Book 5: Chapter 23

Sage vs Sage

“Master Halt, thanks for what you did to my daughter. Also, you can use the other sword during the finals.”

“Really?”

Leo called out to me after I handed Merdie to the medics team.

“Yeah. I wanted to use all my power to fight with Master Halt. Even if my body’s chopped up..”

“…But the one who’s gonna heal that would be me, right?”

“Hahaha, I won’t presume upon you to that extent. If my arm is cut off, then so be it. If I die, then I acknowledge that that’s how far I can go. Rather than that, I – no, I* want to give it my all as I fight with Halt.”

So the battle was more important than his life, huh.

Beastkin were truly, utterly battle-crazy species.

But if that’s his wish, then I’ll go with all my might.

Of course, I would avoid using the ultimate power that would kill off Merdie’s dad, and in case that happened, I would ask Ryuka to revive him.

I haven’t fought Sage Luarno yet, so this would be my first death battle with a Sage.

I’ll inform Ryuka beforehand, just in case I die.

“Alright. Let’s do our best.”

“Thanks, you got my gratitude.”

We still had some time before the finals started.

Leo turned his back on me and headed towards the waiting room.

However, he seemed to remember something since he turned to face me again.

“Master Halt, I owe you one since you saved my life from the warlock. That is why, let me tell you one of my skills.”

“Skill?”

“I got a skill called Knock Back (Max). No matter how weak my attack is, it would definitely blow off my opponent if it hits them.”

Eh, that’s –

“Honestly, it’s not an overwhelming advantage during combat. However, it will be a threat during this tournament, because of the rule that says one would lose if he goes beyond the boundary that has been set.”

It didn’t matter what kind of attack it was, as long as it made contact, his opponent would be blown away.

And in this Martial God’s Warrior Tournament, once you go beyond the 50 meter mark from the stage in all directions, it would be your loss.

In short, I had to avoid all of Leo’s attacks.

However, the magic suit Leo showed us during his fight with Merdie had wind and lightning incorporated in it. It transformed into an armour with lightning speed. Leo easily parried Merdie’s attacks, despite speed being her specialty.

Eh, so I’m in trouble?

I had to avoid all his attacks, but I didn’t have the speed to escape no matter how I struggled.

My fastest battle technique had the same style as Leo’s magic suit of lightning speed. 

By the way, when he fought with the warlock, Leo only used his normal magic suit. Because magic was forbidden, he wasn’t able to train with it in public, hence his control over the activation speed and range of distance was incomplete.

If he still used it in that situation, he might have dragged his fellow beastkins down as well.

However, he only had one opponent in this tournament – me. He didn’t have to consider his surroundings, and he could attack me with all the speed he could muster.

Leo finished telling me all he wanted to convey, so he went to the waiting room.

Hmm, what should I do?

I should tweak my battle plan for a bit.

──＊＊＊──

The final round of the Martial God’s Warrior Tournament began soon enough.

I faced Leo on the stage.

“I want to confirm one thing. You want Merdie, should you win, right?”

“Yes, I want.”

The right to do whatever I wanted with Merdie’s paw pads!

Ah, also, if possible, I wanted to have the right to touch the paw pads of different beastkin, and to fluff their tails.

“Is that so… then defeat me, and display your might to all the beastkin of this country!”

“Yes!”

Alright, let’s give it our all for the sake of those paw pads and fluff.

I took Hakoku from my back and readied my stance.

Leo also entered battle mode.

The final round started.

Leo and I activated our magical suit with lightning speed almost at the same time. I completed the magical suit activation faster than Leo, but the speed of his attacks were way faster.

“Ugh!”

I stabbed Hakoku on the stage floor so I could block Leo’s attack. I managed to block it, somehow.

I immediately swung Hakoku in an attempt to restrain him.

Suddenly charging towards me with an unbelievable speed….

I couldn’t evade him right from the get go.

It was obvious that his swiftness increased compared to when he fought with Merdie. Seemed like he also held back at that time.

My speed should be overwhelming above him, but perhaps due to the disparity in our original status, I lost against him in that aspect.

