Chapter 21 - Final Match

2 days later, the day for the final match finally arrived.

Yesterday, I managed to win my semi-final match so easily that it made me disappointed. My enemy gave up after just a few hits, he was a Vanguard Class user just like me.

I thought I could finally fight against a pilot who uses the same Mecha as me, but that guy said "Ah, I give up. There's no way I can beat you, good luck in the finals my friend." And just like that, my semi-final match became my most boring match in this tournament.

This morning, I was preparing in my room for the final match against Athena, or Miss Moshinsky. Yesterday she also won against a pilot named Kril and made it into the finals.

After making sure my pilot suit was properly installed, I quickly made my way to the family room to meet the ladies.

When I arrived at the family room, I could see Alicia sitting on the sofa doing something on her laptop, and I could also see Luna beside her.

Guess what Melissa said was true, huh. Luna was really helping Alicia with her files.

I then walked over to them and sat down on the sofa next to Alicia, she immediately noticed me and said.

"Are you leaving already?"

"Yep, I'm going to the match this morning."

"Isn't it too early? It's only the finals today, right? Which means there will only be two matches."

"What can I say, the banquet is tonight, isn't it? So the emperor and other members of the royal family have to prepare early."

"Ah, you' re right. I forgot about the banquet."

Since the emperor and the other royal members had to be present at both events, the tournament would be completed early today to allow the emperor to prepare for the banquet that would begin later in the evening.

Being the emperor must be a hassle.

"Where's Melissa?"

"Washing dishes in the kitchen, she should be back soon."

"Then I'll wait for her before I leave."

Since Alicia said Melissa would be back soon, I decided to wait for her before I left.

Speaking of Alicia, not much has changed since our relationship officially started.

There are only a few things that have changed, like Alicia smiling more when she talks to me or the distance when she sits next to me is much closer than before.

Well, since our relationship had only officially started for less than two days, it made sense that the changes were still that small.

Anyway, I was planning to get closer to her at the banquet that would be held tonight, and well, I could only hope that my plan ended well.

Not long after, Melissa came carrying tea from the dining room, when she saw me, she quickly made a surprised face and said.

"Are you leaving already, Hiro?"

"Yes, I was waiting for you."

Melissa put our tea on the table and sat on the sofa beside Luna before asking me again.

"Why so soon?"

"Because today is the final match."

"I see."

Melissa simply said that and nodded before picking up a magazine on the shelf under the table and reading it quietly.

Well, I guess it's time for me to go.

"Well then, girls. I'll be going, wish me luck."

"Hiro, do you want us to go watch you at the arena?"

Right after I stood up, Luna turned her gaze from Alicia's laptop to me and said that.

"That's right, we don't mind watching directly at the arena if you want."

"I don't mind either."

Alicia and Melissa also agreed.

Hmm.... Watching me at the arena, huh. That's not a bad idea, but....

"No, just watch it on TV like you girls usually do."

" Eh, didn't you want us to watch you directly before?"

Luna said that with a surprised face.

"Yeah, that was back then. On second thought, I think it's better if you guys just watch from home."

"I see. Well, if that's what you want, then be careful. Make sure you win, okay?"

After saying that with a smile, Luna returned her gaze to the laptop in front of her.

I then looked at Melissa, she nodded and waved her hand at me like she was cheering me on before going back to reading her magazine.

I just smiled at her in return and walked towards the front door with Alicia.

When we arrived at the front door of our house, Alicia said.

"Hiro, didn't you say you wanted to bring your spare pilot suit today?"

"Ah! You're right."

Hearing Alicia's words, I immediately ran to my room to get my combat pilot suitcase, I almost forgot about it.

When I returned to Alicia at the front door of the house, she was shaking her head and smiling while looking at me, and I could only give a wry smile in return.

"That was close, thanks for reminding me."

" It' s fine."

" I' ll leave then."

"Yes, be careful."

Alicia waved her hand at me with a smile, seeing that, I immediately approached her and kissed her forehead.

As I stepped back, I could see Alicia's expression which looked very surprised, she seemed to take some time before she came to her senses, and when she did, her waving hand stopped, then her face started to turn red.

Seeing her reaction, I just smiled and said "Bye" before turning around and walking out.

