CH 286

Episode 286 – Unfavorable Position

Author’s Note: This chapter is from Ahmed’s POV.

“How utterly uninteresting. It’s not a match if all you do is dodge.” (Kronak)

With an easygoing smile on his face, Kronak continued to repeatedly attack at a speed that I could hardly keep up with. I was barely managing to dodge the super-speed attacks from his tail. The only one I’d managed to perfectly dodge was the first one, and now I was in a situation where I could only manage to avoid fatal wounds.

However, I was gradually starting to be able to predict his moves. Kronak had a carefree attitude towards me, who only chose to dodge, but the fact that the attacks that he was landing on me were gradually becoming shallower was proof that I was starting to be able to react.

“Yaaawn. I haven’t had a fight this boring in a long time.” (Kronak)

I could tell that it was clearly a bluff meant to irritate me. He lightly held his hand over his mouth and his upper body was slouching, but I could see that the muscles of his lower body were exerted to the point of bursting as it swung its tail around to try and kill me.

The movements of his tail were linked with the muscles on his lower body, primarily his thighs and waist. They were very slight muscle movements, but… I finally succeeded in spotting it.

Pretending to be egged on by its remark, I avoided the tail as it whizzed past me and feigned an attack.

Kronak’s face relaxed for just a moment, and then, with a flash, his body contracted and his outstretched tail stabbed towards me.

I calmly read the movement and bent my body backwards to dodge the tail attack. It was my first perfect dodge since the very first one.

Kronak seemed to switch over to aim a new attack at me, but without a doubt, this exchange was starting to tilt in my favor. I had taken a bit too much of a beating, but now that I could see through the difficult-to-read tail attacks, I could finally bring it to a fistfight.

“….What are you grinning about?” (Kronak)

“I can finally attack you!” (Ahmed)

At the same time, I immediately shortened the distance. Kronak calmly stabbed his tail towards me, but this time, I managed to perfectly dodge it while attacking.

At this point, he finally realized that his blow hadn’t been dodged by chance, but rather, had been seen through. However, it was too late.

I dove under its reach and drove my all-out right straight towards Kronak’s face. He crossed his arms in front of him just in the nick of time, and he was blown off his feet.

“My bad. Didn’t want to keep you bored.” (Ahmed)

“Y-You bastard! How dare you hurt me…!” (Kronak)

Bluish-black blood was leaking out of the side of Kronak’s mouth as his eyes turned bloodshot. Having received a blow from me, whom he considered to be beneath him, he shifted completely to an enraged state.

He rubbed the cheek of his face incessantly as his body began to tremble madly. This action seemed to cause him to pump up, and his muscle mass began to visibly expand.

“Baalius!! Yuharaham!! I was pissed off enough being forced to cover for the asses of you useless idiots, and now you…! How could I get injured by scum like you! I definitely won’t let you die easily!” (Kronak)

He was roaring in a fit of rage, but I wasn’t here for a chat. As he was in the middle of rambling on, I became numb to his words and lowered my stance, commencing my attack on the screaming Kronak.

I aimed my fist at his gut just as I had done to the demon not long ago, but Kronak pushed up off the ground and stabbed his tail towards me as I tried to dip underneath his reach. I dodged the tail, following up as I grabbed him from the left and chopped down with great force. I imagined its tail to be harder than a sword, but it was severed far easier than I expected.

…Or not.

He was caught in a tight hold so he had cut off his own tail!

“What the hell are you looking at? Huuuh?!” (Kronak)

Taking advantage of the gap in my defenses as I stared at the torn off tail, which I was still perceiving as a threat, Kronak drove his fist right into my abdomen. It was the first time I took a direct hit without dodging, and it almost caused me to spit out the entirety of my internal organs through my mouth.

My breathing was stopped and I felt like keeling over, but if I stopped moving, it would spell my death. Instead of falling down, I instead stepped in hard and slammed a blow with all of my might into his gut this time.

I felt the attack score a clean hit. He must have not been expecting me to be able to move after taking that blow, so I felt the attack land so perfectly that his body floated in the air for a moment. I immediately followed up with a left straight to its face, but he was able to guard in time.

“Pant, pant. N-not… b-b-ad…” (Ahmed)

“I didn’t think you’d actually be able to move… But now you can’t even move a step, can you?” (Kronak)

Even though I had hard muscles protecting me, my skin was still soft because I was human. On the other hand, Kronak was covered in an exoskeleton-like armor. Even though we had exchanged blows with all of our might, my damage was far greater.

Adding onto that, I still had the wounds I’d received when I pushed through the horde of monsters and when I fought against the demon that I beat to death earlier. Plus, the wounds I had received before being able to see through Kronak’s tail attacks were weighing heavily upon my body.

When I had beaten that demon to death, I had already used up my trump cards. Meanwhile, it was still highly likely that Kronak had something up his sleeve.

My powers of concentration were coming to an end as I started to analyze my unfavorable position, hearing the pitiful cheers of Dion and Smash in the background.

It’s painful. I’m tired. I’ve had enough fun, so this is good enough, right?

Negative thoughts began to rush through my head, and just as I placed my hands on my knees and lowered my head… my hair dangled down into my view, and a bright red hair clip entered my vision.

―Not yet. It’s not over yet.

I still haven’t talked to Lewin enough yet, and I still want to go on adventures with him to many different places.

Until the day comes when Lewin is the one who comes to rescue me, I definitely won’t die.

The strength that had almost left my body returned, and I clenched both of my fists again, enduring the suffocation and pain.

“Heheheh. I… can still… fight.” (Ahmed)

“….You’re as stubborn as a cockroach. Fine. I’ll put you out completely.” (Kronak)