The one who made the first move was the combat Golem.
The length of his greatsword was about the same as Reiko’s height. He held the sword over his head and swung straight down at Reiko.
With her splendid steps, Reiko dodged the attack.
In a swift motion, the Golem swung the sword diagonally from below, attempting the next attack. But it was too late. Reiko was no longer there.
“Hmm, speed is the only remarkable trait she has, eh?”
Marcus murmured, and then barked an order to his combat Golem.
“Garboreal! Get serious!”
In response to his command, the combat Golem increased his speed by one level, no, two levels.
Likely to weigh over 400 kilograms, the giant began to move faster than humans.
The ground was either gouged or cracked from the impact of his footsteps.
“What an amazing speed with that enormous body …!”
Most spectators were astounded by his movement.
However, Prince Ernest was not impressed. He turned toward Princess Lieschen, who was sitting next to him, and whispered,
“It’s not that big of a deal at all. With her small body, Reiko had knocked off dozens of stampeding combat Golems in the past.”
“Yes, I have also witnessed her true ability. She neutralized 50 bandits in an instant with ease.”
Just as she said, Reiko was dodging the combat Golem Garboreal’s onslaught with a devil-may-care attitude.
“Heh, all she could do is dodging. She’s just a second-rate Magi Engineer’s doll, after all!”
Reiko heard Marcus’ muttering.
“… I’m only following my father’s order to not cause you too much embarrassment, but it seems like you don’t even understand that.”
Reiko stopped. She blocked the incoming greatsword.
“Oh, oh?!”
The audience could not believe their eyes.
Reiko started to engage the attacks of the combat Golem Garboreal; sometimes she dodged, sometimes she repelled them, sometimes she directly blocked them.
The entire audience was flabbergasted seeing how Reiko’s tiny hand could skillfully wield the tiny sword, which was only one-tenth the size of the greatsword. She could withstand and even overwhelm the physical strength of the greatsword wielded by the combat Golem. Her physical strength was already unbelievable to begin with, but what she was currently displaying was even more ridiculous.
“Why doesn’t it break?”
Such a comment could be heard from among the audience.
“This pseudo-sword my father had created for me won’t break that easily!”
64 Aluminum was stronger than steel. With that, Reiko now had the capacity to deal with the impacts of the greatsword. Even though their swords seemed to be clashing directly, Reiko relaxed her power at the moment of impact that dampened the effect.
“It’s about time I counterattack!”
Reiko increased her attack speed further.
Garboreal’s tower shield seemed useless against her wave of attacks. Reiko slashed from the direction where the tower shield was not guarding. If she were to wield either the real Peach Blossom or the Vibration Sword, the match would have ended with a single blow.
Alas, Reiko was wielding a mock sword with no blade. So Reiko chose a fighting method that accumulated the damage.
She persistently attacked the Golem’s left shoulder, which was the pivot of the arm that supported the heavy tower shield. Despite being covered in full body armor, moving parts such as joints were relatively weak.
With more than 10 blows, a part of the armor flew off. After 10 more attacks, the Magical Muscle on the left shoulder cracked. The weight of the tower shield aided the crack to spread gradually.
Upon taking more attacks, the deltoid muscle equivalent of the Magical Muscle ruptured. His left arm could not be lifted anymore.
“Checkmate.”
Reiko pointed her mock sword at the throat of the combat Golem who could no longer hold the tower shield.
“T-that’s it! Winner, Jin!”
Jin felt a little sorry for Reiko because it was her creator’s name being called instead of hers.
A wild cheer erupted when Reiko bowed courteously at the audience.
“Cute!”
“You did well, young lady!”
“Aim for a complete victory just like that!”
The scene in which a beautiful girl played an active part in any world seemed to invite the sympathy of the viewer.
“Reiko is amazing.”
“Truly, she’s something formidable …”
Prince Ernest and Princess Lieschen shouted in joy for Reiko’s great success. At the same time, they felt a strong fright as well.
The audience was unaware of how threatening that was. They did not realize it because they were too excited about the outcome of the match.
Meanwhile, the Empress who was sitting at the very top row of the VIP seat was greatly perplexed.
Not only he changed the rules without permission, Georg had lost the match so easily.
The impression given to Jin could not be worse. And perhaps the audience would be dissatisfied as well.
The only positive thing out of this seemed to be that probably there were no spectators who blamed the rule change because Jin won the match. However, as the Empress who was trying to recruit Jin to work for this kingdom, I wanted to cry.
