Chapter 211: Knights

Ch. 211 Knights

“[[High Rest]]!” “[[Physical Barrier]]!”

The hero held his hand to the sky and shouted as his body shone faintly and transiently. The intensity at which the hero’s blood gushed forth from his shoulder visibly decreased.

His magic support skills are numerous, which is going to give me trouble. Now then, his status…

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[[Irushia]]

Species: Earth Huma

Status: Quick・Enhanced Physical Resistance

Lv: 78/100

HP: 578/602

MP: 441/552

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…Has a lot of MP. Which is going to give me trouble. However, mine dwarfs his and he lacks both of the automatic recovery characteristic skills. So, I think that as long as I drag this fight out, he’ll be the one to get exhausted first.

I kick off the ground and spread my wings while keeping low to the ground and swoop in on the hero.

“I’m sorry about this, but I need you all to come out in front of me. ”

The hero says while retreating back, leaving the knights to be the vanguard.

“S-Sir Irushia!?”

The knights immediately turn around and face me while also being suspicious of the hero’s movements. If he was superior to me now as he was back then, he would’ve tortured me to death, but now that we’re on more equal footing, he’s looking to use underhanded tactics to send repeated blows to where I’m weakest. This is going to be a tough fight. I hope I can resolve this without having someone killed or the like.

“[[Mirage]]!”

The hero’s sword becomes distorted and wavy as it splits into two. Illusion magic?

“[[Slash]]!”

The hero swings his sword. The wavy and distorted sword sends forth three large slashes. The three slashes charge forward while ripping through the ground, cleanly avoiding the knights in front that stand at the ready, and head right for me.

Calm down, as long as I have my [[Illusion Resistance]] skill, I should be able to figure out the true nature of this attack instantly. I focus on my eyes and stare intensely. The three slashes become wavy and blurry, returning to one. The real slash was the one on the left. While cartwheeling my body in midair, I move to the right, evading the slash attack and without missing a beat, approached closer.

“Uwaaa!”

A knight jumps out in front of me while holding forth a large shield. I push the large shield with my right forefoot. The shield dents and the knight falls flat on his back. I brush off a second knight who stabbed me with their sword with my left forefoot and fly towards the hero to chomp down on him.

“Gaaaa!”

Just then, Partner jerked her body hard. Because of that, I’m thrown off balance and miss my target. I give up on attacking the hero with my fangs and instead bump into him with my cheek. It turned into a light blow that didn’t have much weight behind it.

I land on the ground and fix my balance that had been thrown out of whack.

Damnit! I’ve been thinking, shouldn’t the two of us have a little more communication with each other? You jerk around and shit, doing whatever you want, right when it matters most…

Just as I thought so, the figure of the hero who I had attacked became blurry and wavy and changed to that of an ordinary knight lying on the ground.

“G-guh… F-f-fuck…”

He used [[Mirage]] to trick me into believing that his position was where the knight was! So that [[Slash]] illusion from earlier was all so that he could pull off this fake-out illusion!

Did Partner act violently like that because she noticed it? That was a close one. I’m glad I’ve got two heads. Sorry for doubting you, and nice save. With that, the hero, his real body, should be taking advantage of this opportunity. In these conditions he’ll be going for… the neck?

I pull up my feet and quickly change my body’s orientation. A sword slices vertically down my face.

“GwaaaaaA!!”

Shit, he took out my left eye!” It’s better than suffering damage to my neck, but I still received a lot of damage. If I use [[Autoregeneration]]… could I heal my eye?

“Tch, thing’s got good intuition!”

The hero lands on a knight’s shoulder with one leg and kicks hard off the knight’s head with his other leg and takes some distance from me.

“GAAH!?”

The knight the hero kicked falls to their knees, not knowing what happened.

