. You could tell that his sense of danger worked here, despite the fact that this situation was different from the intended one.

The enemy attacks didn’t end there. On the contrary, the thrown stake seemed to be only a distraction.

The man, who was standing next to the one who threw the stake, rushed forward, approaching 10 meters in 2 steps, and swung his right hand diagonally from the bottom left to top right.

It looked as if in his right hand, there was only the hilt of a dagger.

But Mikihiko wasn’t fooled by this.

He staggered back, holding his right hand out in front of him. A thin, barely noticeable cut appeared on his sleeve.

“Glass Dagger!?"

The hand that was peeking through the slits in the sleeve stopped glistening and returned to its original skin color.

The golden armor technique could cover only one part of the body at a time. Another disadvantage was the short duration it could be used. And for repeated application, a certain amount of time was required.

Of course, Mikihiko hadn't forgotten. The next magic, prepared in advance in anticipation of the completion of the armor technique, he activated immediately after receiving a blow with the glass blade.

“Sorry!”

That's all he could say now. Without waiting for Mizuki's answer, he suddenly pulled her close to him, clasping her waist.

Mizuki froze. She didn’t say anything. No, she didn’t have time to scream.

Mikihiko's magic activated.

The air mass, located between Mikihiko and the man brandishing the glass blade - a member of the Horsehead squad named Henry Fu - suddenly exploded.

A gust of wind struck not only Henry, but also Mikihiko.

As if riding this wind, Mikihiko jumped while still holding Mizuki.

He leaped over the restrictive fence, and jumped from the embankment into the river.

Although it was called a river, in reality it was more of an “artificial channel.” It was narrow and not deep, and its course was weak.

With the help of magic activated while jumping, he briefly managed to stand on the surface of the water, but the next moment he plunged knee-deep into the water.

“Shibata-san, I'm sorry. Be patient a little longer.”

Again apologized Mikihiko. As he spoke, his fingers moved, preparing a new magic.

“Don't worry about it.... Yoshida-kun!”

Mizuki uttered a warning in the form of a shout.

But even without it, Mikihiko had already noticed that the Horsehead was chasing them.

The grass on the bank swallowed up the lightning that had attacked them.

Lightning was created by the magic of the release system released by Iggy Ho - a member of the Horsehead squad. And Mikihiko defended himself against it with help from the modern magic, “Lightning Rod." Mikihiko's CAD outwardly looks like it's intended for ancient magic, but it also contains activation sequences of modern magic.

Leaving Iggy on the bank, the other two jumped into the river. Upstream was Gabe Shu, who had previously released a cloud with a narcotic substance. Down by the river stood Henry Fu, the one brandishing the glass-bladed dagger.

Such a change in the situation wasn’t much of an improvement.

The raging flames attacked Tatsuya, penetrating deep into the mansion, which Minoru used as a hideout. The fire spell was activated outside the mansion by Fujibayashi Nagamasa.

Tatsuya initially could only use the magic of “Decomposition" and “Restoration."

The magic activated by the artificial magic calculation area had a very low power of interference with the phenomenon, so it couldn’t cover the entire house to put out the fire. By using “Mist Dispersion," which decomposes substances to the level of chemical elements, he couldn’t eliminate “combustible substances," because they will be decomposed into “combustible elements," which in turn can be more combustible, even to the point of explosive combustion.

Relying on the heat resistance function of the “Freed Suit,” Tatsuya ran straight through the fire.

When Tatsuya ran out of the mansion engulfed in fire, a hail of shuriken came flying at him. There were twenty of them.

Shurikens flew from four different directions, and with different time intervals.

Tatsuya dodged them, flying into the air.

Hovering in the air, he found the silhouettes of the enemy.

In all four directions there were opponents with the appearance of Fujibayashi Nagamasa.

Tatsuya furrowed his brow.

But besides this, there were no further delays on his part.

Tatsuya's magic pierced four human silhouettes.

And it wasn't “Decomposition."

