CH 50

Theo and Helvi were hugging, but the mood was different than the usual flirting.

Xena and Celia watched on from the back… Before feeling intense bloodlust coming from behind them, and quickly turning around.

“Ha, good. You’re strong enough to slaughter my subordinates unilaterally.”

Said a man, with his back against a tree.

He was three meters away from them, which should be close enough for people as strong as them to sense his presence, but the man before them managed to get that close without them noticing.

“Are you a bandit too? Not that I can’t tell by looking.”

“Correct. I’m their boss.”

“Of course. You feel different.”

His black clothes did not look much different than what the others were wearing, but he still had a different air around him.

“I’m honored by your compliments. I will thank you… By killing you. Are you happy with that?”

“That’s the worst thing you can give a woman.”

“Not just a woman, anyone really.”

“Haha! Stop it with the compliments, I’m blushing.”

The atmosphere was very tense… and Xena made the first move.

She kicked the ground, approached him in one go, and swung her fist.

She did it with her real speed and real power. A regular person would be unable to dodge it, and would surely end up with their face caved-in.

However, the bandit boss evaded her attack by less than a centimeter, and countered.

He had seen their previous fight and knew how hard Xena’s body was, so he aimed for…

“…!”

Xena used her incredible reflexes to move her head to the right, barely evading his attack.

The bandit boss managed to scratch her a little, and Xena moved back behind Celia.

“That was close…! That guy was aiming for my eye…!”

There was a line of blood next to her eye.

The boss looked at her and sneered.

“Of course. What else can I hit?”

“Says the guy that can hurt my skin with his finger.”

Steel magic made the skin on Xena’s face just as hard as the rest of her body, and yet the finger that was aiming for her eye still managed to scratch it.

The boss said ‘you caught me’ as he laughed.

“My body’s special. It’s been hard as metal since the day I was born.”

“Eh? That’s not really fair is it?”

Xena mumbled what was on her mind without thinking.

In this world, ‘Unique Beings’ were born from time to time. Not just humans, but monsters as well.

In fact, it was more common for this to happen with monsters.

When a being was born with traits not characteristic of their race, they were know as Unique Beings.

Obviously, human skin is not naturally hard as metal.

Since the boss possessed skin as hard as metal without the use of magic like Xena, he was a Unique Being.

“But that alone shouldn’t be enough to pierce my skin…”

Xena had tempered her steel magic to be harder than metal, otherwise it would not repel swords.

This basically meant that the boss’ attacks were sharper than a sword.

“I’m not obligated to explain that, but I will if you compliment me a little more.”

“Gotcha! You’re the lowest! Trash! Human garbage!”

“That last one wasn’t a compliment!”

“Eh, but you liked it when I called you the lowest.”

Xena meant what she said, and found his response odd.

“Dammit. Are you making fun of me…!?”

“Who’s making fun of who?”

“…!”

The boss felt wind coming from his flank, and quickly ducked.

When he did, a tree that stood next to him was cut down without a sound. Had he stood still, it would have hit his neck.

This certainly frightened him, as his face was twitching when he look at Celia.

“Oh my, you dodged that? Nice.”

“Ha, no mercy uh? You cut my cool hair.”

“Sorry, next time I’ll kill you without touching it.”

The boss was flustered and surprised, and although she did not show it, Celia was very surprised as well.”

She attacked out of nowhere when he was wide open, and he still dodged.

His agility and reflexes were not normal, even better than Xena’s, which she realized as she looked on.

When he dodged Xena’s attack and countered by aiming for her eye, that was also not something one could normally do.

“Celia! Cover me!”

Xena stepped forward once again to try and hit him. Even if his body was as hard as metal, if she could just hit him once it would surely cause some damage.

The boss tried once again to pierce her eye… But stopped just before hitting it.

Xena tried to hit him when he stopped, but he easily evaded her.

“That was close. You have magic in your eye don’t you?”

“Good job noticing.”

Celia cast her wind magic on Xena’s eyes, so the man’s finger would have been torn to pieces had he gotten any closer, even if it was as hard as metal.

“Then how about I beat you to death with a direct, frontal assault!?”

“Bring it on!”

And then, they started brawling, both with grins on their faces.

The first to lose their smile was… Xena.

Although she was pressing him hard, none of her attacks connected.

On the other hand, while she did manage to avoid getting on on vital areas, the man was hitting her, and blood was flying.

When both took some distance, the man was unscathed, and Xena’s exposed skin was bleeding.

“There’s something weird about his fists. It’s like they dig in every time they hit.”

“This is my technique. If I hit a regular person, I’d dig all the way to the bone.”

Xena was strong enough to only suffer superficial damage, but this could not go on forever.

“Hmm, and he easily dodges my attacks too.”

While the two brawled, Celia attacked him with wind magic, but the man easily evaded it.

They had never before seen someone with such evasion ability.

This was the toughest fight they had in a while against another human.