4 A Major Clan Master Is Stunned

Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/5/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

◆◇Sight: A Certain Major Clan’s Clan Master◇◆

 

My name is Uesaka Toji.

My Stratos ID is Winter.

I am the clan master of Knights of the Stars, one of what people call Japan’s four major clans in Fate Link: Legendia.

“Is this for real…… this newbie.”

An “event quest” had just been issued, so I put out a call for clan members at Highlane’s Stratos Association to take it.

The Association I’d come to was in an uproar, people from all kinds of countries watching monitors showing the combat space.

A beginner with a sprout mark was shooting down 〈Delirium Atlas〉 one after another in a single fighter.

With piloting technique you could call superhuman.

A tough-faced player watching the monitor leans out and yells.

“What is that zigzag flight! Are they ignoring inertia!?”

People who seem to be with him are amazed too.

“The drift is too sharp! ——But a frame only has so many rockets. You shouldn’t be able to turn that sharply……”

“There’s no easy way to kill inertia in FateLege, you know?”

“And they accelerate for an instant in the direction they want to slide on inertia, then immediately put the sights back on the enemy——sliding sideways through that many shots, and the sights are always on the enemy.”

“The trajectory is vicious to begin with!! ——Roll roll roll, is that a twist!? A drill-like twist!!”

“……A dragon. A dragon of light is coiling in space……”

People from overseas were yelling too.

“I am definitely hallucinating!!”

“He’s amazing… I can’t help but feel awe!”

I look back at the monitor too.

They shoot down another 〈Atlas〉.
No clan mark, and they don’t look like they’re in a party.

……Solo, huh.

While I’m in shock, a girl’s voice comes from behind.

“Master, we’re ready. Everyone else seems okay too.”
“Ah——Alice-kun.”

I turn, and there’s Alice-kun, one of our clan members.

She’s a Versus Frame rider famous even in Fate Link: Legendia, our clan’s strongest force.

The lead pilot of 〈Divine Combiner Fragment〉, completed when three machines—red, blue, and yellow—combine.
And even without the combined state, her skill overwhelms ordinary pilots.

Especially the swordwork in humanoid form is tremendous.

Rumor even says she can read people’s hearts.
Right. She might understand what this footage means.

“Hey, Alice-kun. What do you think of this monitor?”
“It’s very big.”
“Eh? ——Not that. What’s on it.”
“Aren’t we going to the combat space? Everyone’s waiting on the battleship.”
“Just look.”

Alice-kun tilts her head, suspicious, but starts staring at the monitor.
Then the pupils in her dubious face slowly go wide.
Just when I think she’s frozen,

“——Hah? No no no——!!”

She plants both arms on the desk in front of her, eyeballs shaking.

“Is this person insane!?”
“So from your view it’s abnormal too.”

“The trajectory is too stupid——! This is like doing a spot-the-difference with reflex! Finding an escape in an instant and diving in.”
“That’s amazing……”

Spot-the-difference is something you do while thinking for a while…… not something you do by feel.

“And, Clan Master—that’s space, you know?”
“Hm?”

“In space the way gravity hits is weird, and there’s no air pressure, so it’s extremely sensitive.”
“Ah, right.”

“Almost zero drag, so if you do that you normally can’t stop.”
“H…… how is that player doing it.”

“——They’re probably using skills too, but that person’s drift technique in space is too good. What’s more ghastly is—”
“Ghastly?”

“That person is cutting the engine over and over. Not stopping the rockets—cutting the engine.”
“Eh!? ——That’s insane…… i-if you do that!!”

“True, in space you don’t keep the rockets burning all the time. Once you reach the speed you want, you stop the rockets.——But you don’t stop the engine. Stop the engine and it takes time to restart——but that person is stopping the engine again and again, probably to cool it so they can spam 〈Critical Blackbody Beam〉, one of the few weapons Swallowtail can put firepower out with.”

“If you do that you can’t control the frame!! ——Is that newbie doing something that crazy!? Or rather, does stopping the engine cool it that much!?”

“There’s blackbody, so it cools in a blink. But you normally can’t do that. Not unless you’re certain no barrage is coming. Worst case you end up drowning in debt—”
“Right!? ——Completely insane……”

Kich—no. Beyond the pale. Those words float in my head.

Alice-kun, saying this, has not taken her eyes off the monitor at all.

“——In the first place, how can they do high-speed combat in space staying that close without touching……”
“Huh? Come to think of it, there aren’t players who fly around space at high speed, are there? Everyone stops their feet and fights. Why is that?”

“Because matching relative velocity in space is hard. Once it slips, even getting close to the enemy is hard.”
“Come to think of it the helmsman said they work at matching it with something called a relative-velocity control. Without relative-velocity control you can’t get to the same speed as the enemy.”

“That person has the relative-velocity control off.”
“——Hah!?”

“Relative-velocity control is slow, so they must have cut it as a hindrance. Otherwise you couldn’t match relative velocity at that speed. They match relative velocity to the target MoB in an instant by feel alone. They pull that off with needle-eye control in sliding space. That’s why they can unfold high-speed combat staying that close without touching. I have never seen anyone do high-speed combat in space staying that close——”

I finish listening to Alice-kun’s explanation and look back at the monitor again.

Indeed, the moment you think they’ve dropped one enemy, they match speed to another and take the rear in a blink.
And even if the opponent throws their relative velocity off, they can match it again right away. They’re raising and lowering acceleration sickeningly close to the opponent’s relative velocity.

Too good. An outrageous deftness. I don’t know a player who can match relative velocity that perfectly by hand, even with relative-velocity control assisting.

