Round Two

"Maria, you're one of the skulls?" One of her female friends said.

She was sitting on a bench while putting her helmet on her knee and the rifle on the bench. The other girls seem to be interested in her.

"You look cool on those clothes," One of her friends said.

She was surrounded by many girls, and the rest of us were sitting on a bench far away from her.

"Look at her and her harem," I said cynically while looking at her with my eyes.

"Well, no doubt, we look like a boy in that black clothing after all," Cecile as she looked down to her chest, which covered with a ballistic plate.

Yeah, her body looks more boyish thanks to the bulky full-body ballistic armor. She was looking more muscular.

The crowds that surrounded our school idols left one by one, although some of them started to make a bold move. They were trying to flirt her, trying to convert her into another Eliza, but the worst of all, trouble approached her. Kira and her goons approached her.

They had a quarrel from the looks of it, but we must restrain ourselves from shooting our rifle or bounty hunters, and kingdom assassins will be going after us.

"Wilson, are we going to help her?" Garth asked me as the arguments getting hotter.

"For now? Not yet, she hasn't given us a signal to move in, and I don't want to move from this position either," I said to Garth while eating a sandwich with my hand.

"Oh look, now she brings her guardian," Cecile said as four people came from behind Kira.

"I think her royal highness is very pissed," Cecile said to me.

"Well, I don't know why, but the guts of some people will go up as soon as they wore their uniform," I said as Maria stood up against the guardian while holding a pistol on her right hand.

"You damn right she is, look the princess retreated," Cecile said as Kira and the others moved away from Maria.

I continued to eat my ham filled sandwich while Maria was sitting alone on that bench. Because of that, I took the initiative to take a seat beside her, so I wore back my helmet and went sitting near her.

"What was that about?" I asked her.

"You know, the usual noble," Maria answered while looking at the fountain.

"Haha, you're a noble too, aren't you?" I teased her.

"Yup, but I'm not one of them. I'm one of yours, Wilson," She said to me.

"Haha, one of what? I'm just your lowly and humble servant, your grace," I teased her further while bowing down in front of her, who was sitting on the bench.

"Wilson, you're embarrassing me," She said with embarrassed eyes since she had raised the mouth cover of the tactical balaclava. FYI, tactical balaclava can be opened in the mouth only.

"If that's your order, your grace," I said as I sat again beside her.

Suddenly, she embraced my shoulder with her hands. In return, I did the same too to her shoulder. She looks gorgeous even with that dark, intimidating clothes of her.

"Maria?" I asked romantically.

"Yes?" She said embarrassingly.

"Have your father told you about your marriage in the future?" I asked her again.

"Not yet, What makes you ask that?" She asked me back.

"Nothing, I just wonder," I replied.

"Have you wonder something, Wilson?" She asked me.

"What?" I replied curiously.

"God is the creator of everything. I'm sure that you were created when God was smiling," She teased me.

I couldn't reply since I was pretty embarrassed. My face had gone red if I didn't wear that balaclava.

"What.. what do you mean?" I said while trying to hide my embarrassment.

Suddenly I could hear a shout from my back.

"Owwwwww. Ladies and gentlemen, Wilson is embarrassed," Garth shouted from behind the chair.

"Quit it," I said as I stood up and walked away. I turned the dials to the Su-35S squadrons that were flying above us. They were equipped with precision anti-dragon munitions; TLS and R-77 "Adder" armed with fusion warhead. Their callsigns were Akula and Viverne.

Wilson: "Akula and Viverne squadron, do you copy?"

Akula 1: "Loud and Clear General."

Viverne 1: "Ready to attack General."

Wilson: "Stand by for now."

I switched back to our personal frequencies and asked for a report from Cecile.

Wilson: "Whiskey to Charlie, please respond."

Cecile: "Charlie here, Kira is fighting now."

Wilson: "What kind of thing does she use?"

Cecile: "Well... you see... it's quite hard to describe."

Wilson: "What do you mean?"

