Blue. All he saw was a pale shade of blue.

Tokura Braveheart didn’t mind blue. Far from it, actually – that was his favorite color. But this blue – the one of Lara Jade’s steam – had consumed all of his surroundings. So much so that he could hardly see the trees or anything else.

And the steam was troublesome for not only his eyesight, because the heat it gave off felt very unpleasant – like a much more extreme and less fun version of a sauna.

One only needed to sit and sweat it out naked in a sauna and could get out whenever they wanted. Earthling Class No. 1’s ‘small’ battering ram, however, needed to move through the apparently inescapable veil of steam with his clothes on and his mind focused, which was quite a challenge.

Another blue thing made the situation worse – the almost constant barrage of turquoise flame orb pairs connected by rings of the same element that were fired off by Mia and Kia Nelaz.

Every time one of those rings was dodged, it set fire to whatever plantlife from the surrounding environment it came into contact with, the heat emitted by the fires only making the experience more unbearable for the Martian girls’ target.

Tokura was well aware of the reason the Hera Trio had adopted such an approach in fighting him. All three of them knew they couldn’t face him head-on because he would crush them, so the only chance they had was to stall their opponent and make him waste more energy by using long-range attacks from a hidden location.

Aside from his deva for creating an invisible shield, the Earthling with raspberry-colored hair could use Flexoid – the energy compound that allowed the user to teleport with the highest speed, highest number of objects teleported at once and longest range. One could even teleport things moving at high speeds with the azure-colored energy, so long as they could focus on a target of that type.

Hence, the Flexoid was very useful when fighting someone face-to-face, but not nearly as much in situations like the one Tokura currently found himself in.

He kept teleporting the twins’ fire rings away from him, but with zero visibility and no sensory capabilities, the ‘small’ battering ram couldn’t make out where Mia and Kia themselves were as the attacks were sent from different directions.

At the same time the spreading of Lara’s deva all around allowed her to locate anything within the area it covered, pointing out the enemy’s location to her fellow Hera Trio members. Then they probably teleported each of their attacks from a different direction so as to make pinpointing their position an impossible task.

The teenager with raspberry-colored hair could end all this, but he would have to further drain his devas to do so and he needed to save as much of his strength as possible for helping his class in the main battle that lay ahead.

While realizing that, he also could not ignore the fact that if things kept going the way they did, he wasn’t going to make it in time for that main battle.

Therefore, Tokura had to choose between two unfavorable options: wait till the Hera Trio members got tired enough to let him through, so he could continue with plenty of strength left, or force his way beyond those three right now to rendezvous with the other Earthlings in a more worn-out state.

The ‘small’ battering ram stopped his advance through the blanket of steam a second after his contemplation process ended, unleashing a burst of the azure energy compound and forming his invisible spherical shield. That shield completely blocked out the steam and without it bothering him, Tokura could finally concentrate.

His Flexoid was spread over a very wide area and with very high density as well, the young man closing his eyes as his energy started eating away at the steam and thinking the following:

‘This Flexoid wave will let me find them and they know that. But they also know that trying to stay clear of its range will put enough distance between us for me to move on ahead without them being able to catch up fast enough.

That means they’ll have to let me find them whether they like it or not!! And it’s game over then!!!’

After he closed his eyes, Tokura could still hear the muffled sound of fire rings being smashed in his shield and being deflected with equal force, but without actually having to evade them, the sound they made provided minimal distraction – one insufficient to impede his focus on his energy compound.

Through that compound he saw a shape amid the darkness. A silhouette of blue energy, not more than 15 meters away. Then another shape emerged next to it. And then one more.

The ‘small’ battering ram was certain he had found his targets and half his victory had been assured by just that, but then more shapes that were identical to the three he had already located started appearing.

Many more. Tens. Hundreds.

And they weren’t just in front of him, but spread in all directions.

‘Did you think it was going to be that easy, Braveheart?’ – Lara’s voice rang loud and clear as she said that.

The reason for any member of the Hera Trio to speak so loudly annoyed Tokura with how obvious it was: they knew there was no need to hide anymore. Even if he knew where they were, that wouldn’t make a difference now.

Trying to sense them was also pointless, so the teenager with raspberry-colored hair decided to return to the more conventional method for locating objects – using his eyes. The sight revealed to him when he opened them came as no surprise.

Tens of smirking Laras, Mias and Kias were closing in on him amid the dissolving steam, having gathered in a number of circles with a continuously shrinking diameter. But they weren’t just walking – they were laughing. Choirs upon choirs of manic laughter now filled the air to a level that almost made Tokura’s ears bleed.

Despite blinking from the irritation, he still managed to keep his eyes open long enough between the moments when he closed them to make out the number of enemy clones – there were about a hundred for each of them.