A “armor-piercing psionic projectile." Non-systemic magic, firing a compressed psionic mass. This magic, developed under the leadership of Yakumo, existed both in the form (variety) of the projectile's flight in normal space (physical dimension) and in the form of its movement along the information dimension. Now Tatsuya was using a variation with flight in normal space.

The distance between them was about 20 meters. In less than half a second, four psion bullets penetrated four human silhouettes.

Four of the Nagamasa's simultaneously disappeared.

“All four of them were illusions... Is this “Twins”?”

Tatsuya muttered to himself as he dodged the hail of stones that came flying at him from behind.

Tatsuya noticed Nagamasa's use of "Twins" while talking to him in the mansion. So

he wasn't surprised.

“Although it looks similar to Parade, but it's something completely different...”

Such a bitter thought crossed Tatsuya's mind as he descended to the ground.

Nagamasa's “Twins" (or as he called it himself - “Shadow Twins") was different from both Minoru's and Lina's spells. Perhaps it doesn’t have enough power to fool

“Elemental Sight."

However, this magic made it possible to simultaneously create several doubles capable of functioning as batteries for invoking magic. But the most problematic part was that the connection with the real body was cut off.

“This isn't a transformed object. Maybe... are these “Shikigami” from spirit magic?”

He didn’t know how it worked, but he assumed that an image was being created from the independent information body of the “shadow,” and the operator was controlling the magic from afar, hiding behind the projections.

“If you apply reverse tracking to the information close to the exit point of the magic sequence, then you can find out the location of the real body, but...”

“... It won't be that easy," thought Tatsuya, destroying the next double that appeared behind him.

To test this, he directed his “sight" at the source, which had fired stones with the help of speed magic. But there was no one there. When you “chase” the information, if it just moved, then the real body can be tracked. But in this case, it seems that the information continuity was cut off using some kind of invisibility technique. Tatsuya remembered that Yakumo demonstrated a similar technique.

It won’t be possible to track the target through the information dimension, if you don’t catch the necessary information directly during the activation of magic. Also, Nagamasa only used magic at the same time as the shuriken or stones were fired, disabling his remote control of the magic immediately after they were fired.

Consequently, this battle turned into a guessing game of when and where the next magic will be launched. And Tatsuya at the moment had the role of currently lagging behind.

While he spends time and effort here, Minoru continues to escape.

Tatsuya was forced to fight not only with Nagamasa, but also with haste in his thoughts.

Stakes and lightning bolts flew from the bank. From above the wind blew with drops of narcotic substance. While a blade was coming from behind.

Mikihiko repelled the attacks of all three members of the Horsehead squad, by controlling the water from the river.

The stakes were simply fought off with water balls.

Against lightning, he created a veil of thick fog.

Against the narcotic wind, he defended himself by using a wall of “reverse waterfall"

- when water rushes from the bottom upwards.

Against the enemy attacking with a glass dagger, he defended himself with a water whip, divided into 8 parts.

However, to repel long-range attacks and to prevent the enemy from reaching close-combat range, Mikihiko spent all his strength, so he wasn’t able to counterattack.

Behind him, Mizuki could hardly restrain the trembling. Although it was now the middle of summer, it was already evening, and the river, although shallow, had a current. If you stand knee-deep in water for a long time, you can freeze. Mikihiko understood this, so his impatience increased too much.

“... No, that won't do. Stop being nervous, Mikihiko. Impatience is absolutely forbidden.”

But it's better to risk everything to escape, isn't it? Fighting off the temptation to do so, Mikihiko mentally scolded himself.

At this point, Mizuki received no damage, except for a slight loss of temperature from the river water. Although this was precisely because of Mikihiko's protection.

He himself was well aware of this.

... ...If he hurried now, all his efforts would be in vain Mikihiko turned to himself.

...It's not just a coincidence that we were attacked here.

...This is the way Shibata-san goes to school.

...Their target isn't me, but Shibata-san.

With such thoughts, despite his nervous exhaustion, he could continue the battle by completely going on the defensive.

