Patches of low-lying clouds were torn apart by a sudden, unnatural gust, releasing great swathes of mist that dissolved into the thin air over a thousand meters high.
Clouds are gatherings of tiny water droplets—condensed from atmospheric vapor—or ice crystals, and for a certain girl, this moist environment was hardly any less advantageous than being near a river.
In fact, both riversides and more humid areas in the sky could be considered her home turf.
That said, Natsume hadn't come up this high for tactical reasons—she'd been chased up here by Accelerator, and being a bit distracted, she hadn't paid much attention to her flight path.
Still, as an experienced flyer, she carried out her role flawlessly: she neither let Accelerator catch her nor shook him off entirely, firmly cementing herself in his mind as a tricky and troublesome opponent.
For Accelerator, physical attacks were the least of his worries.
But this particular girl, who lacked any real ultimate attack and whose combat power was… charmingly modest, had—after gaining Reiko's high-endurance energy supply—started to shift into a style of fighting that felt increasingly unnatural.
Finally, Accelerator came to a stop, hovering steadily in the high air.
Having reflected the heat meant to dissipate outward back into his own body dozens of times, his already pale skin was now flushed a deep red. Had he been sent to a hospital in this state, he'd have been quarantined for two weeks, no question.
Normal people are constantly releasing body heat—that's just how cellular metabolism works.
When that heat can't escape, a series of complications arise. Dizziness and blurred vision are just the start; sometimes it can even become life-threatening.
Accelerator had always focused on ability development over physical training, so his condition was actually worse than the average person's.
Thinking about it, Level 5s who neglect exercise seem pretty common in Academy City, a certain someone who considered herself on par with the average middle schooler mused silently.
Accelerator had been chasing the ponytailed girl for over ten minutes. Combined with her intentional—and sometimes unintentional—distractions, he'd overlooked this seemingly mundane problem.
It wasn't until the rising temperature began to impair his cognitive functions that he finally realized what was happening.
Still, it was a minor issue—all he needed to do was release the excess heat back out of his body.
He halted the formula that had been reflecting heat inward, allowing his body to expel it naturally through his pores.
But dissipating that much heat would take about as long as he'd spent reflecting it, though splashing cold water or applying ice could speed up the surface cooling process.
Noticing that Accelerator had stopped, the girl who'd been trying to maintain a superhero-style flying posture performed what could only be called a series of aerial drifts followed by a Thomas flare, before landing steadily about twenty meters away from him.
"It actually worked," Natsume Sonoko muttered under her breath. Her face remained mostly expressionless, but she seemed quietly pleased.
She'd long held a belief, reinforced by countless Hollywood movies and manga she'd consumed in Academy City: the most sturdy fortresses were often breached from within. It sounded reasonable enough.
So this ponytailed girl took that wisdom to heart and came up with a rather unconventional plan to break her enemy down from the inside.
She didn't know the exact mechanics of Accelerator's ability, but any normal person would naturally prevent their body temperature from dropping too rapidly.
Once he started trapping heat inside, her job was to keep the white-haired boy thoroughly distracted while she secretly… warmed him with low-temperature ice.
And it seemed he'd indeed overlooked that detail, letting his body heat rise enough to affect his mental processing.
Seeing him stop, the ponytailed girl—who didn't believe in turn-based combat—didn't just dispel her ice layer. Instead, she began heating the air around Accelerator, initiating another round of her "warmth delivery" program.
Accelerator slowly lifted his gaze toward the two tornadoes across from him. The ponytailed girl still showed no sign of revealing herself, remaining invisible even though her position was already exposed.
"So this was your plan all along… a rather unexpected approach. You're different from every other ability user I've faced—at least they all chose to confront me directly."
Accelerator let out a slow breath, his expression turning cold.
Natsume still didn't respond. From the moment she'd made contact with him, she hadn't spoken a single word to her opponent—thus neatly avoiding the classic villain's mistake of dying due to excessive monologuing.
Scorching heat raged through the high altitude, but Accelerator easily reflected the vast majority of the high temperatures generated by Natsume Sonoko, allowing only the minimal necessary amount into his system. The actual heat entering his body wasn't all that much.
Natsume wasn't surprised. However, because of the intense ambient heat, Accelerator's natural cooling process slowed. To shed the excess warmth, his body did something rare—he began to sweat.
The sweat evaporated almost instantly in the air, leaving salt deposits on his skin that made it appear mottled.
Within seconds, he was sweating more heavily, losing significant moisture and electrolytes, which in turn slowed his cognitive functions.
Most ordinary, out-of-shape people would've been dizzy and disoriented by now—a certain bun girl who'd once pushed herself to the point of exhaustion during a run could attest to that.
But Accelerator's eyes suddenly snapped wide. His arm shot out, clawing at the air, and the atmosphere around him began to churn violently, swirling counterclockwise in a furious motion.
The howling wind reached Natsume's ears. A massive area of air was now under Accelerator's control, gone wild with turbulence.
Intense wind pressure converged around him, gusts strong enough to uproot decade-old trees. An ordinary person wouldn't have been able to open their eyes under such conditions.
On her end, Natsume kept relentlessly heating the air around Accelerator. Even if he could divert the hot air away, she just reheated it again and again—clearly not worried about her computational limits in the slightest.
Accelerator still needed oxygen for his brain, so he couldn't just vacuum the air away from himself. That left him no choice but to endure the internal heat, while his sweat continued to pour out uncontrollably. His condition was deteriorating, fast.
--+--
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.