CH 100

Souya waited for the approaching five Bronze Demons with the Western saber in one hand.

The first Bronze Demon swung a sword at him and he dodged it without difficulty.

The second sword came at him in rapid succession, but it also narrowly missed his business suit. The repair regeneration on the business suit was immediately activated, and the tears were repaired.

After repelling the third body’s slash with his saber, Souya paused for a moment to think. 

(–Its attack is weaker than I thought.)

The Bronze Demons whose first strike was avoided, continued to attack, but Souya was able to catch them with the same movement. The two Bronze Demons caught up with him from behind and joined in, but they were still unable to hit Souya. 

Souya’s concentration in adversity. In addition to that, the flowing water-like movement, which is focused on avoidance, continues to pass off the reckless attacks.

(Large swing and monotonous. There’s no tempo, he’s just letting his strength do the slashing.)

The Bronze Demon has a two-meter-long large build that is not very good at maneuvering attacks, and more importantly, it is not very well coordinated. It’s not hard for Souya, who has the skills of a swordmaster thanks to his Tactics, to just keep dodging.

However, it is different when it comes to endurance battles. Even though they are the lowest level, the physical strength of the “colored” is incomparable to that of humans. In a prolonged battle, Souya would be the first to slow down and be at a disadvantage. I can’t just keep avoiding them.

In addition, when the effect of Magic Rejection [Anti-magic] wears off, there is a high possibility that the attack with magic will resume. In the event that I do not have any recovery magic, I should avoid being hit by magic.

Although Souya is currently on the defensive, but it’s not that he can’t make a move. One of the reasons why I continue to evade the situation is because when I corner the Bronze Demons, the red sword — the sword of flame, will ignite and shift to self-destruct.

The sword is made by compressing and sealing a swarm of fire spirits through spirit magic. This was the reason why it behaved like a bomb. He had encountered the Bronze Demon three times, and it had behaved like that all three times. This time would be no different.

The first time, Merylou relied on the earth spirit for emergency response, and the second and third times, Shamil canceled it by sending back the fire spirit.

The two of them were not here. As he dodged the attacks, Souya was thinking about how to deal with the five flaming swords that had become bombs.

(If they corner me with the sword in their hands, they will ignite and blow themselves up. Then what happens if they let go of the sword?)

I need to try it out. Souya, who had only been taking evasive action, launched a counterattack against one of the five Bronze Demons.

A high-speed slash that drew an arc. The switch from evasion to attack was made in an instant, and it became a gap that did not allow the Bronze Demon to defend itself.

After a sharp wind-blowing sound and a momentary pause, the arm of the Bronze Demon with the flaming sword was severed.

“Guaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The severed arm flew through the air and tumbled to the ground. The flaming sword was still clutched in the hand of the severed arm.

[…… Guggi …… giii]

The Bronze Demon, who has just become one-armed, began to groan and convulse while holding the center of his body, where his heart was.

After a short pause, it vomited a large amount of bloody foam from its mouth, and then collapsed as if its strings were cut. To Souya’s eyes, it looked as if it was running out of steam.

(I had expected this, but if he let go of his sword. It self-destructs with dark arts. And the activation…)

There was no time to dawdle. The flaming sword in the hand of the arm that had fallen to the ground was beginning to ignite. The fact that he let go of it broke the life force connection link with the Bronze Demon, which must have fulfilled the activation condition.

As soon as the four bronze demons in the vicinity began to leave, Souya also began to leave in a different direction. 

In the dark twilight sky, with a roaring sound, a tremendous pillar of fire shining brightly rose, and at the same time, a scorching hot wind blew in all directions.

I tried to react quickly and keep as much distance as possible, but the raging hot wind made Souya cough lightly, covered in soot. He also felt a slight but searing pain on his exposed cheek and neck.

(Even when cornered, it activates. Even if you detach it, it activates. The four remaining swords are more troublesome than the four that remain.)

Souya was clucking his tongue and thinking about how to deal with it again. If I gather all the swords together, I might be able to eliminate them all with a single, deadly, magic bombardment [Penetrate]. 

However, the Magic Bombardment [Penetrate] requires a 42-second pause before it can be activated. The timing between the activation by ignition and the explosion is so severe that it would be difficult to match. In this case, even though I didn’t delay in leaving, I was still exposed to the scorching hot air.

If he left at the wrong time, the flames would send him to the garden where the goddess was waiting. Souya’s face tightened slightly at the annoying thought of the goddess’ mockery.

The four bronze demons that made an emergency evasion were once again inching towards Souya.

Enemy Search-and-Destroy. Perhaps this is also built in as an order. If they disobey the instructions of the Red Horn, they may be spellbound to stop their life activity, just like the Bronze Demon.

How should I deal with it? The safest way to deal with this situation is to repeat this process four times for four bodies and four bottles. My body would be covered in soot, but I would have no choice. Souya sighed as if he had no choice but to hold the saber of the Mithril sword again.

It was then. The body of the bronze demon in front of me shook with the faint sound of wind.

The shaking Bronze Demon has three arrows sticking out of it. The head. The neck. The heart. All of them accurately pierced the part of the body that was the weak point, and that part was frozen by an ice block.

(–An ice arrow?)

Souya turned around as he moved and saw a woman with long black hair standing on the cliff where he had been hiding around noon, nearly 200 meters away, holding a bow and arrow.

When the arrow was released again, this time it pierced near the flaming sword that had started to detonate and covered it with a mass of ice.

(–She understands the essentials. That helps.)

The flaming sword was covered with a block of ice, stopping the detonation sequence. If the ice melts over time, it will likely reactivate again, but it doesn’t look like it will right now.

It may be that they were watching from the cliff the sequence of the battle between Souya and the Bronze Demon. If so, thank goodness for that.

Souya began to move towards the three remaining Bronze Demons. If she, who can control the ice arrows is here, she can stop the flaming sword from detonating. So, he’s now able to take care of the Bronze Demons without hesitation.

“Souya-san!”

A familiar and pleasant female voice continued. It was undoubtedly reinforcements from Ilstadt. If they came at this time, it means that Tat, the Grasswalker boy, succeeded in running at night in the torrential rain and reached the adventurer’s guild in Ilstadt safely.　

Louise, wearing a red cloak and holding twin swords, and Seran, armed with a long black coat and a one and a half-handed bastard sword, rushed out from behind the darkness.