Mikihiko's patience was rewarded with the arrival of reinforcements.

From the bank of the river there was a loud noise from an impact. The sound was like a thin metal stick striking strong wood.

“Ah! You, the Chiba swordswoman! Why are you here!?”

Immediately afterwards, Iggy Ho's confused cry was heard.

“You want me to answer that?”

The voice that responded belonged, of course, to Erika.

“Mikihiko! Mizuki! Are you okay!?”

Then they were hailed by another voice, coming from the direction of the station, a

little behind Erika.

“Leo!?”

Even before Mikihiko had time to reply, a large human figure jumped from the embankment.

Leo landed in the river with a large splash.

“I take care of that!”

He pointed to the assassin from the Horsehead squad named Henry Fu, who was stunned by this spectacular appearance of reinforcements.

“Watch out! He has a dagger made of glass!”

“Aha!”

Leo bellowed enthusiastically, and lashed out at Henry, who had already recovered from his shock and was standing up.

He didn’t scream “Panzer!” like usual. Because right now Leo was using the CAD

with mental control, that he received from Ernst Rosen last summer. Intense psionic light enveloped Leo without the usual cry, and he attacked the dagger.

Now, with the exception of Mizuki, the battle turned into a three against three format.

Mikihiko turned to the remaining enemy, Gabe Shu.

During the course of the battle with the Nagamasa doubles, Tatsuya was lured from the courtyard of the hideout into the Sea of Trees.

Despite the name “Sea of Trees," this forest wasn’t so dense that it was impossible to move between the trees. Even an ordinary person (non-magician) didn’t have to

worry that he would get stuck here if he turned off the road.

But it was an indisputable fact that the trees made movement difficult. People who aren’t accustomed to acting in the forest won’t be able to fight here at a decent level.

And three-dimensional spatial maneuvering with the help of a flying suit was generally excluded.

Perhaps this might have been unexpected for Fujibayashi Nagamasa, but Tatsuya didn’t have any difficulty moving among these obstacles. He's accustomed to acting on the basis of information received from “Elemental Sight," replacing the visual information received from ordinary eyes. He had also reached a level where he didn’t experience inconvenience even when working with non-visual information received from electronic devices, instead of information received from magic.

In addition, the possible firing angles were limited to trees, so the location of Nagamasa's magic batteries were easy to read.

Visible light, infrared rays, and radio waves are blocked by trees, so searching with the naked eye or detecting with the suit's sensors was even more difficult than under normal conditions.

Using “Elemental Sight" to determine the coordinates is much easier. At the time of magic activation, the magician and the source of activation are connected informationally. If it is the same as before – firing off shurikens or stones, and if we can accurately predict the moment of its appearance, then we can say in advance that the reverse tracking will be successful.

The Double appeared in the shade of the tree.

But Tatsuya turned his “sight" backward, behind him.

There was no attack from the front.

Shuriken flew back to the right.

Before he could even take a step to evade, the connection with the spellcaster had already been interrupted. Signs of magic activation began to emanate from the double

in front.

“No, this doesn't fit."

Firing a psion bullet, he destroyed the double.

The fact is that the double, who stood in front, tried to activate camouflage magic with a delayed activation.

Signs of magic activation appeared from behind.

“Attack by non-lethal sound waves."

Looking back, he counterattacked with an Armor-Piercing Psion Bullet.

“Sustained?"

The double didn’t disappear.

Sound waves with a frequency close to the upper limit of a person's hearing hit Tatsuya.

However, Tatsuya's helmet automatically blocked sound waves that cause discomfort and interfere with mental concentration.

If you look only at the direct impact, it was a meaningless attack.

Tatsuya squeezed psions 3 times stronger than during the last attack.

Counter-Magic Spell / Gram Demolition.

A powerful stream of psions blew the double away.

Immediately after, a chain wrapped around Tatsuya's legs.

That senseless attack turned out to be a distraction.

Sparks and lightning emanated from the chain.

However, the next moment the chain disappeared.