At least I’ve managed to separate the hero from the knights for now. A few people have been incapacitated, but we’re in the middle of a human country. The only knights who have come to his defense are the ones who were here the moment I began attacking, but there will likely be reinforcements very soon. I wish I could do something about the reinforcements before they come…

“Some-… someone help… recovery, please…”

The knight, who I had mistaken for the hero and had attacked, groans. The knight is bleeding from his head. He hit it hard when he fell.

I meant to attack the knight lightly, but due to the [[Mirage]], I thought he was the hero, and because of that, I attacked him with power more suited for that. Thanks to Partner pulling my body away, some of my power was curbed, but still, this wound is going to be fatal for an ordinary person.

“Some… one…”

While all the other knights are worried about their fallen friend, no one dares to make a move. It’s probably because they’re on guard against me. They look like they’re thinking that if they turn their attention to someone else, they’ll be the next target for me. Of course, the hero isn’t making a move either.

I send a quick glance to Partner.

“Gaa!”

Partner barks. A gentle light wraps around the fallen knight.

“Ha, aah, you saved… me…?”

While holding his head, the knight stands up. The knight’s eyes met with Partner’s, who was looking at him, and his expression changed to that of being dumbfounded. The other knight’s faces also look to be taken aback.

[Level of title skill [[Tiny Hero]] has increased from LV 6 to LV 7. ]

Title skill- no… Now’s not the time to think about that.

One of the knights gently lowers their sword. Following suit, while still bewildered, everyone else also lowers their swords.

“What!? What are you all doing!? Hurry up and create an opening for me to attack the evil dragon! I’ll stab it where it stands!”

The knights are fighting me to defend their country to the bitter end. They’re not doing it to protect a hero who’s been blackened with suspicion. Did the knights sense that my aim was the hero so they stopped attacking? Did they realize that there’s not even any point in fighting since I used recovery magic in battle? Or do they feel distrust towards the hero since he retreated during the fight even though he’s supposed to be much stronger than the rest? Or perhaps it’s even a combined factor of all of these?

“C-c’mon! Raise your swords! We’re all knights who are here in order to protect this country!”

One persons seems to yell in encouragement. However, the tip of the sword that the knight held wavered in hesitation.

“Yes! Hurry up and get to it! What were you all training for if not to put in work? Why aren’t you doing your duty even though you all live better lives than a commoner? You lot! You’re supposed to put your lives on the line and fight in this time of crisis! Why is it that you’ve become useless now!? I’ve been risking my life battling monsters while you’ve just been walking and standing around as guards like you usually do! Now, get in there at once!”

The hero shouts especially loudly in anger as veins pop out on his forehead. However, not a single soul moves. Even the knight who was just scolding his fellow knights earlier lowers his sword.

Of course, it’s come to this. To even shout that from the very last row is unconvincing in and of itself. Is this guy even serious with what he’s saying?

“Irredeemable trash! You lot are the type of dregs that I despise the most! Fine, if that’s how it’s going to be, then until otherwise, I shall use alternative measures. I hope you’re all trembling over what’s to become of you once all of this is over. ”

I swing my forefoot and let loose a blade of wind toward the hero using the skill [[Wind Slash]]. I run behind and follow the blade of wind.

“[[Slash]]!”

The slash created by the hero completely swallows up the blade of wind. The hero then approached my position behind the wind blade. I moved and dodged around in order to evade the slash attack.

“[[Summon]]!”

When the hero chants, a large white horse with wings appears. Is that a pegasus? I’m certain I saw that hero riding in on that thing before.

When the hero mounts it, the pegasus kicks off the ground, aims its nose to the heavens, and flies straight up into the sky.

“Oh-ho, just you try coming after me! I am what you’re aiming for, am I not?”

The hero’s voice can be clearly heard.

I don’t want to fly too much because of my [[Dragon Scale Powder]], but Nina lasted a lot longer than I expected without any visible symptoms. And granted, while I was often away from Adofu, he hasn’t shown any visible symptoms yet, so fighting a little like this should be just fine.

I spread my wings, flew up into the sky, and chased after the hero.