This is not the date I wanted.

However, the opponent seemed to have guessed Nana's move long ago, and grabbed a fainted magician on the ground and used her as a shield in front of him.

The magician's partner, who was used as a shield, suddenly shrank to a child less than five years old. The magician himself dodged the attack of the Seven Sins and rushed forward to the Seven Sins.

"Zadkiel (Ice Golem)!"

Fortunately, at this time, Yoshino reacted immediately and summoned an ice wall to block the Seven Sins and the magician.

(…Saved.)

Nanashi was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but who would have thought that facing the solid ice wall created by the elves, the magician not only did not stop, but took a step forward.

——Boom! There was a deep sound like the sound of a temple bell. The extremely hard battleship deck was pressed into a dent by this step.

The magician clenched his fists without using either guns or laser swords.

If there were an expert present, he would be able to see that the magician was performing the Bajiquan stance.

The tiger climbs the mountain with all its might.

Less than a few centimeters away from the ice wall, the magician's right fist stabbed out like a spear.

The ice wall condensed by spiritual power was shattered like paper. Not only that, the magician's punch also penetrated the spiritual shield and spiritual equipment of Seven Sins, and finally hit Seven Sins' abdomen.

"--Well!"

Even though the attack was blocked by three layers of defense, the magician's attack still made Nanashi feel as if his internal organs were dislocated and his gastric juice seemed to be vomited out of his mouth. He almost fainted from the severe pain.

(Oh no… I’ve fallen into a trap…)

Because the opponent was equipped with the most common CR-Unit, Qi Sin and others subconsciously underestimated the opponent. The strength of this magician was completely different from that of other cannon fodder magicians.

After subduing Nanashi, the magician did not continue to attack, but instead carried Nanashi's body and retreated, putting some distance between himself and Miku, Yoshino, the Yamai sisters and others.

"Seven Sins!?"

"Oh? That's really scary, but please don't come any closer."

Seeing the menacing elf, the magician calmly took off the laser sword from his waist and placed it on Li Qi Sin's neck.

"Otherwise, I can't guarantee the life of this little sister of Seven Sins."

Seeing that the other party was taking the Seven Sins as hostages, everyone could only stand where they were, not daring to act rashly.

"Ku——How dare you use such a despicable method, you shameless person, quickly let my compatriot go!"

"Glaring. You actually resorted to such a despicable method as taking hostages."

Facing the scolding from Yui and Yakuya, the magician obviously didn't care at all. The corners of his lips revealed from under half of the mask and he even curled up a weird smile.

"Sigh—our company's work style isn't that upright to begin with. I don't mind being called despicable. Besides, I have to face the attacks of five of you elves at the same time. It's not strange to use some tricks."

The magician answered as a matter of course. After all, the manifestation device she was equipped with was the worst mass-produced model. If she hadn't caught someone by surprise and used him as a hostage, she would have been defeated by the elves by now.

——Let the Seven Sins go, magician.

At this moment, Miku silently summoned the "Pojun Songstress" and gave orders to the magician in conjunction with the brainwash music played by the organ pipes.

However, the magician did not follow Miku's order. Instead, the laser sword moved closer to Nanashi's neck.

"how come?"

"It's useless, Miss Miku. I already knew your ability from the data. I have already blocked my hearing with the Random Field, and now I am judging your words through lip reading. Well, at first I was afraid that this trick wouldn't work, so I planned to deal with you first, but it seems that there is no problem now."

Seeing Miku's surprised expression, the magician explained with a smile.

"By the way, I also know your abilities, little sister Nanashi."

The magician whispered softly into Nanashi's ear:

"Don't think I don't know you're pretending to be asleep. If I notice you using an angel, I'll have to chop your head off."

"..."

Nanashi closed her eyes tightly and said nothing, but the cold sweat dripped down her forehead, revealing the fear in her heart at the moment.

Experience told Qishi that nothing this woman said was a joke.

"Well, Miss Magician. What do you want me to do to let Nanashi-chan go? If you dare to hurt Nanashi-chan, Yoshina won't be as easy to talk to as she is now."

"Don't hurt... Miss Nanashi..."

At this time, Yoshino and Yoshina, who had transformed into an "Ice Puppet", asked the magician a threatening question.

As if he was waiting for them to say this, the magician nodded with satisfaction.

"Of course, no problem. I personally don't want little sister Nanashi to accompany me to the underworld. As long as you cooperate with my request, I will naturally return her to you intact. Don't worry, it's definitely not an unreasonable request. As long as you give up attacking this airship and retreat honestly, it will be fine."

Hearing the magician's request, Yakushi frowned in confusion.

"You want me to retreat? What are you planning?"

"I have no obligation to answer you."

"you--"

"Understood. Xixian agrees to your terms."

Xixian was the first to respond.

"Xixian?!"

"Reminder. Yakuya, don't forget what Mengyue and Qinli told you."

Xi Xian said calmly. Of course, she was also worried whether the other party's purpose was really as simple as just for them to retreat, but no matter what, they could not risk the lives of their companions.

After hearing what Yui said, Yakuya stared at the magician, and finally nodded with gritted teeth.

"...I have no objection. But in exchange, you must abide by the agreement and release the Seven Sins. Otherwise, I will let you know how much you will pay for daring to deceive the Son of Hurricane!"

"of course."

The magician nodded readily and took out a metal USB flash drive containing the hacker virus written by Meng Yue from Nanashi's pocket.

"Then Miss Mijiu, please also hand me the USB drive hidden in your right pocket."

"...I understand. You must keep your promise."

