Chapter 269: What I Have Polished What I Have Polished
* * *
“AAAAAHHHHH!!!”
The moment Emi closed in on Lairine in one breath, she started attacking Lairine, skillfully using both hands, both feet, and 【Black Arms】!
Just as she brushed off the right fist, 【Black Arms】 came swinging down from above like a hammer.
“Hey!”
Lairine intercepts it by raising her left palm above her head.
The gap that naturally occurs.
Emi saw Lairine’s left flank around her abdomen as unprotected.
She immediately strikes there with her right, left, and right fists.
Lairine, who busily moves her right hand to defend against all of them.
“Wait a minute!”
Lairine slams the 【Black Arms】 she caught with her left palm onto the ground, embedding it.
With that momentum, she catches and blocks Emi’s roundhouse kick, which struck her left flank, with her left hand.
Normally, when a roundhouse kick is blocked, a gap occurs due to the structure of the human body.
However, Emi has 【Black Arms】!
Emi, who was supporting her body by thrusting the other 【Black Arms】 that wasn’t used for attacking into the ground behind her, turned her body sideways and remained floating in the air, launching consecutive stomps at Lairine!
Right, left, right, left, right, left, right!!
A terrifying sideways trampling attack at a tremendous speed assaults Lairine!
“Wha-, wait, wait!?”
Unfortunately, it’s a speed that Lairine can fully deal with.
She skillfully catches all of them using both hands.
However, Lairine was gradually losing her composure mentally.
Reason one is that Emi’s behavior, incorporating 【Black Arms】, is so tricky that it’s unparalleled in human-to-human combat.
Reason two is that she is still confused, unable to understand the reason for Emi’s anger that she showed earlier.
While blocking Emi’s fierce attacks, who also blocked 【Black Arms】 flying from her blind spot without even looking and resumed punching with both arms after regaining her stance, Lairine shouted.
“Huh, Emi-chan! What do you mean!?”
Right fist, left fist, right fist simultaneously with left 【Black Arms】 from above, right foot, right 【Black Arms】 from the front, right fist, left fist, right fist, left fist!
While blocking everything!
“W-What you have ‘inherited’ is the ‘techniques’ of the ‘Grim Reaper,’ right!? Is it okay to use those black arms in this trial!?”
“Even these 【Black Arms】!”
Emi shouts back without slowing down her attacks!
“My precious memories!”
Right fist!
“Treasures!”
Left fist!
“Life!”
Right fist, left fist, right fist!
“What I have ‘inherited’!”
After a short pause, a full-power left fist!
Lairine blocked all of these as well.
Pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, paan!!
Emi’s fists and Lairine’s palms collide, and the tremendous impact reverberates through the surroundings.
“No way... I wasn’t told that...”
“That’s right, you weren’t told.”
Lairine mutters in a daze.
Emi, who once created distance and stopped while keeping her fists up.
“You didn’t even try to listen. About how I’ve lived until now.”
The wind blows.
“And with that, you call yourself a mother? ...Nonsense, ridiculous.”
Hair flutters.
Lairine’s face turned pale, and she staggered a little.
She was shocked by Emi’s words.
Through Emi’s words, she finally realized her own inadequacy and was dumbfounded.
She lacks the experience of having her inner self shaken so intensely.
Her current mental condition can be said to be the worst.
But, however.
Emi’s fierce attacks start again, but even in a daze, Lairine still manages to defend against all of them.
The strength she has cultivated over the long 300 years.
An insurmountably high wall.
Even if her mental state is shaken, this wall remains unshakable.
Besides, on the day Lairine first fought Emi, she had already experienced combat using 【Black Arms】 once.
Although she may be a little flustered, she won’t fall behind against a tactic she has seen once.
No matter how much mental agitation there is, her body moves on its own according to her experience and knowledge.
Therefore, Emi must make a new move to break through Lairine’s still-solid defense.
A new move.
An Emi that Lairine doesn’t know.
Is there such a thing?
...There is.
There is!
During this one month, Emi!
Has been deliberately showing Lairine only the training of her master’s ‘techniques’!
