“Meltina! Good job, you worked really hard!” Rafinha welcomed Meltina with a bright smile.
“I-I’m sorry, I ended up being so late…” Feeling discouraged, Meltina lowered her head.
However, Inglis gently patted her shoulder. “It’s fine. As long as you make it back, we can still win, right?”
“Huh?” Meltina looked puzzled. No matter how she looked at it, the gap was too wide, and her flygear was malfunctioning. It was only natural to think winning was impossible.
“You’re still going, Inglis?”
“It can’t even fly straight, you know?”
“Yeah. But as long as it flies, isn’t that enough?”
Inglis flashed a cheerful smile, already clad in her dragon ice armor created through dragon magic. Then, she casually lifted the hull of the flygear Meltina had jumped off from.
Rafinha thrust her tightly clenched fist into the air.
“Alright! I’ll be right back!”
With her eyes locked onto the mecha-dragons darting through the air at high speed, Inglis swiftly calculated their trajectories and velocity.
“Haaaahhhh!!” Letting out a powerful cry, she swung with all her might and hurled the flygear.
At that moment, her body became cloaked in a bluish-white glow—Ether. With both her Dragon Ice Armor and Ether Armor deployed simultaneously, Inglis had reached the height of her physical prowess.
Immediately afterward, she kicked off from the Flygear Carrier and leaped into the air. The force of her takeoff was so tremendous that it made the Flygear Carrier tilt sharply and lose altitude.
“Kyaaah!? G-, GLIS…!?”
“Did she jump onto the flygear she threw!?”
“Wha…!? Wha-wha-wha…!?”
Rafinha and the others were somewhat used to Inglis’ outrageousness, but Meltina’s eyes went round, utterly stunned by the spectacle before her.
“W-Wooooooaaaaahhh!?”
“D-Did she just throw a flygear!? Am I seeing things!?”
“No, you saw right! She threw it! And then she jumped onto it…! What the heck was that!?”
The audience was just as bewildered as Meltina, too shocked to even cheer and instead voicing their disbelief. Since this was an flygear race, the basic rule was that participants had to be riding a flygear.
But as long as she was on it, how it moved didn’t matter. Throwing the flygear shouldn’t be against the rules.
The flygear with Inglis on it roared as it tore through the air, blasting lake water aside as it rushed toward the mecha-dragons. Though the mecha-dragons had shifted into high-mobility mode, Inglis intercepted their flight path—
The moment the flygear and the mecha-dragon crossed paths, Inglis reached out and snatched the flag as she passed by. Strictly speaking, crashing the flygear into the mecha-dragon would be faster, but destroying a mecha-dragon would be against the rules.
Though she overshot her target because of the distance traveled, there was no helping it.
Inglis leaped off the flygear and descended toward the lake’s surface. The force of her powerful jump sent the flygear’s body plunging downward toward the lake as well.
Inglis, who had landed first, hurried to the spot where the flygear would fall and waited. The water beneath her feet froze into a solid platform thanks to her Dragon Ice Armor, providing her with a perfect foothold.
Inglis firmly caught the falling flygear with her hands. Without hesitation, she swung the flygear’s body high above her head once more. Once you advance, you have to return. It was only natural.
She could see the backs of Raphael and Arles, who had already taken their flags but hadn’t reached the goal yet. Even closer, there was Silva’s back. There was still time to catch up. She just had to be careful not to crash into anyone—
“Once more! Haaaaaaahhhhh!!”
She hurled the flygear with all her might. Immediately after, she kicked off from her foothold and leaped back onto the flygear’s body. With a roaring surge, the flygear shot toward the starting point, churning up waves of lake water.
“Uwaah!? Wh-What kind of speed is that!?”
From where she stood on the flygear, Inglis briefly caught a glimpse of Silva’s astonished face. Raphael and Arles’ backs were quickly closing in. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the NoveI~Fire.net
“Professor Arles. Pardon me for going ahead!”
Arles leaped from her own flygear and grabbed onto the edge of Inglis’ flygear. To be able to react and leap aboard at this speed—such decisiveness and reflexes were indeed fitting for a Hyrule Menace.
“Oh…!? But it’s against the rules to finish without your own flygear—”
“It’s fine! Look behind me!”
