The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War
Chapter 471: 16-year-old Inglis and the Knight Academy Seminar Festival (9)

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The next moment, Inglis was back on the Flygear Carrier.

"Wah!?"

"Inglis!?"

"S-She just disappeared and came back in an instant…!?"

"Rani was having trouble, that’s all. She doesn’t have Flowing Radiance with her right now, either."

Rafinha, now positioned behind Principal Miliera’s flygear, steadily drew closer to the mecha-dragons.

"Ah, I see! I shall take a lesson from you as well, Lady Rafinha!"

The problem was that Redas and other teams were also tailing right behind Rafinha, copying her tactic. But since Rafinha herself was using Principal Miliera as a shield, there was no room for complaints.

Principal Miliera’s piloting skills weren’t particularly outstanding, so she couldn’t shake off Rafinha, Redas, and the others clinging to her tail with any complicated flight maneuvers.

As a result, with the grumbling Principal Miliera at the front, all the teams ended up forming a narrow line, advancing with barely any distance between them.

"Ahaha! They’ve all lined up!"

"Looks like everyone’s almost tied now."

"Isn’t that great? Makes it more fun to watch!"

The audience was laughing and cheering with excitement. The racers, all neck and neck, began pulling the flags from the mecha-dragons one after another and heading back toward the flygear carrier.

"Heheh! Now I can save some face as the principal, right?"

The first to return was none other than Principal Miliera.

"As expected! Now then, I suppose I’ll have to show something respectable enough so the students won’t look down on me!" Rochefort, having taken over from Principal Miliera, immediately shot off at full speed.

"Meltina! Sorry, I got caught up a bit! You're up next, please!"

"Y-Yes! I’ll do my best!"

Rafinha, who returned second right after Principal Miliera, switched places with Meltina.

"I'll handle the rest, so just take it easy, okay?"

Inglis smiled as she sent Meltina off.

"Thank you! Here I go!" Meltina hurriedly took off, but compared to Rochefort, her control over the machine seemed a bit unsteady. She looked slightly wobbly.

"Alright! I'll catch up from here!"

The next runner from the Holy Knights' team was Ripple.

Instead of boarding the vessel, she reached out from the outside to grab the control stick, slightly lifted the flygear, and, as it was about to launch, forcefully kicked off the ground to leap onto the machine.

Thanks to the powerful kicking force of a Hyrule Menace that she was, she gained extra acceleration— a subtle but effective technique.

"Lady Ripple…! She's so fast!"

"She's going to catch up!"

Even as Ripple passed her, Meltina’s flygear continued heading toward the mecha-dragons. This time, the mecha-dragons were flying closely together, moving toward the depths of the Lake.

As Rochefort led the charge, the flygears of each team began to catch up. The dragons then formed a tight line, rearranging themselves into a formation like a single file. Then, with a swift turn, they spun around from the depths and faced the approaching flygears head-on.

"W-What’s that? They're all sticking together and facing this way…"

Rafinha’s puzzled question was quickly answered.

From the two leading mecha-dragons, thick tubes extended backward, connecting to the ones behind.

As soon as the connection was made, the entire body of the mecha-dragon at the very end began to glow with a dazzling brilliance—

SwoooOOOOOOOSH!!

Leaving behind a trail of light like a glowing tail, it began high-speed flight.

"Whoa!? That’s insanely fast!"

"They could fly that fast!?"

The murmurs of surprise were understandable. Its speed was on a whole different level compared to before. It was far faster than the flygears of the Knight Academy being used for the race.

The mecha-dragons, now in a straight-line formation, shot past Rochefort, Ripple, and the others' flygears, bursting through to the opposite side.

Position-wise, the flygear of the second-year student who had been at the back of the group was now the closest to the mecha-dragons.

"Wow, that’s amazing…!"

Seeing such an extraordinary boost in speed was quite the spectacle. Inglis was impressed, and Mais nodded with satisfaction.

"It’s a high-mobility mode that boosts output by connecting the power units in series! I installed it just for this race!"

"That's amazing, Mais. Doesn't their combat power double when they connect like that? It’d be nice if gathering a hundred of them made them a hundred times stronger. And if that’s possible, I'd love to spar with them…"

"Haha, no, it's not that convenient… And besides, I can’t prepare a hundred mecha-dragons."

"Glis, don’t trouble Mais like that!"

While they were talking, the mecha-dragons turned around once more and sped off toward the far side of Vault Lake. Even Rochefort and Ripple couldn’t catch up with the high-mobility-mode mecha-dragons. As skilled as they were, they couldn’t overcome the performance limits of their flygears.

"Still, there’s no way we can catch up like this…!"

"We have to come up with something clever, don’t we…!"

"But what can we even do—"

Before Liselotte could finish, Rochefort and Ripple were already breaking away from the mecha-dragons and positioning themselves toward the opposite shore of the lake.

"It takes some time for the mecha-dragons to start moving again after changing direction, so they’re aiming for the opening right after their next high-speed burst. Judging from their movements, I think they can only fly fast in a straight line."

