The Asterisk War, Vol. 10: Conquering Dragons and Knights

by Yuu Miyazaki

  “I see…”

  By then, Xiaohui was already half asleep and couldn’t make out the bitter smile that had appeared on Xiaoyuan’s face.

  Several years passed, and Xiaohui found himself gradually becoming able to hold his own as Xiaoyuan’s sparring partner. Even she was astonished by his progress—and by the fact that he had managed to pick up seisenjutsu almost immediately.

  “You’re even more talented than I had imaged,” she exclaimed after one of their training sessions, her pleasure shining through. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor of their training room, a cup of her student’s tea in her hand.

  “…I’m honored,” Xiaohui responded graciously, his voice ringing with confidence.

  “Hmm… It’s a shame that that charm of yours has all but disappeared, though. Whatever happened to your cute nature?” Xiaoyuan asked, catching him in a sudden embrace.

  “M-master!” Xiaohui exclaimed, his cheeks turning red as he looked away. “Please, stop playing around…!”

  “Oh-ho, I see. So there’s still something left in there.” For a short moment, she knuckled her student on the head before suddenly letting go and returning to her usual serious expression. “Now then, you should be able to fend for yourself now. The time has come for me to take on a new body.”

  “Master…?”

  “I will return here in a few years’ time. Until then, you must continue your training by yourself,” Xiaoyuan said, her voice solemn, before holding out a sealed scroll.

  “…Very well,” answered Xiaohui, carefully taking it in his hands.

  Xiaoyuan gave him a satisfied nod, though her expression still contained a touch of unease.

  Xiaohui maintained his daily regimen, training in solitary silence for the next six years.

  He polished his techniques as per the instructions Xiaoyuan had left him, focusing day after day on improving himself for the time when his master would finally return.

  All the while, he kept what she had said to him close to heart.

  Yes, he would become stronger.

  Stronger than he was now, stronger even than Xiaoyuan herself. Because that was what she wanted of him.

  Before long, he found himself having grown taller than he remembered her being herself, having grown, to anyone who might have seen him, into a tall young man who showed no resemblance whatsoever to the boy who had once been hanging on the verge of death in the middle of a deserted road.

  And then, while meditating deep inside the hermitage, he heard the high-pitched sound of a door creaking open.

  Amid the spring light that flooded the room was a small silhouette.

  Xiaohui, quite as if he had known she was coming, immediately fell to his knees, head bowed.

  “Welcome back, master.”

  “Oh-ho-ho! You’ve grown since I last saw you, my dear student.”

  The laughter that greeted him was different than he remembered, the innocent, childish figure before him that of someone else.

  But there could be no mistaking that it was her.

  “Now then, get ready. We’re going to Rikka.”

  “Yes, master.”

  Xiaohui had begun his preparations as instructed when the young girl clapped her hands together, just like he remembered. “Ah, yes. I forgot to mention it. My name now is Xinglou. Xinglou Fan.”

  “Haaa!”

  Xiaohui brushed aside Ayato’s downward stroke of the Ser Veresta with his staff, at the same time twisting his body to dodge Kirin’s oncoming attack from his right.

  Her katana continued its arc, however, carving through the air as it zeroed in on his chest. At the same time, Ayato, having regained his balance, thrust the Ser Veresta straight at him.

  Xiaohui, holding his staff one-handed, parried the oncoming strike while using his free hand to brush aside Kirin’s Senbakiri. One of the charms wrapped around his staff quickly burned itself out, pushing Ayato backward with tremendous force while he spun around to take down Kirin—who only just managed to jump to safety at the last moment.

  His two opponents put some distance between themselves and him. Xiaohui returned to his usual stance.

  As could have been expected from Seidoukan’s current and former number ones, they were both of consummate skill and ability. Battling them both at the same time—all it would take was a single mistake, and he might end up losing his school crest.

  But of course, there was no chance of that happening. Xiaohui had long since resolved to dedicate everything he had to his master, Xinglou.

