The Third Mirror World Knight
The silver chest armor delineating muscle shapes, the round plug slots at various body joints, and the medieval knight style grills on the mask, along with the burning dragon head emblem warped and deformed at the periphery, all these components form the Masked Rider Ryuga.
Masked Rider Ryuga, a knight from the Mirror World in the original work, has made a contract with the mirror beast “Black Dragon,” utilizing powerful fighting abilities through various strong ability cards. If we exclude the survival forms, his combat capability may rank just below the original ceiling, “Masked Rider Odin,” in the knight wars.
With a fist power of 12.5 tons and a kicking power of 22.5 tons, even by the standards of the Heisei Riders’ history, this isn’t low, but even with such immense strength after transforming, for Lance in the form of Masked Rider Ryuga:
“Adding cyborg power is just about the same?”
To Lance, the “Selfish Beast,” the monster before him lacks the terrifying elements that should be present in a monster, its skinny limbs and cartoon-like features make it feel more like a character from an animated film compared to the intimidating Dragon Rider.
Nevertheless, the so-called “harmless” monster was actually far from safe. After their brief encounter, Lance had a general estimate. Its strength and speed data likely surpassed a number of ancient Grunkas, Ophons, and other knight monsters, and could rival or even excel some team monsters.
Is it really hiding incomprehensible power beneath such a cute appearance? It truly aligns with my memory of how destructive the enemy of a heroine like Pretty Cure typically would be.
Conquering these monsters requires more than just brute force.
“Happily, these aren’t my lacking points.”
Up in the sky, Ira didn’t care about much else; his selfish beasts being unceremoniously beaten up infuriated him. He immediately ordered the Selfish Beasts to counterattack Lance.
“Attack, you selfish beasts! Whoever dares to impede will be driven away!”
“Selfish Beasts!”
The soccer Selfish Beast and baseball Selfish Beast came from either side, forming a pincers attack toward Lance. Lance stayed put, merely dropping a mirror shard he somehow held in his hand.
“BOOM—”
The clash between the Selfish Beasts produced a tremendous sound. Ira and both Pretty Cures couldn’t help but cover their ears.
“HAHA, serve them right! This is the consequence of defying the Selfish Organization… Huh?”
But laughing Ira didn’t watch the anticipated scene of the Masked Rider being flattened. Two dizzy Selfish Beasts rolled around and only scattered mirror shards remained on the open ground, with no sight of Dragon Rider.
“He disappeared, Raquel, do you know what happened?”
“I didn’t clearly see, Rikka!”
Rikka pointed at the distance, smoke filling her view after the impact, making her enhanced senses unable to perceive the details.
Without Lance off searching for companions and the fairy companions hanging from girls also failing to see the events,
“Do you, Mana, know what happened?”
“It’s the mirrors!”
Mirrors?! Love’s remarks were perplexing, leaving Rikka bewildered because she saw the shattered mirror pieces on the stadium floor as simple glass with no special properties.
“What’s wrong with you, Heart? That’s just regular mirrors, nothing like the Magic Mirror in Poker Kingdom where Sir Ash escapes with.”
“The problem isn’t the mirrors themselves, but Sir Ash!” Love explained, keenly observant. “Sir Ash evaded attacks like a fish leaping into the water, diving into mirrors just before attacks to dodge the Selfish Beasts.”
Love wasn’t wrong. The Knight System developed based on the concept of Mirror World by a person named “Shirogane Shiro” could traverse between the “mirror world” and reality. With Dragon Rider being born from the Mirror World, he particularly excelled in this point, using this ability to easily evade enemy attacks.
“How could it be possible, is it magic? The mirror world is just something from fairy tales.”
Even though such a small hand-sized mirror couldn’t accommodate a person; when Rikka firmly believed this, a voice from below almost made her heart jump out her throat.
“You really have faith in Pretty Cures yet refuse belief in magic or the mirror world; you’re quite interesting.”
As he spoke, Ash crawled out from a puddle at Rikka’s feet, prompting her to clutch her skirt in shock and sit down on the ground in a panic.
“Woah—Woah, what did you do, where did you come out from?”
Considering how he appeared and the possibility of her undergarments being visible, Rikka became flustered, tugging hard at her skirt.
“What are you doing?” Ash’s nonchalant tone stung Rikka’s pride; disdainful eyes seemed ready to peek out from his mask.
“Do I need to look at the safety shorts? You’re dressed.”
“What?” Rikka was infuriated.
“You actually saw it, too rude!”
Ash paid Rikka no heed, raising his arm and aiming with guns at Ira behind his back.
“Wah—!”
Alarmed by the gunshots, Ira dodged frantically in an S-pattern. After tapping his body and finding no wounds, he relaxed before pointing to Ash on the ground and swearing.
“You—cheating, nearly tore my clothes open—but you attacked me? Who’s the bad guy!”
Ash shook his head at the villainous statement, too pure to be true villains.
“But glad I’m skilled enough to evade your sneak attacks.”
Seeing Ira’s shirt adorned with a glowing red dot, Ash grinned under his mask. “Really think you didn’t hit me?”
“Sneaky one, Selfish Beasts—”
Ash moved himself closer rather than waiting for commands.
“What skill!” watching Ash handle two beasts simultaneously so effortlessly, Love genuinely admired.
Though not weak at all, the two Selfish Beasts previously knocked down by the soccer and baseball attacks caught Ash’s attention.
From observing, Ash learned and directly confronted the monsters at close range, nearly plastering their faces.
Kicking a ball requires space, swinging requires a swing arc, close proximity negates these. So once close, neither ball nor soccer could attack effectively. They could only abandon their advantages while Dragon Rider could attack freely.
Dragon Rider’s punches beat like an experienced boxer hitting a punching bag, continuously slamming the baseball Selfish Beast face-on, driving it inwards with a mournful scream. Its round body couldn’t lock onto Dragon Rider, stuck with ineffective attacks, truly struggling.
When one Selfish Beast attacked while Ryuga assaulted another,
“Soccer kick!”
A soccer Selfish Beast kicked at Dragon Rider’s seemingly open back while engaged with the baseball one. Anticipating this, Ash merely shifted to use the first beast as a shield.
“Aaargh!” Hurt by the soccer hit, the Selfish Beast charged angrily at the other, leading to a scuffle.
“This was within my calculations.” Watching the Selfish Beast hitting its ally, Ash rubbed an aching hand. Though strong, they appeared somewhat foolish and easy to dupe.
“Only thinking of oneself, forgetting their environment, hence the name Selfish Beast.”