The damage to the suit and the wounds under the suit also disappeared.

Something shook in the shadows of the trees.

Tatsuya turned his hidden beneath his helmet toward this shaking.

To the left of Tatsuya a new double appeared.

This double tried to shoot stones shrouded in fire.

Tatsuya's “sight” grabbed onto this “image."

Tatsuya read the double's information while he was connected to the real body.

From information about the current moment to information about what was a moment ago.

And even further. Only a moment in the past.

Rewind.

Rewind.

Revealing the “past", hidden behind the “present" in the history of information change, Tatsuya unleashed his power.

Local “Decomposition." Magic, piercing thin holes in the human body.

Tatsuya heard the sound of a man falling, both knees broken. This sound came from the shadows of the trees about 10 meters away.

On the embankment leading to Mizuki's home, Erika entered into close combat with Iggy Ho, a member of the Illegal MAP Horsehead unit.

Erika's weapon was a telescopic baton with a built-in CAD.

Iggy Ho's weapon was some kind of wire.

“You're pretty good with that homemade thing. You must be a pretty good craftsman.”

Erika spoke with a mocking tone during their exchange of blows.

Iggy only continued to look for Erika's weak points with his stern gaze.

The weapon he used was a twisted, thick wire, the tip of which was sharpened with a file. A wooden stick was attached to it, which acted as the handle. This weapon was used almost like a rapier.

The Horsehead squad entered the country by plane under the guise of ordinary passengers, so they couldn't bring any weapons with them. And it's not just about the current moment. For them, making weapons on site from readily available materials was commonplace. The wooden stakes he threw at Mikihiko were also made from sawed logs. The glass blade, for example, was cut from ordinary window glass. To do this, they even mastered a special magic that helps with the processing of materials.

Also, in order to compensate for the lack of strength of materials, magic was used not only during processing, but also when using the weapons. They make weapons from any available materials. Use as a weapon everything that comes to hand. Perform the assigned task of killing or sabotage, without receiving support from their country.

That was the style of the Illegal MAP.

Thanks to Iggy Ho's magic, the wire thin sword he used looked even more durable and flexible than a real rapier (at least outwardly). But it was only the effectiveness of the weapon itself. After all, combat skills is another conversation.

Iggy was far from weak in the use of rapier-like weapons. His practical techniques of fencing were at a high level.

However, if we talk about the techniques of the sword, then Erika was a step, or even 2-3 steps higher. The only reason the fight wasn't over was because Erica was wary of the possibility that Iggy might have something "up his sleeve."

But in reality, in order for the wire sword to withstand the attacks of Erika, Iggy Ho was forced to maintain his strength and flexibility with magic, so he had no time for other magic.

Erika intuitively guessed this, and went at Iggy with a continuous attack with an emphasis on speed. Her fighting style wasn't in the tactic of “hit-and-run” using self-acceleration magic, but in not giving the enemy any extra time to rest by moving around in an arc, keeping her distance.

And now Erika is finally convinced that the enemy has no magic attacks.

Iggy Ho swung horizontally with his wire sword. This sword had only a pointed tip, so it wasn't a cutting attack, but an attack with a strong and flexible wire like a whip.

Erika dodged this attack, bouncing back. For the first time in this fight, she stepped back from her template, and increased the distance.

Without a second's hesitation, Iggy Ho reached for his belt with his left hand. These three members of the Horsehead squad had CAD's not on their wrists, but on their belts.

Erika didn’t know that her opponent was trying to control a CAD.

She was just looking for an opportunity to attack.

So, with the enemy's action, she saw a chance. She was ready to use it.

Self-acceleration magic activated.

Erica moved closer to Iggy at a speed that the human eye couldn't follow.

Iggy Ho hastily stopped manipulating his CAD and held the wire sword out in front

of himself, supporting it with his left hand.

Erika's baton lightly struck the wire sword.

This unexpectedly too weak of a recoil slightly puzzled Iggy Ho.

The assassin from the Horsehead squad fell into a stupor for about half a second.