  His heart, his prowess at martial arts, his techniques, his words—everything he had, his life included, he had dedicated to her.

  To repay her, to grant her wish.

  Which was why he would never make a mistake.

  “Jí jí rú l lìng, chì!” he chanted as he made the symbol with his fingers, when a wall of fire erupted in front of his opponents.

  Ayato didn’t hesitate to cut through it with the Ser Veresta, but by then, Xiaohui had already moved into his blind spot.

  Xiaohui was well aware that Xinglou wasn’t satisfied with his current level of skill, so he had no idea whether she was enjoying what she saw that day.

  In the end, it was up to her. It wasn’t something for him to know.

  So he just had to do what he always did—fight as best he could, without holding anything back.

  “Pò!”

  “Oh, crap!”

  Ayato had noticed the oncoming attack, but Xiaohui was still faster.

  There was no opening to reach his school crest, but Xiaohui landed three consecutive blows along the right-hand side of his body: on his shoulder, chest, and thigh.

  “Ugh…!”

  Ayato fell to his knees, finally giving Xiaohui an opening for his prize.

  First, he would take down this one.

  He lashed out with an assured blow—only to have Kirin’s Senbakiri appear in front of him.

  “I won’t let you!” she shouted.

  “…!”

  Xiaohui’s brow wrinkled slightly. He hadn’t let down his guard against her; on the contrary, he had judged that she wouldn’t make it there in time.

  Did I misread her…? No, but then…

  Kirin was staring straight at him. Had he simply imagined the strange glint in her eyes?

  He took a half step back, when—

  “Sorry, Elder Brother! You might want to look away!”

  A blinding burst and a terrible roar engulfed the stage as a torrent of lightning came crashing down.

  “There’s no need to go crazy on my account, Raigeki Senka!” Julis bellowed.

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha! What, is this too much for you?” Cecily laughed back.

  Lightning continued to tear into the stage from every angle, cutting through the air like countless soaring dragons.

  The storm she had unleashed at the beginning of the match had been like an out-of-control tempest, but this was at a completely different level.

  Dodging those blasts of electricity had become much more difficult, as not only were they crashing down from above, but now they also ran practically parallel to the ground. It was an attack directed not at specific targets, but at specific trajectories—although, luckily, their distribution seemed to be randomized. Nonetheless, Julis knew she’d have to keep an eye on it.

  “Ngh! Fine, let’s do this properly, then!” Julis cried out as she thrust her hands down onto the ground, summoning up an enormous magic circle on the stage floor.

  “Burst into bloom—Grevillea!”

  With that, pillars of fire at least ten meters tall erupted out of the ground throughout the arena, colliding with Cecily’s lightning in a massive explosion of mana.

  In the center of that explosion, Ayato, Kirin, and Xiaohui had resumed their contest.

  And then—

  “Pò!”

  Saya emerged from the roiling flames, catching Hufeng’s oncoming kick with the body of the Ark Van Ders.

  “…Ugh!”

>   She shook off the heavy blow, but Hufeng leaped back into the air, circling around her as if rebounding off unseen walls. His movements were fast—too fast to be seen with the naked eye.

  His attacks could come from any direction, so it required everything they had just to stay on alert. Nonetheless, her injuries were mounting.

  “I’ll show you no mercy!”

  “…Ngh!”

  Even so, Hufeng still had to avoid the lightning and flames that now filled the arena, meaning that his movements were, at least, partially restricted. If not for that, he might have already defeated her. At the very least, she was no match for him at close quarters.

  “Even so…!”

  Saya poured her prana into the Ark Van Ders, waiting for a chance at a Hail Mary strike.

  She had made contact with him just before, but so far, he had managed to evade most of her attacks. If she didn’t time it right, it would be practically impossible to hit her target.

  Just as she was trying to line up a shot, Hufeng made his most daring leap yet, landing directly in front of her.

  “—!”

  “I’ve got you now!”

