Beep—

The comm signal snapped dead.

While Ling Yi froze, a lance of light speared her shoulder.

"Ugh!"

The Doctor had just said her Sorcery was tapped, then a flat "I’m done"—and silence.

Did she pass out from Sorcery depletion?!

Never heard of that happening.

Ling Yi popped the floating shield. Energy bolts splashed like rain on glass. She raised her rifle to return fire, but an identical shield soaked it.

The pilot of Gale was the same kind of robot as when Dew showed up. Back then, bored and drifting, Ling Yi had flown to the mountaintop to drink in the island view, only to get hard-locked by Gale diving in from afar, forced into a scrappy fight.

Same build, same bite. She’s human, it’s a robot. Precision-wise, she’s outgunned.

In practice, her shots never hit. Her rush-ins got shrugged off. The bot farmed her shield durability for free. She could hang on for now, but drag it out and the end was written.

Should she fire the modded Blastwind Deflection and carpet-bomb it? The Doctor would roast her later…

Wait. One more move.

Ling Yi fired once to force a dodge, then pulled another key from her chest pocket.

"Flashblade Activation!"

"Sky Striker Ace! Code-04!"

"Dew!"

The keen green armor broke into red motes, hovered, then gathered on her again as sleek blue plating. The floating rig and coilgun reformed into twin shoulder cannons, clamped to her shoulders.

Dew.

Dew’s Blade Spell is Hindrance Ripples. Ling Yi had only used it to bluff Crimson Field once, never really got the effect to trigger.

Yekase had warned her it’s finicky—but it’s still interference. Strong or weak, as long as it makes the enemy slip, it’s enough.

"Blade Spell—"

Uh… how do you fire it, again—

She charged halfway and felt it wrong. A disruption skill wouldn’t be one dial fits all. There had to be a settings screen. Where do you open it?

"Got it!"

Bottom-right of her visor HUD, a tiny square icon none of the other forms had.

Her visor read her gaze and popped the icon.

"Hindrance Ripples!!"

…

……

What happened?

"Feels like I’m dropping. That’s gotta be—"

She muttered, then her posture lurched. Her sky flipped to—

Ground rushing up, wide as a wall.

"Just my imagination—aaah?!"

When she sparred with Crimson Field, she cast off on purpose. Even then her gut was a flock of startled birds. Now she was losing speed out of nowhere—no warning at all.

"F-flash—Flashblade Activation aaah!!"

Hands scrambling, she snatched a key and transformed. Scarlet plates snapped out and wrapped her tight, yanking her body to a hard stop barely ten meters off the ground.

She glanced at the Dew key. The faint dark-red breathing light had gone completely out. Looks like it wouldn’t boot for a bit.

So that icon was a self-destruct? Why?!

Her head was a mess. Her eyes still hunted the enemy by reflex. On the mountain’s side, she spotted the robot too, its armor shucked, tumbling down the steep slope.

It looked painful. Robots don’t feel pain.

Ling Yi steadied midair, then swung the Sky Striker down at the bot’s head.

Clang!

Blocked.

Its two legs had speared deep into the rock face, locking its body at an impossible angle.

But its key was disabled. It couldn’t possibly tank Kagari’s relentless strikes.

"Blazing—"

The robot’s eyes flared crimson.

—

If she cut, she’d win—but her newborn battle sense shouted: Dodge now.

All six jets roared. She sprang back.

Boom-boom-boom!

The cliff beside her bulged and blew apart. Four massive mechanical claws punched out, dragging harsh wind, slamming from four directions at where she’d stood a heartbeat ago.

"Knew there’d be a trap…!"

Without that backstep, she’d be a meat patty inside an iron palm. Best case, she’d be caught on the spot.

If she guessed right, that was—

"Sky Striker Ace! Code-03!"

"Gauntlet!"

The last form she hadn’t collected. Earth-aspected Gauntlet.

Signature: enormous mechanical claws that burrow underground… blunt and honest, old-school muscle.

Good news: it didn’t look like it could fly.

While Ling Yi ditched the attack and jumped away, the robot’s body wrapped itself in heavy yellow armor. The lure failed, so all four claws tore up from the soil—each linked to its back. No wonder it held that freakish pose to hide its rear.

