Volume 3 - CH 15.2

As soon as the start signal was given, the three directed their bloodlust at me.

Whoa, rather than just trying to beat me up, it’s more like they’re trying to murder me…well, it’s still nothing more than a soft breeze though.

Immediately, Suruga turned his palm toward me and unleashed his magic.

“—Fireball!”

Yeah, as expected, it lacks firepower all right. Is he trying to get a feel of the situation or could it be, that’s actually his best shot…

With that in mind, I returned with fireball magic with no chant to cancel it out.

“““No Chant?”””

The three of them let out a cry of surprise.

“Please, anybody can cast elementary magic with no chant, right? …wait, don’t tell me, could it be that, you can’t? Oh come on, so much for having the title of a hero”

Actually, I know for a fact that this guy possesses the No Chant skill from his status. Kinda makes me wonder why he bothered with the chants.

“S-Shut up! I can do that too!”

Mitsurugi said, and unleashed an Air Cutter spell with no chant.

What a simple-minded buffalo, so easy to read.

I waved my right hand at the Air Cutter as it approached.

Instantly, the Air Cutter disappeared.

“W-Wha, what the…”

Mitsurugi and his goons were upset, not knowing what had happened.

My classmates and knights who were watching the game were also buzzing with excitement, wondering what had happened.

By the way, what I just did was deploy gravity magic to wipe out the spell.

However, since the invocation was instantaneous and the gravity magic was barely noticeable, it seemed that no one but Finne, Tendo and the others had noticed.

Mitsurugi, recovering from his agitation, shouted irritably.

“Tsk! If magic doesn’t work, then close combat will! Come on!”

“Okay!”

“Got it!”

Mitsurugi and Matsuba brandished their swords, while Suruga held his spear.

Then, in formation, the three of them attacked.

The first one to attack me was Suruga. He unleashed a series of thrusts in an attempt to skewer me, but…

Too slow, way too slow. It’s so slow that it’s practically stationary, to be honest.

I am not using any physical boosting skill whatsoever, and yet this…well, I suppose it’s to be expected when the level difference is almost tenfold.

In addition, Mitsurigi and Matsuba’s swords slashing at me from the side, didn’t even come close.

“How come, how come my attacks aren’t connecting? What skill are you using? Tell me!”

Suruga shouted in frustration at the lack of any of his attacks hitting me.

“Why, you ask…you’re just too slow.”

“…Fuckin’! Sunnava! Take this—Gale Thrust!”

As soon as Suruga chanted the name of the technique, the wind wrapped around the spear and the speed of the thrust became a little faster.

…Oh, I guess it has become a teeny weeny bit faster.

I easily avoided it.

“What the…? How could you have avoided that blow…?”

Suruga said, with a look of despair emerging on his face.

Wait, could that perhaps have been his strongest technique? No friggin’ way? Seriously?

As I was getting upset at the sheer lack of skill, Mitsurugi rushed in.

“Gotcha! Go to hell!”

“So obvious”

I took a half step and ducked his sword.

Of course you’ll give yourself away if you shout out like that.

“Wha!?—but, it’s not yet over!”

The sword that Mitsurugi was swinging downwards suddenly burst into flames.

And then Mitsurugi raised his sword to aim at me.

I’m not sure if it’s fire magic or wind magic, but the sword accelerated abnormally.

Mitsurugi lifted the corner of his mouth grinning, as if certain he could cut me down—

The sword stopped before it hit my body.

No, to be precise, it was stopped by my fingertips.

“—Wha…”

Mitsurugi was at a loss for words

“Why are you getting all stiffened up?”

“H-H-How are you able to stop that?! It’s a burning sword accelerated by a skill you know!”

“It didn’t have much firepower, and the attack itself wasn’t that strong…don’t tell me it’s a special move or something similar?”

Honestly, I’m not trying to stir things up or anything, I’m just wondering…

Perhaps he didn’t like my reaction, Mitsurugi snapped.

“Don’t fuck with me!!”

Mitsurugi took his hand off his sword and struck me with his fist clad in lightning.

“Oh, so you wield three attributes…too bad, you’re still a ways off.”

Wind, fire, and lightning, he seemed to possess some talent, and if trained well, could become reasonably strong…but for now, his fist is just too slow.