The closest group of those clones stopped when they stood about five meters from Tokura in each direction, but kept guffawing.

(Tokura) ‘Is all that laughing supposed to be a psychological attack or are you just crazy?’

The laughing in choirs stopped now, but the talking in choirs started. Not much of an improvement, in the Earthling’s opinion.

(The Mias) ‘We’re just expressing our joy of being so close to you.’

(The Kias) ‘And meanwhile you seem to be in a hurry to leave despite the great company you have here. Why not play with us a bit longer?’

Upon closer inspection, the blue bands across the Nelaz twins’ T-shirts perfectly matched their eye and hair color, making them all the more gorgeous in defiance of the annoyingly sarcastic tone of their voices.

Plus while normally pretending to be a chivalrious knight, Tokura had a thing for lolis because they had a more child-like appearance similar to himself.

Lara was a catch in her own right, of course, having a more mature beauty about her. And a much more mature chest.

Under different circumstances, being surrounded by so many beautiful women would have been the greatest blessing the pseudoknight could think of. But in the current situation he was more angry than he was stunned by his opponents’ charms. Angry at himself.  

(Tokura) ‘Nice offer, but I think I’ll pass.’

(The Laras) ‘That was a rhetorical question. You don’t have any choice but to stay with us now.’

The teenager with raspberry-colored hair hated admitting his adversary was right, but no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t deny the truth in the hundred Laras’ words.

His original conjecture that Mia and Kia were teleporting their attacks all around him had turned out to be wrong.

Maybe that was how it had started, but all the while Tokura had been trying to escape the veil of steam he had been trapped in, his foes had been creating clones and had been spreading them around. That would explain why the twins hadn’t used more complex attacks, but had stuck to only orbs of fire – half of their attention had been focused on making copies of themselves.

The whole reason for forming the steam veil had been to give the Hera Trio time to prepare something else to delay the pseudoknight with after he broke through it. And it had all worked out perfectly for them: their target was now surrounded on all sides with no way of telling who the originals are.

If only Tokura had not been so indecisive about releasing more power up until now, all of this could have been avoided. He could have taken out his opponents before they could implement their plan and would have already rejoined his class by the present moment.

But he hadn’t done that.

Why? Was it to make sure he would have enough power to be of use to his comrades when he reached them? Or was it in order to stay strong enough to not be beaten by anyone because of his pride?

Maybe not having the right motivation from the start had been what had led to this turn of events for the Earthling, but wasting more time on regrets was only going to make things worse. Disposing of the three Martians was what he needed to do.

As Tokura looked at their clones, he got an idea how to do that, but the Hera Trio had to be distracted for that idea to work. And the current best way to distract them was to keep them talking.

(Tokura) ‘Or maybe you’re talking at the same time because you’re afraid if just one of you talks, the originals will somehow give themselves away?’

(The Mias) ‘We’re all perfect copies, dumbass. You can’t tell us apart like that.’

(Tokura) ‘Why are you still talking like that, then? I don’t imagine you often make so many clones to talk in choirs for no reason.’

(The Kias) ‘We have the most melodic voices in all of Sunbird, so we like listening to ourselves talk. The more of us there are talking, the better.’

(Tokura) ‘Self-obsessed much?’

(The Laras) ‘We choose only the best. Since we’re the best, of course we’d obsess over ourselves instead of anyone else.’

(Tokura) ‘Listening all of you talk at the same time is getting pretty annoying at this point, though.’

(The Mias) ‘Why don’t you try and get rid of us, then?’

All the Flexoid Tokura had spread around the area split into parts that quickly took on a specific shape then, becoming clones of their maker as the original revealed his confident smirk and ended the conversation.

(Tokura) ‘I intend to.’

The Hera Trio members were shocked as the pseudoknight’s clones swarmed on theirs, but retaliated soon enough by sending orbs of blue flames and focused streams of boiling steam at their opponents, which led to an all-out melee.

While all the Mias and Kias still used only orbs and rings of their flames, some of the Laras shaped their steam into drill-like structures that were met with the Flexoid projectiles created by the forces opposing them.

The more the enemies fought, the more blue steam and energy clashed in the air while the forest was further engulfed in blue flames. Eventually the battlefield’s color scheme changed so much that it appeared as if the two small armies were fighting in a sea of endless blue, the groups of clones crushing in each other much like waves.

The nature of the battle also changed, both sides now transforming their very bodies into the attacks they had been using up to this point to clash with the other. So the Mias and Kias became giant flaming orbs, the Laras – big drills of steam and the Tokuras – energy projectiles, mass barrages being unleashed by each group.

That was when the moment the Earthling had been waiting for came.

