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Chapter 91 ~ Excalibur V.S Lancelot

Andreas Dalton continued to fire his bazooka towards the Japan Liberation Front’s defense lines to try and break through the encirclement he and his squad had found themselves in. 

They needed to make their way towards the Viceroy, who had been isolated and targeted by both the Black Knights and JLF, as soon as possible. 

Unfortunately…

“Dammit…! They launched a pincer attack before we could regroup! There’s no way I will be able to reach Her Highness now!”

He ordered the knights under him to continue firing their weapons and focused their fire onto a single point of breakthrough. But suddenly, the soft, unstable ground under them collapsed, engulfing their Gloucesters into the ground. 

Meanwhile, the line Guildford was holding to prevent Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords from reaching his Princess, was beginning to collapse as the rest of his knights were unable to deal with the Four Holy Swords while he battled Tohdoh into a stalemate. 

They were soon forced to group together as Tohdoh and his squad managed to pick off the lesser knights and encircle them. 

“No… At this rate, Princess Cornelia would be…!”

Guilford, faced by a helpless situation, felt his body tremble and cold sweat dripped down his back. But not out of fear of his defeat or death. 

His mind was filled solely by his princess’s safety. 

When suddenly, the dignified, beautiful voice of Cornelia came into his communication line. 

“Guilford…”

His eyes widened in shock and hopefulness for a moment. His fear that his princess had been taken hostage or worse, killed, dissipated knowing that she was still in her knightmare and still had access to their communication line. 

But, his relief didn’t last as he immediately noticed the solemn and dark tone in her voice.

Show the rest of the front going. Guildford became more and more desperate, when he suddenly got a message from Cornelia. 

“Guilford… My knight. I want you and Darlton to assist Euphie.”

“Y-Your highness!!!”

“I refuse to surrender… As an imperial princess, I will fight to my last breath!”

“PRINCESS CORNELIA!!!”

Armless, headless, and weaponless, Cornelia charged towards the Guren when suddenly, the ground began to shake once more. 

Then all of a sudden, the rocky walls of the ravine to their right suddenly exploded with a deafening blast, causing rocks, dirt, dust, and debris to fly everywhere and creating a large cloud of dust. 

A unique white and gold knightmare frame appeared from within the cloud of dust, his right arm holding a large blue rifle that thrummed with energy unlike other ordinary weapons. 

It landed right before the armless and headless Gloucester of the princess and the voice of a young man resounded from the white knightmare. 

“Viceroy, are you alright?! I’ve come to help!”

“The Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps?! But who authorized- Watch out!”

Suzaku, who heard the viceroy’s warning, was immediately alerted and saw two jet-black slash harkens aiming towards him. 

“Kuhh! Why is it… This heavy!!!”

He managed to dodge one but was forced to block and deflect against the other with his right arm. And immediately, he felt a tremendous weight that he had never felt before coming from the launched slash harken.

The Lancelot was forced back, but still managed to hold his ground as he put the Princess’s knightmare behind him and facing towards the direction where the slash harken came from. 

Then… From within the cloud of smoke, dust, and debris… He saw the silhouette of a knightmare. 

It walked out of the dust, and for the first time ever, Suzaku felt a chill go down his spine as he saw the jet-black, crimson knightmare appeared with a familiar, crimson-red sword in each hand. 

His eyes widened in shock the moment he noticed  the Maser Vibration Swords it had in his hands and the resemblance in appearance between the mysterious black knightmare and his own Lancelot and. But soon, he also noticed several differences. 

In addition to their color, the chest of the black knight was different. The shape of it came to a slight point, like a prism or a diamond, unlike the Lancelot’s. 

It also appeared to be larger. But soon, he realized that the black knight wasn’t actually larger. The air around it… and the atmosphere it had simply made it seem like so. And as it walked, he couldn’t help but feel the air around him weighing him down as his body stiffened at the sight of it.

“What… What in the world… Is that…?”

His eyes, wide, continued to stare at it. When suddenly, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice came into his comms, snapping him out of his daze. 

“Suzaku-kun, be careful!!! That thing is extremely dangerous!!!”

He recognized the voice to belong to Lloyd. But unlike his usual carefree tone, Suzaku noticed a clear fear and panic in the voice.

“Focus on saving the Viceroy and avoid any confrontations with it!”

“Y-Yes!”

