“You’re too slow! I told you to make your casting and formula deployment flow like water!”
The arcane bullets Eugene generated rained down like a wave.
“Kyaaah!” Escalena screamed as she blocked the bullets with a mana shield, then was sent flying.
The instructor watching the scene raised a hand.
“Magic duel, first place. Eugene Brace.”
“Your center of gravity is off. If that happens, it doesn’t matter how strong you are.”
Bella threw a punch. Her fist drove into Guts’s chest, and an explosion erupted.
BOOOOM!
“Guaaagh!”
His enormous body, over two meters tall, flew like a sheet of paper and slammed into the wall.
Bella exhaled sharply and assumed the starting stance. The flag deciding victory and defeat rose.
“Close combat, first place. Bella!”
Two months had already passed since training began.
Dragon Knight training had moved into the advanced course. Practical sparring, various mock battles, strategy meetings, formation studies using war-game pieces, and other in-depth education to raise elite soldiers were carried out.
And the results Eugene and Bella showed there were simply overwhelming.
In practical sparring, there was no need to even speak of it. They won overwhelming victories, and even in the strategy and tactics sections, which were essentially written tests, each of them took first place.
Eugene displayed skillful strategy with his broad perspective and exceptional insight, while Bella showed godlike tactical operation, creating variables in any situation and overturning disadvantage on the battlefield.
“Grrrgh!”
Noan ground his teeth in a way that did not suit his cold face. It seemed his pride had taken a great wound from repeatedly losing to Eugene.
Though they did not say it, he was not the only one whose pride had been damaged. Every one of their classmates wore a frustrated expression.
In truth, Eugene and Bella were not people who should have been in this training camp. Before the regression, they had been veterans among veterans who had crossed life-and-death lines for years in actual combat and grown through them.
It was not for nothing that the two of them had been the Dragon Knights who survived until the end.
They had not yet regained the abilities they had possessed at their peaks, but that was only because they lacked preparation. Their skill itself was superior even to active-duty Dragon Knights.
On top of that, both of them had outstanding talent, so it was only natural that the classmates who had only just become Dragon Knights could not be their opponents.
And that was a thoroughly intentional display.
Everyone here was an unpolished gem of talent. Not a single one lacked effort, and not a single one lacked talent.
So the method to make them grow was simple.
Make them taste defeat. Make them feel their own insufficiency and gain greater hunger and motivation for growth.
Then each of them would grow rapidly on their own.
Eugene and Bella met each other’s eyes.
‘You know, right?’
‘Of course.’
The two nodded without saying a word.
Then they joined forces and beat the still-soft pride of their classmates into a pulp.
As time passed like that, the training that could truly be called Dragon Knight training—training in aerial combat—began.
Starting with simple maneuvering techniques, then the method of using the Dragon Divine Armament, basic positioning in aerial combat, and tactical policy. In many ways, they developed practical skill with the help of the instructors.
And then, a three-against-two mock battle began.
It was training in which Bella and Eugene teamed up with Noan and Henri to face the remaining three teams.
The outnumbered side would grow accustomed to disadvantageous situations, while the side with more numbers would learn how to finish things decisively when they had the advantage.
WHOOOOOSH!
The sound of wind created by high-speed flight rang in their ears.
The Dragon Knight Order’s flight training ground, made up of cliffs and canyons.
At about 500 meters above it, Bella, the Silver Dragon, and Henri, the Black Dragon, were flying.
And riding on their backs were Eugene and Noan.
Facing the wind striking them head-on, Eugene touched the magical communication device at his ear.
During flight, it was difficult to converse by voice because of the sound of the wind, so most Dragon Knights talked through communication devices.
“Ah, ah, can you hear me, Noan?”
“I hear you.”
Looking down at the long, winding canyon below, Eugene said,
“Do you see anything?”
“I see nothing on this side either.”
“Are they planning to ambush us from the gaps in the canyon?”
“That seems likely.”
Noan nodded and made a proposal.
“We are weak in close combat, so we will fall back slightly. If you take the vanguard and hold them in place, we will intercept them.”
“Good.”
When Eugene agreed, Noan and Henri slowed down.
Naturally, they took position behind Bella and Eugene, who were flying in front.
At that subtle positioning, Eugene’s eyes narrowed.
Bella also seemed to notice something and growled, breathing fire through her nostrils.
At the same time, from the canyon below and ahead of them, three pairs of Dragon Knights shot upward rapidly.
“Enemy sighted!”
The three-team group that revealed itself at a distance of about two kilometers took a formation surrounding Bella and Eugene from three sides.
It was a formation that clearly showed their determination not to give them any hole to escape through.
Bella laughed quietly.
“It seems they intend to break us together.”
“Looks that way. Seems they’ve thrown away their useless pride now.”