He had never tried creating so many clones, but thought that it should be possible to match the enemy’s numbers when doing this with a 100% output. If he succeeded, he could turn the three’s tactic against them by waiting for the battle to become chaotic enough so as to ensure they wouldn’t notice the original had moved on ahead.

The ‘small’ battering ram would still have to deal with them later, which was slightly problematic, but helping his classmates took precedence.

A pine tree signaling the transformation of the deciduous vegetation into that of a coniferous type came within his sight just beyond the borders of the blue-colored area and he chose it as a teleportation destination.

When he was about to teleport, Tokura felt something hot coming at his back with high velocity, luckily putting up his shield by instinct fast enough to deflect what upon turning around was revealed as a gigantic ring mixing turquoise flames and pale blue steam. Something he guessed the original Hera Trio had created after catching on his plan before he could fully execute it.

(Kia) ‘You won’t be getting away from us that easy!!’

(Tokura) ‘Just give it up already!!!’

(Mia) ‘We came here with a mission and we will finish it!!’

(Lara) ‘No matter what!!!’

The ring kept spinning faster and faster, suddenly blowing up in a two-element storm that swept the whole battlefield, spreading a lot of steam and fire all around, impairing the ‘small’ battering ram’s vision once again and forcing him to keep his shield up.

(Tokura) ‘Damn it!! Damn all three of you!!!’

Although they were his enemies, Tokura had to give Lara, Mia and Kia credit for being very loyal.

Ulura would have never fought so valiantly to buy them time if she had been participating in the Class Battle and their places had been exchanged.

She treated her classmates as nothing more than pawns. And Nepalo, Hock and Gorudora were no different.

Yet the people from their class put their faith in them all the same.

What about Tokura’s classmates, though?

They had put their faith in him and he had betrayed that faith because of his pride and selfishness.

The Hera Trio members were not going to let up. The only way out now was to stop them for good.

And as the Earthlings’ ‘small’ battering ram, Tokura couldn’t afford to worry about how much energy that would cost him anymore. He couldn’t afford to worry about anything but his friends from here on.

Lara’s new veil of steam prevented the pseudoknight from seeing where the Martian ladies’ clones were, but he could still feel the presence of his own clones, teleporting in front of one of them.

Right then a giant turquoise fireball was smashed in his shield, originally aiming for his Flexoid clone. In the moment of contact Tokura ran his azure energy compound over the surface of his shield, a part of it being transferred to the fireball as it was deflected.

The fireball’s nature was slightly changed with that, ensuring one of the real Nelaz twins would no longer be able to negate it so easily. Thus nothing managed to stop it from hitting one of Lara’s clones transformed into a steam drill nearby.

As the two attacks cancelled each other out, the teenager with raspberry-colored hair teleported next to another of his copies, deflecting an attack meant for that copy and running his Flexoid over it to ensure another enemy clone would be taken out by it instead.

The Hera Trio’s clones started regrouping after that, but it was too late. Their attacks were being consecutively deflected back at them in a slightly altered state with high speed, ensuring no one would escape the onslaught.

Before long, the relentlessness of the Earthling, who had finally shown his true power, led to the demise of the originals, proof of which was all their remaining clones suddenly crumbling into tiny drops of blue flames and vapor.

Tokura took a deep breath then and started absorbing his Flexoid copies back into himself with a wave of his hand, walking through the receding steam.

He stopped when he found the real three, each of them being bloodied, bruised and burned, breathing heavily and looking at each other.

As their opponent’s shadow loomed over them, their attention was turned to him, but although they had lost, smiles full of triumph were visible on their faces.

(Lara) ‘We got you, Braveheart. We may not have been able to slow you down much, but you sure used up a lot of energy while dealing with us, right?’

(Mia) ‘That means your class is gonna lose all the same at this point.’

Tokura narrowed his eyes, turning his back on the defeated warriors after having made sure their wounds weren’t fatal.

(Tokura) ‘You did good. You fulfilled your duty brilliantly, so take pride in that now and rest.’

(Kia) ‘Ha! What’s with the praise, Earthling? Shouldn’t you hurry up to see if there’s anything left from your friends?’

(Tokura) ‘I just wanted to commend you before moving on.’ – he turned to them only partially to show a face burning with determination that clearly scared the three – ‘If it wasn’t for what you did here, I wouldn’t have remembered my one duty: to always risk it all without a second thought to save my friends.

So the only thing you ensured with your tricks was your whole class getting beaten by ME!’

He vanished with a burst of Flexoid after that, reaching the pine tree he had originally been planning to teleport to within a second and moving forward.

The forest was on fire. The ground was shaking. Huge amounts of crimson energy ripped the skies just ahead.

Yet none of that fazed Tokura.

Saving the Earthlings was the one thing that really mattered and their ‘small’ battering ram would not fail them again.