Suzaku immediately aimed the Variable Ammunition Repulsion Impact Spitfire (VARIS) rifle towards the jet-black knightmare in burst mode and shot a light green, condensed ball of destructive beam energy. 

He knew that if the jet-black knightmare had similar agility to his own Lancelot, then it would be able to dodge the bullet, even at this short distance. But that was fine. 

His intention was to create a distraction and bring the remaining torso of the Viceroy’s customized Gloucester with him before retreating. 

But to his shock, instead of dodging, the jet-black knightmare frame swung his sword faster than his eyes could blink. 

And before he knew it, the spherical beam of energy was cut in half and shot past either side of the jet-black knightmare, exploding the wall of rocks and ground behind it. 

“Impossible…”

Suzaku felt the cold sweat begin to drench his back as he stared at the jet-black knightmare in shock. 

How…? How could a knightmare cut through a bullet of condense beam? Even with the Maser Vibration Swords, it should’ve been impossible to cut down a bullet shot from such a short distance!

Cornelia, who saw this, was also stunned inside her knightmare. 

But before either could process what had just happened, the jet-black knightmare frame suddenly burst into speed 

“Crap-!”

Suzaku shot another bullet of spherical condense beam of energy towards the mysterious knightmare, but it simply dodged to the side with minimal movement without even slowing down. 

Both of the Lancelot’s hip-mounted slash harkens shot forward in hopes to try and slow down its charge. But the jet-black knightmare frame simply did the same and hit both of Lancelot’s slash harkens.

And before Suzaku could do anything else, it had arrived right before him. Its crimson red eyes shining brightly at him. 

“Dammit!”

He shot another bullet, but the crimson-eyed knightmare frame simply titled his head to the side. 

Then, it swung up with his left arm, and his sword cut through the VARIS rifle vertically, right down in the middle. 

The rifle was sundered, its explosion causing the Lancelot to step back from the recoiling as clouds of smoke obfuscated its vision. 

“Argh!!”

The shock from the explosion rocked Suzaku within his cockpit, shaking his brain and causing a slight dizziness. 

The Lancelot immediately leaped away in retreat. But just then, he noticed the cloud of smoke in front of him slowly turning red. 

Shivers came down his spine as his instincts shouted at him, warning him of the danger. 

In a pure reaction of wariness and fear, Suzaku put both of his arms forward and deployed both of his Blaze Luminous Shields. 

And a moment later, his instincts proved to be right. 

A terrifying, crimson red beam of crackling energy shot through the cloud of smoke and hit his Blaze Luminous Shields.

“Kuh!!!”

The crimson red beam with electricity and thunderous lightning crackling around it pushed against Lancelot’s light green shield of energy. For a moment, it seemed to be successful in stopping it. But soon, the Blaze Luminous Shields began to crack

And a moment later, the effulgent light green shield shattered into pieces. The crimson beam hit Lancelot's forearm, destroying both of Lancelot’s forearm-mounted slash harkens and the device creating the energy shield. 

In addition to the damage to its forearm, a huge chunk of the Lancelot’s energy reserve was drained by the Blaze Luminous Shield when it tried to defend against the red beam from the jet-black knightmare frame. 

But Suzaku didn’t regret using the shield to protect him. 

If he didn’t… the fate he and Lancelot would face was definitely something he’d rather not think about.

On the brighter side, though his Luminous Blaze Shield and arm-mounted slash harkens were destroyed, his arms were still unharmed because they took the brunt of the damage. 

And thus, he quickly drew both of his Maser Vibration Sword and went on the defensive. 

Upon drawing the MVS, the previously gray blade turned red as its surface vibrated with extremely high oscillations which, in turn, produced heat; both of which contributed to increasing the cutting effectiveness of the weapon. 

Suzaku waited, his eyes vigilantly watching the cloud of black smoke obscuring his sight. 

Then, his grip on his control device tightened when a wind blew the smoke away and revealed the visage of the mysterious jet-black knightmare frame.

Time seemed to flow slowly as the two knightmare stared into each other in a tense silence. 

Then, without a sign or a warning, the black knight burst into speed and arrived right in front of the white knight in a blink of an eye. 

Having been extremely alerted and vigilant of its speed, Suzaku was able to react and raised his swords in defense, causing all four of the MVS swords to clash against each other. 

Sparks of light and fire flew from the intense clash. And as their swords continued to clash against each other, Lancelot slowly found itself being pushed back. 

