.”
“Um… okay…”
Moira felt a wave of confusion. What was wrong with the Captain?
Suddenly, she felt a weight against her back. Two pale arms crossed over her chest… she was being hugged.
“Captain?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“When we get back… let’s go get some pudding together…”