I flicked it lightly, and Mitsurugi shouted in surprise, but I ignored him and stepped back.

The next moment, Matsuba’s sword passed by where I was.

“How did you notice?!”

“Your presence, dimwit. Conceal yourself better.”

I said that and lightly kicked Matsuba and Mitsurugi together.

After that, the three of them tried desperately to attack me, but their attacks didn’t even graze my clothing.

The three were breathing hard, and I asked them.

“Are you done? In that case, I guess it’s my turn.”

As soon as I said that, I invoked my intimidation.

“Ugh…”

“W-What the, hell is this……?”

“My body, feels so heavy…”

The three of them took a step or two backwards from the pressure I was putting on them.

“Here I come”

I said that and made a move.

“—Guaahh!?”

And in an instant, I closed the distance and kicked Matsuba away.

“—! Sunnavabitch!”

“How dare you do that to Ryo!”

Mitsurugi and Suruga shouted and glared at me.

Oh, I didn’t expect them to keep their gazes peeled at me like this.

As I was admiring them, Mitsurugi and Suruga started to move at the same time.

If I evade Mitsurugi’s sword, Suruga’s spear would come at me, and if I repel the spear, the sword would slash at me.

However, it’s still a joke compared to the coordination of the elves before their training, and there’s no indication of their attacks hitting at all.

And then, perhaps frustrated by the fact that their attacks weren’t hitting, each blow became more and more sloppy.

“With such weak attacks, you can forget about hitting. Oops.”

“Wha-. Where’d he go?!”

“Behind maybe?”

Suruga must have looked back on a hunch.

I was already standing at a distance from the two of them—holding a spear in my hand.

“What? You want to have a go at me with a spear?”

I replied to Suruga’s words.

“Why not. I’ll have you know, I possess Spear Arts skills as well.”

“—Get off your fuckin’ high horse goddamnit!”

Perhaps his pride got the better of him, but Suruga’s voice was filled with anger.

“Wait, Hayato!”

“Leave it to me, I’m the one with the advantage when it comes to spears! I’m going to beat the living daylights out of that braggart!”

Without heeding to Mitsurugi’s call for composure, Suruga readied his spear and lunged at me.

“I dare you, take on my special move!”

“Sure, bring it on.”

So, he still had a special move up his sleeve huh? Interesting, all right, show me what you got.

“There’s no stopping it now, just so you know!”

“Yeah whatever, hurry it up”

Don’t tell me, he wants me to beg him to stop?

“Argh, acting all smug!”

Suruga put magic power into his spear, and finally closed the distance between us.

“—Special Move, Explosive Spear Frenzy!”

The magic power contained in the spear tip gathered as it rushed forward from the accumulated momentum.

And the moment the magic power reached the tip, it exploded.

And as the name “Frenzy” implies, the spear was launched repeatedly, and each time the magic power at the tip of the spear exploded.

“Not too shabby.”

As I said this, I parried every thrust with my spear, deflecting their trajectories.

“How come, how am I unable to land a single hit? How are you able to parry an attack of this speed?”

I replied to Suruga who was exclaiming in frustration.

“It’s the difference in our combat experience and level. From my point of view, your attacks practically appear motionless to me—simply put, you still have quite a ways to go.”

With that, I flicked Suruga’s spear wide.

“Watch carefully! This is how you wield a spear.”

I then unleashed a series of thrusts at Suruga, who had lost his balance.

Suruga managed to block the thrusts with the spear he held in his hand, but his spear was flicked away after a couple of thrusts.

Finally, a single vivid line colored in blood ran down his cheek.

“—Ouch, hieek!”

Suruga let out a pathetic scream as my spear stopped next to his face.

“You’ve lost, now be quiet.”

Suruga nodded at my words, but then Mitsurugi came slashing at me.

“We’re not done yet!”

I asked while parrying his sword with my spear.

“How are you going to continue fighting in this situation having lost your spear?”

“Shut up! Our bare hands alone are more than enough for the likes of you, right Hayato?”

“Y-Yeah!”

Huh, he’s still spouting such nonsense at this stage, sheesh, what a royal pain in the ass.

“Oh, you don’t say. In that case—”

I went straight to hit Suruga in the gut with my spear. Of course, not with the tip, but with the butt end.

Suruga moaned and collapsed on the spot, passing out.

