Chapter 37

Extra Case File 37 Mute Fight

Ash had already estimated her as high as possible in his thoughts, but when she really rushed in front of him, he felt a start of alarm, realizing he had underestimated her somewhat.

“!”

Unlike their past encounters where there was some restraint due to not truly fighting each other, this time it was spurred by sheer female anger, and to some extent, confidence in Time Fire’s capabilities. The first attack was so intense that the energy sword struck straight at the Red Warrior in red, almost slicing through both the battle suit and the surrounding space-time fabric around his body!

“Might as well!” he thought to himself as he reacted. In response to the future time criminal, the Time Fire combat protective suit with its device to accelerate the user’s perception of time began spinning at ultra-high speed, instantly accelerating to match Clock-Up levels. His upper body completely formed shadows as he immediately bent backward in a way that mimicked a backbend to catch skewers or perform acrobatics.

As he sped up to his limits, the nearly solid crimson trail left by his movements was cut cleanly by Cure Yell’s holy sword!

And it wasn’t just the trail; four of the Janet mechanical soldiers behind Ash were just raising their weapons when they were sliced through by the sword flash.

The movements of all the Janitors froze, their bodies flowing with unstable currents. After an eerie breeze, they fell apart at the waist, their upper halves collapsing as their lower halves fell too. The clean cuts at the top spewed out all sorts of electronic and mechanical parts drenched in bright red coolant. These overly realistic parts twitched and writhed on the ground, still reacting with residual energy, trying to attack the enemy that they were targeting.

“…”

She lifted her round-toe shoe and stepped on the severed hand still clawing at her, which finally stopped twitching after the shock. Flower’s expression twisted slightly.

After all, while the Final Monsters she had faced until now had been absurdly powerful, visually most resembled large stuffed dolls, childish nightmares that didn’t appear too sinister. Now compared to these Janet underlings… even Ash’s troops seemed more benign than the hideous faces of the Final Monsters.

Why can’t the minions at least be cuter like in animations?!

Her rising nausea amplified her frustration, making her subsequent swings faster and fiercer. She crashed her blade into the ground beside him, nearly piercing the spot where Time Fire stood the second before. Ash barely dodged her strike as he retreated like the wind.

“Angry?”

“No!”

Her heart twisted with envy, even though she refused to look at her clenched fist. She smashed her hand onto another Janet’s surveillance monitor with force, knocking it out of commission before the last Janet raised its weapon to her neck!

“Whoosh—”

The high-speed camera recorded distorted frames for a moment, but then both Cure Yell and Time Fire stood back-to-back. Realizing the situation, the machine complied with its onboard AI’s tactical commands, spinning quickly and raising its weapon to strike her back.

“Graak, graak—”

But as the mechanical arm reached its peak, metal fatigue caused loud creaks and puffs of smoke from its shoulder joints. Its core processor flashed error messages, yet continued with the command and swung down, striking Cure Yell’s pristine back with force, leaving a smear of black grease. The jolt scattered her into mechanical pieces.

“Aaah~” watching the Janet Mechanical Corps crumble instantly, Ash shook his head with resignation.

First one kicked away its head, then four others slashed down. After its back eyes destroyed another, this last one was over. The whole engagement took no longer than 10 seconds, excluding all the talk.

Surely, you were super squad members, capable of taking down riders like Rei Shindou in Dragon Knight… You were supposed to be formidable minions! How could you fall so quickly?

Indeed, I planned to let you stick around a bit and help out, too… But with today’s Cure Yell so enraged… it’s best if you became mechanical Buddhas in recompense for your failures.

“Well, now just you and me.” Slowly turning to face her, Ash opened his arms wide, as if inviting her to embrace his vastness, continuing with shameless self-presentation.

“Let’s get the passionate duel underway, Cure Yell!”

“…”

Flower did not speak, only setting herself ready. Her blade pointed sharply at his forehead.

“You’re next!

Ash heard the silent words.

“I welcome your invitation, lady.” Bending slightly, the Red Warrior bowed courteously.

DV Conversion, Sword Mode.

He flicked with his right hand, DV Guardian changing from a gun to a sword. He raised it high with both hands, lifting his helmet-mounted visor and the dinosaur tooth-shaped ornaments. Forming a peculiar pose with his forearms reaching the sides of his helmet.

“Let’s dance!”

Thus clashed the two swords in the world again.

The sparks from their swords clashing disappeared rather quickly. Having experienced such once before, both knew that any further contest would drag on indefinitely. Thus Flower shifted swiftly, sliding her sword along his and locking it against his guard and onto her neck simultaneously.

But this was not her killing move—the intent was swift proximity, to hit him where he could not see, gathering her fury in her fist. It flew straight at his helmet jaw in the shadow, aimed with a flash in thin air.