"You idiot, I told you we should take it slow...."

I could vaguely hear Alicia's muttering from behind me.

Hearing that, I couldn't help but chuckle.

I couldn't help it, she was just too cute.

********

About 30 minutes later, I finally arrived at the arena. A staff member greeted me right away, and sent me to the standby room to get ready.

I then stored my Combat pilot suit suitcase in the waiting room, before going to the standby room to enter my Mecha and make my way to the arena.

As usual, right after I passed through the entrance of the Arena, I could immediately hear the sounds of the cheering crowd and the noisy host, but I decided to ignore them.

From the entrance opposite of me, I could see Miss Moshinsky, or rather Athena, walking towards me. If I look at her again, her Mecha is really amazing when compared to my Mecha.

Her white Mecha armor with gold stripes really made her look like a real knight.

And, it also looked very expensive.

After arriving at our positions, I could hear Miss Moshinsky from inside her Mecha.

"It's good to see you in the finals, Sir Denzelnas."

"I'm not that happy though, but I'm glad you made it to the finals as well, Miss Moshinsky."

"Thank you, and as I said a few days ago, Sir Denzelnas. I won't lose."

"You're really fired up, Miss Moshinsky. Does the match matter that much to you?"

" It does, so no matter what happens, I won't lose."

Miss Moshinsky said that in a tone that sounds very serious, which makes me wonder why she's that passionate.

"I see. Unfortunately, this match is also important to me, Miss Moshinsky. So I won't lose either."

Besides, the ladies waiting at my house would be upset if I lost.

"Then let's have a fair match, Sir Denzelnas."

"Of course."

After that, we stopped talking and prepared our weapons and took our stances to fight. Athena with her dual sword, and me with my two thermal blades.

"Are you ready?"

Seeing that we were both ready, the referee started the countdown.

3.... 2..... 1. Start!

Neither of us moved from our positions, we just watched each other carefully. A few seconds later, I took the initiative and fired rockets at Athena from my rocket launcher.

She dodged all the rockets I fired at her by jumping left and right repeatedly so that she could confuse the tracking systems on the rockets, since we were quite far apart, it gave Athena time to dodge my rockets easily.

While dodging the rockets I aimed at her, Athena moved forward and approached me.

Seeing her approach, I didn't back down and also advanced towards her slowly while continuing to fire my rockets.

When we got too close, Athena charged and swung her sword at me. Since I had predicted her movements, I changed the target of my rocket fire from Athena to the ground in front of me.

*Boom*

Dust and smoke immediately filled my vision. Seeing that, I was sure Athena would stop.

As I turned on my thermal vision to see through the dust and smoke in front of me, sure enough, Athena stopped her charge.

However, just a moment later, she charged back towards me. Looks like she also turned on her thermal vision.

Since my rocket launcher had to be recharged, I pulled it back and prepared my thermal blade before charging towards Athena.

We both charged at each other, and then Athena's sword and my thermal blade collided into each other.

Athena swung her sword from above vertically and I held back with my thermal blade horizontally.

Because the impact of our weapons was quite hard, the wind from the impact sent the dust and smoke surrounding us flying, so I turned off my thermal vision and returned to using normal vision.

Athena's more favorable position made her push me back slowly, since it wouldn't be good to continue like this, I decided to parry her sword to the right, while using thrusters to make my Mecha shift to the left.

After that, I immediately attacked her with the thermal blade in my left hand, but Athena managed to block the attack with the sword in her right hand, she tried to counter by swinging the sword in her left hand at me, but I managed to block it with the thermal blade in my right hand.

Our positions locked again and we again pitted our strength against each other, only this time our positions were equal.

In the middle of the power struggle, Athena suddenly pulled out a laser cannon from her shoulder and I narrowly avoided it by tilting my head, seeing my position a little wobbly from dodging, Athena kicked at me.

I couldn't do anything to avoid it, and the kick sent me back quite a distance.

Shit, that kick was so heavy.

By the time I realized it, Athena was already in front of me and swinging her sword, I managed to avoid it by ducking and retreating backwards, however, Athena continued to attack me and didn't allow me to counterattack.

I decided to focus on defense, and wait for the right moment to strike back.

