CH 136

“Right now?”

“Yeah. You’re not too exhausted to move, right? Tia, I need you to set up a perimeter.”

“All right.”

“That’s it. Now, go get your weapons and get ready.”

“…………………….”

As I said this while shaking the tip of the sword, Eleas, with a mortified expression on his face, retrieved the sword from the corpse of Darlton Bear, washed off the blood with spirit magic, and holstered it together with the bow. Then, with a pair of swords at the ready, he turned to me and spoke again.

“Um, are you serious?”

“Of course! I’m not going to say something weak like holding back. Even if we feel a little awkward with each other after this match, as long as we don’t disagree with each other, we’re only a party until today anyway. So don’t worry about anything and come at me with all you’ve got!”

Depending on how you look at it, it could be interpreted as “I’m going to beat the shit out of the new guy who’s getting too cocky,” or from Eleas side, “I have no problem embarrassing the guy who’s acting like a senior.” Therefore, He smiled a little and gave his answer with a smile mixed with a sense of superiority.

“… Understood. Then I won’t hesit—!?”

Eleas, who was holding his swords in an irregular manner, with his left hand in the forward direction and his right hand in the reverse direction, lowered himself and lunged toward me. If he had just come straight at me, I would have kicked him in the face and that would have been the end of it, but when he took a half-step into the space between my swords, his body suddenly shifted to the right with an impossible maneuver. Taking advantage of his light weight, he forcibly changed his trajectory by daring to blow himself away with his spirit magic.

“Hmph!”

""

“Sweet.”

I blocked his sword that was about to cut through my side as he ran by me, by switching the sword to my left hand. I also tried to hook his leg by extending my right leg, but he evaded by jumping over and ran through behind me.

“Haaah!”

Eleas, which should have been running at full speed, however, instantly reversed and thrust his sword at me. This was also spirit magic. What I could only do with a huge banishment skill, Eleas could reproduce with a very simple spirit magic. I was envious and if I had been a demonic beast, I would have easily been struck by a blow, but ……

“You IDIOT!”

“Agh!?”

Twisting my body with my left leg as my axis, I dodged his thrust from behind. I then half-turned my body and slammed into Eleas with the centrifugal force using my sword, which sent his small body flying about two meters. Although the defense with the sword was barely in time and it was far from a fatal wound, Eleas, who had already gained an advantage in the spacing, now had to start all over again by getting in close again.

“Who speaks up when trying attack from behind!”

“Ggh, then!”

Elease, with a frustrated expression on his face, now switched his right to his forward hand and slashed at me with both swords.

The fact that he was using two swords simply meant that he had twice as many moves. Right, left, up, down, Eleas’ swordsmanship comes down on me like a storm in a beautiful trajectory, just like the basics.

But it didn’t work on me. With only one long sword, I block all the attacks of the two swords, which were faster and more efficient than the two swords of Eleas.

“How!? How can you block all of them?!”

“Of course, it’s because I know from where they’re going to come!”

You can’t do――

“I can do it and I understand! That’s your immaturity! This guy!”

“AUGGH!?”

While preventing the swords from flailing about, I kicked Eleas in the stomach. Normally, this would be a bad move that would likely result in a cut to my leg, but Eleas, who had focused all of his attention on the sword fight, could not prevent me from doing so. The distance between us widened again, and Eleas pressed his belly painfully.

“Damn it, why … even though I’ve gotten stronger!”

“No, You have certainly gotten stronger. But that strength has no core. Both your mind and your body are being controlled by the strength you’ve acquired. So you can overpower a lower-ranked opponent, but you can’t handle a higher-ranked opponent. Because normally, with that much skill, you’d make it much more of a struggle.”

“Hah?! Are you looking down on me!?”

“I’m not. I’m just telling you the reality.”

(T/N:Kinda refreshing seeing this trope)

Cut, thrust, slash, sweep, slide. I was assaulted by dozens of sword dances, including a wide variety of sword cuts and sword changes, with no two swords having the same pattern.

But I still couldn’t get through. The only thing I could do was to match my sword with his. The sword, mastered only by talent in a short time, was too beautiful… and I could see the whole picture from the sword muscle to the way the power was applied.

Even though the technique will have tremendous effectiveness against demonic beasts, those who have learned swordsmanship may feel a sense of illusion, being taught to defend against it with the words ‘please block this’.

“Why!? Why can’t I get through!? If you were a demonic beast, you would have been torn apart by now!”

“Well, that’s because I’m not a demonic beast. And this isn’t getting us anywhere. Hmmm.”

With a snap, I deflected both of Eleas’ swords. He immediately tried to pull out a new sword from the holster on his back, but …. it fell to the ground. I put away my iron sword and readied the [Dawnbreaker].

“Ugh,…………………….”

Eleas’ hand… no, not just his hand, his whole body was trembling. Despite that, he somehow managed to take the third pair of swords and assumed a stance, but with his waist so timidly withdrawn, it was only a stance in name.

Even in the face of such Eleas, I showed no mercy. I held my sword in a natural stance, but concentrated my mind on killing the enemy in front of me. Whenever Eleas’ body shook, I envisioned myself slashing at him, taking advantage of the opportunity.

“Hi……hii…..”

Five bodies, then ten, and in no time at all, Eleas’s corpses were piling up in my imagination. Tears were in his eyes, and he looked as if he would collapse on the spot at any moment.

“……………………”

I took a step towards him. Eleas stepped back, but I took another step to catch up with him. The chase ended after three steps, and Eleas, who had stopped moving, was already between me and my sword. I slowly raised my sword and swung it down at the Eleas.

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It moved like the steps of a tortoise. You could follow it clearly with your eyes, and it was so slow that even a child could dodge it by simply jumping back. But Eleas’ eyes were glued to the sword as it was being lowered,…., and I stopped it just as it touched the tip of his nose.

“What’s the matter? Is this the End for you? Getting slashed like this?”

“Uh… Ah… UWAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

The screaming Eleas threw the sword in his left hand towards my face. The sword was not thrown to stab, but rather in a trajectory that was really just a throw, so I couldn’t dodge it by moving my head.

Furthermore, he used his spirit magic to roll up the surrounding branches and leaves to block my vision,…. and when it cleared, Eleas’ figure disappeared before my eyes.

“Hmm.”

I searched for signs around me, but I didn’t feel that he was lurking somewhere, to get a jump on me. I glanced at Tia, and she casually looked in the direction from the forest to the street. In other words, he had clearly realized the difference between his and my abilities, and decided to make a run for it.

This was just a training exercise. Of course I had no real intention of killing Eleas, and I’m sure even he knew that, but he ran away. Towards the future Hero who is such a “smart coward”――

“It seems like he remembered… looks like it, right? In that case, I guess it’s a passing grade.”

(T/N: I am kinda confused on the first part, any help will be appreciated. This is the raw->“どうやら思い出した”)

I laughed, offering words of praise that could not possibly be heard.