Date: One day before the Special Training League Match.

Location: Berlin. United Defence Council training camp.

What a day. It has already been a month, and tomorrow I will join my last battle in this exam. I don't know about others, but everything is going well for me. I changed my exosuit for a battlesuit with more offensive capabilities, and some of the last shipments from North Atlantic Weapon Advancement and Production Facilities just arrived in the morning.

 

I ordered some things I built in my free time back in America to use tomorrow. Sentry droids, spider combat drones (Also known as Walkers), and one experimental combat UAV.

 

First, I want to talk about my trump card, the UAV. It has a concentrated energy cannon and thermal tracking cameras directly connected to my head. It cannot move while firing. It needs to stay still while charging, and it is pretty fucking big and loud, so even a moron can easily spot it.

 

Still, it is my design, and when it hits with its energy cannon, that's where my engineering talks. I looked at the profiles of other people chosen for special training. None of them can walk after a direct hit from that cannon.

 

Now, I want to summarize the battlesuit a bit. It has carbon-rich steel blades on each of its hands for close combat, a standard army combat rifle for long-range engagement, and two thrusters placed behind for mobility. It is less complicated than my exosuit but much more deadly.

Someone knocked on my door. "May I enter?" It is a soft voice of a girl that I recently met.

 

"Come in," I shouted.

 

She opened the door and entered the room. She wears a dress common amongst the crusaders, a long one-piece dress.

 

"As you know, we have a test match tomorrow, and before we try to do our best to beat each other, I want to have one last talk." She has a gentle smile and a voice that can soften anyone but doesn't underestimate her.

 

Alice of the sacred crusaders, heir to the second strongest organization, after the UDC, of course, on the earth. Knowing the Sacred Crusaders, I say they began training her from her first step to today. And she is equipped with a powerful artifact as well. Sadly, her combat records are out of my reach, or they don't exist. Sacred Crusaders like to hide things from the public. Far as I remember correctly, the announcement of her existence to the public was two years ago, one month after I first stumbled over her file.

 

She is the person I am most scared of right now, but who wouldn't? That girl plays for the top of the list of strongest people on the earth. If I assume there is anyone who can hold the title that Blackwing once had, it would be her.

 

"I am glad you come to my room. Sorry for the mess. I needed some last adjustments before tomorrow." I have been refilling the ammunition of the battle suit.

 

"No, sorry for my sudden visit, but I wonder one thing about you. Why are you here in this tournament."

 

What kind of question is this? "Excuse me? I didn't understand the question properly."

 

"No, you got me wrong. I don't mean you are too weak to fight, UDC certainly wouldn't put a nonfighter here, but I wonder why an engineer rather tries to fight in front lines than build and design weapons back there." That's what she meant. Well, I heard the same questions lots of times.

 

"Well, that was a question I often heard from people I know in UDC, but my answer is simple. If I can design weapons and fight on the front lines, why shouldn't I do both."

 

"I can accept that as an answer. Now I don't want to steal more of your time, but I ask you one thing for tomorrow." Her tone got rather serious. "Tomorrow, do not fight like you are in a training match, but try to kill me."

 

"Try to kill you?" I am shocked by her wish.

 

"You heard me, fight like your life depends on it, try to kill me, and whatever you do, just do not try going easy on me. Because I won't, and I expect the same for my opponent " She bowed forward and left the room after saying that.

 

What the hell did she even get through to ask something like that? Well, I am not the kind of a man that turns down a lady's request. Especially one asked kindly as hers.

 

                                                                                                                       *****

The time to battle has come, and I finally stand in the final arena. Like I am against a final boss of a video game, but no problem, I can deal with it. I have a battlesuit that turns me into a two-and-a-half-meter-long heavy armored warrior.

And my enemy stands in front of me, Alice of Crusaders in an armor perhaps too decorated to be called war worthy, but I know her affiliation, fashionable doesn't mean less capable, in fact, reverse for them. "Do not forget what I said yesterday!" She drew a longsword from a gilded sheet. I assume that's the artifact given to her.

