While Rem was dealing with the bomb and the group guarding it, Lux was on the roof of the carriages. Each step she took was light yet rang clear with confidence. Her eyes looked hopeful toward a horizon.
The wind was blowing strong in her face as much as the weight of responsibility. If it was REm's job to take out the bomb then her job was to take out Spell-buster machine responsible for piercing through the defensive barrier of the Grand Empire Station.
So far multiple information had been flowing in.
Out of thirty terrorists assaulting the train, Scathach found and already eliminated six. Rem beaten sixteen all at once. And Cy already discovered that at least four fell during the initial skirmish with the guards on the train. Counting the two they taken out, this leave only two more unaccounted for.
And there they were.
He was man two meter tall with brown hair and bare chest. With him was another man a head shorter with a sandy grey hair. A sword strapped behind his back. His most distinguish feature seemed to be his badly shaved stumble and white cloaked that fluttered furiously in the wind.
"Wow, what is the kid doing here?" grey hair man said lazily.
Lux starred at him, inching toward her sword.
"Wow! Peace!" The sandy hair man raised his arm frantically. "Lower the serious threshold would you. Given that you knew where we are, can I assumed you already took the rest out."
"Yes," She replied, her eyes visibly twitching. Rem said that she should gave them as much false information as possible but she never been that good with lying. Her first attempt to in years was seen through by Cy of all people almost instantly. "They are all down."
"Well, that's a shame," the grey hair man stretch. "Bruno, abort the mission. We are having burger this lunch time."
"What!" Said the brown hair man. "We just got here?"
"Our team are all high C-Rank and B-Rank with you as it's head," The sandy hair man said. "Surprisingly, I cannot probe this overly hostile lady in front of us. However, her poker face was horrendous not for lack of trying. Given that she seemed like an overly honest type, I believed someone more troublesome was pulling the string. It was too risky Bruno?"
"Are you implying I am going to lose!?" Bruno yelled at the Sandy hair man.
"I am implying that the girl could surprise you." The sandy hair man stood up and cheerfully shrugged his shoulder. "All our men are down. And given that our squad fail to defend the bomb, I guess it would likely be diffused by now. So what are you going to do next? Rammed this trained into the station and get chew over by the Royal Knights. I might be able to take them down but the commanders are out of question ya know. Come on Bruno boy, I still keep the coupon for discount burger."
"Dammit!" Bruno yelled. "Are you serious Marley? We will be a laughing stock of the Liberator! Do you know how long I have wait for this! They took away everything—my parent, my friend friends. They force me to fight in that bloody Colosseum ever since I was a boy. This is my chance to take my revenge and you are telling me to back off."
"Come on Bruno." Marley put his hand on the bigger man shoulder. "To begin with the Liberators disagreed with the plan in the first place. Don't tell me that you are getting into a fight with a teenager over our hire-gun that got wrecked. Last I check we planned to use them as a fodder anyway. Dude, I understand where you are coming from but bide your time. Opportunity will come again."
Marley turned to look at Lux.
"Girly what was your name?"
"Latoria of Dawn," Lux said. She couldn't come up with a lie that would be good enough to beat it.
"A title huh," Marley said tossing her a card. "You know what. I like you. If you are ever interest in joining a rebellion, free to call me."
"You degenerate. Now you spent time chatting up an underage girl!" Bruno yelled at him with such an angry expression so angry it looked ridiculous. "If you don't want to fight, then do bloody nothing while I slammed this train into the Grand Empire Station!"
Lux 's eyes ticked angrily. That underage girl remarked flick some of her button on.
"You know of people will die right?"
Bruno exploded.
"Do you think I care if does bastard died? Woman and Children. Every last one of them is an evil coward who kept jeering as my friend fight to the death for mere entertainment. DO YOU THINK I CARE?"
"Buddy, those woman are monster," Marley said his eyes lost to distant memory. "But killing children maybe going too far."