It was a good sign.
It meant their desire for victory had become that much stronger.
They were all gentle by nature, so it could not have been easy to convince them.
It seemed the socialite duo had put in a great deal of effort.
“Good. They should have at least that much grit.”
As soon as Eugene muttered that, Noan shouted from behind.
“Eugene Brace! Sorry, but I must defeat you here!”
It seemed he had not thrown away his last shred of pride.
He gathered mana while giving that warning.
‘How kind.’
Ordinarily, he would have been capable of attacking by surprise.
Perhaps because betraying him weighed on his mind, he had deliberately given Eugene some leeway.
“Now!”
Rosetta shouted.
The three Dragon Knights charging from the front simultaneously deployed acceleration magic and rushed in.
The assault tank duo charged from the front, while the socialite duo and Monica riding Suiseiki spread out on both sides and struck in toward their flanks.
A net with no hole to slip through had been formed.
A four-on-one pincer attack. On top of that, the encirclement had succeeded.
No matter where they fled, their retreat would be cut off, and Bella and Eugene would be beaten down one-sidedly.
It was fairly experienced coordination.
As long as Noan and Henri, who had cut off the rear, properly supported them from behind.
“But you’re too late!”
Eugene pulled the reins.
Bella, who had been preparing even before he gave the signal, threw her long head upward and spread her wings with all her strength.
At the same time, Eugene used acceleration magic at the front. The propulsion created by the bursting flames lifted the Dragon Knight’s body.
When they received the wind flow overturned by the sudden movement across their entire bodies, the dragon’s horizontal body rapidly surged upward.
RATATATATAT!
At the Silver Dragon’s sudden maneuver, her steel-like wings trembled. Eugene, crushed by the violently surging inertia, groaned, “Nghhh-.”
The air pressed down by the force her wings received compressed and turned into vapor, spraying white foam.
Cobra Maneuver.
Because the shape of rising while receiving the wind on the belly resembled the movement of a cobra snake, it was one of the maneuvers recorded in Dragon Knight flight tactics manuals.
SHRIEEEEEE-
They rapidly ascended and rapidly decelerated while letting out a strange sound and foam.
With that movement, Bella and Eugene let Noan and Henri, who had been pursuing from behind, slip past them.
“What……!”
Shocked, Noan turned back with a dumbfounded expression.
If the timing of deceleration was wrong, they would be exposed to an attack from the rear, and if they could not properly ride the pressure of the wind, they could lose their balance and crash. That was the Cobra Maneuver.
Among active-duty Dragon Knights, there was probably no one capable of doing it at the speed Bella and Eugene had just shown.
Noan, who had given up his rear in an instant, was flustered. He somehow twisted his waist and turned the direction of the long training Dragon Divine Armament backward.
But it was already too late.
A five-meter spear was not something one could turn as easily as chopsticks.
Aiming the tip of the Dragon Divine Armament at them, Eugene laughed.
“Next time, shoot before you give a warning.”
Mana was injected.
The power flowing along the shaft raced through the geometric formula circuits, and the tip of the Dragon Divine Armament spat out flames of mana.
BOOM!
The Arcane Cannon shot out with an explosion and struck the back of the Black Dragon, Henri.
“Aaagh!”
Henri, struck directly, screamed and lost his balance. As his flight wavered, Noan also could not counterattack and was busy clinging to the saddle.
“Your recovery is too slow!”
Eugene fired another Arcane Cannon at the two of them, now rendered helpless, but the staggering Black Dragon suddenly dropped downward and avoided the attack.
“Oh?”
Hawkdown. It was a maneuver in which one folded their wings and dived sharply like a hawk dropping toward its prey. Without waiting for Noan’s instruction, Henri had used his quick wit to avoid the attack.
Eugene smiled. Though he was originally lazy, Henri had always had talent for flight.
But their opponent was not Eugene alone.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Bella let out an enraged roar and dived after Henri. She had likewise executed Hawkdown.
SWIIIIISH!
Having killed resistance so perfectly that it could have been included in a Dragon Knight textbook, she instantly caught up to Henri’s rear. Then she reversed and, like a hawk hunting a mouse, seized Henri’s waist and neck with her front and hind legs.
“U-aaaagh!”
Bella bared her teeth and breathed out.
Her crimson eyes flashed. Teeth larger than daggers scattered light, and jaws that looked as if they could swallow an ordinary human in one bite closed in right before Noan’s nose.
“Y-you lunatic!”
Noan’s face turned blue as he was caught by a monster during a high-speed fall.
Bella snorted and passed him.
“With this, you’re dead.”
Bella thrust out her snout, lightly bit Henri’s neck, released him, then kicked off him and leapt upward.
She flew up, leaving behind the two who were falling with sorrowful screams.
“Uoooooh!”