“You can block this, huh…As expected. Well then, how about this?”

Leo rushed towards me, faster than ever before.

I, impossible!

He could still move faster!?

I barely blocked him.

– I supposedly blocked him. 

“Eh!?”

Leo suddenly vanished in thin air just as he was about to punch me.

“Afterimage.”

I whipped around, reacting to the voice behind me.

Leo faced me, throwing a punch towards me.

Time slowed down.

Aah, this was it.

This was how the moment before death felt like.

I couldn’t escape.

Within that compressed timeframe, I could only watch Leo’s fist coming towards my face.

Bam.

– Hmm?

“Huh?”

Leo’s fist connected with my face.

However, I wasn’t blown off. Rather than that, I didn’t even feel any pain.

Leo stood dumbstruck, still in the act of punching.

Not really sure what happened, but I swung Hakoku for the meantime.

“That was close!”

Leo escaped by a hair’s breadth.

“W, what’s happening? Why weren’t you blown off!?”

Leo was thunderstruck.

Even if you ask me, I don’t know, either.

It’s my first time to be hit since I came into this world, after all.

Up until now, I had been winning against my opponents by using magic to keep them at bay. That’s why nobody had the chance to come near me, so of course, it was also my first time to be punched.

Now that I think about it, my mana was infinite because it’s fixed, or something like that, right?

– In that case, maybe my physical strength, too?

If physical strength was limitless, what did that mean?

I won’t get any damage?

No, why didn’t that skill have any effect on me?

“…Ah!”

I think I got something.

My status is – 

Condition: Cursed [Static Curse] (Fixed)

Don’t tell me, this condition – maybe, it applied to Knock Back, too?

My condition was (Fixed) so I won’t get Knocked Back – now everything made sense.

Alright, let’s test it out!

I gripped Hakoku and sprinted towards Leo.

“Ku, don’t look down on me!”

For Leo, I was charging in slow-mo, so he easily evaded my attack.

Then –

“Take this!”

Eight Leo’s were around me.

He increased the tempo of his movements and left lumps of mana, thereby creating an Afterimage of bunshins. 

All eight of them charged towards me.

Bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam

Yup, it didn’t hurt one bit.

Leo’s fist hit my face, stomach, shoulder, arms and legs, but none of them received any damage.

“Hyahh!”

“Ugh!?”

I swept Hakoku sideways, slashing through all eight Leo’s.

The real one apparently avoided being fatally wounded, but his chest was cut, and his blood tricked down his fur.

“W, Whyyyyyyy! I’m using all my power, yet I couldn’t even make you step back!?”

“Maybe due to the difference in status?”

I wasn’t lying.

“N, nonsense… What the heck”

Leo was aghast.

On the other hand, the successful verification satisfied me.

Let’s end this? Nothing would come out of it even if we took our sweet time.

However, I currently don’t have attacks that could capture Leo.

Even if I summoned the flaming knights, I got the feeling he would easily finish them off. That would be meaningless.

And so I –

“Come, Fire Lance!!”

I decided to summon the one who had the power to go against Leo, the ultimate fighting force of this world.

–––––––

T/N: Maybe Leo was secretly an apprentice of a ninja hokage somewhere, learning all about kage bunshins ???? Kidding aside, does that mean Halt is only invincible against magic attacks? He won’t feel anything if it’s done by magic. How about purely physical attacks? :0

Bunshin – clones, representation of oneself. 

And I know,  Knock Back  IS weird, but hey, that’s what the author wanted to name that skill, so yeah. *Shrug.* 

*‘I’ as in Ware (我), old-fashioned, formal and polite first-person pronoun. Shiro uses it, Old Man Celestial King uses it. He then changed it to ‘I’ as in Ore (俺), a more masculine, assertive, causal form of addressing oneself. Notice how he dropped the Master (-dono) in this sentence. He intended it to be a more casual conversation between them. Btw, Halt also uses Ore for himself ???? No choice but to italicize it and put a note here, since we only have ‘I’ in English ????

And here’s the light novel illustration of their face off!