CH 168

Episode 168 – Overwhelming Victory

Author Note: This chapter is from the POV of the reporter from the Laudungeon Newspaper, Tobias.

The distance between the boy and the Ogre had been getting shorter and shorter when the Ogre finally caught sight of him. The boy looked surprised at the slowly approaching Ogre, but he held his sword at the ready.

“Ooh! Good going, boy! He’s not running away from the Ogre, he’s actually holding his sword!”

“Certainly… Most of the adventurers that run away trying to escape end up getting killed. Maybe this is just a fluke!”

“Nope, there’s no way. This boy clearly doesn’t know how much of a menace an Ogre is; he’s only holding up his sword. He’s diving into the Dungeon solo, remember? There are only two options here. He’s either plain stupid or insanely strong, and you seriously think this boy is the latter?”

With the entire audience getting riled up and expecting the boy to somehow kill the monster, that last voice that had spoken, pouring cold water on the excited atmosphere, was one that I was familiar with. I didn’t even need to look to know who it was.

It was the voice of a colleague in the same industry as me, an ace reporter from Dungeon Pendant Company, which was the highest-selling company in the industry.

What this guy said was certainly true. Thinking about it calmly, it was hard to argue with this ace reporter’s statement… But the boy who was holding up his sword felt like the stronger one to me. Maybe it was just my desire to save him that made me see it that way, but my instincts as a reporter and a former adventurer were telling me that I wasn’t wrong.

At that moment, the Ogre and the boy were facing each other, holding their swords at the ready as they gazed at each other. It was the boy who made the first move.

“Whoooa! Your opponent is an Ogre, what in the world are you running out first for?!”

“Oh man… he’s about to get one-shotted.”

There were cries of grief from the crowd, but contrary to the audience’s expectations, the boy’s movements were skilled. In the blink of an eye, the boy had slipped under the Ogre’s reach and had swung out with a tight slash that even I wouldn’t have been able to pull off.

Though the image on the monitor was too small to clearly see what kind of battle was taking place, there was no way that swing could cut through the Ogre’s thick, knotted muscles. Everyone, including me, thought so, but… there was so much blood scattered about that it was clearly shown in the projection.

The boy must have gotten countered—or so I thought, but the Ogre was holding onto its arm as it fell back.

This… maybe, just maybe…?

“….Oi! The boy is holding his own against the Ogre in a one-versus-one!”

“Good stuff, boy! Go and win it!”

“What an exciting morning!”

Seeing the Ogre falling back from the boy’s strike, the crowd went wild. I subconsciously clenched my fists tighter.

The Ogre shifted its hold on the club to the other hand that hadn’t been cut and attacked the boy. By making a skillful first move, the boy had brought the fight from a disadvantageous position into a level playing field. Now, all the boy had to do was endure the Ogre’s powerful attack… the boy should be able to withstand it.

Joining the crowd of curious onlookers in shouting words of encouragement, I yelled at the screen in a loud voice.

“Avoid the Ogre’s blow! If you can avoid the attack, you have a chance to win. Keep your distance and focus on dodging!”

My voice blended into the uproar of the crowd as I tried to advise the boy who clearly had no way of hearing me at all… But the boy again stood there motionless, not even moving to dodge the attack as I thought he would.

When he saw the Ogre rushing forward with its club raised, the boy held his sword aloof—and swept out with a flash. The Ogre who was in the middle of swinging its club fell forward towards the ground and disappeared into ashes.

………………

In front of the Dungeon monitor, no one uttered a word. A stunned silence fell over the crowd.

Seeing only the boy left standing in the projection, the audience finally came to terms with what had happened and started cheering loudly for him. My body was dripping with cold sweat, and my body was so stiff that it felt like my muscles were going to start cramping.

When all’s said and done, the boy had conducted himself adeptly like an A-rank adventurer, slaughtering the Ogre without a care in the world. Since the boy didn’t seem to be particularly overjoyed as he gazed at the ashen remains of the Ogre… in the words of the ace reporter, this boy must have been solo-clearing because he was ‘insanely strong’.

My whole body was still trembling, and my heart felt more shaken than the time I had watched the steady advance of the [Azure Alliance]. I had missed my chance with the [Azure Alliance], but this time… I definitely wasn’t going to miss out on acquiring exclusive coverage rights. I secretly resolved this in my heart, knowing that this boy was certainly going to make an explosive rise to fame as an adventurer in Landaust before long.

I glanced fleetingly to the side and saw the ace reporter of the Dungeon Pendant Company grinning as if he was sure about something before walking towards the Adventurer’s Guild. He was probably trying to acquire exclusive coverage rights with the boy as well. I could sense this intuitively from the look on the ace reporter’s face.

This was going to become a competition of who could earn the coverage rights in the end. I began to regret not providing the boy with even more information yesterday to further ingratiate myself with him. I decided to make a visit to the company to consult with the president about signing a large contract.