“Should’ve known you wouldn’t shed a tear until you saw the coffin!”

When Mitsurugi saw Suruga pass out, he glared at me.

“How dare you!”

“Hey, whoa. This is a mock battle, is it not? So, don’t glare at me like that.”

And you’re the one who came at me, sheesh, talk about being unreasonable.

“Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

Mitsurugi shouted like a spoiled brat and increased his magic power.

“Whoa, fool. You wanna drag everyone here into this?”

I tried to stop him, but Mitsurugi wouldn’t listen.

“Shut up! If only, if only you would just disappear! —Explosion!”

As soon as Mitsurugi shouted the spell name, a mass of compressed flames appeared.

I guess a hero is still a hero huh, even one as trashy as he is, because judging from the magic power output, it looks pretty powerful. Enough to blow up this whole training ground, I guess?

Honestly, it still won’t do any damage to me though…I don’t know about the rest of the heroes, but there are knights and others present here as well.

“Phew…guess there’s no helping it—Aegis.”

I sighed and wrapped the huge fireball that was about to explode with a barrier.

The magic was activated immediately afterwards, but it did not destroy the barrier.

Mitsurugi was stunned when I easily nullified the attack he had unleashed with all his might.

“No, way…no way, no way, no friggin’ way! An incompetent like you, there’s absolutely no way you could have prevented—”

“Would you shut your trap?”

“—Hieek?!”

As I said that in a low voice, Mitsurugi let out a scream and backed away.

Matsuba and Suruga, who seemed to have come a while ago, came running up to Mitsurugi.

“Hey Kento, are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah…”

“Hey Yuki, we’re back in the game now. So let’s contin—!”

Matsuba didn’t seem to have learned his lesson, and tried glaring at me, while saying that…then he choked on his words.

It was because I had invoked intimidation.

I walked up to Mitsurugi slowly and asked.

“Hey, Mitsurugi.”

“W-W-What, what is it?”

“Why did you use that spell? If I hadn’t prevented it, you know very well the damage it would have done to everyone.”

“T-That’s…”

Mitsurugi cast his eyes down.

“If you’d caused a single scratch to any of my friends, I’d have killed you with my own hands.”

Well, to be honest, I think Finne and the others could have easily avoided it anyway.

“Killing…come now, we’re your classmates, aren’t we?!”

“Y-Yes, we are!”

Matsuba and Suruga interrupted me.

“You two, shut it.”

““Hieek!””

I glared at them lightly and they instantly quieted down.

Ignoring the two, I spoke to Mitsurugi.

“Classmate or not, I will show no mercy. Any lowlife who dares to put my friends in danger—I’ll kill ‘em.”

The atmosphere in the training area became tense, and the sound of someone clearing their throat could be heard from afar.

“I’ll cut you some slack this time, but don’t get carried away just because you’re a hero. Next time you try something funny.”

I then increased the intimidation a notch further.

“—Make no mistake, I will end you. Consider this your final warning.”

Perhaps the three of them could no longer withstand the intimidation, and they passed out under the pressure.

I had not directed any of the intimidation at the audience, but they must have perceived the pressure I was giving off, because for some reason, they all looked kind of pale.

I called out to Glifas to handle the three of them.

“Glifas”

“…”

“Hey Glifas. Can you hear me?”

When I called out to him again, Glifas responded as if he just came to.

“…Oh, yea, yeah, of course. Thanks for stepping in to stop that just now”

“Don’t worry about it…I should be the one apologizing for the reckless conduct.”

“Nah, I’m just glad there was no damage.”

I gave the instructions to Glifas, who seemed relieved.

“So, could you toss these three in the underground prison? I’d like to give them some time to reflect on their actions…they probably didn’t see anything wrong with their conduct, I’d bet?”

“Tell me about it. They’ve apparently been doing whatever they wanted relying on their status as heroes. I’ve been getting complaints from all over the place, churning my brains out as to what to do.”

I knew it.

“Oh, then I guess this is an opportunity…or what do you think? Anyway, just take care of these guys, okay.”

“Yeah, I got it.”

Glifas then ordered his knight to take the three of them to the prison.

After seeing them off, I turned to the others and started over.

“—Well then, shall we resume the mock battle? Don’t worry, I’m not going to beat you guys up like I did those misfits. So let’s just have a fun time.”