The Royal Military Academy's Impostor Owns a Dungeon [BL]

”What the actual hell?!”

Duke Caius, as well as the other pilots who’d immediately attempted to imitate his successful move, minus the part where he manually calculated everything himself, were so thoroughly flabbergasted that they nearly forgot they were still supposed to be attacking.

After all, what’d just emerged from that cloud of smoke wasn’t merely an unscathed mecha.

It was practically the complete opposite of the one they’d spent the entire race chasing!

For several precious seconds, their attention remained completely locked on that inexplicably luminous golden figure, right until their own AIs warned them that the additional momentum they’d gained was rapidly bleeding away.

At their current rate, it wouldn’t be long before their mechas began falling behind again, taking their precious firing opportunity with them.

That alone was enough to jolt several pilots back into action.

Yet, just when they thought there were already more than enough things to be confused about, the golden mecha suddenly did something else.

It paused.

Or at least, that was what it looked like.

For one strange moment, the luminous machine seemed to simply hang there, its movements becoming so unnaturally still that several pilots instinctively hesitated.

Now what was he up to?

Then something glinted.

It was barely noticeable, little more than a fleeting shimmer passing across several points of the golden armor. So faint that most of the audience probably would’ve missed it entirely if their attention hadn’t already been completely fixed on the mecha.

There was no dramatic buildup.

No obvious weapon deployment.

Not even enough time for anyone to properly wonder what they’d just seen.

But without any further warning, impossibly thin beams of light shot outward from different points across the mecha’s body.

They looked almost deceptively harmless.

Barely visible lines of light stretched through the air, so narrow and strangely delicate that they almost resembled the straight sun rays children tended to draw around a circle.

Unfortunately, the pilots themselves weren’t given the luxury of appreciating the sight.

Because by the time their radars screamed that something was incoming, several of them hadn’t even managed to move a muscle.

The beams were simply too fast.

”?!”

The next thing reflected across the enormous screens was already the aftermath.

Several mechas were struck almost simultaneously, taking clean hits from attacks their pilots hadn’t even properly seen coming. Parts of the surrounding course suffered the same fate, sections of the arena grounds violently torn apart as explosions erupted almost in unison.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

For the audience, it was almost impossible to understand what’d happened.

One moment, they were still trying to process why and how the pitch-black mecha had suddenly turned gold. The next, all they caught was a momentary glint before explosions erupted seemingly everywhere at once!

One could’ve heard a pin drop throughout the arena.

Countless people stared with their mouths hanging open, while others had their hands clamped over them in sheer disbelief as they tried to process the ridiculous scene before their eyes.

Then, amid that profound silence, one particularly lively voice rang out from the stands.

”Go Owen! Go Owen!”

”Wooooo!”

Naturally, it could only be Luca Kyros, especially when even the usually upbeat Princess Tharkira had been rendered strangely silent by the sight.

Meanwhile, the golden-eyed cadet didn’t look even remotely fazed by what’d just happened, happily waving his questionable sign as though he hadn’t just witnessed several professional pilots get blasted by something most of them hadn’t even been fast enough to see.

And perhaps his cheering really did break whatever spell had fallen over the arena. Noise gradually began returning, even if much of it amounted to garbled gibberish as the audience struggled to decide which of the many confusing things they’d just witnessed they were supposed to address first.

Unfortunately for the pilots still dealing with the unexpected damage and the countless warnings now blaring throughout their cockpits, that sudden retaliation was apparently only the beginning.

They’d simply assumed that, after returning fire, Owen would take advantage of his ridiculous lead and the fact that everyone else was still thoroughly dumbfounded to continue straight toward the finish line.

He didn’t.

”?!”

Right there in the middle of the course, with the finish line still waiting on the other side, the luminous golden mecha actually came to a complete halt.

Then it turned around.

Slowly, deliberately, its entire body rotated until its back was facing the direction it was supposed to be heading, leaving the color-changing mecha staring directly at the opponents who’d spent the past few minutes relentlessly trying to blast it apart.

A strange sense of foreboding immediately settled over several pilots.

Then the folded structures along its back moved.

With a sharp mechanical unfurling, the massive wings spread wide.

”!!!”

As though that damned thing hadn’t already looked intimidating enough.

Bathed in its own golden radiance, the mecha looked absolutely magnificent with those enormous wings stretched behind it.

Majestic, even.

Unfortunately, there was something distinctly less majestic about being on the receiving end of that terrifying sight.

Because Owen wasn’t facing the finish line anymore.

He was facing them.

And nothing about that seemed particularly promising when their own mechas were already acting like they were ready to quit.

So what exactly were they supposed to do when the kid looked like he was asking for blood?

At least, that was probably how it looked to everyone outside.

But see, inside that supposedly terrifying golden mecha, Owen Mylor was actually experiencing a very different kind of crisis.

”NO, NO, NO!”

The teenager was practically crying.

In fact, he couldn’t even be blamed for that ridiculous blast earlier. He literally had no idea how that had happened. Lamentably, however, he could absolutely be blamed for what happened afterward.

He’d panicked.

His hands had moved, something had activated, and the next thing he knew, his mecha had already turned around and dramatically unfurled its wings like he’d personally decided to declare war on everyone behind him.

But he hadn’t meant to do any of that!

It was a misclick!

A MISCLICK!

And now they were all looking at each other like he was supposed to do something?!