Haruyuki’s legs, wrapped in silver armor, landed on a thick moss-covered branch.

When he raised his head, what he saw was completely different from the rain-covered skyscrapers until just now. The sky was dyed a curious lavender color, and all the high-rise buildings had changed into huge gnarled trees. A lot of thick ivy also hung between the trees, and many pterosaur-like silhouettes could be seen gently flying among them.

Looking down on this netherworld jungle, whose basis was the Shinjuku Government Office, from a branch near the top of a frightfully high tree, Haruyuki grumbled.

“Uhheh. The ?Primeval Forest? stage. It’s hard to fight in.”

A voice then responded from right beside him.

“What are you saying, it’s pretty. It’s way better than the savage maps like the ?Wasteland? or ?End of the Century? ones.”

The speaker of those words was of course the avatar covered in semi-permeable emerald-colored armor, ?Lime Bell?. Underneath the brim of her big three-cornered hat, her beady eyes shined.

“Well, its appearance is pleasant, but still. Even if I fly, I can’t see the ground here at all because there’s too much cover..”

“Don’t complain! You should practice fighting on the ground every once in a while.”

“Yes, yes.”

Haruyuki nodded as he hit the huge bell in her right hall with a tap.

The characteristics of the Primeval Forest stage were its extremely bad visibility because of the thickly grown plants here, and its many random small animal objects. No, there were also a few huge carnivorous beasts in the forest, and their intervention must also be taken into account when making a strategy.

While reviewing the stage’s attributes in his mind, Haruyuki checked the two HP gauges located at the upper-right corner of his vision with a glance.

The ones that had challenged them to a duel were a tag team consisting of the Level 5 ?Frost Horn? and Level 4 ?Tourmaline Shell?. Both were names that Haruyuki knew well. They were active members of the Blue Legion, ?Leonids?.

Since Haruyuki was currently Level 5 and Chiyuri was Level 4, there was no numerical difference. However, the opponents should have become Burst Linkers considerably earlier than them. Considering it simply, Haruyuki and Chiyuri seemed to be superior because of their quick pace in leveling up, but the reality was different.

In other words, it was like this. Burst Linkers were divided in many types based on their disposition, but even if the ?types that ignore winning percentages and frantically duel against anyone at any time or place? and the ?types that carefully calculate advantages and disadvantages and take part in duels they can win for certain? have the same numerical level, there was actually a big difference between them that existed in an aspect that wasn’t visible.

In other words, it was their accumulated battle experience. Even if they challenged and lost against those of a higher level that they couldn’t win against no matter what or against opponents with a bad attribute for their avatar, those duels gave the Burst Linkers themselves an experience value different from numerical points. Tactics, knowledge, and most importantly, a heart that stands firm in a crisis.

Of course, the play style of the reckless-types was inefficient compared to the clever-types. Their Burst Points were occasionally unsteady and unreliable, and they had to work hard at the tiresome Enemy hunting in the Unlimited Neutral Field.

However, those kinds of people have a higher chance of going ?upwards? in the end, is what his master Kuroyukihime had told him. Therefore, Haruyuki was also consciously not picky about his opponents when he came out onto the streets to duel, with the intention of maintaining a style in the middle of the reckless-types and clever-types, but—

The two that had challenged them this time, ?Frost Horn? in particular, were famous as super Go-For-Broke bastards that considerably exceeded Haruyuki in terms of being reckless. Also, it was probably exactly because they were like that that they had challenged Haruyuki and Chiyuri without hesitation immediately after the two of them appeared on the matching list.

Concluding that the enemy tag team was heading towards the tree of this government office in a straight line based on the motions of the guide cursor in the center of his vision, Haruyuki decided to go along with the opponents’ style and spoke.

“Chiyu, is it fine if we also go down to the ground and do a quick decisive battle?”

His partner then grinned and nodded.

“Sure. My healing won’t reach if the target’s not in sight anyway, and besides, I’ve also been practicing my close combat recently!”

She waved the bell in her left hand, and it smashed five or six hard-looking fruits hanging together behind her.