  Saya quickly lowered her weapon to catch him, but Hufeng swiftly brushed it aside and drove his elbow into the pit of her stomach.

  “Gah…!”

  His fist came flying toward her school crest, but she managed to twist away just before it could make contact.

  However, as if having anticipated this move, Hufeng then swept her feet out from under her. But Saya sunk her weapon into the ground and used it as a pivot to swing to safety.

  Hufeng leaped after her as she again lined up her shot, but it was too late. This was the chance she had been waiting for.

  “Now!”

  She swung the Ark over her shoulder, tightening her hold on its grip, and pulled the trigger just as Hufeng was about to dash toward her once more. She hadn’t had much time to aim, but at this range, there was no way she could miss.

  The burst of light made a direct hit on its target—and went right through.

  “Wha—?!”

  For a second, Hufeng’s figure seemed to waver in the air before disappearing like a mirage.

  An illusion?!

  But by the time she realized what had happened, it was already too late.

  “I didn’t want to have to rely on those twins to do this… My apologies!” came a voice from her rear, when something collided into her with a tremendous impact, like a giant boulder falling down and crushing her underneath. Everything went black.

  “Saya Sasamiya—unconscious.”

  “Saya…!” Julis hissed at the sound of the automated voice before turning back to her own opponent. “Damn it! You can’t keep this up forever!”

  “Oh? And why not?” responded Cecily as she pursued her across the battlefield, surrounded by countless saber-like lightning bolts.

  Each one was powerful enough to tear a hole through the base of the stage, but with their user’s aim being what it was, dodging them wasn’t too difficult.

  Nonetheless, now that Saya wasn’t tying Hufeng down, she had no more time to waste.

  “Because I won’t let you! Burst into bloom—Antirrhinum Majus!”

  She drew an outline of a magic circle with the Nova Spina, from which burst the figure of a fire-clad dragon.

  “Heh, so it’s tiger versus dragon, is it?” Cecily had taken a bunch of spell charms in one hand, using the other to make a series of unusual gestures.

  “Jí jí rú l lìng, chì!”

  The charms activated in a cloud of lightning, writhing in the air as if a living thing, until, just as Cecily had said, it had vaguely taken on the form of a tiger.

  “Let’s see whose is the strongest!”

  Both elemental creatures were close to equal in size—but Julis, her face grave, wasn’t going to just watch from the sidelines.

  “I’ll crush you!” she cried out, recalling six of her fallen Rect Lux units and positioning them around the dragon.

  “Bloom!”

  At that moment, the Lux blades flew through the air as the dragon swelled to almost three times its prior size.

  “Wh-wha—?!”

  The flames practically swallowed the tiger-shaped cloud of lightning whole before swooping down toward Cecily. A wave of panic spreading across her face, she continued to desperately cast more spell charms in rapid succession, summoning up a wall of lightning to protect herself—but the dragon simply opened its maw wider, engulfing them all in a powerful explosion.

  Julis covered her face with her arms to shield herself from the heat of the blast.

  She had synchronized the particular junction pattern of her mana and prana with the units of her Rect Lux to temporarily boost the power of the technique. It was only the second time she had managed to pull it off in the middle of battle, and the first time in conjunction with a move as destructive as the Antirrhinum Majus.

  When the flames subsided, a motionless figure lay sprawled in the middle of a deep crater.

  “Cecily Wong—crest broken.”

  “Ah-ha-ha… You got me,” Cecily said with a bitter smile. “Argh, why did I go with seisenjutsu? I should have done this the old-fashioned way.”

  Cecily’s martial arts certainly had been beyond compare during the Phoenix four years ago. If she had used those against her, Julis would no doubt have found herself in a difficult position.

  But if she had done that, her team would have had inadequate support. It wasn’t a one-on-one contest, so it made sense for her to take over the rearguard.

  It looked like Cecily understood that, too. “Well, it’s just me who’s out, not the team. It isn’t the end of the world…”

  “—!”

