Volume 13 - CH 17

The final match of the arena.

I'm in a battle with the Mad King.

During the fight, I saw something glowing in the other direction.

I looked over to see if it was a sign from my friends, but it wasn't in a VIP box seat.

It seemed to be a glittering hand mirror or something reflecting the sun's rays.

「Murgh! That's it...!」

Even from here, I could see that the loli girl in the audience seat holding the hand mirror had rolled up her own clothes and was exposing her stomach.

It's not just her stomach. I could almost see her nipples.

「Gaaarghh!」

「Guooghh!」

「Aaaaand, the Mad King's most powerful blow hit clean! Alec falls to the ground! And here comes the rush! Rush! Rush! It doesn't stop, "Mad King" doesn't stop! Returning the favor to Alec with a series of merciless attacks!」

「Damn it!」

I was able to regain consciousness because of a few hits from the Mad King's bullshit swings, but if I had continued to take hits from him, even I would have been in real danger.

What power.

Is this guy really human?

「He's up! Alec's on his feet!」

「Seriously?」

「I've never seen anyone take the Mad King's rush so hard and still alive.」

「But isn't his neck bent in a weird way?」

「Is he really human ......?!」

The crowd erupted.

With a crunch, I repositioned my neck and moved away from the Mad King.

「Garrghh! Garghh!」

「Who would have predicted this turn of events! Alec has risen to his feet! He withstood the Mad King's rush! The Mad King is furious!」

Rage, huh?

The Mad King is certainly moving recklessly, but I'd call it excitement.

This is somewhat similar to Nene's panic "Hawawa".

The proof of this is that the "Mad King" doesn't attack right away.

He's still moving, but he's keeping his distance from me.

Is this guy afraid of me?

In the first place, "The Mad King" is a ring name that the arena team has taken the liberty of giving him.

「What are you doing, Alec!?」

「Focus, focus!」

「Use [Instantaneous Movement] Get behind him!」

「It's better to move, and not let him narrow down your target.」

「You'd better get ahead of him!」

Some serious advice from my friends is flying in from the VIP section, but wait a minute. Let me think.

「Now, his fellow ladies are watching anxiously from the VIP seats as well. Alec, the Black Cat of the Wind, is not moving at all, as if he is badly injured. Is Alec, the "Harem King", going to fall down with no way to attack!?」

No, that's not it. I'm just thinking about it right now, but I'm not badly injured that I can't move. There are plenty of ways for me to attack.

It's just that the cat-eared girl in the background doesn't see it that way.

What if the "Mad King" is the same?

He's called the "Mad King" because he wears this evil-looking armor and can only say "Gaarggh".

If this thing is human, it should be able to speak human.

Let's give it a try.

「Listen, "Mad King", we need to talk.」

「Garrghh!?」

This thing reacted to my voice, didn't it? He seems to be able to understand what I'm saying.

「I'm not going to attack you any more. So you can rest assured. I'll give you the win.」

「Grrrrrrr ......」

「Both fighters, fight! I'm going to give you a warning if you keep staring at each other.」

The referee is going to say that we need to end the fight as a fight so we can talk about it calmly.

「I give up.」

「I accept. The winner!　"The Mad King!"」

「Aaaaand, it's finally settled. After all, it seems that Alec was more damaged than he looked, and although he managed to get up, he couldn't move an inch! The winner was, after all, the main contender, the "Mad King"! Overwhelmingly strong!」

「Is that all?」

「You could have done more!」

「No, you did well, Alec!」

The applause from the audience was mixed with boos, but I didn't have to be so concerned about winning. I didn't come to the ring looking for a victory in this final.

Now that Jouga has made it to the finals, my stakes have increased.

「I'll talk to you later.」

I called out to the "Mad King" as I stepped out of the ring to present him with the trophy.

「Alec, you could have made it a little more exciting. If I were you I could have done more.」

The King seemed to have come downstairs and greeted me with a smile, but I guess the crowd was happy enough.

「If I win, they'll have to wrangle over the stakes.」

That's what I'll say.

「Don't worry about that, the moderator explained it earlier. Well, it was a nice fight against a nasty opponent. By the way, is your neck okay? It looked broken to me.」

「It's just your imagination. Rather, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor for a change.」

「What's that? Tell me.」

「I want the Mad King.」

「Hmm. It doesn't belong to me, but ...... will do. I'll talk to the people in the arena later. But if he doesn't say yes, there's nothing I can do anymore. Then you'll have to give up.」

「Yeah, I guess that's a given.」

I met up with everyone in the VIP section.

「Good job, master. Nice fight!」

Meena greets me with a smile as if I've won, but well, I guess that's okay.

「Hmm? Have Sarah and the others left already? Saki's not here either.」

I can't see some of them.

「That's the thing, Saki said, 'Malicious interference from the spectators' seats and.... I won't allow you to interfere with a serious game!' And Sarah and the others went away, saying, "We could have checked here".」

Letty reported that it was the loli girl who had distracted my attention by showing her stomach in the audience.

Her face wasn't much, and the game was already over, so I didn't need to worry about it.

「So, Serina and the others aren't back either.」

「Yeah, not yet, but ......」

Fianna answered, but it's too late indeed. Where the hell are they running off for?

「Meena, let's go look for them.」

「Yes, Master!」

I'll send the others back to the inn first, and Meena and I will walk through the arena. Well, with Meena, we should be able to find our friends by their smell.

「Kun Kun, I can smell Serina-san fresh scent over here. I think it's about ten minutes ago.」

「Okay, let's track her.」

「Yes, sir.」

The spectators in the arena are heading out of the corridor in a calm manner, as if the festival is over. Meena and I go against the flow and walk ahead.

「It-It's blood, Master. It's from Serina-san.」

When Meena turned the corner of the corridor, she bent down and turned around with an upset look on her face.

「What? Tsk, Her HP bar is barely down, but was there a battle here?」

What's going on?

Since it's about her, I'm sure there's a good chance that she'll bite the pervert with a goo-punch and the pervert will be so enraged that he'll slash her with a knife.

But even if she is a regular swordsman who takes the seed in the arena. It's not as if she can be cut down by a knife made by a pervert.

「Shall I go get the others?」

「No, it's hard to use Nene and Letty in a place like this. We'll go alone, Meena.」

「Yes, sir.」

We walked down the aisle with caution. There are still a lot of people coming back from the auditorium, but if they're after us, we don't know where they'll come from.

I don't have a problem with killing assassins paid by noblemen or those who are looking for a PK, but I don't want to get involved with those who are not involved.

「Damn it!」

「M-Master!」

I was suddenly shot in the neck with an arrow from behind.

「Don't worry about me, Meena, go after him. Don't let him get away.」

「Yes, sir! Leave it to me.」

「Whoa, what's with you guys?」

「Why are you bleeding?」

「A fight?」

A passing spectator gave me a suspicious look, but I didn't care.

I pulled the arrow out of my neck and ran after Meena as fast as I could.