While Iggy's consciousness was turned off, Erika managed to get behind him.

He didn't have time to turn around.

Relying on his intuition, he tilted his head as far as he could.

Erika's baton, aiming at his head, hit Iggy Ho in the left shoulder.

In a place close to the base of the neck.

Common sense would say that the battle was over. However, Erika, without losing her alertness, immediately swung again.

But then a surprise awaited her.

The enemy with his neck bent, turned back to her, and committed a self-explosion.

From Iggy Ho's back, a powerful stream of smoke began to spread in all directions.

Even though it was self-inflicted, it wasn't suicide.

“Smoke screen!?”

As Erika said, Iggy Ho set off a smoke screen using special explosives strapped to the inside of his jacket.

But despite the reduced power and temperature, explosives remain explosives. When an explosion occurs under clothing, you don't end up without any injuries. However, Iggy Ho moved on to his next action with such a speed as if he didn't feel any pain at all.

“Ah! Hey wait!”

Erika voice rang out, surrounded by a smoke screen. Even through the smoke, she was able to detect that the enemy began to quickly move away.

Illegal MAP is an illegal sabotage squad. Members of this detachment must have a high level of combat abilities. But it was much more important not to fall into the hands of the enemy.

With modern technology, it is possible to extract information from the brain of the dead. Simple suicide wouldn’t be enough to maintain secrecy. Therefore, the ability to escape at any cost is especially desirable for illegal agents.

Erika didn’t pursue Iggy. She immediately closed her eyes so as not to damage them.

It wasn’t known what substance could be mixed into the smoke to cause any effects other than blocking the view. There was also the possibility that she had already been subjected to some subtle paralytic effect.

A reckless pursuit could lead to a counterattack. Besides, the purpose of Erika and Leo rushing here was to help Mizuki and Mikihiko. Fighting the remaining enemies was a priority over the pursuit of fleeing enemies.

Erika leaned over the fence. There, in the river, Leo and Mikihiko still had to fight.

Erica wanted to intervene in their battles, but when she looked down, she was disappointed.

The battle between Leo and Henry Fu was more of a fistfight than hand-to-hand combat.

Henry's dagger, though it was made from ordinary glass, was strengthened by magic.

However, after the first collision with Leo's fist, reinforced with the magic of the same type, it shattered into pieces.

Moving from a voice recognition system to a thought management system, Leo stopped wearing a protective glove with an integrated CAD. Instead, he started wearing open-fingered gloves reinforced at the knuckles on both hands. He didn't

wear these gloves all the time, but he kept them with him just in case.

It was the magic-fortified fist part of his glove that shattered the glass blade.

The glass blade, fortified by Henry Fu's magic, was broken by Leo's fist which was reinforced by magic. This meant only one thing: Leo's magic surpassed Henry's magic. Moreover, Henry Fu's face froze when he saw the insane strength of Leo, who didn’t grab the blade from both sides, but simply struck it with a direct blow.

However, if he had continued to stand there in a daze, he wouldn't have been fit to serve even as a common soldier, let alone as an illegal agent. Henry threw the remaining hilt of his dagger at Leo to gain time, jumped back despite the poor foothold in the knee-deep river, and tore off the left sleeve of his jacket with his right hand.

On his left wrist, under a long-sleeved jacket, worn despite the weather being in the middle of summer, wasn’t a CAD, but two thin weighted bracelets, the weight for which was made from iron sand.

Henry took off his weighted bracelets with his right hand.

“Hah! So you wanted to give me a head start?”

While ignoring Leo's mocking comment, Henry wrapped bracelets around his fists, partially with the weight out.

In fact, Leo didn’t believe that his opponent was giving in to him. He quickly understood why Henry had transferred the weight of the bracelets from his left wrist to both of his fists.

It was kind of like a replacement for gloves, which not only protected the fists, but also added power to the punches.

Leo rushed towards Henry at the same time, as he understood it.

When Leo managed to take only one step, Henry rushed forward to meet him.