Although she didn't know how she found out that she had a backup USB drive, for the safety of Nanashi, Miku still honestly threw the USB drive to the magician.

"Thank you~ I did receive it."

After getting the USB drive, the magician seemed to be in a good mood. He not only led them to the nearest exit, but also kindly used his authority to open the door for them.

"Confirmed. We have fulfilled your request. It is your turn to fulfill your promise."

After everyone left the airship, Xixian stared at the magician standing at the exit and said vigilantly.

"Well, that's natural."

Fortunately, the magician had no intention of breaking the contract. He nodded readily and threw the Seven Sins over.

Yui and Yakuya quickly caught Nanashi.

"Qi Zui, tell me where you feel uncomfortable?"

"Worried. Are you not hurt, Seven Sins?"

"Well... apart from the fact that my stomach still hurts a little, there's nothing wrong... I'm sorry for holding you back."

Slowly opening his eyes, Nanashi smiled bitterly and said with some shame.

"No need to apologize, Nanashi-chan, your safety is the most important thing."

"It's okay... I'm so glad..."

"That's not the case. Nanashi took me hostage to protect me. I should be the one to apologize! I'm sorry, Nanashi!"

"Ugh—I can't breathe. Let me go, you cow!"

Nanashi struggled desperately in Mikuchi's arms. Just kidding, if she continued like this, she would either die under the magician's sword or suffocate to death due to lack of oxygen.

At the same time, after Nanashi and others left the airship, the airship also turned on optical camouflage and disappeared from their sight.

11 Battle of Cosmos (Ten)

==============================

"Hurry up, open all the walls in the passage! Send out all the magicians and Bandersnatch! We must not let the elves get here!"

In the command room on the bridge of the third airship dispatched by DEM, Knox, the commander, was hurriedly issuing orders.

To be honest, Knox now regrets it from the bottom of his heart.

After the transport mission failed at the end of last year, he and his friend Patton had been preparing to change jobs. However, he did not expect that after the failure of the mission, his career would rise instead of decline. The newly built airship happened to be short of a commander, and this position fell on him.

Although he was skeptical about this pie in the sky, he couldn't resist the temptation of money when he saw the battleship commander's frighteningly high annual salary. He rejected his friend Patton's invitation to work in a small or medium-sized enterprise and agreed to his superiors' request to transfer him.

However, he didn't expect that less than a month had passed since his promotion, and he hadn't even had time to warm up his seat as a commander before he was dragged to the front line by Alan to help capture elves, and the battle location was in space?!

Knox said he felt very weak.

Fortunately, although they were called to capture elves, CEO Allen obviously did not have high expectations for them and planned to capture elves alone from the beginning. The commanders of the other two airships also said that they would cover Knox's airships after drinking and talking with him a few times, so he didn't need to be too nervous.

Knox originally thought that he could get away with just firing a few magic cannon shots. He never expected that Ratatoskr's airship would come out to disrupt the situation and fight with CEO Allen, and he never expected that the senior who boasted about himself so much while drinking would have his airship taken away by the elves so easily.

(If an elf gets into this command room, I'm dead.)

Thinking of the magicians who had lost limbs after fighting with elves, which he had often seen in the headquarters, Knox's face turned pale.

All he could do now was to try his best to delay the elves and wait for CEO Allen to rescue him after defeating Ratatoskr.

At this moment, there was a sudden "ding" sound from behind, and then Knox heard footsteps approaching him.

Like a frightened bird, Knox kicked his feet and jumped off the seat.

"No, don't come over here! I don't want to die! Don't kill me—eh?"

Before Knox could finish the begging lines he had prepared in his mind, he discovered that the person who came was not the elf he had imagined, but a female magician wearing the most common mass-produced CR-Unit and a mask.

“That, that—ahem!”

Knox was stunned for two seconds. After realizing the ugly behavior he had shown in front of his subordinates, he coughed twice and accused them in a majestic manner.

"Which team's magician are you from? Why are you standing here like an idiot? Didn't you hear what I just said? Go fight the invading elves!!!"

The magician was not annoyed by Knox's scolding. He just stood there and chuckled.

"Don't worry, Captain Knox. I have expelled all the elves that invaded this airship."

"what?"

Knox could not help but let out a scornful roar.

"Report! Indeed, the spirit response inside the ship has disappeared."

Is it true?

After hearing the report from his subordinates, Knox couldn't help but widen his eyes, turned his head, and looked at the magician in front of him with surprise.

"This is the second time we've met since we came to DEM, Captain Knox."

As he spoke, the magician took off his mask.

Her long hair, as dark as the night, suddenly fell out, revealing her eyes as lively as black pearls and a beautiful face that was unique to Oriental people.

The woman smiled at Knox, her smile hinting at a fox-like charm and cunning.

"Ai Wulian... No! Hello, sir!!"

After subconsciously calling out the other person's name, Knox reacted a beat late. He straightened his back and saluted while speaking.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't realize who you were and yelled at you so rudely!"

"It's okay, it's okay~" Ai Wulian waved her hand nonchalantly, "I should apologize for being on standby inside your ship without informing you in advance."

"That's totally fine! I'm very grateful that you can come and help me deal with the elves."

"Don't be so polite. You've been in the company much longer than I have. I'm not interested in putting on airs in front of my seniors."

"what……"

Unable to figure out Wu Lian's temper, Knox could only respond vaguely.

"Well, I won't say any more polite words. The other two airships have been captured by Ratatoskr. The operation has failed. There is no point for you to stay here. Retreat quickly."

"...Understood. I will immediately order the ship to withdraw to the headquarters."