The coordinates marked by the navigation system were incredibly user-friendly, pinpointing not just Kingu's location, but also Ritsuka, Mashu, Merlin, and Ana's positions as well.
Aside from Ana, whom she didn't recall clearly, Amber had seen the appearances and learned about the personalities of these characters from her friends and images online.
Up in the sky, Amber—who had been racking her brains to strike the perfect pose for her "waifu" image—noticed the markers on her map shift from moving slowly together to a sudden clash between Mashu and Kingu, followed by rapid movement.
She knew immediately: a fight had broken out.
To be honest, even though she had full confidence in the yet-unbetrayed "Celestial's" extraordinary abilities, having never read the original FGO story, Amber still felt a little nervous about Kingu.
After all, from what her friends described, FGO was full of stuff like "Incineration of Humanity," "Star-Felling Arms," and "Land of Steel"—it all sounded incredibly intense.
Now that she thought about it, the planet in Honkai Impact 3rd, along with its universe, was supposedly three times the size of the real one. Even Wendy could casually wipe out a city, so shouldn't "Fu Hua" be even more capable?
But pure speculation was pointless. Realizing she couldn't delay any longer, Amber steeled herself and accelerated.
Truth be told, all that effort she'd put into posing earlier might have been partly to buy time—'every second counts,' after all.
Amber didn't know exactly how fast "Fu Hua" could be, but even without going all out, her speed had clearly surpassed any airplane she'd ever been on—by a wide margin. A distance that had seemed vast on the map mere seconds ago was now right in front of her.
With her sharp eyes, she spotted golden chains whipping through the trees from afar, while a shield-bearing girl struggled to fend off attacks coming from all directions.
Alongside the golden chains were countless magical projectiles, formed purely of mana. Yet even these simplest of attacks became lethal threats when wielded by Kingu's body.
"A pity. Had you not been so perceptive, I might have let you live a little longer," Kingu remarked, glancing toward the white-haired magus who had exposed his identity not far away.
"No need to focus so much on a third-rate magus like me," the white-haired magus replied with a smile, pointing upward. "Instead of staring at me so warily, why not take a look above?"
Only then did Kingu realize something was wrong.
A figure, too fast to make out clearly from the high-speed descent, slammed into the ground. The resulting wind pressure was strong enough to send an ordinary person flying.
"Who are you?!" One unexpected situation after another had Kingu's expression darkening completely.
As the figure in the dust lightly waved a hand, the surrounding haze was swept away.
Only then could everyone see the person clearly.
She was a gray-haired, green-eyed woman.
Dressed in a neutral-style white Chinese martial attire, her features carried a heroic air uncommon among women.
Yet her soft facial contours and the lack of an Adam's apple made her gender unmistakable at a glance.
Good-looking people tend to win favor more easily, and when paired with a distinct aura, they can project an intangible presence all the more strongly.
Just like this woman in martial attire.
Without a word or a change in expression, she radiated a startling sense of presence, subtly hinting at a transcendent, almost otherworldly nature.
Amber: '...I botched the landing... I've embarrassed you, Celestial, waaah—'
Eager to make up for her clumsy entrance, Amber kept her expression stern and declared, "Just a passing martial artist."
Amber: 'So cool! And saying it while using Fu Hua's form makes it even cooler! As expected of the woman who can be my waifu!'
Seemingly getting a little too absorbed in crafting her 2D waifu's image, Amber even forgot her fear.
Or perhaps, because she wasn't showing her real face, it felt a bit like being behind a screen—masking her usual personality just enough that she could now "type out" her lines with confidence.
"It seems like reinforcements—a Servant here to help?" Mashu looked back at the young man behind her.
Fujimaru Ritsuka studied Amber's figure and shook his head. "I can't say for sure."
"Whoever you are, since you've appeared here, my task remains the same." Seeing that Amber didn't plan to explain, Kingu didn't press further.
Although he could tell from her landing that she'd be troublesome, in this world where special trump cards often decided battles, the only way to know the outcome was to fight.
With that thought, Kingu waved a hand, sending chains shooting forward again. But unlike the mana bullets he'd used against Mashu, this time he brought his true abilities into play.
Points of light flickered across the ground, then shot toward Amber in the form of various weapons.
Feeling the ground beneath her feet sink abruptly, Amber's "behind-the-screen" boldness shrank back instantly. 'Please,' she thought, 'take the wheel, Navigation-san.'
The gray-haired woman shifted slightly, evading the incoming chains with ease. Then, paying no mind to the weapons following close behind, she took a single step and appeared right in front of Kingu.
'Spatial movement?!' Kingu's eyes widened as he propelled himself backward using mana.
His opponent had introduced herself and moved like someone highly skilled in close combat. Though confident in his own melee abilities, knowing full well she was no ordinary foe, he had no intention of testing his confidence against her obvious expertise.
But before he could adjust his posture to counterattack, the gray-haired woman took another step, closing in on him again without respite.
'It's Shukuchi—a technique from Shenzhou,' Ritsuka recognized, having met Heroic Spirits from China before.
The term originally referred to an immortal art enabling short-range spatial movement, but it was also used to describe martial artists who could achieve similar feets through pure skill.
"You're as annoying as a mosquito!" Realizing this probably wasn't a skill with limited uses, Kingu's face darkened further as he shot chains directly from within his body.
But to Amber—or rather, to Fu Hua, now under Navigation's control—Kingu's combat skills were "like a child's." With a gentle push to the side, she channeled her qi to redirect the chains.
"Hua Jin. Vine Sparrow."
Seeing how reliable Navigation's combat assistance was, the little slacker in her couldn't resist chiming in, voicing the move names aloud.
"Inch Impact—Sky Sunder."
Before Kingu could react, the arm she'd used to deflect the chains didn't retract.
Instead, from that awkward, short distance where generating power should be difficult, she formed a handblade with her fingertips, pressing it close against Kingu's body.
Then, she threw a devastating punch.
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T/N: Fu Hua's moves are taken from the chinese wiki and immediately translated by deepseek. Also, while Fu Hua's direct translation for her title is Red Kite Immortal, Red Kite is localized into Phoenix and I changed Immortal to Celestial cause her other title in the wiki is Celestial.
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.