Cecile: "Come here. Over and out."

I walked to the arena and searched for Cecile, she was easy to spot thanks to the rifle on her back and helmet on her head. I sat down next to her.

"So... what is it?" I asked her.

"See it for yourself," she pointed her finger in the direction of the middle of the arena.

"Ok, a few students vs. a whaaaaaat?" I said.

A few students vs. a battle mech. Yup, a bunch of inexperienced students vs. a machine that is created to fight a dragon.

That mech was equipped with a sword and shield with a behind it. The students barely dodged that attack.

"Hmm... we need to take out the advantage from her hands," I said as I rotated the dials on my AN/PRC 148.

Wilson: "Code red, back to the office."

Garth and Maria: "Wilco"

We ran back to the office at a speed equivalent to the speed of a car. We walked in the wall of every building thanks to our exoskeleton.

We entered Natalie's office and changed into our emergency loadout for an unprecedented situation. We replaced every part of our equipment into something more of a sci-fi.

The helmet was changed into a high tech combat helmet which contains HUD and life support system. The exoskeleton was replaced with an improved version, one that connects with the helmet and provides a better life support system. We stripped all of our weapons and replaced them with the more sci-fi variants. Cecile brought the General Electric IRL-629 laser rifle. Garth and I brought the General Electric RLW-150 Gatling laser, and Maria brought the General PRL-147 Railgun.

It's the loadout that is used by our special forces when they're heading for an unknown, but the version that we were wearing are far more inferior than the one that our SF uses. I wish Andrew, Charlotte, and Natalie joined the special forces, Contritio.

"All set," I said as the display on my helmet turned on and displaying every aspect that we need, to the scale that the helmet could display everything, and I mean it. It analyzed everything from the thickness of a wall, the name of a weapon, predicted bullet trajectory, autopilot for CQC thanks to the programming of our exoskeleton and also an onboard A.I.

"Let's go," Cecile said as she put her laser rifle on her back.

We walked out of the building with full confidence. With our weapons that can penetrate even the thickest armor, the mech won't stand any chances against us.

We entered the arena and fought our next opponent in the semi-finals, which were...

"This is a match between Maria Juliana vs. George Zimmerman," Eliza shouted from the podium.

George was under-armed compared to us. He only brought 3 witches and 4 knights with a horse in it.

Wilson: "Charge your weapon, boys, we have to finish this under a minute."

Cecile: "Roger."

Garth: "Golf wilco."

Maria: "Mike copy."

"Now, let the match begun," Eliza shouted from the podium.

"Razor, Activate combat autopilot," I said to the onboard A.I.

The A.I displayed a lot of tracks, but after further calculation. It's decided that the barrage fire was enough.

I pressed the button on the Gatling, and the barrel spun and spit laser beam to the direction of the knights.

With the beam of our laser weaponry, the knight and George got a hole in their body, and that's from the lowest setting of our Gatling laser.

Wilson: "Target down."

The surprised student's mouth went agape, seeing us who beat them down in only twenty seconds.

The Gatling laser barrel stop spinning and thus producing quite a large amount of smoke. This is too easy.

"Maria Juliana is the winner with the total time of only eighteen seconds. This is a new record for our academy," Eliza clapped her hands, followed by the others except for Kira. She looked at us with disgust.

Wilson: "The last one is her."

I looked at her with my dark visor helmet and pointed the reticle in her direction. I zoomed the reticle at her face and projected it to the others.

Maria: "The last one, eh."

She aimed her railgun in her direction and charged it. What the hell does she think? Kira can get killed.

She released the trigger and shot the projectile in her direction. All of our weapons have the potential to destroy any magic barrier, this barrier was no exception.

Suddenly, everything moved so slow. Like time go very slow around us.

Cecile: "Mentor, what are you doing?"

The projectile hit the magic barrier this destroying it, and the projectile evaporated in front of Kira.

Wilson: "You had me worried back there."

Maria: "Well, let's leave this damn place."