She hovered, watching. The four claws spun twice, then stabbed back into the earth.

"Mode switch: Cliff-Climber Excavator."

A flat synth voice chimed. Right before her eyes, the four claws moved like spider legs, nimble and alternating. Armor and add-ons that looked like iron mountains trotted along the steep slope like a garden path, ferrying the main body onto a safer knoll.

"That much destructive force, and it can swap modes… a compensation for no flight? If so, I can’t let you run wild. If you knock the mountain down, what happens to the base below!"

Blazing Rekindle!

"Mode switch: River-Style Wind-Strike Dragon."

Three of the claws pulled free and angled toward the incoming red blade-flare. Their once bare tips opened like flowers, revealing inner machinery—and muzzles.

Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!

Not cannons. Hair dryers?

"How’s that breeze supposed to scatter my—"

The red blade-light met the gale from the three muzzles. It actually stopped. They wrestled midair for a few seconds, then both broke into motes and faded.

"—It really blew it away?!"

Was that wind?

Not some kind of particle beam?!

So much for ranged attacks… and close-in, could she pierce those claws and bite into that thick armor…

If only the Doctor could guide her—

"Keep leaning on the Doctor, and what was the point of training!"

Ling Yi tightened her grip on the Sky Striker. Close is hard. Ranged is dead. Then use courage to fill the gap.

"If I use it… just this once… she won’t yell, right?"

Blue fire licked up along the Sky Striker.

It twined with the original scarlet blaze, rising as a twin-colored pillar—her strongest move for now, Mind Energy boost.

"Enemy energy level rising. High-tier protocol approved," the robot droned, a voice with no soul.

Ling Yi cycled Mind Energy through her body. Power flooded her like a river in spate. She felt like she could punch out an ox. She rode the peak and charged with her blade.

But right after that “high-tier protocol,” the yellow stripes on Gauntlet lit up bright. The three muzzles still aimed at her flipped into super suction. Halfway through her dash, Ling Yi staggered in midair, dragged off balance.

"Mode switch: Goliath Giant."

"Then I’m switching too! Flashblade Activation!"

"Sky Striker Ace! Code-02!"

"Gale!"

Her body kicked into brutal acceleration. She skimmed past a mechanical claw now thickened into an arm—a near-miss by a hair.

Gauntlet braced itself on two elongated claws like legs. The other two bulked up as primary weapons. No head monitor, human-shaped core—but it looked eerily like an MS.

"Haha, so that’s where my mech was hiding…"

She cracked a joke to steady her breath, then attacked again. Single-suit armor versus an MS-class frame—her only reference was Triple Calamity’s tower-turned-mech. She’d lost shamefully then, but no way Gauntlet tops that.

"Going in!"

Those arms hit hard, and they were fast. They couldn’t change course mid-swing. Ling Yi read that and swapped back to Gale after catching her breath.

"Ha…!"

The read was perfect.

The arms swung a blur of afterimages. Her green speed cut through like a dragonfly over a pond—touching nothing.

One hand on the coilgun, one on the Sky Striker, she rode Mind Energy and mastered Gale’s high-speed dogfight. On approach, she stabbed at armor seams. On the break, she tagged two shots for free. Against an enemy several times her size, she began to press the advantage.

However—

"No… damage?"

After several minutes of weaving and stabbing, she backed off to breathe and looked close. The Goliath Giant form of Gauntlet was untouched.

Blade cuts. Bullet pits. All gone—every last mark.

And the final cut she’d left sealed shut before her eyes, like time-lapse on a living wound.

"This—"

"Mode switch:"

Another form?! How many was that now?

Gauntlet tucked its arms and legs, dropped back to the ground. Then it unfolded again, coupling the claws in pairs, extending them forward to twice the length—like a warped three-wheeler.

"Earth Shaker."

Rumble-rumble-rumble—!

That monstrous trike crushed hilltops, hopped ravines, and barreled straight for the base below. Terrain turned to packing foam under its passage. The whole island shuddered with its run.

"Come on—how come the Doctor left me no skills on that scale? Guess going dark really does add thirty percent power!"