I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

However, that brown-haired man had also been temporarily rendered combat-ineffective by her strike~ Thinking this, Mitia reformed two long swords in her hands and pushed off with her foot to thrust straight at the Brawny Man.

The Brawny Man blocked the thrust with one arm, dodged the horizontal slash by shifting his body, shoved aside Mitia’s cutting arc with a palm, and turned to slip away from the second blade.

But Mitia rolled and cut faster; the blade bit hard at the joint between his arm-plate and his arm before he could withdraw his limb.

‘Crack, pfft!’

The sound of enchanted armor shattering and a keen blade sinking into flesh rang out together; the surprise on the Brawny Man’s face was replaced by pain before it could fully show.

“Ah!!!”

Even though the sword hadn’t severed the arm because of the earth-aspect armor, the wound was three-tenths into the bone. He extended his right hand, pinched the wound on his left arm, and a faint golden light glowed on his palm to staunch the bleeding.

Although the arm was preserved, it could not exert much force now. It was clear the pair had to cooperate — separated and fighting one-on-one, neither of them would survive.

“Pfft… cough cough cough…”

The brown-haired man steadied himself after finally emptying his stomach, clutching his abdomen and looking at Mitia with a terrified face:

”You’re the Empress, aren’t you? Shouldn’t an Empress be someone who’s delicate and ignorant of manual labor? So why do you have such rich combat experience!?”

Mitia shook her head, flicked a flourish of her sword and sighed: “I had been lazy these past few years, otherwise this should have ended long ago.”

“......”

They both thought someone was putting on airs — and they had proof.

“Rested enough? Continue.”

Mitia assumed a stance with swords in both hands, and emitted the upright tone of an earnest, naïve rookie warrior — oddly gentlemanly for someone who didn’t sneak-attack.

Before the two could exchange a look or reply, Mitia had already launched her attack.

Flames suddenly erupted around her body; she shot at the Brawny Man like an arrow loosed from a bow. The Brawny Man’s expression changed as he readied a parry.

But the ferocious assault he expected never arrived. Instead there were two clangs of metal, and mid-charge Mitia flung both swords to obscure his vision.

Stopping herself, she looked toward the brown-haired man; the flames where she had stood quickly crystallized and surged toward him.

At the same time her purple irises shifted to blue.

The man saw the rushing crystalline pillar and tried to dodge; the filth he had vomited at his feet suddenly changed form and froze his feet. By the time he broke free he had already lost the chance to evade.

“Boom!”

The flaming crystal pillar, carrying a weighty force, struck him and slammed him into the mountain—his protective shield shattered.

‘Sizzle… ahhhh!!!’

The crystalline mass, like solidified lava, infiltrated everywhere and pinned his lower body into the rock to be seared. The heat nullified the outer layer of his magic armor; the iron lining melted rapidly into molten metal, like a teppanyaki grill.

“Murrant!!!”

The Brawny Man shouted, leaping up to block Mitia’s finishing blow aimed from midair in order to shield Murrant.

Mitia closed her eyes while suspended; red and blue light burst behind her.

The next moment a mass of two-colored crystals coalesced into several dragon-like serpents that twisted together into corkscrew drills and charged at the two.

The Brawny Man’s entire body was wrapped by earth-elemental power and he became a stone giant over five meters tall; his massive fists smashed toward the crystalline dragon-drills.

The first segment was crushed by the stone giant’s blow, but more crystalline columns came surging without end. He staggered back two steps before he barely held them off, yet his enormous frame shrank rapidly under the impacts.

Mitia, hovering in the air, opened her crimson eyes at that moment; her hair shifted from silver to red and the fire-element fluctuations around her intensified. The surrounding temperature quickly dropped, and a huge crystal five or six meters in diameter slowly condensed before her.

“Go!”

She pointed with a slender hand; the crystal fell like a meteor and sped toward the two.

The Brawny Man, centered within the stone giant, went pale and knelt down to pray hurriedly:

【Goddess— pfft… please save your faithful who are being violated by the impious!】

He forcibly called for divine descent at the cost of ten years off his life; the golden shield arrived in advance and enveloped them, colliding with the crystal.

The two elemental forces repelled each other with a shrill, piercing howl.

The golden light gradually dimmed, and the huge red crystal visibly wore away, about to vanish.

The Brawny Man breathed a sigh of relief; after that big move they would surely have a moment to catch their breath.

However, when the crystal had nearly worn away, a sliver of white light shot from behind it and, ‘pffft’, pierced through the tip of the golden shield.

The Brawny Man’s pupils shrank; he watched helplessly as the white light penetrated his stone-giant form and pierced into his flesh, entering at the heart and pinning him backward.

All that preparation had only served to enable that final killing thrust.

‘Pfft!’

A blade-sinking-into-flesh sound came from behind him, followed by a scream — Murrant and he were skewered together.

Gripping the hilt that glowed with white light, the Brawny Man looked at Mitia with eyes full of rage: “Despicable!”

Mitia withdrew and peered at the two, her lips parting slightly: “Childish~”

The fire-formed spear altered shape and shed wisps of white light that swept over their bodies; after occupying every inch of space it finally released its true heat.

Amid a chorus of harrowing screams, the two were vaporized into a wisp of white smoke.

“How did it feel?”

A familiar, immature voice sounded beside her. Mitia did not turn but answered directly: “Their strength was okay, but the chassis was formidable. How about your side?”

She had noticed the movements beside her earlier; a gentleman did not stand beneath a crumbling wall — with no one next to her she had already slipped away. Who would want to keep fighting them~

Sherria Miranda jumped down from a chassis with a large hole in its chest: “Killed one, captured two.”

Mitia, seeing the blonde girl with one arm missing dangling from Sherria’s hand, asked curiously: “You dealt the blow?”

Sherria shook her head, looking oddly at the unconscious woman at her feet: “No — that unlucky child had her core blasted by that dumb girl’s one-shot kill, and her arm was blown off…”

Mitia: “……such a coincidence?”

Sherria nodded speechlessly to indicate that indeed it had been that coincidental.

To prevent cores from being targeted, the core position in every batch of arcane chassis was randomized; the higher-grade the core the more secret its location.

A one-shot-kill that hit the core precisely — whether Miwei had luck or that girl had misfortune, it seemed even blondes could differ among themselves~

“By the way, they didn’t cause too many casualties, right?”

Sherria: “……”

“How so? Heavy losses?”

From Sherria’s reaction Mitia got her answer and sighed: “Looks like the castle bill needs to be pushed through quickly; we can’t let the assembly keep arguing.”

“We’ll bring those chassis back and try to dissect them; maybe they’ll give us some ideas.”

A cold light flashed through her eyes: “Since they don’t like peaceful days, then we’ll fight! Let’s see who collapses under losses first. This time we’ll be the ones to cause them trouble!”