At some point, the assault tank duo had closed the distance and was charging in. Seeing them keep the dragon’s head as low as possible while holding the Dragon Divine Armament ahead, they seemed to intend to strike past at an angle with a light Charging.
If it had been a real Dragon Divine Armament instead of a training one, it was a powerful attack that could have pierced Bella’s chest in a single blow.
Because she had decelerated to catch Henri, evasion was difficult.
“Hmph.”
But Bella laughed.
Realizing what she was thinking, Eugene cursed and undid the safety device at his waist, then leapt up from the saddle.
“What are you……!?”
A rider jumping off a dragon’s back during high-altitude flight?!
Just as Guts, riding on Alex’s back, was flustered by that incomprehensible eccentricity, a silver storm suddenly whirled before him.
Bella had somersaulted in midair.
A body several meters long folded its wings and performed a trick. Reversing her body in an instant, she struck the charging Red Dragon’s cheek with her tail as if delivering a spinning kick.
KRAAAANG!
The scales of dragons, with strength like steel, collided and scattered sparks.
Alex’s head snapped aside in an instant, and the Dragon Divine Armament Guts had thrust forward lost its direction and swung away.
“Kyaaak!”
Alex fell after Henri while letting out a terrible scream.
Guts, clinging to his back, looked up with a dumbfounded face at Bella as she caught the falling Eugene.
Bella caught Eugene in her snout, tossed him lightly, and seated him in the saddle. As Eugene fastened the loosened safety hook around his waist, he grumbled.
“This is training. Aren’t you being too rough?!”
“It has to be at least this much to count as training!”
As Bella, elated by the excitement of battle, laughed, “Kahahaha!” Eugene clutched his head.
‘No matter how well we match, how am I supposed to feel romantic affection for a woman like this?!’
He wanted to show this sight to their classmates, who still spewed nonsense after being bewitched by her beautiful appearance despite all his denials.
While he was thinking that, attacks flying from both sides covered the two of them.
BOOM!
BAANG!
One was blocked by the arcane shield Eugene unfolded, and the other by Bella raising her sturdy wing.
They evaded the following bombardment once more with acceleration magic and wingbeats.
The Gold Dragon and Green Dragon, having taken both side positions, pursued the two as they tried to slip away like loaches.
“We have to catch them here!”
“I know!”
Rosetta shouted. Monica responded and used the Dragon Divine Armament to fire bombardments in succession.
BANG, BABABANG!
The Arcane Cannons they could not fully dodge battered Bella’s body.
RUMBLE. Her body shook, and the impact transmitted through her.
Because of the restrictions for training, Eugene, unable to use most attack techniques, had almost no means to handle a joint attack from both sides at once.
But that did not mean he had no method at all.
“Circle wide!”
At just those words, Bella folded her wings and descended.
Is it an evasion using Hawkdown? Just as Escalena and Suiseiki likewise tried to fold their wings and pursue.
Bella, who had been rapidly falling, suddenly spread her wings wide and glided.
WHOOOOOSH!
Scattering vapor as she accelerated, she surged upward and began turning along the Z-axis as if riding an amusement ride, drawing a huge circle.
BOOM, BOOM. Escalena and Suiseiki chased behind her while spewing acceleration magic.
But somehow, Bella’s speed was too fast.
Even if they twisted their heads, they could not follow. Monica and Rosetta lost sight of Bella’s body.
It had become a situation like they had all started circling a track together, only for the other side to complete one lap first and come in from behind.
Escalena and Suiseiki had their backs taken.
By the time they realized that she had used the force of the fall to add speed, like riding a slide, and shaken off the two Dragon Knights with overwhelming acceleration, it was already too late.
“That’s impossible!”
Monica cried out in shock.
She had been watching the whole time, but Bella and Eugene’s flight skill was unbelievable.
Using gravitational acceleration during a fall as propulsion to accelerate even further? It sounded easy when spoken by someone with a loose tongue, but actually doing it required countless factors to align, including gravity, wind direction, wing angle, and control of propulsion and inertia magic.
What was even more absurd was that Bella was flying like that while she could not use magic because of the restrictions placed on her.
Even though Eugene was handling all the magical adjustments needed along the way in her place, they were still doing this!
It felt like seeing people whose legs were tied together for a three-legged race sprint 100 meters in the ten-second range.
As expected of Twinstella.
It was coordination that could not be explained otherwise.
‘That doesn’t mean I can just keep losing!’
Monica clenched her teeth.
She pulled hard on the reins.
“Suiseiki! Sharp turn!”
“Okay!”
The Green Dragon shouted and pulled her head around. Several layers of acceleration magic unfolded at once, spraying flames as they pushed her body in the opposite direction.
The objects in this world fundamentally tried to maintain the force they already possessed.