Having been hit on the head by that bell once in the past, Haruyuki involuntarily drew back his head, and then extended his hand out to his partner.

“Alright, then let’s charge at them from above!”

“Okay.”

Saying that, she grasped his offered right hand tightly, and without hesitation they jumped from the branch 500 meters above the ground. They aimed at a faraway hazy point beneath their eyes within the forest, the point indicated by the guide cursor, and went into a headlong free fall.

The cursor only indicated the rough direction of the enemy. Therefore, the other team would not immediately notice that Haruyuki and Chiyuri were doing a direct fast approach from above. They had to delay their deceleration until the last minute in order to definitely seize that brief chance. The air groaned endlessly in their ears, and they approached the ground at a frightful speed. Even Haruyuki who was used to diving chocked back his breath hard, instinctively wanting to dodge it.

However, Chiyuri, diving at the same speed right next to him, didn’t let out a scream, but instead had shining eyes. She really was surprisingly a daredevil, no, that description was unsuitable for a girl..

While Haruyuki thought that, a sharp whisper reached his ears.

“Found them! They’re under that giant red flower!”

When he frantically strained his eyes, he confirmed with a glance that there were indeed a silhouette with a large build and a silhouette with a slender build dashing alongside each other among a dense growth of tall rafflesia-like plants. The one on the right was Frost Horn, who had a heavy light blue armor and huge horns growing from his forehead and shoulders. The one on the left was Tourmaline Shell, who was wrapped in smart blue-green armor.

“I’ll take the one on the right, you take the one on the left. Let’s hit them hard with all our strength.”

He said that quickly, and she responded with a nod.

Both of the enemies should be still thinking that Haruyuki and Chiyuri were somewhere on the ground or at the government office tree. However, in the next few seconds that would end, as the cursor disappeared when both sides were in close proximity. They had to slow down right before that and go into the offensive.

Haruyuki widened his eyes, focused his consciousness, and measured the distance.

“Let’s go..Five seconds till deceleration, three, two, one, zero!”

He grasped Chiyuri’s hand tightly, and at the same time as the countdown ended, he spread out the wings on his back to their limit.

In order to make the enemy mistakenly think that Silver Crow was still on the ground, he hadn’t dared to store up his special technique gauge. Therefore, his wings couldn’t produce any propulsion, but instead they could be used as a parachute. His metal fins caught hold of the air, and caused him to brake intensely.

He used that recoil to shift the direction of their bodies. He stretched out his left leg, and set up the posture for a dive kick. He subtly pulled Chiyuri’s hand as she took the same posture, and adjusted her aim as well. Immediately after, the guide cursor disappeared from his vision.

At that instant, the enemy tag team also realized that Haruyuki and Chiyuri were in unexpectedly close proximity, and hurriedly brought themselves to a quick stop by braking so much that they dug into the ground. After they gave a quick look at their surroundings, they abruptly looked up at the sky.

But by then it was already too late—

“Oryaaaaaaaa!”

“To————oh!”

Along with those shouts, Haruyuki’s left foot and Chiyuri’s right foot kicked through the rafflesia petals and then accurately plunged into their respective targets at a sharp angle.

They had attacked with a timing that wouldn’t allow the enemy to evade unhurt even if they were skilled masters. Frost Horn and Tourmaline Shell crossed their arms in front of their bodies together, and fortified themselves to block them. Regardless, the dive kicks that had gathered up energy by dropping down from 500 meters high above struck them hard.

As if a special technique had hit the mark, flashy light effects and impact sounds occurred at the same time and filled the area.

“Mugoh..”

“Funeen!”

Labored grunts leaked out from the mouths of Horn and Shell. They lowered their waists and resisted being bounced back by the kicks. They desperately dug both their legs into the green ground, and carved four deep tracks into it.

However, no matter how big their builds were, it was impossible to guard against such heavy attacks.

Their defense was torn apart in just a single second, and Horn and Shell were flicked backwards at the same time. They were blown away while deeply digging into the ground, and crashed into the trunk of a big tree far away. Impact effects shook the stage once again, and the upper right health gauges both decreased by almost 30%.

