“Yer wasting our time,” Amula growled, as she balanced atop the wooden pole he’d been standing on and tightened the straps on her winged beetle boots—her bright orange eyes in Raya’s direction. “Get out of our way.”

  Raya, for his part, didn’t respond to her provocation. His stance was tighter, his muscles glistening with sweat. Even Dahlia could tell he was wary of her strength—and Dahlia had seen him this serious before—so it was no surprise that the first thing he did was snap his wrist-mounted crossbow onto her face, firing off a quick two-round burst.

  Minimal head movement. Amula dodged the hornet stinger by a hair’s breadth, avoiding getting her left eye pierced through, but they still scraped past her cheeks and grazed her skin.

  Raya sighed exasperatedly.

  “... My hornet stingers are all laced with a paralysing venom,” he said, yanking his spear from the ground and shaking off the tension in his arms with a small flourish; his eyes were back on Issam standing directly beneath Amula. “Issam has already been grazed thirty-one times by my spear, while you have just been grazed twice by my ranged stingers. It will take Issam approximately five more minutes to fall, owing to his sturdy build, but you, I think three minutes is more than long enough. If you want to die in a more beautiful location, leave your Swarmsteel here and–”

  Amula took a step back and dropped off the wooden pole.

  She kicked three times, sending three wooden pole fragments flying at Raya. He frowned and deflected them with his bare hands, taking a slow step forward.

  “–I was saying, if you want to die in a nicer place, take off all your Swarmsteel and–”

  She landed heels first, a small quake making the floor ripple around her, and kicked the entire rest of the pole at him. This time Raya swung his spear and cut cleanly through the centre of the projectile, aiming his wrist-mounted crossbow at her chest.

  “–just leave. Go on back and help your friends or whatever in the shelter–”

  Of the dozen or so metal shrapnel that flew into the air from her hard landing, she kicked half of them forward, the projectiles completely annihilating the stingers as they flew at her. Counterattack. One of the metal shrapnel hit Raya square in his left shin, making him wobble for the briefest of moments, but that was all the advantage Amula needed to press forward.

  And, by ‘press forward’, Dahlia felt ‘going anywhere forward’ was the more apt way to describe her fighting style.

  Raya lunged in, spear going straight for her head, but Issam dashed forward with his blade to redirect it; the swordsman chuckled and fell over afterwards, having completely run out of strength to match the spearman. But he’d done his part. With Raya now positioned in the very centre of the room, Amula was allowed to dash off to the sides to kick up a storm… and there was she didn’t kick at him.

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  Broken hammers and blades and furniture from the mounds of scrap, fragmented wooden poles, the torn-down front door, a few firefly cages, and even a few of his own stingers that’d bounced off her shrapnel just a bit earlier—the twins fanned their mantles and threw themselves over Dahlia just to protect her from all the flying debris, and Issam half-shouted, half-laughed at Amula to stop playing around.

  It took the little black bug on her shoulder some time, but for a second while Amula was still visible—and not blurring circles around the room as she kicked everything she could get her feet on—Dahlia caught a glimpse of the status screen floating next to her head.

  [Bombardier Beetle Boots (Grade: E-Rank)(Spd: +2/2)(Aura: -300]

  Eria murmured.

  A mixture of awe and astonishment coalesced inside her.

  Maybe the twins weren’t really watching while they were protecting her with their mantles, and maybe Issam wasn’t really watching because he was lying flat on his back, breathing heavily, but it was all Dahlia could do to keep herself from cheering for her senior.

  ‘Winged Heel’ Amula was strongest student in the school.

  “... These pointless things won’t reach me,” Raya murmured, sounding almost disappointed as he sliced everything that flew his way apart, not having moved a single step from where he stood. “This isn’t interesting, either. Ranged battles are boring. If you’re strong, then come into melee range and fight me like the bug-slayer you are. Or are you scared? If so, feel free to leave your Swarmsteel by the door before you—”

  Provocation may not work on Raya, but it worked on Amula.

  She kicked a whole closet at his face and he cut it apart without much effort, but she was right behind the closet, a beetle prowling and leaping with both knees pulled up. Her snarl was real. She bowled straight into Raya’s head and slammed him into the ground. A grunt of pain escaped him as he quickly wrestled her off with his spear and spun onto his feet, but his head swivelled left, swivelled right—Amula’s boot smashed into his forehead and she kicked him the chalkboard, through the wall, before she curled her leg and dragged him back in with his neck wrapped under her knee.

  The fight ended when she tossed him to the ground and drove a heel into his spine, metal plates unfurling in a blossom around the point of impact.

  While the twins dropped their mantle, Issam sat up straight, and Jerie continued searching the mounds of scrap for his Swarmsteel, Amula turned to shoot a thumbs up at Dahlia.

  Not knowing the exact reason for the kind gesture, Dahlia returned one of her own—though hers was weak, trembling, and not at all sure of what it was doing.

  She just thought… for many, moments there, that her senior was rather cool.