Lux drew her practice blade, thinking about how she was ostracize and ultimately exile. While initially she hated and fear her father, her encountered with Satholia and her new life with Cy and Rem had show how flaw his hatred and arrogance truly is. How its destroyed so much bridge and future for such a petty reason. The only thing remaining would be a broken ruin. This man finally had freedom, yet instead of living to fight another day and finally honor the sacrifice he must have paid to get those freedom, he threw it away for petty chance to punch back. A chance that would obviously fail and pretty much aimed at the wrong set of people from the beginning.
"Would your friend wanted this?" Luxinna looked at the man with pitiful gaze.
"You don't have a right to speak about them. You are probably on those bastard side too." Bruno yelled at her in blind rage and charged at Lux.
"Be careful young miss," Marley leaped of to the furthest carriages. "That guys would not give up until you beat a stuffing out of him."
Bruno stoped and stared at him in pure outrage.
"Marley?! Come back and fight."
"Zzz...Zzzz...Zzzz" Marley said. "I am sleeping...idiot."
Marley laid on the top of the train and slept.
Even Lux felt offed about this situation.
"I don't think he is coming to help you."
"That bastard," Bruno gritted his teeth and screamed at Lux who started panicking internally. "And what with that pitying gaze? Get started already."
...
The fight started when Bruno drew a massive sword out of his ring.
Lux gritted her teeth with envy. She always wanted an inventory ring when she was a kid but those things were too bloody expensive. The hated child of the clan would have no chance of getting it.
So she decided to vent up her frustration by beating on him.
Bruno's was fast but Lux was faster. She dodged the blade but a punched that followed that was much faster. Then Bruno's fist exploded without warning.
[Lightning Shield]
A circular wall of electricity blocked the explosion but the blast sent her sliding back half a dozen meters.
"Nice shield spell," Bruno grinned, enjoying the fight to the very fullest. "But the difference between Rank cannot be compensate with something that trivial. You are facing an A-Ranker girly!"
Bruno slashed with his sword and an orange waves of force was sent flying toward Lux. Massive explosion broke [Lightning Shield] and blasted her back by ten of meters. Lux coughed in pain landing on her back, back-flipping back on her foot using the force of the impact and draw out her sword. Despite her speed the hulking man already closed the gap between them and aimed up a slash to take her face out. Yet, Lux's reflexes under [Nueroelectric Augmentation] saved her from the finishing blow.
She skirted back. He was fast ridiculously fast. She only slightly edge him out in term of speed and even then her enhanced reflexes was getting a work out.
"Hey kid, your rank it about high B isn't it. Your speed was likely about to break into A too," Bruno gave her a knowing smug smile. "You are quite good but I am a solid A-Rank. You on other hand is useless little girl try to overreach your worth. Just gave up already."
A memory flashed up. Her family, peers and her father all claiming the same thing. Claiming that she didn't belong. That her power was curse and she would be better off dead.
Lux trembled at the suppress rage and her mana responded crackling with electricity. She would end this in a blow. Yet, somehow, the image of the boy who never panic at any odd and the goddess who seemed to magically build people up from despair came into her mind. She grasped her sword. This was the moment to set her path.
The electricity died down. She was not going to beat him as a rage fueled monster. She was already far above that.
"You are a rank above me I guess," Lux said, lightning crackled throughout her body, sending the electrified wind blowing with a force of a storm. "In strength and endurance at least."
Bruno laughed maniacally at the displayed of her power..
"Well let chaled magic into the list too girly!"
Bruno waved his sword and released a wave of explosion far larger than the last one and Lux summoned a golden circular band of light linked to a prism shaped emitter. With a war cry, she fired the mana construct.
[Thunder series: Electron Blaster].
...
Marley woke up in panic at the sound of explosion and blinding ray of light. He woke up just in time to witness the explosive forced emitted from Bruno's sword clashed with beam of raw electricity in a massive explosion that destroyed the carriages below them.
