01.46 - Magic Knight Grey

Michael David’s Standard Knight was all but Standard. ‘Kidd Red Eyes’, as of the time of his visit, must have been in the top tiers, if not taking the crown of custom units in all of Lichtheim.

Not counting my own, that is.

As for me, I had not spent the last few months idly either.

My unit did not appear nearly as specced out at first glance, but the first impression could betray any unskilled onlooker.

Most of the upgrades I had worked on were not of the flashy kind, but could prove to be more than a match for David’s goliath in front of me.

Oh, who was I kidding? That bloke was about to get humbled by a foe barely half his size. And he wouldn’t even see it coming.

It was at this point that I had to remind myself again not to underestimate my opponent.

The announcer introduced both us and our units while 3 portable magic recording devices circled around our Knights.

My unit finally reached the center of my side of the arena’s battlefield.

“Jo,” I casually greeted David.

“What’s with that casual attitude, boy?” David said.

“Would salutations have been in order?” I asked with a hint of sarcasm.

“You might be the biggest ant on the hill,” David said, “but that doesn’t mean shit in a real fight.”

“This ain’t no real fight though, is it?” I countered.

“Know what?” he asked. “I wanted to go easy on you and let you score some points with the old man, but not anymore.”

“Uh, I am shaking,” I said.

“You do seem to share your old man’s attitude,” he said, “but you don’t share his position. I’ll turn that Knight of yours into scrap metal!”

The battle began right after that proclamation.

He opened with a full frontal attack.

I watched as his unit closed the distance, then my unit side stepped at the last second, barely avoiding the first swing..

The way David’s unit, ‘Kidd Red Eyes’, handled his sword reminded me of Kentaro.

It was a tid bit too large, even for a unit of his size.

Slow and predictable. At least if his opponent was skilled enough in observation and fast enough to dodge.

My unit was fast enough, even without fully utilizing its improved muscle fibers or its alchemically enhanced pseudo nerve fibers for increased reactivity.

I activated my fire and wind spell fueled special thrusters to get a bit of distance between us, after the successful evasion, then sent a volley of projectiles his way.

Their impact managed to damage some parts of Kidd’s multi-layered armor, but did almost no overall damage to any functioning parts of the unit itself.

David now seemed to be aware of my hit and run tactics.

His unit ditched the hunk of a sword and unsheeted two smaller blades, more akin to a samurai than a western Knight.

The two thickest layers of his armor were ejected from his unit too.

Then David’s Knight approached again, now faster than before, but still no match to my own specs.

I predicted the trajectory and avoided his first blade.

Just as I wanted to dodge the other one, his main hand sword changed its trajectory and came back down on my unit again.

I could only successfully dodge one of them. Not both.

My unit blocked his main hand, while taking the damage from his offhand swing.

The ultrasonic modulation spell imbued on my swords’ blade made contact with his main weapon, cleanly slicing it in two before the severed parts of his former blade came flying through the air.

The cut-off former tip of his sword embedded itself in my unit’s torso.

At the same time, my Knights left arm came to intercept his other sword.

He almost cut through half of its arm, leading to some of the hydraulic fluids to leak.

My unit’s reactive armor prevented the worst, but to David's utter shock, the damaged part began to mend itself right after that.

With his main hands blade gone, and the damage almost negated, my vibrating ultrasonic blade finally came down on the left side of his unit, cleanly cutting through Kidd’s armor and severing its left arm, even with the remaining armor in place.

I stopped my sword's edge before it came too close to David’s cockpit, but the fight was already over.

Game, set, and match.

—

Apparently, the official odds of my fight were vastly in favor of my opponent.

My unexpected victory made us a little fortune through the underworld's betting market alone.

This was a first in the history of the officer's school. At least when it came to exhibition matches against a champion. Those held against instructors had a very low, but still non-zero passing rate for their opponents.

David sent some flattering words in my and my Knights direction during the closing ceremony.

This was Lucy’s last day at officer school.

It should have only been the end of my first year, but there was a change of plans after my match against David.

I met the man at the afterparty.

“You are like your old man,” he said. “Except that the bite actually matches the bark.”

He clapped my shoulder. “Say, why don’t you ditch school and join me in my personal squad?” David asked.

At the time, I thought he was kidding, but an official invitation reached my family's house two days later.

Lucy was scheduled to leave Lichtheim together with David two weeks from now, to travel to command headquarters near the frontline.

Tia and I ended up accompanying them.

The first order of business was a private audience with my elusive ‘father’ on a military station in orbit around ‘Wieland’, the base of operations, and the site of the greatest ship and Standard Knight yard in the Elden Lord’s territory.