  Before she could finish, Julis leaped backward, and the ground where she had been standing suddenly erupted before her.

  “Tenka Musou!”

  It was indeed Hufeng on the other side of the roiling dust. She tried to brace herself with the Nova Spina, but she had already exhausted her prana with that last move.

  I guess I still haven’t really recovered from yesterday…

  Of course, Hufeng hadn’t failed to notice that, either.

  The next moment, he descended upon her faster than the eye could see, carving straight through her crest.

  “Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld—crest broken.”

  “Ayato, I can handle this! Go help Claudia!” Kirin called out over the automated voice announcing Julis’s defeat as she parried Xiaohui’s staff.

  “But don’t you…?”

  It was obvious, now that both Julis and Saya had been eliminated, that Hufeng would go for their team leader. Even with the Pan-Dora, Claudia couldn’t face three opponents alone.

  He knew that she needed someone to back her up, but he couldn’t just leave Kirin to face Xiaohui by herself. Even with the two taking him on together, he still had the upper hand.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve realized something.”

  “Huh…?”

  “Trust me, Ayato! I’ll be okay!”

  “…All right.”

  He couldn’t afford to waste time asking what exactly she meant. She seemed confident about it, whatever it was, so he had no choice but to trust her.

  He got his breathing under control, focusing his attention on the other side of the stage, before rushing over to Claudia.

  “Ayato!” Claudia’s expression was one of relief as he appeared by her side.

  That was understandable, given that she had been fighting alone thus far. Before they could say anything more, however, the air around them seemed to waver as Hufeng appeared behind them.

  “Claudia, get down!”

  But she had already begun to dive out of the way before he could finish speaking. She had probably used the Pan-Dora.

  Ayato leaped over her, wincing slightly as a dull pain ran through his right leg, and then swept the Ser Veresta downward.

  “Jí!”

  To Ayato’s surprise, Hufeng
caught the attack with a kick—or more precisely, with the back of his outstretched leg.

  Of course. Those armored boots were an Orga Lux.

  “Why did you think I brought these out?” Hufeng called out as he swept the Ser Veresta aside. He twisted through the air, rushing toward him.

  Ayato ducked down just as Hufeng vanished.

  Instead, the twins now stood on either side of him, spell charms ready. But that wasn’t Ayato’s main concern. “Claudia, he’s headed your way!”

  “I know!” she called back.

  Shenyun grimaced as he threw himself out of the path of Ayato’s oncoming sword.

  And then, the figures of the twins, lunging toward him to attack, simply melted away.

  “That shiki of yours—”

  “—is a real nuisance…”

  Shenyun and Shenhua both glared at him resentfully.

  Ayato poured his prana into his weapon, using Meteor Arts to mow down everything around him. Behind the brilliant afterimage, the traps that Shenhua had just set burned away unused.

  “Thank you, Ayato!” Claudia said with a bright laugh, moving to stand back-to-back against him.

  “There’s probably still more of them out there, though, so keep your eyes open.”

  “Argh…” Shenhua glared at him, but Ayato had more immediate concerns.

  Hufeng was speeding toward him once again.

  “Pò!”

  Ayato repulsed Hufeng’s ax kick with his sword, forcing him back. Hufeng was quick to react, but it seemed he was being particularly vigilant around the Ser Veresta. At least to a certain extent, that made his movements easier to read.

  “Pēn!”

  Ayato dodged the downward strike, thrusting back at his opponent’s chest. Hufeng managed to dodge the blade with only a hair’s breadth to spare before leaping forward once more, lashing out with his elbow. Ayato, however, took ahold of that arm with his free hand, letting his prana flow through him as he flung his opponent backward—yet, it was Hufeng, bracing his legs against an invisible wall, who ended up launching Ayato across the stage.

  “Ugh…”

  It looked like Hufeng was indeed the stronger of the two when it came to unarmed combat. And of course, Ayato was still wounded from his earlier engagement with Xiaohui. The pain running through his shoulder continued unabated.