However, a few moments later, I realized that my decision was wrong, Athena didn't slow down at all and gave me a chance to counterattack, her attacks were so precise and efficient, it made it difficult for me to get an opening to counterattack.

I tried to retreat and take some distance, but Athena wouldn't let me and continued to stick to me.

She was really persistent.

I once again tried to keep my distance, but this time, as Athena closed in on me, I stopped retreating and instead moved closer to her, due to our extremely close distance and my unexpected movement, we crashed into each other quite hard, and it was enough to bring us both to a temporary halt.

The impact was hard enough that it made me quite dizzy even though I was inside my Mecha, because Athena also stopped moving, I think she felt the same way.

The condition of my armor that got hit also changed to yellow or coution, apparently, our impact was harder than I thought.

"Wow, I really didn't expect you to do that, Sir Denzelnas."

While checking the condition of my Mecha, I heard Miss Moshinsky's voice from in front of me. It seemed like she had recovered from her dizziness as well.

"Well, as they say, modern problems require modern solutions."

Hearing my answer, I only heard a small chuckle from her before she went back to taking her fighting stance.

Well, it looks like the second round is about to begin.

I also started preparing my stance.

Seeing that, Athena again charged towards me and I also charged towards her.

*Boom*

However, just before our swords clashed, I heard a sizable explosion out of nowhere, and my entire body instantly felt like it had been electrocuted.

"Aaahhckk! Son of a-"

I quickly opened my helmet to see what was happening.

"The fuck! Is that an EMP blast?"

I quickly looked around me, but all the lights that should have been on inside my cockpit were off, even my pilot suit wasn't working.

I guess that was definitely an EMP.

*Boom* Boom*

From outside, I could also hear various kinds of sounds, I could hear the screams of the crowd and explosions.

*Bang* *Bang*

And that's definitely not the sound of firecrackers, it's the sounds of firearms and laser guns blasting.

Seriously, what was going on?

I then tried to open the hatch of my Mecha with the manual lever, but it took quite a while.

When I managed to get out of my Mecha, I looked toward the spectator seats, and all I could see were explosion marks and corpses.

"You gotta be kidding me."

I unconsciously let out those words as I looked at the scene before me.

"What in the actual fuck is going on?"

After saying that, I shook my head and composed myself.

I need to think calmly and get out of here, in the middle of the arena like this it's not safe, first of all, I'll go back to my waiting room and take out my spare pilot suit, I just hope that the pilot suit wasn't affected by the EMP explosion earlier.

I quickly turned around and walked towards the staff entrance at the edge of the arena, but before I left, I remembered something.

"Oh right, Miss Moshinsky!"

I quickly ran over to her Mecha and knocked on the door.

"Miss Moshinsky! Are you there!?"

"Oh yes, I'm here! Is that you, Sir Denzelnas? What on earth is going on?"

I soon got an answer from inside, seems like she's fine.

"I'll explain later, for now you need to get out of there."

"Ah, fine. I'll be out soon."

Before long, Miss Moshinsky's hatch door opened, and I helped her down. Perhaps because it was hard to see, she also took off her helmet.

"Thank you, Sir Denzelnas."

"No problem, follow me quickly, Miss Moshinsky. It's not safe here, I'll explain the situation later."

I started walking and told her to follow me.

"What exactly happened-"

Before she could finish what she was saying, Miss Moshinsky stopped talking, when I turned to look at her, she was already pale and covering her mouth.

Ah shit, I forgot to tell her not to look that way.

Seeing Miss Moshinsky in that state, I pulled her hand and said.

" Pull yourself together, Miss Moshinsky. We need to leave this place quickly, it's not safe here."

"But... what... about them?"

"There's nothing we can do for them now."

I looked at her seriously as I said that, sensing my seriousness, Miss Moshinsky followed me with reluctance.

I then pulled her towards the entrance for the staff, thankfully the door was electric, so the EMP blast earlier had unlocked it, or else we would have been trapped inside the arena.

After making sure it was safe inside, I quickly pulled the still pale Miss Moshinsky to enter, but before I entered, I looked at the spectator seats and saw the corpses there.

They're really shooting at innocent people, huh.

Those bloody bastards, I'm gonna make them pay for this.