With their first attack a success, Haruyuki and Chiyuri landed on the ground with a backwards somersault, as many shouts erupted from further away.

Those cheers of things like ‘Amazing’ and ‘You can’t deal that kind of splendid damage with a normal technique’ were from the gallery of small groups of players looking down at the site of hostilities from high branches. As expected of Shinjuku, the mecca of duels, there seemed to be over 20 people here even on a weekday like this.

Just as the commotion settled down temporarily, Frost Horn and Tourmaline Shell stuck out and turned over their legs from the thicket of plants, and then stood up vigorously. Although they were a bit unsteady from the lingering intense damage, they quickly held their ground and shouted in loud voices one after the other.

“Da—mn it, I hate it people like you that come from the viewing platform of the government office! Though you guys probably couldn’t see anything with that much rain!”[1]

“That’s not the problem, Horn-kun! A date, these two are on a date, Horn-kuuuun!”

“Wh..Wh..at..They’re dueling while on a date..you mean..!?”

“That’s it, Horn-kun! After defeating us, they probably intend to hug and kiss, Horn-kuuu——n!!”

“Un..Unforgivable. No way am I going to accept Burst Linkers like that—!!”

Witnessing this little skit that one couldn’t help but think had been prepared beforehand, the surrounding gallery suddenly got all excited again. One-sided cheering like ‘That’s right, that’s right’ and ‘Show them the guts of the unpopular’ came down along with roars of laughter.

Hearing all this while dumbfounded, Haruyuki frantically shook his head back and forth.

“T-That’s not..We’re not on anything like a d-date.”

“You annoying people should also form tag teams with girls!”

Chiyuri’s shout there seemed to add fuel to the fire and overwrote Haruyuki’s defense. Frost Horn once again staggered on his feet.

“N..Now, I’m going to come at you guys seriously..”

Next to him, Tourmaline Shell put both hands on his waist and said ‘Yeah, yeah’ while nodding.

“We Leonids have barely any girl Linkers. They all sweat and turn away just by hearing about something like a close-range type group.”

“There’s no way you can understand! Since it’s like this, we’ve got no choice but to fill ‘em with holes and make them feel really sore on the way home!!”

“Uwah, that’s really petty, Horn-kuuun!”

“Shut up! I’ll show you! A real man’s! Way of life! Let’s go..”

As Haruyuki was once again dumbfounded at this comic skit, Frost Horn suddenly positioned his arms on either side of himself. The rough horns that sprouted from his forehead and shoulders were tinged with an intense light.

“?Frosted Circle?!!”

Along with that technique name announcement, a circle of pale light spread out with the horns at the center, and shot through Haruyuki and Chiyuri before dispersing behind them.

It occurred at a speed and range that couldn’t be avoided, but the light itself was harmless. Haruyuki and Chiyuri’s health gauges didn’t change even slightly.

However, Haruyuki retightened his sense and waited for the phenomenon that would follow. He had fought with Frost Horn in the territory battles several times, but this was the first time that he had been directly hit by this special technique. If he remembered right it, it should be a technique that didn’t do direct damage to the energy, but instead influenced the area and changed its characteristics.

*KIN, KIN*?Along with thin and sharp sounds, the surrounding plants began to be dyed white. Particles of glittering light danced through the air. It was all ?frost?. The crystallized moisture adhered to all objects and covered them in ice.

While watching as Silver Crow’s shiny silver armor clouded over all at once and a heavy frost formed right up to the tips of his limbs and armor, Haruyuki spoke in a low voice.”

“Bell[2], I’ll face Horn. Hold back Shell until I finish him.”

“Okay.”

Immediately after she gave that short response—

“Uo..raaaah!”

On the other side of the veil of frost, a deep war cry was let out, and a huge silhouette charged straight at Haruyuki.

It was Frost Horn. There was frost adhering to his light-blue armor just like Haruyuki’s. It seemed that the horns on his forehead and shoulder in particular were covered in a film of especially thick ice.

He thrusted with the big horn on his right shoulder, and attacked Haruyuki with a violent shoulder tackle. Dropping his waist and opening his eyes wide, Haruyuki measured the timing to evade and counterattack.