A long tail extending from Arles’ lower back was wrapped around her own flygear, pulling it along. This way, she hadn’t completely abandoned her machine, so it wouldn’t count as a foul.
Arles had a modest personality, but the tactics she employed in situations were surprisingly bold. Her serious determination to do everything she could led her to make such daring choices.
Inglis appreciated that she always put in her utmost effort, and she found it admirable.
“I am a teacher, after all!”
The flygear carrying the two of them was rapidly closing in on Raphael up ahead. Although their speed had slightly decreased from Arles latching onto them, they were still faster and could catch up.
“Glis!? In that case, I’ll do this as well!”
Raphael drew the sword at his waist. The crimson-glowing blade was an Ultimate Grade Artifact—the Dragon Fang.
With a thunderous dragon’s roar, crimson armor with wings unfolded, enveloping Raphael. This armor not only enhanced the wearer’s physical abilities but also granted the power of flight.
The Dragon Fang wasn’t just a sword; it was an Artifact that boosted the wielder’s overall combat capabilities. It was this feature that had inspired Inglis when she developed her Dragon Ice Armor technique.
After deploying the Dragon Fang’s armor, Raphael released the control stick and moved to the back of the hull, pushing against it to further accelerate.
“As expected of you, Brother Rafa!”
“I have to show a little dignity once in a while!”
They had slightly slowed down due to Arles clinging to them, while Raphael had accelerated with the Dragon Fang. The result: the three flygears rushed toward the flygear carrier almost perfectly side-by-side.
When Inglis jumped ahead, caught the flygear, and landed, the entire hull of the flygear carrier tilted heavily once again.
““T-The ending was insane! I can’t even tell what happened…!””
Cheers and murmurs of astonishment rose from the audience.
“Hahaha… Throwing, pulling, pushing.”
“Not a single one of them flew properly with their flygears.”
“I-It was quite a fierce battle.”
“Ch-, Charalia is an amazing kingdom…”
Rafinha and the others watched on with half-amused, half-bewildered smiles.
“Principal! Who was the fastest in the end?”
When Inglis asked, Principal Miliera made a troubled face.
“Uh, um… You all reached the finish line almost at the same time, so I can’t really say who was first—”
“No, Senior. I lost.”
“Huh? Why is that, Raphael?”
“Look, see for yourself.”
Raphael took out the flag he had retrieved from the mecha-dragon. Or rather, what was once a flag. It was now just a charred, carbonized piece of stick. The fiery power of the Dragon Fang’s armor must have burned it.
“The condition was to bring back the flag, and I’ve clearly failed to do so.”
“Oh, I see. In that case, Inglis and—”
“No, Principal. Mine is the same.”
The flag Inglis held out was also just a fragment, frozen and crumbling apart. Most likely, it had been damaged by being kept within the Dragon Ice Armor. Just like Raphael, Inglis hadn’t fulfilled the condition.
“Oh? Then, that means… What about yours, Miss Arles?”
Arles took out a perfectly intact flag.
“Which means Arles wins! The Instructor Team takes the victory! Congratulations! It looks like we instructors of the Knight Academy, including me, managed to show some dignity today! Now, give them a big round of applause~~!”
With Principal Miliera’s concluding words, a loud round of applause and cheers erupted.
““Wow, that was something to see!””
““Yeah, it was incredibly intense!””
In the midst of the excitement, Inglis clasped her hands together and bowed her head toward Rafinha and the others.
“Sorry, Rani, everyone. I ended up getting disqualified.”
“It can’t be helped. Everyone was fired up, so it’s fine, right? Isn’t that right, Meltina?”
“Yes! It was truly amazing, and you even made up for my delay— Ha… ha-choo!”
“Are you okay, Meltina?”
Leone asked with a worried expression.
“You fell into the water and got soaked. We need to get you dried off quickly.” As Liselotte suggested that—
“With that, this year’s Knight Academy Seminar Festival has officially come to an end! Thank you all so much! Please be careful on your way home~~!” Principal Miliera cheerfully waved her hand with a beaming smile. Judging by her expression, this year’s festival must have been a huge success from an entertainment standpoint.