Unleash the Chuunibyou!

Chapter 22: The Final Round

Launching from where she was standing as soon as the match started, Hani's feet didn't even seem to touch the ground before she drew her hammer and swung it and an incredibly loud ringing sound filled the air as her hammer met Gerald's giant shield. However, unlike the others, Gerald remained standing and didn't even seem to flinch at all before he swung his sword, narrowly missing the beastkin as she jumped away from him. Though, in one smooth movement, she leapt back into the air before bringing her war hammer down directly on the top of Gerald, making the man lift his shield into the air in order to block the attack which would have most likely flattened most people before she dropped to the ground and quickly attacked at his legs. Though even if the movement was so fast that Fumiko could barely keep track of it, the man's sword moved like lightning while somehow being able to stop the war hammer in its tracks before he rushed forward with his shield in an attempt to flatten her with it. Though, even if the man was fast, Hani was even faster as she retreated and managed to gain enough distance between them that the man stopped his charge.

"Go Hani! You've got this!" Fumiko yelled in encouragement as soon as she realized that nearly everyone in the crowd was cheering for Gerald instead, especially the two people who were standing by the stage again. Though after Hani charged forward again and landed several more blows that seemed to make small shockwaves in the air with each hit landed, Fumiko wondered just why Gerald wasn't even flinching under the blows that had sent everyone else flying until she realized that it must have had something to do with the man's armor, especially if there was no one else that believed in magic like her enough to majorly fortify their bodies with it. So could it be his armor? How could she even tell? Well, regardless of what the man was using, Hani had to figure out how to defeat him be herself seeing as Fumiko guessed that any outside assistance would lead towards a disqualification.

Dodging Gerald's sword twice and his shield once, Hani continued to rain blows against his shield, sword and armor to no avail even when she managed to connect directly to the man's helmet. And seeing as he wasn't being affected at all even despite taking a hammer to the head, Fumiko soon began to wonder if it was perhaps a level difference which was what was wrong. However, seeing as she only knew that levels existed in Hail and didn't know if they worked like they did in games or not, she had no idea before she began to wonder if she could somehow see how powerful everyone was.

"My gaze with cut through the ethereal veil, tear through any obstacles and reveal the ultimate truth." Fumiko whispered her chant while covering her eyes with her right hand. "Inspect."

While she'd been hoping that this spell would allow her to see how powerful people were, she hadn't been quiet expecting the result as the world suddenly took on a purple tone while everyone around her seemed to glow with different colors of fire. However, all of those fires were small save when she looked towards the judging table where both Rail and the city lord both seemed to be sitting inside of bonfires. And while she was guessing that she was actually seeing their different degrees of magic or something, Rail and the city lord's powers were completely dwarfed by Hani's as the woman look as if she were standing in a yellow flame the size of a two-story building as she moved. She even had the largest flame present, though for some reason she was still finding difficulty in defeating her opponent even though his fire was significantly smaller than even those sitting at the table. However...

Attempting to figure out what was happening, both Gerald's and the two men next to the stage's magic were all combining somehow, though not in a way where they were transferring their magic directly to the contestant. Instead, there almost seemed to be some kind of wires that not only spread around the two men, but through the entire wooden stage where the magic gathered before it was absorbed through the feat of Gerald's armor. And while she didn't know just how they were protecting the man from getting hit by Hani's relentless attacks, she knew for sure that they were cheating now seeing as it was three people against one. And seeing as the other people were allowed next to the stage...

"Hey Hani! They're cheating!" Fumiko yelled as she flew over everyone's heads and lowered herself beside the stage so that she was opposite side of the stage from Gerald's accomplices.

"Fu? What are you-?" Hani asked in surprise before a few of the guards from near the table ran around the stage to confront her.

"Hey! There will be no interferences with the match!" One of them called out when they finally drew close to Fumiko.

"Oh yeah? Then what about those two?!" Fumiko asked while pointing at Gerald's two supporters.

"Those two are one of the combatant's coaches, now leave before-"

"Well I'm Hani's coach, so there!' Fumiko interrupted them. "Right Hani?!"

"Huh?! Yeah! Sure! Whatever!" Hani yelled back in reply, obviously still having her hands full as she dodged two more sword swings, hit Gerald again upside the head with her war hammer but was then was forced to retreat as he attempted to hit her with his shield again.

"See?! Now go! Shoo! Shoo!" Fumiko stuck her tongue out at the obviously aggravated guards as they slowly walked away before she turned back towards the fight. "Hani! They're all combining their magic into that guy's armor in order to resist your attacks! That's why he's not affected at all!"

"Do you have any proof?! They won't disqualify them unless you can prove that they're cheating!" Hani yelled back in reply.

"Not unless I give everyone here the ability to see magic, but that's not going to happen!" Fumiko replied.

"Then how does knowing that help me?!" Hani asked.

"Because they're using the stage to transfer their magic!" Fumiko repied. "Destroy the stage and you'll stop them from being able to cheat... Probably!"

"What do you mean 'Probably'?!" Hani asked while seeming to be angry.

"Do you have any better ideas or are you just going to keep pointlessly hitting him all night?!" Fumiko asked.

"Fine, but if this doesn't work, then you're the one that's paying for the damages to the stage!" Hani replied before running to the other side, raising her hammer and slamming it down onto the stage rather than her opponent for once. And while all of the participants had been purposefully attempting to spare the stage previously, now that it was getting hit directly, the wood erupted and splintered in several directions before Hani had to move seeing as Gerald suddenly found the drive to chase after her instead of just letting her come to him like he'd been doing.

Repeatedly yelling while hitting the stage as hard as she could, Hani destroyed entire sections of the stage at a time, sending boards and nails flying everywhere until she eventually had destroyed most of the stage and there was only a singular island in the center of it where the boards were still intact. However, while Gerald had been staying at that section of the stage, someone blowing a whistle suddenly made everyone stop and look at them as a group of guards began inspecting the remains that Hani had left behind.

"Oh! It looks like there is evidence of foul play!" The man in the white suit suddenly declared after running up to the guards as they all examined what looked like a mess of extremely thin wires that were all made out of even more of the same steel that Gerald's armor was made out of. "This wire is magically charged and is coming from Gerald's coaches! Truly, this was unexpected!"

As the people were caught, the spectators all suddenly started booing at them even though Fumiko knew that none of them most likely knew just how they had been cheating. Though seeing as the city lord had stood up and walked over to the stage while picking up some of the wires that, now that Fumiko's spell had ended, she could see were still glowing even with normal eyes, he gave a look of disappointment towards Gerald and his two coaches before he turned and nodded towards the man in the white suit.

"Alright then, it seems that Gerald is being disqualified, which means the match is over and that Hani wins!" The man declared, though a loud grunt and the clang of metal hitting metal distracted everyone as Hani got one last hit in with her war hammer and it actually had some effect as Gerald crumbled in front of her, partially sinking into the ground while the armor on his back where the weapon had hit was completely mangled. "Hey! I said that the match was over!"

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you!" Hani laughed nervously but had a content smile on her face as she spoke.

"Liar..." Fumiko spoke in a low tone so that no one but the mercenary could hear her, and Hani turned and smiled in Fumiko's direction before she finally couldn't help but smile herself while giving her friend a thumbs-up. "Good job."