I'd just like to point out a couple of things that other people have been questioning.
Firstly, the sniper shot. 2,4575m is, indeed, the world record for the longest confirmed kill with a sniper. That's the world record. It takes a sniper bullet 3 seconds to go that distance, meaning that if you have a non-static target you're essentially guessing and praying for a killshot. Even at a distance of 1km killshots are quite hard to pull off.
The army and the police force are trained to shoot for the largest target that is still likely to result in a fatal wound - and that would be the torso, not the head. The only region that would possibly result in an instant death scenario, which would be the only scenario where Tatsuya would effectively die, would be a shot able to rupture the spinal cord. Otherwise, a shot to the head would also effectively be a KO. Since deaths related to spinal cord injury usually occur in the neck, and the military aims for the torso, it is very unlikely a military or police force unit will kill Tatsuya, simply because they are unaware of his regenerative powers.
Which brings up another point. The only reason why Tatsuya is so successful all the time is, indeed, because people don't know who he is. Had the cardinal known he was Silver, his school would probably have won the match. Had the sniper known about his regenerative powers, he would've aimed for the head. And so on.
Some people claim that the veil of secrecy is becoming a running gag of sorts. While I can see that in the way that he keeps getting drafted into competitions that force him to reveal a bit more of who he truly is, the assumption that people aren't aware something's off is erroneous. It is because they're slowly but steadily begging to have a better grasp of who they're dealing with that they keep entrusting him with those tasks. During the final event of the high school competition, one of his classmates correctly concluded that he was, indeed, Taurus Silver (well, at least the Silver part is correct), although the implications of that revelation are, to this episode, yet to be fully realized.
To be honest, the biggest blunder so far this series has committed is providing Tatsuya with opponents that have yet to realize the significance of opposing his high school. It would seem that the criminal organizations have yet to understand that not one but two criminal headquarters that have opposed Tatsuya's high school have been wiped out, and now a third one has entered the fray with no more awareness than the other two. I trust they'll eventually be aware of what is going on, but the way this aspect has been portrayed so far is lacking at best.
Now on to the new arc. The theme this time around is relics for instant magical activation sequences and earth-magic based nuclear energy. The first topic has me slightly confused; it was my understanding that Tatsuya was already able to do what these stones would accomplish through the use of his photographic memory, which would make this project a purely selfless one. Perhaps this implies certain new mechanics that haven't been fully disclosed yet (I'll rewatch the episode after posting this to make sure I'm not missing anything). The second bit, related to earth-magic based nuclear tech is somewhat humorous, as I believe that what they're trying to find a theoretical basis for is the kind of magic used in the very first scene of the very first episode of the series (go rewatch it if you don't remember the finger pistol that triggered a nuke; it is quite a badass moment). That essentially means he might have to reveal that using finger pistols to fire nukes is something that can be accomplished, and try avoid admitting he has done it before. I can't imagine the general will take too keenly on disclosing what is most likely a top secret government weapon, albeit I'm fairly certain it'll fall into the "only 50 or so wizards are able to use it worldwide" loop.
On a slightly unrelated note, was it just me or was there a fragment of a new battle song in this episode? I'm about to go find out what it was, I enjoyed the small piece I listened to.
I'd still rate the show a 9.5/10.
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