"Yeah," Reina sneered, her eyes brimming with contempt as she looked down at the battered Torin.
Yugo spared her only a fleeting glance before rushing to the side of the agonizingly groaning Torin. He shook him gently, trying to get a response.
"Hey, stay with me! Are you alright?! Melt! I need recovery magic over here, now!"
"Agh, a-agh... He-help me..." Torin wheezed.
"These are terrible wounds. What on earth happened to you?" Yugo muttered. He was wincing at the sight of the boy. It wasn't just cuts; Torin was a mess of bruises and fractures, the kind of damage caused by staggering blunt force.
It was shocking to see someone in a school uniform—which provided its own magic power barrier and decent defensive properties—broken so thoroughly. As Yugo inspected the wounds, something caught his eye.
"What is this? Is it... charred?"
Small black soot marks dotted the abdominal area of Torin’s uniform and his broken arm. It didn't look like a direct hit from a Molotov cocktail; the patterns were too specific, concentrated precisely at the points where he had taken the strongest impacts.
As the realization of what that meant hit him, Yugo looked up just in time to see Woz charging at Reina.
"You! How dare you do that to Torin!" Woz bellowed.
In truth, Woz didn't give a damn about Torin. He was simply looking for a heroic-sounding excuse to take Reina down so he could farm whatever Experience Points he’d failed to collect earlier. Weapon in hand, Woz lunged with gusto, but Reina merely snorted.
With a sharp "Hmph!" she delivered a crisp roundhouse kick that sent him spiraling back.
"Gyah!?"
"Haha! Pathetic! You're just as weak as your little friend," Reina mocked.
"You... you've got a lot of nerve for a girl!"
"Oh, you said it, didn't you? 'Because you’re a girl,' 'for a girl,' 'just a girl'... those are the words I hate most in this world," Reina’s eyes narrowed, her voice dripping with sudden, cold irritation. "If you're going to run your mouth like that, you’d better be able to back it up by beating me first."
She pulled out a small, translucent plate tinged with a faint red hue. She traced the engraved letters with a doting gaze, kissed the plate with an enraptured expression, and then looked back at Woz.
"Not that you could. Now that I have this power, I’m invincible!"
Reina reached into her cleavage and drove the Clear Plate straight into her own chest. With a sickening squelch, her body absorbed the object. A pillar of burning crimson lotus flames erupted around her, and she underwent a massive transformation.
"Is that... no way," Yugo whispered.
"What the hell is that?! This doesn't make any sense!" Woz gaped, his voice trembling.
Reina now looked like a feminine Kaijin clad in a living bodysuit of fire, her form shimmering in shades of red and orange. Melt, Fee, the people of Shandia, and even the nearby monsters stood frozen under the crushing weight of the pressure radiating from her.
With a sharp cackle, Reina blurred across the distance. Before Woz could even register her movement, she slammed a flame-shrouded kick into his gut. The impact sent him hurtling backward into a tree. He hit the trunk with a sickening thud and slumped to the ground, motionless.
Reina laughed, spreading her arms wide to savor her own strength.
"Ahahaha! He really was just trash! Expected, but still funny. Now then, let's get back to the game."
"A game? What are you talking about?! What do you mean by that?!" Yugo shouted.
Reina turned toward him, her voice brimming with amusement.
"It has nothing to do with people like you. This is a game for the chosen—for those who possess a Clear Plate. By crushing enemies and trampling targets, I gain experience. That experience lets the Plate draw out even more of the power sleeping inside me. This strength is already incredible, but it’s going to get even better. We Plate Holders compete to see who can grow the fastest and become the Strongest Being. To me, you're all just Experience Points."
Reina flicked her wrist, firing a bolt of flame at Yugo. He scrambled back, still clutching Torin, barely dodging the projectile. As she prepared to follow up, an Idrima leaped into her path to interfere.
"Ugyagyagyooooo!"
"Tch! Out of my way, you lowly monster!"
"Gugo...!!?"
The Idrima had valiantly launched an attack to save Yugo, but Reina countered with a brutal kick that sent the creature flying. Reina turned her gaze toward the mother monkey, who was groaning in pain, and the child monkey rushing to her side in terror. She ignited even more intense flames in her hands and clicked her tongue.
"If you're that eager to die, I'll start with you. Turn into ash!"
"This is bad!"
Yugo realized the target had shifted. He knew he couldn't stop her attack from a distance, so he sprinted toward the monkeys, his mind racing through a simulation of his next move.
The Purple Armor isn't fast enough! The Green Armor could shoot the fire down, but weapon generation takes too long! The Flame Armor is fast, but the combined heat from both of us would kill the mother and her baby.
What was the optimal solution? His eyes snapped toward the tree branch the mother monkey had been using as a weapon. Making an immediate decision, he struck a transformation pose, channeling mana into the bracelet on his left arm.
"Super Transformation!"
Yugo swept his arms wide, his left hand near his hip and his right pointing forward. Micro-particle metal surged over his legs first, generating armor.
"Hah!"
With armor covering only his legs, Yugo used the momentum of his sprint to perform a massive leap. It was higher and faster than anything his normal Blaster armor could achieve, leaving Fee and the others breathless. Yugo landed in front of the Idrima pair just as the flames arrived. He kicked the branch into the air, caught it with his now-armored hand, and stood his ground.
An explosion of fire erupted immediately after. As the flame bullet engulfed them, Fee’s eyes widened as he screamed.
"Brother!"
"Ahahaha! What an absolute idiot, dying in an explosion while trying to protect some monsters! Oh well, I just got a ton of hunting experience in one go—"
"—Now, I wouldn't be so sure about that."
Reina gasped as the provocative voice reached her. The smoke cleared to reveal Yugo and the monsters, completely unscathed.
"Is that...!!" Melt whispered.
Beside her, Fee stared in awe as he remembered something vital. There were three types of Dragon Material Yugo had received from the Three Great Houses of Yamato: Thunder Dragon, Wind Dragon, and Water Dragon. They had assumed the Water Dragon material had been entirely consumed by the cooling systems used to suppress the heat of the Flame and Purple Flame Armor.
Evidently, they were wrong.
Yugo stood clad in shimmering azure armor with a sleek, aerodynamic silhouette. In his hand, he gripped a staff manifested by his weapon generation ability. He spun the staff, the air whistling as it sliced through the heat, scattering droplets of cooling water from the weapon.
"This isn't a place for you to go around setting fires. If you really want to go wild..."
Yugo slammed the base of the staff into the earth and glared at her. His armor’s helm, shaped like the head of an Azure Dragon, caught the light as he beckoned to her.
"I’ll be your opponent. Come on, Fire Girl."