When something moving at high speed suddenly changed direction, rapid inertia naturally occurred.
The wind in the air pressed against their flank like a solid wall, and breathing became difficult as though they had been pinned beneath a boulder.
“Grrrgh!”
“Hyaaaaa!”
Could one sprint at full speed, then suddenly turn 180 degrees and keep running?
Impossible. With ordinary power.
But Suiseiki and Monica did it. They unfolded as much inertia-neutralization magic as possible and squeezed out acceleration magic, forcing themselves to turn while maintaining speed.
Of course, while receiving every bit of the burden placed on them during that change of direction with their bodies.
They could not avoid deceleration, but they succeeded in reversing.
They ended up facing the incoming Bella and Eugene head-on.
Eugene and Monica’s Dragon Divine Armaments spat fire at the same time.
The fired Arcane Cannons grazed past each other, leaving afterimages behind. Feeling the mana trace of the passing Arcane Cannon against her cheek, Monica shouted,
“O Sun God!”
The spreading radiance enveloped the Green Dragon.
Monica protected herself and Suiseiki with a paladin’s divine magic and charged in.
Eugene likewise stuck close to Bella’s back while protecting the front with an arcane shield spread out like an umbrella.
What was different was that, unlike Monica, Eugene did not thrust the Dragon Divine Armament forward.
“……?”
The Dragon Divine Armament was long. When they collided with each other, the Dragon Divine Armaments touching before the dragons’ bodies did was the basic assumption.
And yet he had given up the advantage of distance on his own.
There was no time to resolve that question.
Their bodies closed in before each other’s noses in an instant.
Only when the large silver scales approached before her eyes did Monica realize why Eugene had not thrust out the Dragon Divine Armament.
CLANG!
Bella flicked her head.
She deflected the tip of Monica’s spear with her hard outer shell, then dug straight in and raked Suiseiki’s chest with the claws of her wings as she passed.
It was a warrior’s feat, charging in while avoiding an incoming spear tip by a paper-thin margin and delivering a counter.
“Aaagh!”
Suiseiki screamed.
Bella had scratched her as gently as possible, but with the acceleration of flight, it must have felt as if her chest were being split open.
“Miss Suiseiki!”
“Monica!”
As they looked at the falling Suiseiki, Rosetta and Escalena, who had only just caught the Twinstella duo’s rear, shouted.
Rosetta clenched her teeth and corrected her grip on the spear shaft. All her team members had been eliminated, and the situation had become one-on-one, but even so, she had succeeded in taking their rear.
Even if there was a difference in skill, it was a situation where she could somehow try something.
The distance between them had widened, so they had not yet entered Arcane Cannon range. Rosetta swallowed.
‘I won’t let them escape with a maneuvering technique like before!’
Judging by Bella’s skill, they could never win in close combat.
Rosetta and Escalena knew that even if they gave up some flight ability, concentrating on firepower was the best choice they could make.
I’ll draw them inside our range, then finish this with a volley!
Just as the two were gathering mana with that thought.
Suddenly, the sight of Eugene riding on Bella’s back looked different to both of them.
Before they knew it, he had completely changed direction and was sitting backward on the saddle.
And he was aiming the long Dragon Divine Armament very steadily at the Gold Dragon behind them.
WHOOOOM!
Blue mana wrapped around the Dragon Divine Armament Eugene held and extended forward.
The already long spear grew even longer, and its tip was wrapped in physicalized arcane mana, extending into a rounded shape to form a muzzle.
The line of mana Eugene extended locked onto the Gold Dragon.
Sensing it, Rosetta and Escalena’s faces turned pale.
Arcane magic was fundamentally magic that condensed mana and created a physical form.
A simple, intuitive effect that created objects out of mana.
Thanks to that, it was also the kind of magic every mage learned as a foundation.
Most mages used it in simple ways, such as firing that condensed mana as bullets or creating shields for defense.
But those skilled in arcane magic could also use the physical forms condensed that way to create complex structures like machinery.
And Eugene Brace was a mage representing the Arcane Magic Tower, which stood at the forefront of that arcane magic technology.
The Blue Hawk of the Arcane Magic Tower.
There was no way such a man could do nothing simply because the methods he could use were limited.
WHOOOOM!
The muzzle extended from the tip of the Dragon Divine Armament was completed.
With the longer barrel and the rifling shape engraved inside it, the performance of the Arcane Cannon rose.
Aim correction, range correction, power correction.
Toward the young ladies whose faces had turned white, Eugene winked one eye.
“Bye.”
The magical trigger activated.
CRACKLE-
Mana sparks scattered, and a flash burst.
The recoil of the reinforced Arcane Cannon knocked Eugene’s shoulder back.
BAAAAAANG!
The arcane shell that shot out with an explosion struck the Gold Dragon’s chest.