I’m making a dubious face when Alice-kun yells again.

She starts being even more shocked than before.

“——Wait! They fired a guided missile the instant they switched targets to another enemy!? ——How can they fire a guided missile from that far!? A lock-on point only about 30 centimeters should be like a bean at that distance! Guided missiles are treated as landmines if you even equip them!?—”

Alice-kun continues in a flustered voice.

“——W-w-w-why are they flying in a dangerous direction!? Wh-what is this stupid-looking trajectory…….——〈Excitation Wings〉——!? Th-they’re going to melee in flight form!?”

Wait, 〈Excitation Wings〉!? I don’t know a player who actually uses that!?

Alice-kun yells at the monitor.

“That’s not even a landmine weapon, that’s a joke loadout!?”

And according to Alice-kun’s explanation, space slides, and matching relative velocity is hard. They’re using it there?
Using it on the ground would be nothing compared to how hard that is, right? ——And even on the ground, not one person uses 〈Excitation Wings〉 in live combat.

I ask Alice-kun.

“Th-〈Excitation Wings〉…… melee on a high-speed fighter is romance—I mean a joke. I’ve never even seen anyone use it in live combat on the ground? Is that newbie a romance player……??”
“I-I don’t know. No no no, they’ll hit, they’ll hit, they’ll hit! ——Just watching makes my stomach knot!!”

“Uwah, they caress-cut the 〈Atlas〉!?”

“——Why don’t they hit!? Has that person completely graduated from being human——!? 〈Excitation Wings〉 have outrageous power, and if you’re using low-firepower Swallowtail you’d want them—but I’ve never seen or heard of anyone actually mastering 〈Excitation Wings〉! ……Even if Versus Frames have shields, that’s like flying a plane at high speed just off off-road.——And at that speed in space, it’s an instant collision.”

“And they’re doing it sideways——wait, they dropped another one……!”
“〈Deli-At〉 that easily!? ——Clan Master, do you know them!? What kind of weirdo is riding that fighter!!”

“No, the receptionist put the monitor on this channel, and when I looked there was a newbie on 〈Delirium〉 and I was watching worried it looked dicey……”
“Eh, that person is a newbie……!? ——Th-they really are!!”

“Who are they…… really.”
“What kind of monster is riding…… wait, they’re being chased by an enemy small craft!”

“They’ve had their six taken. Are they okay.”
“Can that person even dogfight in space while being chased from behind?”

“No good, they’re going to get shot!”
“They can’t shake that!!”

“If it slides, can’t they just flip? Or reverse-thrust and take the rear!?”
“If you turn around it becomes a head-on. Dangerous even on the ground, but in space it’s extremely dangerous.”

“Wh-why is it dangerous?”

“Even if you drop the opponent, debris accelerated by the blast comes flying in countless pieces. In thin-armored Swallowtail you’d almost certainly trade. And if you fly backward to fight, now the barrage is coming from behind, so you become barrage food.”

“——I see.”

“Reverse-thrust is no good either.——Reverse-thrust doesn’t let you accelerate the other way in an instant. You slow down bit by bit, stop for an instant, then start accelerating the other way bit by bit. You’re a good target for the enemy. Or rather, if you did leap the other way in an instant, even with gravity control the person inside would go pop.”

“……So it really isn’t a simple story.”

I’m nodding when Alice-kun, watching the monitor, sucks in a breath.

“N——no! That person is in the sights, they’ll get sh——wait, no way!?”

Alice-kun’s eyes go wide in shock——because Swallowtail has started flying backward.

“That Swallowtail turned around, Alice-kun!!”
“They’re going to dodge the barrage while flying backward!?”

“——Th-they’re dodging.”
“No wayyy.”

Alice-kun and I are both dumbfounded, unable to find a follow-up.

But the next instant, the “eh” that goes up through the whole building harmonizes.

“They took the enemy’s rear!? ——How!!”
“They did an aerial combat maneuver in space the instant the enemy fired!? ——At that speed, in that barrage!?”

“How did they take the small craft’s rear in an instant——huh, an aerial combat maneuver?! ——What’s that?!”

“It’s like a fighter ‘technique.’ The maneuver that person did is called a barrel roll. Barrel—meaning you fly tracing the inside of a barrel. You take a longer path on your own trajectory and let the opponent overshoot, then take their back.”

Alice continues.

“This is what happened in that instant…… that person used a circular movement in Swallowtail to reduce how much they advanced, dodged every shot, and let the opponent overshoot.”
“How do you dodge that……”

“That’s…… like reversing at full speed on ice in a car with normal tires, perfectly dodging volleyballs flying in countless numbers, and getting behind the opponent.”

“Hah!? ——Th-that’s not human work! Where did a nameless newbie even learn that!?”

“Or rather, most of what that person is doing, ordinary people can’t do…… That’s exactly why most people fight in humanoid form, where high-speed combat isn’t needed. If a barrier takes it, a healer recovers the barrier, and an attacker attacks, you don’t need high-speed combat.”

Having said that much, Alice-kun clenches her fist, looking frustrated.

“——Kh, it’s frustrating——already, I’m in a different dimension.”
“Even a player of your level is saying it’s frustrating.”

“It’s frustrating. I’ve become that person’s fan!”
“Eh——that way!? Enough that a top player like you becomes a fan!?”

“That person is definitely going to change the common sense of the Fate Link: Legendia world……! The common sense that ‘hard frames are strong’!!”

Alice-kun’s prophecy hits.

Combat footage of a player called Suu spreads as a video and raises a world-shaking stir.