Flashing Iris

"Watch the left!"

"It's about to fire!"

"Boom!!!"

Violent explosions, tense drumbeats, stirring music.

And the simultaneous barrage of Magic Cannons weaving a giant net of light through the air, the dense anti-aircraft barrage, and the deep-blue comet streaking down from the heavens—

"Whooom!!"

The engine roared, vector thrusters blasting out scorching waves of air. Just before colliding with the deep-blue comet, the steel monster abruptly retreated a great distance. Hellcat's punch struck empty ground, and the shockwave kicked up dust that filled the sky.

The sustained Magic Cannon fire and anti-aircraft barrage tore through the dust in an instant. Before the mechas piloted by Qiu Gui and the others could even form an attack formation, they were suppressed by the machine-gun fire and forced onto the defensive, searching for a possible angle of attack.

With the appearance of that blood-red phantom, the steel monster swiftly seized the initiative after being completely suppressed at first. Its agility rose dramatically, and it repeatedly performed evasive maneuvers and attack stances that a giant of its size should never have been capable of. Even its anti-aircraft fire became far fiercer.

It did not merely maneuver at full speed with its vector thrusters—it could even perform difficult moves like backflips and one-handed cartwheels. Such movements might have been nothing unusual for an ordinary Magical Girl, and even common beastfolk could pull them off with ease, but when they appeared on a giant robot thirty meters tall...

"That's kind of terrifying."

Bailing floated beside Iris and muttered softly.

Faced with the steadily intensifying anti-aircraft fire, the two Stargazers were sent scrambling in panic by the shockwaves and stray shots. They only escaped disaster after fleeing behind Iris's Magic Shield. Bailing looked sadly at her ferret tail, which had caught fire after being grazed by a