Of course, she was doing that without any negligence too!
However, that’s not all!
What Emi has ‘polished’ is!
Emi was convinced.
The trump card she had been continuously training while keeping it hidden from Lairine’s eyes.
...Now is the time to use it!!
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”
While continuing to strike Lairine with both fists, Emi screamed.
Lairine was convinced and was about to declare.
“This match, I...”
Win, she was going to say.
However.
After moving her mouth that far, she suddenly feels something off.
She stares intently at Emi’s face.
Then, in Emi’s eyes.
The flames are still burning.
The fighting spirit is still burning, isn’t it!?
Emi hasn’t given up yet!
But why!?
At this point, what can she possibly do!?
Lairine was confused.
To put it bluntly, Lairine was conceited and let her guard down.
If she wanted to win for sure.
The moment she forcibly suppressed Emi, she should have slammed her onto the ground or kicked her to inflict damage and make her lose consciousness.
Lairine could have done that.
But instead, she gave Emi time by trying to declare victory.
She gave her time...!
(Something...!)
It feels bad!
Intuitively sensing that, Lairine tries to cut off Emi’s consciousness, but... her thought was a few moments too late!
At that time, Emi had her mouth wide open.
Why?
Was she amazed?
Was she surprised?
A yawn?
None of those.
It was a sign of an attack.
The true trump card she had kept hidden from Lairine during this one month.
The fruit of her newly polished efforts!
“What are you...”
Trying to do?
Lairine foolishly tried to ask that question, but it was interrupted midway.
Because halfway through.
From the back of Emi’s mouth.
A thick, string-like object with a spear-like sharp tip, pitch-black and rugged... in other words, a 【Black Tentacle】!
...Suddenly shot out!!
“!?”
The 【Black Tentacle】 stretches like a frog’s tongue!
Lairine is currently suppressing Emi at close range.
And upon closer look, the tips of the 【Black Tentacles】 caught between her fingers have somehow coiled around Lairine’s arms, restraining her instead.
In other words, she can’t move!
She can’t... dodge it!!
The【Black Tentacle】 that stretched out straight hit Lairine’s forehead without fail.
Due to the impact, Lairine was blown back in a posture as if falling backward and collapsed on the grassland on her back.
Overwhelming Lairine with the number of 【Black Tentacles】 and landing a single blow on her.
That was Emi’s first goal in this battle.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t achieve that, but she had also prepared a solution in case it didn’t work out.
That is a surprise attack using 【Black Tentacles】 from inside her mouth.
【Black Tentacles】 or 【Black Arms】 originate from Emi’s shoulders.
Until now, they always have.
However, that was only because she was influenced by the image of the unique ability 【Invisible Hand】 from which 【Black Arms】 originated, and theoretically, they can be generated from anywhere on the body surface.
This was a fact that Extra-sama had actually seen through at a relatively early stage.
Emi took advantage of this.
Generate 【Black Arms】... 【Black Tentacles】 inside the mouth.
And launch a surprise attack at close range.
This worked out beautifully.
Of course, training was necessary to generate 【Black Tentacles】 from places other than the shoulders, but it was easy to hide that training from Lairine.
After all, there is little conversation between Emi and Lairine.
By keeping her mouth shut, she could practice without being noticed, so Emi was able to train the generation and projection of 【Black Tentacles】 from inside her mouth to her heart’s content.
After retracting the 【Black Tentacle】 that shot out from her mouth with a slurp, slurp, slurp, Emi calmly said.
“I win.”
While blankly gazing at the blue sky filling her view.
Lairine had no choice but to admit.
“...I lost.”
While watching the white clouds floating in the blue sky at the end of her gaze being carried away by the wind.
Lairine relaxed her whole body.
After exhaling deeply, deeply.
Once again.
As if biting down, she said.
“I... lost.”
Question:
“My foster mother is too strong, and I can’t land a single punch. What should I do?”
Answer 1:
“Grow tentacles and increase the number of strikes.”
Answer 2:
“Launch a surprise attack by projecting tentacles from inside your mouth.”
Arc 14, which has been long, is finally about to enter the epilogue.