* * *
“Okay! Final battle! It’s a hand-to-hand combat showdown!”
It was obvious that the victor would be Jin and Reiko. But since the regulations dictated that the match had to continue until the very end, while glaring at Jin with animosity, Marcus readied his remaining combat Golems.
This time, it was the Golem that participated in the Heavy Throw.
Although he wore no armors and was unarmed, the Golem had a good physique. He might be over 2 meters tall, and weighed about 400 kilograms. His thigh seemed to be as big around as Reiko’s waistline.
Nevertheless, the audience was no longer skeptical of Reiko’s victory, since they had witnessed her display of abilities from earlier matches.
“Begin!”
The Golem roared while throwing a fist aimed at Reiko. If he could land a punch, it would be like the shattering blow of an ordinary Automata. Reiko jumped a little and dodged it.
The Golem aimed at the timing when Reiko landed, and launched a kick.
It seemed the kick would hit … but Reiko ducked and evaded it completely. The ribbon on her head fluttered with the shock wave from the powerful kick.
Reiko seemed to be testing something while dodging the attacks.
“I’ll move my body the way I desire. The air movement that hits my cheeks and fluttered my hair. That air movement gives me clues. And the vibration that travels through the ground will also indicate his movements.”
Reiko’s “Tactile Sense” had significantly improved her ability to detect her opponent in close proximity. She continued to evade the Golem’s attacks. He was the perfect opponent to put Tactile Sense to the test.
“But I have to end this soon, don’t I?”
While dodging the Golem’s fist, Reiko stepped forward. She landed a counter punch near his solar plexus. It was probably her best effort to land a punch that high, since their difference in heights was significant.
But since he was a Golem, the solar plexus was not a vital point.
Although he could probably withstand the punch, Reiko’s power was enough to blow away the Golem that was more than 10 times heavier in bodyweight.
The Golem was blown about 5 meters away. He did not get up. Apparently, the Magi Device inside was damaged.
“O-one punch …”
“It’s amazing …”
Just like earlier, the audience exploded in a screaming cheer when Reiko courteously bowed.
A complete victory. It was also the first great accomplishment in the long history of Gonkurrenz.
“Way to go, Jin! It’s amazing.”
“Um, you’d be a menace if we weren’t friends.”
Knowing Jin’s personality, Prince Ernest and Princess Lieschen had a laid-back conversation with him.
“Jin, congratulations! Reiko is amazing!”
Reinhardt was also wild with joy over their victory and highly praised them.
“Ladies and gentlemen! The results are as witnessed! The winner of the Gonkurrenz is Jin Nidou! And his Automata, Reiko!”
The cheers of the audience in the venue grew louder.
Jin stroked Reiko’s head that had just regrouped.
“Reiko, great job. It was amazing.”
“It’s all thanks to you, father. I didn’t think “Tactile Sense” would be that useful. I can detect the movements of my opponent by the air movements and vibrations. Subtle power adjustment was also at my disposal.”
“Ah, I see, I see.”
Jin broadly smiled upon hearing her comment. Reiko did not expect Jin to be that affected by how Tactile Sense was useful to win that last match.
Reinhardt asked about it afterward and decided to install a Tactile Sense sensor in Schwarz Ritter as well. But that would be a future project.
“Lord Jin, what about the simulated battle with a giant golem as a special attraction?”
Upon hearing the inquiry, the audience roared,
“Yeah!”
“Please give it a try!”
The audience continued to cheer. Jin did not see any problems in particular, so he agreed.
“Understood. … Lord Marcus, would you please ready the giant Golem?”
With a hateful expression, Marcus stammered,
“I don’t mind. But Goliath isn’t good at pulling his punches. I won’t take responsibility if something happened.”
Finally, the battle between Reiko and Goliath started.
“Okay, begin!”
On the referee’s mark, Reiko and Goliath’s one-to-one battle had finally begun spectacularly.
“Here I go …!”
Reiko had a quiet anger.
The reason being, her father was being looked down upon.
She was displeased when the Magicraft Meister Jin was lumped together with ordinary Magi Craftsmen. On top of that, they were making sweeping statements about him.
I will crush this Golem completely, and make them acknowledge Jin. Reiko was thinking along that line.
She also thought that it would be necessary to clearly show her ability on that occasion to eliminate interference and harassment against Jin.
However, Jin despised unnecessary acts of destruction. He also did not like to stand out in the crowd. Reiko understood Jin’s character very well.
Reiko ultimately decided to take action as directed by Jin, “to overwhelm and defeat without a flashy destruction.”