Bruno, being a seasoned and experienced gladiator, activated three different magics that short moment. His instinct help him survived many grievous battles and he would be damned if he ignored it now. Strength and magic resistant spell charged down his body on top of a magic deflection spell running down his massive sword. The hulking man tanked [Electron Blaster] and deflected it into a ocean, creating a cloud of steam. Yet the force of the power push him alarmingly across the carriage's roof. The heat from the beam electro laser base construct turned his sword red hot and melted the carriages.
Seeing that, Lux added more power into the beam, her eyes never falter as her power surged in an overwhelming wave. Bruno, who was already struggling to keep up was forced to launch a massive explosion blowing up the entire carriage and finally forced Lux's supply to cut out.
He dropped his red hot sword and winced at his scalded hand. Then he looked at the elf girl who pick herself up, unwilling to be hampered by a mere explosion. The carriages the were on was in ruin now. It was a fiery barrier of broken and twisted metal separating battler. As for Marley, he looked in awe at the brightness and divine beauty of the lightning dancing around Lux's body. For once his jolly demeanor was eradicate upon looking at the dancing and flaring golden spark.
"Magnificent," he whispered. "Truly magnificent."
Bruno did not say anything. He clenched his scalding hand and charge both of his fist with explosive power.
"I didn't know how did you trump our clashes of magic." Bruno said looking dead serious. "But this is as far as you will go."
Lux looked at him in the eye with intensity, picked herself up from the roof of another carriages and leaped through the fire toward Bruno. Ignoring the scalding hot flame which burnt of hem of her cloth, her enhance neural network replaying an entire fight. Her mana perception slowly analyzed his move.
His magic was explosion. He used the power in the crudest possible way by coating his punch with his magic and let it lose the moment of impact. She had no doubt his magic stats was stronger than her given that he managed to power through her shield despite unrefine usage.
So Lux improvised his technique with her own spin.
Marley watched slacked jaw. He judged that the elf girls magic was at least 50 stat points lower the Bruno but her technique was much, much more impressive. And he didn't know many elf who leaped through a wall of fire to land a hit...over an entire carriages of burning wreck to trump it off.
A Dynamo Ring circled around her hand supplying energy toward the mana composite layered under a fist's size version of lightning shield. She charged the construct and effortlessly dodged Bruno's punch. The energy rushed into the shield which and contained it until being released in a cross-counter upon contact.
The lightning charged shield exploded released a lightning burst like shotgun slug. The process was not refined because lightning leaked all over the place annihilating more of the carriages. Yet, the condensed shot hit Bruno's in the together with the force of the punch. The electricity and forced blasted through his magic resistance and burnt through his shoulder living only scarred and burning flesh behind.
"Dammit," Bruno started cough up blood, yet founded the power to caught Lux's arm and scream. . "Why? Why don't you aim that punch at my chest and kill me. Do you look down on me that much? I am your bloody superior in every way! Just go ahead and kill me like a warrior dammit!"
An impact resound and Bruno suddenly slumped to the ground with Marley behind him.
"Enough," he said looking at the mess disappointingly.
He then looked at Lux respectfully.
"I owe you an apology, young lady," Marley said. "Please excused this idiot. He was teach about the glory and sacred rite of combat since young. Yet he lost everything and got put to fight to death for entertainment. I don't know what it felt like betraying everything you believe in for survival and joy of your tormentor. Personally, me being me, I don't think I have a right to stop him. So has to thank you for doing what I can't."
"If you are sorry gave yourself up."
"Nah," Marley stuck out his toughest. "Can't do that. But I can give you something worth much more...information."
"Interesting but why should I let you go after you help blew the carriages?" Lux said. "As far as I am concern you are a criminal."
"Miss, you might beat a Rank-A but he is a very low Rank-A." Marley chuckled. "If I wanted to you would be dead but I kinda like your style. You had a huge potential and it will be a shame if that went to waste fighting old little me. So here is a deal I am going to walk out of here unhindered by you or your comrade in exhange of answering any question you might have."
Lux reached for the rune and switched it on.
"Rem, we had a problem. The leader of the gang want a deal."