 

"I didn't." Yes, I didn't. I brought an entire army of robots, from a horde of sentry bots capable of replicating an infantry soldier to massive walking tanks equipped with heavy weaponry. I snapped my fingers. "Prepare your weapons and fire until your last bullet."

 

I heard a beep sound from my drones, and they began firing. Hundreds of thousands of bullets from every caliber began flying through the enemy.

 

At the moment the first bullet fired, Alice began moving as well. She is running at a speed that I can't even achieve with my exosuit, and not only that, she has an energy shield around herself. That's a pain in the ass. Even if bullets manage to hit her, they do nothing.

 

But I won't go in until the last bullet. I am a big target inside this battlesuit, and I will only put my drones into a risky situation.

 

"I hope you are having fun escaping from my bullets," I shout. "Because they won't dry up."

 

I know she will eventually destroy the ground drones, but when will she go offensive?

 

"You are still not trying. Should I force you?" Her weapon began glowing, and her already insane speed increased. With one swift move, she turned towards my droids, and with a blink of an eye, she reached them.

Sentry drones stopped shooting bullets and tried to engage in close-range combat with her, but they were no match for the beast in human form. She cleaved through ten robots like paper in a matter of seconds.

 

"Did UDC limit you, or that's the best you have?" She dodged an attack from a sentry droid and cut the machine in two with a single slash.

 

Only five sentries are left.

 

Two of the droids tried to attack Alice, but she blocked their attack with her sword. After it, a light beam extended from the sword's tip, and she used it to cut through robots.

 

Then she smiled and sent the extended light beam as an energy wave toward the remaining sentries from her sword with a slash. Attack exploded as it crashed into my last expandable soldiers and destroyed all my sentry droids.

 

And with all sentries destroyed, Alice turned towards the Walker Drones. I hope they last longer because I think I almost cracked her shield.

 

And as I hoped, they seem to do well. Walkers have much higher mobility and range than sentry droids. Let's not forget about the higher caliber ammunition they use. They circle Alice, raining hell upon her and looking at the situation. She is definitely in a difficult position, but she can protect herself from bullets by focusing her powers on her shield rather than offensive.

 

The only thing they now need to do is survive while changing their ammunition. Even robots have a limit.

 

Alice began laughing. "More than two hundred bullets shot, and they have less than fifty in their magazines, am I right?" She knows, and fuck, she can even count bullets shoot.

 

Fuck, my walker drones have two 20mm autocannons as their primary weapons, and their ammunition belt is outside. That's how she knows that. "Sadly, you are right. Let's see if my drones can survive while changing their ammunition." But considering Alice's knowledge, shit, I doubt they will.

 

And the thing I feared happened as my drones magazine dried, I heard a sadistic laugh.

 

Alice dashed towards one of the spider drones at an insane speed, and her sword cut the machine in two. Thankfully, this gave other drones time to reload, but the firepower of one wouldn't be enough to stop her.

 

Alice probably knows that too. I say that's why she is just laughing like a maniac and slowly walking towards the Walker Drone like she is mocking the machine. My poor creation can't even slow her down.

 

She pierced through the drone's armor with her sword, but that wasn't enough. She directed some of her power towards her sword and created an explosion inside the drone, turning it into pieces of scrap metal.

 

But she wasn't satisfied just from destroying my drones.

 

She giggled. "Oh dear, sorry for your machines. I had fun playing with them, but playing? That wouldn't be enough. I need blood, not oil. Your blood, if preferable. Can you do that for me? Do your best and die in battle. " Her voice is still gentle as an angel, and her smile is disturbingly sadistic and pure.

 

"Now, I began understanding why they kept you away from the public for so long."

 

"Hah! Too smart for your good, my boy." She pointed her sword toward me. "Let's expand the rules, shall we."