In battle, Leo and Henry fought using their fist fighting skills.

Leo with his fists that are hard as steel.

Henry with his fists covered with a cushion of iron sand.

From a direct strike with Leo's right hand, Henry dodged, ducking his head.

Henry's right hook, aimed at the body, was blocked with Leo's left hand.

This marked the beginning of the exchange of blows.

Henry Fu only evaded Leo's direct punches, skipping the sliding ones.

Leo defended himself only against Henry's dangerous punches, skipping the minor ones.

Both soon lost the ability to use magic.

Leo's reinforcement magic stopped.

It seems that after interrupting the reinforcement magic on the dagger, Henry Fu also used a little magic to support his close combat, but it also stopped.

Being magicians, these two were forced to continue to fight like ordinary fighters, using only their physical abilities.

Leo broke into a smile.

Henry's face was distorted, as if in torment.

For Henry Fu, a member of the Horsehead unit of the Illegal MAP (and for any assassin or saboteur), such a direct clash was highly undesirable. Even in situations where it is impossible to avoid one-on-one close combat, a direct clash usually doesn’t occur.

If they were on a good road surface now, it would have been possible to gain distance

by maneuvering with their feet, pretending to run away, and then counterattack the pursuing enemy. In this case, it would be possible to use techniques to avoid a direct collision.

But here in the river they were standing in water that was as deep as the middle of the calf. The state of the river bottom also didn’t contribute to rapid movement. If you use the technique of leg movement in such a place as in boxing, you can easily stumble and open up for the enemy a gap in your defense.

Continuing the fist fight with Leo, Henry Fu decided that this mission was a failure.

Before the situation could get any worse, it was necessary to take a position suitable for evacuation.

However, he couldn’t single-handedly make the decision to retreat. Henry thought about it as he continued to shower Leo with short, weak blows. In the Horsehead detachment, he tried more than others to adhere to military discipline.

They were separated. If all three could evacuate at the same time, then there wouldn't be any problems. But if at least one of them escapes with the connection cut off, the remaining two will be at a disadvantage, being in the minority.

The contempt that the opponents were only schoolchildren had disappeared from Henry. They were opponents who could not be defeated in the format of three against four (more precisely, three against three). If they were even more outnumbered, they might not even be able to escape.

We must somehow convey to the rest the signal for evacuation...

It happened at the same time that Henry Fu thought about it.

The faint sound of an explosion came from the embankment.

Henry grabbed a hold of Leo's fist after his lunge, and took the time to look up.

“This is a smoke screen! Iggy lost and ran away!?"

When Henry Fu saw the black smoke trickling down the side of the road, he immediately realized what had happened.

At the same time a strong sense of danger overtook him.

The high school student in front of him not only mastered magic techniques, but also possessed physical strength and endurance at the level of Navy Seals or Green Berets.... That's what Henry thought of Leo. He caused a lot of trouble, and it was impossible to deal with him without magic.

And if the “Chiba swordswoman,” who was given special attention during the preliminary investigation, joins him here, then the simple “impossible to deal with”

will no longer be an excuse. The idea of the worst-case scenario flashed through Henry Fu's head. The “worst” outcome for members of the Illegal MAP wasn’t death.

But, falling into the hands of the enemy, with further disclosure of their origin and details of their mission.

Leo pushed Henry away from him.

Henry recoiled and staggered back along the river bed about two or three paces.

Leo followed Henry, who caused a strong splash on the surface of the water.

“Gabe! Retreat!”

With his eyes fixed on Leo advancing in front, Henry Fu shouted loudly to his comrade who was upstream.

But this sudden announcement for withdrawal didn’t stop Leo's advance.

“They want to escape!?”

He wasn't confused, but, on the contrary, became more serious.

Almost catching up with Henry Fu, taking another step in close proximity to him, Leo sank slightly under the water.

Stomping, he pushed through a deep hole in the bottom of the river.

Using this pit as a fulcrum, Leo pushed off with his whole body and made a powerful lunge with his fist.

It w-->>

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