“....Kuoh!”

With that shout, Haruyuki jumped to the right and tried to intercept the ramming attack.

However, his body was much heavier than usual because of the adhering frost, and his starting motion was too slow. Although not a direct hit, the horn grazed him, and he received a blunt shock through his left shoulder. He held his ground while gritting his teeth, and then let out a right punch at Horn’s side as he tried to pass him by.

But his timing was once again out of order due to the added weight. Since it was heavily wrapped in frost, Haruyuki’s short punch would have induced more damage than usual if it hit its mark, but its power was halted due to only slightly grazing Horn’s body.

This was the main effect of the special technique ?Frosted Circle?. It increased the total weight of duel avatars within its effect range, and inhibited speedy small techniques and consecutive-hit techniques. Conversely, it also increased the power of big one-shot techniques. Moreover, since long-range vision got extremely bad as a side effect, sniping from a distance was prevented, and heat-source homing was also canceled because of the cold.

In other words, it forced almost all types of avatars to use large sumo-like close combat attacks within this area, which made it a terrifying ability in various ways. Even if one moved and tried to leave the effect area, getting away was not easy since the frost was continually generated over a wide range with Horn as the center.

While glaring at the silhouette of Horn as he turned around further away and went into a charging position to use his horns again, Haruyuki murmured within his mind.

—Fine then, I’ll play it your way.

While hardening his fists and his resolve, he glanced over at the two other people confronting each other further away.

His partner Lime Bell’s body was similarly frozen white all over. Her left hand’s bell was especially covered in icicles, and seemed quite heavy.

However—

Her opponent, Tourmaline Shell, wasn’t covered in even a speck of frost anywhere on his body. The smooth and curved armor that covered his slender body was no different at all from when the duel had started, and shined a wet-like blue-green. No, it was actually wet. The ice that tried to cover him was melted the instant it touched him, and dripped down.

This was the reason Tourmaline Shell and Frost Horn liked to pair together.

His tourmaline-colored[3]?armor was tinged with an electric current that generates heat when anything impacted it. There were not many ?electric-type? and ?heat-type? avatars that could produce heat continuously like this. Shell was one of the few avatars that was completely immune to Horn’s special technique.

*PACHI, PACHI*?Positioning both his electricity-crawling arms as if to do a sword strike with them, Tourmaline Shell approached Lime Bell with a smooth motion. He fired close-range attacks with Chinese martial arts-like palm strikes one after another. Bell firmly hardened her guard using her large bell in place of a shield.

Being a green type of a very high color saturation, Lime Bell’s defensive power was so high that it was comparable to that of a metal color. Since both her arms were furthermore covered thickly in frost, Shell’s ?electric heat palm strikes? seemed to deal almost no damage. As long as she concentrated on guarding, she should be able to mostly preserve her HP.

However—that was also surely within the expectations of the enemy tag team.

Horn and Shell of course knew that Lime Bell was an incredibly rare ?healer?. In this battle, where the total combined levels of each team were exactly the same, there was a high probability of them being defeated if she used her healing ability even once.

Therefore, they were using the strategy where Shell, who could freely move even within the effect range of ?Frosted Circle?, was restraining Bell with small consecutive attacks, while Horn finished off Crow. Although their first attack from above had been successful, the duel had changed according to the enemy’s plan after they landed on the ground.

In order to overcome this situation, Haruyuki had no choice but to take down Horn without any support.

..But, we understood that from the moment we decided to fight at close quarters on the ground!

Bringing the last of his momentary thoughts to an end with that inner shout, Haruyuki focused his consciousness on the silhouette of Frost Horn rushing towards him.

He had felt the weight of the frost adhering to him in the tangle between them just now. He should be able to dodge with a last-second movement next time and land a counter without fail.

Horn stuck out his left shoulder this time and thrusted the horn there forward like a battering ram. Haruyuki withstood his fear and deliberately drew towards the attack.

—Here!

He kicked off the ground to step out of the way with a timing just slightly faster than earlier, and at that instant.

The top of the sharp horn directly hit Haruyuki’s left shoulder.

“Uah!”