However, if they got left behind at the midpoint of the lake, even if they tried to charge during that opening, the mecha-dragons would have enough time to turn and prepare. As a result, they’d never catch up.

That’s why Rochefort and Ripple were waiting in the direction the mecha-dragons were likely to head, trying to seize the gap before the next high-speed flight.

"You’re amazing, Inglis. You’re absolutely right, they can only move fast in a straight line. They’re built to prioritize speed above all else."

"Then, Instructor Rochefort and Miss Ripple’s strategy is correct…!"

"Though, if the mecha-dragons don’t attempt high-speed flight, all their preparations will be for nothing…"

But the other teams, who hadn’t grasped the situation, continued trying to chase the mecha-dragons. Among them was Meltina.

"Meltina! You’re going to get left behind again…!"

As Rafinha voiced her concern, the mecha-dragons once again turned around and began re-establishing their series connection—

But at that moment, one of the connections between the machines got jammed and wouldn’t connect properly. Something had slipped into the joint, effectively disrupting the link.

Rafinha, seeing it for the first time, had been delighted, calling it a weapon fit for a queen.

What had disrupted the connection between the mecha-dragons was likely a piece detached from the whip sword. The whip-like section, made up of multiple linked blades, could be freely disconnected at Meltina’s will.

"Nicely done…! You hooked your Artifact onto the machine dragon as it passed by, then used it to interfere with their preparation for high-speed flight."

"If you can disrupt their high-speed flight, then getting up close is the right move!"

It wasn’t that Meltina couldn’t read the mecha-dragons’ movements like Rochefort or Ripple—it was that she had read them and chosen a different approach. Meltina’s Artifact was well-suited to countering the mecha-dragons’ movements, and she had clearly realized that fact.

"You’ve got this, Meltina!"

While the mecha-dragons struggled to properly connect and initiate their high-speed flight, Meltina’s flygear charged in.

It seemed like she might snatch the flag just like that, but the mecha-dragons responded by changing their tactics. They lowered their altitude, sinking their bodies into the water, and then unleashed a barrage of water jets from all over their bodies. It was the same attack they had used earlier against Rafinha and Principal Miliera.

Countless torrents of water shot forth like a bullet hell, crisscrossing the air to intercept Meltina’s flygear. Even Rafinha, skilled at maneuvering a flygear, couldn’t avoid that kind of attack. Expecting Meltina to dodge it was unreasonable, and her vessel took the full brunt of the water’s impact.

"Kyaaaah!?"

The flygear tilted sharply, and Meltina herself couldn’t withstand the force, getting thrown out and falling into the lake.

"Meltina!"

"She… She fell! Is she alright…!?"

"She hasn’t sunk, but…!"

"She’s gotten a little too far from her flygear."

Because of how she’d been flung away, there was now some distance between Meltina and her flygear floating on the lake’s surface.

Swimming over to her flygear would take quite some time. But Meltina refused to give up, desperately paddling her way forward.

“Haa…! Haaah…! I can’t be the only one dragging everyone down—”

Just then, the shadow of a flygear passed by in front of her. The person riding it reached out and grabbed Meltina’s arm firmly, lifting her body out of the water.

“Instructor Rochefort…!?”

“Preventing students from drowning is part of an instructor’s duties, you see. I don’t think anyone will complain about something like this.”

In his hand, he was already holding the flag he had taken from the machine dragons. Rochefort carried Meltina over to her flygear floating some distance away and let go.

“It’s merely a water rescue. Well then, the rest is up to you.”

He then headed back to the Flygear Carrier to switch out with the next participant.

“Thank you so much, Instructor!”

Climbing back onto her flygear, Meltina looked once again at the mecha-dragons. All three were still continuing their water barrage without surfacing, and the distance was close.

“In that case, I can reach…!”

Meltina gripped the handle of her whip sword tightly. The whip section connecting the blades glowed with a light blue radiance, stretching long and far.

Concentrating all her senses, she aimed to avoid the water jets and guide it straight to the neck area. Her efforts paid off, as the tip of her whip sword successfully joined up with the blade she had previously hooked onto the connection point. The luminous blue whip snagged the flag. Without hesitation, Meltina retracted her whip sword, and the flag landed securely in her hand.

“I did it…! Now, I have to get back!”

Meltina tried to turn her flygear around and head back, but it wouldn’t fly straight as she intended. Whenever she tried to advance, its trajectory wobbled and swayed, zigzagging instead of moving forward.

“Did the impact from falling earlier cause this!?”

Already left at the very rear due to the time spent in the water, Meltina found herself falling even further behind. Meanwhile, the other teams were switching out for their final, fifth riders.

“Alright, Raphael! The rest is up to you!”

“Yes, Lady Ripple! Glis, Rani! Sorry, but I’ll be going ahead!”

“Arles, leave the rest to ya!”

“Got it, Ross! Leave it to me!”

Raphael took off first, with Arles following shortly after.

“Alright, good job! Leave the final round to me!”

After waiting another moment, Silva launched himself into the air. By the time the wobbling Meltina finally made her way back, Raphael and Arles were already trying to pull the flag from the mecha-dragons.

Unfortunately, she was now trailing far behind the rest.

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