Although he was able to luckily react just in time to catch the black knight’s swords, the strength it exhibited was far beyond his expectations. He could feel it… The Lancelot, one of, if not, the first seventh generation knightmare frame was struggling and losing in terms of strength and speed against this black knight. 

“I… I can’t lose here!”

Suzaku maneuvered to the left and led the black knight’s swords down to the ground, using its own weight against itself. 

He expected the black knight to fall forward, or at the very least, lose its balance for a moment when he moved away so suddenly. 

But to his shock, he found the same crimson sword slashing towards him with immense speed, forcing him to leap back into safety. 

 “H-How could he be that fast…?!”

Suzaku simply couldn’t fathom how someone could react so quickly. And even more than that, he couldn’t understand how could a knightmare handle such an immense speed? To be able to slash horizontally towards him in an upward motion after he redirected its powerful swing down to the ground… He couldn’t even begin to imagine how much strain it would put onto a knightmare frame. 

Unfortunately, Suzaku didn’t have the leeway to ponder these thoughts as he was forced into another deadly dance of high speed sword fight. 

“Kuh! I can’t believe it… The Lancelot couldn't keep up…?!”

Although his Lancelot boasts the greatest speed and agility amongst other knightmare frames, he found himself barely able to deflect, defend, or dodge the black knight’s storm of blades. 

And when he tried to counter attack, every single one of his strikes would only slash through the air and dodged with the most minimal movement. It was as if it could predict where he would aim his sword. 

Cornelia, who was watching this fight unfold within her knightmare, sat frozen. Her eyes wide as saucers as her lips parted in shock. 

I can’t believe what I’m seeing…

In all the years she had spent on the battlefield, fighting against the champions and heroes of her empire’s enemy, this might be… the single greatest battle she had seen.

The sheer speed and intensity of this high level battle… No matter how proud she was with her skill, even she didn’t think she’d be able to stand a chance if she were to be in their place. 

Meanwhile, Karen, who was watching the fight within the Guren, had similar opinions with the Britannian princess. 

She watched in awe of Mordred’s skill as he and Excalibur dominated the white knight, who had always been the bane of their existence. 

The Black Knights had come face to face against the white knight in several battles, but every single time, they were defeated. If it wasn’t for Zero and his strategy, they might have been annihilated by this white knight. 

But now… She’s watching it being pushed back by the Excalibur! 

Come on… You got this, Mordred!

Her grip on the control device of her Guren strengthened. And fire began to lit up within her heart. The desire to become stronger, as strong as the black knight before her. Strong enough to attain victory against even the strongest foe. 

Just then, both Karen and Cornellia snapped out of her daze when they heard a loud clang. 

The black knight had parried a slightly reckless strike from the Lancelot, and deflected it. And using this chance, it cut the left hand of the white knight. Its Maser Vibration Sword sliced through the arm of the Lancelot like a hot knife through butter. 

“Dammit!!!”

Suzaku gritted his teeth upon receiving the consequences for being slightly reckless and impatient. But, he quickly re-focused his mind on the battle and observed the black knight in this split of a moment. 

Its right sword arm was still in a sword lock with his left sword arm. And his left sword arm was still raised up after cutting his right arm. 

It had no way of defending against an attack to its torso. 

And thus, Suzaku quickly tried to counter attack by shooting his hip-mounted slash harkens at the black knight. 

But to his shock, both slash harkens were deflected by the slash harkens the black knight shot. 

Impossible… How could he see it coming?!

Deflecting a slash harken with another slash harken was already difficult enough. It would require an extremely high level of accuracy to be able to aim at a small object that was traveling at extremely high speeds. And it’d only become more impossible to strike it down with a slash harken. 

But this black knight… he was able to deflect it accurately, multiple times now, and at such a close distance. 

Luck wouldn’t even be able to begin explaining such a phenomenon. 

This pilot… is a monster.

Recoiling from its deflected slash harkens, the Lancelot was unable to defend against the upcoming flurry of blades. 

Its remaining sword arm was easily cut once again by the black knight. And its slash harkens, that Suzaku shot towards the rocky ravine walls in hopes of reaching the princess and escaping, was cut easily by the black knight’s swords. 

After the slash harkens, his legs were next to be cut down by the black knight. Then, his head. 

And finally, silence fell upon the raging battlefield as the black knight with twin crimson swords in hand stood before the headless, armless, and legless torso of the white knight, victorious. 

“Are you ready to listen now, Cornelia?”