Involuntarily letting out a shout from the intense impact, Haruyuki was helplessly blown away. He crashed into the ground while spinning, and without stopping he rebounded back high in the air. Since he would get additional damage if he fell like this, he somehow managed to make himself land on his feet to avoid that at least.

Even so, though, Haruyuki’s health gauge had decreased about 20% from just the horn attack. A deep gouge was dug into his left shoulder’s armor, releasing crackling sparks. A sharp pain that was characteristic of receiving large damage locally ran through his nerves, but Haruyuki felt more surprise than pain.

The timing should have been perfect. So then why had he been completely hit by the horn attack that should have been slower than a bullet?

The answer was giving from the mouth of Frost Horn, who stood up to his full height a little further away.

“Uhahahaha! Are you surprised, bird-man! You might not know since you always look down from the sky, but my stylish horns get longer while within ?Frosted Circle?! They rise strongly and sturdily!”

“..W-What did you say..”

While dumbfounded, Haruyuki focused his eyes, and saw that, indeed, the cone-shaped horns extending from the large water-colored avatar’s shoulders and forehead were thickly wrapped in ice and seemed to be longer than they were when where the battle started.

Furthermore, their size still seemed to be increasing moment by moment. In other words, no matter how many times Haruyuki memorized the distance and interval of his tackle attacks, it would be useless.

“How is it, this! Is a real man’s! weapon! Uhahanohaa!”

In response to Horn’s loud laughter, applauses of ‘yeah, yeah!’ and retorts like ‘How vulgar’ rained down from the surrounding gallery.

Listening to it all, Haruyuki sucked in a deep breath, and then breathed out.

—It seems I was mistaken about this.

Fighting recklessly without choosing one's opponent and fighting by destroying one’s style and just bulldozing forward are both similarly mistaken. Thinking I could win without any strategy in the enemy’s arena was the same as making light of my opponent. I should have fought by mustering all my ability from the beginning against this opponent. And if don’t do so, I’ll have no chance of winning.

—From here on, I’m going full-throttle!

Making a fist with both hands and drawing them to either side of his body, Haruyuki started unfolding the wings on his back. With the first damage he had given and the damage he had received just now, his special technique gauge was about half-filled. First, he would retrieve Chiyuri and fly up towards the sky. He would then wait for the Frosted Circle to be canceled, and then defeat Tourmaline Shell first with another double dive attack—

Haruyuki formed that strategy in his mind, but then experienced an unexpected phenomenon and cried out.

“Geh..!”

For some reason, his wings wouldn’t unfold. When he promptly turned to look at his back, he saw that frost was sticking to his folded metal wings, most likely acting as a glue that prevented them from unfolding.

Watching Haruyuki as he frantically moved his hands to his back and tried to rub off the frost, Horn shouted.

“Uhoh, somehow! I sense! A cha~~nce!”

Lowering his waist, this time he took a position to dash with the remarkably larger horn on his forehead in front.

Haruyuki’s gauge had lost 20% from just the shoulder tackle. He absolutely couldn’t allow himself to be hit by what seemed to be Horn’s sure-kill technique. However, even if he abandoned doing a counter attack and ran out of the way, the situation would just gradually get worse. Something, something, he had to do something—

“Teiyaah—!!”

It was at that moment that a high-spirited yell resounded.

When he looked in its direction for a moment, his eyes beheld the scene of Lime Bell catching Tourmaline Shell’s palm strike with her right hand and then flinging him over her shoulder with a one-armed shoulder throw of excellent form.

*SUPO—N*?The thrown Shell fell somewhere behind her about 10 meters away. However, it was unfortunate. The effectiveness of a throwing technique was at the lowest in a grassland or sand stage like this ?Primeval Forest?. The blue-green avatar started to jump back up immediately without having received much damage.

But, the true aim of that shoulder throw seemed to be something else.

Chiyuri turned around without looking at where her thrown enemy was going, and cried out while hoisting the large bell in her left hand up high in the air.

“?Citron Ca——ll?!!”

As she swung down her bell, a lime-green light was sent out from it along with a beautiful bell sound. The light headed straight towards Haruyuki, and then—

Passed right by his left arm and disappeared into the fog behind him.

