And if he had used speed stopping suspension magic, it was possible
that it would lose out to the sheer kinetic energy of the projectiles and
fail to modify the event.
Which was why he used fixed deceleration. Even then, he wouldn't
have been able to achieve a large scale deceleration like to a
hundredth or a thousandth of velocity.
By combining the fact it was a weapon he had prepared and knew
everything about with his virtual magic area's interference strength, he
was able to produce magic of the bare minimum required for success.
Fixed deceleration alone, however, couldn't stop the shrapnel. It wasn't
a magic designed for that task. As he turned to his side and dropped to
his knees, tiny shards peppered his flank, thigh, and the arm he had
raised to cover his head.
Very few penetrated the fabric of the artificial leather with a minor
bulletproof capacity, but still over a dozen were now digging into the
flesh of his limbs.
[Self restoration / Auto start]
(Self restoration cancel)
Willfully suppressing his self restoration which automatically tried to
initiate, Tatsuya leaped towards Lina who was completely unscathed
behind a barrier. He immediately began working to decompose the
anti-personnel barrier Lina had newly thrown up. Being completely
caught off guard, even Lina couldn't manage any more than that.
"...How reckless, Tatsuya."
Lina was thrown onto the ground, and Tatsuya pressed down from
above. Pinned to the ground, Lina spoke in an amazed voice. Her lips,
not hidden behind her mask, were curled into a smile, but it wasn't
difficult to see through her bravado.
"It's textbook when dealing with an opponent you can't locate to
simply bring out non-directional attacks, right?"
"That's called an indiscriminate attack."
"Feel free to think so. Unfortunately, I simply don't have the skill to
cast area effect magic. Well, if it's Lina I'm sure you would've been
able to defend against that anyway, so with that said please forgive
me."
"If you incapacitate yourself in the process, I think it defeats the whole
purpose."
"Without resorting to this, there was absolutely no catching you."
"You wanted to catch me? If you're going to declare your love, I'd
have preferred a more romantic manner."
Looking downwards into those azure eyes, Tatsuya grinned. He was
pinning both of Lina's hands above her head with one palm.
When he moved his free hand towards her mask, Lina's shoulder
twitched. The fingers of her left hand wrapped in thick gloves tried to
move, but Tatsuya forcibly splayed them open.
"...It hurts, Tatsuya."
"Unfortunately, I know the trick of that CAD. Now then..."
Tatsuya's hand took hold of the mask.
Lina closed her eyes, and turned away. Even though her identity had
long since been exposed, she still seemed reluctant to show her true
face. Tatsuya didn't understand the thinking behind such rationale, but
it wasn't like he was trying to strip her, so he had no reason to stop.
"Activate, [Dancing Blades]!"
The moment his hand touched the mask, Lina facing away cried out.
The five daggers Lina had thrown out responded to the sound of her
voice, and whirled towards Tatsuya.
(A voice activated armament is it...a device which activates not on an
activation sequence but on a delay trigger is pretty interesting.)
Sensing the daggers rushing at him, Tatsuya muttered to himself.
Two were aimed at his right hand holding the mask, one at his right
shoulder, one his left arm and one his leg.
None targeted his vitals.
Come to think of it, all of Lina's attacks had been meant to disable,
none with the intent to kill...as he considered such things, the daggers
had already reached his flesh.
And the moment they made contact, they dissolved into dust