“Wha....”

Haruyuki’s dumbfounded voice was overlapped by loud laughter from Frost Horn.

“Uhaha! Light beam techniques have their hit rate decreased by 30% within the ?Circle?! If you’re a real man! Fight with! Your body!!”

*GOH*?White frost was whirled up into the air at Horn’s feet. With an energetic dash with a strong kick-off, he thrusted towards Haruyuki. His forehead’s huge horn shined sharply.

In the near-instant it took the enemy to close in on him, Haruyuki’s thoughts spun at full power.

No matter how low the visibility was, had Chiyuri really missed with her special technique just now?

She was an incredibly careful-type when it came to that. If she used her healing ability, she must have waited for the moment when it would surely hit. Yet, Haruyuki’s health gauge was down by only 20%. It was too soon for activating ?Citron Call? with its bad energy consumption.

In other words, Chiyuri had purposely made her technique miss, no, she had aimed at something else besides Silver Crow.

If he had to name a factor besides the fighters in this Primeval Forest stage that could influence the state of the battle, it would be..

The instant his thoughts reached that far, Haruyuki realized what he had to do.

Opening his eyes wide, he waited for Frost Horn’s charge. He lowered his waist, with one leg bent forward and the other extended behind him, and calculated the direction he needed to dodge towards.

“Uo..ryaaaaa—!”

Pretending as if he was unnerved by Horn’s rough battle cry, Haruyuki turned his body around. He ran away at full speed while precisely following the line that Chiyuri’s special technique had pass through earlier. A trembling in the ground drew near him from behind, and a premonition of damage suddenly hit his back—

He then suddenly braked and kicked off the ground with all his strength, aiming directly above. Spreading out his hands and bending his back, he jumped over Horn with a backwards somersault, and tried going around to behind his back.

The enemy was aware that Silver Crow couldn’t use his wings. In that case, he shouldn’t expect for him to escape upwards. Sure enough, there was a feeling of grazing a sharp tip on the center of his back, but Haruyuki danced through the air without getting any further shocks.

The large avatar was charging in a straight line towards the center of his vision that had become reversed.

In the direction he was heading towards, a huge elliptical-shaped silhouette had appeared within the curtain of white fluttering frost.

“Owaah!?”

That shout belonged to Frost Horn. He flapped both his hands frantically and tried to do an abrupt braking. However, since the ground at his feet was half-frozen, he couldn’t immediately stop. While grandly kicking about the frost on the ground, he slammed straight into the round silhouette.

*BAKUSHA*?A dry yet wet smashing sound resounded.

The huge elliptical sphere broke greatly, and transparent mucus flowed out. Something crept out from inside it, and let out an angry cry of ‘GIIIIIII’ as if its back had gotten cold.

The things that one always had to look out for in the Primeval Forest stage were the gigantic living creature-type objects. There were various types like carnivores, dinosaurs, and also man-eating plants, but standardly all the creatures would indiscriminately attack any duel avatars that entered their vision.

The only exception to that was ?when one broke an egg?.

A huge living creature whose peaceful sleep within its shell had been disturbed would continue aiming at only the avatar that disturbed it for 500 seconds. Like this huge long-horned beetle, whose four eyes were shining red right now as it looked down on Frost Horn with its large robust jaws chattering.

As amazed voices saying things like ‘Aah, he really did it this time’ rained down from the gallery, Horn put up his hands and spoke to the carapace-covered creature.

“W-W-W-Wait! ..If we talk as fellow men, we’ll understand each other!”

“GIGIGIIIIIII!!”

Unfortunately, it seemed to be a female. The long-horned beetle began to savagely chase after the avatar that wasn’t even half its size, mowing down the surrounding rafflesia with its huge antennas. As Horn let out a scream of ‘Uhiiii!’ and tried to escape, its huge jaws bit the air several times above his head.

—Of course, ?eggs of huge creatures? that could cause such a terrifying result didn’t lie around the forest that conveniently. Even if you tried to use it as part of a strategy, there was a high chance of not finding even one after searching intently during the duel tim-->>

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